The article deals with an unedited and unexplored Byzantine epistolary. Its text, contained in Cod. Vat. gr. 1405, was copied in 1493 by the well-known Italian humanist Scipione Fortiguerri. The content, style and sources of the treatise...
moreThe article deals with an unedited and unexplored Byzantine epistolary. Its text, contained in Cod. Vat. gr. 1405, was copied in 1493 by the well-known Italian humanist Scipione Fortiguerri. The content, style and sources of the treatise are analyzed. Relations between the epistolary and the ancient treatise “Characteres epistolici” of Pseudo-Libanius and its medieval versions are determined. It is argued that, although modeled on Pseudo-Libanius, the epistolary is remarkably independent of its prototype: firstly, definitions of letter types are more extended and detailed, than definitions in Pseudo-Libanius and all its known versions; secondly, 40 sample letters, which form the largest part of the treatise, have no parallels with any extant sources. The majority of these samples, composed in simple Ancient Greek, have evidently didactical character: the addressee is summoned primarily to learn diligently, to show obedience and modesty, in one of the letters being explicitly called a child. Based on the content of the epistolary, it is concluded that it was used as a textbook in the Byzantine secondary school, perhaps, as a part of the grammar course, at the preliminary stage to the school of rhetoric.
