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Ten Centuries of Byzantine Prose

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Ten Centuries of Byzantine Prose AperTO - Archivio Istituzionale Open Access dell'Università di Torino Ten Centuries of Byzantine Prose. A Selection of Greek Texts This is the author's manuscript Original Citation: Availability: This version is available http://hdl.handle.net/2318/124037 since Publisher: Edizioni dell'Orso Terms of use: Open Access Anyone can freely access the full text of works made available as "Open Access". Works made available under a Creative Commons license can be used according to the terms and conditions of said license. Use of all other works requires consent of the right holder (author or publisher) if not exempted from copyright protection by the applicable law. (Article begins on next page) 04 October 2021 This is an author version of the contribution published on: Questa è la versione dell’autore dell’opera: [Anna Maria Taragna, Ten Centuries of Byzantine Prose. A Selection of Greek Texts, Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria 2012, pagg. LXIV+320] The definitive version is available at: La versione definitiva è disponibile alla URL: [http://www.ediorso.it] Anna Maria Taragna Ten Centuries of Byzantine Prose A Selection of Greek Texts Contents Foreword p. ix Abbreviations xi Authors and anonymous texts xiii 1. Achmet ben Sirin (10th C.) 1 2. Aetios of Amida (6th C.) 3 3. Agapetos Deacon (6th C.) 4 4. Agathias Scholastikos (6th C.) 6 5. Akropolites, George (13th C.) 8 6. Anonymous Metaphrasis of Anna Komnene’s Alexiad (14th C.) 11 7. Anonymous Teacher (9th-10th C.) 13 8. Arethas of Caesarea (9th-10th C.) 15 9. Aristaenetos (6th C.) 18 10. Attaleiates, Michael (11th C.) 20 11. Barlaam and Ioasaph (8th or 11th C.) 22 12. Basilakes, Nikephoros (12th C.) 26 13. Basilika (9th C.) 30 14. Bessarion (15th C.) 32 15. Blemmydes, Nikephoros (12th-13th C.) 36 16. Book of the Eparch (10th C.) 39 17. Book of the Philosopher Syntipas (11th C.) 41 18. Bryennios, Nikephoros (11th-12th C.) 45 19. Chalkokondyles, Laonikos (15th C.) 48 20. Choniates, Niketas (12th-13th C.) 50 21. Chorikios of Gaza (6th C.) 54 22. Choumnaina Palaiologina, Irene Eulogia (13th-14th C.) 56 23. Chrysobull of Alexios I Komnenos (11th C.) 59 24. Chrysoloras, Demetrios (14th-15th C.) 62 25. Chrysoloras, Manuel (14th-15th C.) 63 26. Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (10th C.) 65 27. De scientia politica dialogus (6th C.) 69 28. De velitatione bellica (10th C.) 72 29. Doukas (15th C.) 75 30. Eustathios of Thessalonike (12th C.) 78 31. Evagrios Scholastikos (6th C.) 80 32. Excerpta Constantiniana (10th C.) 82 33. Genesios (10th C.) 84 34. Geoponika (6th-10th C.) 86 35. Gregoras, Nikephoros (13th-14th C.) 88 36. Ignatios the Deacon (8th-9th C.) 92 37. John VI Kantakouzenos (13th-14th C.) 94 38. John Klimax (6th-7th C.) 98 39. John of Damascus (7th-8th C.) 101 40. Kaminiates, John (10th C.) 105 41. Kekaumenos (11th C.) 109 42. Kinnamos, John (12th C.) 113 43. Kletorologion of Philotheos (9th C.) 115 44. Komnene, Anna (11th-12th C.) 117 45. Kosmas Indikopleustes (6th C.) 124 46. Kritoboulos, Michael (15th C.) 127 47. Leo the Deacon (10th C.) 131 48. Leontios of Neapolis (7th C.) 133 49. Letter of the Three Patriarchs (9th C.) 136 50. Life of Mary of Egypt (7th C.) 139 51. Life of Phantinos the Younger (10th C.) 143 52. Makrembolites, Alexios (14th C.) 145 53. Makrembolites, Eustathios (12th C.) 149 54. Malalas, John (6th C.) 153 55. Manuel II Palaiologos (14th-15th C.) 155 56. Mauropous, John (11th C.) 158 57. Maximos the Confessor (6th-7th C.) 160 58. Mazaris’ Journey to Hades (15th C.) 164 59. Mesarites, Nicholas (12th-13th C.) 166 60. Metochites, Theodore (13th-14th C.) 168 61. Metrodora (6th-7th C.) 171 62. Michael VIII Palaiologos (13th C.) 172 63. Moschos, John (6th-7th C.) 174 64. Nikephoros I patriarch (8th-9th C.) 177 65. Niketas Magistros (9th-10th C.) 179 66. Niketas of Amnia (8th-9th C.) 181 67. Nomos Georgikos (Farmer’s Law) (7th-8th C.) 185 68. Pachymeres, George (13th-14th C.) 186 69. Palamas, Gregory (13th-14th C.) 188 70. Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai (8th-9th C.) 190 71. Paul of Aegina (7th C.) 192 72. Philagathos Kerameus (11th-12th C.) 194 73. Photios (9th C.) 198 74. Planoudes, Maximos (13th-14th C.) 207 75. Plethon, George Gemistos (14th-15th C.) 210 76. Porikologos (Fruit Book) (13th-14th C.) 214 77. Prodromos, Theodore (12th C.) 217 78. Prokopios of Caesarea (6th C.) 221 79. Psellos, Michael (11th C.) 228 80. Seth, Symeon (11th C.) 238 81. Simokattes, Theophylaktos (6th-7th C.) 241 82. Skylitzes, John (11th C.) 245 83. Sphrantzes, George (15th C.) 247 84. Stephen the Deacon (8th-9th C.) 250 85. Strategikon of Maurice (6th-7th C.) 252 86. Symeon Metaphrastes (10th C.) 254 87. Symeon the “New Theologian” (10th-11th C.) 257 88. Synaxarion of Constantinople (10th C.) 259 89. Taktika of Leo VI (9th-10th C.) 263 90. Theodore II Laskaris (13th C.) 265 91. Theodore of Stoudios (8th-9th C.) 267 92. Theophanes the Confessor (8th-9th C.) 271 93. Theophylaktos of Ohrid (11th-12th C.) 273 94. Timarion (12th C.) 277 95. Tornikios, George (12th C.) 280 96. Typikon of the Theotokos Kecharitomene (12th C.) 282 97. Will of Eustathius Boilas (11th C.) 286 98. Zacharias (8th C.) 288 99. Zigabenos, Euthymios (12th C.) 290 100. Zonaras, John (11th-12th C.) 292 Table of centuries 295 Table of genres 299 Table of passages 309 Foreword This book aims to offer – to those who are interested in Byzantine literature and in the development of the Greek language in the Middle Ages – a selection of extracts from prose texts the Byzantine writers produced in many, extremely different genres over ten centuries, from the 6th to the 15th. An attempt has therefore been made to illustrate the widest possible variety of works in a choice of passages from profane and religious writings, from literary and documentary texts and, concerning the levels of style, from the learned writings in Hochsprache as well as from less literary works composed in a less classicizing idiom. Hence the most famous authors or extracts representing the major genres of Byzantine literature (historiography, epistolography, hagiography, rhetorical speeches, etc.) have been given precedence, while special attention has also been paid to the authors of the technical and scientific (and pseudo-scientific) literature so highly developed in Byzantium: medical, legal and military treatises, specula principis and taktika, typika, dreambooks, texts on alchemy and demonology, documents such as chrysobulls and wills, and so on. There are also extracts of intra- and inter-lingual translations: the metaphraseis (of the Alexiad of Anna Komnene, the Imperial Statue of Nikephoros Blemmydes, and the lives of the saints by Symeon Metaphrastes) as well as translations proper (from Latin, by pope Zacharias and Maximos Planoudes). Given the enormous range of Byzantine Literatur and Schrifttum, the choice of extracts presented many difficulties. I have tried to give at least one example of each genre and several passages to illustrate the “evolution” of the major literary genres. Some aspects have inevitably been excluded, especially in the fields of science and technique, but on the whole the volume provides a rather large and representative collection of specimina. It includes more than fifty kinds of literary and documentary genres (as listed in the table in the appendix), a hundred authors and more than a hundred and fifty extracts. Authors and texts are presented in alphabetical order, following the standard reference editions in some cases slightly revised (with regard to accentuation and punctuation, for example). Within the passages only references to direct and explicit literary quotations have been included in square brackets (following the abbreviations in Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, and in Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon), as well as essential information about the reigns of individual emperors and years when events took place. The passages are preceded by a section of outlines of the authors chosen. It provides brief notes of their biography, literary production and the content of their works, as well as bibliographic references. This bibliography is strictly related to the reading and understanding of the selected extracts: thus it provides the references of the passages in the editions, as well as in the major translations into modern languages, to back up reading of the texts, which are sometimes of considerable complexity. The tables of centuries and of genres have been introduced to facilitate consultation. In the first, the authors who lived in two centuries are reported under the century in which they died; works of uncertain date (such as the Barlaam and Ioasaph and the Geoponika) are indicated, in brackets, under the two centuries which scholars have suggested. In the table of the literary and documentary genres, authors and works are arranged in chronological order within each entry. The table of passages lists the titles of all the extracts. I particularly wish to thank Professor Enrico V. Maltese for the constant encouragement and valuable advice he has given me on the preparation of this volume and for accepting it in the “Universitas” series. A. M. T. Abbreviations AOC Archives de l’Orient Chrétien BA Byzantina Australiensia BBOM Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs BCG Biblioteca Clásica Gredos BG Byzantinische Geschichtsschreiber BGL Bibliothek der Griechischen Literatur BHG Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca BT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana BTT Byzantine Texts in Translation BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CCC Civiltà Classica e Cristiana CCSG Corpus Christianorum.
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