Medieval Self-Commentaries Beyond Europe: A Transcultural Perspective

The project explores the medieval genesis of a new genre, called self-commentary, beyond European borders. It focuses in particular on the works of two authors, one writing in Greek (John Tzetzes, Constantinople, ca. 1110-1175) and the other writing in Arabic (Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, Ma'arra, modern day Syria 973-1057). The projects aims to show that the preoccupations pushing authors to promote their own work by commenting on it are comparable across cultures and as such they are not distinctively Western. The project involves a PhD fellowship and will be carried out by Aglae Pizzone in cooperation with Dr. Kevin Blankinship (Brigham Young University), who will be based at CML during the 2020-21 academic year to study manuscript material preserved by the Royal Library of Copenhagen.