The statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites was one of the most important personalities of the fourteenth-century Byzantine Empire. A close advisor to the emperor Andronikos II and restorer of the famous monastery of Chora in Constantinople, Metochites left various writings including orations, poems, essays and commentaries on classical and religious texts, in which he discusses the numerous problems that troubled him and his contemporaries, such as the decline of the state and the tension between public life and that of the philosopher. In this book, Ioannis Polemis provides the first in-depth study of Metochites' oeuvre, revealing the complex way he represented the authorial self to critique the politics and mores of his day, whilst at the same time shielding himself from potential criticism. Polemis details the way Metochites deftly manipulated figures and tropes from classical antiquity and early Christianity to justify his role in public life, which was traditionally shunned by scholars in the pursuit of 'logos'. The book provides unique insights into one of the late Empire's most important figures, as well as more widely deepening our understanding of classical reception in Byzantium and the social, political and intellectual climate of Constantinople in the fourteenth century.

The most accurate inventory of Renaissance rhetoric yet attempted, this substantially revised and expanded volume provides a complete list of the printed sources for study of the pervasive influence of rhetoric on Renaissance culture. It includes 1,717 authors and 3,842 rhetorical titles in 12,325 printings, published in 310 towns and cities by 3,340 printers and publishers from Finland to Mexico prior to 1700. The catalogue is presented in alphabetical order by author surnames, with place, printer, date, and library locations for each publication. An extensive introduction explores the state of bibliography in Renaissance rhetoric today.

This study probes the significance of Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 3:16 announced to a group of believers in Corinth: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells among you?" The question is framed in the Greek language such that Paul expected an affirmative response (i.e. ‘Yes, we know we are the temple of God’), and yet mapping such an idea onto a gathering of people is rather unprecedented in antiquity. By surveying relevant literary texts and material culture from the ancient Mediterranean (roughly 400 BCE—200 CE), the author shows how Paul appropriated the concept of temple in his exhortation to the Corinthians. A few key texts in 1 Corinthians can be read as a cohesive and coherent set of passages that unpack the idea of the Corinthians as "the temple of God." While these passages are not typically read together, this study shows how themes such as power and spirit, traditions from Exodus, divine benefits, and sacrificial foods found in these passages reflect similar concerns observed in temples and other sanctuaries in ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish contexts. Careful analysis of the religious experience of visitors to temples—an important topic that remains largely ignored in secondary literature—gives greater clarity to the nuances of Paul’s temple discourse. As the temple, the Corinthian community not only receives God's power and benefits, but also remains vulnerable to peril posed by insiders and outsiders.