Books by Leonora Neville
Byzantine Gender, 2019
Accusations of gender inversion and transgression lie at the heart of the Western European constr... more Accusations of gender inversion and transgression lie at the heart of the Western European construction and denigration of the "Byzantine" Empire as a decadent, exotic, and corrupt polity populated by power-hungry empresses, eunuchs, and duplicitous, craven emperors. _Byzantine Gender_ shows how attention to gender is essential for understanding both our textual evidence for medieval eastern Roman society and the ways the empire has been perceived for centuries. _Byzantine Gender_ provides a brief and accessible introduction to medieval eastern Roman conceptions of ideal gender performance and the ways medieval authors deployed those ideals in their writing. It shows how gender ideals constrained and enabled the behavior of women and men. Scholars of Byzantium are called to recognize the central roles gender ideals played in both medieval and modern descriptions of the medieval eastern Roman Empire.
"So deeply ingrained is the narrative of Anna's treason that, although it hangs by the slenderest... more "So deeply ingrained is the narrative of Anna's treason that, although it hangs by the slenderest thread, no Byzantinist until now has dared to challenge it. In her courageous revisionist history, Leonora Neville finally does so. A princess who presumed to write military history, Anna has long remained a baffling, anomalous figure. It is only now that her valour, as well as her vulnerability, comes into clear focus." --Barbara Newman, London Review of Books.
"In this novel gendered account of Anna Komnene's Alexiad, Leonora Neville presents the Byzantine princess in a completely new light. Analyzing the tensions inherent in being a female historian, she disentangles the author from centuries of condemnation. A brilliant, convincing reconsideration that returns Anna to her great originality."--Judith Herrin, King's College London.
"Anna Komnene is known as a historian of the first Crusade and as a fawning admirer of her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Leonora Neville's brilliant study exposes the gendered logic of Anna's narrative and for the first time gives us a true sense of the historian and her craft."--Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University.
"Leonora Neville's highly readable book gives us a new Anna for the twenty-first century, and dissects why we have misunderstood her for so long. A major contribution to the history of gender and scholarly reception as well as to that of Byzantium, Neville shows just how much we thought was true is nothing of the sort. The already lively field of Byzantine studies is set to become more so."--Mark Whittow, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.
"Neville's gendered reading of Anna's work has indeed been long overdue." -- Averil Cameron, Common Knowledge.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anna-komnene-9780190939892?lang=en&cc=us
This handy reference guide makes it easier to access and understand histories written in Greek be... more This handy reference guide makes it easier to access and understand histories written in Greek between 600 and 1480 CE. Covering classicizing histories that continued ancient Greek traditions of historiography, sweeping, fast-paced 'chronicle' type histories, and dozens of idiosyncratic historical texts, it distills the results of complex, multilingual, specialist scholarship into clear explanations of the basic information needed to approach each medieval Greek history. It provides a sound basis for further research on each text by describing what we know about the time of composition, content covered by the history, authorship, extant manuscripts, previous editions and translations, and basic bibliography. Even-handed explanations of scholarly debates give readers the information they need to assess controversies independently. A comprehensive introduction orients students and non-specialists to the traditions and methods of Byzantine historical writing. It will prove an invaluable timesaver for Byzantinists and an essential gateway for classicists, western medievalists, and students.
Byzantine princess Anna Komnene is known for two things: plotting to murder her brother to usurp ... more Byzantine princess Anna Komnene is known for two things: plotting to murder her brother to usurp the throne, and writing the Alexiad, an epic history of her father Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) that is a key historical source for the era of the First Crusade. Anna Komnene: the Life and Work of a Medieval Historian investigates the relationship between Anna's self-presentation in the Alexiad and the story of her bloodthirsty ambition. It begins by asking why women did not write history in Anna's society, what cultural rules Anna broke by doing so, and how Anna tried to respond to those challenges in her writing. Many of the idiosyncrasies and surprises of Anna's Alexiad are driven by her efforts to be perceived as both a good historian and a good woman. These new interpretations of Anna's authorial persona then spark a thorough re-thinking of the standard story which defines Anna's life by the failure of her supposed political ambitions. The second half of this work reviews the medieval sources with fresh eyes and re-establishes Anna's primary identity as an author and intellectual rather than as a failed conspirator.
Papers by Leonora Neville
BYZANTINE AUTHORS AND THEIR TIMES, 2021
The history of Nikephoros Bryennios, the Muses, and the Alexiad, all seem to share a common ideol... more The history of Nikephoros Bryennios, the Muses, and the Alexiad, all seem to share a common ideology, on at least one point. In these three texts,
Christian piety of the emperor is compatible with a politics that is not influenced by confessional affiliations. The religion of people outside the empire is not considered a factor in foreign policy. Although Nikephoros and the Muses’ author certainly would have been familiar with it, the western European idea that Christians should band together to fight Muslims is utterly foreign in their texts. This thinking was well known to Anna at the time she was writing the Alexiad, but it was a theory of foreign policy she vigorously disputed. All three texts depict the Roman emperor as neither called to help Christian states nor to combat non-Christian states. Rather he was supposed to defend the Roman Empire, and contract whatever alliances would be most beneficial to that end. The confessional affiliations of potential allies were immaterial.
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON IDENTITY IN BYZANTIUM, 2022
Allusions to ancient and biblical models play key roles in the articulation and enforcement of ge... more Allusions to ancient and biblical models play key roles in the articulation and enforcement of gender norms in medieval eastern Roman society. This essay explores how ancient figures could be used as normative models for ethical practices that differed significantly from those of their own society, focusing on the example of the fourth-century BCE Spartan king Agesilaus, a polytheist whose sexual attraction to young men was acceptable and open within his society, and who appears in the early twelfth-century CE history by George Kedrenos as a model of celibacy. He is remembered for having the strength of character to turn down a kiss from a boy and upheld as an example of the virtue of chastity. Tracing this one story helps us see the mechanics of cultural transmission that moved Agesilaus’s story across 17 centuries, and how gradual changes in ethical systems allowed George Kedrenos and his audience to perceive Agesilaus’ ethics as consonant with their own. Classical Greek figures served as examples of ethical behavior because, rather than standing as an example of foreignness, Xenophon’s story affirmed the central tenants of twelfth-century ethics.
Emotions and Gender in Byzantine Culture, ed. Stavroula Constantinou, Mati Meyer, 2019
John Kaminiates' and Anna Komnene's use of emotion to craft positive authorial personas shows how... more John Kaminiates' and Anna Komnene's use of emotion to craft positive authorial personas shows how morally upstanding behavior was equated with the performance of normative gender in eastern Roman culture. Both Anna and John wrote texts in which they asserted their own good character through their ostentatious adherence to the emotional stances expected of their gender roles. For Anna, this meant presenting herself as subject to emotion, whereas for John, it meant presenting himself as personally unaffected by pathos.
The reception of Greek ethics in late antiquity and Byzantium, 2021
When Anna Comnena's sons were married, sometime in the early 1120s, Theodore Prodromos delivered ... more When Anna Comnena's sons were married, sometime in the early 1120s, Theodore Prodromos delivered a speech of congratulations before the court. As was expected, he praised the parents of the grooms. The occasion demanded, he says, that 'anyone not talking in superlatives be condemned'. 1 There is no surprise that what follows is fulsome and extravagant praise. Yet the nature of Prodromos' praise is emblematic of medieval eastern Roman conceptions of both how one became an ethical person and how ethical behaviour is described and discussed: I say this queen from the porphyria. .. who, if perhaps the Hellenes spoke truth, we may add on as a fourth Grace, or a tenth Muse to the Muses, initiated herself through the forces of virtue to the whole philosophy of character, whose end is not knowledge but action. Then, both more nobly considering and more royally thinking that just as the porphyria [is the] adornment of the royal body, so too the science of being [is the adornment] of the royal soul, she was initiated in knowledge of them and she hunted truth in these and she showed virtue to be a possession of deliberate choice, not family, and exceeding everyone in all goodness. She surpassed her own blessedness through marriage, sharing her bed with such a man, my lord and Caesar, such that no other may compare, either seen among us or taught in the histories of the ancients. For while various men of the Greeks and Romans happen to have been successful, for some were public leaders, and others were strategists, some were distinguished for speeches and others of some philosophy, or were carefully trained in poetry; but this same man leads armies and has charge of poetry and philosophises, and elects by vote, and judges the rhetors, and regarding the perfection of everything does not fare badly, but in each thing surpassing the experts in each.. . 2 1 Text by Gautier (1975: 347-9), Οὓς πάντως εἰπὼν μὴ οὐχὶ τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν πραγμάτων ἐλαττωθῇ.. . .Translation my own. 2 Text by Gautier (1975: 347-9):. . .τὴν ἐκ πορφύρας λέγω ταύτην καὶ βασιλίδα, ἧς τὸ κυκλοειδὲς τοῦ ὄμματος καὶ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ κινούμενον ὁμοῦ καὶ περιφερόμενον τὴν πρὸς νοῦν καὶ Θεὸν ἡλικὴν ὑπεμφαίνει ἀνάτασιν, ὧν ἐξ ἑαυτῶν καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὰ τὴν κίνησιν ἔγνωμεν, ἥν, εἴ τί που καὶ 140
Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 2012
Byzantinische Forschungen , 2000
Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De Ceremoniis to De Administrando Imperio, 2018
Medieval Greek deeds of sale or donation would lead to rhetorically delightful performances. Whil... more Medieval Greek deeds of sale or donation would lead to rhetorically delightful performances. While we would not expect the fine print on a deed of sale to be either read aloud or sound good, Byzantine deeds of conveyance are clearly intended for oral performance and would have been sparkling, exciting pieces of rhetoric, whose rhythm and sound effects could be appreciated by everyone who heard them. The deeds of conveyance present instances of rhetorical performance in markedly rural and provincial circumstances. Through these documents we may see provincial people, of various social levels, participating in rhetorically charged performances. In some cases, the strength of the rhetoric may have heightened the binding power of the deeds, or at least made the sentiments expressed in the transactions memorable and hence more difficult to deny later.
Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe 900-1400, edited by Christian Raffensperger and Donald Ostrowski, 2018
This essay is an ethopoiia on “What words Anna Komnene would say upon reading about herself in mo... more This essay is an ethopoiia on “What words Anna Komnene would say upon reading about herself in modern scholarship.” It was written for a collection of essays that endeavored to use research-informed fictional writing to make the lives of Medieval Eastern Europeans more vivid and accessible to students.
Our desires and expectations for good history do not align with those of the medieval authors of ... more Our desires and expectations for good history do not align with those of the medieval authors of Byzantine histories. If modern historians and medieval Romans valued the same things in history, we would teach Roman history by having students read Constantine Manasses’s verse history, which appears to be the mostly highly prized medieval treatment of the subject. The manuscript record indicates that the histories by Manasses and George the Monk were the favorites among medieval Romans. Yet one could read a great deal of modern scholarship on the Byzantine Empire and never see them cited as sources of historical information, and I can’t hand my students a translation of either. In contrast, some of our favorite histories, such as those by Psellos and Leo the Deacon, survived in a single copy. Clearly we and the medieval Romans have different tastes in history. It is worth taking a step back from the details of our research to consider how differences in our motivations for writing history may affect our interpretations of Byzantine historiography. Here I would like us to consider the reasons why Byzantines wrote history and start a conversation about how historiography fits in with the rest of what we are learning about Byzantine culture.
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Books by Leonora Neville
"In this novel gendered account of Anna Komnene's Alexiad, Leonora Neville presents the Byzantine princess in a completely new light. Analyzing the tensions inherent in being a female historian, she disentangles the author from centuries of condemnation. A brilliant, convincing reconsideration that returns Anna to her great originality."--Judith Herrin, King's College London.
"Anna Komnene is known as a historian of the first Crusade and as a fawning admirer of her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Leonora Neville's brilliant study exposes the gendered logic of Anna's narrative and for the first time gives us a true sense of the historian and her craft."--Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University.
"Leonora Neville's highly readable book gives us a new Anna for the twenty-first century, and dissects why we have misunderstood her for so long. A major contribution to the history of gender and scholarly reception as well as to that of Byzantium, Neville shows just how much we thought was true is nothing of the sort. The already lively field of Byzantine studies is set to become more so."--Mark Whittow, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.
"Neville's gendered reading of Anna's work has indeed been long overdue." -- Averil Cameron, Common Knowledge.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anna-komnene-9780190939892?lang=en&cc=us
Papers by Leonora Neville
Christian piety of the emperor is compatible with a politics that is not influenced by confessional affiliations. The religion of people outside the empire is not considered a factor in foreign policy. Although Nikephoros and the Muses’ author certainly would have been familiar with it, the western European idea that Christians should band together to fight Muslims is utterly foreign in their texts. This thinking was well known to Anna at the time she was writing the Alexiad, but it was a theory of foreign policy she vigorously disputed. All three texts depict the Roman emperor as neither called to help Christian states nor to combat non-Christian states. Rather he was supposed to defend the Roman Empire, and contract whatever alliances would be most beneficial to that end. The confessional affiliations of potential allies were immaterial.
"In this novel gendered account of Anna Komnene's Alexiad, Leonora Neville presents the Byzantine princess in a completely new light. Analyzing the tensions inherent in being a female historian, she disentangles the author from centuries of condemnation. A brilliant, convincing reconsideration that returns Anna to her great originality."--Judith Herrin, King's College London.
"Anna Komnene is known as a historian of the first Crusade and as a fawning admirer of her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Leonora Neville's brilliant study exposes the gendered logic of Anna's narrative and for the first time gives us a true sense of the historian and her craft."--Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University.
"Leonora Neville's highly readable book gives us a new Anna for the twenty-first century, and dissects why we have misunderstood her for so long. A major contribution to the history of gender and scholarly reception as well as to that of Byzantium, Neville shows just how much we thought was true is nothing of the sort. The already lively field of Byzantine studies is set to become more so."--Mark Whittow, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.
"Neville's gendered reading of Anna's work has indeed been long overdue." -- Averil Cameron, Common Knowledge.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anna-komnene-9780190939892?lang=en&cc=us
Christian piety of the emperor is compatible with a politics that is not influenced by confessional affiliations. The religion of people outside the empire is not considered a factor in foreign policy. Although Nikephoros and the Muses’ author certainly would have been familiar with it, the western European idea that Christians should band together to fight Muslims is utterly foreign in their texts. This thinking was well known to Anna at the time she was writing the Alexiad, but it was a theory of foreign policy she vigorously disputed. All three texts depict the Roman emperor as neither called to help Christian states nor to combat non-Christian states. Rather he was supposed to defend the Roman Empire, and contract whatever alliances would be most beneficial to that end. The confessional affiliations of potential allies were immaterial.