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Les Études Géométriques Et Astronomiques À Thessalonique D’Après Le Témoignage Des Manuscrits : De Jean Pédiasimos À Démétrios Kydônès

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Les Études Géométriques Et Astronomiques À Thessalonique D’Après Le Témoignage Des Manuscrits : De Jean Pédiasimos À Démétrios Kydônès LES ÉTUDES GÉOMÉTRIQUES ET ASTRONOMIQUES À THESSALONIQUE D’APRÈS LE TÉMOIGNAGE DES MANUSCRITS : DE JEAN PÉDIASIMOS À DÉMÉTRIOS KYDÔNÈS Malgré les études pionnières sur l’histoire des textes mathématiques et astronomiques grecs anciens que Johan Ludvig Heiberg et Paul Tannery ont menées il y a plus d’un siècle, et malgré les contributions plus récentes sur l’astronomie byzantine apportées par l’école philologique de Louvain, fon- dée par Adolphe Rome et continuée par Joseph Mogenet et Anne Tihon, nos connaissances des sciences exactes byzantines autres que l’astronomie sont encore assez fragmentaires. Esquisser, une pièce après l’autre, un tableau d’ensemble des sciences à Byzance est sans doute une tâche difficile, mais l’étude que nous présentons dans ces pages peut suggérer comment éclairer et reconstituer une parcelle des études scientifiques byzantines en utilisant non seulement les traités ou les scholies édités mais aussi les écrits non scientifiques de leurs auteurs et les témoignages paléographiques dans les manuscrits qui ont survécu jusqu’à nos jours. Pendant la période paléologue, une éducation scientifique était la norme plus que l’exception pour les intellectuels les plus en vue de l’empire. Ce principe éducationnel ou culturel a pu voir le jour dès le moment fondateur de l’enseignement paléologue en 1261 sous l’égide de Georges Akropolitès, comme le suggère l’Autobiographie du patriarche Grégoire de Chypre1 ; son application a pu aussi se trouver facilitée par les goûts personnels de l’em- pereur Andronic II, quoique la culture du IXe siècle était elle aussi marquée par l’appui des empereurs à l’enseignement scientifique2. Dans ce dernier cas, l’évidence est éparse et controversée ; de fait, elle s’appuie sur les épaules * Cette recherche a été financée par le projet “El autor bizantino II” (MICINN, FFI2015- 65118-C2-2-P). 1 Éd. W. LAMEERE, La tradition manuscrite de la correspondance de Grégoire de Chypre, Bruxelles – Rome, 1937, p. 185.12-17 : καὶ ὅς, πρόθυμον ἑαυτὸν τοῖς βουλομένοις ἀκροᾶ- σθαι καθίζει διδάσκαλον, ἐξηγητὴν μὲν τῶν λαβυρίνθων Ἀριστοτέλους – οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ καλῶ τὰς ἐκείνου στροφὰς καὶ πλοκὰς αἷς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ περιβάλλων ἐργώδη κατανοεῖν ἀπεργάζεται – ἐξηγητὴν δὲ καὶ τῶν Εὐκλείδου καὶ Νικομάχου, ὅσα τεθεωρήκασιν οὗτοι, ὁ μὲν γεωμέτρας, Νικόμαχος δὲ ἀριθμητικούς, ἐκδιδάσκοντες. 2 N. G. WILSON, Scholars of Byzantium, London – Cambridge (MA), 19962, pp. 79-84 ; J. SIGNES CODOÑER, The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829-842. Court and Frontier in Byzantium during the Last Phase of Iconoclasm, Farnham (Surrey) – Burlington (VT), 2014, pp. 434-439. Byzantion 89, 1-35. doi: 10.2143/BYZ.89.0.3287065 © 2019 by Byzantion. All rights reserved. 2 FABIO ACERBI – INMACULADA PÉREZ MARTÍN d’une seule personne3. Quant aux deux derniers siècles de Byzance, par contre, nous sommes beaucoup mieux renseignés sur plusieurs érudits qui ont étudié et pratiqué la philosophie et les disciplines scientifiques. Pour expliquer ce trait de la culture byzantine, il faut en rappeler les cir- constances. Primo, il trouve toujours sa base dans le même principe essentiel d’acceptation et de soutien du savoir profane. Du point de vue idéologique, les études philosophiques et scientifiques dépendent de l’attribution d’une valeur sociale à la connaissance, un principe qui a été accepté dès Basile de Césarée et qui, au XIVe siècle, a trouvé un soutien renouvelé de la part du thessalonicien Nikolaos Kabasilas4. Secundo, il faut préciser que cette éducation intégrale est un principe définitoire de la culture byzantine, non de la culture grecque en général ; ce type d’études, par exemple, n’était pas poursuivi à Chypre, où l’administra- tion franque, puis vénitienne, se souciait peu des disciplines scientifiques. Par contre, à Byzance, le système dépend de l’appui de l’administration impé- riale, qui a continué de nommer des hypatoi tôn philosophôn, en entretenant la tradition macédonienne de mettre à la tête de l’enseignement impérial un érudit πολυπράγμων5. Parallèlement, le patriarcat a vu au moins deux fonc- tionnaires de son administration, Georges Pachymère et Jean Chortasménos, donner un fort élan aux études scientifiques. Cette dernière caractéristique nous emmène au troisième point : le système depend de la disponibilité d’enseignants et de livres. Quant aux personnes, on a rarement de renseignements sur les conditions matérielles des études d’un genre ou de l’autre ; d’ailleurs on peut soutenir qu’un enseignant n’est pas toujours nécessaire quand on a des bons livres. Mais certains textes peuvent être difficiles à comprendre sans un guide. Ainsi, Théodoros Méto- chitès nous raconte les circonstances de son apprentissage mathématique en 3 Cette personne est évidemment Léon le Philosophe ; pour une déconstruction de sa contribution scientifique voir F. ACERBI, Types, Function, and Organization of the Collections of Scholia to the Greek Mathematical Treatises, dans Trends in Classics, 6 (2014), pp. 115- 169 : 125-126 et 164-166 ; IDEM, Composition and Removal of Ratios in Geometric and Logistic Texts from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine Period, dans M. SIALAROS (éd.), Revolu- tions and Continuity in Greek Mathematics, Berlin, 2018, pp. 131-188 : 156-159 ; A. TIHON, Premier humanisme byzantin : le témoignage des manuscrits astronomiques, dans B. FLUSIN – J.-CL. CHEYNET (éds.), Autour du Premier humanisme byzantin & des Cinq études sur le XIe siècle, quarante ans après Paul Lemerle, dans TM, 21 (2017), pp. 325-337. 4 Éd. J. A. DEMETRAKOPOULOS, Nicholas Cabasilas’ Quaestio de Rationis Valore: an Anti- palamite Defense of Secular Wisdom, dans Βυζαντινά, 19 (1998), pp. 53-93 ; cf. R. E. SINKEWICZ, Christian Theology and the Renewal of Philosophical and Scientific Studies in the Early Fourteenth Century: the Capita 150 of Gregory Palamas, dans Mediaeval Studies, 48 (1986), pp. 334-351. 5 Sur la fonction de ὕπατος (“consul” ou “doyen”) τῶν φιλοσόφων, voir C. N. CONSTAN- TINIDES, Higher Education in Byzantium in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries (1204 – ca. 1310), Nicosia, 1982, pp. 113-132. LES ÉTUDES GÉOMÉTRIQUES ET ASTRONOMIQUES À THESSALONIQUE 3 1312/13 : il a étudié tout seul la géométrie, l’astronomie élémentaire et les sections coniques (où il admet par ailleurs avoir eu de graves difficultés), tandis que seulement en travaillant avec Manuel Bryennios, un enseignant qu’Andronic II lui avait proposé, il a réussi à comprendre Ptolémée et Théon6. Cette recherche d’une éducation intégrale s’est poursuivie à l’intérieur de cercles aussi bien ecclésiastiques que laïques, dans la capitale de l’Empire et dans d’autres villes, notamment Thessalonique et Mistra, dans la mesure où elles hébergeaient des membres de l’élite intellectuelle qui avait étudié à Constantinople, ou des écoles ou des cercles érudits de formation locale. Le cas de Thessalonique est celui que nous allons étudier : notre hypothèse est que les études scientifiques y ont pris leur essor et ont été entretenues à la suite du retour à sa ville natale d’un thessalonicien, Jean Pédiasimos7, qui avait étudié à Constantinople à l’école de Georges Akropolitès. Après ses contributions scientifiques, nous présenterons celles d’intellectuels liés à Thessalonique tels Jean Katrarès, Démétrios Triklinios, Nikolaos Kabasilas, Démétrios Kydônès et Théodoros Kabasilas. JEAN POTHOS PÉDIASIMOS Jean Pédiasimos, nommé hypatos tôn philosophôn vers 1274, a pris en tant que tel la tête d’une partie de l’enseignement scientifique dans la capi- tale ; grâce aux témoignages des manuscrits qu’il a annotés et des ouvrages qu’il a composés8, nous sommes en mesure d’évaluer de manière assez pré- cise sa contribution personnelle. Ces mêmes témoignages nous donnerons une clé pour établir le rôle (peut-être seulement indirect) de Pédiasimos dans l’essor des études scientifiques à Thessalonique pendant la courte saison des premiers quarante ans du XIVe siècle. Né à Thessalonique vers 1240, Pédiasimos a étudié à Constantinople avec Manuel Holobolos et Georges Akropolitès. Vers 1280, il a été “promu” 6 Discussion et textes dans F. ACERBI – I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, Gli scolii autografi di Manuele Briennio nel Par. gr. 2390, dans L. DEL CORSO – F. DE VIVO – A. STRAMAGLIA (éds.), Nel segno del testo. Edizioni, materiali e studi per Oronzo Pecere (Papyrologica Florentina, XLIV), Firenze, 2015, pp. 103-143 : 106-108. 7 CONSTANTINIDES, Higher Education [voir n. 5], pp. 116-125 ; D. BIANCONI, Tessalonica nell’età dei Paleologi. Le pratiche intellettuali nel riflesso della cultura scritta (Dossiers Byzantins, 5), Paris, 2005, pp. 60-72 ; voir aussi PLP, n° 22235. 8 Son écriture a été identifiée par I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, L’écriture de l’hypatos Jean Pothos Pédiasimos d’après ses scholies aux Elementa d’Euclide, dans Scriptorium, 64 (2010), pp. 109- 119. 4 FABIO ACERBI – INMACULADA PÉREZ MARTÍN chartophylax de l’archevêché d’Ochrid9. Les titres de ses œuvres et les attri- butions de ses scholies donnent à Pédiasimos soit la fonction de hypatos, soit celle de hypatos et de chartophylax en même temps10. Cette circons- tance est en contradiction avec l’identification de notre professeur avec un Jean Pothos qui en 1284 et en 1295 avait la fonction de megas sakellarios de la métropole de Thessalonique11. Cette fonction n’est jamais mentionnée par les témoins manuscrits des ouvrages de Pédiasimos et tout fait penser qu’il s’agisse d’un homonyme et contemporain de l’hypatos. Distinguer ce second Jean Pothos de l’hypatos n’empêche pas d’accepter que celui-ci ait vécu pendant une longue période à Thessalonique. Il y serait
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