Byzantine philology

Published in: P. RANCE, ‘Finding the Right Words: a Letter to the Emperor (Laur. Plut. 55.4, f. 197v) – Books, Education and Rhetoric in a Late Byzantine Household [with Corrigenda to Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit]’, Παρεκβολαί / Parekbolai 12 (2022) 27-56 at 47-50

Published in: P. RANCE, ‘Finding the Right Words: a Letter to the Emperor (Laur. Plut. 55.4, f. 197v) – Books, Education and Rhetoric in a Late Byzantine Household [with Corrigenda to Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit]’, Παρεκβολαί / Parekbolai 12 (2022) 27-56 at 33-35

This paper examines annotations inscribed in three manuscripts by Demetrios Laskaris Leontares (1418 – post-1475), an aristocrat whose possession or use of a dozen codices is documented. Palaeographic and historical criteria place all three texts in his adolescence around the 1430s. The primary focus is tenth-century Laur. gr. 55.4, a well-known collection of military treatises, in which successive generations of the Laskaris Leontares family inserted notices on personal and imperial events (1408-50). Overlooked by previous scholarship, on blank folio 197v Demetrios Leontares penned and signed a short letter addressed to an emperor, which constitutes a rare autograph specimen of Byzantine epistolography. This item was previously transcribed by Bandini (1768), who declined to edit and interpret its ‘barbaric and utterly illiterate’ script. Providing a new edition and first translation, this study situates the text within the evolution of epistolographic conventions in the early fifteenth century, as evidenced in contemporary letters and/or prescribed in letter-writing manuals. Whether interpreted as a draft or copy of an actual letter or a classroom exercise, this short private text adds uncommon ‘domestic’ and documentary dimensions to the study of Late Byzantine rhetoric, ideology and epistolary culture. The investigation widens to include two other undated annotations that can likewise be assigned to Demetrios Leontares’ youth: a co-ownership notice in recently commissioned Marc. gr. Z. 399 (5r) and a previously unpublished missive to an unnamed relative in twelfth-century Vat. gr. 586 (429v). Collective consideration of these three modest informal texts assists in clarifying their contexts and chronology, while elucidating broader themes of children, education, language and books in an aristocratic household.

One of the better-known episodes in the life of John Tzetzes is his complaint that during a period of poverty in the 1130s he had been forced to sell off his books until only two remained in his possession – a copy of Plutarch’s Lives and a collection of “various mathematical morsels”. While Tzetzes’ historical, allegorical and exegetical writings do not otherwise display an exceptional passion for or expertise in mathematics, he names numerous “scientific” authors and cites their texts to elucidate, enliven or verify historical events, literary meanings and natural phenomena. Investigation of Tzetzes’ citations and terminology in this sphere indicates that his interests lay not in mathematical theory but in practical applications and demonstrations, consistent with his fascination for celebrated achievements in mechanical technology and military engineering. He also extols the sciences of classical antiquity and compiles lists of writers and works on geometry, mechanics, hydraulics, optics, pneumatics and poliorcetics. This paper concerning interaction between Tzetzes’ oeuvre and scientific literature has three objectives. First, evaluation of Tzetzes’ references to mathematical- technological authors (mechanographoi), including works that are otherwise unattested or lost, attempts to distinguish first-hand knowledge of texts from mere literary posturing, and to examine how Tzetzes’ citations relate to the known textual traditions, manuscript transmission and scholarly reception of classical science in Byzantium. This investigation demonstrates Tzetzes’ familiarity with two late antique works: Pappus’ Synagogue, a mathematical compendium (c.340), and Anthemius’ Περὶ παραδόξων μηχανημάτων, a treatise on geometrical optics (c.520-530s). Second, analysis of Tzetzes’ use of extant scientific texts, and in particular his efforts to combine historical narrative and technical exposition (e.g. his fusion of Cassius Dio’s Roman History and Anthemius’ Περὶ παραδόξων μηχανημάτων in reporting the legendary tale of Archimedes’ burning-mirrors [Hist. 2.112-31]), supply a methodological template for studying other cases where his technical source is uncertain or lost (e.g. his account of Apollodorus of Damascus’ bridge over the Danube [Hist. 2.65-97]). Third, striking parallels with the writings of Tzetzes’ near-contemporaries, notably Zonaras and Eustathius of Thessalonica, point to intertextuality and/or common source material, and suggest that Tzetzes’ “mathematical” interests were not entirely idiosyncratic or pedantic but shared and reflect a broader intellectual climate in twelfth-century Byzantium.

INDICE:

La Sapienza bizantina. Il contributo della Storia dell’arte (1896-1970) - Antonio Iacobini

Le missioni di studio in Oriente e il Centro di Documentazione di Storia dell’Arte Bizantina (1966-2006) - Andrea Paribeni

Il progetto di ricerca sui marmi della Santa Sofia, Alessandra Guiglia - Claudia Barsanti

Hagia Sophia: nuovi studi e ricerche per il restauro, Mario Docci - Storici dell’arte, esploratori, antropologi, archeologi: le missioni
lungo il limes orientale (1982-1992) - Enrico Zanini

Alcune considerazioni sull’architettura bizantina a Creta - Spiridione Alessandro Curuni

Il «Corpus della pittura monumentale bizantina in Italia»: il caso di Umbria, Marche e Abruzzo - Mauro della Valle

Il mosaico parietale aniconico da Tessalonica a Costantinopoli - Alessandro Taddei

Basilio ‘parakoimomenos’, l’aristocrazia e la passione per le arti sotto i Macedoni - Livia Bevilacqua

Il colore scolpito. Raffinatezze cromatiche nella scultura ad incrostazione del Medioevo mediterraneo - Silvia Pedone

Viaggio di un trittico eburneo da Costantinopoli a Roma. Note in margine al «Corpus degli oggetti bizantini in Italia» - Simona Moretti

L’insegnamento della Filologia e della Storia bizantina a Roma dalla
fondazione agli anni Settanta del ’900 - Augusta Acconcia Longo

La Filologia e la Storia bizantina alla Sapienza nell’ultimo trentennio del ’900 - Andrea Luzzi

La Paleografia greca e bizantina alla Sapienza, dagli anni Venti del
’900 a Enrica Follieri e alla sua scuola - Francesco D’Aiuto

Ricerche e iniziative promosse dalla Sapienza per lo studio delle scritture greche antiche e bizantine nell’ultimo trentennio - Guglielmo Cavallo

Immagini eloquenti. Nuove osservazioni sul codice Atheniensis gr. 211 con le Omelie di Giovanni Crisostomo - Giovanni Gasbarri

An in-depth study of MSS Vat. gr. 704, Oxon. Bodl. Barocci 48 and some other later manuscripts, such as MS Vat. gr. 1444, provides a new reconstruction for both the authorial composition of the Solutiones quaestionum and the De numero septenario by Nikephoros Gregoras, and the manuscript tradition of the two treatises.

Among the preserved Aristophanes’ codices veteres, there is the Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional Mss/4683, an important manuscript for its paleographical and philological value which shows how Aristophanes was read and commented in Byzantium, especially during the Palaeologan period (1261-1453). The current paper deals with the textual and paleographical study of the main scribe and the marginal hands that wrote scholia on the comedies, to find out the exegetical tradition of the manuscript.

Η Ἔκθεσις Κεφαλαίων Παραινετικῶν είναι το μοναδικό κείμενο που μας κληροδότησε η γραφίδα του Αγαπητού Διακόνου. Το έργο αυτό, αποδέκτης του οποίου ήταν ο αυτοκράτωρ Ιουστινιανός Α΄ (527-565), γνώρισε πολύ μεγάλη διάδοση ήδη κατά τους βυζαντινούς χρόνους, αξιοποιήθηκε από την εποχή της Αναγέννησης ως εγχειρίδιο για τη διδασκαλία της ελληνικής γλώσσας στη Δύση και στις παραδουνάβιες ηγεμονίες, μεταφράστηκε σε πλήθος γλωσσών (βουλγαρική, λατινική, εκκλησιαστική σλαβονική, αγγλική, γαλλική, γερμανική κ.ά.) και επηρέασε περισσότερο από κάθε άλλο βυζαντινό κείμενο τον πολιτικό στοχασμό των λαών, οι οποίοι ήρθαν σε επαφή με τη Βυζαντινή Αυτοκρατορία. Το ευσύνοπτο αυτό πόνημα αποκαλύπτει με ενάργεια τις θεμελιώδεις αρχές της πολιτικής σκέψης των Βυζαντινών κατά τον 6ο αιώνα αναφορικά με τις αρετές του ιδανικού ηγεμόνος και με τον ιδεατό τρόπο άσκησης της βασιλικής εξουσίας.
Ο παρών τόμος περιλαμβάνει το πρωτότυπο κείμενο της Ἐκθέσεως Κεφαλαίων Παραινετικῶν και την πρώτη απόδοση του έργου στη Νεοελληνική γλώσσα. Με την εισαγωγή και τα εκτενή ερμηνευτικά σχόλια που συνοδεύουν το κείμενο, το πόνημα του Αγαπητού Διακόνου εντάσσεται πλήρως στο ιστορικό και πολιτικό πλαίσιο της εποχής του, το ζήτημα της χρονολόγησης του έργου εξετάζεται υπό νέο πρίσμα και η διαχρονική αξία του κειμένου καθίσταται προφανής.
http://www.grigorisbooks.gr/product/1885/%CE%B1%CE%B3%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%8D-%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%8C%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%85.-%CE%AD%CE%BA%CE%B8%CE%B5%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%82-%CE%BA%CE%B5%CF%86%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%AF%CF%89%CE%BD-%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%BD%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8E%CE%BD

A fronte dei molti libri che il medioevo greco ha trasmesso sani e salvi, altrettanti si sono persi inesorabilmente. Tra questi due estremi — la salvezza e la distruzione — si pone il degrado cui un libro poteva andare incontro, il quale, innescando l’esigenza di porre rimedio a un danno — si trattasse di uno strappo accidentale o dell’asportazione volontaria di un intero fascicolo —, rappresenta l’occasione di ogni storia di restauro. E come ogni storia che si rispetti anche quella qui ripercorsa si fonda sulla concretezza dei dati oggettivi — in primo luogo l’esame diretto dei manoscritti, quindi l’analisi di sottoscrizioni, note, documenti, inventari, cataloghi antichi —, ma sovente dà spazio alle fonti letterarie, indagate sempre dalla parte dei libri, sia che attestino situazioni e accadimenti reali, sia che riflettano il mondo delle rappresentazioni e dell’immaginario. L’ambizione è di offrire al lettore un quadro complessivo, ricco e vivido, di quella che è stata una vicenda di rovina e rinascita, in cui gli aspetti materiali del restauro librario, ancorché importanti, rappresentano solo una parte del fenomeno, che risulta altresì indagato per le sue implicazioni nella trasmissione dei testi e nella storia culturale e sociale di Bisanzio.

Erasmus's 1516 Latin–Greek New Testament edition differed from the Latin Vulgate in several ways. A small number of textual variants with doctrinal implications involved Erasmus in considerable controversy. Medieval Western theologians had often relied on the " Johannine Comma " (the long reading of 1 John 5.7-8), established in the Latin Vulgate during the late Middle Ages, as an important scriptural foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity. However, when Erasmus showed that this variant was not present in the Greek manuscript tradition, he was accused of promoting Arianism. Eras-mus's debates with the cleric Edward Lee and the textual critic Jacobus Stunica exposed tensions between theologians, jealous of their authority in scriptural interpretation, and humanists, who claimed to understand the Bible better than theologians by virtue of their philological skills. This article concludes by exploring the Inquisition's failed attempt to find a consensus on this issue in 1527.

"I versi funebri di Bessarione dedicati a Cleopa Malatesta, consorte di Teodoro II Paleologo, prematuramente deceduta per cause misteriose e sepolta a Mistrà, costituiscono lo spunto per l’analisi di un mistero archeologico solo parzialmente svelato. Dopo la prima casuale ispezione del sito da parte di Maurice Barrès nel 1900, la campagna di scavi condotta negli anni Cinquanta da Nikolaos Drandakis ha portato alla luce i resti semi-mummificati di un cadavere femminile elegantemente abbigliato. Le analisi paleoantropologiche ma soprattutto quelle dei frammenti dell’insieme vestimentario e in particolare quelle sui tessuti (compiute a Ginevra nel 1999/2000 dall’équipe multidisciplinare diretta da Marielle Martiniani-Reber) hanno permesso di comprendere composizione, provenienza e datazione dell’abito indossato al momento della sepoltura, e hanno confermato la possibilità — già avanzata dall’autrice e comunque non priva di interrogativi –  di un’identificazione della cosiddetta “mummia di Mistrà” con Cleopa stessa o con una delle damigelle del suo seguito. La foggia occidentale dell’abito testimonia in ogni caso l’innesto genealogico dell’aristocrazia italiana nell’ultima corte bizantina.

Bessarion’s funeral verses, dedicated to Cleopa Malatesta, Theodore II Palaeologus’ wife, who died prematurely of mysterious causes and was buried at Mystras, are the starting point for the analysis of an archaeological mystery which has been solved only in part.  After Maurice Barrès’ haphazard inspection of the site in 1900, the excavations carried out in the 1950s by Nikolaos Drandakis brought to light the half-mummified remains of an elegantly dressed, female cadaver. Paleo-anthropological analyses and, more importantly, analysis of the fragments of clothing and their fabric  (conducted in Geneva in 1999/2000 by an interdisciplinary team under the direction of Marielle Martiniani-Reber) established the composition, provenance, and date of the garment worn at the time of burial and confirmed the possibility — already tentatively posited by the author – of an identification of the so-called “Mystras mummy” with Cleopa or one of her ladies-in-waiting. In any case, the Western style of dress is evidence of the genealogical graft of the Italian aristocracy on the last Byzantine court.
"

"This special issue of Comparative Literature Studies brings together talks, some extensively revised, others virtually unchanged, that were delivered at a conference entitled "What is Philology?" The gathering took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988 at Harvard University under the aegis of the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The depth and breadth of interest in the conference was deeply gratifying. I had not experienced another occasion when so many scholars from different language and literature departments gathered at Harvard, and I hope that publishing the proceedings will benefit a larger community outside the University.

By way of introduction I will describe how the event originated. My description will explore a few of the reasons why an interdisciplinary conference of a dozen speakers and respondents attracted an audience of more than two hundred, and why a topic that 'may sound rarefied drew participants whose main fields of research and teaching interests ran the gamut from the most ancient Indo-European languages to the most recent African American literature. In short, I will offer tentative explanations for the urgency of the topic to students, professors, and independent scholars who engage in philology, linguistics, literary history, literary criticism, and literary theory."

Barlaam e Ioasaf, la maggiore fiaba agiografica del Medioevo orientale, già erroneamente attribuita a Giovanni Damasceno e qui presentata in prima edizione italiana dall'originale bizantino, trae origine da uno spunto narrativo tra i più fortunati in tutte le letterature. Ioasaf è il Buddha, ma Barlaam e Ioasaf è molto più che un re-writing cristiano della leggenda del Buddha: è la storia del principe-filosofo, sacra a oltre venti popoli di circa trenta lingue e dieci diverse confessioni, da Gibilterra al Pacifico, che ha ricevuto a Bisanzio la sua canonizzazione letteraria. Opera da sempre di controversa datazione e ricca di influssi asiatici (dall'originale indiano alle ipòstasi persiane, islamiche, manichee) sia nello svolgersi della narrazione che nelle dieci fabulae che la tramano, la storia del principe e dell'anacoreta riceve il suo specifico di fiaba colta dal sorprendente innesto di una sapienza filosofica antica di millenni su una ambientazione esotica splendida quanto densa di allusività letteraria e, forse, politica. Accolto con entusiasmo al suo apparire, Barlaam e Ioasaf ricevette una prima traduzione latina intorno al 1050. La posteriore fortuna e leggenda è immensa: ispirò Rudolf von Ems e Gui de Cambrai, Shakespeare e Lope de Vega, Calderón, Hofmannsthal, Tolstoj. Testimonianza della grande cultura bizantina, della sua millenaria vocazione mediatrice fra oriente e occidente, questo libro sembra presentarsi quale prima smentita del pregiudizio che vuole la letteratura di Bisanzio arida e priva di capolavori.

The most important hagiographical folktale of the Eastern Middle Ages, Barlaam and Ioasaph, erroneously attributed to John Damascene and here presented in the first Italian edition of the Byzantine original, finds its origin in one of the most influential narrative nucleus in world literature. Ioasaf is the Buddha, but Barlaam and Ioasaph is much more than a Christian re-writing of the legend of Buddha; it is the story of a philosopher-prince, sacred to over twenty cultures in approximately thirty languages and ten different religions from Gibraltar to the Pacific, which owes its literary canonisation to Byzantium.  A work whose date of composition has always been controversial, rich in oriental influences (from the original Indian to the Persian, Islamic, and Manichaean personifications) both in the development of the narration and in the ten fabulae interwoven in the plot, the story of the prince and the anchorite derives its character as a learned fable from the extraordinary grafting of ancient philosophical wisdom onto an exotic setting as splendid as it is dense with literary, and perhaps political, allusion. Enthusiastically received on its appearance, Barlaam and Ioasaph was first translated into Latin around 1050.  Its subsequent reception and legendary influence are enormous, inspiring Rudolf von Ems and Gui de Cambrai, Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, Calderón, Hofmannsthal, and Tolstoy.  Testimony of the greatness of Byzantine culture and its thousand-year vocation as mediator between East and West, this work would seem to offer the first refutation of the bias which would see Byzantine literature as arid and lacking in masterpieces.

Il presente lavoro prende in considerazione la "terza orazione teologica" di Gregorio Nazianzeno (IV sec.). La ricerca verte sull'analisi di alcuni selezionati passi dell'omelia XXIX e sul commento di specifiche peculiarità linguistico-letterarie, stilistico-retoriche e filologiche, senza trascurare il fondamentale apporto di questo testo allo sviluppo della teologia cappadoce, a ragione identificata da I. Zizioulas nella "ontologia dell'ὑπόστασις".

This work deals with the "third theological Oration" of Gregory of Nazianzus (4th century). The research aims at analysing a few passages selected from the Oration XXIX and commenting some specific peculiarities concerning linguistic, stylistical and philological aspects. In these chapters it is also highlighted the homily's primary contribution to the development of the "cappadocian theology", which I. Zizioulas has rightly defined as an "ontology of Personhood".

This paper investigates a lexical gloss in the final recension of Photios’ Amphilochia (880s), in which the ‘barbarian’ word τῶγα is inserted into excerpts from John Lydos’ De magistratibus (c.550) as an alternative contemporary term for an animal-hair crest or tassel on a royal standard. Examination of the terminological meaning and currency takes into account also τόγα found twice in De ceremoniis (c.963–969) in reference to an elaborately crested imperial diadem. In both cases, τῶγα/τόγα is explicitly synonymous with τοῦφα (Late Latin tufa), a plume, crest, tuft or tassel. Exposing misconceptions in older scholarship, analysis of τῶγα/τόγα adduces semantic and morphological criteria in favour of the Turkic etymon tuğ (tūɣ), a royal battle standard distinguished by a horse- or yak-hair tassel(s), as widely documented among martial population-groups of the Eurasian steppe. Historical and cultural contexts tentatively point to a loanword from Danubian Bulgar, the élite linguistic superstratum of the Bulgar Khaganate, and thus a rare specimen of lexical interaction between medieval Greek and an Oğuric Turkic language in a Balkan setting.

Στην ιστορία της χριστιανικής Γραμματείας ο 14ος αιώνας κατέχει σημαίνουσα θέση, η οποία οφείλεται στον επαναπροσδιορισμό των ερμηνευτικών κριτηρίων προσέγγισης της γραπτής και προφορικής Παράδοσης της Εκκλησίας με σκοπό να απαντηθούν με ορθολογικό τρόπο τα γνωσιολογικά ερωτήματα του ανθρώπου για τον Θεό, τον κόσμο και τις μεταξύ τους σχέσεις.
Κέντρο  έντονης  της διαμάχης μεταξύ του Νείλου Καβάσιλα, γνωστού ησυχαστή και συνοδοιπόρου του Γρηγορίου Παλαμά, και του Δημητρίου Κυδώνη, γνωστού για τις φιλολατινικές του τάσεις και την αγάπη και τον ενθουσιασμό του για την δυτική πατερική παράδοση και τον Θωμά Ακινάτη, ήταν η γνωσιολογία και ο ρόλος της στο ζήτημα προσέγγισης της Αλήθειας περί Θεού και ανθρώπου. Σημείο αναφοράς των συμπερασμάτων μας για τον Δημήτριο Κυδώνη είναι η ανέκδοτη πραγματεία του, Πρὸς τοὺς τοῦ Καβάσιλα Ἐλέγχους κατὰ τῶν περί τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος Κεφαλαίων τοῦ μακαρίου Θωμᾶ, το οποίο προετοιμάζουμε την έκδοση με τον καθηγητή κ. Κων. Μανάφη . Το έργο γραμμένο λίγο μετά τον θάνατο του Νείλου Καβάσιλα (1363) αποτελεί μια ευθεία επίθεση του Κυδώνη στον “φίλο και δάσκαλο Νείλο Καβάσιλα” και συγχρόνως μια Απολογία της φιλοσοφικής μεθόδου και των συλλογισμών που χρησιμοποιεί ο Θωμάς Ακινάτης για την φιλοσοφική και θεωρητική υποστήριξη της λατινικής αντίληψης περί της τριαδικότητας του Θεού και του Filioque.

The monograph offers the reader a critical edition of all the post-Byzantine Greek and Slavic acts kept in the Athonite monastery of Kastamonitou (30 documents). Moreover, it publishes the texts of 10 acts of Kastamonitou preserved in the archives of the Protaton, 6 acts of Docheiariou pertaining to Kastamonitou, and the full text of Codex Kastamonitou no. 114, which contains the so-called “The Legend of Kastamonitou”, or “Logos Historikos about Kastamonitou” (pages 101-168). Our interest in Codex Kastamonitou no. 114 was triggered by the influence which its published fragments had exercised on the scholarly opinions about the presence of Slavs and Wallachians around and insideMount Athos. Pages 143-144 of our edition of the “Legend” contain a short passage which is widely known due to the fact that it was published by the Russian bishop Porfirij Uspenskij in 1877. Based on Uspenskij’s text, F. Dvornik believed that the infiltration of Slavs and Wallachians in Mount Athos had started during the 8th century, and L. Niederle supported the same opinion. The question is could such a conclusion be correct? The basic problem which has to be solved concerns the sources from which in 1844 the compiler of the Legend, the monk of Kastamonitou Dositheos from Lesbos, took his information about the Slavic tribes Vlachorynchinoi and Sagoudatioi. We believe that in the present book we have provided a convincing answer to this question: the Vlachorynchinoi never existed. They were invented by Dositheos who combined the ethnic name Vlachoi (Wallachians), available in a group of Athonite texts some of which were published in 1894 and are generally known as “Diegesis Merike” or “Partial Relation About the Correspondence of the Emperor Alexios with the Patriarch Nicholas”, with the tribal names Rynchinoi and Sagoudatioi which he found in the “Miracles of St. Demetrios of Thessalonica” as they were summarized for religious use in the book “Thyra tes Metanoias (Gate of Penitence)”, a pious compilation published in Venice first in 1795. The texts in Codex Kastamonitou no. 114 about the Vlachorynchinoi, the Athonite building program of the Bishop of Hierissos, St. Makarios, and Constantine the Great, and the destructions inflicted on the Athonite monasteries by Julian the Apostate, are typical examples of narrative license.
Codex Kastamonitou no. 114 contains prevailingly hagiographical texts (vitae, laudations, narratives about the translation of relics) dedicated to the celestial protector of Kastamonitou, St. Stephen. They are taken from various sources and are written in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Greek. The manuscript is a mixture of all the medieval variants of the Greek language - from the 4th century Ancient Greek of Gregory of Nyssa and Proclus of Constantinople, to the 19th century katharevousa of Constantine Oikonomos from the Thessalian village of Tsaritsane.
Pages 169-243 of Codex Kastamonitou no. 114 contain three texts related to the Greek War of Independence. The title of the first text is “New Reminder about the New Holy Martyrs and the Athonite Fathers Murdered by the Ottomans During the Greek Revolution”. It describes and glorifies the martyrdom of several new saints, namely the monks of Kastamonitou Benedict from the village of Ezova near Serrhai, Peter (in religion Paul) from Ioannina, Synesios from the village of Trigleia near Prousa in Asia Minor, Timothy from Berrhoia in southwestern Macedonia, and the layman Sabbas from Stageira in the peninsula of Chalkidike, who were martyred by the Turks in 1821. The second text is labelled “Second Brief Reminder Describing Those Who Contributed to the Participation of Mount Athos in the Greek Revolution of 1821 and Were Punished and Martyred by the Ottomans Along with Many Other Innocent Christians”. The third text is entitled “Funeral Oration in Memoriam of the Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V”. It was composed and publicly read in the Russian city of Odessa on April 24, 1821, by Constantine Oikonomos whose origin was from the village of Tsaritsane in Northern Thessaly. The last three texts offer a lot of pious eloquence and very few reliable historical details. Our edition of Codex Kastamonitou no. 114 contains the full Greek text of the manuscript and extensive commentary on pages 101-168, i.e. to The Legend of Kastamonitou. We also offer the reader a recapitulation of all the thematic entities which are discussed in the post-Byzantine documents of Kastamonitou and appear in the Legend.

This piece includes the entries 'John Italos', 'Eustratios of Nicaea', 'Nicholas of Methone' for Stephen Gersh's forthcoming 'Interpreting Proclus from Antiquity to the Renaissance'. This is only a draft; please refer to the original published version (http://www.cambridge.org/ar/academic/subjects/classical-studies/ancient-philosophy/interpreting-proclus-antiquity-renaissance)

Timarion ou Ses infortunes est un dialogue satirique composé au début du XIIe siècle par un lettré byzantin resté anonyme en dépit des efforts de ses éditeurs successifs, depuis C. B. Hase (1813) jusqu’à P. Vlahakos (2001). Sous la forme d’un dialogue philosophique inspiré de Lucien, l’auteur, que l’on peut assimiler au héros, un Constantinopolitain nommé Timarion, raconte à un ami les mésaventures dont il a été victime en revenant de Thessalonique où il s’était rendu pour assister à la fête de Saint-Dèmètrios et à la grande foire qui se tenait à cette occasion. Tombé gravement malade il est, au cours de son retour, emporté dans l’Hadès par des démons qui le croient mort. Avant de réussir, heureusement, à faire reconnaître cette erreur par le tribunal de l’Hadès, Timarion fréquente la société des morts, qui s’intéressent beaucoup aux nourritures terrestres dont ils sont privés. Pourquoi un tel intérêt ?

Timarion or Its infortunes is a satirical dialogue composed at the beginning of XIIe century by a Byzantine scholar remained anonymous in spite of the efforts of its successive editors, since C. B. Hase (1813) to P. Vlahakos (2001). In the form of a philosophical dialogue inspired by Lucian, the author, who can be likened to the hero, a Constantinopolitan named Timarion, tells a friend about the misadventures he suffered on his way back from Thessalonica, where he had gone to attend the feast of St. Demetrios and the great fair that was held on that occasion. He became seriously ill and on his way back he was carried off to Hades by demons who believed him to be dead. Before succeeding, fortunately, in having this error recognized by the court of Hades, Timarion frequents the society of the dead, who are very interested in the earthly foods of which they are deprived. Why such an interest?

Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να συμβάλει στη μελέτη του ρητορικού έργου του Νικηφόρου Βασιλάκη, ο οποίος υπήρξε ρήτορας του 12ου αιώνα μ.Χ.  Συγκεκριμένα, αντικείμενο μελέτης και ανάλυσης υπήρξαν αποκλειστικά οι 27 ηθοποιίες που συνέθεσε.
Στηριχτήκαμε σε δύο άξονες μελέτης, πάνω στους οποίους κινήθηκε η μεθοδολογική μας μελέτη και ειδικότερα στην παράδοση και την πρωτοτυπία του έργου του. Η παράδοση του ρητορικού είδους της ηθοποιίας υπήρξε μακραίωνη και για το λόγο αυτό κρίθηκε ως ιδιαιτέρως ενδιαφέρον να ερευνηθεί, αν και σε ποιο βαθμό ο Νικηφόρος Βασιλάκης θέλησε να μείνει πιστός στην προγενέστερη παράδοση. Το συμπέρασμα που προέκυψε ήταν ότι ο Βασιλάκης δε θέλησε σε μεγάλο βαθμό να μείνει πιστός στις αρχές του είδους και για τον λόγο αυτό προχώρησε σε διάφορες αλλαγές, οι οποίες θα μπορούσαν κάλλιστα να χαρακτηριστούν ως «καινοτομίες», εφόσον εντοπίστηκαν για πρώτη φορά στο δικό του έργο.
Στην αρχή της εργασίας, υπάρχει μια σύντομη, αλλά περιεκτική εισαγωγή αναφορικά με το είδος της ηθοποιίας, ενώ στη συνέχεια παρατίθεται η βιογραφία του ρήτορα. Στο τέλος της εργασίας, ως παράρτημα, έχουν τεθεί οι μεταφράσεις των 27 ηθοποιιών του Βασιλάκη, οι οποίες μεταφράστηκαν σε μια προσπάθεια να γίνουν τα κείμενά του Νικηφόρου Βασιλάκη προσβάσιμα σε κάθε ενδιαφερόμενο.

This paper examines a species of Latin technical terms formulated and employed in the late Roman army, some directly attested in Late Latin sources, others witnessed only as transliterations or loanwords in Greek. The cognates sculca (σκοῦλκα), sculcatorius, σκουλκεύειν and σκουλκάτωρ first emerge in the early sixth century, but clearly have a longer pedigree. They relate to a variety of military operations concerned with intelligence gathering, reconnaissance and defensive surveillance. For the most part these terms occur in non-literary Greek texts, which afford a clearer understanding of their usage, development and currency than do the scantier and generally later Latin sources, which have hitherto been the primary or exclusive focus of interest. Scholarship has long acknowledged an etymological connection with Late Latin exculcator, documented in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, while largely overlooking the significance of analogous proculcator, formerly a hapax but now corroborated by epigraphic discoveries. Since the seventeenth century, conflicting opinions on the etymology of sculca, often marred by erroneous statements and invalid deductions based on incomplete and/or defective evidence, have generated widespread confusion in lexical literature. One school of thought, popularised in the 1930s, endorses a Germanic or specifically Gothic derivation from posited *skulkan, *skulka. This influential thesis, frequently rehearsed uncritically, has sustained preconceptions about the ‘Germanization’ of the late Roman army and contributed to studies of the philological influence of the Goths, particularly on the language and toponymy of early medieval Italy. The following re-evaluation of the evidence and literature exposes the intrinsic tenuity of the Germanic derivation, while demonstrating the cogency of a Latin etymology, which finds direct parallels in phonological and orthographic developments in Late and Vulgar Latin (e.g. excubitor > scubitor/σκουβίτωρ). This case study enhances our understanding of the modality of loans from Late Latin into Greek, specifically in the sphere of technical jargon, and has historical implications for the perceived linguistic and cultural impact of Germanic peoples in Late Antiquity.

"Alla caduta di Costantinopoli, Anna Notaras, esponente della più aristocratica e ricca famiglia dell'ultima età paleologa travolta dalla conquista turca, riparò in Italia. Si stabilì inizialmente a Roma, sotto la protezione del cardinale Bessarione, che con papa Pio II stava coltivando il progetto di una "rifondazione occidentale di Bisanzio" nel despotato di Morea. Dopo il fallimento della crociata contro i turchi in Morea, Bessarione coinvolse Anna nel tentativo di fondare un piccolo regno bizantino a Montauto, allora dominio senese, che tuttavia, nonostante le energie profuse, non vide mai la luce. Dopo la morte di Bessarione, nel 1475 Anna si trasferì a Venezia, dove si impegnò, con la sua influenza sull’establishment politico della Serenissima, a tenere in vita le tradizioni culturali e cultuali di Bisanzio. Sul primo fronte mantenne, nella sua residenza, una ricca biblioteca greca e divenne di fatto la prima donna editrice, orientando e finanziando un'attività di stampa tuttavia firmata dal suo stretto collaboratore Zaccaria Kalliergis. Sul fronte cultuale, Anna si batté con successo per l'indipendenza confessionale e per il diritto al culto ortodosso della comunità greca di Venezia. Una parte importante del suo testamento riguarda le disposizioni circa la costruzione della chiesa bizantina di San Giorgio dei Greci, ancora oggi punto di riferimento del filellenismo a Venezia. Nel museo di questa sono conservate le tre icone – riprodotte nelle tavole finali del contributo – appartenute ad Anna e donate alla comunità greca veneziana.

After the fall of Constantinople, Anna Notaras, member of the wealthiest and most aristocratic family of the late Palaeologian period, swept away by the Turkish conquest, took refuge in Italy.  She settled first in Rome under the protection of Cardinal Bessarion, who with Pope Pius II was planning a “Western re-foundation of Byzantium” in the Despotate of the Morea.  After the failure of the crusade against the Turks in the Morea led by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Bessarion enlisted Anna in an attempt to establish a small Byzantine kingdom at Montauto, then under Sienese control, which never came to light despite the expense of considerable effort. After Bessarion’s death, in 1475 Anna moved to Venice, where, by means of her influence on the political establishment of the Serenissima, she devoted herself to keeping Byzantine cultural and religious traditions alive.  In her residence, she maintained an extensive Greek library and, in fact, became the first woman publisher, managing and financing the publication of Byzantine books, which were credited however to her close collaborator Zaccarias Kalliergis.  Furthermore, Anna fought successfully for religious freedom and the right of the Greek community of Venice to follow orthodox practice.  An important part of her will dealt with arrangements for the construction of the Byzantine Church of San Giorgio dei Greci, a focus still today of philo-Hellenism in Venice. The museum houses three icons – reproduced at the end of Ronchey’s essay – which belonged to Anna and were donated to the Greek community of Venice.
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Théodose, dont nous ne savons rien sinon qu’il était diacre à Constantinople dans les années soixante du Xe siècle, a fait œuvre de poète de cour en composant cette Prise de la Crète en cinq chants. Son sujet, bien documenté, est la campagne victorieuse menée en vue de replacer la grande île sous l’autorité de l’Empire, qui se disait et se savait romain, et que nous appelons byzantin. L’auteur y chante en dodécasyllabes les hauts faits du général en chef, Nicéphore Phôkas, avec pour but explicite d’en attribuer la gloire à Romain II, l’empereur héritier de la dynastie macédonienne (959-963). La mort prématurée de ce dernier fit que Théodose dédia son poème au vainqueur et futur empereur.
Parfait représentant de l’humanisme lettré de son temps, l’auteur multiplie les emprunts à la grande littérature grecque, d’Homère à Georges de Pisidie. Mais pour assumées qu’elles soient les références n’excluent pas pour autant l’irrévérence, souvent utile pour ranimer l’attention d’auditeurs qui partagent la même culture. Si certains byzantinistes ont pu taxer de mauvais goût tel ou tel passage du poème, nous préférons y voir la maîtrise de l’humour, de l’ironie, et pourquoi pas du baroque macabre.

Theodosius, of whom we know nothing except that he was a deacon in Constantinople in the sixties of the tenth century, did the work of a court poet by composing this Capture of Crete in five songs. His subject, well documented, is the victorious campaign carried out in order to put the great island back under the authority of the Empire, which was said to be and knew itself to be Roman, and which we call Byzantine. The author sings in dodecasyllables the deeds of the general in chief, Nicephorus Phôkas, with the explicit aim of attributing the glory to Roman II, the heir emperor of the Macedonian dynasty (959-963). The premature death of the latter meant that Theodosius dedicated his poem to the victor and future emperor.
Perfect representative of the literate humanism of his time, the author multiplies the borrowings from the great Greek literature, from Homer to George of Pisidia. But for assumed that they are the references do not exclude for all that the irreverence, often useful to revive the attention of listeners who share the same culture. If some Byzantinists have accused this or that passage of the poem of bad taste, we prefer to see in it the mastery of humor, irony, and why not of macabre baroque.

This brief note focuses on the reception of Or. Chald. fr. 88 des Places in Synesius of Cyrene, Michael Psellus and George Gemistus Plethon. I suggest two corrections to a passage of a letter Gemistus Plethon sent to Cardinal Bessarion which contains references to the μαγικὰ λόγια τῶν ἀπὸ Ζωροάστρου μάγων (p. 459, 4-10 Mohler). Finally, I analyse how the Chaldean Oracles form part of Gemistus Plethon and Bessarion’s idea of perennial philosophy.;

After the publication of its Syriac version (van Esbroeck, 1995), the Life of Martinianus has been considered for years as an example of Byzantine hagiography whose original text has been better preserved in Syriac translation rather than in Greek. This paper aims to verify this hypothesis and to reconstruct the history of the text, by studying the ancient editions of the Greek version and the manuscript tradition. Starting from the comparison between Greek and Syriac, the article also aims to review the general chronology of the Life, that until today had remained unclear in some respects. In the second part of the paper, the author studies the Syriac tradition of the Life, focusing on an unedited “short version” of the legend, which he considers to be independent from the one mentioned above. This peculiar text, mostly conserved by medieval and modern witnesses, and severely deformed by the manuscript tradition, turns out to keep some ancient textual elements, which bring to date its redaction in the Late Antiquity. Some of the innovations of the “short version” can indeed be found in the Commentary on the Paradise of Fathers by the Syriac monk Dadishoʿ Qaṭraya (VII century), which conserves quotes from several hagiographical works and represents an interesting case of indirect tradition in the Syriac literature. At the end of the contribution, the author provides a critical edition and an Italian translation of the “short version”, with some ecdotic observations and a stemma codicum.

ABSTRACT: The continued use of Latin as the official Heeressprache of the East Roman Empire up to the 630s supplies the context for an examination of a text virtually unknown to classical scholarship. Mediceo-Laurentianus graecus LV-4 contains an anonymous and mutilated Greek military treatise, published by Karl Müller in 1880 and subsequently styled De Militari Scientia. Its character, date and textual affinities are briefly considered, concluding that it is an informal epitome or ‘working copy’ of Maurice’s Strategicon (ca. 590s), possibly compiled ca. 630s–640s as an aide-mémoire for a senior officer. This treatise is a unique witness to two loanwords from Latin – παλμάριον (palmarium) and ῥέκαλα (*recala), neither previously documented in lexica, and the latter not directly attested in Latin. The author’s usage of the construction ῥέκαλα δίδωμι  ῥέκαλα ποιέω, with the sense ‘to make a withdrawal’, now permits recognition of the corresponding expression recala facio in the highly corrupted text of a Latin speech preserved in the Strategicon.

KEYWORDS: Maurice’s Strategikon / Strategicon, Müller Fragment, De Militari Scientia, Late Roman army, Latin Language, Vulgar Latin

This paper examines the number, sources, etymology and chronology of Germanic loanwords in Roman military vocabulary with a view to establishing what these lexical influences can reveal about intercultural contact in this sphere during Late Antiquity. While loanwords have long been recognised as a fertile source of cultural information, the purpose here is to chart the linguistic impact of Germani within one particular Roman institution. Most of the linguistic borrowings examined occurred originally in Vulgar Latin, or specifically its lexical subset “sermo castrensis”, the sociolect of Roman soldiers, but they are often documented primarily or solely as transliterations or secondary loans into Greek. Specimens are categorised according to the dynamics of loanword traffic: 1. borrowed names for borrowed things (tufa/toupha,-ion, carrago, armilaus(i)a/armilausion); 2. nominal borrowings (framea, *fulcum/phoulkon); 3. uncertain loan-object or nominal borrowing (bandum/bandon, punga/poungion, phlaskion); 4. uncertain Germanic derivation (burgus, barritus, *cautia, hornatores, touldos,-on, caput porci(num)); 5. demonstrably erroneous Germanic derivation (drungus/droungos, chouzion, sculca/skoulka). Concluding remarks attempt a periodization and consider the overall character and motivation of these loanwords as ingredients of the institutional Mischkultur of the Late Roman army.