Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing

About Leonora Neville

Leonora Neville is an historian of Byzantine culture and society. Her work on Byzantine historical writing has dealt with how Byzantine authors interacted with classical models of history writing and culture and tried to shape contemporary opinion by writing history. In Anna Komnene: The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian (2016) asking questions about what made history writing an activity for men helped Neville understand Komnene's self-presentation and manipulation of gender ideals in her Alexiad. In Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium: 'The Material for History' of Nikephoros Bryennios (Cambridge 2012) she explored how Bryennios appealed to cultural memories of ancient Roman masculinity to evaluate the protagonists in his history. Her research on Byzantine social history has led to various studies of power and coercion in Byzantine society including Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society: 9501100 (Cambridge 2004). She is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and the John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Professor of Byzantine History at the University of Wisconsin. She was the co-winner of the 2007 edition of the Prize in Memory of Nikolaos Panagiotakis. A passionate teacher she has developed the first graduate class on teaching in the University of Wisconsin history department.