Parisinus Graecus 400: Poetry and Paraenesis in Cyprus, lecture by Marc D. Lauxtermann (University of Oxford), University of Vienna, April 8, 2019, 6:30 pm

Parisinus graecus 400 is a treasure trove of little-known texts, including model letters, homilies and poems. Although undoubtedly composed in fourteenth-century Cyprus, it has been oddly overlooked in studies of Greek culture and literature under the Lusignans. This lecture will (i) discuss date, provenance, composition and contents of this manuscript, (ii) introduce a hitherto unknown collection of paraenetic poems, Στίχοι τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου τοῦ Θεολόγου ἐκ τῶν γνωμικῶν (probably dating to the thirteenth century), and (iii) focus on the social function of paraenesis.

Marc D. Lauxtermann is Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature, Fellow of Exeter College, University of Oxford. He has written extensively on Byzantine poetry and metre, and is the co-editor of a recent book on the letters of Psellos. Further research interests include translations of oriental tales in Byzantium, the earliest grammars and dictionaries of vernacular Greek, and the development of the Greek language in the eighteenth century.