Constructing a ByzantineAugusta:A Greek Book for a French Bride

Abstract

A twelfth-century illuminated Greek manuscript in the Vatican alternates text and image in a novel way. Created for a young French princess betrothed to the son of a Byzantine emperor, it enacts the princess's separation from her homeland, her transformation into augusta, and her incorporation into an imperial family rife with faction. Beyond depicting a rite of passage, however, the book's ritualized narrative constructs and organizes a set of social relations. Interrogating the particular relation between an art object and its potential for social agency reveals that the manuscript masks tensions as much as it creates cohesion.

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