How to Cite

Sprecher, Christopher: Emperor and God: Passion Relics and the Divinisation of Byzantine Rulers, 944–1204, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2024 (Cultural Heritage: Materiality—Text—Edition (KEMTE), Volume 5). https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1240

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Identifiers

https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1240
ISBN 978-3-96822-225-7 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-226-4 (Hardcover)

Published

04/25/2024

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Authors

Christopher Sprecher

Emperor and God

Passion Relics and the Divinisation of Byzantine Rulers, 944–1204

Cultural Heritage: Materiality—Text—Edition (KEMTE)

This study explores how the understanding of the Byzantine emperor as a sacred or divine figure changed in the Middle Byzantine period. It is based on close readings and studies of three medieval Passion relics held in Constantinople: the Mandylion, the relic-reliquary ensemble of the Limburg Staurotheke; and the Holy Stone. Accompanied by English-language translations  of medieval Greek source texts pertaining to these relics, Sprecher demonstrates that the Passion relics in this period served to focus and narrow an understanding of the emperor not only as divinely appointed and anointed ruler, but also in surprising ways as being somehow divine himself.

Christopher Sprecher was awarded his PhD in history in 2023 at the University of Regensburg, where he has been researching relics and church-political issues in Byzantium and the Caucasus at the Chair of Medieval History since 2019.

Chapters

Table of Contents
Pages
PDF
Front matter
I-IV
Dedication
V-VII
Content
IX-XI
Acknowledgments
XIII-XIV
Matters of Style
XV
Biblical References
XVII
List of Figures and Image Credits
XIX-XX
1 General Introduction
1-12
2 The Mandylion
13-73
3 The Limburg Staurotheke
75-124
4 The Holy Stone
125-168
5 General Conclusions
169-171
Appendices
173-203
Bibliography
205-232
General Index
233-239
Biblical Citations Index
240-241

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