Giovanni Mauropode, 'Poesie'

Ioannes Mauropous was an influential intellectual active in the eleventh century, a crucial time for the history of the Byzantine Empire and its literature. He was linked to the court of Constantine IX Monomachos and was then metropolitan bishop of Euchaïta. After the battle of Manzikert, he entered the monastery of Prodromos Petra in Constantinople as a monk; there he probably died after 1082. He wrote speeches, poems in prosodic dodecasyllables, epistles and hymns.

This book presents the critical edition of Ioannes' poetic production (106 poems from MS Vat. Gr. 676 and the carmen etymologicum), replacing the outdated Bollig - De Lagarde (1882) and Reitzenstein (1901). The introduction offers their literary context, a description of the manuscripts, and of the textual transmission. The critical text is complemented by three apparatus (loci paralleli within Mauropous' corpus; apparatus fontium; critical apparatus) and an Italian translation. The commentary thoroughly clarifies each poem.

Ioannes' poems are not just for Greek scholars, but a hallmark of medieval poetry. Thanks to introduction, translation and commentary, researchers of medieval literature, historians, and linguists will be able to access this refined poetry.