Byzantine epigrams on stone

In Byzantium the epigram as a genre was highly appreciated. A considerable number of epigrams is indeed still preserved in situ as inscriptions. Their analysis is the aim of the four planned volumes of the project Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Überlieferung [Byzantine epigrams on objects] of which volumes 12 have appeared. The third most voluminous volume of the series is devoted to Byzantine epigrams on stone. More than 300 and such epigrams preserved on stone are known from the project period 600 A.D. to 1500 A.D. In a detailed introduction as well as in the whole volume the significance of metrical stone inscriptions for Byzantine cultural history will be highlighted. On the basis of the preserved material, stone epigrams can be divided into two big groups, namely dedicatory and tomb epigrams. Dedicatory epigrams are either attached to secular (especially fortifications of cities such as Constantinople and Nicaea) or sacral buildings (churches, monastery complexes). In both cases epigrams do not only inform us about the foundation act but they are also means for the self-representation of the donor, i.e. the emperor and (mainly) the aristocracy. In tomb epigrams the presentation of the deceased is highlighted as well. Tomb epigrams are texts which can range from only a few verses to long epitaphs with dozens of lines. The latters are highly rhetorical products, in which the deceaseds achievements are praised and his/her death is regretted. Someone who could afford it hired a professional poet for the composition of an epigram. In the present volume questions of metre, prosody and language as well as aspects concerning the relationship between donor and author are therefore treated extensively. The most common metre is the Byzantine dodecasyllable, the metre par excellence for Byzantine epigrams. Specific inscriptions, however, for example the donor inscription on the outer façade of the Skripu church at Orchomenos (9th c.), consist of hexameters. This metre was most likely not understandable for most of the beholders und readers, but the Skripu inscription clearly shows that with the help of some signal words its content could be provided also to poorly-literate visitors. The main part of the book consists of critical editions of the more than 300 epigrams, their German translation, as well as a commentary focusing on philological, linguistical and historical matters; also palaeographic questions are treated concerning the date of the stone epigrams. Images (colour as well as black and white) of almost all epigrams are presented in the tables. Also in the present third volume of the series the omnipresence of inscriptional epigrams in Byzantium is stressed and the long underestimated meaning of inscriptions for Byzantine society is highlighted.