Epistolary Fact and Fiction? The Letter Collection of Isidore of Pelusium Reconsidered

• Applicant: Dr. Dimitrios Zagkanas
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology ; Greek and Latin Philology ; Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565703836

This project proposes a historical- and source-critical re-examination of the letter collection assigned to Isidore of Pelusium as a means for gaining and developing a new, balanced and more accurate understanding of the author, provenance and context of this monumental corpus (ca. 2.000 letters). Commonly dated to the first half of the fifth century CE, Isidore’s correspondence is a trove of information on a wide range of topics, yet its exploitation is greatly hampered by the uncertainty about its historicity and date. Are these genuine letters sent by an actual Isidore of Pelusium to historical individuals; or, are they fictitious letters? Were they written in the early fifth century by Isidore, or at a later date by an invented person? The scholarly opinion is divided, and since there are elements in the letters both supporting and undermining their historical authenticity, the problem is unlikely to be addressed without close critical scrutiny and a combined approach. At the intersection of late antique and early Byzantine theology, philology, and history, this project intends to study in depth Isidore’s corpus of letters in order to verify whether it, as a whole or in part, is an epistolary fact or fiction or both, and in order to determine its original historical context. Going beyond the problematic distinctions between “real” and “invented” letters, between “authorial” and “derivative” works, I will explore the relationship (and interplay) between life and literature, reality and rhetoric, fact and fiction, private and public spheres in the letters. More precisely, I will critically examine both the elements that support and question the authenticity and authorship of the corpus, and I will compare what the author tells us about himself and what the letters tell us about the author. Moreover, I will check the internal information about known (or thought to be known) addressees against the available external evidence, and I will discuss both problems of prosopography and textual and literary questions. Lastly, I will investigate the Christian literary influences and historical-religious circumstances that occasioned the letters, and I will check the internal information against the external literary, historical and archaeological information regarding Christianity in fifth-century Pelusium (modern Tell el-Farama). This project aims at reaching beyond the surface of Isidore’s self-representation and list of addressees, at transcending the scholarly divide between those who view the letters as fictitious and those who regard them as genuine, and, ultimately, at identifying their (and their author’s) true historical context. The project will result in a number of articles and a critical monograph on Isidore of Pelusium to be completed in three years, and in organising an international conference on Isidore’s letter collection, the proceedings of which will be published in the second 3-years phase.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants