ABSTRACT
Before examining Theophylact's letter-collection in detail this chapter w i l l consider two kinds of backdrop to the text. The first is the horizon of expectations of its receivers,1 which for the purposes of this study I shall take to be determined by genre, by the letter. I shall examine it from the points of view of epistolarity, of evaluation and of reception. The second backdrop to the collection is the originating conditions 2 of our text, which I take to be eleventh-century Constantinople, Byzantine Bulgaria and Alexian literature.
