Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity
The Christianisation of a Literary Form

Introduction to the nature, function, production and dissemination of Late Antique literary letters and their importance for their society.

Pauline Allen (Author), Bronwen Neil (Author)

9781316649503, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 September 2020

224 pages
23 x 15.3 x 0.5 cm, 0.3 kg

This is the first general book on Greek and Latin letter-writing in Late Antiquity (300–600 CE). Allen and Neil examine early Christian Greek and Latin literary letters, their nature and function and the mechanics of their production and dissemination. They examine the exchange of Episcopal, monastic and imperial letters between men, and the gifts that accompanied them, and the rarer phenomenon of letter exchanges with imperial and aristocratic women. They also look at the transmission of letter-collections and what they can tell us about friendships and other social networks between the powerful elites who were the literary letter-writers of the fourth to sixth centuries. The volume gives a broad context to late-antique literary letter-writing in Greek and Latin in its various manifestations: political, ecclesiastical, practical and social. In the process, the differences between 'pagan' and Christian letter-writing are shown to be not as great as has previously been supposed.

1. Introduction to Late Antique letters
2. The Christianisation of the Late Antique letter form
3. Preservation and transmission
4. Letter-types and their uses
5. Difficulties in spreading the word
6. Networks and communities of readers
Epilogue
Appendix 1. Timeline of ecclesiastical events
Appendix 2. Notable letter-writers in Late Antiquity.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], History of religion [HRAX], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]