Performing the Gospels in Byzantium: Sight, Sound, and Space in the Divine Liturgy

This study explores how illuminated manuscripts in the late eleventh century were used in ritual and architecture,and how the process of textual recitation produced marginalia and miniatures that reflected and subverted the manner in which the Gospel was read. It demonstrates how images, texts, and recitations played with the environment of the Middle Byzantine church by examining this process in specific acoustic architectural spaces and the sonic conditions of medieval chant.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 13 May 2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This comprehensive study delves into the intricate relationship between the Gospel text, illustrations, and recitation in illuminated manuscripts. By tracing the journey of the text from script to illustration to recitation, it explores how these manuscripts functioned within ritual and architectural contexts. Focusing on a collection of richly illuminated lectionaries from the late eleventh century, the book elucidates how the act of textual recitation generated marginalia and miniatures that not only reflected but also subverted the customary manner in which the Gospel was read and perceived by readers and listeners alike. Through a unique approach to manuscript illumination, the author highlights the gradual unfolding of images in the minds of listeners as they envisioned the text being recited, with meaning carefully crafted and constructed as the recitation progressed. By examining this process within specific acoustic architectural spaces and the sonic conditions of medieval chant, the volume brings together the fields of sound studies, liturgical studies, and art history to demonstrate how images, texts, and recitations interacted with the environmental dynamics of the Middle Byzantine church. This study offers a profound insight into the multifaceted ways in which visual and auditory elements shaped the religious experience during the Byzantine era, highlighting the interplay between text, image, and sound in the construction of sacred narratives.

Weight: 858g
Dimension: 181 x 252 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108491396