The Reception of the Virgin in Byzantium
Marian Narratives in Texts and Images
Thomas Arentzen editor Mary B Cunningham editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:23rd Mar '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£106.00(9781108476287)
Images and texts tell various stories about the Virgin Mary in Byzantium, reflecting an important cult with strong doctrinal foundations.
Explores how the Virgin Mary's life is told in many different ways in hymns, sermons, icons, art, and other media in the Byzantine Empire before AD 1204. Argues that these narratives played a fundamental role in the development of the Marian cult from Late Antiquity onward.This book explores how the Virgin Mary's life is told in hymns, sermons, icons, art, and other media in the Byzantine Empire before AD 1204. A group of international specialists examines material and textual evidence from both Byzantine and Muslim-ruled territories that was intended for a variety of settings and audiences and seeks to explain why Byzantine artisans and writers chose to tell stories about Mary, the Mother of God, in such different ways. Sometimes the variation reflected the theological or narrative purposes of story-tellers; sometimes it expressed their personal spiritual preoccupations. Above all, the variety of aspects that this holy figure assumed in Byzantium reveals her paradoxical theological position as meeting-place and mediator between the divine and created realms. Narrative, whether 'historical', theological, or purely literary, thus played a fundamental role in the development of the Marian cult from Late Antiquity onward.
ISBN: 9781108700139
Dimensions: 244mm x 170mm x 20mm
Weight: 747g
387 pages