A Meadow that Lifts the Soul: Originality as Anthologizing in the Byzantine Church Interior

Following Hans Blumenberg, this essay studies the genealogy of the idea of originality in a medieval metaphor characterizing the church interior as a "meadow" or λειμῶν (leimôn). Scholars focusing on this metaphor have neglected its use as a description of artistic process. Procopius of Caesarea, John of Damascus, and Leo VI, "the Wise." form the basis of this study, which argues that compiling anthologies (Lat. florilegia, lit. "gatherings of flowers") provided a preliminary description of invention. This metaphor, in turn, laid an initial groundwork for modern writers, including Montesquieu, who sought to theorize originality against the language of manual labor.