The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography

Representative of a superlative series published by Ashgate, this companion contains fourteen chapters, written by senior specialists based in Europe and the U.S., surveying the literature and history of hagiography in specific eras and places of the Byzantine world. (Volume Two will focus on literary themes, social contexts, and genres.) The first five chapters survey the genre of hagiography chronologically, with the first chapter, devoted to the Life of St Antony, illustrating the forms and traditions of the genre. In a reflection of the vast geographic reach of the Byzantine world, the remaining chapters describe the production of hagiography in the Byzantine periphery and the Christian Orient, with chapters on the Palestinian, Italo-Greek, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic, and Slavic historiography and that of Latin saints' lives that were translated into Greek. Considering the impressive erudition and labor presented here, the maps are of surprisingly poor quality. Efthymiadis is with the Open U. of Cyprus. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Stephanos Efthymiadis is Professor at the Open University of Cyprus