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Nikolaos Mesarites, Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. New Critical Perspectives

. Parekbolai. An Electronic Journal for Byzantine Literature, (2016)

Abstract

This study offers a reappraisal of Nikolaos Mesarites’ Description of the church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, by providing new insights into its genre and the context of its composition. By concentrating on the text’s encomiastic features, the first part of the study retraces its carefully carved rhetorical construction. The second part analyses the so far neglected concluding section of the Description, in which the author, by hinting at the current historical juncture – the very years preceding the fourth Crusade – would seem to disclose a specific purpose for its composition. Finally, an hypothesis for dating the Description is also suggested, with the intention of defining it further in a forthcoming dedicated article.

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