Chapter 4 - In Times of Trouble

Summary

Chapter 4 examines the Encomium of Michael Hagiotheodorites and a series of letters preserved in the same manuscript. Taking its point of departure from Umberto Eco’s distinction between the empirical and the model author, the analysis focuses on the story of a writer in trouble that can be reconstructed based on the encomium and the letters. The encomium offers an elaborate praise of the learning of the addressee, but there is also a more urgent message: the writer is in trouble and he needs the help of the powerful Michael to explain to the emperor that he has been slandered by his enemies. The three letters offer further clues as to the social and historical circumstances of this situation, representing a writer who saves himself from a difficult situation by mobilizing a network of friends. Regardless of Manasses’ own experiences, that situation may well reflect the reality of a Komnenian writer on command.