DOI 10.1515/bz-2020-0032 BZ 2020; 113(3): 733–750 Guillermo Galán Vioque Aforgotten translation by Theodorus Gaza unveiled and its context Abstract: The emigrant Byzantine humanist Theodorus Gaza (c. 1400 –1475)is well known as ateacherofGreek in various Italian cities, as acopyist of Greek manuscripts, and as atranslator of Greek philosophical works into Latin. His undertakingsasatranslator of Latin works into Greek, among which his version of Cicero’s De senectute deservesmention, have gone relatively unnoticed. In this article we rediscover alargely forgotten translation of Cic. Fam. 1.1, despite it having been printed independentlytwice (Paris 1542and 1548) and having been included as an example of translation in the oft reprinted manualofrhetorical exercises, Elementarhetoricae (first printed in Basel in 1541), by the Lutheran Joachim Camerarius. Adresse: Dr Guillermo Galán Vioque, FacultaddeHumanidades, Universidad de Huelva, Avda. Tres de marzo s/n, 21071 Huelva, Spain; [email protected] In an ancient catalogue preserved in the Vatican library,there is an entry that testifies to the existenceofanalmost unknown translation into Greek attributed to the well-known grammarian,poet,teacher of Greek, and copyist Theodorus Gaza.¹ Irefer to manuscript Vaticanus Barberinus lat.3185, which contains acata- This research wasconductedduring asabbatical leaveofabsence at the University of Oxford thankstoascholarship granted by the Ministerio de Educación (PX /). Thanksare also due to Professor NigelG.Wilson forhis amiability. See E. Legrand,Bibliographie Hellénique ou description raisonnée des ouvragespubliés par des Grecs auxXVe et XVIe siècles,I.Paris (reprint Brussels ), XXXI–XLII; D. J. Geana- koplos,TheodoroGaza, aByzantine scholar of the Palaeologan ’Renaissance’ in the Italian Ren- aissance. Medievalia et Humanistica (), –;C.B. Schmitt,Theodorus Gaza, in P. G. Bietenholz /T.B.Deutscher (eds.), Contemporaries of Erasmus: abiographical register of the Renaissanceand Reformation, I. Toronto , ;D.J. Geanakoplos,Constantinople and the West: Essays on the lateByzantine (Paleologan) and Italian Renaissanceand the Byzantine and Roman churches.Wisconsin , –;C.Bianca,Gaza, Teodoro. Dizionariobiografico degli Italiani (), –;P.Botley,LearningGreek in western Europe, –. Philadelphia , –;and N.G.Wilson,From Byzantium to Italy. Greek studies in the Ital- ian Renaissance. London () passim. Further bibliographyinG.Salanitro,Ilcodice 734 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd. 113/3, 2020: I. Abteilung logue of the booksinGreek that were at thatmoment in the privatelibrary of the Medici, temporarilyhousedinRome in the Palazzo Madama in the quarter of Sant’Eustachio (Graeca Bibliotheca of the Mediceae domus insignis bibliotheca, quae nunc est apud R[everendissim]um Car[dina]lem de Medicis).² Thiscatalogue was compiled by Fabio Vigili in around 1510,and in its f. 263entry nº17, it has the following content³: 1. Aeschinis rhetoris orationes tres uidelicet contraTimarchum una, περὶ παραπρεσβείας i<d est> de corrupta siue falsa legatione 2ª,Contra Ctesiphontem de coronatione tertia. 2. Bruti epistolae ad uarios. 3. Propositiones quaedam Geometricae Euclidis,utuidetur. 4. M. Tullii Ciceronis Cato, siue de Senectuteliber,aTheodoroingraecum sermonem conuersus. 5. Epistola Nicolai quinti Pontificis ad ConstantinumPalaeologumConstantinopolitanum imperatorem, aTheodoro in graecum sermonem conuersa. 6. Ciceronis epistola prima ad Lentulum uidelicet egoomni officio, ab eodem Theodoro, ut puto, in graecum conuersa. 7. Dionysii Halicarnasei De fabula et historia ac philosophiaquaedam et per consequens de poetis historicis et philosophis quibusdam ut de HomeroHesiodo Antimacho heroicis, zurighese elaversione greca di TeodoroGaza del De senectute ciceroniano. Helikon / (–) note . See E.B. Fryde,Greek manuscripts in the privatelibrary of the Medici –.Aberyst- wyth ,I,;and II, –;M.H. Laurent,Fabio Vigilietles bibliothèques de Bologne au début du XVIe siècle d’après le Ms.Barb. Lat. .Città del Vaticano ,XVII–XVIII; I.G. Rao,Ilfondo manoscritto, in T. de Robertis et al. (eds.), Imanoscritti datati della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana di Firenze,I.Plutei –.Firenze , ;D.Speranzi,Labiblioteca dei Medici. Appunti sulla storia della formazione del fondo greco della libreria medicea privata, in G. Arbizzonietal. (eds.), Principiesignori. Le biblioteche nella seconda meta` del Quattrocen- to.Atti del Convegno di Urbino, – giugno .Urbino , ;and S. Gentile/D.Sper- anzi,Antichi cataloghi.Gli inventari dei manoscritti greci della libreria medicea privata, in P. Degni et al. (eds.), Greek manuscript cataloguing. Past,present,and future.Turnhout , –.There is amanuscript copyinthe Laurentian library (Florentinus Laurentianus Carte Lodi, Appendice ,see Gentile/Speranzi,Antichi cataloghi,asabove, note ). Ifollow A. Diller’stranscription, but constantlyuse ufor v, and add numbers to each title (see A. Diller,The manuscript tradition of Aeschines’ Orations. Illinois Classical Studies , , –,reprinted in idem,Studies in Greek manuscript tradition. Amsterdam , – ). As is the accepted standardpractice,Iquotefollowingthe original pagination (f. is todayf.). On Fabio Vigili, see G. Levi della Vida,Ricerche sulla formazione del più antico fondo dei manoscritti orientali della Biblioteca Vaticana. Città del Vaticano , –; M.H. Laurent,Fabio Vigili et les bibliothèques de Bologne au début du XVIe siècle d’après le ms.Barb. Lat. .Città del Vaticano ,VIII–XXII; E.B. Fryde,Humanism and Renais- sancehistoriography. London , –;D.F. Jackson,Fabio Vigili’sinventory of Medici Greek manuscripts. Scriptorium (), –;and A. Manfredi,Leorigine della Biblio- teca Vaticana traUmanesimo eRinascimento. Città del Vaticano , –. G. Galán Vioque, Aforgottentranslation by Theodorus Gaza 735 Panyasi PindaroSimonide SthesichoroAlcaeo lyricis,Aeschylo Sophocle Eurypide tragicis, Menandrocomico, HerodotoThucydide Philisto XenophonteTheopompo historicis,Py- thagoricis XenophontePlatone Aristotele philosophis, Lysia Isocrate Lycurgo Demosthene Aeschine Hyperide oratoribus,deque eorum intentione et stilo. 8. Quaedam ad astrologica et logica pertinentia. 9. Isaac Argyrilibellus de lingua. Accordingtothis description, this manuscript contained three translations by Theodorus Gaza into Greek. Twoofthem (nn. 4, and 5) are very well-known, since they have been preserved in numerous manuscripts and have already been printed.⁴ Both were expresslyattributed to Gaza, but the third one, item n. 6, Gaza’stranslation of Cicero’sfirst letter to Lentulus (Cic. Fam.1.1), probably bore no indication of authorship, since the compiler has cautiouslyadded ut puto. While studying the manuscript tradition of Aeschynes’ speeches, referringto item n. 6, Diller says that there was no further indication of the existenceofthis work: “The translation of Cicero ad fam. I1is new,sofar as Iknow”.Moreover, since he thought this translation was astarting point for afull translation of this work, he concluded that it waslikelythat the whole manuscript was written by Theodorus himself: “Perhaps it was an inchoate work. If so, our codex would be near to Theodore Gaza, perhaps autograph.”⁵ This translation was not recorded by M. E. Cosenza in his Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists and of the WorldofClassical Thereare twenty-three manuscripts of De senectute’stranslation. To the eighteenused by G. Salanitroinhis edition, we should now add one in Athens,two in Poland,one in the Vatican library,and another in Egypt (see https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre//). Τhe manu- script in Elbląg(Elbing) in Poland,shelfmark O.,isnow missing, according to J.-M. Olivier, Supplément au répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de manuscrits grecs, I. Turnhout , .Salanitroalreadymentioned twomissingmanuscripts: Berolinensis ,and Escor- ialensis MIV(see G. Salanitro,M.Tullii Ciceronis liber De senectuteinGraecum translatus. Leipzig ,VIII note ), although the missing Berolinensis is today Universitatis Iagelloni- cae Cracoviensis Berlin graec. °..This translation was first printedbyAldus Manutius’ heirs in ,and reedited several times: the last time by Salanitro,asabove, VIII–XII, XX–XXI, XXVand idem,Ilcodice zurighese, as footnote above, –). Gaza’stranslation of PopeNicolas V’slettertoConstantinus XI has been preserved in twenty-eight manuscripts (see https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre//). There is an ancient printed edition: P. Arcudius,Opuscula aurea theologica. Romae , – (for the other editions,see G. Hoffmann,ed., Epistulae pontificae ad Concilium florentinum spectantes,Series A, pars . Roma , – [no. ]); and amodern English translation based on the Latin text in W. K. Hanak,PopeNicholas Vand the aborted crusadeof– to rescue Constanti- nople from the Turks. Byzantinoslavica (), –. Forboth quotations,see Diller,Manuscript tradition (as footnote above), . 736 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd. 113/3, 2020: I. Abteilung Scholarship in Italy,1300–1800,II. Massachusetts 1962, 1563—1571, and neither does G. Salanitro mention it in his prefacetohis edition of Gaza’stranslation of Cicero’s De senectute,although he had agood opportunity to do so, since he af- firmed thatGaza translated two other works of Cicero, in referencetothe trans- lationsattributed to Gaza of the treatises De amicitia and De officiis.⁶ Nor does he mention it in his summary of Gaza’stranslations published several years later, wherehis aim was to present “una rapida rassegna delle traduzioni anoi pervenute”.⁷ Finally, in recent times, P. Botley,inhis