This book presents a sustained examination of conceptions of divine inspiration in the literature and visual arts of Byzantium (c. 330–1453). The subject has hitherto never been treated systematically, and its pivotal relevance to the formation of Eastern Orthodox religious doctrine and identity has thus been underestimated. What the book investigates under the umbrella term “inspiration” encompasses the variety of circumstances under which texts as well as material artifacts were conveyed to human recipients by divine initiative. The thesis guiding this investigation is that arguments about the divine origin of sacred literature and art were variously employed in Byzantium to claim and confirm authenticity in order to derive from it religious authority.