Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-9klzr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-16T11:24:40.647Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ecclesiastical history and Nikephoros Kallistou Xanthopoulos. Proceedings of the International Symposium, Vienna, 15th–16th December 2011. Edited by Christian Gastgeber and Sebastiano Panteghini . (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 37.) Pp. 184 incl. 43 colour and black-and-white ills and 21 tables. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2015. €49.80 (paper). 978 3 7001 7682 4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2018

Peter Van Nuffelen*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Type
Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

This finely edited volume gathers eleven papers first presented at a conference in Vienna in 2011, as part of a larger project aiming to produce the first critical edition of the church history of the Byzantine scholar Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulus (end of thirteenth–beginning of fourteenth century). There is little work on Xanthopoulus because of the largely derivative nature of his work. The papers in the present volume are largely concerned with Quellenforschung. A. Berger studies the sources of the first six books. The vast majority (70 per cent) of the material derives from Eusebius, but some additional sources can be identified. F. Albrecht studies the sources of quotations from the Bible, noting Xanthopoulus’ conservative stance: if the citation is in the Bible, he follows the version of the biblical verse found in that source. There is only proof for direct use of the Acts of the Apostles. H. Schneider disputes the traditional assumption that Xanthopoulus did not use Eusebius’ Life of Constantine. He suggests that he knew and consulted it: at any rate, much of its content was accessible to him via intermediate sources. S. Morlet shows how Xanthopoulous continues to write in the style of Eusebius, even when Eusebius was not the source. This may betray a care for stylistic unity, but Morlet also suggests knowledge of other works of Eusebius. V. Somers questions the idea that Xanthopoulus consciously imitated Gregory of Nazianzen. B. Bleckmann details how Xanthopoulus used the summary of Philostorgius composed by Photius. He shows well how its material was integrated with other sources that Xanthopoulus had at his disposal. H.-G. Nesselrath discusses the encyclopaedic portrait that Xanthopoulus sought to give of Julian the Apostate: he used as many sources as possible with the aim of showing that Julian was a persecutor. M. Wallraff studies the creation of the image of Constantine in the Byzantine tradition, speculating that some details that are unique in Xanthopoulus originated in the fourth century. His suggestion that some of these may go back to the so-called anonymous homoean historian is impaired by his failure to mention the demonstration by R. Burgess (1999) that we are in fact dealing with a chronicle written in continuation of that of Eusebius. E. Kaltsogianni discusses Xanthopoulus’ address of Andronicus ii, showing that he was inspired by earlier church historians as well as contemporary panegyric. The last two papers do not deal with sources. S. Kotzabassi edits and studies two versified lists of emperors and patriarchs, transmitted under the name of Xanthopoulus. C. Gastgeber shows that the Vienna codex of the ecclesiastical history is not a copy made for Andronicus ii and proposes a date around 1330. If most papers are competently done, not all have been updated (as did H.-G. Nesselrath for his chapter) to include literature that has appeared since 2011. They all bring something to the discussion, even though several papers conclude that the 1966 monograph by Gentz and Winkelmann had already hit the mark for their topic. Typical for volumes reflecting work in progress, there is much in this volume that will only demonstrate its significance in the context of a holistic study of Xanthopoulus. Indeed, compilations only become interesting when we ask what their purpose was and how the hard work of selection and integration generated new meanings. This is, undoubtedly, what the new edition will offer in due course.