We offer a codicological and paleographical analysis of
Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of... more We offer a codicological and paleographical analysis of Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of Themistius’ speeches) that allows us to explain how the current codex was created. The oldest part is dated by watermarks to the years 1310-30 and its copy is probably located in Thessalonica; it consists of three codicological units on which four co- pyists worked partly autonomously and - at least copp. 2, 3 and 4-, partly on the basis of what was already copied by the others. The duplicate con- tents of Synesius and Libanius show that the codicological units that now make up the volume were copied independently and were put together circumstantially perhaps by their possessor, cop. 3. At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century Ioannes Chortasmenos read its copy of Synesius and reorganized the quires of the UC2. In the mid-15th century Ioannes Sophianos restored the Paleologan volume, perhaps commissioned by the Bologna professor of Greek, Lianoro Lianori, who was its owner and whose coat of arms was included in the band of f. 1r. Like other Lianori’s codices, Salm. 232 was annotated by El Pinciano and preserved at the University of Salamanca.
I identify the name of the scribe of MS Escorial Φ-II-20, misread by previous scholars, in the no... more I identify the name of the scribe of MS Escorial Φ-II-20, misread by previous scholars, in the note added by Andreas Darmarios: Χεὶρ Κωνσταντίνου Σκορδιλίου τοῦ Κρητός. Skordyles/Skordylios is the name of a well-known Cretan family.
En su catálogo de 1970 Paul Canart daba a conocer la existencia del Vat. gr. 1910, un códice misc... more En su catálogo de 1970 Paul Canart daba a conocer la existencia del Vat. gr. 1910, un códice misceláneo cuya parte más antigua, que contiene las Parekbolai o «notas explicativas» de Eustaquio de Tesalónica a la Periegesis de Dionisio de Alejandría, fechaba en el siglo XIII. Puesto que en aquella primera etapa de su labor como estudioso de los manuscritos griegos Canart todavía no había llevado a cabo las investigaciones sobre la escritura griega que nos legó más adelante y, por ello, se enfrentaba a las dataciones de los códices que describía con los instrumentos disponibles en los años 60 del siglo pasado, nos ha parecido un justo homenaje a su inmensa contribución a los estudios de Paleografía griega retomar el análisis del Vat. gr. 1910 a la luz de lo que sabemos ahora, casi cincuenta años más tarde, de las escrituras griegas de época bizantina, en buena parte gracias a él.
Thirty-nine years ago, Professor Costas N. Constantinides wrote the most accurate and enlightenin... more Thirty-nine years ago, Professor Costas N. Constantinides wrote the most accurate and enlightening analysis of the ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων, the only precise title held by an imperial professor in the Palaiologan period. 1 In the present paper written to honour Constantinides' professional career as a specialist in Palaiologan scholarship, libraries, schools and books, as well as in many other aspects of the Byzantine civilisation, I would like to return to a Byzantine teacher, John Pothos Pediasimos, whose career was outlined by our honorand and whose handwriting I myself identified. A recent contribution that questions my identification of the hand of Pediasimos has encouraged me to take up the subject again, which in 1982 raised some issues as well. In order to approach these without repeating the entire corpus of evidence on the hypatos gathered by Prof. Constantinides, the reader is referred to his book. I will add here a few new pieces of information and some considerations about the role of the Church and the court in Constantinopolitan higher education. In the second part of the paper, I will tackle once more the information we have of John Pothos Pediasimos in order to append some new pieces of evidence, especially the attribution to his hand of some notes in Par. gr. 2403.
This contribution offers a number of observa- tions on the reasons that lead a Byzantine copyist ... more This contribution offers a number of observa- tions on the reasons that lead a Byzantine copyist to modulate his writing and, in particular, on the influence that the writing of a teacher can have on that of his disciples. In the case of the scholar and professor Maximos Planoudes (ca. 1255-1305), we analyze his influence on the graphic manifestations of a collaborator of his, whom we call cop. Ed because of his presence in the Edimb. Adv. 18.7.15, and we reconfigure the role of both in Laur. Plut. 32.16. Likewise, we establish the features that define and distinguish the writing of a disciple of Planoudes, the cop. Ps, from that of his teacher, which resolves the paradox of the attribution to Planoudes of manuscripts copied on a paper whose date is later than that of Planoudes’ death (Marc. gr. XI.6, Par. gr. 2722, Ambros. A 119 sup.). Finally, it is also proposed to attribute to the cop. Ps codices traditionally attributed to the hand of Planoudes such as Vat. Urb. gr. 125 and Vat. gr. 1340, as well as some annotations in Monac. gr. 430.
This article is intended as an update on the codices in which the hand of George/Gregory of Cypru... more This article is intended as an update on the codices in which the hand of George/Gregory of Cyprus (1241–1290) has been identified. The review of these identifications confirms that most paleographers have accepted the interpretation of the evolution of the Cypriot’s handwriting that the author proposed in her 1996 book. Despite the absence of dated copies, but with the help of an overall study of the Cypriot’s codices, the 1996 paleographic analysis made it possible to distinguish a formative period in which George of Cyprus copied with other colleagues or alone works of oratory and philosophy in order, in many cases, to have a copy in his possession; in a second stage—but without an abrupt cut and without losing the distinctive features—, the copying of works is more selective and the handwriting of the Cypriot evolves towards faster and less emphatic forms. After drawing up the list of manuscripts copied by Gregory, the writings of two copyists are examined: the «Anon. Salm.» (one of the scribes of the Themistius MS. Salm. 232) and the «Anon. Chis.» (one of the scribes of the MS. Vat. Chis. gr. 12), which allow us to reflect on the influence of the Cyprian’s writing on a later generation.
The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript ... more The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript of the epistolary of Theodoros II Laskaris, determines that it is made up of three codicological units and that, despite the dauntingly changing aspect of the handwriting, only four hands transcribed texts and one out of them (scribe 1) copied the primary texts of the codex (the epistolaries of Theodoros II Laskaris and Synesius and a homily by Maximos Planudes). Initially the codex was possessed by Manuel Angelos, whose death around 1303 provides a terminus ante quem for its copy. For his part, scribe 4 has to be iden- tified with a subsequent owner of the manuscript, since he included in it private notes, dated between 1324 and 1325. Those reminders present him as an aristocrat who belonged to imperial and ecclesiastical circles and a man of letters with economic interests in the Sporades Islands. The current book was there- fore produced from before 1303 to before 1324-1325 in a stable copying environment, whether a private library or a public bureau. The last addition to the book were five letters composed probably by Manuel Angelos, that we publish here for the first time.
This contribution intends to elucidate the copying work of a Greek scribe, Antonios Kalosynas, bo... more This contribution intends to elucidate the copying work of a Greek scribe, Antonios Kalosynas, born in Crete, in the workshop of Andreas Darmarios in Venice and Trent during the years 1560-1563. Even if some manuscripts sold later to Spanish bishops attending the Council of Trent had been previously written in Venice, Kalosynas himself was transferred to Trent in order to copy texts industriously for Martín Pérez de Ayala, then bishop of Segovia. After an early probationary period in which he copied small parts of texts under the supervision of the workshop manager, Kalosynas started taking responsibility for copying whole texts. Contemporarily, he also began to use a different, more regular, upright and round script, at first to include titles and exlibris and then to write texts, in an attempt to improve his usual handwriting. We have described both handwritings and indicated their presence in the manuscripts copied in that period.
Aucun témoin du texte de Strabon daté d’entre la seconde moitié du Xe siècle et le milieu du XIII... more Aucun témoin du texte de Strabon daté d’entre la seconde moitié du Xe siècle et le milieu du XIIIe siècle ne nous est parvenu. Face à cette lacune remarquable, le premier siècle paléologue marque à nos yeux un renouveau d’intérêt porté par les Byzantins pour le texte de la Géographi : Grégoire de Chypre et Maxime Planude en font tous deux usage, le premier en en recueillant des extraits , le second en annotant quelque peu l’exemplaire complet de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), gr. 1393, utilisé pour composer sa fameuse Synagogè. C’est aussi à Constantinople, dans les dernières années du XIIIe siècle, que fut restauré le témoin le plus important du premier tome, le Paris, BnF, gr. 1397 (Xe s.) . Une génération plus tard, c’est à Nicéphore Grégoras et à ses collaborateurs que l’on doit trois travaux de natures différentes sur le texte de la Géographie : la restauration effectuée sur le Par. gr. 1393, la compilation d’excerpta dans le ms. de Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek (UB), Palatinus gr. 129, et la copie d’un épitomé célèbre, le Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV), gr. 482 (sigle E pour les éditeurs de Strabon), sur lequel on reviendra . Au début des années 1320 en particulier, le mouvement semble s’accélérer, dans une coïncidence de dates singulière : en 1321-22, Jean Catrarès copie à Thessalonique les Tables faciles de Ptolémée conservées dans le Vatican, BAV, Vat. gr. 175 , et l’on suppose d’ordinaire que la série d’excerpta de Strabon intitulée Σύνοψις τῶν κόλπων τῆς καθ’ ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένης aux f. 1v-8v du même manuscrit a été copiée à une date non éloignée de celle-ci ; précédant de peu la copie de Catrarès, le ms. Venise, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (BNM), gr. XI.6 (coll. 1142) a été réalisé en 1321 dans un milieu post-planudéen. Notre contribution a pour but de placer dans son contexte historique et philologique ce manuscrit, le Marc. gr. XI.6 (sigle D) , copie des livres X-XVII de Strabon faite à une date connue, en mai 1321, mais dans un lieu inconnu. L’étude codicologique, paléographique et textuelle que nous offrons ici, accompagnée de l’édition des scholies et de textes inédits du Marcianus, établit que le modèle de ce deuxième tome de Strabon, appelé δ dans le stemma de François Lasserre, était ou a vraisemblablement été dépecé au moment de la copie pour permettre d’effectuer rapidement le manuscrit. Nous mettons également en évidence le fait que le copiste principal, qui a organisé la transcription et annoté le texte dont il fut sans doute le possesseur, a probablement eu accès à un autre manuscrit de Strabon aujourd’hui perdu, ωʹ, copié au plus tard dans la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle, puisqu’il a servi pour ses commentaires à Eustathe de Thessalonique, à qui il appartenait sans doute et qui semble l’avoir annoté . Nous essayerons de lier les renseignements textuels avec les données historiques sur le manuscrit pour comprendre cette partie de l’histoire du texte de Strabon, connaître les intérêts de ses copistes et de ses lecteurs, et proposer d’identifier son « maître de copie » à un élève de Planude, Georges Lakapènos.
The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 3... more The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 31, with Euclid's Elementa, Optica and Phaenomena, establishes that seven scribes collaborated in its copy at the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century and that their work is linked to the different models of Euclid they used both for the text and for the commentary. Several later hands added notes to the text, noticeably Maximos Planudes, whose handwriting we identify in the autographic addition on the upper margin of f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
Matrit. 4641, a manuscript belonging to Konstantinos Laskaris in the 15th century, is the most im... more Matrit. 4641, a manuscript belonging to Konstantinos Laskaris in the 15th century, is the most important copy of the corpus of rhetorical works by Choricius of Gaza. We offer its codicological and paleographical analysis, precising the dating of its first stage of composition at the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th century and a second stage (perhaps from the 1320's) when Gabriel, known as monk of St George of Mangana in Constantinople, and an anonymous assistant completed the copy adding several discourses, hypotheseis (long titles or introductory texts) and protheoriai (explanatory comments), the index of contents, and a forged letter by Pho-tius which is simply the codex 160 of his Bibliotheca.
Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, b.23 is a miscellaneous codex from the first half of ... more Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, b.23 is a miscellaneous codex from the first half of the 14th century gathering different literary and astronomical school texts written by a student whose name, Isidoros, appears in f. 206v (only ff. 4-95v are by a second hand). The texts were copied by Isidoros in different periods and finally bound together as well as with independent leaves. One of them (f. 2r-v) is apparently the draft of a letter of Michael Gabras written and corrected by the author. Nevertheless, since the composition is full of syntactic mistakes and its copyist is Isidoros, it can not be an autograph but somehow be based on Gabras’ composition. Some mistakes suggest that the text was dictated and that Isidoros could act as Gabras’ secretary, while the presence of a small sentence from Cyropaedia I 4, 12 (one of the texts preserved by the Bremen codex) allows us to consider that Isidoros was also involved in the re-writing of the letter, a failed exercise that must be understood as aimed to the acquisition of composition skills.
El trabajo precisa la actividad del "hypatos ton philosophon" Ioannes Pediasimos en Constantinopl... more El trabajo precisa la actividad del "hypatos ton philosophon" Ioannes Pediasimos en Constantinopla (1296-1303) e identifica su escritura en un manuscrito de los Elementa de Euclides, el Laur. Plut. 28.2. Pediasimos es identificado con el “Anon. R” que organizó la copia del Vat. gr. 191 y cuya mano aparece en otros manuscritos científicos y filosóficos.
in S. Lucà ed., Libri Palinsesti Greci: Conservazione, Restauro Digitale, Studio. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Villa Mondragone (Monte Porzio Catone). Università degli Studi di Roma tor Vergata, (Roma, 2008), 2008
Se estudia un códice griego de la Biblioteca de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial (Escorialensis X.IV.6),... more Se estudia un códice griego de la Biblioteca de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial (Escorialensis X.IV.6), en parte copiado en el Salento en el s. XII/XIII reutilizando pergaminos anteriores de diversas procedencias, todos ellos escritos en griego, en mayúscula o minúscula, con textos teológicos y homiléticos. El Escorialensis X.IV.6 es un códice misceláneo, adquirido en Italia por Antonio Agustín y formado con fragmentos de otros códices localizables en el sur de Italia. Se trata de textos de uso eclesiástico, con la excepción de un iatrosophion (conjunto de compuestos curativos y su administración) para cuya transcripción se reutilizó el pergamino y que interesaba a Constantino Láscaris, profesor mesinés a cuyo círculo hay que vincular el códice misceláneo actual.
N. Tsironi et al. eds., The book in Byzantium. Byzantine and Postbyzantine bookbinding. Proceedings of the International Symposium Athens 13-16 October 2005, (Athens, Hellenic Society for Bookbinding, Institute for Byzantine Research, 2008), 2008
Byzantine bookbindings in Spain (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional and Monasterio de S. Lorenzo de El E... more Byzantine bookbindings in Spain (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional and Monasterio de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial)
We offer a codicological and paleographical analysis of
Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of... more We offer a codicological and paleographical analysis of Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of Themistius’ speeches) that allows us to explain how the current codex was created. The oldest part is dated by watermarks to the years 1310-30 and its copy is probably located in Thessalonica; it consists of three codicological units on which four co- pyists worked partly autonomously and - at least copp. 2, 3 and 4-, partly on the basis of what was already copied by the others. The duplicate con- tents of Synesius and Libanius show that the codicological units that now make up the volume were copied independently and were put together circumstantially perhaps by their possessor, cop. 3. At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century Ioannes Chortasmenos read its copy of Synesius and reorganized the quires of the UC2. In the mid-15th century Ioannes Sophianos restored the Paleologan volume, perhaps commissioned by the Bologna professor of Greek, Lianoro Lianori, who was its owner and whose coat of arms was included in the band of f. 1r. Like other Lianori’s codices, Salm. 232 was annotated by El Pinciano and preserved at the University of Salamanca.
I identify the name of the scribe of MS Escorial Φ-II-20, misread by previous scholars, in the no... more I identify the name of the scribe of MS Escorial Φ-II-20, misread by previous scholars, in the note added by Andreas Darmarios: Χεὶρ Κωνσταντίνου Σκορδιλίου τοῦ Κρητός. Skordyles/Skordylios is the name of a well-known Cretan family.
En su catálogo de 1970 Paul Canart daba a conocer la existencia del Vat. gr. 1910, un códice misc... more En su catálogo de 1970 Paul Canart daba a conocer la existencia del Vat. gr. 1910, un códice misceláneo cuya parte más antigua, que contiene las Parekbolai o «notas explicativas» de Eustaquio de Tesalónica a la Periegesis de Dionisio de Alejandría, fechaba en el siglo XIII. Puesto que en aquella primera etapa de su labor como estudioso de los manuscritos griegos Canart todavía no había llevado a cabo las investigaciones sobre la escritura griega que nos legó más adelante y, por ello, se enfrentaba a las dataciones de los códices que describía con los instrumentos disponibles en los años 60 del siglo pasado, nos ha parecido un justo homenaje a su inmensa contribución a los estudios de Paleografía griega retomar el análisis del Vat. gr. 1910 a la luz de lo que sabemos ahora, casi cincuenta años más tarde, de las escrituras griegas de época bizantina, en buena parte gracias a él.
Thirty-nine years ago, Professor Costas N. Constantinides wrote the most accurate and enlightenin... more Thirty-nine years ago, Professor Costas N. Constantinides wrote the most accurate and enlightening analysis of the ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων, the only precise title held by an imperial professor in the Palaiologan period. 1 In the present paper written to honour Constantinides' professional career as a specialist in Palaiologan scholarship, libraries, schools and books, as well as in many other aspects of the Byzantine civilisation, I would like to return to a Byzantine teacher, John Pothos Pediasimos, whose career was outlined by our honorand and whose handwriting I myself identified. A recent contribution that questions my identification of the hand of Pediasimos has encouraged me to take up the subject again, which in 1982 raised some issues as well. In order to approach these without repeating the entire corpus of evidence on the hypatos gathered by Prof. Constantinides, the reader is referred to his book. I will add here a few new pieces of information and some considerations about the role of the Church and the court in Constantinopolitan higher education. In the second part of the paper, I will tackle once more the information we have of John Pothos Pediasimos in order to append some new pieces of evidence, especially the attribution to his hand of some notes in Par. gr. 2403.
This contribution offers a number of observa- tions on the reasons that lead a Byzantine copyist ... more This contribution offers a number of observa- tions on the reasons that lead a Byzantine copyist to modulate his writing and, in particular, on the influence that the writing of a teacher can have on that of his disciples. In the case of the scholar and professor Maximos Planoudes (ca. 1255-1305), we analyze his influence on the graphic manifestations of a collaborator of his, whom we call cop. Ed because of his presence in the Edimb. Adv. 18.7.15, and we reconfigure the role of both in Laur. Plut. 32.16. Likewise, we establish the features that define and distinguish the writing of a disciple of Planoudes, the cop. Ps, from that of his teacher, which resolves the paradox of the attribution to Planoudes of manuscripts copied on a paper whose date is later than that of Planoudes’ death (Marc. gr. XI.6, Par. gr. 2722, Ambros. A 119 sup.). Finally, it is also proposed to attribute to the cop. Ps codices traditionally attributed to the hand of Planoudes such as Vat. Urb. gr. 125 and Vat. gr. 1340, as well as some annotations in Monac. gr. 430.
This article is intended as an update on the codices in which the hand of George/Gregory of Cypru... more This article is intended as an update on the codices in which the hand of George/Gregory of Cyprus (1241–1290) has been identified. The review of these identifications confirms that most paleographers have accepted the interpretation of the evolution of the Cypriot’s handwriting that the author proposed in her 1996 book. Despite the absence of dated copies, but with the help of an overall study of the Cypriot’s codices, the 1996 paleographic analysis made it possible to distinguish a formative period in which George of Cyprus copied with other colleagues or alone works of oratory and philosophy in order, in many cases, to have a copy in his possession; in a second stage—but without an abrupt cut and without losing the distinctive features—, the copying of works is more selective and the handwriting of the Cypriot evolves towards faster and less emphatic forms. After drawing up the list of manuscripts copied by Gregory, the writings of two copyists are examined: the «Anon. Salm.» (one of the scribes of the Themistius MS. Salm. 232) and the «Anon. Chis.» (one of the scribes of the MS. Vat. Chis. gr. 12), which allow us to reflect on the influence of the Cyprian’s writing on a later generation.
The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript ... more The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript of the epistolary of Theodoros II Laskaris, determines that it is made up of three codicological units and that, despite the dauntingly changing aspect of the handwriting, only four hands transcribed texts and one out of them (scribe 1) copied the primary texts of the codex (the epistolaries of Theodoros II Laskaris and Synesius and a homily by Maximos Planudes). Initially the codex was possessed by Manuel Angelos, whose death around 1303 provides a terminus ante quem for its copy. For his part, scribe 4 has to be iden- tified with a subsequent owner of the manuscript, since he included in it private notes, dated between 1324 and 1325. Those reminders present him as an aristocrat who belonged to imperial and ecclesiastical circles and a man of letters with economic interests in the Sporades Islands. The current book was there- fore produced from before 1303 to before 1324-1325 in a stable copying environment, whether a private library or a public bureau. The last addition to the book were five letters composed probably by Manuel Angelos, that we publish here for the first time.
This contribution intends to elucidate the copying work of a Greek scribe, Antonios Kalosynas, bo... more This contribution intends to elucidate the copying work of a Greek scribe, Antonios Kalosynas, born in Crete, in the workshop of Andreas Darmarios in Venice and Trent during the years 1560-1563. Even if some manuscripts sold later to Spanish bishops attending the Council of Trent had been previously written in Venice, Kalosynas himself was transferred to Trent in order to copy texts industriously for Martín Pérez de Ayala, then bishop of Segovia. After an early probationary period in which he copied small parts of texts under the supervision of the workshop manager, Kalosynas started taking responsibility for copying whole texts. Contemporarily, he also began to use a different, more regular, upright and round script, at first to include titles and exlibris and then to write texts, in an attempt to improve his usual handwriting. We have described both handwritings and indicated their presence in the manuscripts copied in that period.
Aucun témoin du texte de Strabon daté d’entre la seconde moitié du Xe siècle et le milieu du XIII... more Aucun témoin du texte de Strabon daté d’entre la seconde moitié du Xe siècle et le milieu du XIIIe siècle ne nous est parvenu. Face à cette lacune remarquable, le premier siècle paléologue marque à nos yeux un renouveau d’intérêt porté par les Byzantins pour le texte de la Géographi : Grégoire de Chypre et Maxime Planude en font tous deux usage, le premier en en recueillant des extraits , le second en annotant quelque peu l’exemplaire complet de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), gr. 1393, utilisé pour composer sa fameuse Synagogè. C’est aussi à Constantinople, dans les dernières années du XIIIe siècle, que fut restauré le témoin le plus important du premier tome, le Paris, BnF, gr. 1397 (Xe s.) . Une génération plus tard, c’est à Nicéphore Grégoras et à ses collaborateurs que l’on doit trois travaux de natures différentes sur le texte de la Géographie : la restauration effectuée sur le Par. gr. 1393, la compilation d’excerpta dans le ms. de Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek (UB), Palatinus gr. 129, et la copie d’un épitomé célèbre, le Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV), gr. 482 (sigle E pour les éditeurs de Strabon), sur lequel on reviendra . Au début des années 1320 en particulier, le mouvement semble s’accélérer, dans une coïncidence de dates singulière : en 1321-22, Jean Catrarès copie à Thessalonique les Tables faciles de Ptolémée conservées dans le Vatican, BAV, Vat. gr. 175 , et l’on suppose d’ordinaire que la série d’excerpta de Strabon intitulée Σύνοψις τῶν κόλπων τῆς καθ’ ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένης aux f. 1v-8v du même manuscrit a été copiée à une date non éloignée de celle-ci ; précédant de peu la copie de Catrarès, le ms. Venise, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (BNM), gr. XI.6 (coll. 1142) a été réalisé en 1321 dans un milieu post-planudéen. Notre contribution a pour but de placer dans son contexte historique et philologique ce manuscrit, le Marc. gr. XI.6 (sigle D) , copie des livres X-XVII de Strabon faite à une date connue, en mai 1321, mais dans un lieu inconnu. L’étude codicologique, paléographique et textuelle que nous offrons ici, accompagnée de l’édition des scholies et de textes inédits du Marcianus, établit que le modèle de ce deuxième tome de Strabon, appelé δ dans le stemma de François Lasserre, était ou a vraisemblablement été dépecé au moment de la copie pour permettre d’effectuer rapidement le manuscrit. Nous mettons également en évidence le fait que le copiste principal, qui a organisé la transcription et annoté le texte dont il fut sans doute le possesseur, a probablement eu accès à un autre manuscrit de Strabon aujourd’hui perdu, ωʹ, copié au plus tard dans la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle, puisqu’il a servi pour ses commentaires à Eustathe de Thessalonique, à qui il appartenait sans doute et qui semble l’avoir annoté . Nous essayerons de lier les renseignements textuels avec les données historiques sur le manuscrit pour comprendre cette partie de l’histoire du texte de Strabon, connaître les intérêts de ses copistes et de ses lecteurs, et proposer d’identifier son « maître de copie » à un élève de Planude, Georges Lakapènos.
The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 3... more The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 31, with Euclid's Elementa, Optica and Phaenomena, establishes that seven scribes collaborated in its copy at the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century and that their work is linked to the different models of Euclid they used both for the text and for the commentary. Several later hands added notes to the text, noticeably Maximos Planudes, whose handwriting we identify in the autographic addition on the upper margin of f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
Matrit. 4641, a manuscript belonging to Konstantinos Laskaris in the 15th century, is the most im... more Matrit. 4641, a manuscript belonging to Konstantinos Laskaris in the 15th century, is the most important copy of the corpus of rhetorical works by Choricius of Gaza. We offer its codicological and paleographical analysis, precising the dating of its first stage of composition at the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th century and a second stage (perhaps from the 1320's) when Gabriel, known as monk of St George of Mangana in Constantinople, and an anonymous assistant completed the copy adding several discourses, hypotheseis (long titles or introductory texts) and protheoriai (explanatory comments), the index of contents, and a forged letter by Pho-tius which is simply the codex 160 of his Bibliotheca.
Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, b.23 is a miscellaneous codex from the first half of ... more Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, b.23 is a miscellaneous codex from the first half of the 14th century gathering different literary and astronomical school texts written by a student whose name, Isidoros, appears in f. 206v (only ff. 4-95v are by a second hand). The texts were copied by Isidoros in different periods and finally bound together as well as with independent leaves. One of them (f. 2r-v) is apparently the draft of a letter of Michael Gabras written and corrected by the author. Nevertheless, since the composition is full of syntactic mistakes and its copyist is Isidoros, it can not be an autograph but somehow be based on Gabras’ composition. Some mistakes suggest that the text was dictated and that Isidoros could act as Gabras’ secretary, while the presence of a small sentence from Cyropaedia I 4, 12 (one of the texts preserved by the Bremen codex) allows us to consider that Isidoros was also involved in the re-writing of the letter, a failed exercise that must be understood as aimed to the acquisition of composition skills.
El trabajo precisa la actividad del "hypatos ton philosophon" Ioannes Pediasimos en Constantinopl... more El trabajo precisa la actividad del "hypatos ton philosophon" Ioannes Pediasimos en Constantinopla (1296-1303) e identifica su escritura en un manuscrito de los Elementa de Euclides, el Laur. Plut. 28.2. Pediasimos es identificado con el “Anon. R” que organizó la copia del Vat. gr. 191 y cuya mano aparece en otros manuscritos científicos y filosóficos.
in S. Lucà ed., Libri Palinsesti Greci: Conservazione, Restauro Digitale, Studio. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Villa Mondragone (Monte Porzio Catone). Università degli Studi di Roma tor Vergata, (Roma, 2008), 2008
Se estudia un códice griego de la Biblioteca de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial (Escorialensis X.IV.6),... more Se estudia un códice griego de la Biblioteca de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial (Escorialensis X.IV.6), en parte copiado en el Salento en el s. XII/XIII reutilizando pergaminos anteriores de diversas procedencias, todos ellos escritos en griego, en mayúscula o minúscula, con textos teológicos y homiléticos. El Escorialensis X.IV.6 es un códice misceláneo, adquirido en Italia por Antonio Agustín y formado con fragmentos de otros códices localizables en el sur de Italia. Se trata de textos de uso eclesiástico, con la excepción de un iatrosophion (conjunto de compuestos curativos y su administración) para cuya transcripción se reutilizó el pergamino y que interesaba a Constantino Láscaris, profesor mesinés a cuyo círculo hay que vincular el códice misceláneo actual.
N. Tsironi et al. eds., The book in Byzantium. Byzantine and Postbyzantine bookbinding. Proceedings of the International Symposium Athens 13-16 October 2005, (Athens, Hellenic Society for Bookbinding, Institute for Byzantine Research, 2008), 2008
Byzantine bookbindings in Spain (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional and Monasterio de S. Lorenzo de El E... more Byzantine bookbindings in Spain (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional and Monasterio de S. Lorenzo de El Escorial)
This contribution studies the oldest manuscripts preserving the work of ecclesiastical historians... more This contribution studies the oldest manuscripts preserving the work of ecclesiastical historians with the aim of drawing trends in their transmission from the Macedonian to the Palaiologan period. It proposes new dating of some of these manuscripts and the identification of the hand of Arsenios of Petra in Vat. Pal. gr. 383. The study of the copyists, the annotations and the text of three of the most relevant manuscripts (Laur. Plut. 69.5, Vat. Pal. gr. 383 and Alexandria 60) lead us to postulate an interest in Church histories slightly prior to the specialized work undertaken by Xanthopoulos to compose his own history. The evidence on these manuscripts at the end of the thirteenth century suggests that they were part of a study circle perhaps linked to the patriarch Athanasios of Alexandria.
It offers a new edition of the Vita Chisiana, a preliminary text to Dionysius Periegetes preserve... more It offers a new edition of the Vita Chisiana, a preliminary text to Dionysius Periegetes preserved by two manuscripts, Vat. Chis. R.IV.20 and Par. gr. 2772, with the aim of recovering the text not as a repository of ancient verses but as a Byzantine introduction to the geographic poem composed by Dionysius. We fully analyze both testimonies and publish a book list by the 14th-century scribe Georgios Galesiotes.
We discuss the nature of the Byzantine libraries by examining their degree of accessibility as wi... more We discuss the nature of the Byzantine libraries by examining their degree of accessibility as witnessed by the loan lists of the monasteries of Saint John Prodromos in Patmos and Saint Nicholas in Casole, and by the typikon of Boilas' foundation near Edessa. We also draw on the place occupied by books in some monasteries in Egypt (Shenute's White Monastery in Suhag) and in Byzantine territory, to conclude that their accessibility was non-existent. In the second part of this paper, we review the history and public nature of the Imperial Library of Constantinople: in Late Antiquity it occupied a facility near the Basilike Stoa (centrally located in the city), but later on was replaced by a 'palace library' accessible only to members of the imperial family and to palace officers.
In order to understand the mechanisms of transmission of Greek texts, it is nec- essary to addres... more In order to understand the mechanisms of transmission of Greek texts, it is nec- essary to address the Byzantine codices that preserve them in their historical context, as books designed to facilitate consultation, reading and study of the works copied in them. In the case of ancient geography and the four authors who best represent it (Strabo, Dionysius Periegetes, Pausanias and Ptolemy) from the ninth to the fifteenth century, we can see how the interest or work of scholars such as Photios, Eustathios of Thessalonike or Maximos Planudes, known thanks to their poems, letters or commentaries, find a reflection in the production of books. The greater number of books preserved makes this more evident from the thirteenth century, when the use of paper to copy texts becomes generalised, we preserve autographs of Byzantine scholars or we can identify their writings in copies of ancient texts. Although chance undoubtedly played a role in the preservation of ancient literature, analysing the books preserved as testimonies of their time allows to find the reasons why some works were preserved and others were not and to understand the functionality of a fragmentary transmission or a new presentation of the texts.
It presents some patterns of the transmission of Byzantine texts in their cultural context. It st... more It presents some patterns of the transmission of Byzantine texts in their cultural context. It stresses the importance of material causes to explain the conservation or loss of texts, such as the use of a particular support or the conservation in a specific library; thus, e.g., the use of fragile Eastern paper undoubtedly explains the scarcity of manuscripts preserved from such a rich literary culture as that of the Komnenian period. It also analyzes the transmission of texts in miscellanies and the beneficial combination of ancient and Byzantine works; the role of the author and his circle, especially his disciples, in the conservation and transmission of his works; the center/periphery dialectic in an empire like Byzantium, where the learning and the literary canon promoted by the administration determined not only the texts that were most widely circulated but also those that were not. To sum up, the study of transmission offers a likely window into the values and goals of those who purchased, owned, read, and wrote books, and it can illuminate the multiple functions of books in Byzantium.
Geografía y cartografía de la Antigüedad al Renacimiento. Homenaje al profesor Francesco Prontera, E. Castro-Páez – G. Cruz Andreotti (eds.), 2020
El mapamundi de los mayores montes y ríos que aparece en el f. 50v del ms. 2747 de la Biblioteca ... more El mapamundi de los mayores montes y ríos que aparece en el f. 50v del ms. 2747 de la Biblioteca General Histórica de la Universidad de Salamanca, dado a conocer en 1900 por Charles Graux y André Martin en una publicación que analizaba todas las ilustraciones de ese ejemplar de los Meteorologica de Aristóteles, ha seguido siendo desconocido para la mayoría de los estudiosos de la geografía antigua y nunca ha sido estudiado en profundidad. El análisis codicológico y paleográfico contextualiza la producción de este códice bizantino, uno de los testimonios primarios del texto de Meteorologica, en Constantinopla hacia 1125-1150, en un ámbito de copia e iluminación de libros de manufactura de gran calidad. Un testimonio gemelo y contemporáneo del texto y de su aparato ilustrativo, en este caso fragmentado y acompañado del Comentario de Alejandro de Afrodisias a los Meteorologica, está conformado por los mss. Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E 93 sup. y Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 1880. Un tercer códice con las ilustraciones de las dos copias mencionadas es el Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 87.26, de la segunda mitad del siglo XIII. Algunas glosas del Salmanticense que se encontrarían en el modelo, así como algunos términos usados en las figuras y, en especial, la elección del Bósforo como eje en torno al cual se organiza el mapa del f. 50v sugieren que las ilustraciones del libro I de Meteorologica fueron concebidas y diseñadas en época bizantina, con toda probabilidad en el siglo XI en el contexto de la enseñanza de Miguel Pselo († 1078/81) de la obra aristotélica.
K. Oikonomopoulou and S. Xenophontos eds., Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch, Series: Brill's companions to classical reception, Leiden, Brill, 295-309., 2019
Recent research on Byzantine manuscripts and new technologies have produced an extraordinary amou... more Recent research on Byzantine manuscripts and new technologies have produced an extraordinary amount of information about the material aspects of the Byzantine book, writing styles (although work on some periods is less advanced than on others), reading, and literacy. Meanwhile, an entire generation of philologists has begun to consider Byzantine manuscripts as more than just an auxiliary matter, and they are becoming interested in the dialectic relationship between the message and the medium. Palaeography, a discipline that operates between history and philology, is not confined to the study of writing but analyzes Greek codices and literature in the context of Byzantine material culture.
After the restoration of Chora by Theodoros Metochites in 1316–21, the library of this Constantin... more After the restoration of Chora by Theodoros Metochites in 1316–21, the library of this Constantinopolitan monastery possessed a considerable number of manuscripts of Aelius Aristides. This is explained by the interest that Metochites himself had in this orator, the number of whose readers had increased after it became the “bedside book” of the patriarch Gregorios Kyprios († 1289). Indeed, we can link some codices of Aristides to Chora in different ways, some more certain than others.
This paper contributes to the debate on the circulation of Aelios Aristides in Constantinople, among scholars of the early Palaeologan era; in particular in Metochites’ and Gregoras’ circle in Chora. The author shows how Gregoras approached Aristides, and gives a thorough example of Gregoras’ reading and teaching practices by editing his annotations on Aristides’ Panathenaikos, preserved in Escorial Φ.Ι.18. In his reading of the Panathenaikos, Gregoras was looking not only for a refined text in Attic prose, but also for information about Ancient Greece. His curiosity about this historical period, which he no doubt saw as part of the past of Byzantium, was satisfied not only by reading ancient historiography but also works by the orators. The political and military history of the Greeks was the inspiration for Gregoras’ own Rhomaïke Historia as well as for all the thoughts and moral judgements expressed in his vast work. Gregoras did not use the Panathenaikos for his own study of the history of ancient Athens. His at times intense, at times partial and trivial notes were designed as an introduction for other people with less knowledge of the koine, the history of Athens, and its political virtues. This study suggests that Escorial Φ.Ι.18. was used as a schoolbook at the monastery of Chora. An English translation follows the most important notes. Two Appendices, “The Panathenaikos’ excerpts in Heidelberg. Palat. gr. 129” and “Gregorios Kyprios’ marginalia”, conclude the article.
We discover the biography, writing and the library of a figure of Genoese origin, Antonio Malaspi... more We discover the biography, writing and the library of a figure of Genoese origin, Antonio Malaspina of Phokaia, about whom little was known: specifically, the information given by three letters from John Eugenikos (one of them, ep. 12, from 1439 or 1445); and that he owned Bremen manuscript b.23, while the Antonio Malaspina who annotated and partly copied Naples II.E.20 is a contemporary namesake. Our research has identified his hand in Par. gr. 1601, where he added in Greek a family chronicle that presents him as Orthodox, married since the end of 1446 to Helena Rhaoul-Palaiologina, a member of a branch of this family linked to Mytilene. The chronicle informs us that his family moved from Phokaia to Mytilene before 1452, no doubt due to the Turkish threat. In 1485, Malaspina was apparently living in Chios, undoubtedly once again as a result of the fall of Lesbos into Turkish hands. The re-editing of ep. 34 of John Eugenikos using the copy preserved in Vindob. Phil. gr. 183 now enables us to know that Malaspina was an archon and vicarius of Old Phokaia: in other words, that he carried out legal functions as the Genoese deputy governor. Malaspina likewise owned a legal codex, Vindob. Jur. gr. 7, in which he wrote a funerary epigram dedicated to an ancestor of his, a jurist like himself. Malaspina was, in conclusion, an archon, of Genoese descent but Hellenized, who worked for the Gattilusi in Phokaia, Orthodox and married a Byzantine noblewoman. His mother tongue and his cultural tongue were Greek, and he owned a small library of texts in that language.
A. Rigo – P. Ermilov – M. Trizio eds., Theologica minora: The Minor Genres of Byzantine Theological Literature, 159-174 + 180-185., 2013
This paper deals with the transmission and reception of Psellos’ philosophical legacy in a small ... more This paper deals with the transmission and reception of Psellos’ philosophical legacy in a small but important group of Psellian manuscripts, all of them copied in Constantinople after the city’s recovery in 1261 and linked to the high education sponsored by the emperor Michael VIII, first under the direction of George Akropolites and then, from 1265 to 1273, of Maximos Holobolos.
Michael Psellos († 1078 or 1081) holds a unique prestigious position in later generations’ minds. The versatility of his thought and his literary quality impressed other Byzantine writers, who did not forget his contributions to many fields of knowledge and put their admiration into words. Psellos’ immense legacy is marked by dispersion: he probably never organized his writings nor his correspon¬dence ever constituted a proper collection. The earliest testimony of a corpus with his letters and his rhetorical, theological and philosophical writings is Laur. 57.40, for a long time dated in the 15th century, but now correctly dated during Alexios Comnenos’ reign (11th/12th c.). There, some writings are indicated as Psellian, others specify their author with τοῦ αὐτοῦ and others are small pieces separated by a simple (:-), without title or author. This kind of anonymous collection is found also in Barocci 131 and constitutes one of the major problems in Psellian transmission. They are usually considered the basic materials used by Psellos’ teaching, “little more than very intelligent scissors-and-paste exercices” (Duffy).
The other big collection of Psellian writings, Par. gr. 1182, was also copied before 1204, the big watershed in Byzantine textual transmission. Curiously enough, nor the Florence nor the Paris ms. have been hegemonic in the textual tradition. We can assume that during the Palaeologan Renaissance both ancient collections were not kept in a very accesible place and therefore they were rarely copied, even if in this period the interest on Psellos’ writings is guaranteed by a big amount of copies. Their exclusive aim to collect Psellos’ letters and opuscula will not be shared by any later testimony.
The isolated transmission of a single Psellian writing is very frequent. It can flank a main text which is in the origins of the one written by Psellos. This is the case of his writings on Gregorios Nazianzenos’ Homilies, transmitted jointly, a twofold succesful procedure, since it allowed to legitimize Psellos’ thinking by the proximity of Gregory of Nazianzus and to guarantee its preservation next to one of the most copied texts in Byzantium, his Homilies.
The transmission of single Psellian works in miscellaneous manuscripts was also very frequent. The handy size of many writings forced them to be copied keeping company to other texts akin in content: for example, Psellos’ commentaries on Aristotle were usually transmitted with similar Late Antique commentaries. This is the procedure by which Psellos entered the extensive and long-running corpora of tools serving the study of Philosophy, Grammar or other disciplines and it must be explained as a success of his teaching and as a proof of his ascendant over his contemporaries and the next generations.
From 1261 onwards we will find miscellaneous manuscripts responding to the personal taste and requirements of a person gathering basic materials mostly for his legal, rhetorical or philosophical training. This user’s or collection’s profile fits to almost every manuscript with a corpus of Psellian writings copied after 1261. Their scribes are not intending to preserve an entire corpus of writings for posterity but to gather in a single manuscript a certain group of texts to make them available for its owner or reader.
Among those manuscripts, we study four of them connected to each other by their scribes or their content: Oxford Bodleian Barocci 131, Heidelberg Palat. gr. 356, Vat. Barber. gr. 240 and Vat. gr. 207. They are the material reflex of the high education in Constantinople after 1261. They are not school manuscripts since they dont look like copied by students under the direction of a teacher, but they reflect the interests awoken by this education in the students and later officials.
Psellos’ writings seem to have experimented new formulas of preservation, mainly by the combination of Psellos’ works with other opuscula from the same field of knowledge. His transmission shows that the first generation of Palaeologan scholars and professors had interests as wide as those of Psellos himself. The new copies of his writings they were responsible of, can be defined as individual acts of preservation of a legacy difficult to grasp.
his paper focuses on 10th century Byzantine readers of ancient historical texts. The authoress pr... more his paper focuses on 10th century Byzantine readers of ancient historical texts. The authoress previously informs about the way Herodotus and Thucydides were read in Ancient World.
"El Vaticanus graecus 228 es un códice de Platón copiado en Constantinopla a comienzos del siglo ... more "El Vaticanus graecus 228 es un códice de Platón copiado en Constantinopla a comienzos del siglo XIV, probablemente en los años 20, por el Historiador y polymathos Nicéforo Gregorás y algunos colaboradores suyos. Este erudito, discípulo de Teodoro Metoquita, estudió con profundidad la obra de Tolomeo y su interés por los intervalos harmónicos está quizá en la base de un escolio muy interesante que incluyó en los márgenes de su copia del Timeo. El escolio es un desarrollo aritmético de las indicaciones dadas por Platón sobre la formación del alma del mundo (En. 35B- 368): está basado en el De natura mundi et animae atribuido a Timeo Locro y probablemente en el comentario de Proclo pero va más allá de éstos en la definición de los intervalos y sus consonancias. Un buen ejemplo, pues, de lo que la edición paleóloga podía hacer sobre los textos antiguos.
[EN] Vaticanus graecus 228 is a Plato's manuscript written in Constantinople in the early 14th Century, probably in the years 20-30, by Nicephours Gregoras, known historian and polymath and some of his fellows-scribes. This scholar, a disciple of Theodours Metochites, studied deeply Ptolomaeus' texts, as is known, and his interest on harmonic intervals is perhaps in the start of the diagramma he included in the margins of his copy of Timeo. His scholar is arithmetic development of the indications given by Plato on the demiurges' creation of the world's soul (Timeo 358-36B,l:. it's based on Timaeus of Locri De natura mundi et animae and wrobablv on Proclus' Commentary, but it goes further in defining intervals and consonants. A good example, then, of the work Palaeologan scholarship could produce on ancient texts."
Esta contribución analiza la cultura bizantina del s. XI a través de la labor de uno de los grand... more Esta contribución analiza la cultura bizantina del s. XI a través de la labor de uno de los grandes pensadores bizantinos, Miguel Pselo (Michael Psellos) y su labor sobre los textos neoplatónicos, a cuya preservación contribuyó grandemente.
Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza reunió en su biblioteca la más valiosa colección de libros griegos d... more Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza reunió en su biblioteca la más valiosa colección de libros griegos del siglo XVI español, un siglo excepcional para la cultura hispana que ve no sólo la difusión del conocimiento del griego iniciada en la Universidad cisneriana, sino también, justamente, la formación de bibliotecas de manuscritos e impresos en esa lengua. Una parte sustancial de esos impresos procedía de Venecia y, en concreto, de las prensas aldinas, que tuvieron un papel de importancia capital en la historia de los textos griegos, como prueba el hecho de que en ellas se estamparan cuarenta editiones principes en tal lengua. Pero incluso en el caso de que otra imprenta hubiera precedido a la aldina en la edición de un clásico griego, el prestigio de los textos cuidados por Aldo Manuzio y su «Academia Nueva» (Νέα Ἀκαδημία) en Venecia se reveló imposible de superar.
Estudio de la biblioteca de manuscritos griegos del cronista Jerónimo Zurita, su origen y su dest... more Estudio de la biblioteca de manuscritos griegos del cronista Jerónimo Zurita, su origen y su destino. Fueron adquiridos por el Conde-Duque de Olivares y con la biblioteca de éste engrosaron el fondo de El Escorial.
Se estudia la historia de la colección de manuscritos griegos conservados en la Catedral de Toled... more Se estudia la historia de la colección de manuscritos griegos conservados en la Catedral de Toledo. Fueron donados por un cardenal romano de origen murciano, Zelada, a través del arzobispo Lorenzana, cuando Roma fue conquistada por las tropas napoleónicas.
Se indaga en la veracidad y el realismo de los libros de viajes escritos por viajeros de la Penín... more Se indaga en la veracidad y el realismo de los libros de viajes escritos por viajeros de la Península ibérica a Oriente que pasaron por Constantinopla: Benjamín de Tudela, El Libro del Conoscimiento, Pero Tafur y la Embajada a Tamerlán.
El Escorial y.III.7, un tetraevangelio del año 1302, es obra de un escriba que se sirve de una gr... more El Escorial y.III.7, un tetraevangelio del año 1302, es obra de un escriba que se sirve de una grafía artificiosa muy particular. El códice fue restaurado y recibió la inserción de las miniaturas de los evangelistas, ilustraciones que, de un modo notable, incorporan a la decororación de un manuscrito la iconografía de los iconos contemporáneos.
The MS Escorial X.IV.6 is a Greek horologion headed by an original figure of the Vision of Pacho... more The MS Escorial X.IV.6 is a Greek horologion headed by an original figure of the Vision of Pachomios. The codex belonged to Zacharias Megayannis, a member of the Greek community in Venice in the middle of the 16th century. According to two notes in the manuscript, it was offered by a monk called Paisios to Zacharias in Cairo in 1513. It had been copied by two scribes, one of them called Parthenios.
Copyists moved around as much as artists, but we are better-informed about their wanderings, than... more Copyists moved around as much as artists, but we are better-informed about their wanderings, thanks to the colophons with which they ended their copies. Therefore, failing to ask the scribe of an illuminated manuscript for information about where it was produced is an unnecessary error, which is not without consequences. Moscow, State Historical Museum, Synod. gr. 429 and S. Lorenzo de El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio, R I 19 , are the only illuminated Greek manuscripts with the Akathistos Hymn we keep. Their pictorial cycle, created in the time of Andronikos II, has been widely studied, but their handwriting have never received proper attention. This paper intends to offer a fresh regard on both manuscripts, for which it argues new datings. On the one side, the Moscow cannot be considered to be a commission from the patriarch Philotheos, and that it must date from the end of the fourteenth century. As regards the production of the Escorial R I 19 , its place of origin has been attributed to Venice and Crete, simply on the basis of its illustrations. Contrary to these locations, the Constantinopolitan nature of the handwriting of the Escorial Akathistos, favors a copy in Constantinople in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, before its model, the Moscow Akathistos, was taken to Italy and completed there by John Rhosos. This location for the production of the Escorial Akathistos is a proof of the artistic vitality kept by Constantinopolitan painters till the very fall of Constantinople.
Byzantine Commentaries on Ancient Greek Texts, 12th–15th Centuries, 2022
The Periegesis or Description of the Known World by Dionysius of Alexandria (second century AD) i... more The Periegesis or Description of the Known World by Dionysius of Alexandria (second century AD) is the only Greek didactic poem composed to teach the Roman student elementary notions about the inhabited world. Eustathios of Thessalonike, who prior to his nomination for the position of archbishop of Thessalonike in 1175/8 was maistor ton rhetoron, the leading professor of rhetoric in Constantinople, wrote a systematic commentary on the poem in the form of parekbolai, as he had previously done for the Homeric epics. The prefatory letter addressed to John Doukas, the son of Andronikos Kamateros, suggests that the influential Kamateros family was the primary addressee of a work that certainly was also used by Eustathios in his teaching. Eustathios did not seek to correct errors and ambiguities or to question the validity of Dionysius’ vision of the world, even if he did not shrink from pointing out some of the contradictions found throughout the poem. Rather, his aim was to expand the brief information that the poem gives about towns and places, explain the poet’s stylistic decisions and specify the origin and spelling of toponyms and demonyms.
Virtute vir tutus. Studi di letteratura greca, bizantina e umanistica offerti a Enrico V. Maltese, 2023
This paper analyzes Eustathios of Thessalonike’s treatment of the Caucasus mountain range in his ... more This paper analyzes Eustathios of Thessalonike’s treatment of the Caucasus mountain range in his Parekbolai to Dionysius Periegetes as a way to explore how he taught geography in his courses on ancient poetry. Although Eustathios states in the proem of the work that he does not wish to amend the information offered by Dionysius of Alexandria’s Periegesis, later on in the text he criticizes both the linguistic uses of the poem and the ambiguities or contradictions in the geographical description. In the case of the Caucasus, Eustathios uses the punishment of Prometheus to distinguish between the different mountain ranges that bear that name and performs a work of geographical criticism when he explains, following Strabo, the reasons for the reuse of the toponym in India; finally, he denounces the lack of definition of the Far East, more populated by myths than defined by geographical information.
The Periegesis of Dionysius of Alexandria, a poem composed in the time of Hadrian which offered a... more The Periegesis of Dionysius of Alexandria, a poem composed in the time of Hadrian which offered a synoptic vision of the oikoumene, was from the beginning probably accompanied by scholia and a paraphrase that made its content more accessible and helped to multiply the number of Byzantine copies that we preserve of the text. The Parekbolai on the poem written by Eustathios of Thessalonike (c. 1168 – c. 1175/8) have the peculiarity of being preceded by a prefatory letter dedicating the work to a specific individual, John Doukas Kamateros. The present contribution analyzes some aspects of the Parekbolai, particularly of the preface, such as Eustathios’ insistence on the practical character of the commentary, which points to the political and administrative context of his teaching as well as his decision not to correct or complete the poem but to limit himself to examining and expanding upon the content of the verses themselves. Finally, it demonstrates that Eustathios’ prooimion and the prolegomena to the Periegesis that appear in most of the copies bring together a set of notions about the known world which constituted the fundamentals of geographical knowledge for the Byzantines.
The contribution considers an aspect of Byzantine culture never studied as a whole until now, nam... more The contribution considers an aspect of Byzantine culture never studied as a whole until now, namely the training acquired by the Byzantines who were in the service of the Palaiologan emperors, both in the army and in the restoration of fortifications, and of course in the offices of the administration, especially the tax office. From the sources we can deduce a panorama of little specialization and great versatility in the tasks entrusted to the emperor’s officials and servants. In this context, only the trades linked to the bureaucracy, accustomed to the use of writing materials, have left treatises and other manuscript testimonies, while the trades far from the offices of the treasury and the imperial secretaries, such as the sailors or the builders, seem to have transmitted orally the knowledge required for their work. Our study also stresses the importance of the model offered by Nicaea for the education sponsored by Michael VIII Palaiologos after 1261, the absence of an imperial or patriarchal school that was more than just teaching organized around the figure of a teacher, and the lack of a fixed program of disciplines that responded to the scheme inherited from the seven liberal arts (trivium and quadrivium). Likewise, we have seen how it was the very social group that benefited from its proximity to the emperor that was concerned with facilitating the training of future servants and transmitting the privileges granted by education to their descendants.
This article presents the first edition of a brief collection of recipes gathered in the manuscri... more This article presents the first edition of a brief collection of recipes gathered in the manuscript Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Urb. Gr. 67. This is a codex en- tirely dedicated to Galen and composed of two clearly differentiated parts. The collection of remedies from the Galenic tradition appears in the oldest part (ff. 53-275) of the codex, ca. 1300, and it has been added by the copyist (ff. 186v-187v) to complete the quire numbered ιζ’ (17) at the end of Galen’s De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos.
Table of contents
1. Introduction: Questions of (dis)continuity and the ‘why not’ question
2. The... more Table of contents 1. Introduction: Questions of (dis)continuity and the ‘why not’ question 2. The cursus studiorum 3. The educational context 4. Scientific books: The path of learning 5. Fragmenting knowledge 6. Outlining knowledge 7. Other pedagogical strategies
Les nombreuses contributions de Michel Kaplan portant sur l’administration monastique du XIe sièc... more Les nombreuses contributions de Michel Kaplan portant sur l’administration monastique du XIe siècle, et, en particulier, sur les responsables de la gestion économique des monastères constituent le point de départ des réflexions que nous allons exposer dans le présent travail. Les études de Kaplan nous donneront l’opportunité d’expliquer le changement culturel en fonction des conditions socio-économiques, un exercice particulièrement intéressant du fait que le contexte de la production livresque à Byzance reste encore sous de nombreux aspects difficile à appréhender. Les données rassemblées dans ces pages mettent en lumière, à nos yeux, un phénomène historique que Michel Kaplan et d’autres historiens ont abordé à partir d’évidences de nature distincte. L’inclusion dans la vie monastique de notaires qui ajoutaient au nombre de leurs activités la copie de livres est un aspect parmi d’autres de la sécularisation du monachisme. C’est ainsi l’occasion, une fois encore, de montrer que la compréhension correcte des témoignages écrits ne peut se passer de la réflexion sur leur contexte historique.
This first book entirely devoted to Byzantine science is the result of the hugely diverse goals, ... more This first book entirely devoted to Byzantine science is the result of the hugely diverse goals, contexts, and accomplishments of the different scientific fields that developed through this civilisation’s eleven centuries of existence (4th-15th C.). The introductory chapter focuses mainly on the modern vs Byzantine conceptions of science and to the semantic fields covered by this term, then and now, whereas the first two chapters analyse the Christianisation of pagan science and the beginnings of Byzantine science as well as its teaching during the Byzantine civilisation. Thereafter follow eleven chapters that cover the following fields: Logic, Arithmetic, Harmonic Theory, Geometry, Metrology, Optics and Mechanics, Theories of Vision, Meteorology and Physics, Astronomy, Geography, Zoology, Botany, Medicine and Pharmacology, Veterinary medicine, Science of warfare and Occult Sciences. This volume, organized by topic, with essays by distinguished scholars offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of byzantine science currently available. It is an important editorial venture, aimed not only at specialists, including students of the history of Byzantine science, but the wider public, to all readers interested in medieval history in general.
Nikephoros Gregoras in his Roman History (14th century) uses Octavius Augustus to explain how Ale... more Nikephoros Gregoras in his Roman History (14th century) uses Octavius Augustus to explain how Alexios Apokaukos, a pretender to the throne of Constantinople, increased his power in the squally days of the Civil War II (1341–47). Octavius would have been the inspiration for Apokaukos to undertake some political manoeuvres in order to increase dramatically his own power in Constantinople. Cassius Dio (3rd century) and the Epitome of John Xiphilinos (11th century) are the historical sources that allowed Gregoras to know the Roman Principate and gave him the interpretative clues to present contempo- rary history. His marginal notes in the most ancient codex of Cassius Dio (cod. Marc. gr. 395, 10th century) and his reading notes of Xiphilinos’ Epitome preserved by the cod. Palat. Heidelberg. gr. 129 are the material proof of his knowledge about Augustus’ Principate.
Erytheia: Revista de estudios bizantinos y …, Jan 1, 1998
"Se pretende describir los complejos procesos de cambio social que marcaron la conquista turca de... more "Se pretende describir los complejos procesos de cambio social que marcaron la conquista turca de Asia menor desde el s. XI al s. XV.
Se presentan las distintas dinámicas de resistencia y conquista en el proceso que supuso la pérdida de Anatolia para el Imperio de Constantinopla, destacando las influencias entre las civilizaciones griega y turca y las adaptaciones a las nuevas realidades por parte de ambas."
"Estudia el momento definitorio de la civilización bizantina en el ámbito de la transición de la ... more "Estudia el momento definitorio de la civilización bizantina en el ámbito de la transición de la ciudad antigua al kastron, insistiendo en el papel de Constantinopla, en los equilibrios de poder centro/periferia, las funciones comerciales, militares o eclesiásticas de las ciudades.
Presenta los nuevos modelos de urbanismo de la ciudad oriental cristiana, redimensionada y a la defensiva en su nueva posición elevada desde el s. VII."
En este volumen dedicado a la cárcel en el mundo antiguo, nuestra contribución sobre la cárcel bi... more En este volumen dedicado a la cárcel en el mundo antiguo, nuestra contribución sobre la cárcel bizantina puede justificarse como epilogo dedicado a una civ%zación de la que resulta francamente problemático determinar cuándo empieza p cuándo acaba su predecesora romana. En el Bizancio heredero del Imperio romano de Oriente sobreviven muchas de las instituciones del entramado administrativo que caracteriza un estado poderoso como el romano y, por esta razón, existe una prolongación natural hacia Bizancio de debates que afectan tanto a la función de la cárcel en época romana como a uno entre tantos prejuicios sobre la sociedad tardoantigua, habitualmente caracterizada por una violencia congénita y una mayor represión de ésta por parte del Estado.
Las sabias mujeres: educación, saber y autoría ( …, Jan 1, 1994
"Analiza los niveles de formación alcanzados por las nobles bizantinas a lo largo de la historia ... more "Analiza los niveles de formación alcanzados por las nobles bizantinas a lo largo de la historia del Imperio a partir de las obras escritas por ellas mismas, su correspondencia y sus bibliotecas.
Trata la educación elemental, media y superior de la mujer en Bizancio. Menciona los tópicos denigratorios hacia la mujer culta, el fenómeno de la reclusión y la actividad intelectual de personajes como la princesa Ana Comnena, Teodora Raulena, Irene Cumno…
URI :"
[ES] Este artículo presenta una serie de late Roman unguentaria de los siglos VI-VII d.C, hallado... more [ES] Este artículo presenta una serie de late Roman unguentaria de los siglos VI-VII d.C, hallados en las recientes excavaciones llevadas a cabo en Carthago Spartaria, la actual Cartagena, en España. Estos ungüentarios son analizados en función de su tipología, cronología, contexto, función, sellos y patrones de distribución e incrementan la nómina de evidencias arqueológicas sobre la presencia bizantina en Spania, proporcionándonos nuevos datos acerca de la arqueología, la historia y la economía de este territorio durante este período. [EN] This article presents a large group of sixth-seventh Century late Roman unguentaria retrieved in the recent excavations at Carthago Spartaria, modern Cartagena, Spain. These unguentaria are studied in their typology, chronology, context, function, stamps and distribution patterns; they increase the body of archaeological evidence about Byzantine presence in Spania, providing us with new information about the archaeology, history and economy of this territory during this period.
This conference has a protagonist: the medieval textbooks for the teaching of Greek. These source... more This conference has a protagonist: the medieval textbooks for the teaching of Greek. These sources are studied from the point of view of palaeography, philology, and aspects concerning the Digital Humanities (DH), historical (socio)linguistics (HSL).
While presenting specific case studies, our papers should contribute to creating a coherent intellectual journey. Medieval Greek is the key word and a unifying factor of our conference: we regard Medieval Greek from educational, cultural, linguistic, and the hermeneutical points of view.
Though so far no autographs of George/Gregory of Cyprus have been attested, his handwriting has b... more Though so far no autographs of George/Gregory of Cyprus have been attested, his handwriting has been identified in a number of manuscripts. This evidence enables us to explore the major crossroad in his literary training, namely his discovery of the Greek orator Aelius Aristides (ad 117-181). The paper explored the manuscripts of Aelius Aristides copied by George of Cyprus and the joint transmission of both authors, in an attempt to classify them in various ways: some manuscripts come to us via the Patriarchate of Constantinople and others through the Monastery of Chora. This evidence led to some reflections on the Byzantine rhetorical canon and on the transmission of Byzantine oratory.
Exposición bibliográfica celebrada con motivo del quinto centenario de su nacimiento (Hospedería ... more Exposición bibliográfica celebrada con motivo del quinto centenario de su nacimiento (Hospedería del Colegio Fonseca, noviembre 2012 – enero 2013, Salamanca, Universidad, 2012.
"Balance de las colecciones de manuscritos griegos en España, destacando algunos de sus volúmenes... more "Balance de las colecciones de manuscritos griegos en España, destacando algunos de sus volúmenes más representativos y lujosos.
Panorámica de los códices bizantinos, con ejemplos datados del s. IX al s. XVI, y un análisis preciso de un grupo de ellos, prueba de la riqueza de la civilización bizantina y la perfección alcanzada en la producción libraria."
Este curso está dirigido a graduados, licenciados, y estudiantes de posgrado interesados en los d... more Este curso está dirigido a graduados, licenciados, y estudiantes de posgrado interesados en los diferentes tipos de análisis a los que se puede someter un amplio rango de fuentes primarias. El curso se centrará en el estudio de casos concretos donde los artefactos culturales cobran especial protagonismo. Para ellos se presentarán fuentes de diversa índole y procedencia, tanto escritas como materiales, que han suscitado diferentes preguntas en el proceso de investigación.
Una nota casual sobre el Vat. gr. 1851, que conserva una copia ilustrada de un poema en versos po... more Una nota casual sobre el Vat. gr. 1851, que conserva una copia ilustrada de un poema en versos políticos al que Michael Jeffreys ha propuesto llamar εἰσιτήριον, destinado a servir de guía a una princesa extranjera recién llegada a la corte de Bizancio. La novia es sin duda Agnès–Ana de Francia, hija de Luis VII y entonces todavía una niña, quien llegó en 1179 a Constantinopla, donde el emperador Manuel I Comneno había organizado su boda con su hijo Alejo II. Aunque los historiadores del arte han planteado dataciones diversas para el códice, la escritura no deja dudas sobre el hecho de que es contemporáneo de la llegada de Agnès de Francia a Bizancio.
El flamenco como excusa para hablar de la música visigoda, los gitanos, Egipto y la cultura inmem... more El flamenco como excusa para hablar de la música visigoda, los gitanos, Egipto y la cultura inmemorial de Andalucía.
Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Bizantinística, 2020
Algunas reflexiones sobre el significado del monasterio de San Salvador de Cora en mi vivencia co... more Algunas reflexiones sobre el significado del monasterio de San Salvador de Cora en mi vivencia como bizantinista y para recordar a aquellos estudiosos como Thomas Whittemore y Paul Atkins Underwood, cuyo trabajo convirtió la fundación de Teodoro Metoquita en lo que es ahora para los Estudios bizantinos.
The codex studied in these pages has not received the attention it deserves, either for the uniqu... more The codex studied in these pages has not received the attention it deserves, either for the uniqueness of its texts or for the old? age of the copy. The first part (ff. 1-50) contains a Chronographia syntomos that IRIARTE erroneously identified with the Chronographikon syntomon of the Patriarch Nicephorus, an error that was followed by other scholars until BAUER published the work in 1909, despite which it has never been present in the studies of chronographies from the Macedonian period. The second part of the codex (ff. 51-82) is a miscellany of fragmentary materials attributed more or less justifiably to Hippolytus. Among them, the presentation of the codex gives a prominent place to the Diamerismos (ff. 51v-63) and the Stadiasmos of the Sea (ff. 63-82v). This contribution aims to examine the Madrid MS in order to understand the meaning of the miscellany of its texts: a brief Byzantine chronography updated in the reign of Leo VI and partially coinciding with the Tables attributed to the Patriarch Nicephorus, then the initial fragment of the Synagoge of Hippolytus (3rd c.), one of the works that started the assimilation of the biblical computus into the Christian mind-set. Finally, after a brief transition between biblical history and Roman geography, a fragmentary Mediterranean periplus which essentially dates back to the Augustan era and was incorporated by Hippolytus into his Synagoge. Our research will conclude that these historiographical and geographical materials, despite their fragmented nature, were copied in Constantinople shortly after the intense recovery of historical texts promoted by Emperor Constantine VII.
The scientific texts composed by Michael Psellos (1018-1078), imperial professor of philosophy (ὕ... more The scientific texts composed by Michael Psellos (1018-1078), imperial professor of philosophy (ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων) from 1047 onwards, are an exceptional case of popularisation of a knowledge that was available to the Byzantines at their libraries. This textual production has been approached by classicists as evidence on Aristotle’s writings among others, while from the perspective of the Byzantine culture it constitutes an important piece of evidence about the interest in explaing the physical environment and the place of the human beings in there by cultivated Byzantines in the 11th century. In the present case, Psellos’ treatise On the map (Περὶ τοῦ γεωγραφικοῦ πίνακος) was published by Lasserre as a fragmentary testimony of Strabo’s Geography from the MS Par. gr. 1630; in the current contribution, however, we offer a critical edition of the text (tackled as an independent text) that includes the supplementary testimonies of the MSS Barocci 131 and Mutin. α.T.9.3. The author’s method can be noted: Strabo’s reading brought him in contact with the scientific discussion on the map of the inhabited world explained by the geographer in his second book, and Psellos decided to summarize in a sketch or hypotyposis some of the data arising from the cartographical debate. Thus, his choice of excerpta from Strabo is introduced as a description of the oikoumene’s map, to which thereby the attention of Psellos’ pupils and readers was drawn.
Prefacio a la edición española (Averil Cameron, Septiembre de 2016)
Es un placer para mí responde... more Prefacio a la edición española (Averil Cameron, Septiembre de 2016) Es un placer para mí responder a la invitación de escribir un prefacio a la traducción española de Byzantine Matters y saber que el libro será accesible para una audiencia nueva y más amplia. Estoy asimismo muy agradecida a mi colega Inmaculada Pérez Martín, que es la Presidenta de la Sociedad Española de Bizantinística, por su entusiasmo y excelente traducción. Compartimos el deseo de que Bizancio sea mejor comprendido, y lo sea por las razones correctas y no por las equivocadas. La recepción de Bizancio ha tenido una historia turbulenta en el pasado que en parte sigue existiendo en nuestros días. Mi objetivo en este libro es abordar algunas de estas cuestiones y estimular nuevas formas de pensar sobre este tema y sobre las razones por las que nos interesa a todos. El Imperio bizantino tuvo una vida extraordinariamente larga, de casi once siglos. Naturalmente, muchos fueron los cambios y variaciones de fortuna a lo largo de todo este tiempo. En su fase final, el mundo en el que vivían los bizantinos sufrió una transformación drástica. Se esfumaron los mundos antiguo y medieval en los que Bizancio se había conformado; en 1453, cuando Constantinopla cayó en manos otomanas, el Renacimiento italiano estaba en camino y la edad de la imprenta daba sus primeros pasos. Los intelectuales bizantinos eran muy conscientes de lo que Italia podía ofrecer, y los manuscritos que se abrieron camino hasta allí jugaron un papel fundamental en el redescubrimiento de la literatura clásica en Europa occidental. Paralelamente, en el este, el Imperio abbasí había cedido el lugar a los fatimíes y más tarde a los ayyubíes, y el Imperio mongol se había fragmentado. Los viajes de Marco Polo eran cosa del pasado y los viajes de Cristóbal Colón estaban a punto de empezar. Desde sus orígenes mismos como mitad oriental del Imperio romano hasta su etapa final, Bizancio estuvo a medio camino entre Oriente y Occidente. En este presente en el que nos enfrentamos a las divisiones de nuestro mundo, es más necesario que nunca tener en cuenta a Bizancio y evitar la simple oposición binaria entre Europa occidental y el este. La gran afluencia de público a algunas exposiciones recientes demuestran la fascinación por Bizancio y el alto nivel de interés popular en su arte y cultura. Sin embargo, un compromiso serio con Bizancio como sociedad es mucho más difícil de alcanzar. El estudio académico de Bizancio es todavía un campo minoritario, y hasta hace poco se ha caracterizado por su enfoque conservador y propio de especialistas. Esto está cambiando, gracias a que nuevas generaciones de estudiosos jóvenes están descubriendo por sí mismos todo lo que Bizancio puede ofrecer, a la vez que aportan nuevos enfoques a la materia. Sin embargo, aún queda mucho camino por recorrer antes de que el estudio de Bizancio se convierta en parte integrante de una conciencia histórica europea más amplia. Queda por hacer mucho trabajo básico. La percepción de Bizancio como una sociedad embrutecedora y burocrática dominada por la religión ha de ser cuestionada con más energía así como contextualizada gracias a su comparación con otras sociedades. Pero las asunciones más viejas empiezan a ser retadas y la interconexión de Bizancio con un mundo más amplio empieza a ser reconocida. Tal proceso es esencial si queremos entender nuestro propio pasado y evitar una retórica peligrosa y simplista sobre el “oeste” y el “este”. Los estudiantes y estudiosos españoles y el público de lectores españoles son ya parte de esta re-orientación más amplia y de la nueva apertura hacia Bizancio, y me complace poder contribuir a este proceso. Estoy inmensamente agradecida a la Princeton University Press en primer lugar y ahora a la Editorial Bellaterra y especialmente a Inmaculada Pérez Martín por conseguir que esto suceda.
El manual de paleografía griega de Lidia Perria que ahora se traduce al español fue en el momento... more El manual de paleografía griega de Lidia Perria que ahora se traduce al español fue en el momento de su publicación (el año 2011) un acontecimiento felicísimo en el panorama de los estudios de paleografía, en los que nunca se había disfrutado de un libro de texto completo y sistemático escrito por un auténtico especialista en la materia que hubiera reflexionado sobre la idiosincrasia de la escritura griega. La obra tenía además la virtud de hacer una presentación clara y simple de problemas complejos, de abordar no solamente la historia de la escritura griega sino también otros aspectos relativos al manuscrito griego (fundamentalmente de época bizantina y humanista) muy importantes para la comprensión histórica y cultural del fenómeno de la escritura. La obra está, en efecto, organizada de modo cronológico, empezando por la época helenística y acabando en el Renacimiento italiano, cuando poco a poco los textos griegos se difunden gracias a la imprenta, un fenómeno que se prolonga durante el siglo XVI conviviendo con la actividad de copistas de origen griego no sólo en Italia, sino también en nuestro país y en otros. El manual pasa así revista a los distintos estilos de escritura mayúscula y minúscula, con estudios separados siempre que es posible de las manifestaciones “provinciales” de la escritura, desde Palestina y Egipto hasta el sur de Italia. Complementariamente, el lector puede encontrar un capítulo inicial sobre la terminología y problemas generales de la escritura griega y una serie de apéndices finales de gran utilidad sobre las abreviaturas (indispensable para aprender a leer la escritura griega minúscula), las notas cronológicas y de copia de los manuscritos y, especialmente importante, el estudio codicológico de los libros antiguos y medievales, desde el material de escritura hasta la encuadernación pasando por el pautado y los cuadernos. La descripción de los distintos estilos de escritura está acompañada de un buen número de ilustraciones de manuscritos, muchos de ellos custodiados en la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Las imágenes son el complemento indispensable para que el lector adquiera los rudimentos de la datación y descripción de las escrituras griegas. Es la primera vez que podemos disponer en castellano de un libro de estas características, que da las claves para el aprendizaje de una disciplina fundamental para el estudio de los textos y su transmisión.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, V... more ENGLISH ABSTRACT
The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 31, with Euclid's Elementa, Optica and Phaenomena, establishes that seven scribes collaborated in its copy at the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century and that their work is linked to the different models of Euclid they used both for the text and for the commentary. Several later hands added notes to the text, noticeably Maximos Planudes, whose handwriting we identify in the autographic addition on the upper margin of f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
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RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
El análisis paleográfico y codicológico de un valioso códice griego que contiene Elementa, Optica y Phaenomena de Euclides, el Vindob. phil. gr. 31, pone de manifiesto que siete copistas colaboraron a finales del siglo XI o comienzos del XII en su copia y que su trabajo está relacionado con los diferentes modelos de Euclides que usaron tanto para el texto como para el comentario. Diversas manos posteriores añadieron notas al texto, en especial la de Máximo Planudes, cuya escritura identificamos en la adición autógrafa del margen superior del f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most imp... more ENGLISH ABSTRACT
The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript of the epistolary of Theodoros II Laskaris, determines that it is made up of three codicological units and that, despite the dauntingly changing aspect of the handwriting, only four hands transcribed texts and one out of them (scribe 1) copied the primary texts of the codex (the epistolaries of Theodoros II Laskaris and Synesius and a homily by Maximos Planudes). Initially the codex was possessed by Manuel Angelos, whose death around 1303 provides a terminus ante quem for its copy. For his part, scribe 4 has to be identified with a subsequent owner of the manuscript, since he included in it private notes, dated between 1324 and 1325. Those reminders present him as an aristocrat who belonged to imperial and ecclesiastical circles and a man of letters with economic interests in the Sporades Islands. The current book was therefore produced from before 1303 to before 1324-1325 in a stable copying environment, whether a private library or a public bureau. The last addition to the book were five letters composed probably by Manuel Angelos, that we publish here for the first time.
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RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
El estudio codicológico y paleográfico del Laur. Plut. 59.35, el manuscrito más importante del epistolario de Teodoro II Láscaris, determina que está formado por tres unidades de copia y que, a pesar del aspecto general cambiante de la escritura, solo cuatro manos transcribieron textos y de ellas solo una (cop. 1) copió los textos primarios del códice (los epistolarios de Teodoro II Láscaris y Sinesio y una homilía de Máximo Planudes). Inicialmente, el códice fue propiedad de Manuel Ángelos, cuya muerte hacia 1303 proporciona un terminus ante quem para su copia. Por su parte, el cop. 4 ha de identificarse con un posterior propietario del manuscrito, ya que, en él, aparte de dos poemas en ff. 185v-186, incluyó notas privadas, fechadas entre 1324 y 1325, que lo presentan como un aristócrata que formaba parte de los cír-culos imperiales y eclesiásticos y un hombre de letras con intereses económicos en las islas Espóradas. El volumen actual fue, por tanto, producido desde antes de ca. 1303 hasta antes de 1324-1325 en un entorno estable de copia, ya sea este una biblioteca privada o unas oficinas públicas. El último añadido al libro fueron cinco cartas compuestas probablemente por Manuel Ángelos, que editamos aquí por vez primera.
Pocas civilizaciones han sido objeto de juicios tan contradictorios como la bizantina. Si para un... more Pocas civilizaciones han sido objeto de juicios tan contradictorios como la bizantina. Si para un sector la Roma de Oriente alcanzó altas cotas de esplendor cultural y refinamiento; para otros, encarnó la decadencia del mundo antiguo y buena parte de los estereotipos del medieval. El propio Justiniano, ya en su misma época, fue amado y odiado a partes iguales. Con motivo de las XIX Jornadas de Bizancio (UCM, 24 a 27 de enero de 2022), invitamos a huir de estos juicios pendulares, de estos juegos de espejos cuyos violentos contrastes omiten matices y no reparan en la esencia de un período trascendental en el paso de la Antigüedad a la Edad Media. Para ello, el vestíbulo de la Facultad de Filología de la UCM acoge la exposición temporal “El umbral del imperio. Nuevas miradas a la Hispania bizantina”. A través de una veintena de paneles, el público interesado podrá conocer desde aquellas ciudades que fueron objeto de ocupación bizantina, como el arte o la cultura de la Hispania de los siglos VI y VII. Para ello, se ha contado con la participación activa de investigadores adscritos a más de una decena de universidades, centros de investigación y diversos museos españoles. Dentro de esta misma actividad, distintos expositores dispuestos en el vestíbulo y la biblioteca exhibirán monografías y publicaciones periódicas invitando a conocer un periodo tan apasionante como enigmático.
La période dont traite ce volume est encadrée par deux chutes, celle de 1204 et celle de 1453. Ce... more La période dont traite ce volume est encadrée par deux chutes, celle de 1204 et celle de 1453. Ces événements retentissants ont polarisé l’attention des historiens, suscitant des études nombreuses qui sont allées, pour certaines, jusqu’à mettre en doute la pérennité de l’Empire byzantin après 1204, en considérant ces deux siècles et demi comme l’épilogue d’une longue histoire impériale. La prise de Constantinople par les croisés en 1204 a, de fait, ouvert une période marquée par des crises multiples, que la conquête de la capitale en 1261 par la dynastie des Paléologues n’a pas résolues, tandis que d’autres périls se sont surajoutés : rivalités avec d’autres puissances régionales (en Épire, en Bulgarie, en Serbie, dans le Péloponnèse), prosélytisme de l’Église latine d’un côté et conversions à l’islam de l’autre, chute des rendements agricoles, bouleversements démographiques suscités par l’irruption de la peste noire ou l’arrivée de nouvelles populations turques acculées par l’expansion mongole… La conquête ottomane de Constantinople en 1453 a ainsi pu apparaître comme la conséquence logique d’un long processus d’affaiblissement entamé au début du XIIIe siècle.
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Greek Paleography by Inmaculada Pérez Martín
Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of Themistius’ speeches) that
allows us to explain how the current codex was created. The oldest part is
dated by watermarks to the years 1310-30 and its copy is probably located
in Thessalonica; it consists of three codicological units on which four co-
pyists worked partly autonomously and - at least copp. 2, 3 and 4-, partly
on the basis of what was already copied by the others. The duplicate con-
tents of Synesius and Libanius show that the codicological units that now
make up the volume were copied independently and were put together
circumstantially perhaps by their possessor, cop. 3. At the end of the 14th
or beginning of the 15th century Ioannes Chortasmenos read its copy of
Synesius and reorganized the quires of the UC2. In the mid-15th century
Ioannes Sophianos restored the Paleologan volume, perhaps commissioned by the Bologna professor of Greek, Lianoro Lianori, who was its owner and whose coat of arms was included in the band of f. 1r. Like other Lianori’s codices, Salm. 232 was annotated by El Pinciano and preserved at the University of Salamanca.
Notre contribution a pour but de placer dans son contexte historique et philologique ce manuscrit, le Marc. gr. XI.6 (sigle D) , copie des livres X-XVII de Strabon faite à une date connue, en mai 1321, mais dans un lieu inconnu. L’étude codicologique, paléographique et textuelle que nous offrons ici, accompagnée de l’édition des scholies et de textes inédits du Marcianus, établit que le modèle de ce deuxième tome de Strabon, appelé δ dans le stemma de François Lasserre, était ou a vraisemblablement été dépecé au moment de la copie pour permettre d’effectuer rapidement le manuscrit. Nous mettons également en évidence le fait que le copiste principal, qui a organisé la transcription et annoté le texte dont il fut sans doute le possesseur, a probablement eu accès à un autre manuscrit de Strabon aujourd’hui perdu, ωʹ, copié au plus tard dans la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle, puisqu’il a servi pour ses commentaires à Eustathe de Thessalonique, à qui il appartenait sans doute et qui semble l’avoir annoté . Nous essayerons de lier les renseignements textuels avec les données historiques sur le manuscrit pour comprendre cette partie de l’histoire du texte de Strabon, connaître les intérêts de ses copistes et de ses lecteurs, et proposer d’identifier son « maître de copie » à un élève de Planude, Georges Lakapènos.
Salm. 232 (one of the main testimonies of Themistius’ speeches) that
allows us to explain how the current codex was created. The oldest part is
dated by watermarks to the years 1310-30 and its copy is probably located
in Thessalonica; it consists of three codicological units on which four co-
pyists worked partly autonomously and - at least copp. 2, 3 and 4-, partly
on the basis of what was already copied by the others. The duplicate con-
tents of Synesius and Libanius show that the codicological units that now
make up the volume were copied independently and were put together
circumstantially perhaps by their possessor, cop. 3. At the end of the 14th
or beginning of the 15th century Ioannes Chortasmenos read its copy of
Synesius and reorganized the quires of the UC2. In the mid-15th century
Ioannes Sophianos restored the Paleologan volume, perhaps commissioned by the Bologna professor of Greek, Lianoro Lianori, who was its owner and whose coat of arms was included in the band of f. 1r. Like other Lianori’s codices, Salm. 232 was annotated by El Pinciano and preserved at the University of Salamanca.
Notre contribution a pour but de placer dans son contexte historique et philologique ce manuscrit, le Marc. gr. XI.6 (sigle D) , copie des livres X-XVII de Strabon faite à une date connue, en mai 1321, mais dans un lieu inconnu. L’étude codicologique, paléographique et textuelle que nous offrons ici, accompagnée de l’édition des scholies et de textes inédits du Marcianus, établit que le modèle de ce deuxième tome de Strabon, appelé δ dans le stemma de François Lasserre, était ou a vraisemblablement été dépecé au moment de la copie pour permettre d’effectuer rapidement le manuscrit. Nous mettons également en évidence le fait que le copiste principal, qui a organisé la transcription et annoté le texte dont il fut sans doute le possesseur, a probablement eu accès à un autre manuscrit de Strabon aujourd’hui perdu, ωʹ, copié au plus tard dans la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle, puisqu’il a servi pour ses commentaires à Eustathe de Thessalonique, à qui il appartenait sans doute et qui semble l’avoir annoté . Nous essayerons de lier les renseignements textuels avec les données historiques sur le manuscrit pour comprendre cette partie de l’histoire du texte de Strabon, connaître les intérêts de ses copistes et de ses lecteurs, et proposer d’identifier son « maître de copie » à un élève de Planude, Georges Lakapènos.
This paper contributes to the debate on the circulation of Aelios Aristides in Constantinople, among scholars of the early Palaeologan era; in particular in Metochites’ and Gregoras’ circle in Chora.
The author shows how Gregoras approached Aristides, and gives a thorough example of Gregoras’ reading and teaching practices by editing his annotations on Aristides’ Panathenaikos, preserved in Escorial Φ.Ι.18. In his reading of the Panathenaikos, Gregoras was looking not only for a refined text in Attic prose, but also for information about Ancient Greece. His curiosity about this historical period, which he no doubt saw as part of the past of Byzantium, was satisfied not only by reading ancient historiography but also works by the orators. The political and military history of the Greeks was the inspiration for Gregoras’ own Rhomaïke Historia as well as for all the thoughts and moral judgements expressed in his vast work. Gregoras did not use the Panathenaikos for his own study of the history of ancient Athens. His at times intense, at times partial and trivial notes were designed as an introduction for other people with less knowledge of the koine, the history of Athens, and its political virtues. This study suggests that Escorial Φ.Ι.18. was used as a schoolbook at the monastery of Chora.
An English translation follows the most important notes. Two Appendices, “The Panathenaikos’ excerpts in Heidelberg. Palat. gr. 129” and “Gregorios Kyprios’ marginalia”, conclude the article.
Michael Psellos († 1078 or 1081) holds a unique prestigious position in later generations’ minds. The versatility of his thought and his literary quality impressed other Byzantine writers, who did not forget his contributions to many fields of knowledge and put their admiration into words. Psellos’ immense legacy is marked by dispersion: he probably never organized his writings nor his correspon¬dence ever constituted a proper collection. The earliest testimony of a corpus with his letters and his rhetorical, theological and philosophical writings is Laur. 57.40, for a long time dated in the 15th century, but now correctly dated during Alexios Comnenos’ reign (11th/12th c.). There, some writings are indicated as Psellian, others specify their author with τοῦ αὐτοῦ and others are small pieces separated by a simple (:-), without title or author. This kind of anonymous collection is found also in Barocci 131 and constitutes one of the major problems in Psellian transmission. They are usually considered the basic materials used by Psellos’ teaching, “little more than very intelligent scissors-and-paste exercices” (Duffy).
The other big collection of Psellian writings, Par. gr. 1182, was also copied before 1204, the big watershed in Byzantine textual transmission. Curiously enough, nor the Florence nor the Paris ms. have been hegemonic in the textual tradition. We can assume that during the Palaeologan Renaissance both ancient collections were not kept in a very accesible place and therefore they were rarely copied, even if in this period the interest on Psellos’ writings is guaranteed by a big amount of copies. Their exclusive aim to collect Psellos’ letters and opuscula will not be shared by any later testimony.
The isolated transmission of a single Psellian writing is very frequent. It can flank a main text which is in the origins of the one written by Psellos. This is the case of his writings on Gregorios Nazianzenos’ Homilies, transmitted jointly, a twofold succesful procedure, since it allowed to legitimize Psellos’ thinking by the proximity of Gregory of Nazianzus and to guarantee its preservation next to one of the most copied texts in Byzantium, his Homilies.
The transmission of single Psellian works in miscellaneous manuscripts was also very frequent. The handy size of many writings forced them to be copied keeping company to other texts akin in content: for example, Psellos’ commentaries on Aristotle were usually transmitted with similar Late Antique commentaries. This is the procedure by which Psellos entered the extensive and long-running corpora of tools serving the study of Philosophy, Grammar or other disciplines and it must be explained as a success of his teaching and as a proof of his ascendant over his contemporaries and the next generations.
From 1261 onwards we will find miscellaneous manuscripts responding to the personal taste and requirements of a person gathering basic materials mostly for his legal, rhetorical or philosophical training. This user’s or collection’s profile fits to almost every manuscript with a corpus of Psellian writings copied after 1261. Their scribes are not intending to preserve an entire corpus of writings for posterity but to gather in a single manuscript a certain group of texts to make them available for its owner or reader.
Among those manuscripts, we study four of them connected to each other by their scribes or their content: Oxford Bodleian Barocci 131, Heidelberg Palat. gr. 356, Vat. Barber. gr. 240 and Vat. gr. 207. They are the material reflex of the high education in Constantinople after 1261. They are not school manuscripts since they dont look like copied by students under the direction of a teacher, but they reflect the interests awoken by this education in the students and later officials.
Psellos’ writings seem to have experimented new formulas of preservation, mainly by the combination of Psellos’ works with other opuscula from the same field of knowledge. His transmission shows that the first generation of Palaeologan scholars and professors had interests as wide as those of Psellos himself. The new copies of his writings they were responsible of, can be defined as individual acts of preservation of a legacy difficult to grasp.
[EN] Vaticanus graecus 228 is a Plato's manuscript written in Constantinople in the early 14th Century, probably in the years 20-30, by Nicephours Gregoras, known historian and polymath and some of his fellows-scribes. This scholar, a disciple of Theodours Metochites, studied deeply Ptolomaeus' texts, as is known, and his interest on harmonic intervals is perhaps in the start of the diagramma he included in the margins of his copy of Timeo. His scholar is arithmetic development of the indications given by Plato on the demiurges' creation of the world's soul (Timeo 358-36B,l:. it's based on Timaeus of Locri De natura mundi et animae and wrobablv on Proclus' Commentary, but it goes further in defining intervals and consonants. A good example, then, of the work Palaeologan scholarship could produce on ancient texts."
1. Introduction: Questions of (dis)continuity and the ‘why not’ question
2. The cursus studiorum
3. The educational context
4. Scientific books: The path of learning
5. Fragmenting knowledge
6. Outlining knowledge
7. Other pedagogical strategies
Les données rassemblées dans ces pages mettent en lumière, à nos yeux, un phénomène historique que Michel Kaplan et d’autres historiens ont abordé à partir d’évidences de nature distincte. L’inclusion dans la vie monastique de notaires qui ajoutaient au nombre de leurs activités la copie de livres est un aspect parmi d’autres de la sécularisation du monachisme. C’est ainsi l’occasion, une fois encore, de montrer que la compréhension correcte des témoignages écrits ne peut se passer de la réflexion sur leur contexte historique.
The introductory chapter focuses mainly on the modern vs Byzantine conceptions of science and to the semantic fields covered by this term, then and now, whereas the first two chapters analyse the Christianisation of pagan science and the beginnings of Byzantine science as well as its teaching during the Byzantine civilisation. Thereafter follow eleven chapters that cover the following fields: Logic, Arithmetic, Harmonic Theory, Geometry, Metrology, Optics and Mechanics, Theories of Vision, Meteorology and Physics, Astronomy, Geography, Zoology, Botany, Medicine and Pharmacology, Veterinary medicine, Science of warfare and Occult Sciences.
This volume, organized by topic, with essays by distinguished scholars offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of byzantine science currently available. It is an important editorial venture, aimed not only at specialists, including students of the history of Byzantine science, but the wider public, to all readers interested in medieval history in general.
Se presentan las distintas dinámicas de resistencia y conquista en el proceso que supuso la pérdida de Anatolia para el Imperio de Constantinopla, destacando las influencias entre las civilizaciones griega y turca y las adaptaciones a las nuevas realidades por parte de ambas."
Presenta los nuevos modelos de urbanismo de la ciudad oriental cristiana, redimensionada y a la defensiva en su nueva posición elevada desde el s. VII."
Trata la educación elemental, media y superior de la mujer en Bizancio. Menciona los tópicos denigratorios hacia la mujer culta, el fenómeno de la reclusión y la actividad intelectual de personajes como la princesa Ana Comnena, Teodora Raulena, Irene Cumno…
URI :"
[EN] This article presents a large group of sixth-seventh Century late Roman unguentaria retrieved in the recent excavations at Carthago Spartaria, modern Cartagena, Spain. These unguentaria are studied in their typology, chronology, context, function, stamps and distribution patterns; they increase the body of archaeological evidence about Byzantine presence in Spania, providing us with new information about the archaeology, history and economy of this territory during this period.
palaeography,
philology, and aspects concerning the Digital Humanities (DH),
historical (socio)linguistics (HSL).
While presenting specific case studies, our papers should contribute to creating a coherent intellectual journey. Medieval Greek is the key word and a unifying factor of our conference: we regard Medieval Greek from educational, cultural, linguistic, and the hermeneutical points of view.
Panorámica de los códices bizantinos, con ejemplos datados del s. IX al s. XVI, y un análisis preciso de un grupo de ellos, prueba de la riqueza de la civilización bizantina y la perfección alcanzada en la producción libraria."
This contribution aims to examine the Madrid MS in order to understand the meaning of the miscellany of its texts: a brief Byzantine chronography updated in the reign of Leo VI and partially coinciding with the Tables attributed to the Patriarch Nicephorus, then the initial fragment of the Synagoge of Hippolytus (3rd c.), one of the works that started the assimilation of the biblical computus into the Christian mind-set. Finally, after a brief transition between biblical history and Roman geography, a fragmentary Mediterranean periplus which essentially dates back to the Augustan era and was incorporated by Hippolytus into his Synagoge. Our research will conclude that these historiographical and geographical materials, despite their fragmented nature, were copied in Constantinople shortly after the intense recovery of historical texts promoted by Emperor Constantine VII.
Es un placer para mí responder a la invitación de escribir un prefacio a la traducción española de Byzantine Matters y saber que el libro será accesible para una audiencia nueva y más amplia. Estoy asimismo muy agradecida a mi colega Inmaculada Pérez Martín, que es la Presidenta de la Sociedad Española de Bizantinística, por su entusiasmo y excelente traducción. Compartimos el deseo de que Bizancio sea mejor comprendido, y lo sea por las razones correctas y no por las equivocadas.
La recepción de Bizancio ha tenido una historia turbulenta en el pasado que en parte sigue existiendo en nuestros días. Mi objetivo en este libro es abordar algunas de estas cuestiones y estimular nuevas formas de pensar sobre este tema y sobre las razones por las que nos interesa a todos.
El Imperio bizantino tuvo una vida extraordinariamente larga, de casi once siglos. Naturalmente, muchos fueron los cambios y variaciones de fortuna a lo largo de todo este tiempo. En su fase final, el mundo en el que vivían los bizantinos sufrió una transformación drástica. Se esfumaron los mundos antiguo y medieval en los que Bizancio se había conformado; en 1453, cuando Constantinopla cayó en manos otomanas, el Renacimiento italiano estaba en camino y la edad de la imprenta daba sus primeros pasos. Los intelectuales bizantinos eran muy conscientes de lo que Italia podía ofrecer, y los manuscritos que se abrieron camino hasta allí jugaron un papel fundamental en el redescubrimiento de la literatura clásica en Europa occidental. Paralelamente, en el este, el Imperio abbasí había cedido el lugar a los fatimíes y más tarde a los ayyubíes, y el Imperio mongol se había fragmentado. Los viajes de Marco Polo eran cosa del pasado y los viajes de Cristóbal Colón estaban a punto de empezar.
Desde sus orígenes mismos como mitad oriental del Imperio romano hasta su etapa final, Bizancio estuvo a medio camino entre Oriente y Occidente. En este presente en el que nos enfrentamos a las divisiones de nuestro mundo, es más necesario que nunca tener en cuenta a Bizancio y evitar la simple oposición binaria entre Europa occidental y el este.
La gran afluencia de público a algunas exposiciones recientes demuestran la fascinación por Bizancio y el alto nivel de interés popular en su arte y cultura. Sin embargo, un compromiso serio con Bizancio como sociedad es mucho más difícil de alcanzar. El estudio académico de Bizancio es todavía un campo minoritario, y hasta hace poco se ha caracterizado por su enfoque conservador y propio de especialistas. Esto está cambiando, gracias a que nuevas generaciones de estudiosos jóvenes están descubriendo por sí mismos todo lo que Bizancio puede ofrecer, a la vez que aportan nuevos enfoques a la materia.
Sin embargo, aún queda mucho camino por recorrer antes de que el estudio de Bizancio se convierta en parte integrante de una conciencia histórica europea más amplia. Queda por hacer mucho trabajo básico. La percepción de Bizancio como una sociedad embrutecedora y burocrática dominada por la religión ha de ser cuestionada con más energía así como contextualizada gracias a su comparación con otras sociedades. Pero las asunciones más viejas empiezan a ser retadas y la interconexión de Bizancio con un mundo más amplio empieza a ser reconocida. Tal proceso es esencial si queremos entender nuestro propio pasado y evitar una retórica peligrosa y simplista sobre el “oeste” y el “este”.
Los estudiantes y estudiosos españoles y el público de lectores españoles son ya parte de esta re-orientación más amplia y de la nueva apertura hacia Bizancio, y me complace poder contribuir a este proceso. Estoy inmensamente agradecida a la Princeton University Press en primer lugar y ahora a la Editorial Bellaterra y especialmente a Inmaculada Pérez Martín por conseguir que esto suceda.
La obra está, en efecto, organizada de modo cronológico, empezando por la época helenística y acabando en el Renacimiento italiano, cuando poco a poco los textos griegos se difunden gracias a la imprenta, un fenómeno que se prolonga durante el siglo XVI conviviendo con la actividad de copistas de origen griego no sólo en Italia, sino también en nuestro país y en otros. El manual pasa así revista a los distintos estilos de escritura mayúscula y minúscula, con estudios separados siempre que es posible de las manifestaciones “provinciales” de la escritura, desde Palestina y Egipto hasta el sur de Italia. Complementariamente, el lector puede encontrar un capítulo inicial sobre la terminología y problemas generales de la escritura griega y una serie de apéndices finales de gran utilidad sobre las abreviaturas (indispensable para aprender a leer la escritura griega minúscula), las notas cronológicas y de copia de los manuscritos y, especialmente importante, el estudio codicológico de los libros antiguos y medievales, desde el material de escritura hasta la encuadernación pasando por el pautado y los cuadernos.
La descripción de los distintos estilos de escritura está acompañada de un buen número de ilustraciones de manuscritos, muchos de ellos custodiados en la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Las imágenes son el complemento indispensable para que el lector adquiera los rudimentos de la datación y descripción de las escrituras griegas.
Es la primera vez que podemos disponer en castellano de un libro de estas características, que da las claves para el aprendizaje de una disciplina fundamental para el estudio de los textos y su transmisión.
The paleographical and codicological analysis of a valuable Greek manuscript, Vindob. phil. gr. 31, with Euclid's Elementa, Optica and Phaenomena, establishes that seven scribes collaborated in its copy at the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century and that their work is linked to the different models of Euclid they used both for the text and for the commentary. Several later hands added notes to the text, noticeably Maximos Planudes, whose handwriting we identify in the autographic addition on the upper margin of f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
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RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
El análisis paleográfico y codicológico de un valioso códice griego que contiene Elementa, Optica y Phaenomena de Euclides, el Vindob. phil. gr. 31, pone de manifiesto que siete copistas colaboraron a finales del siglo XI o comienzos del XII en su copia y que su trabajo está relacionado con los diferentes modelos de Euclides que usaron tanto para el texto como para el comentario. Diversas manos posteriores añadieron notas al texto, en especial la de Máximo Planudes, cuya escritura identificamos en la adición autógrafa del margen superior del f. 144v (sch. Elem. X.223).
The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript of the epistolary of Theodoros II Laskaris, determines that it is made up of three codicological units and that, despite the dauntingly changing aspect of the handwriting, only four hands transcribed texts and one out of them (scribe 1) copied the primary texts of the codex (the epistolaries of Theodoros II Laskaris and Synesius and a homily by Maximos Planudes). Initially the codex was possessed by Manuel Angelos, whose death around 1303 provides a terminus ante quem for its copy. For his part, scribe 4 has to be identified with a subsequent owner of the manuscript, since he included in it private notes, dated between 1324 and 1325. Those reminders present him as an aristocrat who belonged to imperial and ecclesiastical circles and a man of letters with economic interests in the Sporades Islands. The current book was therefore produced from before 1303 to before 1324-1325 in a stable copying environment, whether a private library or a public bureau. The last addition to the book were five letters composed probably by Manuel Angelos, that we publish here for the first time.
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RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
El estudio codicológico y paleográfico del Laur. Plut. 59.35, el manuscrito más importante del epistolario de Teodoro II Láscaris, determina que está formado por tres unidades de copia y que, a pesar del aspecto general cambiante de la escritura, solo cuatro manos transcribieron textos y de ellas solo una (cop. 1) copió los textos primarios del códice (los epistolarios de Teodoro II Láscaris y Sinesio y una homilía de Máximo Planudes). Inicialmente, el códice fue propiedad de Manuel Ángelos, cuya muerte hacia 1303 proporciona un terminus ante quem para su copia. Por su parte, el cop. 4 ha de identificarse con un posterior propietario del manuscrito, ya que, en él, aparte de dos poemas en ff. 185v-186, incluyó notas privadas, fechadas entre 1324 y 1325, que lo presentan como un aristócrata que formaba parte de los cír-culos imperiales y eclesiásticos y un hombre de letras con intereses económicos en las islas Espóradas. El volumen actual fue, por tanto, producido desde antes de ca. 1303 hasta antes de 1324-1325 en un entorno estable de copia, ya sea este una biblioteca privada o unas oficinas públicas. El último añadido al libro fueron cinco cartas compuestas probablemente por Manuel Ángelos, que editamos aquí por vez primera.