1,720,964 research outputs found
The Reception of Eustathios of Thessalonica’s Parekbolai in Arsenios Apostolis’ and Erasmus’ Paroemiographic Collections
No full textFigures and Mirrors in Demetrios Triklinios\u27s \u27Selenography\u27
Get PDFThis article is about the interplay between diagrammatic representation, the mediation of mirrors, and visual cognition. It centres on Demetrios Triklinios (fl. ca. 1308–25/30) and his treatise on lunar theory. The latter includes, first, a discussion of the lunar phases and of the Moon\u27s position in relation to the Sun, and second, a narrative and a pictorial description of the lunar surface. Demetrios Triklinios\u27s Selenography is little-known (though edited in 1967 by Wasserstein) and not available in translation into a modern scholarly language. Therefore, one of the main goals of the present article is to introduce its context and contents and to lay down the foundations for their detailed study at a later stage. When discussing the Selenography, I refer to a bricolage consisting of the two earliest versions of the work preserved in Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, graecus 482, ff. 92r–95v (third quarter of the fourteenth century) and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, graecus 2381, ff. 78r–79v (last quarter of the fourteenth century). I survey the available evidence concerning the role of Demetrios Triklinios (the author), John Astrapas (?) (the grapheus or scribe-painter), and Neophytos Prodromenos and Anonymus (the scribes-editors) in the production of the two manuscript copies. Next, I discuss the diagrams included in the Selenography and their functioning in relation to Triklinios\u27s theory concerning the Moon as a mirror reflecting the geography of the Earth, on the one hand, and to the mirror experiment described by Triklinios, on the other. Finally, I demonstrate how, even though the Selenography is a work on lunar astronomy, it can also be read as a discussion focusing on the Mediterranean world and aiming at elevating its centrality and importance on a cosmic scale
Late Byzantine Scholia on the Greek Classics : what did they comment on? Manuel Moschopoulos on Sophocles’ Electra
No full textThe Moschopoulean comments on Sophocles are among the many materials for the teaching of high-register Medieval Greek that emerged from the well-regarded school of Maximos Planoudes and Manuel Moschopoulos in Constantinople between the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries. The aim of this contribution is to explore this complex material, examining what its focus was and what this can tell us about Medieval Greek education in the late Middle Ages. This chapter takes as a case study the Moschopoulean scholia on Sophocles’ Electra. Previously unpublished passages from its prologue are here edited and discussed
Uncovering the literary sources of John Tzetzes’ Theogony
No full textThis chapter analyses John Tzetzes’ Theogony, a long poem in political verse that narrates genealogies of mythical gods and heroes following the example of Hesiod. The poem was dedicated to the sebastokratorissa Irene, a powerful patron of the Komnenian aristocracy, and is an important witness to the role of classical learning in twelfth-century Byzantium. The first part of the chapter examines the relation of Tzetzes’ poem to Hesiod’s Theogony, the Homeric epics and the Catalogue of Women, a fragmentary ancient work ascribed to Hesiod. It also provides a list of the main literary sources of the poem, which demonstrates Tzetzes’ dependence on other ancient poets. The second part analyses the narrative voice of Tzetzes, his linguistic style and the didactic character of the poem. The chapter concludes with an examination of the audience of the Theogony and its function as a didactic poem, which reflects patronage relationships in the Komnenian period. The chapter thus sheds light on Tzetzes’ attitude towards the ancient authors by situating the Theogony within his broad activity as a professional poet and commentator of ancient texts
The Student Becomes the Teacher: Nikephoros Gregoras’ <i>Hortatory Letter Concerning Astronomy</i>
No full textThe present inquiry examines the change in the intellectual climate of early Palaiologan Byzantium characterised by the prominence of mathematical astronomy and the importance of the successful demonstration of related disciplines. It traces their impact on the late Byzantine discourse concerning knowledge of the natural world as reflected by contemporary historiography, as well as on the related book production and circulation.
In particular, the chapter focuses on Nikephoros Gregoras’ (c. summer 1293/June 1294–1358/1361) Roman History, which lists numerous astronomical events, such as solar and lunar eclipses, the observation of comets and the configuration of the stars at a given moment in time. Book VIII, in particular, offers important examples of the incorporation of astronomy-related material into the historiographical narrative as it comprises Gregoras’ Hortatory Letter Concerning Astronomy and his discourse on the date of Easter. The present contribution features a case study of the Hortatory Letter and analyses its insertion in both Gregoras’ Roman History and the astronomical miscellany Vat. gr. 1087 where it serves as introduction to the entire volume.
Finally, the present chapter proposes that Gregoras’ Hortatory Letter, in both its contexts of preservation (in Vat. gr. 1087 and in the Roman History), illustrates the interplay between, firstly, the increased occurrence of significant astronomical phenomena such as the lunar and especially the solar eclipses observable in Constantinople; secondly, the exceptional and rare mathematical expertise Gregoras acquired and demonstrated; thirdly, the change in his social and intellectual status from student of astronomy to one of the very few masters of the quadrivium in the capital; and finally, his newly acquired role as Theodore Metochites’ intellectual heir and the one responsible for the preservation of the latter’s scholarly legacy, especially in the context of the revival of Ptolemaic astronomy.This chapter was written as part of the project UMO-2015/19/P/HS2/02739, generously supported by the National Science Centre, Poland. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778
The Source of Nicholas Rhabdas’ Letter to Khatzykes: An Anonymous Arithmetical Treatise in Vat. Barb. gr. 4
No full textThe article presents the edition and a detailed discussion of an anonymous treatise of elementary arithmetic that served as the source of the so-called Letter to Khatzykes authored by the Byzantine scholar Nicholas Artabasdos Rhabdas. An updated survey of the extant evidence about the logistic treatises composed in the Nicaean period and in the early Palaiologan era, and a discussion of the prima facie surprisingly widespread phenomenon of appropriation of scientific treatises written by other contemporaries in late Byzantine times will also be provided.FA and IPM have been supported by the Research project “The Byzantine Author (II)” (MICINN, FFI2015-65118-C2-2-P). DM’s contribution was written as part of the project UMO-2015/19/P/HS2/02739, supported by the National Science Centre, Poland; this project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 665778.Peer reviewe
Cultural Appropriation and the Performance of Exegesis in John Tzetzes’ Scholia on Aristophanes
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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