Readers’ Responses and the Reception of the Epitome

Abstract Chapter 7 follows up from Chapter 6, which concluded with the argument that the Epitome was intended to be read by a relatively cultivated audience. This chapter concentrates on the recipients of the Epitome themselves, and explores how they viewed, responded to, and made use of Zonaras’ chronicle. The first section of the chapter examines the different ways in which writers who were approximate contemporaries to Zonaras, and also later writers, employed his text. Next comes an analysis of the large number of manuscripts in which the Epitome or shorter sections of it survive. The third part of this chapter deals with scribal practices and the marginalia that can be found in a select group of codices, and the fourth with two significant texts, one in prose and one in verse, which both comment on the contents and style of the Epitome. The final section focuses on the two medieval translations of Zonaras’ chronicle into Old Church Slavonic and Aragonese. Taking into account all the evidence, the chapter concludes by outlining the reasons why the Epitome was very popular among Byzantine readers and why it was seen by foreign scholars as interesting to translate.