Coming of age in Byzantium : adolescence and society Introduction: Approaches to Byzantine Adolescence (6th 11th centuries) Despoina Ariantzi Too Young to Be Accountable: Is 15 Years Old a Threshold in Byzantium Béatrice Caseau Adoleszenten in der kirchlichen Rechtsprechung der Byzantiner im Zeitraum 13. 15. Jahrhundert Günter Prinzing The Adolescent Monastic in Middle and Late Byzantium Alice Mary Talbot Adolescence in the Late Byzantine Society (14th 15th centuries) Tonia Kiousopoulou Adolescent Behavior in Byzantine Sources Some Observations on Young Byzantine Women Pursuing their Goals Petra Melichar Soziale Identitätsbildung im Jugendalter in Byzanz Despoina Ariantzi Images of Byzantine Adolescents Leslie Brubaker Representations and Roles of Adolescence with a Focus on Apocryphal Imagery Cecily Hennessy The Byzantine Adolescent: Real or Imaginary Catia Galatariotou Erwachsenwerden oder Erwachsensein Ulrike Sirsch Jugendliche und Heilung Thomas Pratsch Adolescentia in abendländischen Quellen des frühen Mittelalters zwischen Kindheit und Erwachsensein Ein begriffsgeschichtlicher Zugang Hans Werner Goetz The various phases of life and their manifestations in theory and social reality constitute a well established area of research in the fields of western medieval studies and ancient history. In this respect the Byzantine East has been widely neglected. This volume will focus on the Byzantine experience of adolescence which may be defined as the biological transition from childhood to adulthood as well as the social and psychological experience of leaving the care of parents guardians and family groups and the gradual integration into adult society. The contributions gathered therein treat seven subtopics that correspond to crucial questions in the cunent research on adolescence: the legal status of adolescents; the mechanisms of transition from childhood to adolescence; the socialisation and gradual integration into adult society; adolescents in Byzantine art; psychological aspects of adolescence from medieval to modern times; illnesses of adolescents; adolescents in the western medieval world.The focus is on the Middle and Late Byzantine Period where historical hagiographical legal and medical sources offer rich material for an investigation of these aspects. The book contributes to a better understanding of all these questions and to show future trajectories for research