Comment l’histoire des Juifs en France a-t-elle été pensée, écrite, conceptualisée tout au long du XIXe siècle ? En repartant des conditions concrètes dans lesquelles archivistes et historiens se sont saisis des documents relatifs à cette histoire, nous tentons de montrer que le processus de constitution de l’histoire des Juifs en France en domaine de savoir propre, adossé à des documents authentiques, ne peut être séparé du contexte général de mutation des conditions du travail scientifique en France à partir des années 1830, dans le cadre de ce qui a été nommé l’historiographie documentaire. Les archivistes, bibliothécaires et plus largement les érudits qui ont inventorié, classé et décrit ces matériaux leur ont donné une visibilité inédite au sein des dépôts, tout en les laissant globalement à l’écart des chantiers de publication des sources de l’histoire de France. L’historiographie des Juifs en France, s’affirmant scientifiquement à partir des années 1880, a tenté, avec difficulté, de dépasser les contradictions inhérentes à l’écriture d’une histoire des Juifs en France pensée comme une ligne continue dans le temps et dans l’espace. Cette étude souligne également, en creux, la faible place accordée aux archives internes aux communautés juives françaises dans la construction de cette histoire, tournée vers l’extérieur davantage que vers l’intérieur. / How was French Jewish history conceived, written, conceptualized throughout the XIX century? Looking at the concrete conditions under which archivists and historians accessed documents pertaining to this history, this dissertation attempts to show that the process of constructing French Jewish history as a separate domain with its own knowledge base, reinforced with authentic documents, cannot be separated from the larger context of the changing conditions of scientific work in France from the 1830s onward, in the framework of what has been called documentary historiography. The archivists, librarians and scholars, more generally, who inventoried, cataloguedand described these materials gave them a new visibility within Archives, all while excluding them from the publications of the sources of French history. French Jewish historiography, which consolidated from the 1880s onward, tried, with difficulty, to overcome the inherent contradictions to the writing of a linear history of Jews in France, conceived of as a continuum in time and space. This survey also shows, indirectly, the peripheral role that archives belonging to French Jewish communities played in the construction of this history, which was more outward – than inward – looking.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-02-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:54:51Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 michelette_pt_me_assis.pdf: 584904 bytes, checksum: ed3d2b656689ffdea69530d225d2e8b6 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta dissertação teve como objetivo compreender a elaboração da concepção da Realeza católica a partir das ideias políticas do bispo Isidoro de Sevilha (560-636). Prelado que viveu na passagem do século VI para o VII na Hispânia Visigoda, um período de mudanças, onde se buscava a unidade religiosa, política, legal, administrativa e de identidade deste reino. Coube a Isidoro de Sevilha traçar-lhe a doutrina. Assim analisamos as perspectivas deste prelado em relação ao reinado de Recaredo, rei que apareceu diante do III Concílio de Toledo (589) como o autor da conversão de seu povo e defensor dos interesses da única Igreja oficial do reino, bem como de seus sucessores. Contudo, apesar da conversão de Recaredo ter dado um novo caráter à Monarquia esta ainda não conseguiu consolidar totalmente o reino. Isidoro, por meio de suas obras desenvolveu um importante papel na tarefa de fortalecimento da Monarquia. Assim na maior parte de seus escritos não apenas apresentou as preocupações e anseios de um indivíduo isolado, mas os desejos e temores também do restante do corpo que, em sua maioria, compunham a Igreja hispano-visigoda e a instituição monárquica / This dissertation aimed to understands the elaboration of the conception of the Catholic Royalty starting from the bishop's Isidoro of Seville political ideas (560-636). Prelate that lived in the passage of the century VI for VII in Visigothic Hispania, a period of changes, where the religious unit, politics, was looked for legal, administrative and of identity of this kingdom. Isidoro of Seville fit to draw the doctrine. We analyzed the prospects of this prelate in relation to the reign of Recaredo, king that appeared before III Council of Toledo (589) as the author of the conversion of his people and defender of the interests of the only official Church of the kingdom, as well as of their successors. However, in spite of the conversion of Recaredo to have given a new character to the Monarchy this still didn't get to consolidate the kingdom totally. Isidoro, through their works developed an important paper in the task of invigoration of the Monarchy. Like this in most of their writings it didn't just present the concerns and an isolated individual's longings, but the desires and fears also of the remaining of the body that, in majority, composed the hispano-Visigothic Church and the monarchic institution

This thesis intends to examine four chronicles from fifth, sixth, and early seventh century Spain and discuss the different approaches to the history of that period that the chronicles of Hydatius of Lemica, John of Biclaro, Isidore of Seville, and the Chronicle of Zaragoza display. Firstly, each of the writers will be discussed in turn, along with the implications of their choice to use the format of a chronicle to record the past. Then, their sources of information will be examined, because all four chronicles do not have access to the same quantity of information from parts of the world other than Spain. After these matters are dealt with, we will analyse the way in which changing political and social realities affect the presentation of historical events in our chronicles, including the use of appropriate technical terms. Finally, the treatment of religious issues will be examined, and once again we will see how the changes of their times altered the style of these chronicles. In all of this, it is apparent that attitudes in Spain to the recent past changed during this period, because of the political, religious, economic, and social upheavals caused by the disappearance of the Roman Empire in Spain and the rise of the kingdom of the Visigoths.

La présente recherche a eu pour ambition de comprendre les modalités de fonctionnement théorique du lettrisme au travers d'une étude précise du substrat intellectuel d'Isidore Isou entre 1945 et 1968. L’activité artistique et intellectuelle d’Isou s’inscrit complètement dans le contexte ces années. Mais au moment important d’une reconsidération et d’une remise en question des valeurs universalistes occidentales, le lettriste montre une filiation intellectuelle claire avec celles-ci. Le but d’Isou est clairement de mettre au jour des lois d’analyse et de fonctionnement universelles, tant en ce qui concerne les choses de l’art que de chaque domaine de la connaissance, lois de fonctionnement issus d’une lecture téléologique et évolutionniste de l’ « Histoire », permettant la mise au point de critères, notamment formels, de la nouveauté. Dans le champ global des avant-gardes de l’après-Seconde-Guerre, il est un restaurateur d’un certain type de valeurs et de certaines traditions qui ont forgé la culture de l’humanisme occidental. Mais tout en étant dans la prolongation des « traditions », il est connecté aux problématiques de son temps. Celle de la communication, nouvelle utopie du XXème siècle, créée dans les laboratoires américains pendant la Seconde-Guerre mondiale. Celle de la sécrétion d’une esthétique permutationnelle comme a pu l’imaginer Abraham Moles dans sa théorie de l’information. D’une esthétique du signe et davantage du signe linguistique auquel était fondamentalement attaché Roland Barthes. L’hypergraphie est elle-même connectée aux recherches contemporaines sur le langage, sur la sémiotique, en tant que nouvelle grande utopie de la communication intégrale. / This research had the ambition to understand the theoretical operating procedures of lettrism through a precise study of the intellectual substrate of Isidore Isou between 1945 and 1968. The artistic and intellectual activity of Isou fits completely in the context of these years. But in an important moment of reconsideration and a questioning of Western universalist values, Lettrist shows a clear intellectual affiliation with them. The aim is clearly for Isou to uncover universal analytical and operational laws, both in terms of art things that every field of knowledge, laws of operation from a teleological reading and evolutionist "History", allowing the development of criteria including formal, novelty. In the overall field of the vanguards of the post-Second-war, it is a restauration of some kind of values and some traditions that have shaped the culture of Western humanism. But while being in the extension of "traditions", Isou is connected to the problems of his time. That of communication, new utopia of the twentieth century, created in the US laboratories during the Second World War. This secretion of an aesthetic permutational as could imagine Abraham Moles in his theory of information. In a further sign and aesthetics of the linguistic sign which was basically tied Roland Barthes. The hypergraphie is itself connected to contemporary language research on semiotics, as a new great utopia of integral communication.

Orientador: Ruy de Oliveira Andrade Filho / Banca: Ana Paula Tavares Magalhães / Banca: Terezinha Oliveira / Resumo: Esta dissertação teve como objetivo compreender a elaboração da concepção da Realeza católica a partir das ideias políticas do bispo Isidoro de Sevilha (560-636). Prelado que viveu na passagem do século VI para o VII na Hispânia Visigoda, um período de mudanças, onde se buscava a unidade religiosa, política, legal, administrativa e de identidade deste reino. Coube a Isidoro de Sevilha traçar-lhe a doutrina. Assim analisamos as perspectivas deste prelado em relação ao reinado de Recaredo, rei que apareceu diante do III Concílio de Toledo (589) como o autor da conversão de seu povo e defensor dos interesses da única Igreja oficial do reino, bem como de seus sucessores. Contudo, apesar da conversão de Recaredo ter dado um novo caráter à Monarquia esta ainda não conseguiu consolidar totalmente o reino. Isidoro, por meio de suas obras desenvolveu um importante papel na tarefa de fortalecimento da Monarquia. Assim na maior parte de seus escritos não apenas apresentou as preocupações e anseios de um indivíduo isolado, mas os desejos e temores também do restante do corpo que, em sua maioria, compunham a Igreja hispano-visigoda e a instituição monárquica / Abstract: This dissertation aimed to understands the elaboration of the conception of the Catholic Royalty starting from the bishop's Isidoro of Seville political ideas (560-636). Prelate that lived in the passage of the century VI for VII in Visigothic Hispania, a period of changes, where the religious unit, politics, was looked for legal, administrative and of identity of this kingdom. Isidoro of Seville fit to draw the doctrine. We analyzed the prospects of this prelate in relation to the reign of Recaredo, king that appeared before III Council of Toledo (589) as the author of the conversion of his people and defender of the interests of the only official Church of the kingdom, as well as of their successors. However, in spite of the conversion of Recaredo to have given a new character to the Monarchy this still didn't get to consolidate the kingdom totally. Isidoro, through their works developed an important paper in the task of invigoration of the Monarchy. Like this in most of their writings it didn't just present the concerns and an isolated individual's longings, but the desires and fears also of the remaining of the body that, in majority, composed the hispano-Visigothic Church and the monarchic institution / Mestre

This thesis explores the relationship between Marcel Duchamp’s oeuvre and the texts of the Comte de Lautréamont, arguing that the author’s works comprise an overlooked and undervalued source of interest and ideas for the artist. Scholars have done an extraordinary job of documenting and analyzing a number of Duchamp’s literary sources and inspirations. Their work has elucidated the roles of Raymond Roussel, Alfred Jarry, Stéphane Mallarmé, Jules Laforgue, and Jean-Pierre Brisset, among others, for Duchamp. The work of Lautréamont, however, has received proportionally little attention, despite several indications of its importance for the artist. Among the few who have proposed such a connection, none have yet offered a broadly documented or sustained argument. Other historians, generally working under the premise that Lautréamont only came to Duchamp’s attention by way of the Surrealists, have explicitly rejected the possibility that the Uruguayan-French poet had any meaningful position in Duchamp’s library prior to the Surrealist championing of the author. This thesis proposes otherwise, making the case that Lautréamont was more fundamentally important to Duchamp than yet realized. Historical documents as well as statements by the artist himself and those closest to him suggest a stronger engagement by Duchamp with the works of Lautréamont than has been previously proposed. This relationship seems to have begun by as early as 1912, well in advance of the Surrealists’ discovery of the author, and it lasted throughout Duchamp’s life. Furthermore, an examination of Duchamp’s body of work demonstrates a number of strategic and thematic resonances between artist and author that reinforce what the archival evidence suggests. These resonances should be understood as open readings, rather than exclusive readings. They are proposed as additions to the existing constellation of understanding of Duchamp’s oeuvre, rather than as foreclosures upon other ways of reading Duchamp’s body of work. / text

Dans la conception antique du langage, le signe linguistique doit rendre compte de la réalité qu’il dénote, au contraire de la conception moderne qui repose sur l’arbitraire du signe. L’étymologie consiste alors à donner l’origine des mots en mettant au jour leur motivation (unde et cur uerba rebus imposita sint « d’où et pourquoi les mots ont été appliqués aux choses »). La théorie étymologique des grammairiens latins ne nous est malheureusement parvenue que de manière très lacunaire ; les énoncés étymologiques, en revanche, lieu privilégié de l’expression linguistique du sujet parlant, sont pléthore. Afin d’étudier le sens de l’étymologie antique, longtemps considérée comme « fantaisiste », « fausse » ou « populaire », ce travail s’appuie sur un corpus de 1800 énoncés étymologiques, puisés chez Varron, Cicéron, Aulu-Gelle et Isidore de Séville. La première partie étudie les différentes structures formelles susceptibles d’accueillir les énoncés étymologiques. On y voit ainsi que, malgré la présence de balises métalinguistiques, l’amalgame constant entre l’usage et la mention révèle la fusion qu’opère le sujet parlant entre le signifiant, le signifié et le référent. La seconde partie étudie les facteurs expliquant que le rapprochement entre un lexème explicandum et son étymon semble souvent se faire d’après une ressemblance formelle assez vague : cette hyperlaxité phonétique résulte de l’extension abusive de certains phénomènes observés par le locuteur et théorisés dans un schéma selon lequel les phonèmes peuvent être ajoutés, supprimés, transformés ou déplacés dans le mot. Le mot est ainsi une entité susceptible de variations formelles sans changement du signifié véhiculé. La troisième partie, après avoir rappelé les définitions et les caractéristiques de l’étymologie antique, montre, en en étudiant les processus de dérivation, que cette dernière est avant tout une quête du sens, ce que confirme ensuite l’étude des lexèmes (ré)analysés comme étant constitués de plusieurs éléments sémantiques qui doivent décrire le référent extralinguistique qu’ils dénotent. L’étude se conclut sur l’idée que les énoncés étymologiques latins visent à retrouver l’éponymie d’un nom, une autre manière de « dire le vrai ». / In the ancient idea of language, the linguistic sign has something to do with the object denoted, whereas the modern idea is based on the arbitrariness of the sign. Then, etymology consists in giving the origin of words mainly as the reason why things are called that way (unde et cur uerba rebus imposita sint “whence and why words have been applied to things”). Unfortunately, etymological theory of Latin grammarians came to us with many blanks, but etymological utterances, which are the very place for the linguistic expression of the speaker, are overabundant. In order to study the meaning of ancient etymology, which has long been considered as “fanciful”, “false” or “folk”, this work is based on a corpus of 1,800 etymological utterances taken from Varro, Cicero, Aulus Gellius and Isidore of Seville. The first part looks into the different formal structures which can contain etymological utterances, and we find that in spite of metalinguistic marks, the constant amalgam between usage and mention reveals the confusion of the speaker between signifier, signified and object. The second part explains why the relation between an explicandum and its explicans seems most of the time established from a rather faint formal similarity. This phonetical hyperlaxity comes from the overextension of certain phenomena observed by the speaker and theorized in a pattern according to which phonemes can be added, suppressed, transformed or moved in a word: the word is an entity likely to present variations in its form with no change of the signified. The third part mentions definitions and specificities of ancient etymology, then, shows by the study of derivation processes that etymology is above all a search for signification, which is confirmed by the study of the words (re-)analyzed as formed with several semantical elements. This work comes to the conclusion that Latin etymological speech has a lot to do with eponymy, which is another way to “tell the truth”.

This historical study examines the career of George I. Sanchez, New Mexican educator, who led many political and educational battles in New Mexico and Texas to improve educational opportunities for Spanish-speaking children. Archival materials from the State Records' Center of New Mexico, the papers of Senator Bronson M. Cutting, the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, the papers of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Sanchez's private papers, unpublished materials at the University of Texas in Austin, oral history, and published materials were used in this study. The author used oral history and archival materials to gather much of the information for this work. The author extends special thanks and appreciation to Mrs. George I. Sanchez for making Sanchez's private papers available for study. The author also wishes to thank Dr. Hector Garcia, Senator Ralph Yarborough, Judge Carlos Cadena, Tom Sutherland, Arthur Campa, J. W. Edgar, Ed Idar, Jr., John Silber, and Connie Sprague, Sanchez's daughter, for their help.

Ce travail propose d’étudier l’un des nombreux textes médiévaux portant sur le mythe de la guerre de Troie. Transmis à l’Occident médiéval non pas par le biais d’Homère mais par celui des classiques latins et de certains auteurs de l’Antiquité tardive, ce mythe connut un immense succès en Europe durant tout le Moyen Âge, malgré l’ignorance du grec et de l’Iliade. Nous avons choisi d’éditer partiellement et de commenter l’un des plus importants monuments de la matière troyenne médiévale, texte presque inédit aujourd’hui, car totalement délaissé depuis la Renaissance et le retour aux textes anciens. Dans une introduction, nous avons exposé les principes de notre travail d’édition, c'est-à-dire listé les différents manuscrits utilisés par l’éditeur précédent (Nathaniel Griffin), puis surtout présenté notre manuscrit de base, le Cod. Bodmer 78, absent de la liste des manuscrits collationnés par Griffin. Puis nous avons consacré un chapitre à la langue du texte, un latin médiéval très lisible quoiqu’empreint de « modernismes », notamment au niveau du lexique. Puis, après avoir présenté le texte, sa langue et notre méthode d’édition, nous avons exposé le peu d’éléments que nous avions sur notre auteur, sa vie, son œuvre et le contexte intellectuel au milieu duquel il évolua dans la Sicile du XIIIe siècle, ainsi que l’engouement européen pour la matière troyenne qui explique son choix de reprendre ce grand mythe dans son Historia. Enfin il nous a fallu évoquer les nombreuses sources utilisées par Guido delle Colonne, ses sources directes, indirectes ou inavouées. En dernier lieu, nous avons offert un résumé de chaque livre édité et traduit. Suit une bibliographie détaillée sur les manuscrits et éditions anciens de ce texte, des manuels, le contexte culturel et historique en Europe et en Sicile au Moyen Âge, les textes grecs, latins et vernaculaires se rapportant à la guerre de Troie et ayant influencé notre auteur de près ou de loin, les ouvrages critiques sur le traitement de cette matière troyenne dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, et enfin les quelques éléments bibliographiques portant sur Guido et sur son œuvre. Vient ensuite notre édition-traduction. La traduction est accompagnée d’un double apparat : un apparat des sources et réminiscences ainsi qu’un apparat critique qui prend en compte et compare les leçons contenues dans notre manuscrit de base avec les variantes citées par l’éditeur précédent dans les quelques manuscrits qu’il a utilisés. Au bas de la traduction, figurent des notes d’érudition destinées aux noms ou des faits cités dans le texte et qui méritent une explication. Après cette partie introduction philologique et édition, la deuxième grande partie de cette thèse consiste en un commentaire et des annexes. Dans notre commentaire, nous avons souhaité interroger notre texte dans ses aspects narratologiques, thématiques, génériques, linguistiques et idéologiques. C’est pourquoi nous avons consacré un premier chapitre à l’étude narratologique du texte, son contenu, son agencement, ses techniques narratives, son utilisation des sources et ses principales thématiques. Dans une seconde partie, nous avons abordé le genre et le ton de cette Historia, qui se veut un texte historique quoique traitant une matière fictionnelle puisque mythologique à une époque où les genres littéraires ne sont pas encore définis et encore moins cloisonnés ; nous avons en outre longuement commenté et illustré le choix de l’écriture en prose et en latin à une époque où la mode est au vers et au vernaculaire. Enfin, notre troisième chapitre porte sur le contenu scientifique, politique et idéologique de ce texte truffé de parenthèses érudites et morales. En dernier lieu, nous avons proposé une édition diplomatique de la partie non éditée ni traduite du manuscrit, ainsi que des annexes sur les manuscrits et le vocabulaire, et bien sûr des index des noms propres et un glossaire des mots rares ou surprenants. / This work proposes to explore one of the many medieval texts on the myth of the Trojan War. Transmitted to medieval Europe not through Homer but by the Latin classics and some authors of late Antiquity, this myth was a huge success in Europe during the middle Ages, despite the ignorance of the Greek and the Iliad. We chose to partially edit and comment on one of the most important monuments of the medieval Trojan material, almost unpublished text today because totally abandoned since the Renaissance and the return to the ancient texts. In an introduction, we exposed the principles of our editing work, that is to say, listed the various manuscripts used by the original publisher (Nathaniel Griffin) and especially presented our basic manuscript, Cod. Bodmer 78, absent from the list of manuscripts collated by Griffin. Then we have a chapter on the language of the text, a medieval Latin highly readable although full of "modernism", particularly in terms of vocabulary. Then, after introducing the text, the language and our editing method, we exposed the little things we had on our author, his life, his work and the intellectual context in which he evolved in thirteenth century Sicily, and the European craze for the Trojan material explains his choice to take this great myth in his Historia. Then, we had to mention the many sources used by Guido delle Colonne, its indirect or direct or unacknowledged sources. Lastly, we provided a summary of each book published and translated. Then follows a detailed bibliography on manuscripts and old editions of this text, textbooks, historical and cultural context in Europe and Sicily in the Middle Ages, the Greek texts, Latin and vernacular related to the Trojan War and that influenced our author near or far, the critical works on the treatment of this Trojan material in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and finally some bibliographic elements on Guido and his work. Then comes our edition-translation. The translation is accompanied by a double pageantry: one for the sources and reminiscences, and a critical apparatus that considers and compares the lessons contained in our manuscript with basic variants cited by the previous editor in some manuscripts that he used. At the bottom of the translation include scholarly notes for names or facts mentioned in the text and deserve an explanation. After this introduction and part philological edition, the second major part of this thesis consists of a comment and annexes. In our review, we wanted to examine our text in its narratological, thematically, linguistic, generic and ideological aspects. That is why we have devoted the first chapter to the narratological study of the text, its content, its layout, its narrative techniques, use of sources and its main themes. In a second part, we discussed the type and tone of the Historia, which intends to be a historical text while attending a fictional material since mythological, at a time when genres are not yet defined and less compartmentalized; we have also commented extensively and illustrated the choice of writing in prose and Latin at a time when fashion is to poetry and vernacular. In the end, our third chapter focuses on the scientific, political and ideological content of this text peppered with parentheses and moral scholars. Finally, we proposed a diplomatic edition of the unedited or translated part of the manuscript, as well as appendices on manuscripts and vocabulary, and of course the name index and a glossary of rare or surprising words.

This dissertation offers the first systematic historical contextualization and literary analysis of the five saints' lives composed by Philotheos Kokkinos (ca. 1300-1378) for his contemporaries Nikodemos the Younger, Sabas the Younger, Isidore Boucheir, Germanos Maroules, and Gregory Palamas. Notwithstanding Kokkinos' prominent role in the political and ecclesiastical scene of fourteenth-century Byzantium, as well as the size and significance of his hagiographic oeuvre, both the hagiographer and his saints' lives have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. My dissertation fills this gap and shows Kokkinos as a gifted hagiographer who played a leading role, both through his ecclesiastical authority and hagiographic discourse, in orchestrating the societal breakthrough of hesychast theology that has remained at the core of Christian Orthodoxy up to this day. The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first, Philotheos Kokkinos and His OEuvre, offers an extensive biographical portrait of Kokkinos, introduces his literary oeuvre, and discusses its manuscript tradition. A thorough palaeographical investigation of fourteenth-century codices carrying his writings reveals Kokkinos' active involvement in the process of copying, reviewing, and publishing his own works. This section includes an analysis of the 'author's edition' manuscript Marcianus graecus 582, and presents its unusual fate. Moreover, Part I establishes the chronology of Kokkinos' vitae of contemporary saints and offers biographical sketches of his heroes, highlighting their relationship to their hagiographer. The second part, Narratological Analysis of Kokkinos' Vitae of Contemporary Saints, constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of Kokkinos' narrative technique. It first discusses the types of hagiographic composition ('hagiographic genre') Kokkinos employed for his saints' lives (hypomnema, bios kai politeia, and logos), and then it offers a detailed investigation that sheds light on the organization of the narrative in Kokkinos' vitae and his use of specific narrative devices. This includes a discussion of hesychastic elements couched in the narrative. Part II concludes with considerations on Kokkinos' style and intended audience. The third part, Saints and Society, begins with a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the miracle accounts Kokkinos wove in his saints' lives. This considers the miracle typology, types of afflictions, methods of healing, and the demographic characteristics of the beneficiaries (such as age, gender, and social status), revealing that Kokkinos shows a predilection for including miracles for members of the aristocracy. Second, it presents Kokkinos' view on the relationship between the imperial office and ecclesiastical authority by analysing how he portrays the emperor(s) in his vitae. Moreover, this part addresses the saints' encounters with the 'other' (Muslims and Latins), revealing Kokkinos' nuanced understanding of the threats and opportunities raised by these interactions. Finally, it makes the claim that through his saints' lives Kokkinos offers models of identification and refuge in the troubled social and political context of fourteenth-century Byzantium, promoting a spiritual revival of society. As my dissertation shows, Kokkinos' vitae of contemporary saints sought to shape and were shaped by the political and theological disputes of fourteenth-century Byzantium, especially those surrounding hesychasm. Their analysis offers insights into the thought-world of their author and sheds more light on the late-Byzantine religious and cultural context of their production. The dissertation is equipped with six technical appendices presenting the chronology of Kokkinos' life and works, the narrative structure of his vitae of contemporary saints, a critical edition of the preface of his hitherto unedited Logos on All Saints (BHG 1617g), a transcription of two hitherto unedited prayers Kokkinos addressed to the emperors, the content of Marc. gr. 582 and Kokkinos' autograph interventions, and manuscript plates.