Compilation and Re-writing of the past in Byzantium

FERNÁNDEZ, TOMÁS

Workshop; Anneliese Maier Research Awards; 2016

There is one aspect of the Byzantine forma mentis which had been present, under many forms, already in classical times, and which will be apparent also afterward, both in Eastern and Western Europe: what P. Magdalino has called ?the florilegic habit?. This habit allowed minor intellectuals to compile their own works without the need to master the subtleties of the ?educated? Greek language. Indeed, many of this minor intellectuals compiled vast florilegia that no only preserve fragments which otherwise would have perished; they also give a vivid picture of the preferences of compilers and reading public in a period otherwise lacking in explicit testimonies.The florilegic habit, however, appears also in the work of great Byzantine writers; the best known example is John Damascene. However, in less extreme forms, the florilegic habit pervades everything in Byzantium. It is in itself a worldview: on the one hand, tradition contains everything that it is fit to say, and consequently there is little need to contriube any individual innovation; on the other, the organization of the material is less important than its relationship to immobile and atemporal centre (God).In my brief talk, I would like to attempt a definition of the underlying philosophy of the florilegic habit, showing why it was central to the Byzantine worldview and why its essential features, though in less extreme forms, can be found before and after the Byzantine Empire. I would also like to show why it may be productive even today, and why it does not precludes any claim at originality.