Hymnographers of Thessaloniki (6-12 c.)

Abstract

This short study contains information about the life and works of the Hymnographers of Thessaloniki in the Middle Byzantine Period (6-12 cent. AD). It is part of a larger project which started several years ago at the University of Crete, with the aim of collecting all the fragmentary evidence available on hymnographers. The ultimate goal is to compile as comprehensive a catalogue of Byzantine Hymnographers as possible, this being an important desideratum in Byzantine philology. The present paper presents six hymnographers whose lives were closely bound up with the history of Thessaloniki, five of whom became archibishops of the city. Our study mainly focuses on the hymnography of Saint Demitrios, patron saint of the city, and on selected works by the aforementioned hymnographers, the majority of which remain unedited to this day.