Description: Talbot surveys the forms of monastic life in the Byzantine Empire, highlighting distinctions for men and women and comparing Byzantine monasticism with its Western medieval counterpart.
Brief description:
Alice-Mary Talbot is the editor of the Byzantine Greek series of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library and director emeritas of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. She is the author and editor of a number of books, including service as the executive editor of the three-volume Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.
Review Quotes:
"This book makes a major contribution in discussing a deceptively simple question: 'What was it like to live as a monk or nun in Byzantium?' In doing so, the author has combed a vast array of texts, particularly hagiographies, in order to gather together material on subjects as varied as clothing, food, handicrafts, access to fire and water, travel, attitudes to the natural environment and the fundamental issue of whether the communal or the solitary was the higher form of monastic life. She is an acknowledged expert on Byzantine nuns and it is refreshing to see female monasticism treated on an equal level with the male experience." --Rosemary Morris, University of York