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Moral lessons in late Byzantium: rhetorical models and didacticism in Joseph Bryennios’ Forty-Nine Chapters (c. 1402)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2019

Florin Leonte
Florin Leonte*
Affiliation:
Palacký University of Olomouc, Czech Republicflorinleonte01@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article examines Joseph Bryennios’ Forty-Nine Chapters, a text that has been hitherto explored mostly for the information on social practices in late Byzantium. The analysis of the text's rhetorical techniques indicates that Bryennios departed significantly from other contemporary collections of kephalaia which relied on the inherited wisdom of gnomologia. I argue that the pervasiveness of figurative language and vivid analogies in the Forty-Nine Chapters shaped his specific didacticism and unveiled the author's acquaintance with the technique of rhetorical amplification.

Keywords

Byzantine rhetoricdidactic literaturelate ByzantiumJoseph Bryennioskephalaia
Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , October 2019 , pp. 219 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, 2019 

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References

1 For general aspects of pre-modern didactic literature, see Toohey, P., Epic Lessons. An Introduction to Ancient Didactic Poetry (New York 1996) 1–19Google Scholar.

2 For a recent overview of Bryennios biography, bibliography, and oeuvre, see Bazini, H., ‘Une première édition des œuvres de Joseph Bryennios: les Traités adressés aux Crétois’, Revue des études byzantines 62 (2004) 83–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 On Bryennios’ views regarding the social and political conditions of early fifteenth-century Byzantium, see his oration On the Rebuilding of the City Walls, ed. Tomadakes, ‘Δημηγορία περὶ τοῦ τῆς Πόλεως ἀνακτίσματος (1415 μ. Χ.)’, Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 36 (1968) 1–15Google Scholar.

4 See Patacsi, G., Un chapitre des relations gréco-latines au 14e siècle (Rome 1968)Google Scholar and Necipoğlu, N., Byzantium Between the Ottomans and the Latins (Cambridge 2009) 187–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 His testament lists nine manuscripts among which we find works by Aristotle, Ptolemy's Geography, grammar, music, and logic, ed. Tomadakes, N. ‘Ἐκ τῆς βυζαντινῆς ἐπιστολογραφίας. Ἰωσὴφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυεννίου Ἐπιστολαὶ Λʹ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν Γʹ’, Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 46 (1983–6) 358–9Google Scholar. He was also acquainted with classical authors and often used them in his texts, as was the case with Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. See Rees, D. A., ‘Joseph Bryennius and the text of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations’, Classical Quarterly 50 (2000) 584CrossRefGoogle Scholar-.

6 Bryennios, Joseph, Letters, ed. Tomadakes, N. (Athens 1983–6) 3 and 10Google Scholar. While Bryennios often debated matters of theological doctrine, the language of these letters suggests his close connections with his opponents.

7 In the first sixteen letters of his collection, Bryennios uses an intricate, classicizing style. Furthermore, he chose these letters as epistolary models for his students. See Loenertz, R. J., ‘Pour la chronologie des œuvres de Joseph Bryennios’, Revue des études byzantines 7 (1949) 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 As his collection of homilies indicates, he preached intensively at the Constantinopolitan court and sometimes at important occasions such as the visits of Latin delegations. The trust which Bryennios enjoyed at Manuel II's court is demonstrated by the fact that the emperor appointed him as guardian of his testament in 1425. See Sphrantzes, Georgios, Memoirs, ed. Grecu, V. (Bucharest 1966) 112Google Scholar.

9 Bryennios’ texts and biography have been studied mostly for the information concerned with the Church Union. Among these orations, there were several highly polemical ones such as those oriented against Church Union or the one on the rebuilding of the Constantinopolitan walls, see ‘Ἰωσὴφ Βρυεννίου Δημηγορία περὶ τοῦ τῆς Πόλεως ἀνακτίσματος’, ed. Tomadakes, N., Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 36 (1968) 1–15Google Scholar.

10 Joseph Bryennios, Κεφάλαια ἑπτάκις ἑπτά (The Forty-Nine Chapters), ed. Boulgares, E., Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ Βρυεννίου τὰ παραλειπομένα (Leipzig 1784) 48–126Google Scholar.

11 The text was preserved in four manuscripts: Patmiacus 440, Vallic. B. 128 (27), Dujčev 262, Mosq., syn 310. For a description of the manuscripts, which also include other texts of Bryennios addressed to Cretans, see Bazini, ‘Une première edition’, 87–97.

12 On his mission in Crete, see especially Tomadakes, N., ‘Ἰωσὴφ Βρυέννιος’, in Σύλλαβος βυζαντινῶν μελετῶν καὶ κειμένων (Athens 1961) 491–611Google Scholar, and N. Ioannides, Ό 'Ιωσήφ Βρυέννιος. Βίος-ἔργο-διδασκαλία, PhD Dissertation, University of Athens, 1985.

13 Bazini, ‘Une première edition’, 96.

14 L. Oeconomos re-edited ch. 47, which provides information on the Cretans’ practices, see ‘L'état intellectuel et moral des Byzantins vers le milieu du XIV siecle d'après une page de Joseph Bryennios’, in Mélanges Charles Diehl (Paris 1930) 225–33Google Scholar.

15 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 47.

16 These criticisms had apparently made some of the Cretan clerics complain to the Venetian authorities. See Farewell Speech to the Cretans, ed. Boulgares, E. (Leipzig 1784) 36–47Google Scholar and his Consolation to the Cretans, ed. Tomadakes, , ‘Ιωσήφ Βρυεννίου ανέκδοτα έργα κρητικά’, Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 19 (1949) 130–54Google Scholar.

17 Many of the texts written in Constantinople have been edited by E. Boulgares, Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ Βρυεννίου τὰ εὑρεθέντα, I-II (Leipzig 1768).

18 Bazini, ‘Une première edition’, 127–9.

19 French translation by Bazini, ‘Une première edition’, 117–19.

20 Ibid., 127.

21 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, 48. The editor also signals the passages which quote verbatim Bryennios’ previous homilies (e.g. ch. 49).

22 In particular, the centrality of mercy and the idea of an ordered, harmonious universe feature largely in contemporary scholastic texts. See Athanasopoulos, P., ‘Georgios Gennadios Scholarios' On the difference of venial and mortal sins and its Thomistic background’, Revue des études byzantines 76 (2018) 167–203Google Scholar.

23 This section seems to be heavily influenced by the scholastic ideas of an ordered, harmonious universe.

24 On the symbolism of rounded numbers of kephalaia, see Van Deun, P., ‘Exploration du genre byzantine des kephalaia’, in Rigo, A. (ed.), The Minor Genres of Byzantine Theological Literature (Leiden 2013) 51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 The similarities have been noticed by Efthymiades, S., ‘Questions and answers’, in Kaldellis, A. (ed.), Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium (Cambridge 2017) 47–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Papadoyannakis, I., ‘Instruction by question and answer: The case of Late Antique and Byzantine Erotapokriseis’, in Johnson, S. (ed.), Greek Literature in Late Antiquity: Dynamism, Didacticism, Classicism (London 2006) 91–106Google Scholar.

26 On the unity of content displayed in kephalaia, see P. Van Deun, ‘Exploration du genre Byzantin des Kephalaia’, 64–65. Searby, D. suggests that many chapter collections had a logical order of their own, despite several interpolated chapters, ‘Byzantine “encyclopedism”, sacro-profane florilegia and the life of Saint Cyril Phileotes’, in Serby, D. (ed.), Dōron rodopoikilon: Studies in Honour of Jan Olof Rosenqvist (Uppsala 2011) 201Google Scholar.

27 Rhakendytes, Joseph, Epitome, ed. Treu, M., ‘Der Philosoph Joseph’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 8 (1899) 37Google Scholar.

28 Cf. Gielen, E., ‘Ad maiorem Dei gloriam: Joseph Rhakendytes' synopsis of Byzantine learning’, in Woolf, G. (ed.), Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Cambridge 2013) 271Google Scholar.

29 Kiapidou, E., ‘Chapters, epistolary essays, and epistles. The case of Michael Glykas’ collection of ninety-five texts’, Parekbolai 3 (2013) 45–64Google Scholar.

30 It is the case with the studies on florilegia and the encyclopedic trends. See Searby, ‘Byzantine “encyclopedism”’, 199–203.

31 Few scholars approached the rhetoricity of advisory books: Roueché, Ch., ‘The rhetoric of Kekaumenos’, in Jeffreys, E. (ed.), Rhetoric in Byzantium (Aldershot 2003) 25Google Scholar. See also Van Deun, ‘Exploration du genre byzantine des kephalaia’, 30 and Leonte, F., Rhetoric in Purple. The Renewal of Byzantine Imperial Ideology in the Texts of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (Budapest 2012) 158–67Google Scholar.

32 Palamas extensively treated issues of natural science, divine economy, and energy, Palamas, Gregory, The One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, ed. Sinkiewicz, R. (Toronto 1988) 1–34Google Scholar. Cf. also the early fifteenth century collection of chapters titled On the Procession of the Holy Spirit by Manuel Palaiologos (c. 1402). See Dendrinos, Ch., An Annotated Critical Edition (Editio Princeps) of Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus’ Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, Doctoral thesis, (London 1996) xx-xlGoogle Scholar. On the late Byzantine chapters resembling Questions and Answers, especially those by Symeon of Thessalonike, Markos Eugenikos, John Argyropoulos, and Gennadios Scholarios, see Efthymiades, ‘Questions and answers’, 60–2.

33 See P. Géhin, ‘Les collections de kephalaia monastiques: Naissance et succès d'un genre entre création originale, plagiat et florilège’, in A. Rigo (ed.), Theologica Minora. The Minor Genres of Byzantine Theological Literature, 1–50; Ivánka, E., ‘Κεφάλαια. Eine byzantinische literaturform und ihre antiken Wurzeln’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 47 (1954) 285–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kiapidou, ‘Chapters, epistolary essays and epistles’, 45–62.

34 Gregory of Sinai, Very Beneficial Chapters, ed. J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 150 1240–1345. Similar collections were penned by the Xanthopouloi brothers (Kallistos and Ignatios) who composed a text known as Centuria (c. 1390) and by the Patriarch Kallistos I in the mid-fourteenth century. See Rigo, A., ‘Callisto i patriarca. I 100 (109) capitoli sulla purezza dell'anima. Introduzione, edizione e traduzione’, Byzantion 80 (2010) 333–407Google Scholar.

35 See Ware, K., A Fourteenth-Century Manual of Hesychast Prayer: The Century of St Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos (Ottawa 1995)Google Scholar.

36 Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations of an Imperial Education (Ὑποθῆκαι βασιλικῆς παιδείας), ed. J. P. Migne, 156, Patrologia Graeca, 313–84.

37 Chrysoloras, Demetrios, One Hundred Letters Addressed to Emperor Manuel Palaiologos, ed. Conti-Bizzaro, (Turin 1985)Google Scholar.

38 P. Bell, Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian. Agapetus, Advice to the Emperor, Dialogue on Political Science, Paul the Silentiary, Description of Hagia Sophia (Liverpool 2009) 27–48 and 99–122.

Similar concerns with practicing virtues at court surface in other late Byzantine collections of chapters as well: John Chortasmenos’ Moral Commandments (Ἠθικὰ παραγγέλματα, c. 1400) divided into several passages and in Matthew Gabalas’ Kephalaia (c. 1351). Since they instead addressed ordinary courtiers and not rulers, the spiritual and practical advice proposed a different set of virtues tailored for broader use. On how collections of chapters were adapted to various audiences, see Angelou, A., ‘Matthaios Gabalas and his Kephalaia’, in Moffat, A. (ed.), Maistor. Classical, Byzantine, and Renaissance Studies for Robert Browning (Leiden 2017) 259–68Google Scholar.

39 For a discussion of cardinal virtues in both the West and East, see Bejczy, I., The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages. A Study in Moral Thought from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century (Leiden 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, ch. 87, Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 89, and Demetrios Chrysoloras, One Hundred Letters, ch. 6.

41 E.g. Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, ch. 88 distinguishes between practical, physical and spiritual virtues. Manuel Palaiologos and Demetrios Chrysoloras draw upon the distinction between intellectual and physical-military virtues.

42 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, ch. 120.

43 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, chs. 83 and 99, where he argues that hesychasts have to first acquire virtue.

44 Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 1.

45 Demetrios Chrysoloras, One Hundred Letters, chs. 9, 13, and 35.

46 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, chs. 3, 24 and 131.

47 E.g. on not committing an injustice, Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 26 (νόμιζε) and on imperfection (ἐνθυμοῦ). Demetrios Chrysoloras begins and ends each of his chapters with the formulas of direct address (ἄριστε βασιλεῦ and χαίροις).

48 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, chs. 3–9.

49 E.g. in ch. 40 where Chrysoloras argues in favor of rulers trusting everyone.

50 E.g. Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 23 which compares the rust on iron with treachery.

51 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, ch. 23.

52 Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 23.

53 Manuel Palaiologos, Prefatory Letter, ed. J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca 156, 313–20. And Leonte, Rhetoric in Purple, 193.

54 Chrysoloras, Demetrios, Comparison Between the Rulers of the Past and the Emperor of Today, ed. Lampros, S., III (Athens 1926) 222–45Google Scholar.

55 Cf. the first three chapters in Manuel's Foundations.

56 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 4.

57 See Argyriou, A., Macaire Makrès et la polémique contre l'Islam (Vatican 1986) 86–92Google Scholar and Demetracopoulos, J., ‘Scholarios’ On Almsgiving, or How to Convert a Scholastic Quaestio into a Sermon’, in Searby, D. (ed.), ‘Never the Twain Shall Meet’? Latins and Greeks Learning from Each Other in Byzantium (Berlin 2018) 129–77Google Scholar.

58 As in other chapters of advice which closely followed Aristotle's Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics (e.g. Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations).

59 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 49.

60 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 2: ὁ δὲ Βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης, διὰ τὴν ἄκραν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητα, τὴν μὲν ἁμαρτίαν τὴν ἐς αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ γεγενημένην ἐξαφανίσαι ἠθέλησε διὰ τοῦ θανάτου· αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν ἁμαρτήσαντα, ἢ τὴν αὐτοῦ κτῆσιν, τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον, οὐδαμῶς.

61 See above.

62 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 49: Μιμήθητι ἐν τούτῳ χρυσοχόους, Ἐμπόρους, καὶ Γεωργούς. Οἳ ἐν τῷ δαπανᾷν καὶ σκορπίζειν καινουργοῦσι τὰ ἑαυτῶν θαυμαστῶς […] Διὸ καὶ ὁ Κύριος οὐ μόνον εἰς πεινῶντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς διψῶντας καὶ ξένους καὶ γυμνοὺς καὶ ἀρρώστους καὶ τοὺς ἐν φυλακαῖς τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην ἡμῶν ἐκτείνεσθαι ἐνετείλατο.

63 In addition to the four cardinal virtues, several authors underlined the role of generosity and clemency. On the hierarchy of virtues in the medieval literature, see also Bejczy, The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages, 276.

64 Ruys, J. Feros, What Nature Does Not Teach. Didactic Literature in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods (Turnhout 2008) 1–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Leonte, F., ‘Didacticism in Byzantine epistolography’, in Riehle, A. (ed.), A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography (Leiden 2019, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

66 Bryennios, Joseph, Preface (Προθεωρία τοῦ συγγράμματος), ed. Boulgares, E., Τὰ παραλειπομένα (Leipzig 1784) 48Google Scholar: Ἀλλὰ προσεκτέον τοῖς λεγομένοις, ἵνα μὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ἀνωφελῆ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῶνδε πόνον ὑπομείνω, καὶ ὑμεῖς διὰ ῥαθυμίαν λήθῃ παραδῶτε τὰ εἰρημένα.

67 Ibid.: ἐμοὶ πολλοὶ πολλάκις φίλοι τε καὶ οἰκεῖοι, ὡς μέγα τι καὶ ἓν τῶν χρησίμων ᾐτήσαντο.

68 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 4: Βιβλία εἰς μάθησιν τῶν πραγμάτων, καὶ γνῶσιν τὴν αὐτοῦ, ταῦτα προὔθηκεν ἡμῖν ὁ Θεός· τὴν Συνείδησην, τὸν Κόσμον, τὰς διὰ λόγου Ἐντολάς, τὰς διὰ γραμμάτων εἰσηγήσεις, τὰς τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπαγγελίας, ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς καὶ ἑαυτὸν τὸ παράδοξον.

69 Ibid.

70 On the didascalic stance and the sources of didactic advice in their collections of chapters, see Leonte, Rhetoric in Purple, 140–91.

71 In the case of theological chapters, scriptural passages, patristics, as well as doctrinal theological principles, offered a solid foundation to the didactic material. See Sinkewicz, Gregory Palamas. One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, 16–24.

72 Palamas, One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, 102.

73 Drpić, I., Epigram, Art, and Devotion in Later Byzantium (Cambridge 2016) 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Ibid.

75 E.g. Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 1 (Περὶ αἰσθητῶν ἡδυτέρων), ch. 22 (Ὅτι φυσικῶς πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ Κόσμῳ μετέχομεν), and ch. 24 (Περὶ τοῦ σταυρικοῦ τύπου).

76 E.g. in the προθεωρία and in ch. 26.

77 Tomadakes, ‘Ἰωσὴφ Βρυέννιος’, 589.

78 E.g. ch. 10 (Ὅτι πολλὰ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἡ Ἐκκλησία πέφυκεν).

79 On analogies and their workings, see Lakoff, G., More Than Cool Reason. A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor (Chicago and London 1989) 12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Keysar, G., ‘Metaphor and communication’, Poetics Today 13 (1992) 638CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 1: ὡς ἡδύτερον τοῖς μὲν ὅμμασι φῶς, τοῖς δ᾿ὠσὶν ἀληθεια, τῇ δὲ ῥινὶ μῦρον, τῇ δὲ γλώττῃ μέλι, τῇ δ᾿ἀφῇ μέταξα· οὕτω τῷ μὲν νοὶ Θεός, τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ Ἄγγελος […]. Ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνα τὰς ἔξω αἰσθήσεις ἐξαιρέτως εὐφραίνει τοῦ Σώματος, οὕτω τὰς ἐντὸς φωτίζει δυνάμεις τοῦ Πνεύματος. Cf. ch. 4.

82 Roilos, P., ‘Phantasia and the ethics of fictionality in Byzantium: a cognitive anthropological perspective’, in Roilos, P. (ed.), Medieval Greek Storytelling: Fictionality and Narrative in Byzantium (Wiesbaden 2014) 9–30Google Scholar.

83 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 12: Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα πρὸς τῆς προνοίας οἰκονομεῖται, ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτὸν τὸν ἡμῶν Ἐπιστάτην γνωρίσωμεν.

84 Palamas, One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, ed. Sinkewicz, ch.50.

85 On phantasia, see Gregory of Sinai, Chapters ch. 118, 1284a and Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, Century, ch. 65, ed. Migne, Patrologia Graeca 147, 745d.

86 Gregory of Sinai, Chapters, chs. 58–64, on the misleading role of phantasia and chs. 8–9 on the negative role of senses.

87 Ibid.

88 On phantasia as the main faculty of visualization, see Pizzone, , ‘When Homer met Phantasia: Fiction, epic poetry and entertainment literature in Byzantium’, British Academy Review 19 (2012) 42–45Google Scholar.

89 Isidore of Kiev, Encomium for Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, ed. Lampros, S., III (Athens 1926) 133Google Scholar. The role of senses is also mentioned in Gabalas’ chapters, as well as other authors such as Gregory Palamas and Gregory of Sinai. In his Foundations for an Imperial Education, Manuel Palaiologos recommends his son to enjoy nature after long periods of hectic activity (ch. 21).

90 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 4: τὸν δὲ Κόσμον, ἤτοι τὴν κτίσιν τὴν ὁρωμένην, διδάσκαλον ἀγάπης ἡμῖν παρεστήσατο (ed. Boulgares).

91 Ibid: βιβλία εἰς μάθησιν τῶν πραγμάτων, καὶ γνῶσιν τὴν αὐτοῦ, ταῦτα προὔθηκεν ἡμῖν ὁ Θεός.

92 Ibid, ch. 15.

93 Ibid, ch. 6: Ὥσπερ γὰρ νῦν Ἡλίου λαμπόντος ἅπαντα φανεροῦται τὰ ὑπὲρ γῆν, οὕτω τότε Θεοῦ καὶ πάντων λαμπόντων, καὶ Θεὸν καὶ ἑαυτοὺς καὶ ἀλλήλους καὶ πανθ’ ὡς ἔχει λόγου καὶ φύσεως ἐπιγνώσονται.

94 The image of God who can heal various kinds of serious afflictions, such as epilepsy or blindness, is especially present in homiletic and hagiographic literature. See Horden, A., ‘Saints and doctors in the early Byzantine empire: The case of Theodore Sykeon’, Studies in Church History 19 (1982) 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Duffy, J., ‘Byzantine medicine in the sixth and seventh centuries: Aspects of teaching and practice’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38 (1984) 21–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

95 The image of the emperor ἰατρός belonged to a set of stock epithets used throughout panegyrics or official documents. E.g. Magdalino, P., The Empire of Manuel Komnenos (Cambridge 2002) 465Google Scholar.

96 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 2: Οἱ βασιλεῖς ἅπαντες τοὺς ποτὲ ὑποχειρίους, ἀντάρτας αὐτῶν γενομένους, ἐπὰν χειρώσωνται, καὶ ἰσχύσωσι κατ᾿ αὐτῶν γενομένους, ἀφανισμῷ τελείῳ, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους, καὶ πάντα τὰ αὐτῶν σὺν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἤτοι τῷ τολμηθέντι αὐτοῖς, ἄρδην παραδιδόασιν. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης Θεὸς διὰ τὴν ἄκραν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητα, τὴν μὲν ἁμαρτίαν (…) ἐξαφανίσαι ἠθέλησε δὶα τοῦ θανάτου.

97 See Manuel Palaiologos, Foundations, ch. 51.

98 E.g. Demetrios Chrysoloras, One Hundred Letters, ch. 23: ἐγὼ καὶ τὸ βασιλέως ἴσον λογίζομαι τῷ Θεῷ, ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως ἐκεῖνος κρεμάμενος ἀφῆκεν ἁμαρτάνουσιν ἅπαντα, ἄφες καὶ σὺ νῦν ἐμὸν ἐκείνου μιμητὴς ὤν.

99 Cf. Laurent, V., ‘Le trisépiscopat du Patriarche Matthieu 1er (1397–1410): Un grand procès canonique à Byzance au début du XVeme siècle’, Revue des études byzantines 30 (1972) 5–166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 28: ἱματίων ποικιλία καὶ στρωμναὶ εὐώδεις· μουσικῶν καὶ ὀργάνων ἴυγγες καὶ ᾠδῶν Σειρῆνες, πρὸς ἑαυτὰ ἐφέλκεται καὶ δέσμει.

101 See above.

102 On repetition as a means of persuasion, see Burke, K., A Rhetoric of Motives (Berkeley 1950) 16Google Scholar.

103 On ancient rhetorical amplification, see Kennedy, G., Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition (London 1999) 110 and 221Google Scholar.

104 Ibid.

105 On the use of locus amoenus and synaesthesia as categories of rhetorical amplifications in medieval rhetoric, see Hunter, R., Towards a Definition of Topos: Approaches to Analogical Reasoning (London 1991) 17–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

106 Bryennios, Forty-Nine Chapters, ch. 12.

107 He addressed six letters to Alexios Apokaukos, whom he considered to be a close friend. Letters nos. 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, ed. N. Tomadakes, ‘Ἐκ τῆς βυζαντινῆς ἐπιστολογραφίας. Ἰωσὴφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυεννίου Ἐπιστολαὶ Λʹ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν Γʹ’, 283–362.

108 Maderakes, S., ‘Θέματα της εικονογραφικής παράδοσης της Κρήτης’, Theologia 61 (1990) 713–777Google Scholar and Theologia 62 (1991) 150–7Google Scholar. Cf. also eadem, ‘Η κόλαση και οι ποινές των κολασμένων σαν θέματα της Δευτέρας Παρουσίας στις εκκλησίες της Κρήτης’, Ὑδωρ εκ Πέτρας 3 (1981) 51–130Google Scholar.

109 Panagiotakes, N. (ed.), Κρήτη: Ιστορία και πολιτισμός (Athens 1998) 74–5Google Scholar.

110 Bryennios, Joseph, Homilies, ed. Boulgares, I (Leipzig 1768) 46Google Scholar.

111 Ibid., 301–2: καὶ πρὸς τῶν ζωγράφων οἱ ἀπόστολοι διατυποῦνται καθήμενοι ἐν τῇ κρίσει μετὰ Χριστοῦ· ἀλλὰ τὸ πάγιον καὶ μόνιμον καὶ ἑδραῖον τῆς τούτων δόξης, ὁ λόγος αἰνίτται· μόνος δ’ ἄρα ὁ Κύριος οἷον ἐξ ὄρους τῶν Ἐλαιῶν ἀνελήφθη, καὶ οἷος νῦν κάθηται ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης, τὸ τηνικαῦτα καθιεῖται κριτής, ἄνθρωπος κρίνων ἀνθρώπους…καὶ ὁ Παράκλητος.

112 See Punter, D., Metaphor (New York 2007) 11–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

113 Perelman, C., A Treatise on Argumentation (London 1969) 354–7Google Scholar.

114 Palamas’ One Hundred and Fifty Chapters have been divided into two sections: the first sixty-three chapters discuss the divine economy of creation and the physical spheres (terrestrial and celestial) and another one (chs. 63–150) in which Palamas combats the Akyndinist position and approaches issues related to divine illumination and energies. For a discussion of this distinction, see Sinkewicz, Saint Gregory Palamas, 1–55.

115 Bazini, ‘Une première edition’, 96.

116 Joseph Bryennios, Προθεωρία, ed. Boulgares, Τὰ παραλειπομένα (Leipzig 1784) 48: τοῦ γὰρ ἁπλουστέρου καὶ σαφοῦς φροντίσαντες καὶ τοῦ ἐγχωρίου τῶν Κρητῶν ἤθους πρὸς οὓς καὶ γέγραπται, οὕτω ταῦτα τεθείκαμεν.

117 On the late Byzantine Constantinopolitan literary circles and the competition among scholars, see Gaul, N., Thomas Magistros und die spätbyzantinische Sophistik (Wiesbaden 2011) 17–61 and 169–210Google Scholar.

118 For a discussion of these letters, see Loenertz, ‘Pour la chronologie’, 13.