Byzantine Historiographical Prefaces (4th-15th Centuries)

A Study on Praxis and Culture of Writing History in Byzantium

By (author) Eirene-Sophia Kiapidou

Book cover: Byzantine Historiographical Prefaces (4th-15th Centuries)

Extent: 268 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Byzantine Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Byzantioc. Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization

Series volume number: 23

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(July 2025)

ISBN: 9782503612515

Price: $94.00

In stock

The present study focuses on the specific features of the genre of Byzantine historiographical proems as well as on their theoretical remarks about history-writing in Byzantium.


In recent years a lively debate has developed on the features of Byzantine historiography. The increasingly dominant tendency today is to treat historical texts more as pleasant literary narratives than as systematic historical accounts of the political and military history of Byzantium. The present study aims to contribute to this debate by revisiting the voices of the Byzantine authors themselves, focusing on the extant historical prefaces from the Early, Middle, and Late Byzantine eras. This seemed timely, more than a century after the publication of Heinrich Lieberich’s fundamental work on Byzantine historiographical proems. Obviously, not all prefaces are of equal interest: some serve a purely conventional function, while others are composed more thoughtfully and merit more careful attention. The book’s goal is twofold: firstly, to outline the details of the prefatory function of the Byzantine historiographical proems as microtexts; secondly, to detect and evaluate the theoretical views expressed by the authors of each period regarding the genre of Byzantine historiography. This will expand our knowledge of how the Byzantines wrote (praxis) and thought (culture) about historiography.

  • By (author) Eirene-Sophia Kiapidou