Patrons and Heroes in the Book Epigrams of the Voss. Gr. Q1, lecture by Aglae Pizzone (University of Southern Denmark), Ghent University via Zoom, June 14, 2022, 4:00 pm (CET)

Before the composition of the Histories, Tzetzes’ commentary on Aphthonios and Hermogenes in political verse, with its scope and sheer extension, was certainly meant to be the most representative among his mature work. It is therefore no surprise that the Vossianus Gr. Q1, a contemporary, “bespoke” witness of the commentary, is equipped with a series of metrical and prose paratexts providing details on the genesis of this specific copy. They are to be found at fol. 30r, after the end of the commentary on Aphthonios (6 hexameters), and at fols. 111v–112r after the end of the commentary on the four Hermogenian treatises and before the section of the Logismoi preserved by the manuscript (respectively 10 hexameters and 24 dodecasyllables). At fol. 112r there is also a prose note, detailing the problems encountered by Tzetzes after handing over the requested copy to its commissioners. The longer hexametric poem provides us with information about the commissioner, one Nikephoros who might be the mystikos Nikephoros Serblias mentioned in the letter-collection. It also describes Tzetzes in dialogue with the Muse, whom he persuades to dwell in the “lower regions” of poetry in political verse. The talk will walk the audience through these paratexts, illustrating their function both within the specific textual organization of the Vossianus Gr. Q1 and more broadly against Tzetzes’ poetics.

Aglae Pizzone is urrently associate professor in Medieval Literature at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study, hosted by the University of Southern Denmark. 

In Spring 2022, the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams (DBBE), an ongoing project hosted at Ghent University, is organising the third season of the Speaking From the Margins lecture series. All lectures will take place at 4:00 pm (CET) and will be freely accessible via Zoom. No registration required. The links to the individual lectures will be broadly advertised before each lecture.