Snapshots from the eleventh century: the Lombards from Bari, a chartoularios from ‘Petra’, and the complex of Mangana

Abstract

This article puts in their context three eleventh-century texts from the famous anthology of poetry in Marcianus Gr. 524. The first is an epigram on the portrait of Monomachos, which was commissioned by the ‘Lombards’. It is suggested here that Argyros Meles is in fact the instigator of the creation of the portrait and its accompanying epigram. The second text is a poem addressed to Michael Keroularios on behalf of the hieromonk Lazaros when he was granted the rank of chartoularios of the Great Church. The meaning of a mysterious reference to ‘Petra’ is discussed in detail. The third text is an epigram on the triklinos of Monomachos at the Mangana complex.

Acknowledgements

A version of this article was presented at the 45^th Spring Symposium for Byzantine Studies, Exeter College, University of Oxford, 25 March 2012. I am indebted to Marc Lauxtermann and Paul Magdalino for their suggestions and emendations. I am most grateful to Floris Bernard, Cyril Mango, Athanasios Markopoulos and Stratis Papaioannou for reading and commenting on earlier draft versions. I owe a big thanks to Michael and Elizabeth Jeffreys for giving me access to their forthcoming edition of the Manganeios Prodromos' poems. Needless to say, any mistake is the responsibility of the author.

Floris Bernard's Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025–1081 (Oxford 2014) appeared after this article had been finalized. It was unfortunately not possible to incorporate it into the discussion.

Notes

1 On ms. Marcianus Graecus 524 see: Sp. Lambros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κώδιξ 524’, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 8 (1911) 3–59, 123–92; E. Mioni, Bibliothecae divi Marci venetiarum Codices Graeci manuscripti. Thesaurus antiquus (Rome 1985) 399–407; F. Spingou, ‘Text and image at the court of Manuel Komnenos: Epigrams on works of art in Marc. gr. 524, followed by a description of the manuscript’ (unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2010) esp. 16–35 and 116–62 (available for consultation in the Bodleian library, Oxford and the library of Yale University), and an expanded version: eadem, ‘Words and artworks in the twelfth century and beyond. The thirteenth-century manuscript Marcianus Gr. 524 and the twelfth-century dedicatory epigrams on works of art’ (unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford 2013). See also: P. Odorico and C. Messis, ‘L'anthologie Comnène du cod. Marc. gr. 524: Problèmes d’évaluation', in W. Hörandner and M. Grünbart (eds.), L'épistolographie et la poésie épigrammatique: Projets actuels et questions de méthodologie. Actes de la 16e table ronde organisée par Wolfram Hörandner et Michael Grünbart dans le cadre du XXe Congrès international des études byzantines. Collège de France-Sorbonne. Paris, 19–25 Août 2001 (Paris 2003) 191–213. A. Rhoby, ‘Zur Identifizierung von bekannten Autoren im Codex Marcianus Graecus 524’, Medioevio Graeco 10 (2010) 167–204. F. Spingou, ‘The anonymous poets of the Anthologia Marciana: Questions of collection and authorship’, in A. Pizzone (ed.), Byzantine Authorship (Berlin and New York 2014) 137–150. A new numbering system for the text in the Marcianus codex has been suggested in the appendix of my DPhil thesis. The numbering offered in this article indicates first the numbering according to Lambros' description and subsequently according to the new description.

2 In more detail: ‘Words and artworks’, 37–43. I suggest that the quires with the poetry were originally placed in the following order: ff. 89–96, 97–104, 1–7, 8–15, 16–23, 105–112, 113–120.

3 W. Hörandner (‘Epigrams on icons and sacred objects. The collection of Cod. Marc. Gr. 524 once again’, in M. Salvadore [ed.], La poesia tardoantica e medievale: atti del I convegno internationale di studi. Mercata, 4–5 maggio 1998 [Alessandria 2001] 120) has also observed that an ‘eleventh-century cluster’ can be found in ff. 1–3^v.

4 Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, ed. M. de Groote, Christophori Mitylenaii versuum variorum collectio Cryptensis (Turnhout 2012) nos. 138, 120, 121, 123, 125, 126, 127, 132, 134.

5 S. Lambros, Κερκυραϊκὰ ἀνέκδοτα ἐκ χειρογράφων Ἁγίου Ὄρους, Κανταβριγίας, Μονάχου καὶ Κερκύρας (Athens 1882) 41 (vv. 306–10).

6 Theophylaktos of Ohrid, Poems, ed. P. Gautier, Théophylacte d'Achrida. Discours, Traités, Poésies I (Thessalonike 1980) no. 10.

7 Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, nos. 51, 42, 45, 74, 75, 76, 80, 82, 89, 95, 98, 101, 112, 113, 117

8 R. J. Macrides, ‘Poetic justice in the patriachate. Murder and cannibalism in the provinces’, in L. Burgmann, M. Th. Fögen and A. Schminck (eds.), Cupido Legum (Frankfurt 1985) 137–9.

9 For example on f. 46^v, an epigram dedicated to the amulet of Constantine Monomachos can be found between epigrams dating from the reign of Manuel Komnenos.

10 The epigram is reprinted in V. von Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen über die byzantinische Herrschaft in Süditalien von 9. bis ins 11. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden 1967) 59, n. 453.

11 It is a topos for epigrams on works of art to say that the commissioner has also made the object. M. Lauxtermann, Byzantine poetry from Pisides to Geometres, I (Vienna 2003) 159.

12 Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 93–94, 100, 187–190. A comprehensive reconstruction of his life can be found in N. Lavermicocca, Bari Bizantina: capitale mediterranea (Bari 2003) 19–23; A. Guillou, ‘Production and profits in the Byzantine province of Italy (tenth to eleventh centuries): an expanding society’, DOP 28 (1974) 97–100 and 108; G. Robinson, History and Cartulary of the Greek Monastery of S. Elias and S. Anastasius of Carbonne (Rome 1928), 158–60. See also R. Guilland, ‘Patrices du règne de Constantin IX Monomaque’, ΖRVI 13 (1971) 2–3, reprinted in: Titres et foctions de l'Empire byzantine (London 1976) XIII.

13 V. von Falkenhausen, ‘Byzantine Italy in the reign of Basil II’, in P. Magdalino (ed.), Byzantium in the year 1000 (Leiden/Boston 2003) 147. F. Burgarella, ‘Bizanzio in Sicilia e nell'Italia meridionale: Riflessi’, in Il Mezzogiorno dai Bizantini a Federico II (Torino 1983) 224–6. F. Chalandon, Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile, I (Paris 1907) 46. A. Guillou, ‘Notes sur la société dans le katépanat d'Italie au XI siècle’, Mélanges d'Archaeologie et d'Histoire 78 (1966) 443, no. 2 = Studies on Byzantine Italy (London 1970) no. XII.

14 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 97.

15 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 97. An exuberant, and hardly believable, account of the election of Argyros is given by the poetic chronicle of William of Apulia. However, the passage states that the Normans elected him as leader mainly because of his father's fame. Cf. the account of Amatus of Montecassino, The History of the Normans (written though ca.1080), ed. V. de Bartholomaeis, Storia de' Normanni di Amato di Montecassino (Rome 1935), II, 28, (trans. Pr. Dunbar, Amatus of Montecassino: The History of the Normans, rev. ed. G. Loud [Woodbridge 2004] 75).

16 G. A. Loud, The Age of Robert of Guiscard: Southern Italy and Norman Conquest (Harlow 2000) 96.

17 He was a personal enemy of Romanos Skleros, brother of Constantine's mistress. Skylitzes, Synopsis Historiarum, ed. I. Thurn, Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum, (Berlin 1973) 427: Const. IX, §3, ll. 60–66. On Maniakes: Guilland, Patrices, 10–13. Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 91–2, 186.

18 William of Apulia, I, 479–85.

19 William of Apulia, I, 496–500, 504–5.

20 William of Apulia, I, 511–8.

21 William of Apulia, II, 1–7.

22 William of Apulia, II, 18–20: Placibus, qui praesidet urbi, / suscipit egressum magnis et honoribus illum / promvet.

23 In a sigillion of 1053 he reveals his titles as follows: Ἀργυρὸς προνοίᾳ Θ(εο)v˜ μάγιστρος καὶ δοὺξ ἰταλίας καλαβρίας σικελίας καὶ παφλαγονίας, ὁ μέλητος (Robinson, History and Cartulary, 162, ll. 31–3). On the title see Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 60–2, 104–8.

24 Falkenhausen, Byzantine Italy, 139 (where the relevant bibliography). A. Guillou, Geografia administrative del Katepanato Bizantino d'Italia (IX–XI sec.), in Calabria bizantina (Reggio 1974) 113–33, = Culture et société en Italie Byzantine (VIe–XIe s.) (London 1978) IX.

25 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 98. William of Apulia, II, 275–83.

26 Interestingly, the rebellion led by Argyros is exclusively mentioned in Latin historical works (esp. Lupus protospatharios, Annales Barenses, William of Apulia).

27 This is how Skylitzes (348: Basil and Constantine, § 34, 97, 1–3) understands the Lombards. He mentions the rebellion of Meles: δυνάστης γάρ τις τω˜ν ἐποίκων τ˜ης Βάρεως, τοὔνομα Μέλης, παραθήξας τὸν ἐν Λογγιβαρδίᾳ λαὸν ὅπλαν κατὰ Ῥωμαίων αἴρει.

28 Guillou (‘Production and profits’, 97–9) cites especially Argyros Meles as an example of these Greek-speaking archons.

29 He was probably of Armenian origin, but his family would have been assimilated with the Lombard population already from the tenth century (Falkenhausen, Byzantine Italy, 154–5; see also N. Garsoïan, ‘The problem of Armenian integration into the Byzantine empire’, in H. Ahrweiler and A. Laiou, Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Society (Washington, D.C. 1998) 56 and 64–5). See H. Houben, Roger II of Sicily, trans. G. Loud and D. Milburn (Cambridge 2002) 9.

30 His wife Maralda was Latin (Guillou, ‘Production and profit’, 97).

31 Lavermicocca, Bari Bizantina, 20.

32 Fr. Nitti di Vito, Codice diplomatico Barese: Le pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, IV (Bari 1900) 67, 17–19 (the sigillion dates from December 1146 and it is signed by the catepan Eusthathios). Robinson, History and Cartulary, no. V, 161, 5 (it dates from 1053 and it is signed by Argyros Meles). See also A. Guillou, ‘L'Italia bizantina: δουλεία e oἰκείωσις’, Bulletino dell'istituto storico italiano per il medioevo 78 (1967) 16.

33 Euthymios Tornikes, Oration to the emperor Manuel Komnenos, delivered when the sultan came to Constantinople, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Noctes Petropolitanae (St Petersburg 1913) 173, 13–21 (cf. 169, 2–3 and 172–3), cf. P. Magdalino and R. Nelson, ‘The emperor in byzantine art of the twelfth century’, BF 8 (1982) 133. The reference to imperial images placed in towns became formulaic in imperial speeches in later Byzantium. For example, Nicholaos Lampenos in his speech for Andronikos II Palaiologos clearly mentions: Σὲ δ᾽ ὦ βασιλεv˜ αἱ πόλεις γράφουσιν ἐν εἰκόσι, προσκυνου˜σι, σέβουσι (I. Polemis, Ὁ λόγιος Νικόλαος Λαμπηνὸς καὶ τὸ ἐγκώμιον αὐτοv˜ εἰς τὸν Ἀνδρόνικον Β´ Παλαιολόγον [Athens 1992] 81).

34 John Mauropous, Poems, ed. P. de Lagarde, Iohannis Euchaitorum Metropolitae quae in codice Vaticano graeco 676 supersunt (Göttingen 1882) no. 57

35 See Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 45-46 and eadem, ‘The anonymous poets’, 148–9.

36 Guillou, ‘Production and profit’, 103–4. See also idem, ‘Italie méridionale byzantine ou Byzantins en Italie méridionale?,’ B 44 (1974) 180–8 = Culture et Société en Italie Byzantine, XV.

37 See A. Guillou, ‘Notes d’épigraphie byzantine', Studi medievali (Spoleto 1970) 403–8 = Culture et société, VIII.

38 Ὁ μάγιστρος οὐδέποτε τη˜ς οἰκείας ἐπιλελησμένος θρησκείας καὶ διπλόης ἀλλ᾽ ἀεὶ τἀνάντια κατὰ τη˜ς βασιλίδος καὶ τη˜ς Ῥωμανίας φρον˜ων. C. Will, Acta et scripta quae de controversus ecclesiae graecae et latinae saeculo undecimo composita extant (Leipzig 1861) 175.

39 William of Apulia, II, 18–20.

40 I. Drpić, ‘Kosmos of verse: epigram, art, and devotion in later Byzantium’, (unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 2011) 286.

41 It is a painted portrait of Manuel Komnenos and Maria of Antioch crowned by Christ. The donor makes clear that he demonstrates his faith and affection to the emperor by depicting the imperial couple in colours. No. 221/243 has been edited by Magdalino and Nelson, ‘The emperor’, 138–9; for new readings see Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 101.

42 J. Darrouzès, Recherches sur les ὀφφίκια de l'église byzantine (Paris 1970) 87 and 179 (n. 1).

43 The rank of chartoularios in the ecclesiastical administration is not as important as that of the imperial administration. In the ecclesiastical context there were chartoularioi of the steward (οἰκονόμου), of the sakelliou, of the skeuophylax and of the Great Church (Darrouzès, Ὀφφίκια, 41–43 and 272–3 (and no. 47)). On the function of chartoularios in a secular context see: R. Guilland, ‘Chartulaire et Grand Chartulaire’, Revue des études sud-est européenes 9 (1971) 405–26 = Titres et foctions de l'empire byzantine (London 1975) XVIII.

44 See E. McGeer, J. Nesbitt, N. Oikonomides, Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg museum of Art, V (Washington, D.C. 2005), nos. 42.4–6; and J. Nesbitt and N. Oikonomides, Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg museum of Art III (Washington, D.C. 1996) no. 2.6. See also G. Zacos, A. Veglery and J. W. Nesbitt, Byzantine Lead Seals (Basel 1972) nos. 110, 386, 414, 415 and 449. Another chartoularios is mentioned in St Christodoulos' testament. The founder of the monastery of St John in Patmos asks his spiritual child Theodosios, who was chartoularios and patriarchal notary, to go to Patmos and succeed Christodoulos. See R. Morris, ‘Divine diplomacy in the late eleventh century’, BMGS 16 (1992) 147–56, esp. 152–3.

45 The twelfth-century Manganeios Prodromos (ed. M. and E. Jeffreys [forthcoming] 8.536 and 53.140) uses the homophone χρηστός–Χριστός in order to enforce the implicit comparison between Christ-Emmanuel and Manuel Komnenos. However, in eleventh-century court poetry the modifier ‘χρηστός’ does not have this implicit meaning (see John Mauropous, Poems, no. 48; Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, no. 44, 52). Nevertheless, the phrase κη˜ρυξ διαπρύσιος (v. 8) perhaps makes the case that in this poem the word χρηστός actually has an implicit meaning. Usually someone is διαπρύσιος κη˜ρυξ του˜ Χριστου˜ (e.g. John Mauropous, Canons, ed. F. D'Aiuto, Bollettino dei Classici Suppl. 13 [1994] III, 2, 125).

46 Ε. Kakoulidi, ‘Ἡ βιβλιοθήκη τη˜ς μονη˜ς Προδρόμου-Πέτρας στὴν Κωνσταντινούπολη’, Ἑλληνικά 21 (1968) 3–39. Cf. A. Cataldi-Palau, ‘The library of the monastery of Prodromos Petra in the fifteenth century (to 1453)’, in Studies in Greek Manuscripts (Spoleto 2008) 209–18.

47 I owe this remark to Marc Lauxtermann.

48 ‘Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἤδη πρὸς πλατυσμόν τε καὶ αὔξησιν ἡ ἁγία μονὴ ἡμω˜ν τῃ˜ του˜ Θεου˜ ἐπιδέδωκε χάριτι, καὶ τῃ˜ ἀντιλήψει τῆς θεοφυλάκτου ἁγίας ἡμω˜ν δεσποίνης καὶ μητρὸς του˜ θεοστεφου˜ς καὶ κρατίστου ἡμω˜ν βασιλέως κυρου˜ Ἀλεξίου του˜ Κομνηνου˜ (Anna Dalassene), ἔτι δὲ καὶ του˜ ἁγιωτάτου δεσπότου καὶ οἰκουμενικου˜ πατριάρχου κυρου˜ Νικολάου (Nicholas Grammatikos)’, Typikon of Petra Monastery, ed. Turco, ‘La Diatheke del fondatore del monastero di S. Giovanni Prodromo in Petra e l'Ambr. E 9 Sup’, Aevum 75/2 (2001) 350, 9–13. The manuscript gives the title Ἡ διαθήκη του˜ κτήτορος τη˜ς ὁσίας μονη˜ς του˜ τιμίου Προδρόμου τη˜ς ἐπικεκλημένης τη˜ς Πέτρα [sic]. The testament is to be found in a bifolium (ff. 179–82) bound together with gatherings of different paper in cod. Ambrosianus E 9 sup. (G. Turco, La diatheke, 330). It seems probable that at least this bifolium was written in Petra monastery (Turco, La diatheke, 333–34). The donation by Anna Dalassene probably refers to the construction of the church and of the aqueduct (cf. Encomion to St. John the Faster, ed. H. Gelzer, ‘Kallistos’ Enkomion auf Johannes Nesteutes', Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie 29 [1886] 77, 18–24). Elizabeth Malamut (‘Le monastère saint-Jean-Prodrome de Pétra de Constantinople’, in M. Kaplan (ed.), Le sacré et son inscription dans l'espace à Byzance et en Occident [Paris 2001] 221) suggests that many architectural elements of the church date from the reign of Alexios I on the basis of the description of the monastery by Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo.

49 Encomion to St John the Faster, 83, 26–32. Ioalites' body was placed next to the relics of John the Faster and to the relics of an otherwise unattested Constantine the holy fool (Encomion to St John the Faster, 81, 25–6).

50 Encomion to St John the Faster 84, 4–7. Ioalites was a high official of the Byzantine court and more specifically a πρωτοασηκρήτις (Encomion to St John the Faster 83, 28–31, cf. 84, 33–85, 2).

51 Encomion to St John the Faster 85, 5–16.

52 See Malamut, Le monastère, 221–3.

53 I owe this observation to Paul Magdalino. The canons regulated against monks taking secular posts but there were exceptions. See E. Madariaga, ‘Η Βυζαντινή οικογένεια των Αγιοθεοδωριτών (Ι): Νικόλαος Αγιοθεοδωρίτης, πανιερώτατος Αθηνών και υπέρτιμος᾽, Byzantina Symmeikta 19 (2009) 155–6, n. 27.

54 N. Patterson Ševčenko, ‘The Heavenly Ladder images in Patmos ms. 122: a 12^th-century painter's guide?’, Ἔξεμπλον. Studi in onore di Irmgard Hutter, I = Νέα Ρώμη 6 (2009) 398.

55 P. Lemerle, Cinq études sur le XIe siècle byzantin (Paris 1977) 231–3.

56 R. Janin, Les églises et les monastères (Paris 2^nd ed. 1969) 399.

57 F. Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen. Social context of reading and writing poetry in eleventh-century Constantinople’ (PhD thesis, Gent 2010) 215–17. J. N. Sola, ‘Giambografi sconosciuti dell'XI secolo’, Roma e oriente 11 (1916) 151. Floris Bernard discusses the same poems also in his ‘The Anonymous of Sola and the School of Nosiai’, JÖB 61 (2011) 81–88 (esp. 82–88).

58 For a complete discussion of Psellos' consulship see M. Lauxtermann ‘The intertwined lives of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous’, in M. Jeffreys and M. Lauxtermann (eds.), The Letters of Michael Psellos (forthcoming). See also Lemerle, Cinq études, 220, who suggests that Psellos was probably a teacher at the school of St Peter.

59 A. M. Guglielmino, ‘Un maestro di grammatica a Bisanzio nell'XI secolo e l'epitafio per Niceta di Michele Psello’, Siculorum Gymnasium 27 (1974) 421–63, esp. 446–63.

60 Ἐπιστολὴ δοθει˜σα παρὰ του˜ τηνικαυ˜τα μαΐστωρος τω˜ν Διακονίσσης πρὸς τὸν πατριάρχην, αἰτου˜ντος τὴν σχολὴν του˜ ἁγίου Πέτρου, ed. K. N. Sathas, Μεσαιωνικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, V (Venice, 1876) no. 162: 420–1.

61 Marc Lauxtermann (‘The intertwined’) has recently suggested that the letter dates ‘not long before the Comnenian period when the patriarchate had become solely responsible for the school system’. See also Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 164.

62 …στῆσον ἐπὶ πέτρας πολλοῖς πειρατηρίοις κλονούμενον… (Sathas, no. 162: 421).

63 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 164–7.

64 Floris Bernard (‘The beats of the pen’, 214–7) has suggested for another poem (Anonymous Sola, VII) that the word Πέτρα signifies the school of St Peter. According to Bernard's excellent reading it is a poem from a teacher at the school of Nossiai against a teacher at St Peter's school.

65 In general, chartoularioi were well educated. In the tenth century, the Anonymous Professor (ed. A. Markopoulos [Berlin 2000]) addresses six ‘learned’ letters to five chartoularioi (nos. 2, 3, 38, 78, 93, 114). One of them was also a deacon and chartoularios (no. 78). See also A. Markopoulos, ‘L’épistolaire du “professeur anonyme” de Londres', in B. Kremmydas, Chr. Maltezou and N. K. Panagiotakis (eds.), Ἀφιέρωμα στὸν Νίκο Σβορῶνο (Rethymnon 1986) 143.

66 Especially if he was indeed a monk in Petra monastery. See Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 54–62.

67 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 245–6. Poems ὡς ἀπὸ προσώπου are addressed from poets to people in power. Christopher Mitylenaios has written a comparable poem to the Lazaros poem. He addresses the emperor ὡς ἀπὸ προσώπου / on behalf of the protospatharios John Ypsinous. In this poem, the protospatharios asks to be promoted (Christopher Mitylenaios Poems, no. 55). However, in our epigram Lazaros has already been promoted. In the twelfth century, Manganeios Prodromos writes ‘A petition to the emperor as if from (ὡς ἀπὸ) the sebastokratorissa Eirene’ (no. 43). Cf. Nicholas Kallikles no. 22, Theodore Balsamon, no. 22; Marc. gr. 524, no. 220/242 (epitaph). Theodore Prodromos, Historical poems, ed. W. Hörandner (Vienna 1974) 7, 21–23, 25, 27, 40 and 50.

68 I owe this observation to Floris Bernard.

69 Cf. J. Ljubarkij, ‘The Byzantine irony: the case of Michael Psellos’, in A. Avramea, A. Laiou, E. Chrysos (eds.), Byzantium: State and Society (Athens 2003) 358–60.

70 M. Kaplan, ‘Maisons impériales et fondations pieuses: reorganisation de la fortune impériale et assistance publique de la fin du VIIIe siècle à la fin du Xe siècle’, B 61 (1991) 364, n. 130. N. Oikonomides, ‘St. George of Mangana, Maria Skleraina, and the “Malyj Sion” of Novgorod’, DOP 34/35 (1980–1) 243. See also R. Demangel and E. Mamboury, Le quartier des Manganes et la première région de Constantinople (Paris 1939) 19–22 and 39–43. R. Janin, ‘Les églises byzantines des saintes militaires’, EO 33 (1934) 171. For the relevant bibliography see Th. Mathews, The byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey (University Park and London 1976) 201. Cf. Ch. Bouras, ‘Τυπολογικές παρατηρήσεις στο καθολικό της Μονής Μαγγάνων στην Κωνσταντινούπολη’, Αρχαιολογικό Δελτίο 31Α΄ (Studies) (1976) 138 n. 17. On poetry connected to St George of Mangana, see Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 246–7 and Cl. de Stephani, ‘A few thoughts on the influence of Classical and Byzantine poetry on the profane poems of Ioannes Mauropus’, in F. Bernard and Kr. Demoen (eds.), Poetry and its Contexts in Eleventh-century Byzantium (Farnham and Burlington 2012) 156 and 158–160. To this list can also be added an epigram on the encolpion of Constantine Monomachos, which contained among other items a part of the sword of St George: Marc. gr. 524, no. 112/113. On the palace, see R. Janin, Constantinople Byzantine (Paris 1964) 132–3 and Demangel-Mamboury, Manganes, 39–43 and III.

71 Kaplan, ‘Maisons impériales’, 353–56; idem, Les hommes et la terre à Byzance (Paris 1992) 315. E. Malamut (‘Nouvelle hypothèse sur l'origine de la maison impériale des Manganes’, in Ἀφιέρωμα στὸν Νίκο Σβορω˜νο, 127–34) suggests that a ninth-century construction pre-existed this one.

72 I owe this suggestion to Cyril Mango.

73 E. van Opstall, ‘Verses on paper, verses inscribed?’ in W. Hörandner and A. Rhoby (eds.), Die kulturhistorische Bedeutung byzantinischer Epigramme: Akten des internationalen Workshop (Wien, 1.–2. Dezember 2006) (Vienna 2008) 59–60. Cf. Lauxtermann, Byzantine poetry, 26–33.

74 See, for example, the hall of the Mouchroutas (P. Magdalino, ‘Manuel Komnenos and the Great Palace’, BMGS 4 (1978) 101–14).

75 Anna Komnene, Alexiad, ed. D. Reinsch and A. Kambylis (Berlin 2001) III, 80.

76 R. Macrides, ‘The citadel of Byzantine Constantinople’, in S. Redford and N. Ergin (eds.), Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks (Louvain 2013) 285–8.

77 Demangel and Mamboury, Manganes, 42–3.

78 Michael Psellos, Chronography, ed. U. Criscuolo, (Milan 1993) 6, 186 (see also 187, 11–8), trans. C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire (Toronto 1972) 219: ‘All round were buildings bordered with porticoes on four or two sides and all [the grounds] as far as the eye could see (for their end was not in sight) were fit for horse riding and the next [buildings] were greater than the first’.

79 P. Magdalino, ‘Manuel Komnenos and the Great Palace’, BMGS 4 (1978) 101–14.

80 See H. Maguire, ‘Gardens and parks in Constantinople’, DOP 54 (2000) 260–1. Cf. Epigrams on a garden, ed. Sp. Lambros, ‘Σύμμικτα’, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 8 (1911) 100, epigram 1, v. 9: ῥέεις παρέρχη, τοῦτο καὶ τῶν ὑδάτων'. Nikos Zagklas includes a new edition of the epigram in his forthcoming doctoral thesis.

81 J. Lefort, ‘Rhétorique et politique: trois discours de Jean Mauropous en 1047’, TM 6 (1976) 265–303. Cf. John Mauropous, Orations, ed. P. de Lagarde, (Göttingen 1882) no. 182, §14.

82 On ‘φθόνος’ in literature see: M. Hinterberger, Phthonos: Missgunst, Neid und Eifersucht in der byzantinischen Literatur (Wiesbaden 2013). Id., ‘Phthonos als treibende Kraft in Prodromos, Manasses and Bryennios’, Medioevo Greco 11 (2011) 83–106. Id., ‘Ο φθόνος στη δημώδη λογοτεχνία᾽, in E. Jeffreys and M. Jeffreys (eds.), Neograeca Medii Aevi V. Αναδρομικά και Προδρομικά: Approaches to Texts in Early Modern Greek (Oxford 2005) 227–40.

83 …οὑ˜ δὴ εἴ τις τὸ μέγεθος ἐπιμέμψασθαι βούλοιτο, εὐθὺς ἀνείργεται τῳ˜ κάλλει καταλαμπόμενος… …Indeed, if someone should wish to criticize its grandiosity, the stops immediately dazzled by the beauty (Psellos, Chronographia, 186).

84 Psellos, Chronographia, 6, 185. John Skylitzes (476, § 29, 44–9) also echoes disapproval, criticizing the amount of gold Constantine IX spent on building the complex.

85 Translation by C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 218.

86 See Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 100–2.

87 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 239–81. See also: P. Magdalino, ‘Cultural change? The context of Byzantine poetry from Geometres to Prodromos’, in F. Bernard and Kr. Demoen (eds.), Poetry and its Contexts in Eleventh-century Byzantium (Farnham and Burlington 2012) 22, 33–5. Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry, 36–7. On the anonymous authors of the Anthologia Marciana see also Spingou, ‘The anonymous poets’.