The Visual Culture of Later Byzantium, C.1081-c.1350: Part I : Beauty: introduction: Everyday beauty ; Natural beauty ; Human beauty ; Artistic beauty ; Part II. Literature, art, and aesthetics: Counting down : inventories ; Describing, experiencing, narrating : the use of Ekphrasis ; Speaking : Ethopoiia ; Instructing and dedicating : epigrams on works of art ; Reading : book epigrams ; Inscribing : later Byzantine epigraphic culture ; Lamenting : tomb epigrams

Book excerpt: "In this book the beauty and meaning of Byzantine art and its aesthetics are for the first time made accessible through the original sources. More than 150 medieval texts are translated from nine medieval languages into English, with commentaries from over seventy leading scholars. These include theories of art, discussions of patronage and understandings of iconography, practical recipes for artistic supplies, expressions of devotion, and descriptions of cities. The volume reveals the cultural plurality and the interconnectivity of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries. The first part uncovers salient aspects of Byzantine artistic production and its aesthetic reception, while the second puts a spotlight on particular ways of expressing admiration and of interpreting of the visual"--Publisher's description.