Having its origin in a conference held in Venice in September 2018, this book constitutes a novelty in Tzetzian studies. In spite of its heterogeneous approaches, it must surely be taken account of in any future work on the most learned and controversial of Komnenian scholars.
Eighteen scholars offer contributions on several works of Tzetzes, within the fields of palaeography, text criticism and hermeneutics. This volume is among the first contemporary books entirely devoted to that author, alongside the recent book of M. Savio (Screditare per valorizzare. Giovanni Tzetze, le sue fonti, i committenti e la concorrenza [2020]). The introduction offers a true state of art of Tzetzian studies, from the author's own times until the present day. Quoting from several works, P. presents readers with the main characteristics of Tzetzes’ style and persona. He often opposes him to his (more religiously committed) contemporaries, while sketching the portrait of a learned polygraph, whose career, among other interests, was mainly devoted to classic texts (Homer, Hesiod, the lyrics, tragedy and comedy, but also historiography and other Greek classics, essential as they were within the Komnenian learning programme). P. reviews the production of critical editions of Tzetzes’ works over the last 50–70 years (pp. xix–xxi), while stressing the number of works still ‘badly in need of a new edition’ (p. xx n. 62) and how many have only received published translations in modern languages in the twenty-first century (pp. xxxi–xxxii). Another important feature of the introduction is the reflection on Tzetzes’ use of books. He famously defined himself as an autodidact (Schol. Exeg. Il. 5.20, p. 421 Papathomopoulos) and even abibles (Alleg. Il. XV 87–9; Hist. VIII 176, 173–81); yet P. discusses the interesting consideration of his works ‘qua written artefacts’ (p. xxix), an issue that recently led to the identification of Tzetzes’ handwriting among the scholia of not one, but two manuscripts (pp. xxxi–xxxii, with notes 119 and 124).
The contributions are characterised by the novelty (or at least the deepening) of their subject, covering a large number of Tzetzian works and Byzantine concepts. Particularly notable are the first three chapters (by T. Braccini, A. Pizzone and N. Bianchi), as they provide first editions of previously unpublished texts – a reminder of the never-ending philological work still required in relation to Tzetzes and many other Byzantine writers. Furthermore, the reproductions of some folia from several thirteenth/fourteenth-century manuscripts transmitting Tzetzes’ works (and even his handwriting) helps to stress the very materiality of Tzetzes’ method.
If there is a fault in this book, it is the absence of a general bibliography at the end (preferable to the op. cit. method used within each chapter) and an index locorum (even if only of Tzetzian works). Both these elements would make the book even more useful and easy to consult by scholars who, nevertheless, cannot dismiss it from their future and ongoing ereynai.
