  The concept of Compton scattering by even-even nuclei from giant-resonance to
nucleon-resonance energies and the status of experimental and theoretical
researches in this field are outlined. Nuclear Compton scattering in the
giant-resonance energy-region provides information on the dynamical properties
of the in-medium mass of the nucleon. The electromagnetic polarizabilities of
the nucleon in the nuclear medium can be extracted from nuclear Compton
scattering data obtained in the quasi-deuteron energy-region. Recent results
are presented for two-body effects due to the mesonic seagull amplitude and due
to the excitation of nucleon internal degrees of freedom accompanied by meson
exchanges. Due to these studies the in-medium electromagnetic polarizabilities
are by now well understood, whereas the understanding of nuclear Compton
scattering in the Delta-resonance range is only at the beginning.
Phenomenological methods how to include retardation effects in the scattering
amplitude are discussed and compared with model predictions.
