Note on Editorial Choices and Abbreviations
In order to distinguish the two current meanings of the word ‘life’ (both ‘the period from birth to death’ and ‘biography’), we capitalize it (Life, plural Lives) when it is a synonym of ‘biography’ or ‘description of one’s life’. We similarly disambiguate ‘martyrdom’/‘passion’ (the event or concept) and ‘Martyrdom’/‘Passion’ (the account). References to titles of specific works (or parts thereof) are not only capitalized but also italicized (e.g. Passion of Babylas, Life of Theodora). For reasons of internal consistency across the book, English spelling is used for names of places, persons and literary works where common (e.g. Jerome). If there is no common English spelling, Latinized spelling or Greek transcriptions are used depending on the context of the literary tradition in question (e.g. Athanasios of Alexandria, Sulpicius Severus).
The abbreviations of Greek/Byzantine Christian texts are derived from Lampe’s A Patristic Greek Lexicon (PGL). Other Greek and Latin texts and authors are abbreviated using the conventions of the fourth edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) or otherwise the Greek–English Lexicon edited by Liddell, Scott, Jones, and McKenzie (LSJ, for Greek) and the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (for Latin). Books of the Bible (Old Testament, New Testament, and apocrypha) are abbreviated according to the Society of Biblical Literature Handbook of Style, 2nd edition (Atlanta, 2014). In the bibliography, abbreviations of periodicals used are those of L’Année Philologique. Other abbreviations will be explained in the context. In addition, this book uses the following abbreviations:
| AFLN |
Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Napoli |
| AJS |
American Journal of Sociology |
| BGdSL |
Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur |
| BHG |
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca |
| BKiS |
Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen |
| BMGS |
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |
| CCSL |
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina |
| CO |
Cahiers d’Orientalisme |
| CHRC |
Church History and Religious Culture |
| DOHD |
Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Database |
| GEDSH |
Brock, S.P., Butts, A.M., Kiraz, G.A. & van Rompay, L. (eds.) 2011. The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Piscataway, NJ). |
| HUS |
Harvard Ukrainian Studies |
| IranStud |
Iranian Studies |
| JAJ |
Journal of Ancient Judaism |
| Jerus. Stud. Arab. Islam |
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam |
| JMEMS |
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies |
| JMH |
Journal of Modern Hellenism |
| JNES |
Journal of Near-Eastern Studies |
| JNT |
Journal of Narrative Technique |
| JPS |
Journal of Persianate Societies |
| JSNT |
Journal for the Study of the New Testament |
| MiscAr |
Miscellanea Arabica |
| NLH |
New Literary History |
| NPNF |
Schaff, P. & Wace, H. (eds.) 1886–1889. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 28 vols. in 2 series (Edinburgh). |
| ODLA |
Nicholson, O. (ed.) 2018. Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (Oxford). |
| PBE |
Martindale, J. et al. 2001. The Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire. I: 641–867 (Aldershot). (CD Rom) |
| PG |
Migne, J.P. (ed.) 1857–1866. Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca (Paris). |
| PmbZ |
Lilie, R.J. et al. 1999–2013. Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, 16 vols. (Berlin). |
| QSA |
Quaderni di Studi Arabi |
| RRAL |
Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche |
| SC |
Sources Chrétiennes |
| SHG |
Studia Hagiographica Graeca |
| SLA |
Studies in Late Antiquity |
| YFS |
Yale French Studies |
| ZAVA |
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie |