DIE „CHRONOGRAPHIA“ DES MICHAEL PSELLOS ALS WERK MÜNDLICHER PROSA

Abstract

Michael Psellos’ Chronographia as Oral Prose. Until now only Herbert Hunger and Warren Treadgold had pointed out that Michael Psellos has his Chronographia not written by his own hand but dictated to a professional scribe. Therefore also the structure of this work clearly has an oral character: many references back and forward, transition formulas, dialogues instead of orations. All this corresponds to its almost entirely oral sources and its aural reception. Psellos thinks of the recipients of the Chronographia not als readers but as listeners, may it be in a public θέατρον or privately, of course always read out loudly.