This is a big book on a big topic: over 400 pages on marriage in Byzantium. However, its focus is tighter than that: the subtitle of the book is critical. The core subject is the liturgical rites associated with marriage: those for betrothal, marriage and the bridal chamber. Thus the key source studied in the book is the Euchologion, the ‘prayer book’ used for church services, the earliest surviving version of which dates to the eighth century AD. As Gabriel Radle (Assistant Professor of Liturgical Studies at Yale University) informs us, many of these texts have not been edited let alone translated, so his book is to be greatly welcomed. Further, he places his discussion of the evidence of the liturgical texts in a wider context, examining pre-Christian marriage rites and also other evidence for marriage rites in Byzantium across its entire span, as well as being concerned to situate the study in a general cross-cultural frame. He certainly does a good job of pulling in the reader: at the very start he points out that the earliest surviving detailed description of a Christian wedding is of the marriage of Constantina, the daughter of Emperor Tiberius, to Maurice in 582, reported in the sixth-century church history of Evagrius and the seventh-century history of Theophylact Simocatta (p. 1; discussed fully at pp. 105-20). The book’s cover image is appealing too: a depiction of the marriage of the Macedonian empress Zoe and Michael the Paphlagonian in 1034, from the Madrid Skylitzes, the illustrated chronicle of Skylitzes.
To achieve its aims the book is very well organised. It is divided into three parts, flanked by an Introduction (pp. 1-10) and Conclusion (pp. 352-5). Part I is titled ‘The Christianization of Ancient Marriage Ritual’ and consists of two chapters, one on ‘Pre-Christian Marriage Ritual in the Mediterranean World’ (pp. 13-48), the other on ‘Early Christian Weddings in the Eastern Mediterranean’ (pp. 49-87). Part II addresses ‘Byzantine Marriage Rituals Before and Beyond the Liturgical Books’, and also consists of two chapters, one on ‘Marriage Ritual in Law and Literature’ (pp. 91-135), the other on ‘Marriage in Visual and Material Evidence’ (pp. 136-79). Part III, ‘Marriage Rites in Byzantine Liturgical Manuscripts’, covers the key evidence and prime interest of the book, the Euchologion; it constitutes almost half of the main contents (pp. 183-351). It consists of four chapters; after a chapter on ‘The Euchologion: Sources and Methods’ (pp. 183-210), there follow chapters on ‘Rites of Betrothal’ (pp. 211-40), ‘Rites of Marriage’ (pp. 241-309), and ‘Rites of the Bridal Chamber’ (pp. 310-51). The centrality of the Euchologion to the book is emphasized further by the two appendices provided, ‘Chronological List of Liturgical Manuscripts Consulted’ (pp. 356-63) and ‘Sample of Marriage Rites in the Manuscript Sources’ (pp. 364-90).
In the course of its analysis the book covers much ground, and has much of interest and importance to say. It spans different times, places and cultures, and refers inevitably to the 2002 smash-hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding (p. 352). It encompasses discussion of a wide variety of texts, such as Menander Rhetor’s advice on writing wedding speeches, wedding tales from the ‘Apocrypha’, Byzantine legislation, the chronicle of Theophanes, the Book of Ceremonies, and accounts of weddings in Byzantine novels. It also draws on visual and material evidence, including coinage portraying Licinia Eudoxia and Valentinian III being united by her father Theodosius II in 437, the seventh-century silver plate depicting the marriage of David and Micah, and a particularly extended discussion of rings (pp. 143-60), including coverage of the (at least) five inscribed betrothal rings that exist for Stefan Radoslav and Anna Doukaina (betrothed in the early thirteenth century).
The discussion of the liturgical texts is of course especially interesting. R. reflects on the field of liturgical studies, and makes clear the interest but also the complexities of studying the Euchologion. A key point is that there could be diversity of practice across the Byzantine empire, as well as recurrent elements too. Another startling fact is that the earliest surviving euchologion copied in Constantinople dates to 1027 (the Coislin Euchologion); further, this version states that it was ‘for “the rulers and others”’ (p. 193; and although R. does not state this, it constitutes a nice link to Zoe the Macedonian, who was married to her first husband Romanos Argyros in 1028, shortly before her father Constantine VIII died). R.’s highlighting of particular prayers provides rich food for thought, such as the mention of Eleazar and Salome as a biblical couple invoked in a Palestinian euchologion (p. 270), the featuring of Elijah in relation to the rite of raising of the crowns (also in a Palestinian manuscript, p. 320), and the nuptial prayer in a manuscript from the Palestinian tradition (Sinai Gr. 958) which ‘represents one of the most fascinating Greek texts of marriage, packed as it is with both biblical and cosmological imagery … relevant to a number of topics from premodern astronomy to sexuality’ (and features the archangels Michael and Gabriel but also the host of angels in general, p. 272). Indeed, R. provides much interesting comment in relation to sex and gender broadly, as appropriate to the subject of marriage.
R.’s analysis is especially compelling when he unites other sources with the liturgical texts (as these do not record every detail of Byzantine weddings, as he makes clear). For instance, his citing of the history of George Pachmeyes on the wedding of Andronicus II and Irene of Montferrat in 1284, in which his mother Theodora served as a paranymph (p. 287). Regarding R.’s discussion of the Book of Ceremonies, readers should also consult the 2020 multi-volume edition and commentary headed by Gilbert Dagron and Bernard Flusin. Mark D. Ellison’s The Visual Rhetoric of the Married Laity in Late Antiquity (2024) would also be a useful companion volume.
Overall this book continues a trend in highlighting the interest and value of the Euchologion for the study of Byzantine society and culture, witness for instance Claudia Rapp’s 2016 study of adelphopoiesis, Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. As R. asserts, ‘liturgical sources hold the largest wealth of material for the study of marriage in Byzantium’ (p. 355), so it is to be hoped that he continues to work on the manuscripts and their content to provide further significant service.
