The preface to Nikephoros Bryennios' material of history

The paper analyzes Introduction to Nikephoros Bryennios' historical work Yleistoriaz, both its major part, written by an anonymous author, and its last chapter, which is the work of Bryennios himself. It is argued that the Introduction to Bryennios' History by Anonymous testifies the significance of the work in Byzantium of the Komnenoi, and that Nikephoros Bryennios chose consciously the title Material of History, in attempt to stress the objectivity and the truthfulness of his writing.