Literary criticism in Psellus’ short history

Farkas, Zoltán (2008) Literary criticism in Psellus’ short history. Acta Antiqua, 48 (1-2). pp. 187-192. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

If on the evidence of the manuscript we accept it as a fact that the Historia Syntomos ( HS ) was written by Psellus, we are presented with two historical works ( HS and Chronographia ) written by the same author (Psellus) in the same genre ( historia ) in two different styles (middle and simple style), which the Byzantine reader or the modern scholar can read and interpret as one historical work. In his HS Psellus briefly and superficially describes the style of Leo the Wise and of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and in connection with the latter he observes that rhetorical devices can be and are used in texts that are not written in the literary language. Though this statement might seem obvious for us, it did not appear so for a Byzantine rhetor.

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