Apart from their historical value, the letters of Psellos are gems of wit and eloquence that give the reader a glimpse of the skilful charms that made Psellos' company sought after by his contemporaries. The pleasure of this reading is however frequently diminished by the inherent difficulties of Psellos' Greek even for fluent Hellenists, but also by the challenge of a labyrinthine correspondence scattered throughout numerous editions, in which letters addressed to often anonymous recipients mention dramatic yet obscure events in ambiguous and ironical prose.
The present volume offers a remedy to the problems that have kept scholars away from the close study these letters deserve. The book begins with a caveat from the authors themselves: in the introduction, Lauxtermann warns the reader about the purpose of both the essays and the summaries – a tool designed to allow further studies of Psellos' correspondence – and about the inevitable disagreements concerning the chronology and interpretations of the letters that some of their statements will cause. The book consists of two parts: the first offers the reader different paths through Psellos' correspondence with five essays addressing and answering much-discussed questions about his career and relations while providing insight into the networking system that the letters build and reflect; in the second, Jeffreys provides a detailed summary of all the published letters of Psellos, classified according to their current state of editing, followed by seventeen substantial excursuses and a useful index.
In the first essay, ‘Educational networks in the letters of Psellos’, Floris Bernard emphasises the importance of teaching for Psellos' career as a way to establish profitable relationships with former pupils. After a reminder of the Byzantine education system in the 11th century and in particular the function associated with Psellos' famous title of ‘consul of the philosophers’, Bernard analyses the letters to show the progressive building of Psellos' powerful network. This leads to a discussion of the meaning of the confusing terminology of kinship and friendship abundantly used in the letters and the question of the distinction, if any, between letters and treatises that often take the form of letters. Besides presenting the reader with a lively portrait of Psellos and some of his pupils, Bernard also offers a beautiful translation of three of the letters of Psellos as an illustration of his article (KD 11, 53 and 91).
In the second essay, ‘Psellos and the monastery’, Michael Jeffreys points out that Psellos' links to the monastic world cannot be reduced to his unfortunate experience on the Olympus, and offers the reader what he modestly calls a ‘simple catalogue [in chronological order] of Psellos’ letters concerned with the monasteries'. The letters divide into two main groups, dealing respectively with Psellos' personal experience as a monk, and with his activities as a charistikarios. In addition to a useful list of the monasteries that Psellos either owned or helped, Jeffreys discusses the possible time of and reasons for Psellos' interventions, showing the dynamics of his relations to monasteries and monks and building a framework for the discussion of an often overlooked aspect of Psellos' interests and influence.
The third essay ‘Constantine, nephew of the patriarch and good friend of Psellos’, also by Jeffreys, sheds light on the life and career of this high-ranking official, who happens to be Psellos' former pupil and excellent friend. While Constantine is not entirely unknown, thanks to the sigillographic study of his career by A. Wassiliou-Seibt, Jeffreys convincingly suggests significant amendments to the prevailing views concerning the dating. Chronological tables and family trees make it easy for the reader to understand Constantine's intricate relations with the imperial family. This chapter ends with an evocative translation of two letters from Psellos to Constantine: G 21 gives us a glimpse of a quarrel between the two friends, while KD 214, presumably written shortly before Psellos' death, offers a melancholy depiction of Psellos' solitude contrasting with Constantine's joyful family.
In the fourth essay, ‘The intertwined lives of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous’, Marc Lauxtermann investigates a slightly different case, since John Mauropous, unlike Psellos' other addressees, has left numerous poems and letters echoing Psellos' texts. These exchanges allow Lauxtermann to analyse both of the authors' self-representation. After an impressive survey of the remaining letters addressed to each other organized in logical sequences and chronological order, Lauxtermann presents a detailed study of one particular episode, namely the exchange surrounding Psellos' accession to the title of ‘consul of the philosophers’ in Mauropous' letter 23 and Psellos' reply in M 12 (=G 33). Both of the letters are beautifully translated at the end of the chapter, as well as the letter KD 34, in which Psellos blames Mauropous for complaining about his nomination as a bishop to Euchaïta.
A fifth essay, ‘Venomous praises. Some remarks on Michael Psellos’ letters to Leon Paraspondylos', by D. R. Reinsch, concludes the first part with a study of Psellos' use of irony, rather than the chronology of Psellos' relations with the powerful minister of the empress Theodora. Reinsch highlights the necessity for a careful study of the texts and their authorial intention to avoid misinterpretations, and proposes amendments to the views of previous scholars. The comparison between the letters and the Chronographia enables Reinsch to display Psellos' use of irony as a hidden weapon, attacking the addressee without his noticing and relying on the later reader to understand the author's true meaning. At the end of his essay, Reinsch provides an elegant translation of the two letters (S 7 and S9), extracts from which he uses for in his study.
In the second part of the volume, Jeffreys' detailed Summaries of the letters bring to the fore their most remarkable themes and figures, reference previous studies discussing the letters and suggest a date or a chronological range. Further explanations about the dating of the letters can be found in the following excursuses.
This volume is an essential tool for scholars studying Psellos or the eleventh century, but it is also a highly enjoyable read for anyone interested in getting a sense of Psellos' stylistic virtuosity.
