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1 - Beginnings and Initials

Text, Image, and Sound

from Part I - The Lectionary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2021

Roland Betancourt
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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Summary

Focusing on recitation and manuscript culture, this chapter opens the book by looking at the manner in which homilies would have slowly unfolded in meaning and comprehension in the minds of listeners during the church service. Studying the syntax and grammar of a Byzantine homily, the point is made that oral texts such as homilies or the Gospel reading could be variably understood given the slow pace of chanting and recitation. With these lessons in mind, the chapter turns to the introduction of illustrated initials into Byzantine manuscripts, which occurred in the post-iconoclastic period during the ninth century, particularly in the contexts of books of homilies. The aim is to understand the oral and aural valences of illuminated initials and marginalia in manuscripts, which came to define how they operated: not as static pictures, but rather as images informed by the act of reading and the complex way in which meaning reveals itself with oral texts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Performing the Gospels in Byzantium
Sight, Sound, and Space in the Divine Liturgy
, pp. 30 - 67
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Beginnings and Initials
  • Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Performing the Gospels in Byzantium
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868532.002
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  • Beginnings and Initials
  • Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Performing the Gospels in Byzantium
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868532.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Beginnings and Initials
  • Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Performing the Gospels in Byzantium
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868532.002
Available formats
×