A New Season for the Study of Byzantine Theories of Vision

Abstract

The article reviews in an extended and critical way Roland Betancourt, Sight, Touch, and Imagination in Byzantium, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018. After putting the book in the context of contemporary scholarship on Byzantine theories of vision, the article sketches the structure and contents of the book (together with its methodology), before moving on to a critical discussion of the interpretation of some important Late Antique and Byzantine theories of vision advanced by Betancourt, especially that of Galen, together with its reception in Nemesios of Emesa and in the later Byzantine world (focusing on its relation with the Eucharistic theology and Christology of Nicholas Kabasilas). The article ends by stressing the value of Betancourt's book insofar as the wealth of material it collects will allow scholars to deepen and enrich the study of Byzantine theories of vision.