A. Kaldellis - Catalogue of Translations Into Byzantine Greek (2018) PDF

Kaldellis, Catalogue of Translations into Byzantine Greek (version III) 1
CATALOGUE OF TRANSLATIONS INTO BYZANTINE GREEK

FROM TEXTS IN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE, 300-1453 AD
ANTHONY KALDELLIS
Version III: May 2018 (a possible Ovid, Met., in Agathias; and bibliographical updates
in many places. Additions are in red so that you can spot them easier. Many thanks to
all who sent in suggestions and corrections).
Version II: May 2017 (adding Agathangelos; the Narratio de rebus Armeniae; various
minor Armenian works; Vincent de Beauvais and other minor Latin works; additional
bibliography; and miscellaneous notes and corrections here and there).
I do not at present intend to publish this catalogue in a formal sense, but I thought it
would be generally useful, so I am making it available here. I may post updates, so if
you intend to use it down the road make sure you have the latest version. I refer
sometimes below to the “Anthology.” That is a collection of Byzantine reflections on
the circumstances and motives of translation that Dimitris Gutas asked me to make; it
will be published in a separate volume, accompanying a chapter that discusses what
the Byzantines translated and why.
Often we read about a text that “the Greek original is lost but we have a translation in
Syriac” (or Arabic or Latin). We rarely say the opposite. Still, a number of texts were
translated into Greek during the Byzantine period, but there is no comprehensive list.
Note: a number of texts cycled through other languages before being translated into
Greek. I usually list them under the last language from which they were translated
directly.
The following catalogue does not include:

• diplomatic correspondence and treaties between rulers / states, including bishops –
basically anything that would have been translated as administrative business by
official interpretors on staff. 1
• translated documents (mostly letters and creeds) embedded in the Acts of the Church
Councils (which often made it from there to the ecclesiastical historians).
• bibliography on the purely linguistic aspects of translation.
• translations from one register of Greek into another (“metaphrasis”).
The existing bibliography on translations into Greek focuses on particular source

languages and is accordingly cited in the relevant entries below. There are only a few
exceptions that offer general treatments, e.g., E. V. Maltese, ‘Letteratura bizantina e
identità greca. Un appunto sulle traduzioni a Bisanzio,’ Études balkaniques 6 (1999) 183-
196 (= Cahiers Pierre Belon).
1
See a number of papers in M. Balard et al., eds., Byzance et le monde éxterieur: Contacts, relations, échanges
(Paris 2005) esp. the section ‘Le lettre diplomatique.”
Many thanks to all who helped me navigate the esoterica of your fields, and to those
who have sent me updates and corrections.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Translation (?) from Egyptian hieroglyphics

Translations from Latin, fourth to eighth centuries
Roman law
Translations from Armenian
Translation from Persian, sixth century
Translations from Syriac
Translations from Coptic
Hagiography
Latin
Syriac
Armenian
Coptic
Arabic
Georgian
Slavonic
Translations from Slavonic
Translations from Arabic
Theology
Medical writings
Pharmacology and Botany
Physics
Alchemy
Optics
Mathematics
Astronomy (possibly via Persian)
Astrology
Dream interpretation
Moral literature
The late Byzantine Translation Movement from Latin
Manuel Holobolos
Maximos Planoudes
Demetrios Kydones
Prochoros Kydones
Manuel Kalekas
Additional translations from Latin
Frankish Greece
Translations from Hebrew (via Latin?)
TRANSLATION (?) FROM EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS
A fifth-century treatise on how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics, with mostly (but

not entirely) imaginary explanations: Horapollon, Hieroglyphika, ed. F. Sbordone, Hori
Apollinis hieroglyphica (Naples: Loffredo, 1940) 1-216; tr. G. Boas, The hieroglyphics of
Horapollo (Princeton 1993); F. Crevatin and G. Tedeschi, Horapollo l’egiziano: Trattato sui
geroglifici (Naples 2002). Title: ΙΕΡΟΓΛΥΦΙΚΑ ἃ ἐξήνεγκε μὲν αὐτὸς Αἰγυπτίᾳ φωνῇ,
μετέφρασε δὲ Φίλιππος εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα διάλεκτον. For the author, see BNJ 630; D.
Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton 1998) 253-254.
Unfortunately, there is no preface beyond the title.
TRANSLATIONS FROM LATIN, FOURTH TO EIGHTH CENTURIES
[See “Hagiography” and “Roman law” below for additional Latin texts in those genres.]
General bibliography:
Weber, K. F., De Latine scriptis quae Graeci veteres in linguam suam transtulerunt (Cassell
1851-1852), contains a lot of information, from antiquity down to the sixteenth
century, with long samples of parallel text). It is available here:
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009027813.
Dekkers, D. E., ‘Les traductions grecques ds écrits patristiques latins,’ Sacris Erudiri 5
(1953) 193-233.
Lumpe, Adolf, ‘Abendland und Byzanz: Literatur und Sprache,’ in P. Wirth, ed.,
Reallexikon der Byzantinistik A.1.4 (Amsterdam 1970) 304-345.
Fisher, E., ‘Greek Translations of Latin Literature in the Fourth Century A.D.,’ Yale
Classical Studies 28 (1982) 173-215.
Nikitas, D. Z., ‘Traduzioni greche di opere latine,’ in S. Settis, ed., I Greci: Storia, cultura,
arte, società, v. 3: I Greci oltre la Grecia (Torino 2001) 1035-1051.
Κολτσίου-Νικήτα, Άννα, Μεταφραστικά ζητήματα στην ελληνόφωνη και λατινόφωνη
χριστιανική γραμματεία από τους Εβδομήκοντα ως τον Νικόλαο Σεκουνδινό
(Θεσσαλονίκη: University Studio Press, 2009).
For the “language question” in the early Church, see:

Bardy, G., ‘La culture latine dans l’Orient chrétien au IVe siècle,’ Irénikon 141 (1937) 313-
338.
___. La question des langues dans l’Église ancienne (Paris 1948).
Schneemelcher, W., Das Problem der Sprache in Theologie und Kirche (Berlin 1959) 55-67.
Mohrmann, C., ‘Linguistic Problems in the Early Church,’ Vigiliae Christianae 11 (1957)
11-36.
Maltezou, C. A., ‘Diversitas Linguae,’ in N. G. Moschonas, ed., Ἡ ἐπικοινωνία στὸ
Βυζάντιο (Athens: National Research Institute 1993) 93-102.
Κολτσίου-Νικήτα, Άννα, ‘Ο ρόλος της μετάφρασης και των ερμηνέων στο θεολογικό
διάλογο ελληνόφωνης Αντολής και λατινόφωνης Δύσης,’ in Φιλία και Κοινωνία:
Τιμητικός τόμος στον καθηγητή Γρηγόριο Δ. Ζιάκα (Thessalonike 2008) 301-323.
VERGIL’S FOURTH ECLOGUE: part of a Greek translation of the poem was quoted
and discussed by the emperor Constantine in his Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 19-
21 (ca. 320s): ed. I. A. Heikel, Eusebius Werke, v. 1 (Leipzig 1902) 149-192; tr. and
commentary in M. Edwards, Constantine and Christendom (Liverpool 2003); for the
translation itself, see Fisher, ‘Greek Translations,’ 177-182, who argues that the
translation was probably made at Constantine’s court. There is no reflection on the
process of translation in the text itself. For knowledge of Vergil in Greek writers, see B.
Baldwin, ‘Dio Cassius and John Malalas. Two ancient readings of Virgil,’ Emerita 57
(1987) 85-86.
VERGIL AND CICERO: juxtalinear translations from papyri of the fourth or early
fifth century, probably for classroom use: V. Reichmann, Römische Literatur in
griechischer Übersetzung = Philologus Suppl. 34.3 (1943) 28-57; Fisher, ‘Greek Translations,’
183-189.
DOSITHEUS, Ars grammatica, ed. J. Tolkiehn, Dosithei ars grammatica (Leipzig:

Dieterich, 1913: 2-104). Dositheus was a fourth-century grammarian who lived in Rome
and translated a Latin Ars (possibly his own) into Greek literally; see V. Reichmann,
Römische Literatur in griechischer Übersetzung = Philologus Suppl. 34.3 (1943) 88-100; R. A.
Kaster, Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley
1988) 278. This work probably should not count as a Byzantine translation, even though
it fulfills the temporal criteria of this survey.
CONSTANTIUS II’s adlection of THEMISTIOS to the Senate: a Greek translation of

the official letter was included by Themistios in the coprus of his orations: ed. G.
Downey and A. F. Norman, Themistii orationes quae supersunt (Leipzig: Teubner 1974) v.
3, 121-128; tr. P. Heather and D. Moncour, Politics, Philosophy, and Empire in the Fourth
Century: Select Orations of Themistius (Liverpool 2001) 97-114 (with introduction).
OVID, Metamorphoses: it is possible that the historian Agathias (ca. 580 AD) rendered
some verses from Ovid in his account of a Frankish invasion of Italy; see A. Alexakis,
‘Two Verses of Ovid Liberally Translated by Agathias of Myrina (Metamorphoses 8.877-
878 and Historiae 2.3.7),’ Byzantinische Zeitschrift 101 (2008) 609-616.
HIPPIATRIKA translations: A. McCabe, A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine:

The Sources, Compilation, and Transmission of the Hippiatrica (Oxford 2007) 13 there was
translation going on back and forth between Greek and Latin in this genre in late
antiquity. McCabe mentions, for example, a Greek translation of the Latin treatise of
Pelagonius (13, 68 n. 6, 115, 117, 142, 156, esp. 169-180, here 169: “There is no indication, in
the Greek text of Pelagonius, of the circumstances in which the translation was made,
or of the identity of the translator”). This was done in late antiquity (as Pelagonius was
a late antique author to begin with, ca. fourth century), and his translation is
embedded in the Byzantine compilation. The translator of Pelagonius retranslated the
passages of the Greek author Apsyrtos found in Pelagonius’ Latin, without consulting
the original Greek text of Apsyrtos (171). The Byzantine Hippiatrika are ed. K. Hoppe
and E. Oder, Corpus hippiatricorum Graecorum, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1924-1927). See
also Fisher, ‘Greek Translations,’ 207-211: preserved fragments of Apsyrtos (ca. 330 or
earlier) suggest that he either included passages from a previously existing translation
of Columella’s De Re Rustica (On Agriculture) or translated them himself. But McCabe
thinks there were too many possibilities for cross-contamination in the tradition (141).
Finally, V. Ortoleva, La tradizione manoscritta della «Mulomedicina» di Publio Vegezio
Renato (Acireale: Editrice Sileno 1996) 61-86, presents the Greek translation of Vegetius’
Mulomedicina (ca. 400 AD), fragments of which are quoted in the Byzantine Hippiatrika;
see also the next entry).
VEGETIUS, De re militari 3.26 (ca. 400 AD) offers a number of maxims that were
incorporated into Maurikios’ Strategikon 8.2 (ca. 600). Oddly, this is not mentioned or
discussed in the edition of Maurikios: G. T. Dennis, Mauricii Strategicon (Vienna 1981).
The text of Vegetius was emended in 450 in Constantinople by one Flavius Eutropius,
who made a note at 4.46 to that effect: PLRE II 445. The work may have been translated
into Greek; in general, see C. Allmand, The De Re Militari of Vegetius: The Reception,
Transmission and Legacy of a of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages (Cambridge 2011) 3.
EUTROPIUS, Ab urbe condita (Latin, ca. 369 AD): Latin text and Paianios’ Greek
translation on facing pages ed. by H. Droysen, Eutropi Breviarium ab urbe condita cum
versionibus graecis et Pauli Landolfique additamentis (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica,
Auctores antiquissimi [AA] 2; Berlin 1879; reprinted Munich, 1978); Greek text also ed. by
S. P. Lampros, ‘Παιανίου μετάφρασις εἰς τὴν τοῦ Εὐτροπίου Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἱστορίαν,’ Νέος
Ἑλληνομνήμων 9 (1912) 9-113; its title was as it is given by Lambros. There is no reflection
in the preface of the Greek version on the fact that it is a translation. For this and other
translations of Eutropius (there was a second by Kapiton and possibly also a third), see
E. Condurachi, ‘Una versione greca di un passo di Eutropio,’ Rivista di filologia e di
istruzione classica 65 (1937) 47-50; D. N. Tribolis, Eutropius Historicus καὶ οἱ Ἑλληνες
μεταφρασταὶ τοῦ Breviarium ab Urbe Condita (Athens 1941); V. Reichmann, Römische
Literatur in griechischer Übersetzung = Philologus Suppl. 34.3 (1943) 62-87; Fisher, ‘Greek
Translations,’ 189-193; U. Roberto, ‘Il Breviarium di Eutropio nella cultura greca
tardoantica e bizantina: la versione attribuita a Capitone Licio,’ Medioevo Greco 3 (2003)
241-271. The Greek translation of Eutropius may have influenced later Byzantine
historians writing about the Roman past, e.g., Malalas: L. Mecella, ‘Malalas und die
Quellen für die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser,’ in L. Carrara, M. Meier, and C. Radtki-Jansen,
eds., Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas, v. 2 (Berlin 2017) 73-98.
Alan Cameron has floated the idea that the hypothetical Kaisergeschichte (a fourth-century
survey of imperial history) was translated into Greek: The Last Pagans of Rome (Oxford 2011) 665-
668. This is unlikely to be proven, and is tied up with the broader question of the presence of
Latin traditions in Byzantine historiography: cf. F. Paschoud, ‘Preuves de la présence d’une
e
source occidentale latine dans la tradition grecque pour l’histoire du 4 siècle,’ in idem, Scripta
minora (Bari 2006) 413-422; and review of Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome, in Antiquité tardive
20 (2012) 359-388.
LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI allegedly translated by ATHANASIOS OF ALEXANDRIA:

Dekkers, ‘Les traductions grecques,’ 199, citing the claim by the Luciferian priests
Marcellinus and Faustinus in the Collectio Avellana, De confessione verae fidei 88 (=
CSEL 35.1, p. 31): quos quidem libros [of Lucifer] Athanasius in graecum stylum transtulit, ne
tanti boni graeca lingua non haberet. No such translations survive, and the work in which
this claim appears is unreliable according to T. Barnes, Athanasius and Constantius
(Harvard 1993) 114-115.
AMBROSE OF MILAN: his De fide and De incarnationis dominicae sacramento had

apparently been translated (but do not survive): Dekkers ‘Les traductions grecques,’
200-201. Apparently, Niketas Choniates engaged with works by Ambrose (namely the
Against Apollinaris; Letter to Gratian; and De fide) in his Treasure of Orthodoxy (not yet
fully published), so they must have been available in translation, at least the key
passages: Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 312.
AUGUSTINE: his biographer Possidius (Vita 11, PL 32:42) refers to books of his in
graecam sermonem translatos. But none survive from the early period (see below for late
Byzantium). Cf. Dekkers ‘Les traductions grecques,’ 207-208; B. Altaner, ‘Augustinus in
der griechischen Kirche bis auf Photius,’ in idem, Kleine Patristische Schriften (Berlin
1967) 75-98.
JEROME, De virginatate ad Eustochium, translated by his friend Sophronios of

Bethlehem: Jerome, De viris illustribus 134. The translation does not survive. See also
below for Hagiography translated from Latin.
JEROME, De viris illustribus, ed. O. von Gebhardt, Der sogenannte Sophronius (Leipzig
1896); see also G. Wentzel, Die griechische Übersetzung der Viri inlustres des Hieronymus
(Leipzig 1895).
RUFINUS, Ecclasiastical History, books 10-11 (Latin, early fifth century), and
GELASIOS, Ecclasiastical History (Greek, late fourth century): Photios, Bibliotheke cod.
89: Ἡμεῖς δὲ εὕρομεν, ἀνεγνωκότες ἐν ἄλλοις, ὅτι αὐτός τε Κύριλλος καὶ Γελάσιος
οὗτος τὴν Ῥουφίνου τοῦ Ῥωμαίου μετέφρασαν ἱστορίαν εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶσσαν, οὐ
μέντοι ἰδίαν συνετάξαντο ἱστορίαν. The question is somewhat intractable, as the
chronology is impossible, but so says Photios. P. van Deun, ‘The Church Historians
after Eusebius,’ in G. Marasco, ed., Greek and Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity,
Fourth to Sixth Century A.D. (Leiden 2003) 151-176, here 156-158: it seems that they are
independent books.
JOHN CASSIAN (d. ca. 430): Cassian, a monastic writer, knew both Greek and Latin,
but wrote in the west in Latin. That parts of his works were translated is attested by
Photios, Bibliotheke cod. 197 (three works) and by the survival of condensed translations
of some of his Latin works (though they are not overtly presented as such by Photios).
The Greek versions, which were subsequently included in the Philokalia, have been
now edited and discussed by P. Tzamalikos, A Newly Discovered Greek Father: Cassian
the Sabaite Eclipsed by John Cassian of Marseilles (Brill 2012); and idem The Real Cassian
Revisited: Monastic Life, Greek Paideia, and Origenism in the Sixth Century (Brill 2012), who
argues that this Kassianos the Sabaïtes (early sixth century) was primary and the “John
Cassian” known to western tradition is a Latin translation and expansion of his Greek
works. This is unlikely: see the reviews by C. Stewart in Journal of Ecclesiastical History
66 (2015) 372-376; and A. Casiday in Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 3 (2014) 119-125.
Traces of John Cassian in Greek are found in later Byzantine writers, listed in Dekkers,
‘Les traductions grecques,’ 213-214.
A LATIN CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CONSULAR LIST (covering parts of the fourth

century, but with additional historical information beyond just naming the consuls)
was absorbed into the PASCHAL CHRONICLE (produced after 628 AD): M. and M.
Whitby, Chronicon Paschale, 284-628 AD (Liverpool 1989) xvii; Lumpe, ‘Abendland und
Byzanz,’ 323-324. Its existence is logical postulate; there is no evidence that it was
“translated” separately from its absorption into the Paschal Chronicle, which may have
entailed its functional translation at that time.
HYMNS, PRAYERS, and LITURGIES: Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 316-317, 322-
323; liturgies for Greek-speaking Catholics in southern Italy: D. J. Geanakoplos,
Interaction of the “Sibling” Byzantine and Western Cultures in the Middle Ages and Italian
Renaissance (330-1600) (New Haven 1976) 99 ff.; and see below for Demetrios Kydones
and Manuel Kalekas.
ROMAN LAW
A large body of Roman imperial pronouncements and edicts was issued in “real time”
in both Greek and Latin, a process of parallel translation that continued in various
ways throughout the empire. For our purposes, Justinian’s Novellae (issued in the east
after 535 primarily in Greek, but there were almost always Latin versions, at least kept
in the chancery) may be considered paradigmatic. Early bibliography on the topic of
the Latin influence on Byzantine law is cited by Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 328-
331. For the Greek language of Byzantine (Roman) law in general, see S. Troianos, Η
ελληνική νομική γλώσσα: Γένεση και μορφολογική εξέλιξη της νομικής ορολογίας στη ρωμαϊκή
Ανατολή (Athens and Komotini 2000).
The BASILIKA (ca. 900) represent a condensation of sixth-century translations of the

CODEX JUSTINIANUS and the DIGEST, while the scholia on the Basilika contain
snippets of more translated bits: Basilicorum libri LX, ed. H.J. Scheltema, D. Holwerda,
and N. van der Wal, 9 vols. (Groningen 1953-1988); and Basilicorum libri LX. Series B
(scholia), eds. H. Scheltama and N. Van der Wal (Groningen 1988). See D. Holwerda, ‘Le
Code de Justinien et sa traduction grecque,’ Classica et medievalia 23 (1962) 274-292; N.
van der Wal, Les Commentaires grecs du Code de Justinien (The Hague, 1953). None of the
extant translations contain reflections on the process of translation.
Dorotheos the antecessor (and a professor at the law school of Beirut) translated the
DIGEST, probably between 536-539: F. Brandsma, Dorotheus and his Digest Translation
(Groningen 1996). For the translations made by the antecessores, and by Thalelaios in
particular, see S. Sciortino, ‘La relazione tra il κατὰ πόδας e le traduzioni di Taleleo dei
rescritti latini del Codex,’ Annali del seminario giuridico dell’ Università degli studi di
Palermo 56 (2013) 113-158; idem, ‘Sul rapporto tra il kata pódas e la traduzioni letterali di
Taleleo dei rescritti in latino del Codex,’ in C. Cascione, C. M. Doria, and G. D. Merola,
eds., Modelli di un multiculturalismo giuridico. Il bilinguismo nel mondo antico, diritto, prassi,
insegnamento, v. 1 (Napoli 2013) 741-758.
Theophilos the antecessor’s PARAPHRASE OF THE INSTITUTES is a translation of

Justinian’s Institutes, with notes: ed. J.H.A. Lokin et al., with tr. by A.F. Murison,
Theophili Antecessoris Paraphrasis Institutionum (Groningen 2010). The translation does
not appear to contain any reflections on the fact that it is a translation.
The Rhopai (Ῥοπαί) is a mix of ordinanaces from the Corpus, stemming probably from
Greek paraphrases of the sixth century, that were subsequently modified and adapted:
F. Sitzia, Le Rhopai (Naples 1984).
The De actionibus (Περὶ ἀγωγῶν) is a treatise that aims to enable plaintiffs to choose
the correct legal action for their purposes. Its origins are in the civil procedures of the
fifth and sixth centuries, and it took its surviving form in the eleventh-twelfth century:
F. Sitzia, De actionobus (Milan 1973 = Pubbl. dell instituto di diritto romano e dei diritti dell
oriente mediterraneo 46).
Collectio Tripartita: a collection of Greek versions of canon laws from the Corpus in
three parts, the first from the CODEX IUSTINIANUS (1.1-13); the second from the
DIGEST and the INSTITUTES; and the third from Justinian’s Novels (in the
paraphrase of Athanasios of Emesa; ed. PG 138: 1077-1336; see Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium 480.
Ioannes Lydos, On the Magistracies of the Roman State (ca. 554), quotes or paraphrases
material from the Digest in a number of places: Weber, De Latine Scriptis, v. 2, 32-35.
Was he making his own translations from the Latin (which he knew) or using other
ones? Ed. A. Bandy, Ioannes Lydus: On Powers or The Magistracies of the Roman State
(Philadelphia 1983).
In ca. 1300, Maximos Planoudes copied sections of the INSTITUTES in the original
Latin and the Greek paraphrase by Theophilos antecessor: E. Fisher, ‘Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ in Remusings: Essays on the Translation of Classical
Poetry, special issue of Classical and Modern Literature 27.1 (2007 [2008]) 45-67, here 51-52.
We have it in his own hand.
TRANSLATIONS FROM ARMENIAN
[See also “Hagiography” below for more texts in that genre.]
Scholarship on translations between Greek and Armenian focuses almost always on the
opposite direction from the one we are interested in here, e.g., F. Gazzano et al., eds., Greek
Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Berlin 2016).
AGATHANGELOS, History of Armenia (focusing on the career of Gregory the

Illuminator). This was a text written probably in the mid fifth century but pretending
to have been written by a contemporary of St. Gregory (ca. 320). It survives in both
Armenian and Greek; for the latter, see ed. G. Lafontaine, La version grecque ancienne du
livre arménien d’Agathange (Louvain 1973). For the vita and passio of St. Gregory, see also
G. Garitte, Documents pour l’ étude du livre d’ Agathange (= Studi e Testi v. 127) (Rome 1946);
and idem, ‘La vie grecque inédite de saint Grégoire d’ Arménie (ms. 4 d’ Ochrida),’
Analecta Bollandiana 83 (1965) 257-290.
The NARRATIO DE REBUS ARMENIAE is a brief (20 page) pro-Chalcedonian

ecclesiastical history written originally in Armenian that survives in Greek translation
(and a fragmentary Georgian translation from the Greek): ed. G. Garitte, La Narratio de
rebus Armeniae (Louvain 1952). See the discussion by T. L. Andrews, ‘Identity,
Philosophy, and the Problem of Armenian History in the Sixth Century,’ in P. Wood,
ed., History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East (Oxford 2013) 29-41, here 32.
THE ARMENIAN EPIC HISTORIES: Prokopios (550-551 AD) possibly used a brief
section of this text in his Wars 1.5.7-40 (and cited it in his Buildings 3.1.6), calling it The
History of the Armenians. English translation by N. G. Garsoïan, The Epic Histories
Attributed to P’awstos Buzand (Buzandaran Patmut’iwnk’) (Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press 1989). She proposes (10, 20) that Prokopios was drawing in a wider
tradition rather than on this text specifically. This is possible, but not necessary. The
passages he reproduces really do seem like translations of the corresponding parts of
the text, adapted by Prokopios to his themes. Discussion: G. Traina, ‘Faustus “of
Byzantium,” Procopius, and the Armenian History (Jacoby, FGrHist 679, 3-4),’ in C. Sode
and S. Takacs, ed., Novum Millennium: Studies on Byzantine History and Culture Dedicated
to Paul Speck (Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2001) 405-413.
Fragment of a liturgical text: G. Garitte, “Un opuscule grec traduit de l’arménien sur
l’addition d’eau au vin eucharistique,” Le Muséon 73 (1960) 298-299.
An Armenian prophesy (exploited by Basileios I): G. Garitte, ‘La vision de S. Sahak en

grec,’ Le Muséon 71 (1958) 255-278; cf. Life of Basileios I 19 (with the commentary ad loc. by
Ševčenko, 78 app. crit.).
TRANSLATION FROM PERSIAN, SIXTH CENTURY
PERSIAN LORE (history, religion, and ethnography) in AGATHIAS, Histories 2.23-32,

4.24-30 (ca. 580). Agathias was a poet, lawyer, and historian who wrote (around 580) a
continuation of the Wars of Prokopios that covered the 550s. His narrative covers war
between Rome and Persia and digresses in two separate passages to discuss the broad
sweep of Persian history and Zoroastrian religion. Agathias claims that he found this
material in a translation of works kept at the Sasanian court made by one Sergios. See
the Anthology for the key passage. Discussions in A. Cameron, ‘Agathias on the
Sassanians,’ DOP 23-24 (1969-70) 67-183; Cesare Questa, ‘Il morto e la madre: Romei e
Persiani nelle ‘Storie’ de Agatia,’ Lares 55 (1989) 375-405; A. Kaldellis, ‘The Historical
and Religious Views of Agathias: A Reinterpretation,’ Byzantion 69 (1999) 206-252.
TRANSLATIONS FROM SYRIAC
There is a useful bibliography here:

http://www.csc.org.il/db/browse.aspx?db=SB&sL=T&sK=translations%20into%
20Greek&sT=keywords (go to keyword “translations into Greek”)
[See also “Hagiography” below for texts in that genre.]
Brock, S. P., ‘Greek into Syriac and Syriac into Greek,’ Journal of the Syriac Academy 3
(1977) 406-422; reprinted in idem, Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity (London:
Variorum 1984) II, esp. 11-17.
Some of the hymns of the poet EPHRAEM OF NISIBIS (fourth century) were
translated, though most of the corpus of the so-called Ephraem Graecus would appear
to consist of original Greek compositions: ed. K.G. Phrantzoles, Ὁσίου Ἐφραίμ τοῦ Σύρου
ἔργα, 7 vols. (Thessalonike: To Perivoli tis Panagias, 1988-1998); for the question of
authorship, see the studies by D. Hammerdinger-Iliadou that are cited in M. Tamcke,
ed., Syriaca II (Münster 2004) 35 n. 23, esp. her ‘Ephraem Graecus,’ in Dictionnaire de la
Spiritualité, v. 5: cols. 800-821; also E. Grypeou, ‘Ephraem Graecus, Sermo In Adventum
Domini: A Contribution to the Study of the Transmission of Apocalyptic Motifs in
Greek, Latin and Syriac Traditions in Late Antiquity,’ in S. Khalil Samir and J. P.
Monferrer-Sala, eds., Graeco-Latina et Orientalia: Studia in honorem Angeli Urbani
heptagenarii (Cordonba 2013) 165-182. St Jerome, De viris illustribus 115: “I once read in
Greek a volume by him On the Holy Spirit, which some one had translated from the
Syriac, and recognized even in translation, the incisive power of lofty genius.”
The DOCTRINE OF ADDAI (ca. fifth century) tells the legend of the Image of Edessa
and the story of Addai and his disciple Mari. Parts of it were translated into Greek: see
R. Peppermüller, ‘Griechische Papyrusfragmente der Doctrina Addai,’ Vigiliae
Christianae 25:4 (1971) 289-301; and M. Illert, Doctrina Addai; De imagine Edessena / Die
Abgarlegende; Das Christusbild von Edessa (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008 = Fontes Christiani 45)
on the various traditions; cf. A. Desreumaux, A. Palmer, and R. Beylot, Histoire du roi
Abgar et de Jésus (Turnhout: Brepols, 1993).
THE APOCALYPSE OF PSEUDO-METHODIOS (ca. 700): ed. A. C. Lolos, Die

Apokalypse des Ps.-Methodios [Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 83. Meisenheim am Glan:
Hain, 1976]; W. J. Aerts and G. A. A. Kortekaas, Die Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius: Die
ältesten griechischen und lateinischen Übersetzungen. 2 vols. (Leuvain: Peeters 1998 =
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia v. 97-98); B. Garstad, Apocalypse of
Pseudo-Methodius: An Alexandrian World Chronicle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2012 = Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library).
ISAAC OF NINEVEH (Ishaq) or ISAAC THE SYRIAN (fl. ca. 680): Nestorian bishop of
Nineveh (Mosul). Some of his works on mystical and ascetical topics were translated
by the monks Patrikios and Abramios of Mar Saba, probably in the ninth century, who
made him sound more orthodox. Ed. N. Theotokis, Τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰσαὰκ
ἐπισκόπου Νινεβῆ τοῦ Σύρου τὰ εὐρεθέντα ἀσκητικά (Leipzig 1770; reprint Athens 1895);
and Μάρκελλος Πιράρ, ed., Ἀββᾶ Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ Σύρου: Λόγοι Ἀσκητικοί (Ἱερὰ Μονὴ Ἰβήρων:
Mt. Athos, 2012); see K. Deppe, ‘Die Λόγοι ἀσκητικοί des Isaak von Nineveh. Die
griechische Übersetzung der Schriften Isaaks nach fünf Codices des Katharinen-
klosters vom Sinai,’ Paul de Lagarde und die syrische Kirchengeschichte (Göttingen 1968)
35-57; S. Brock, ‘From Qatar to Tokyo, by Way of Mar Saba: The Translations of Isaac
of Beth Qatraye (Isaac the Syrian),’ Aram 12 (1999-2000) 475-484.
“THE EASTERN SOURCE” behind Theophanes the Confessor (ca. 814), Dionysios of
Tel-Mahre (Syriac), Agapius of Manbij (Arabic), and possibly other works such as the
Chronicle of Siirt (Arabic). Some argue that this Eastern Source was an (almost certainly
Syriac) history written by Theophilos of Edessa (eighth century), and that a part of it,
covering the years ca. 630-746, was translated into Greek. This translation was then
used by Theophanes the Confessor: for versions of this argument, see C. Mango and R.
Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-
813 (Oxford 1997) lxxxii-lxxxvii; J. Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis:
Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford 2010) 192-236,
276, 295-306; R. G. Hoyland, Theophilus of Edessa’s Chronicle and the Circulation of
Historical Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Liverpool 2011). This thesis has
been contested by M. Conterno, La “descrizione dei tempi” all’alba dell’espansione islamica:
Un’indagine sulla storiografia greca, siriaca e araba fra VII e VIII secolo (Berlin 2014), and is
subject to debate in a volume of Travaux et mémoires 19 (2015), devoted to Theophanes.
At any rate, Theophanes had access to eastern (probably Syriac) materials that had
been translated into Greek, whatever their exact source.
SINBAD TALES: Michael Andreopoulos, The Book of the Philosopher Syntipas,

translated from Syriac for the doux of Melitene, Gabriel, ca. 1100. This was a Sinbad tale
that was translated from Persian into Arabic, then into Syriac, and finally into Greek;
ed. V. Jernstedt and P. Nikitin, Michaelis Andreopuli Liber Syntipae (St. Petersburg 1912 =
Mémories de l’Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, VIII série, Classe historico-
philologique 11.1). The text comes with a dedicatory epigram (see the Anthology). I cite
only the most relevant verses here: Τοῦ μυθογράφου Συντίπα κατὰ Σύρους, μᾶλλον δὲ
Περσῶν τοὺς σοφοὺς λογογράφους, αὕτη πέφυκεν ἣν βλέπεις δέλτος, φίλε. Ἣν καὶ
συρικοῖς τοῖς λόγοις γεγραμμένην εἰς τὴν παροῦσαν αὐτὸς ἑλλάδα φράσιν μετήγαγόν
τε καὶ γέγραφα τὴν βίβλον, τῶν γραμματικῶν ἔσχατός γε τυγχάνων, ᾿Aνδρεόπωλος
Μιχαήλ, Χριστοῦ λάτρις; text and translation of the epigram given also by I. Toth,
‘Authorship and Authority in the Book of the Philosopher Syntipas,’ in A. Pizzone, ed.,
The Author in Middle Byzantine Literature: Modes, Functions, Identities (Berlin: de Gruyter,
2014) 87-103, here 88. There is also a brief prologue: ibid. 92, which attributes the
original to one Mousos the Persian; on him (possibly the ninth-century Arab writer
Mūsā b. ‘Īsā al-Kisrawī), see 94. But the Syriac version from which the Greek
translation was made does not survive, so the Greek version is “the oldest surviving
witness of the earliest known eastern tradition.” In general, see B. Edwin Perry, ‘The
Origin of the Book of Sindbad,’ Fabula 3 (1959) 1-94; S. Belcher, ‘The Diffusion of the
Book of Sindbād,’ Fabula 28 (1987) 49‒58; E. Valdo Maltese, Il libro di Sindbad. Novelle
persiane medievali, dalla versione bizantina di Michele Andreopulo (Torino: UTET 1993); G.
Kechagioglou, ‘Ο βυζαντινός και μεταβιζαντινός Συντίπας: για μια νέα έκδοση,’
Graeco-Arabica 1 (1982) 105-130. There is a thirteenth-century reworking of the Greek

translation, the so-called Retractatio, and other later versions: see I. Toth, ‘The
Byzantine Translation(s) of the Book of the Philosopher Syntipas,’ in Neograeca Medii
Aevi VII. The Proceedings of the International Congress ‘Mapping Early Modern Greek
Literature (12th-17th c.),’ Heraklion, 1‒4 November 2012 (forthcoming).
Andreopoulos may have also translated SYNTIPAS FABLES that accompany
the Aesopian fables: B. Edwin Perry, Studies in the Text History of the Life and Fables of
Aesop (Haverford: Lancester Press & Blackwell 1936) 26, 72, 186-189; cf. A. Hausrath and
H. Hunger, Corpus fabularum Aesopicarum, v. 1.2, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: Teubner 1959) 155-183.
TRANSLATIONS FROM COPTIC
[See also “Hagiography” below for texts in that genre.]
From Alin Suciu (pers. comm.): “I am about to finish an article on the Sahidic version
of Sermo asceticus by Stephen of Thebes (CPG 8240, Supplementum p. 473), which is
preserved in Coptic, Greek, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Georgian. I think I found arguments
that the text was originally written in Coptic.” See also
http://alinsuciu.com/2014/05/05/the-greek-version-of-stephen-of-thebes-acetic-rules/
There are some Greek fragments of text attributed to Shenute, but it is not clear
whether these are translations from Coptic or texts produced in both languages by a
Coptic-speaker who knew Greek well enough: Leo Depuydt, ‘In Sinuthium graecum,’
Orientalia n.s. 59 (1990) 67-71.
Rente Draguet (in the 1930s and 40s) had argued that a number of works, including the
Life of Antony, Lausiac History, and Asketikon of Isaiah of Sketis, were translated from
Coptic into Greek, but this thesis does not appear to be supported by anyone today. A
note from Alin Suciu (pers. comm.): “perhaps mention the Lives of Pachomios as
possible translations from Coptic into Greek. The problem has sometimes been vividly
discussed, but no consensus has been reached (although most scholars would believe
today that the original was Greek). In any case, it is worth mentioning.”
HAGIOGRAPHY
(all periods, all languages) 2
Hagiography: LATIN
Lists of translated hagiographical texts:

Gounelle, R., ‘Traductions de textes hagiographiques et apocryphes latis en grec,’
Apocrypha 16 (2005) 35-73.
Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 318-320.
Lequeux, X., ‘Latin Hagiographical Literature Translated into Greek,’ in S.
Efthymiadis, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, v. 1:
Periods and Places (Ashgate 2011) 386-399.
Efthymiadis, S., ‘L’hagiographie grecque de l’Italie (VIIe-XIVe siècle),’ Corpus
Christianorum: Hagiographies VII (2017) 345-421, here 354-362.
For the south Italian context in the eighth century, see C. Mango, ‘La culture grecque
et l’Occident au VIIIe siècle,’ in I problemi dell’ Occidente nel secolo VIII (Spoleto
1973) 683-721, here 709-710; reprinted in idem, Byzantium and its Image: History
and Culture of the Byzantine Empire and Its Heritage (London 1998) VI.
Nikitas, D. Z., ‘Traduzioni greche di opere latine,’ in S. Settis, ed., I Greci: Storia, cultura,
arte, società, v. 3: I Greci oltre la Grecia (Torino 2001) 1035-1051, here 1042.
Franklin, C. V., ‘Hagiographic Translations in the Early Middle Ages (7th-10th
Centuries),’ in J. Hamesse, ed., Les traducteurs au travail: leurs manuscrits et leurs
méthodes (Brepols 2001) 1-19, is almost entirely about translations from Greek to
Latin, but at 10-11 she discusses texts translated so literally we cannot be sure of
the direction.
Examples of Latin-to-Greek translations of hagiographic texts:
Passio Perpetuae: V. Reichmann, Römische Literatur in griechischer Übersetzung =

Philologus Suppl. 34.3 (1943) 101-130.
Sulpicius Severus, vita Martini, possibly translated into Greek in Sicily or southern
Italy: BHG 1181; see H. Delehaye, ‘La vie grecque de S. Martin de Tours,’ Studi bizantini e
neoellenici 5 (1939) 428-431; Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 314.
Jerome, vita Hilarionis: Three Greek versions of the vita survive, plus various ancilla,
BHG 751-756; R. F. Strout, ‘The Greek Versions of Jerome’s Vita Sancti Hilarionis,’ in W.
A. Oldfather, ed., Studies in the Text Tradition of St Jerome’s Vitae Patrum (Urbana, Ill,
1943); see E. Fisher, ‘Greek Translations of Latin Literature in the Fourth Century A.D.,’
Yale Classical Studies 28 (1982) 173-215, here 193-200. Jerome himself, De viris illustribus
134, says that his work was translated by his friend Sophronius: et vitam Hilarionis
monachi opuscula mea in graecum sermonem elegantissime transtulit.
2
With thanks to Philip Wood for steering me to the invaluable database of the Center for the Study of
Christianity.
Jerome, vita Malchi: see BHG 1015-1017; P. Van den Ven, S. Jérome et la Vie du moine
Malchus le Captíf (Louvain 1901) 110-121 and passim.
Jerome, vita Pauli: ed. J. Bidez, Deux versions grecques inédites de la vie de Paul de Thebes
(Gand 1900).
Paulinus, vita Ambrosii, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ἀνάλεκτα Ἱεροσολυμιτικῆς

σταχυολογίας, v. 1 (St Petersburg 1891) 27-88 = BHG 67; cf. F. van Ortoy, ‘Les vies gr. de St.
Ambroise et leur sources,’ Ambrosiana 4 (1907) 15.
Gregory the Great (pope 590-604), Dialogues: translated by pope Zachariah (d. 752), the
last native Greek-speaking pope: ed. PL 77:147-430. From the preface: ἐν τέσσαρσι
βιβλίοις διεγράψατο. Διελθόντων δὲ ἤδη που ἑκατὸν ἑξήκοντα πέντε ἐνιαυτῶν, καὶ
μηδενὸς τῶν πάντων σπουδὴν θεμένου ἐπὶ τὴν ταυτῶν μετάφρασιν ἐκ τῆς Ῥωμαίας
εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶτταν, ὁ ἐκ τῆς ἄνωθεν ῥοπῆς ψηφισθεὶς ποιμήν τε καὶ ποιμενάρχης
καὶ ὁδηγὸς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως, ὁ τοῦ πρωτοβάθρου τῶν ἀποστόλων Πέτρου διάδοχος
Ζαχαρίας … τὰς αὐτὰς βίβλους τὰς παρὰ τῶν ἀνωτέρω μνημονευθέντων
συγγραφείσας τῇ Ῥωμαίᾳ διαλέκτῳ, τάς τε περιεχούσας τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν
διαπρεψάντων ἁγίων πατέρων ἀρετὰς, εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα μεταφράσαι γλῶτταν. The
translation was significant enough that it was mentioned as the last item in pope
Zachariah’s vita in the Liber Pontificalis: R. Davis, The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes
(Liber Pontificalis) (Liverpool 1992) 50: “translated the four books of Dialogues produced
by pope Gregory of blessed memory from Latin into Greek, and enlightened many
who do not know how to read Latin by the narrative they can read in them.” This
translation was probably meant for monks in Italy, but it caught on in Byzantium too:
A. Louth, ‘Gregory the Great in the Byzantine Tradition,’ in B. Neil et al., eds., A
Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden 2013) 343-358, here 347-348. The translation is
first mentioned in Byzantium by Photios, Bibliotheke cod. 252 (here reviewing a Life of
Gregory the Great). For this and other translated works of Gregory, see also Lumpe,
‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 315-317.
vita Benedicti, ed. G. Rigotti, Vita di s. Benedetto nella versione greca di papa Zaccaria
(Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2001) 1-113. I think this is only a section of the
previous.
vitae Gregorii Magni: BHG 720-721; one such vita is reviewed by Photios, Bibliotheke cod.
252; see in general H. Delehaye, ‘S. Grégoire le Grand dans l’hagiographie grecque,’ AB
23 (1904) 449-454; E. H. Fischer, ‘Gregor der Grosse und Byzanz,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-
Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 67 (1950) 15-144; E. Follieri, ‘Santi
occidentali nell’innographia Byzantina,’ in Atti del convegno internationale sul tema
L’oriente cristiano nella storia della civiltà (Rome 1964) 251-272, here 267.
Hagiography: SYRIAC
General bibliography for the eastern languages in general:

Peeters, Paul, ‘Traductions et traducteurs dans l’hagiographie orientale à l’époque
byzantine,’ Analecta Bollandiana 40 (1922) 241-298; reprinted as an appendix, with
additional material, in idem, Orient et Byzance: Le tréfonds oriental de
l’hagiographie byzantine (Brussels 1950) 165-218, esp. 179-180 for Syriac (a

preliminary list).
THE ACTS OF THOMAS: the Greek version is translated from the Syriac, but is
probably closer to the original text than the extant Syriac Acts, which have been edited
(Philip Wood, pers. comm.). We should probably treat these as pre-Byzantine texts
anyway. See H. W. Attridge, ‘The Original Language of the Acts of Thomas,’ in idem et
al., eds., Of Scribes and Scrolls: Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism, and
Christian Origins Presented to John Strugnell on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday
(Lanham et al.: University Press of America, 1990) 241-250.
[Editions of translated saints’ lives are hereafter presented alphabetically by editor.]
Capron, Laurent, Deux codices hagiographiques sur papyrus du Musée du Louvre: édition et
commentaire (Thèse de doctorat en Études grecques et Papyrologie, Université Paris-
Sorbonne ‒ Paris IV, 2010). Parts of the Life of Eupraxia, the Life of Abraham of Qidun,
and the Life of Theodora of Alexandria, the oldest witnesses of the Greek version of the
texts. The Life of Abraham is a Greek translation of a Syriac text.
Delehaye, Hippolyte, ‘S. Sadoth episcopi Seleuciae et Ctesiphontis Acta graeca,’

Analecta Bollandiana 21 (1902) 141-147 (BHG 1613).
Delehaye, Hippolyte, ‘SS. Ionae et Barachisii martyrum in Perside Acta graeca,’

Analecta Bollandiana 22 (1903) 395-407 (BHG 942-943).
Delehaye, Hippolyte, ed., Les versions grecques des Actes des martyrs persans sous Sapor II
(Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1907 = Patrologia Orientalis 2.4).
Detoraki, Marina, ed., Le martyre de saint Aréthas et de ses compagnons (BHG 166), Paris:
Collège de France, 2007.
Devos, Paul, ‘Sainte Šīrīn, martyre sous Khosrau Ier Anōšarvān,’ Analecta Bollandiana
64 (1946) 87-131 (BHG 1637).
Devos, Paul, ‘Le dossier hagiographique de S. Jacques l’Intercis,’ Analecta Bollandiana 71

(1953): 157-210; 72 (1954), 213-256 (BHG 772-773).
von Dobschütz, Ernst, Die Akten der edessenischen Bekenner Gurjas, Samonas und Abibos
aus dem Nachlass von Oscar von Gebhardt (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1911 = Texte und
Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 37.2) (BHG 731-736); and F. C.
Burkitt, Euphemia and the Goth, with the Acts of Martyrdom of the Confessors of Edessa
(London 1913); cf. Peeters, Oriens et Byzance, 179.
van Esbroeck, Michel, ‘Abraham le Confesseur (Ve s.), traducteur des Passions des
martyrs persans. À propos d’un livre récent,’ Analecta Bollandiana 95:1-2 (1977) 168-179.
Le Blant, Edmond, ‘Histoire d’un soldat goth et d’une jeune fille d’Édesse,’ Comptes-
rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 25:4 (1881) 370-377; and F.
C. Burkitt, Euphemia and the Goth, with the Acts of Martyrdom of the Confessors of Edessa
(London 1913).
Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A., in Pravoslavnij Palestinskij Sbornik 12 (St Petersburg 1892) 1-

7: the Martyrdom of the Sixty New Martyrs Who Were Martyred under the Tyranny of the
Arabs in the Holy City of Our God Christ, with a wonderful statement regarding the
translation on p. 7 (see the Anthology); see Peeters, Orient et Byzance, 21, 180; G. L.
Huxley, ‘The Sixty Martyrs of Jerusalem,’ Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 18:4 (1977)
369-374; and P. Giannopoulos, Βυζαντινοί και Άραβες κατά τη μεσοβυζαντινή περίοδο
(Athens: Herodotos 2016) 180-182, 198-199.
Pigulevskaya, Nina V., ‘Syrischer Texte und griechische Übersetzung der Märtyrer-
Akten der heiligen Tarbo (Syriaca-Byzantina III),’ in R. Stiehl and H. E. Stier, eds.,
Beiträge zur alten Geschichte und deren Nachleben. Festschrift für Franz Altheim zum
6.10.1968 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970) 96-100.
de Stoop, E., ‘Vie d’Alexandre l’Acémète,’ Patrologia Orientalis 6.5 (1911) 645-705. This is
probably also translated from Syriac, though how far the Greek version has been
expanded is hard to tell (Philip Wood, pers. comm.).
Also listed or noted by Peeters, Orient et Byzance, 55-58 (the Discovery of the Relics of St.
Stephen?); 58-61 (the Discovery of the Head of John the Baptist?); 68-70 (Sergios and
Bakchos?); 93-136 (the traditions regarding Symeon the Stylite?); 179 (Barsamias and
Sharbil, the Greek version of which is attested in the Synaxarion of Constantintinople col.
431-432); 179 (Jonah and Barachisios: BHG 942-943); 179-180 (Pherbutha: BHG 1511); 180
(Ia: BHG 761-762, the Syriac original is lost but presumed certain); 180 (Bademus: BHG
210); 180 (Akepsimas, Joseph, and Aeithalas: BHG 15-20); 180 (Febronia: BHG 659).
Hagiography: ARMENIAN
The Greek Life of Gregory the Illuminator (BHG 712-713) probably derives from an
Armenian version, possibly that of “Agathangelos”: ed. G. Garitte, Documents pour
l’étude du livre d’Agathange (Vatican City 1946); see S. Peter Cowe, ‘Armenian
Hagiography,’ in S. Efthymiadis, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine
Hagiography, v. 1: Periods and Places (Ashgate 2011) 299-322, here 306.
Peeters, Oriens et Byzance, 197, claims that the martyrdom of Isaozites (Yazdbozid) that
is recounted briefly by Menandros, History fr. 13 (Blockley), is based on an Armenian
source.
Hagiography: COPTIC
Materials relating to PACHOMIOS: some of his letters were translated into Greek: H.
Quecke, Die Briefe Pachoms (Regensburg 1975). L. T. Lefort, Oeuvres de s. Pachôme et de ses
disciples, 2 vols. (Louvain 1956) argued that the two Greek vitae (the Vita Prima that
survives and the Vita Altera used by Dionysius Exiguus for his Latin translation) were
based on Coptic originals. But this is not certain. See F. Halkin, Le corpus athénien de
Saint Pachôme (Geneva 1982), with French tr.; F Halkin, Sancti Pachomii Vitae Graecae
(Brussels 1932). English translations of all the above can be found in Pachomian
Koinonia: The Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomius and his Disciples, 3 vols.
(Kalamazoo, MI 1980-1982). Jerome claims that the Rule of Pachomios was translated
from Egyptian into Greek, and that he then translated it into Latin: A. Boon,
Pachomiana Latina (Louvain 1932) 4-5 (Praef. 2): ut erant de aegyptiaca in graecam linguam
versa, nostre sermone dictavi.
Jerome, De viris illustribus 88 says that ANTONY wrote seven letters to the monasteries
of Egypt that were later translated into Greek (misit aegyptiacas ad diversa monasteria
apostolici sensus sermonisque epistulas septem, quae in graecam linguam translatae sunt).
Seven letters purporting to be by Antony do survive, in many languages, but whether
they are authentic or the ones mentioned by Jerome cannot be established, nor (also)
whether the Greek or Coptic version was the original one (even beyond the question of
whether the extant letters are authentic to begin with): see S. Rubenson, The Letters of
St. Antony: Monasticism and the Making of a Saint (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 1995), with
a translation of the letters.
Materials relating to Menas? Peeters, Orient et Byzance, 32-41. He can’t prove that the
Greeks texts stem somehow from Coptic originals, but suspects it.
Hagiography: ARABIC
vita of John of Damascus: BHG 884 in PG 94:429-489 was probably based on an earlier
Arabic text: L. Brubaker and J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca. 680-850): The
Sources, An Annotated Survey (Birmingham 2001) 215-216.
vita of Timothy of Kakhushta: the Greek translation is lost. J. C. Lamoreaux and C.

Cairala, ‘The Life of Timothy of Kakhushta,’ Patrologia Orientalis 48.4 = no. 216
(Turnhout 2000).
Only the second one (Timothy) is listed in M. N. Swanson, ‘Arabic Hagiography,’ in S.

Efthymiadis, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, v. 1: Periods
and Places (Ashgate 2011) 345-367.
Hagiography: GEORGIAN
Barlaam and Ioasaph: a long hagiographic romance whose ultimate ancestor was the
story of the Buddha and which circulated in various versions and languages (esp. the
Arabic Bilawhar wa-Yudasaf) before it was translated from Georgian into Greek in the
late tenth century, probably by Euthymios, the Georgian abbot of the Iviron monastery
on Mt Athos (d. 1028): ed. Volk, R., Die Schriften des Johannes von Damascus, v. 6.1-2:
Historia animae utilis de Barlaam et Ioasaph (spuria) (Berlin 2006-2009); older tr. G. R.
Woodward and H. Mattingly, John Damascene: Barlaam and Ioasaph (Cambridge, MA
and London 1914, 1967). It is falsely attributed to John of Damascus. Title (there are
variants): Ἱστορία ψυχοφελὴς ἐκ τῆς ἐνδοτέρας τῶν Αἰθιόπων χώρας, τῆς Ἰνδῶν
λεγομένης, πρὸς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν μετενεχθεῖσα διὰ Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ μονῆς τοῦ ἁγίου
Σάβα. And the preface also notes: … ἥνπερ μοι ἀφηγήσαντο τινες ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς τῆς
ἐνδοτέρας τῶν Αἰθιόπων χώρας, οὕστινας Ἰνδοὺς οἷδεν ὁ λόγος καλεῖν, ἐξ
ὑπομνημάτων ταύτην ἀψευδῶν μεταφράσαντας.
Hagiography: SLAVONIC
It is possible that Theophylaktos of Ohrid’s vita of Kliment (ca. 1100) was based on a
Slavic original, but we cannot say for sure that a translation was behind it: ed. PG 126:
1194-1240; also in N. L. Tunickij, Monumenta ad SS Cyrilli et Methodii successorum vitas
resque gestas pertinentia (London, 1972) 66-141; I. Duichev, Kiril and Methodius: Founders of
Slavonic Writing, tr. S. Nikolov (Boulder, CO 1985) 93-126; tr. S. N. Scott, The Collapse of
the Moravian Mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Fate of their Disciples, and the
Christianization of the Southern Slavs (PhD dissertation, University of California 1989) 76-
181.
From Monica White (pers. comm.): “The three martyrs of Lithuania (John, Eustathios and
Anthony), murdered in 1347 by the pagan ruler Olgerd: on the request of patriarch
Philotheos, their relics were sent to Constantinople where Michael Balsamon wrote an
encomium about them. This is a very rare case of Rus’ saints arousing any interest in
Byzantium, and it occurred to me that there may well have been writings about them
in Slavonic before the Greek work was composed.” Full references to this episode in J.
Shepard, ‘Imperial Constantinople; Relics, Palaiologan Emperors, and the Resilience
of the Exemplary Center,’ in J. Harris et al., eds., Byzantines, Latins, and Turks in the
Eastern Mediterranean World After 1150 (Oxford 2012) 61-92, here 81. See D. Baronas, ‘The
Three Martyrs of Vilnius: A Fourteenth-Century Martyrdom and its Documentary
Sources,’ AB 122 (2004) 84-122 (maybe more pages); Balsamon’s Encomium is ed. M. N.
Speranksy, Serbskoe zhitielitovskikh muchenikov (Moscow 1909); and T. Alekniene, Trys
Vilniaus Kankiniai: Gyvenimas ir Istorija (Vilnius 2000) 240.
There is some debate about whether there was a Greek vita of Boris and Gleb
which I could summarize for you if you’re interested, but no actual text, as far as I
know. I’ve also found a reference to Sergii Radonezhskii being recognized as a saint
‘throughout the Orthodox world’ in the mid-fifteenth century, but unfortunately no
further explanation or footnote: David B. Miller, Saint Sergius of Radonezh, his Trinity
Monastery, and the Formation of the Russian Identity (DeKalb: Northern Illinois
University Press 2010) 42.”
TRANSLATIONS FROM SLAVONIC
There appear to be no texts that meet the criteria of this catalogue (but cf. “Hagiography”
above). From Monica White (pers. comm.): “Probably the most famous example would not
count, i.e., the tenth-century treaties between the Byzantines and Rus’ preserved in the
Primary Chronicle. At least one of them specifies that copies were made in Greek and
Slavonic.
It seems that there’s a manuscript, Vat. Gr. 840, compiled by/for metropolitan
Theognostos of Kiev (who was from Byzantium) around 1330. It includes a Greek
translation of an extract from the Rus’ PRIMARY CHRONICLE about the conversion of
the Bulgars in 6366, and also a brief notice about the conversion of Vladimir in 6496.
Theognostos was involved with the complicated diplomacy with Lithuania, so the texts
about conversion might have been relevant from that point of view. Various Russians
have taken an interest in this. Here is an article found for me by Pasha Johnson (OSU):
M. Priselkov and M. Vasmer, ‘Otryvki V.N. Beneševiča po istorii russkoj cerkvi XIV
věka.,’ Izvestija otdělenija russkogo jazyka I slovesnosti imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk 21 (1917)
48-70, with the relevant Greek text at 61. At 48, the authors mention two other
publications of the Greek text, in Analecta byzantino-russica from 1893 and in a big
compilation called the Russian Historical Library (Russkaia Istoricheskaia Biblioteka), v. 6
(no page numbers provided!), online at: http://www.runivers.ru/lib/book7652/428108/.”
AK: These two entries from the Rus’ Primary Chronicle were probably translated in
Kiev, not Byzantium. For a discussion, see S. A. Ivanov, “Pearls before Swine”: Missionary
Work in Byzantium (Paris 2015) 135-136.
Monica White (pers. comm.): “Another item is a seal of an official known as ‘Michael,
pansebastos, sebastos and Grand Interpreter of the Varangians.’ There’s a short article
about it in the book that I’m co-editing, if you want to know more.”
TRANSLATIONS FROM ARABIC
[See also “Hagiography” section above for texts in that genre.]
Mavroudi, M., A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation: The Oneirocriticon of Achmet and
Its Arabic Sources (Brill 2002) 392-429.
___. ‘Exchanges with Arabic Writers during the Late Byzantine Period,’ in S. Brooks,
ed., Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557): Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and
Culture (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art 2007) 62-75.
Gutas, D., ‘Arabic into Byzantine Greek: Introducing a Survey of the Translations,’ in
A. Speer und P. Steinkrüger, eds., Knotenpunkt Byzanz: Wissensformen und
kulturelle Wechselbeziehungen (Berlin and Boston 2012) 246-262.
Messis, Charis, ‘Traduction de l’arabe au grec,’ in H. Touati, ed., Encyclopédie de
l’humanisme méditerranéen (2014: http://www.encyclopedie-
humanisme.com/?Traduction-de-l-arabe-au-grec).
Arabic: THEOLOGY
QUR’AN: a translation into Greek was used by Niketas of Byzantium in his Refutation
of Islam (mid ninth century), who quotes about 200 verses; in the anathemas included
in a ritual of renunciation of Islam expected of converts to Christianity; and by
Euthymios Zigabenos, who refuted all heresies in ca. 1100 in his Dogmatic Panoply. The
fragments are ed. Karl Förstel, Schriften zum Islam von Arethas und Euthymios Zigabenos
und Fragmente der griechischen Koranübersetzung (Wiesbaden, 2009 = Corpus Islamo-
Christianum, Series Graeca, 7) 15-16 and 85-122; ed. also by Christian Høgel, ‘An Early
Anonymous Greek Translation of the Qur’an: The Fragments from Niketas Byzantios’
Refutatio and the Anonymous Abjuratio,’ Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 7 (2010) 65-119
(but he did not use Zigabenos); and now ed. M. Ulbricht, Coranus Graecus: Die älteste
überlieferte Koranübersetzung in der «Ἀνατροπη τοῦ Κορανίου» des Niketas von Byzanz (9.
Jh.): Einleitung – Text – Übersetzung – Kommentar (PhD dissertation: Freie Universitat
Berlin 2015); for discussion, see Kees Versteegh, ‘Greek Translations of the Qur’an in
Christian Polemics (9th Century A.D.),’ Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen
Gesellschaft 141 (1991) 52-68; Astérios Argyriou, ‘Perception de l’Islam et traductions du
Coran dans le monde byzantin grec,’ Byzantion 75 (2005) 25-69; and C. Simelides, ‘The
Byzantine Understanding of the Qur’anic Term al-Samad and the Greek Translation of
the Qur’an,’ Speculum 86 (2011) 887-913.
Niketas is ed. in PG 105:669-805; the anathemas (with French translation and
commentary) were edited by E. Montet, ‘Un rituel d’abjuration des musulmans dans
l’église grecque,’ Revue de l’histoire des religions 53 (1906) 145-163; for the ritual of
renunciation as a whole, see PG 140:123–136; see Daniel J. Sahas, ‘Ritual of Conversion
from Islam to the Byzantine Church,’ Greek Orthodox Theological Review 36 (1991) 57–69.
Zigabenos is in PG 128-130.
Simelides, ‘The Byzantine Understanding,’ 893 cites various verdicts on this
translation. One opinion (by Høgel) is that it was translated by a Muslim to help non-
Arabic-speaking Muslims. Simelides concludes that contributions by a native speaker
of Arabic should not be ruled out.
THEODOROS ABU QURRAH. Theodoros (ca. 755–ca. 830) was a Melkite bishop of
Harran and polemicist against Islam. It is likely that his works that survive in Greek are
translations from the Arabic (but it used to be believed that he wrote in Greek too), and
part of them seem to have been put together by his disciple John the Deacon: Georg
Graf, Die arabischen Schriften des Theodor Abū Qurra, Bischofs von Harrān (ca. 740–820):
Literarhistorische Untersuchungen und Übersetzung (Paderborn 1910 = Forschungen zur
christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte 10.3–4) 71; S. H. Griffith, ‘Stephen of Ramlah
and the Christian Kerygma in Arabic in Ninth-Century Palestine,’ Journal of
Ecclesiastical History 36 (1985) 23–45, here 34–36; see also John C. Lamoreaux, ‘Theodore
Abu Qurrah and John the Deacon,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 42 (2001) 361-386.
Polemics against Islam: ed. and tr. Reinhold Glei and Adel Theodor Khoury,
John of Damascus and Theodore Abu Qurrah: Schriften zum Islam (Würzburg 1995 = Corpus
Islamo-Christianum, Series Graeca 3 ); tr. John C. Lamoreaux, Theodore Abu Qurrah
(Provo, Utah, 2005 = Library of the Christian East 1 ). For Byzantine and eastern Christian
polemics against Islam in general, see Meyendorff, J., ‘Byzantine Views of Islam,’
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18 (1964) 113-132; Sahas, D., John of Damascus on Islam: The
“Heresy of the Ishmaelites” (Leiden 1972); Khoury, A. T., Les théologiens byzantins et l’Islam
(Louvain 1969) and Polémique byzantine contre l’Islam: VIIIe-XIIIe s. (Leiden 1972); A.
Ducellier, Chrétiens d’Orient et Islam au Moyen Age, VIIe-XVe siècle (Paris 1996).
Other Greek works: PG 97:1461-1610; these have apparently never been studied
systematically or fully catalogued. One of them, a letter to the Armenians by the
patriarch of Jerusalem Thomas (PG 97:1503-1522), is noted as being a translation in the
title (dictated in Arabic by Theodoros and then translated by one Michael): Ἀραβιστὶ
μὲν ὑπὸ Θεοδώρου τοῦ ἐπίκλην Ἀβουκαροῦ, τοῦ Καρῶν ἐπισκόπου γεγονότος,
ὑπαγορευθεῖσα, διὰ δὲ Μιχαὴλ πρεσβυτέρου καὶ συγγέλου ἀποστολικοῦ θρόνου
μεταφρασθεῖσα; cf. John C. Lamoreaux, ‘An Unedited Tract against the Armenians by
Theodore Abu Qurrah,’ Le Muséon 105 (1992) 327–341. Some of his sayings circulated in
both languages, those in Greek being probably translations from Arabic: S. H. Griffith,
‘Some Unpublished Arabic Sayings Attributed to Theodore Abu Qurrah,’ Le Muséon,
92 (1979) 29-35.
Arabic: MEDICAL WRITINGS
Touwaide, Alan, A Census of Greek Medical Manuscripts: From Byzantium to the
Renaissance (Routledge 2016). This catalogue presumably supersedes the three
next entries.
In a self-published catalogue, Touwaide claims to have identified 56 Byzantine medical
texts in more than 170 mss. that convey Arabic material: Medicinalia Arabo-
Byzantina, première partie: manuscripts et textes (Madrid, published by the author,
1997). His catalogue, however, does not appear in any library database. He gives
a bare list of authors and texts in ‘Arabic into Greek: The Rise of an
International Lexicon of Medicine in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean?’ in R.
Wisnovsky et al., eds., Vehicles of Transmission, Translation, and Transformation in
Medieval Textual Culture (Brepols 2001) 195-222, here 207-208. In the belief that
these texts may still contain valuable medical information, he has also created
an Institute that aspires to provide a comprehensive online publication of the

relevant material: http://medicaltraditions.org/collection/texts/byzantium
Touwaide, A., ‘Arabic into Greek: The Rise of an International Lexicon of Medicine in
Medieval Eastern Mediterranean?’ in R. Wisnovsky et al., eds., Vehicles of
Transmission, Translation, and Transformation in Medieval Textual Culture
(Brepols 2001) 195-222.
Touwaide, Alain, ‘Arabic Medicine in Greek Translation: A Preliminary Report,’
Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine 1 (2002) 45-53.
I have been unable to obtain this article.
Touwaide, A., ‘The Jujube Tree in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Case Study in the
Methodology of Textual Archaeobotany,’ in P. Dendle and A. Touwaide., eds.,
Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden (The Boydell Press 2008) 73-100.
Congourdeau, Marie-Hélène, ‘Prolongements et diffusion: Le monde byzantin,’ A
l’ombre d’Avicenne: La médecine au temps des califes (Paris 1996) 271-273.
Zisper, B., ‘Griechische Schrift, arabische Sprache und graeco-arabische Medizin eine
neues Fragment aus dem mittelalterlichen Sizilien,’ Mediterranean Language
Review 15 (2003-2004) 154-166.
AL-RAZI (d. 925), Kitab al-Judari wa-l-ḥaṣba, ed. Aristotle P. Kouzis, Ραζῆ λόγος περὶ
λοιμικῆς: Ἑξελληνισθείς ἐκ τῆς Σύρων διαλέκτου πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν (Athens 1909, 19 pages,
which can be viewed online here http://soranos.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/c/e/9/metadata-
003-0000229.tkl#). The title is given as Ῥαζῆ θαυμαστοῦ ἰατροῦ λόγος περὶ λοιμικῆς
ἑξελληνισθεῖς ἀπὸ τῆς Σύρων διαλέκτου πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν (Discourse on smallpox by
the admirable doctor Razis translated into our Greek language from the tongue of the Syrians).
Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, ‘Le traducteur grec du traité de Rhazès sur la variole,’ in A.
Garzya, ed., Storia e ecdotica dei testi medici greci (Atti del II Convegno Internazionale Parigi 24-
26 maggio 1994) (Naples: D’Auria 1996) 91-111, proposed that this translation was made by
Symeon Seth in the eleventh century, but there does not appear to be any evidence for
this. For the translation’s preface, see the Anthology.
IBN AL-DJAZZAR Abu Djafar (tenth century), Zad el-Mousafir (Traveler’s Manual),
translated in the eleventh century by Konstantinos of Reggio (or Konstantinos
“Memphites,” i.e., “of Mephis”?) as Ἐφόδια, but the many surviving mss. (about forty)
exhibit great variations and so do their titles, including: Βίβλος λεγομένη τὰ Ἐφόδια
τοῦ ἀποδημούντος συντοξημένα (sic [var. συντεθειμένα. corr. συντεθειμένη]) παρὰ
Ἔμπρου βγ Ζαφὰρ τοῦ ἐβὴν [?] Ἐλγζηζὰρ μεταβληθεῖσα εἰς τὴν ἑλλάδα γλῶτταν παρὰ
Κωνσταντίνου ἀσικρίτου τοῦ Ῥηγίνου [C. Daremberg, Notices et extraits des manuscrits
médicaux (Paris 1853) v. 1, 65], or “the famous book of the Syrians (αὐτὴ πολυθρύλλητoς
ἡ Συρῶν βίβλoς) [ibid. 66], or Βίβλιος τῶν ἐφοδίων Ἰσαακ Σύρου τοῦ ταξεώτου [G.-A.
Costomiris, ‘Études sur les écrits inédits des medécins grecs,’ Revue des études grecques
10 (1897) 405-445, here 444]. Extracts in J. S. Bernard, Synesius de Febribus (Amsterdam
1749), misattributed to Synesios, and other extracts in C. Daremberg and C. É. Ruelle,
Oeuvres de Rufus d'Éphèse (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1879; repr. Amsterdam: Hakkert,
1963) 582-596 (the Greek translator’s preface, if there was one, is unfortunately not
included here). A detailed list of contents and chapter headings is in C. Daremberg,
Notices et extraits des manuscrits médicaux (Paris 1853) v. 1, 65-71; see also G. Gabrieli, ‘Il
“zād al musāfir” di ibn al Gazzār in un ms. greco corsiniano,’ Rendiconti della Reale
Accademia dei Lincei, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, 5th ser. 14 (1905) 29-50.
For the identity of the original translator, Konstantinos of Reggio (who was not
Constantine the African), see Daremberg, Notices, 77-78 (according to whom the Isaac
mentioned in the title of some copies was Abu Djafar’s own teacher). For the history of
this text, see Touwaide, ‘Arabic into Greek,’ 210-211, 217-218; idem, ‘Kidney Dysfunction,
from the Arabic to the Byzantine World in 11th and 12th Century Southern Italy,’
Journal of Nephrology 22 Suppl. 14 (2009) 12-20, here 13-14; idem, ‘Translation: A Case-
Study in Byzantine Science,’ Mediaevalia 16 (2013) 165-170; for the chapter on abortions,
see Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, ‘À propos d’un chapitre des Éphodia: l’avortement
chez les médecins grecs,’ Revue des études byzantines 55 (1997) 261-277.
SYMEON SETH, Refutation of Galen (primarily of the De naturalibus facultatibus), ed.

and tr. P. Bouras-Vallianatos, ‘Galen’s Reception in Byzantium: Symeon Seth and his
Refutation of Galenic Theories on Human Physiology,’ Greek, Roman, and Byzantine
Studies 55 (2015) 431-469. B. Long in D. Gutas, A. Kaldellis, and B. Long, ‘Intellectual
Exchanges with the Arab World,’ in A. Kaldellis and N. Siniossoglou, eds., The
Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium (Cambridge 2017) 96, claims that “the
likeliest inspiration for his critique of Galen was al-Rāzī’s own Kitāb al-Shukūk ʿalā
Jālīnūs (Aporiae on Galen), but Seth gives no hint of this.”
AVICENNA (IBN SINA), De pulsibus, translated as Ἀναγκαιοτάτη διδασκαλία περὶ

σφυγμῶν by the learned monk “Merkourios” (no explicit claim in the text that it is a
translation): ed. J. L. Ideler, Physici et medici graeci minores (Berlin 1842) v. 2, 254-256; see
Hunger, Literatur, v. 2, 303 n. 64. The identification with Avicenna’s treatise is made by
Touwaide, ‘Arabic into Greek,’ 212; it is listed by Gutas, ‘Arabic into Byzantine Greek,’
253, as a translation, but not of what.
Pseudo-IBN SINA, On Urines, translated by one Christodoulos and interpreted by

Ioannes Zacharias aktouarios (fourteenth century, he had no Arabic): short recension
ed. in J. L. Ideler, Physici et medici graeci minores (Berlin 1842) v. 2, 286-302: Περὶ οὔρων
πραγματεία ἀρίστη τοῦ σοφωτάτου παρὰ μὲν Ἰνδοῖς Ἄλλη Ἔμπνι τοῦ Σινᾶ, ἤτοι Ἄλλη υἱοῦ
τοῦ Σινᾶ, παρὰ δὲ Ἰταλοῖς Άβιτζιανοῦ. According to Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, ‘Le
traducteur grec du traité de Rhazès sur la variole,’ in A. Garzya, ed., Storia e ecdotica dei
Testi Medici Greci (Atti del II Convegno Internazionale Parigi 24-26 maggio 1994) (Naples:
D’Auria 1996) n. 11, the version in Monac. gr. 70 (f. 100) has the following title: Τοῦ
σοφωτάτου παρὰ μὲν Ἰνδοῖς Ἀλή, παρ᾿ Ἕλλησι δὲ Ἀβετζιάνου πραγματεία περὶ οὐρῶν
ἀρίστη, βαρβαρῶς εἰς τὴν Ελλάδα μετενεχθεῖσα γλῶσσαν παρὰ τοῦ ἰατρικωτάτου
Χριστοδούλου, εἰς ῥυθμὸν δὲ καὶ τάξιν Ἑλληνικὴν ἐκτεθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ σοφωτάτου καὶ
ἰατρικωτάτου ἀκτουαρίου κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Ζαχαρίου. For the longer unpublished
recension, which is still unedited, see M. Lamagna, ‘La recensio amplior inedita del De urinis
di Avicenna,’ in A. Garzya and J. Jouanna, eds., Trasmissione e ecdotica dei testi medici greci
(Naples: M. D’Auria, 2003) 271-280. In general, see A. Touwaide, ‘Arabic Urology in
Byzantium,’ Journal of Nephrology 17.4 (2004) 583-589, here 585-586 (not listing the
edition): he thinks (probably mistakenly) that there were two translations, one by
Christodoulos and one by Zacharias.
On Urines from a Syriac Text (Περὶ οὔρων ἐκ Συρικοῦ βιβλίου): ed. J. L. Ideler, Physici et
medici graeci minores (Berlin 1842) v. 2, 305-306. There are some other brief texts
supposedly translated from “Syriac” and other sources before this one in Ideler’s
edition. Cf. A. Kousis, ‘Quelques considérations sur les traductions en grec des oeuvres
médicales orientales et principalement sur les deux manuscrits de la traduction d’un
traité persan par Constantin Melitiniotis,’ Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀκαδημίας Ἀθηνῶν 14 (1939) 205-
220, here 207. In general, see A. Touwaide, ‘Arabic Urology in Byzantium,’ Journal of
Nephrology 17.4 (2004) 583-589, here 585 (not listing the edition).
NIKOLAOS “MYREPSOS” (thirteenth century?), Dynameron, an (unpublished) book

of 2,656 recipes, it exhibits Arabic influence in some of its vocabulary and ingredients:
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2, 1429. The main ms. that everyone cites is Par. gr. 2243.
The text is called an Antidotarium by Touwaide, ‘Arabic into Greek,’ 206-207. See also
G.-A. Costomiris, ‘Études sur les écrits inédits des medécins grecs,’ Revue des études
grecques 10 (1897) 405-445, here 406-414 (for a list of mss., about a dozen); Hunger,
Literatur, v. 2, 312; and B. Mondrain, ‘Nicolas Myrepse et une collection de manuscrits
médicaux dans le première moitié du XIVe siècle: à propos d’une miniature célèbre du
Parisinus graecus 2243,’ in A. Garzya and J. Jouanna, eds., Trasmissione e ecdotica dei testi
medici greci (Naples: M. D’Auria, 2003) 403-418.
KONSTANTINOS MELITENIOTES (?), Antidotarium Persicum: Αὗται αἱ ἀντίδοτοι

ἐμεταγλωττίσθησαν ἐκ τῶν Περσῶν εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα παρὰ Κωνσταντίνου ἰατροῦ ἐκ
Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, ed. A. Kousis, ‘Quelques considérations sur les traductions en
grec des oeuvres médicales orientales et principalement sur les deux manuscrits de la
traduction d’un traité persan par Constantin Melitiniotis,’ Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀκαδημίας
Ἀθηνῶν 14 (1939) 205-220, text at 212-217, available online here:
http://sykoutris.academyofathens.gr/assets/browse.aspx. It is unknown which
“Persian” text this translated (220). The two mss. that preserve his work are listed by
Touwaide, ‘The Jujube Tree,’ 83. But we do not know who this Meliteniotes was, or
(really) when he lived: see Hunger, Literatur, v. 2, 313-314; A. M. Ierci Bio, ‘La
trasmissione della letteratura medica greca nell’Italia meridionale fra X e XV secolo,’
in A. Garzya, ed., Contributi alla cultura greca nell’Italia meridionale (Naples 1989) 133-257,
here 232.
MS Vienna ÖNB medicus graecus 21 (fourteenth century, second half) contains (still
unpublished) medical material translated from the Arabic: H. Hunger and O. Kresten,
Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek: Teil 2: Codices
Juridici, Codices Medici (Vienna 1969) 66-67; also D. Gutas, ‘Arabic into Byzantine Greek,’
253, who treats it as a possibly complete medical treatise entitled Burhan (Μπουρχᾶν)
or Buhran, divided between (a) general notions about medicine on fol. 1r-81r; (b)
regimen on 82r-105r; and (c) diseases and pharmacology on fol. 106r-110v, continuing
on fol. 111r-145r with more material. By contrast, Touwaide, ‘The Jujube Tree,’ 84,
divides it into two works: (a) Mpourchan, Liber de sanitate praeservanda, on fol. 82r-105r,
and (b) Ubaid Allah, Liber medicae artis, on fol. 1r-81r.
Additional unpublished and unstudied works: Alain Touwaide has catalogued a number
of unpublished Byzantine-Greek medical works that appear to be translations from
Arabic or Syriac: ‘The Jujube Tree,’ 83-84. They include:
Abraham Syros Manganôn, Medicamentum hepaticum, in Florence Laurenziana-
Antinori 101, fol. 353v.
Isaak Syros, Medicamenta, in Bologna Bibliotheca Universitaria 3632 fol. 180v; and
Florence Laurenziana-Antinori 101, fol. 364v.
Nikolaos Syros Oulelê, Medicamentum, in Vatican BAV graecus 298, fol. 464v.
Seboul, Medicamentum, Vatican BAV graecus 299 fol. 128v.
Arabic: PHARMACOLOGY and ΒΟΤΑΝΥ
The eleventh-century ms. Athos, Megistês Lauras Ω 75 (based on an archetype of ca.

1000 AD) contains an adaptation of Dioskourides, De materia medica, and it has been
proposed that its images of certain plants are indebeted to an Arabic ms. source: A.
Touwaide, ‘Arabic Materia Medica in Byzantium during the 11th Century A.D. and the
Problems of Transfer of Knowledge in Medieval Science, in S. M. Razaullah Ansari,
ed., Science and Technology in the Islamic World (Turnhout: Brepols 2002) 223-246.
SYMEON SETH (later eleventh century), Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus

(Σύνταγμα κατὰ στοιχεῖον περὶ τροφῶν δυνάμεων), relied on materials in Arabic (it is
not a translation as such): ed. B. Langkavel, Simeonis Sethi Syntagma de alimentorum
facultatibus (Leipzig: Teubner, 1868) 18-140: Πολλῶν καὶ λογίων, ὦ μέγιστε βασιλεῦ, οὐχ
Ἑλλήνων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ Περσῶν καὶ Ἀγαρηνῶν καὶ Ἰνδῶν περὶ τροφῶν δυνάμεων
συγγραψαμένων, καὶ ἐπί τινων μὲν πόρρω τοῦ δέοντος τὸν λόγον προσαγόντων, ἔνια
δὲ ἢ πάντως ἀμνημόνευτα καταλιπόντων ἢ μνήμης ἀμυδρᾶς ἀξιωσάντων, δεῖν ᾠήθην
ἐξ ἁπάντων τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχόμενα ἐρανίσασθαι, ἀναγκαίας οὔσης
τῆς τοιαύτης πραγματείας, ὡς τὰ μέγιστα πρὸς τὴν τῆς ὑγείας σωτήρησιν
ἐπιτελούσης. See G. Harig, ‘Von den arabischen Quellen des Simeon Seth,’
Medizinhistorisches Journal 2 (1967) 248-268; for al-Razi as a possible source, see B. Long
in D. Gutas, A. Kaldellis, and B. Long, ‘Intellectual Exchanges with the Arab World,’ in
A. Kaldellis and N. Siniossoglou, eds., The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium
(Cambridge 2017) 92-98.
NAJIB AD-DIN-E-SAMARQANDI (d. 1222): translations of three (unpublished) works

that seem to be his appear in ms. Vienna ÖNB medicus graecus 21 (fourteenth century,
second half): H. Hunger and O. Kresten, Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der
Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek: Teil 2: Codices Juridici, Codices Medici (Vienna 1969) 66-67;
Gutas, ‘Arabic into Byzantine Greek,’ 253-254: (a) Kitab Uṣūl tarkīb al-adwiya
(Οὐσούλεταρακήπ, ἤγουν μέθοδος τῶν βοτανῶν πῶς δεῖ σύνθεσιν ποιεῖν); (b) Kitab Aṭʿimat
al-marḍā (Ἀτααματουλμαρδάου, τὰ φαγία τῶν ἀσθενῶν καὶ οἱ ποτοί); Kitab al-Aġdiya wa-l-
ashriba (<αἱ τροφαὶ καὶ οἱ ποτοί>).This requires further research and corroboration.
GREGORIOS CHIONIADES (d. ca. 1320), Antidota Persica (Ἀντίδοτοι ἐκ Περσίας

κομισθεῖσαι καὶ ἐξελληνισθεῖσαι παρὰ τοῦ Χωνιάτου τοῦ Γεωργίου). This title from the
Escorial ms. is given by A. Kousis, ‘Quelques considérations sur les traductions en grec
des oeuvres médicales orientales et principalement sur les deux manuscrits de la
traduction d’un traité persan par Constantin Melitiniotis,’ Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀκαδημίας
Ἀθηνῶν 14 (1939) 205-220, here 208-209. The mss. that preserve his work are listed by
Touwaide, ‘The Jujube Tree,’ 83. For more on Chioniades, see below the section on
Astronomy.
Bilingual Arab-Greek or “Persian-Greek” LEXICA OF PLANT NAMES (where some

Arabic names are transliterated into Greek characters): survey in A. Touwaide, ‘Lexica
medico-botanica byzantina: prolégomènes à une étude,’ in Tês fili’és ta’de dôra:
Miscelánea léxica en memoria de Conchita Serra (Madrid: CSIC 1999) 211-228, with an
edition of one (from Palatinus graecus 77 fol. 5v); their mss. are listed by Touwaide,
‘The Jujube Tree,’ 83. In some cases, the lexica are the result of a collaboration between
a Greek-speaker and an Arabic-speaker, who wrote the different columns: Touwaide,
‘Arabic into Greek,’ 219-220. For editions of these lexica or prolegomena to their
publication, see
Lundtröm, V., ‘Neophytos Prodromenos’ botaniska nammförteckin,’ Eranos 5 (1903) 132-
149, for Neophytos Prodromenos (fourteenth century), in Parisinus graecus
2286. Touwaide, ‘The Jujube Tree,’ 84: it “lists in the left column Arabic plant
names followed by the word “Saracen” and transliterated in Greek alphabet. In
the right column, it gives the original Greek name of the plant, together with
any other relevant specification according to the case.”
___. ‘Botaniska lexica gran den grekiska medeltiden,’ Göteborgs Högskolas Arsskrift 15
(1909) 42-52.
___. ‘Ett persiskt-grekist medio-botaniskt lexikonfragment,’ Eranos 12 (1912) 170-174.
Delatte, A., ‘Le lexique de botanique du Parisinus graecus 2419,’ Serta Leodiensia ad
celebrandam patriae libertatem iam centesimum annum recuperatam composuerunt
philologi leodienses: mélanges de philologie classique (Paris 1930) 59-101.
___. Anecdota Atheniensia et alia, II: Textes relatifs à l’histoire des sciences (Liège 1939) 339-
361 (a botanical lexicon attributed to Symeon Seth).
Tomson, M. H., Textes grecs inédits relatifs aux plantes (Paris 1955).
Arabic: PHYSICS
RASHID-AL-DIN HAMADANI (d. 1318), Problemata physica et theologica (a form of

Erotapokriseis). Gutas, ‘Arabic into Byzantine Greek,’ 258, reports the existence of a
translation into Greek on the basis of a Turkish publication: Z. V. Togan, ‘İlhanlı Bizans
kültür münasebetlerine dair vesikalar,’ İslam Tetkikleri Enstitüsü Dergisi, Suppl. 2 [Ek 2], v. 3,
parts 3-4 (1959-1960) (Istanbul 1965). This requires further research and corroboration.
Arabic: ALCHEMY
SALMANA: ed. M. Berthelot and C.É. Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, v. 2
(Paris: Steinheil, 1888) 364-367, for the text Μέθοδος δι’ ἧς ἀποτελεῖται ἡ σφαιροειδὴς
χάλαζα κατασκευασθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ ἐν τεχνουργίᾳ περιβοήτου Ἄραβος τοῦ Σαλμανᾶ
(e cod.Paris. B.N. gr. 2327, fol. 141r; the earliest ms. is thirteenth century), on how to
make artifical pearls. There is no reference in the text to the process of translation as
such. Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book, 402, says that P. Kraus identified Salmanas as Salm al-
Ḥarrānī, the director of the ʿAbbāsid palace library (House of Wisdom), under al-Mamun
(813-833 AD). She adds that the Arabic text of an alchemical treatise surviving under his
name has never been compared to the Greek.
Other Greek alchemical works show scattered influences from Arabic, Persian, and
Indian sources, or attribute techniques and names to those nations: Mavroudi, A
Byzantine Book, 400-403. But we cannot on this basis postulate specific translations.
Specifically, G. Merianos, “Alchemy,” in A. Kaldellis and N. Siniossoglou, eds.,

The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium (Cambridge 2017) 236: “The anonymous
so-called Work of the Four Elements (ca. twelfth century) is influenced by a text
attributed to the legendary Muslim alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān.” The Greek text is ed.
by M. Berthelot and C. É. Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, v. 2 (Paris:
Steinheil, 1888) 337-342; see A. Colinet, ‘Le Travail des quatre éléments ou lorsqu’un
alchimiste byzantin s’inspire de Jabir,’ in I. Draelants et al., eds., Occident et Proche-
Orient: contacts scientifiques au temps des Croisades (Turnhout 2000) 165-190. But there is
no reference in the text to it being a translation.
Merianos (ibid): “The Anonymous of Zuretti, a work written in Greek in southern
Italy (ca. 1300), draws mainly from Latin texts, including translations from Arabic, and
to a much lesser degree from Greek ones.” The text is ed. in A. Colinet, L’Anonyme de
Zuretti ou l’Art sacré et divin de la chrysopée par un anonyme (Paris 2000); ‘L’Anonyme de
Zuretti: Un traité alchimique italo-grec de 1300,’ in C. Viano, ed., L’alchimie et ses racines
philosophiques: La tradition grecque et la tradition arabe (Paris 2005) 135-152. It is debatable
how “Byzantine” these texts are, and their proximate linguistic source was Latin, not
Arabic. Merianos gives more examples: “Finally, two fifteenth-century manuscripts,
Par. gr. 2419 and Holkh. gr. 109, also contain alchemical recipes; the sources for the
recipes of the former are mostly Latin, while of the latter they are Latin (in great part)
as well as Greek, and its language reveals some contemporary Turkish influences.” He
cites A. Colinet, ed. and tr., Recettes alchimiques (Par. gr. 2419; Holkhamicus 109) – Cosmas
le Hiéromoine, Chrysopée (Paris 2010) xi-cix.
Arabic: OPTICS (?)
According to Hunger, Literatur, v. 2, 227 n. 20, a brief Katoptrika text (on geometry of
reflections, in Greek) attributed to Euclid along with its scholia was compiled from
previous Greek and Arabic sources. He does not say on what he bases this claim. The
text itself makes no such claim (which would not be unusual): ed. J. L. Heiberg, Euclidis
opera omnia, v. 7 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1895) 286-342 (text), 347-362 (scholia). Indeed, H.
Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge 1927) 179, says that the
Arabs did not have the Katoptrika.
Arabic: MATHEMATICS
(basically the introduction of Arabic – “Indian” – numerals)
The mathematical texts do not present themselves as translations, and may not have been that
in a narrow sense, but they relied on “alien wisdom,” which it was their main goal to present in
Greek. The introduction of this knowledge to Byzantium was probably mediated through Latin
texts.
A certain Neophytos Monachos (date unknown) wrote a scholion introducing Arabic

numerals, which he called “Indian,” esp. the concept of zero (τζύφρα, i.e., cipher): ed. P.
Tannery, ‘Le scholie du moine Néophytos sur les chiffres hindous,’ Revue archéologique,
3rd ser. 5 (1885) 99-102, here 101.
We have a Greek textbook of 1252 on “Indian” numbers: ed. André Allard, ‘Le premier
traité byzantin de calcul indien: Classement des manuscrits et édition critique du
texte,’ Revue d’histoire des textes 7 (1977) 57-107, ed. on 80-107. It is possibly based on
Leonardo Fibonacci’s Liber abaci (1202): B. Bydén, ‘“Strangle Them with These Meshes
of Syllogisms!”: Latin Philosophy in Greek Translations of the Thirteenth Century,’ in
J. O. Rosenqvist, ed., Interaction and Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture (Stockholm and
New York 2004) 133-157, here 133 n. 2, says that “two of the chapters seem to presuppose
an Arabic original,” for which he cites A. Allard, ‘Ouverture et résistance au calcul
indien,’ in Colloques d’histoire des sciences 1 (1972) and II (1973) (Louvain-la-Neuve 1976) 87-
100; with more caution regarding the dependance on Fibonacci, see A. Allard, Maxime
Planude: Le grand calcul selon les Indiens (Travaux de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de
l’Université Catholique de Louvain 27. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981) 3-5.
Maximos Planoudes, treatise on Indian numbers (Ψηφορορία κατ᾽ Ἰνδοὺς ἡ λεγομένη

μεγάλη): A. Allard, Maxime Planude: Le grand calcul selon les Indiens (Travaux de la Faculté
de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université Catholique de Louvain 27. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981)
25-199 (even pages). Here is how he introduced the new system based on the treatise of
1252 (see previous entry): Οἱ τῶν ἀστρονόμων φιλοσοφώτεροι, ἐπεὶ ὁ μὲν ἀριθμὸς ἔχει
τὸ ἄπειρον, τοῦ δὲ ἀπείρου γνῶσις οὐκ ἔστιν, ἐφεῦρον σχήματά τινα καὶ μέθοδον δι’
αὐτῶν, ὡς ἂν τὰ τῶν ἐν χρήσει ἀριθμῶν εὐσυνοπτότερόν τε κατανοῆται καὶ
ἀκριβέστερον. Εἰσὶ δὲ τὰ σχήματα ἐννέα μόνα ἃ καί εἰσι ταῦτα 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Τιθέασι
δὲ καὶ ἕτερόν τι σχῆμα ὃ καλοῦσι τζίφραν, κατ’ Ἰνδοὺς σημαῖνον οὐδέν. Καὶ τὰ ἐννέα
δὲ σχήματα καὶ αὐτὰ ἰνδικά ἐστιν· ἡ δὲ τζίφρα γράφεται οὕτως 0. Or: Given that
numbers are infinite, but we cannot have infinite numbers, the more philosophical astronomers
invented signs and a method for using them, so that they could precisely write the numbers
that they needed in a concise way. There are only nine of these signs: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. They also
postulate another sign that they call the cipher, which according to the Indians means
“nothing.” All the nine signs are Indian in origin; the cipher is written as 0 (The Great Method
of Calculation According to the Indians 1). A complete translation is available:
http://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/the-great-calculation-according-
to-the-indians-of-maximus-planudes-introduction, which is probably to be cited as
Peter G. Brown, ‘The Great Calculation According to the Indians, of Maximus
Planudes - Outline of the Work,’ Convergence (March 2012); discussion in B. Bydén,
Theodore Metochites’ Stoicheiosis Astronomike and the study of natural philosophy and
mathematics in Early Palaeologan Byzantium (Gothoburg 2003) 241.
Arabic or Persian: HOROLOGION CONSTRUCTION
A brief text on how to build “an excellent Persian horologion” appears in a fifteenth-
century ms. (Par. gr. 985, ff. 314v-315v), though the text may date from the fourteenth
century: A. Tihon, ‘Un texte byzantin inédit sur une horloge persane,’ in M. Folkert
and R. Lorch, eds., Sic itur ad Astra: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und
Naturwissenschaften. Festschrift für den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag
(Wiesbaden 2000) 523-535.
Arabic: ASTRONOMY (possibly via Persian)
Pingree, D., ‘Gregory Chioniades and Palaeologan Astronomy,’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers
18 (1964) 133-160.
___. ‘The Indian and Pseudo-Indian Passages in Greek and Latin Astronomical and
Astrological Texts,’ Viator 7 (1976) 141-195.
Tihon, A. ,‘Les tables astronomiques persanes à Constantinople dans la première
moitié du XIVe siècle,’ Byzantion 57 (1987) 471-487.
___. ‘Tables islamiques à Byzance,’ Byzantion 60 (1990) 401-425.
___. the above and other useful papers reprinted in Études d’astronomie byzantine
(Variorum 1994).
SCHOLION ON A PROLEGOMENA TO PTOLEMY’S ALMAGEST, ed. J. Mogenet, ‘Une

scholie inédite du Vat. gr. 1594 sur les rapports entre l’astronomie arabe et Byzance,’
Osiris 14 (1962) 198-221: the text relies on the tables and calculations made by one Ἀλήμ,
who is possibly IBN AL-A‘LAM (tables from ca. 960, died ca. 985). The Greek text has
calculations dated to the period 1032-1036, so it was written after that, but still during
the eleventh century. A. Tihon, ‘Sur l’identité de l’astronome Alim,’ Archives
internationales d’histoire des sciences 39.122 (1989) 3-21, surveys and examines all the
Byzantine texts that mention Ἀλήμ or Ἀλίμ, providing editions of two of them, and
supports Mogenet’s identification.
THE METHODS OF COMPUTING VARIOUS ASTRONOMICAL HYPOTHESES,

written between 1072 and 1086, ed. and tr. A. Jones, An Eleventh-Century Manual of
Arabo-Byzantine Astronomy (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1987 = Corpus des astronomes
byzantines 3); commentary by O. Neugebauer, ‘Commentary on the Astronomical
Treatise Par gr. 2425,’ Mémoires de l’Académie royale de Belgique 59.4 (1969) 5-45. It relies
on Islamic learning, possibly one of the zijes of HABASH AL-HĀSIB al-Marwazi (d. ca.
900) and the commentary on al-Kwārizmī (ca. 840) by IBN AL-MUTHANĀ (tenth
century). See also Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 140; ‘Indian,’ 165-167; Mavroudi, A
Byzantine Book, 399-400.
FIVE STAR-CATALOGUES dated to “1156, 1161, probably 1142, 1161, and 1148,” copied in
the fourteenth-century Vat. gr. 1056, and deriving their information from “the Zīj al-
Hākimī (written by ibn Yūnis in Cairo ca. 990), Kūshyār bin Labbān (ca. 1100), the
Egyptians (perhaps ibn Yūnis again), and Abū Ma‘shar (787-886 AD), as quoted in the
Kitāb al-Mughnī of ibn Hibintā (941 AD)”: Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 138-139; idem,
‘Indian,’ 151. They appear to be still unpublished.
GREGORIOS CHIONIADES (ca. 1300, previous name Georgios), Περσικὴ σύνταξις

ἀστρονομίας, which consists of translations of ZĪJ-BOOKS (tables to be used in
astronomical calculations). The Greek versions are preserved in a number of early
fourteenth-century mss. See Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 141-142. He lists
• a shortened redaction (Wazīj) of the Zīj as-Sanjarī of ‘Abd ar-Rahmān al-
Khāzinī (ca. 1120), a Greek slave in Merv; this version was made possibly
directly from the Arabic; ed. and tr. J. G. Leichter, The Zīj al-Sanjarī of Gregory
Chioniades: Text, Translation and Greek to Arabic Glossary (PhD dissertation:
Brown University 2004).
• the Zīj al-‘Alā’ī of ‘Abd al-Karīm ash-Shirwānī al-Fahhad (ca. 1150-1176) via a
Persian translation made by Shams al-Din: the Arabic original is lost; the
Greek ed. D Pingree, The Astronomical Works of Gregory Chioniades, v. 1.1: The
Zīj al-‘Alā’ī: Text, Translation, Commentary; v. 1.2: The Zīj al-‘Alā’ī: Tables
(Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben 1985-1986 = Corpus des astronomes byzantines 2).

• short and long versions of the Zīj of Shams al-Dīn al-Bukhārī (Chioniades’
teacher, born in 1254), which in turn was a commentary on the Zīj al-‘Alā’ī of al-
Fahhad (above); ed. Pingree (as above). See the Anthology for Chioniades’
preface.
• The Schemata of the Stars (Περὶ τῶν σχημάτων τῶν ἀστέρων), ed. and tr. E A.
Paschos and P. Sotiroudis, The Schemata of the Stars: Byzantine Astronomy from
A.D. 1300 (Singapore: River Edge, NJ: World Scientific 1998). May be based on
an Arabic original, possibly Nasīr ad-Dīn at-Tūsī’s al-Tadhkira fī ‘ilm al-hay’a
or, more likely, his Risāla-yi Mu‘īniyya: see F. Jamil Ragep, ‘New Light on
Shams: The Islamic Side of ΣΑΜΨ ΠΟΥΧΑΡΗΣ,’ in J. Pfeffer, ed., Politics,
Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz (Leiden:
Brill 2014) 231-247, here 238-243.
• see below for Chrysokokkes, for possibly more translations by Chioniades
that we know through the former.
General discussions: Tihon, ‘Les tables astronomiques’; and B. Bydén, Theodore
Metochites’ Stoicheiosis Astronomike and the study of natural philosophy and mathematics in
Early Palaeologan Byzantium (Gothoburg 2003) 242-250; and especially F. Jamil Ragep,
‘New Light on Shams: The Islamic Side of ΣΑΜΨ ΠΟΥΧΑΡΗΣ,’ in J. Pfeffer, ed.,
Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz (Leiden:
Brill 2014) 231-247.
SHAMS AL-DĪN AL-BUKHĀRĪ, On the Astrolabe, self-translated from Arabic or

Persian into Greek. We do not have a full published edition of the text, only an excerpt
in A. Delatte, Anecdota atheniensia et alia, v. 2 (Liège 1939) 263-271, and the preface, ed.
and tr., in E. Fisher, ‘Arabs, Latins and Persians Bearing Gifts: Greek Translations of
Astronomical Texts, ca. 1300,’ Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 36 (2012) 161-177, here
169-175. See the Anthology. Shams al-Dīn al-Bukhari was probably the teacher of
Gregorios Chioniades in Tabriz, and the treatise used to be attributed to him, but A.
Tihon showed that the preface was by Shams, and Fisher (above) argues that the rest
of the work was his too, a gift to the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos: A. Duhoux-
Tihon, ‘Les tables astronomiques Persanes à Constantinople dans la première moitié
du XVIe siècle,’ Byzantion 57 (1987) 471-487; eadem, ‘Traités byzantins sur l’astrolabe,’
Physis 32 (1995) 323-357. See now F. Jamil Ragep, ‘New Light on Shams: The Islamic Side
of ΣΑΜΨ ΠΟΥΧΑΡΗΣ,’ in J. Pfeffer, ed., Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of
Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz (Leiden: Brill 2014) 231-247, whose team proposes
that Shams was Shams al-Dīn Muhammad ibn ‘Alī Khwaja al-Wābkanawī al-
Munajjim.
SHAMS AL-DĪN AL-BUKHĀRĪ, Διάγνωσις τῶν χρόνων (on dating systems employed
by various nations), attributed to Σαμψουχαρής; ed. F. Cumont, Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 1: Codices Florentinos (Brussels 1898) 85-89. The Arabic or
Persian original has not been identified, if it survives or ever existed. But this work
does rely on previous Islamic works, which it discusses at the end. The translation is
attributed to Gregorios Chioniades by Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 179-180.
GEORGIOS CHRYSOKOKKES had access to the tables (Zīj-I Ilkhānī) of Nasīr ad-Dīn
at-Tūsī (d. 1274), possibly through a translation by Gregorios Chioniades (see above).
Ed. apparently in I. Bullialdus (Boulliau), Astronomia philolaica (Paris 1645): Tabulae

philolaicae, pp. 211-232 (which is available on www.archive.org, but without the page
numbers, so good luck). See Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 143; R. Mercier, ‘The Greek
‘Persian Syntaxis’ and the Zīj-I Ilkhānī,’ Archives internationales d’histoire des sciences 112
(1984) 35-60; Tihon, ‘Les tables astronomiques’ and ‘Tables islamiques.’
GEORGIOS CHRYSOKOKKES (ca. 1347), Ἐξήγησις εἰς τὴν σύνταξιν τῶν Περσῶν, ed.
(how partial?) H. Usener, Ad historian astronomiae symbola (Bonn 1876) 27-37 = Kleine
Schriften, v. 3, 350-371; improved edition of the preface (only) by S. Lambros, ‘Τὰ ὑπ᾽
ἀριθμὀν 91 καὶ 92 κατάλοιπα,᾽ Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 15 (1921) 332-339. Chrysokokkes says
that he studied astronomy under a priest from Trebizond named Manuel. He learned
from Manuel that Chioniades had traveled to Trebizond and then to Persia in order to
learn astronomy with imperial assistance, from where he came back with texts that he
had translated. But those translations lacked commentaries, which Chrysokokkes is
herewith providing: Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 141; also P. Kunitzsch, ‘Das
Fixsternverzeichnis in der ‘Persischen Syntaxis’ des Georgios Chrysokokkes,’
Byzantinische Zeitschrift 57 (1964) 382-411. See the Anthology. It is unlikely that
Chrysokokkes himself had direct independent access to Arabic or Persian texts.
THEODOROS MELITENIOTES, Τρίβιβλος ἀστρονομική (ca. 1352), ed. R. Leurquin,

Théodore Méliténiote: Tribiblos astronomique, Livre I-II (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben 1990-
1993 = Corpus des astronomes byzantines 4-6). The preface does not refer to translations
or to foreign texts. Meliteniotes used Chioniades’ translation of the Zīj of Shams (see
above) and Chrysokokkes’ Ἐξήγησις εἰς τὴν σύνταξιν τῶν Περσῶν (see above); his third
book became separately known as Παράδοσις εἰς τοὺς Περσικοὺς προχείρους κανόνας, or
is somehow or other related to it. Apparently, there was no new translation-work
involved here: Pingree, ‘Gregory Chioniades,’ 145. See also A. Tihon, ‘L’astronomie
byzantine à l’aube de la Renaissance (de 1352 à la fin du XVe siècle),’ Byzantion 66 (1996)
244-280. For the relationship between book 3 of Meliteniotes and the Paradosis, see now
A. Bardi, ‘The Paradosis of the Persian Tables: A Source on Astronomy between the
Ilkhanate and the Eastern Roman Empire,’ Journal for the History of Astronomy 49 (208)
239-260. For later use of this work in the fourteenth century, see D. Pingree, ‘The
Astrological School of John Abramius,’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers 25 (1971) 189-215, here
198.
See also below, the section ‘Additional Translations from Latin Made in the Later Byzantine
Period,’ for translations of Latin astronomical texts that were based, in turn, on Arabic or
Persian texts.
Arabic: ASTROLOGY
Pingree, D., ‘The Astrological School of John Abramius,’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers 25
(1971) 189-215.
___. From Astral Omens to Astrology, from Babylon to Bikaner (Rome 1997 = Serie Orientale
Roma 78).
___. ‘From Alexandria to Baghdad to Byzantium: The Transmission of Astrology,’
International Journal of the Classical Tradition 8.1 (2001) 3-37.
___. ‘The Byzantine Translations of Masha’allah on Interrogational Astrology,’ in P.

Magdalino and M. Mavroudi, eds., The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva
2006) 231-243.
Magdalino, P., L’Orthodoxie des astrologues: La science entre le dogme et la divination à
Byzance (VIIe-XIVe siècle) (Paris: Lethielleux, 2006).
DOROTHEOS OF SIDON, a first-century AD astrologer whose poem (in Greek) was

translated into Persian (Pahlavi) and from Persian into Arabic (receiving a number of
changes and interpolations along the way). Fragments of the original Greek survive in
quotations by later writers, especially Hephaistion of Thebes (fifth century). It is also
likely that Dorotheos was retranslated back into Greek from Arabic and was known in
that form to Byzantine scholars: see D. Pingree, Dorothei Sidonii Carmen astrologicum:
Interpretationem Arabicam in linguam anglicam versam una cum Dorothei fragmentis et
graetis et latinis (Leipzig: Teubner 1976) xiv; idem, ‘Indian,’ passim.
THEOPHILOS OF EDESSA (ca. 775), court astrologer to the caliph al-Mahdi. His
astrological works (which have not been properly edited or studied) included the
Πόνοι περὶ καταρχῶν πολεμικῶν (On Military Forecasts) in 41 chapters, the
[Ἀποτελεσματικά] in 30 chapters (both works dedicated to his son Deukalion), and the
Περὶ καταρχῶν διαφόρων (On Various Forecasts): Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 148-149 (at n. 34 he
refers to an edition in progress, but this seems not to have been finished). We do not
know what language these were written in originally, as Theophilos knew Greek, so we
may not be dealing with a translation here, even though the works did convey Arab
learning one way or the other: Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book, 397-398. It has been claimed
that the first text (On Military Forecasts) became part of a collection (possibly of ninth-
century origin), which was dubbed the Syntagma Laurentianum by F. Boll, ‘Beiträge zur
Überlieferungsgeschichte der griechischen Astrologie und Astronomie,’
Sitzungsberichte der philossophisch-historische Klasse der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften
zu München (Munich 1899) v. 1, 77-140, here 88-110. The fragments and attributions of
Theophilos’ astrological works must at present be excavated from Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 1: 83, 129-131; v. 4: 122-123; v. 5.1: 212-213, 229-238; v. 8.1: 267-270;
v. 8.4.15: 51-52, 58, 76. The most important witness appears to be Vat. gr. 212: D. Pingree,
‘The Byzantine Version of the Toledan Tables: The Work of George Lapithes?’
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 30 (1976) 85-132, here 87; cf. idem, review of Gundel,
Astrologumena, in Gnomon 40 (1968) 276-280, here 279. Pingree, ‘From Alexandria,’ has
argued that Theophilos reworked a collection astrological texts that he passed on to
his colleague Masha’allah (see the next entry), from whom the collection traveled far
and wide.
MĀSHĀ’ALLAH IBN ATHARĪ (d. ca. 810), various horoscopes translated into Greek:
D. Pingree, ‘The Byzantine Translations of Masha’allah on Interrogational Astrology,’
in P. Magdalino and M. Mavroudi, eds., The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva 2006)
231-243 on the (unpublished) Greek translations; prior treatment in idem, ‘Masha’allah:
Greek, Pahlavi, Arabic, and Latin Astrology,’ in Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la
tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque (Leuven and Paris 1997 = Orientalia
Lovaniensia Analecta 79) 123-136.
SAHL b. BISHR AL-ISRĀ’ĪLĪ (d. ca. 845), astronomical treatise translated into Greek
(before 1140), partial ed. from the second and third books J. Heeg, Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 5.3: Codicum Romanorum, pt. 3 (Brussels 1910) 98-132. I am not
sure that all of this comes from Sahl ibn Bishr, as passages of Abū al-Ma‘shar are
quoted (e.g., p. 118), as are Greek translations of the Arabic versions of Dorotheos of
Sidon, etc. A lot of sorting out remains to be done here.
ABŪ MA‘SHAR AL-BALKHI (787-886 AD), Kitāb taḥāwil sinī al‐mawālīd (Book of the
Revolutions of the Years of Nativities) translated before ca. 1000 AD as Περὶ τῆς τῶν ἐτῶν
ἐναλλαγῆς, ed. D. Pingree, Albumasaris de revolutionibus nativitatum (Leipzig: Teubner
1968). Sections of his Kitāb al‐mudkhal al‐kabīr (an introduction to astrology) and the
Mudhākarāt written by his pupil Shādhān circulated in Greek as Μυστήρια: partial eds.
in F. Cumont, Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 4: Codices Italicos (Brussels
1903) 124-127; and ibid. v. 5.1: Codicum Romanorum, pt. 1 (Brussels 1904) 142-155; and
Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 187-191 (Appendices 5, 7-9). A full edition of the Greek Mudhākarāt was
promised by Pingree and E. S. Kennedy (Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 170 n. 177) but I cannot find
it.
Folios 10-91 of Angelicus gr. 29 contain the unique exemplar of Ἀποτελεσματικὴ
βίβλος των μυστηρίων of Abū Ma‘shar. Pingree, ‘Abramius,’ 203: “The Mysteria
consists of three books: the first is collected from various of Abū Ma‘shar’s works, the
second is a Greek version of the Mudhākarāt of his pupil Shādhān, and the third is a
shortened recension of his Madkhal al-kabīr. Fortunately the Arabic originals of these
works survive and provide a check on Eleutherius’ text.” Eleutherios was the pupil of
Ioannes Abramios, Byzantine astrologers on Mytilene in the late fourteenth century.
Folios 91-152 of Angelicus gr. 29 contain an Ἀποτελεσματικὴ βίβλος τοῦ Πάλχου. This
consists of Hellenistic material mixed in with some material of Arabic origin, and
Palchos is likely a corruption of al-Balkhi. It seems that Eleutherios compiled the work
and attributed it to “Palchos.” A detailed description of the codex Angelicus gr. 29 in
Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 5.1: Codicum Romanorum, pt. 1 (Brussels
1904) 4-57.
Additional passages attributed to Μασάλα or Ἁπομάσαρ can be found in F.
Cumont, Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 1: Codices Florentinos (Brussels
1898) 81-84, and the attribution to Πάλχος on p. 80 (from Angelicus gr. 29) is probably a
corruption of al-Balkhi: Pingree, ‘Abramius,’ 203-204 (see above); F. Rosenthal, ‘From
Arabic Books and Manuscripts, X: A List of Astronomical Works from the ‘Discussions’
of Abū al-Ma‘shar and Shādhān,’ Journal of the Americal Oriental Society 83 (1963) 452-
457, here 454-455, esp. n. 6.
For chapters in Abū al-Ma‘shar’s Greek reception, see Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 170-174,
200.
‘ALI IBN AHMAD AL-‘IMRĀNĪ (or Ahmad the Persian, d. ca. 955): Εἰσαγωγὴ καὶ
θεμέλιον εἰς τὴν ἀστρολογίαν: Pingree, ‘Abramius,’ 202-203: “Much of the original
Arabic survives”; idem, From Astral Omens to Astrology, 71.
Various other texts possibly attributed to Arabic authors: see Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 2: 137-138 (“Σέχλ”); and v. 2.2: 74 and v. 3: 11 (Ahmad ibn ad-
Daya); v. 5.3: 90-93 (ibn Abī r-Righāl?); v. 9.1: 141-156; also, a number of minor texts in
Pingree, ‘Indian,’ 169-170, 175 (and n. 208), 177-178, and the Appendixes. There is much
work to be done in this tradition.
Arabic: DREAM INTERPRETATION
ONEIROKRITES OF ACHMET (ninth-eleventh centuries): ed. F. Drexl, Achmetis

Oneirocriticon (Leipzig: Teubner, 1925) 1-241; tr. S. Oberhelman, The Oneirocriticon of
Achmet: A Medieval Greek and Arabic Treatise on the Interpretation of Dreams (Lubbock, TX
1991); see Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book; S. Oberhelman, Dreambooks in Byzantium: Six
Oneirocritica in Translation, with Commentary and Introduction (Ashgate 2008). It is based
on a variety of Arabic sources, through which it has indirect access to ancient Greek
materials. Here is how it begins: Πολλὰ κοπιάσας πρὸς τὸ ἀνερευνᾶν τῷ δεσπότῃ μου
τὴν ἀκριβῆ ἑρμηνείαν τῶν ὀνειράτων, καθὼς αὐτὸς δι’ ἐπιθυμίας εἶχε πολλῆς, εὗρον
ἐκ τῶν ποιησάντων τὴν τοιαύτην ἀκρίβειαν κατὰ ἀλήθειαν, ἤτοι Ἰνδῶν καὶ Περσῶν
καὶ Αἰγυπτίων, οἳ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀκριβολογησάμενοι καὶ λεπτολογήσαντες ἐξέθεντο
καὶ ἐλογογράφησαν τὴν παροῦσαν ἑρμηνείαν. καὶ ἐξ ἑκάστου τούτων ἐκλεξάμενος
κεφαλαιωδῶς ἐξεθέμην τῶν τριῶν τὰς κρίσεις καὶ λύσεις ἐν ἑκάστῳ κεφαλαίῳ. See the
Anthology.
Arabic: APOCALYPSE
THE APOCALYPSE OF THE PROPHET DANIEL was translated ca. 1245 from Arabic by
a certain Alexios, otherwise unknown: ed. P. Boudreaux, in Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 8.3: Codices Parisini (Brussels: Lamertin, 1912) 171-179. This has
an elaborate preface where Alexios situates his project in the long-term history of the
text: see the Anthology. The basic study now (with translation of the preface) is by E.
Fisher, ‘Alexios of Byzantium and the Apocalypse of Daniel: A Tale of Kings, Wars and
Translators,’ in S. Dogan and M. Kadiroglu, eds., Bizans ve Cevre Kültürler/ Byzantium
and the Surrounding Cultures (Festschrift in honor of S. Yildiz Ötüken) (Istanbul 2010) 177-
185. She brings attention to a second translator / corrector of the text, who has left a
preface of his own, published in Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, v. 12: 153.
Arabic: GEOMANCY
This is also an understudied genre of technical Byzantine writing: Mavroudi, A

Byzantine Book, 405-406 n. 50, 408-409, 420. In 1266, the monk Arsenios translated the
geomantic verse treatise of one AL-ZANATI for Theodora Doukaina, the future
empress of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1281). Mavroudi knows two mss., Bononiensis
(Bibl. Univ.) 3632 and Neopol. II.C.33 olim 34, citing the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum
Graecorum, v. 4, 43 and 51. The second gives the longest version of the title: Ποίημα
Πέρσου φιλοσόφου τοῦ Μαζουνατῆ [Ζανατῆ in the other ms.]· αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐτεχνεύσατο
καὶ κατασοφίσατο τήνδε τὴν τέχνην διὰ ψάμμου πρὸς μετὰ βολὰς τε καὶ ποιότητας
τῶν ἀστέρων τοῖς βουλομένοις λέγειν τὰ συμβησόμενα ἀγαθὰ τε καὶ φαῦλα καθῶς
μετὰ μικρὸν καθόλως δηλωθήσεται. Ὑπομνήσω δὲ ἀρτίως ὅπως καὶ πότε
μετεστοιχειώθη ἀπὸ στοιχείων καὶ γλώσσης Περσίδος εἰς τὴν Ῥωμαίων γραφὴν καὶ
διάλεκτον παρὰ Ἀρσενίου μοναχοῦ. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ ζψοδ [ςψοδ in the other ms.] ἔτει ἀπὸ
κτίσεως κόσμου ἐξ ἐπιτροπῆς τῆς εὐσεβεστάτης κυρίας Θεοδώρας ἡ βίβλος αὕτη τοῖς
Ῥωμαίοις ἐγένετο. E. Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ in
Remusings: Essays on the Translation of Classical Poetry = Classical and Modern Literature
27.1 (2007 [2008]) 45-67, here 49, cites also Vind. phil. gr. 177, for this text.
Arabic: MORAL LITERATURE
STEPHANITES AND ICHNILATES, a translation by Symeon Seth (ca. 1080s) of the

KALILA WA-DIMNA (a text ultimately of Indian origin): ed. L.-O. Sjöberg, Stephanites
und Ichnelates: Überlieferungsgeschichte und Text (Stockholm 1962 = Studia Graeca
Upsaliensia 2). Here is how it begins: Συγγραφὴ περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον πραγμάτων·
ἐκτεθεῖσα διὰ μυθικῶν παραδειγμάτων ἁρμοζόντων ἑκάστῃ ὑποθέσει· ὑπό τινος τῶν
ἐν Ἰνδίᾳ φιλοσόφων· προτροπῇ τοῦ ἐν αὐτῇ βασιλεύοντος· γραφεῖσα μὲν τῇ πατρικῇ
διαλέκτῳ καὶ τοῖς γράμμασιν· ἐξελληνισθεῖσα δὲ ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει προστάξει τοῦ
ἀοιδίμου βασιλέως κυροῦ Ἀλεξίου τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ. See the Anthology. There are studies
by Hélène Condylis-Bassoukos, Stéphanitès kai Ichnélatès, traduction grecque (XIe siècle)
du livre Kalīla wa-Dimna d’Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (VIIIe siècle): étude lexicologique et littéraire
(Leuven: Peeters, 1997).
There is a twelfth-century (?) allegorical iambic poem, in 36 verses, about the
Greek text: ed. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge 1927)
176-177; discussion by P. Roilos, Amphoteroglossia: A Poetics of the Twelfth-Century
Medieval Greek Novel (Washington, D.C. 2005) 135. There is another briefer poem in
Greek (also ed. by Haskins 175) which seems to (mis)attribute Seth’s translation of the
text to Eugenius, an admiral and scholar of twelfth-century Norman Sicily. So while
this (Greek) poem is not Byzantine as such, it comments explicitly on the translated
aspect of the text, noting its Indian wisdom, Persian paideia, and the barbarous Arabic
sound of the original text (see the Anthology for text and translation).
THE LATE BYZANTINE ‘TRANSLATION MOVEMENT’ FROM LATIN
Rackl, M., ‘Die griechischen Augustinerübersetzungen,’ in Miscellanea Fr. Ehrle = Studi e
Testi 37 (1924) 1-38.
Mercati, Giovanni, Notizie di Procoro e Demetrio Cidone, Manuele Caleca e Teodoro
Meliteniota ed altri appunti per la storia della teologia e della letteratura bizantina del
secolo XIV (Vatican City 1931).
Pertusi, A., ‘La fortuna di Boezio a Bisanzio,’ Mélanges Henri Grégoire, v. 3 (Brussels 1951)
301-322.
Gigante, M., ‘La cultura latina a Bizanzio nel secolo XIII,’ La parola del passato 82 (1962)
32-51.
Schmitt, W.O., ‘Lateinische Literatur in Byzanz: Die Übersetzungen des Maximos
Planudes und die moderne Forschung,’ JöBS 17 (1968) 127-147.
Lumpe, Adolf, ‘Abendland und Byzanz: Literatur und Sprache,’ in P. Wirth, ed.,
Reallexikon der Byzantinistik A.1.4 (Amsterdam 1970) 304-345.
Niketas, D. Z., ‘Η παρουσία του Αυγουστίνου στην Ανατολική Εκκλησία,’ Κληρονομία 14
(1982) 7-25.
Nichols, A., ‘The Reception of St Augustine and his Work in the Byzantine-Slavic
Tradition,’ Angelicum 64 (1987) 437-452.
Lössl, J., ‘Augustine in Byzantium,’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History 51 (2000) 267-295.
Bydén, B., ‘“Strangle Them with These Meshes of Syllogisms!”: Latin Philosophy in
Greek Translations of the Thirteenth Century,’ in J. O. Rosenqvist, Interaction
and Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture (Stockholm and New York 2004) 133-157.
Fisher, Elizabeth, summaries of some of her articles here: http://home.gwu.edu/~eaf/;
articles on individual texts are cited with them.
___. ‘Ovid’s Metempsychosis: The Greek East,’ in J.G. Clark et al., eds., Ovid in the Middle
Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) 26-47.
___. ‘Monks, Monasteries and the Latin Language in Constantinople,’ in Ayla Ödekan,
Engin Akyürek, and Nevra Necipoglu, eds., Change in the Byzantine World in the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Vehbi Koc Foundation 2010) 390-395.
___. ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ in Remusings: Essays on the
Translation of Classical Poetry, special issue of Classical and Modern Literature 27.1
(2007 [2008]) 45-67.
___. ‘Planoudes’ Technique and Competence as a Translator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses,’
Byzantinoslavica 62 (2004) 143-160.
___. ‘Planoudes, Holobolos, and the Motivation for Translation,’ Greek, Roman, and
Byzantine Studies 43 (2002) 77-104.
___. ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Planudes, and Ausonians,’ in G. W. Bowersock, ed.,
Arktouros: Hellenic Studies Presented to Bernard M. W. Knox (New York 1979) 440-
446.
Κολτσίου-Νικήτα, Άννα, Μεταφραστικά ζητήματα στην ελληνόφωνη και λατινόφωνη
χριστιανική γραμματεία από τους Εβδομήκοντα ως τον Νικόλαο Σεκουνδινό
(Θεσσαλονίκη: University Studio Press, 2009).
MANUEL HOLOBOLOS
According to Hunger, Literatur, v. 1, 37, the translations of Boethius’ De differentiis topicis

and De syllogismo hypothetico are probably by Planoudes, not Holobolos (whose
monastic name was also Maximos). But Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 80 (following
others) strongly argues that they are by Holobolos. For Holobolos’ translation work in
general, see C. K. Angelopoulos, Μεταφράσεις έργων της λατινικής γραμματείας στα
ελληνικά κατά την πρώιμη Παλαιολόγεια περίοδο: Η περίπτωση του Μάξιμου Πλανούδη
(University of Ioannina 2016) 49-57.
E. Fisher, ‘Manuel Holobolos and the Role of Bilinguals in Relations Between the West
and Byzantium,’ in Knotenpunkt Byzanz. Miscellanea Mediaevalia, ed. Andreas Speer
(New York and Berlin: de Gruyter 2012) 210-222, here 212 on the new direction in the
study of logic that Holobolos tried to introduce by translating the hypotheticis. Fisher,
‘Bilinguals,’ 220-222, also argues that Holobolos knew and followed, in his translations
of Boethius, Boethius’ own comments on translation made in the latter’s commentary
on Porphyry’s Eisagoge.
BOETHIUS, De hypotheticis syllogismis: D. Z. Nikitas, Eine byzantinische Übersetzung von

Boethius “De hypotheticis syllogismis” (Göttingen 1982 = Hypomnemata 69).
BOETHIUS, De topicis differentiis: D. Z. Nikitas, Boethius, De topicis differentiis καὶ οἱ

βυζαντινὲς μεταφράσεις τῶν Μανουὴλ Ὁλοβώλου καὶ Προχόρου Κυδώνη (Athens, Paris, and
Brussels, 1990 = Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini 5) 95-145. The title
is Βοετίου φιλοσόφου λατίνου περὶ τόπων διαλεκτικῶν διαίρεσις ἀρίστη
μεταγλωττισθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ ἀξιολογωτάτου ῥήτορος κυροῦ Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁλοβώλου.
(Prochoros Kydones made a second translation of this text: see below.)
The translation also has an interesting prooemium by Holobolos, listed as a
separate work in the TLG, taken from a different edition: A. Megas, Maximos Planudes:
Boethii de philosophiae consolatione in linguam graecam translati (Thessalonike 1996 =
Λατινο-ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη 9) 391-394 = M. Papathomopoulos, Anicii Manlii Severini
Boethii De consolatione philosophiae: traduction grecque de Maxime Planude: édition critique
du texte grec avec une introduction, le texte latin, les scholies et des index (Athens: Akademia
Athinon 1999) 127-132. This letter is translated and discussed by Fisher, ‘Planoudes,
Holobolos,’ 84-91, based on the Papathomopoulos edition. The key sentences of this
letter are sections 5-6: see the Anthology. In the letter, Holobolos addresses his friends
who have asked him for a discussion of rhetoric. After the sections 5-6, he introduces
Boethius. A discussion also in Bydén, ‘Strangle Them,’ 143.
There is a strange coda to the translation: Οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ διαλεκτικοὶ τόποι, περὶ
ὧν ὅσον ὁ τοῦ προκειμένου ἔργου λόγος ἀπῄτει σὺν Θεῷ διεξεληλύθαμεν. Τῶν
συλλογισμῶν ταῖσδε πλεκτάναις, φίλε, τραχηλιῶντας Ἰταλοὺς κρατῶν πνίγε. Who
wrote this? It’s hilarious. See Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 94-95; Bydén, ‘Strangle
Them.’ The translation is then followed by Holobolos’ scholia (pp. 149-204 of the
edition), which sometimes reveal his anti-Latin bias: Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 95.
Are they really all his? The editor Nikitas, civ, cxxxvi, says so.
Pachymeres later wrote a 1000-word summary of this text: Γεωργίου
πρωτεκδίκου καὶ δικαιοφύλακος τοῦ Παχυμέρη ἡ διαίρεσις τῶν τόπων τῶν
διαλεκτικῶν, καθὼς διεῖλεν αὐτοὺς τῶν Ἰταλῶν τις καλούμενος Βοήτιος, οἳ δὴ καὶ
μετηνέχθησαν πρὸς τὴν Ἑλλάδα διάλεκτον, printed in D. Z. Nikitas, Boethius, De topicis
differentiis καὶ οἱ βυζαντινὲς μεταφράσεις τῶν Μανουὴλ Ὁλοβώλου καὶ Προχόρου Κυδώνη.
Παράρτημα / Anhang: Eine Pachymeres-Weiterbearbeitung der Holobolos-Übersetzung
(Athens, Paris, and Brussels, 1990 = Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini
5) 233-239. See D. Z. Nikitas, ‘Boethius, de differentiis topicis: eine Pachymeres-
weiterarbeitung der Holobolos-übersetzing,’ Classica et Mediaevalia 38 (1987) 267-287;
Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 83-84.
PSEUDO-ARISTOTLE, De plantis: ed. H. J. Drossaart Lulofs and E. L. J. Poortman,

eds., Nicolaus Damascenus, De plantis: Five Translations (Amsterdam et al. 1989 =
Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus 4) 563-590; tr. and discussion by Fisher, ‘Manuel Holobolos,
Alfred of Sareshal, and the ‘Anonymous’ Greek Translator of ps.-Aristotle’s De Plantis,’
Classica et Mediaevalia 57 (2006) 189-211; and eadem, ‘Bilinguals,’ 216-220. This was a
pseudo-Aristotelian text that was combined with one of Theophrastos, translated into
Syric, then Arabic, then Latin, and finally Holobolos translated it (“back”) into Greek.
Holobolos’ preface comments on the importance of this translation, and on its nature:
see the Anthology. Fisher quotes parts of it in translation. Esp. on p. 194 (Fisher)
Holobolos talks about a Celt (Alfred) who studied under the Arabs (in Spain, we know)
in order to glean their wisdom. This is a key notice. Holobolos mentions Alfred’s name
only in one the marginal notes: p. 196 (Fisher), noting him as the translator from the
Arabic (Βαλφρέδος ὁ ἐκ τῆς Ἀραβικῆς βίβλου μεταβαλὼν τὰ παρὸν βιβλίον).
MAXIMOS PLANOUDES
Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ suggests that in translating Ovid and the Consolation
Planoudes aimed to provide the Byzantines with access to the “West’s Greatest Hits.”
Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ 54, quotes and translates a poem
from Planoudes’ student Gregorios on his Latin translation projects; see the Anthology
(also in Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metempsychosis,’ 43-44). His literary Latin translations were
bowdlerized by later excerptors, who made quotable bits from them: ibid. 54 (citing
Kenney, ‘A Byzantine Version of Ovid,’ see below). Fisher, ‘Alfred,’ 204 Planoudes did
not use prefaces but directed his readers’ attention straight to the text. There is now an
MA thesis: C. K. Angelopoulos, Μεταφράσεις έργων της λατινικής γραμματείας στα
ελληνικά κατά την πρώιμη Παλαιολόγεια περίοδο: Η περίπτωση του Μάξιμου Πλανούδη
(University of Ioannina 2016); and see E. Anagnostou-Laoutides, ‘A Web of
Translations: Planudes in Search of Human Reason,’ in A. Brown and B. Neil, eds.,
Byzantine Culture in Translation (Brill 2017) 155-176.
CICERO, Dream of Scipio: A. Pavano, Maximus Planudes: M. Tullii Ciceronis somnium

Scipionis in Graecum translatum (Rome: Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale, 1992 =
Bibliotheca Athena 29) 3-19. The Greek title is Σκιπίωνος ὄνειρος συγγραφεὶς μὲν παρὰ
Μάρκου Τουλλίου Κικέρωνος τοῦ ῥήτορος, ἐξηγηθεὶς δὲ παρὰ Μακροβίου Ἀμβροσίου,
εἰς δὲ τὴν ἑλλάδα γλῶτταν μετενεχθεὶς παρὰ Μαξίμου μοναχοῦ τοῦ Πλανούδη.
MACROBIUS, Commentary on Ciceros’ Dream of Scipio: A. Megas, Maximus Planudes:

Macrobii commentariorum in Somnium Scipionis libri duo in linguam graecam translati
(Thessalonike 1995 = Λατινο-ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη 8) 11-174.
OVID, Metamorphoses: M. Papathomopoulos and I. Tsavare, Ὀβιδίου Περὶ

μεταμορφώσεων ὃ μετήνεγκεν ἐκ τῆς Λατίνων φωνῆς εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα Μάξιμος μοναχὸς ὁ
Πλανούδης (Athens: Academy of Athens 2002) 3-600; there was an older edition: J. F.
Boissonade, Publii Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon libri xv graece versi a Maximo Planude
et nunc primum editi (Paris 1822). See A. Dihle, ‘Zu den Ovid-Übersetzung des Maximos
Planudes,’ in W. Schubert, ed,. Ovid, Werke und Wirkung: Festgabe für Michael von
Albrecht (Frankfurt 1999), v. 2, 993-1003; E. Fisher, Planudes’ Greek Translation of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses (New York 1990), from her thesis; eadem, ‘Planoudes’ Technique and
Competence as a Translator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses,’ Byzantinoslavica 62 (2004) 143-
160. For the manuscript and a general discsusion, see Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
Sailing to Byzantium,’ 56 ff., where she gives the title too: ὀβιδίου περὶ μεταμορφωσεων
ὁ μάξιμος ὁ μοναχὸς ὁ πλανουδης μετήνεγκε ἐκ τῆς λατίνων φωνῆς εἰς τὴν ἑλλαδικην.
Fisher suggests that ἑλλαδικην means “ancient Greek.”
OVID, Heroïdes: M. Papathomopoulos, Μαξίμου Πλανούδη μετάφρασις τῶν Ὀβιδίου

Ἐπιστολῶν (Ioannina: University of Ioannina Press 1976) 3-119. See A. N. Michalopoulos,
‘Ovid in Greek: Maximus Planudes’ Translation of the Double Heroides,’ Classica et
Mediaevalia 54 (2003) 359-374.
Fragments of JUVENAL AND OVID’S AMATORY WORKS: Hunger, Literatur, v. 2,

68, says also possibly to be attributed to Planoudes is a selection from the Ars Amatoria,
the Amores, the Remedia Amoris, and some Juvenal. Editions: S. B. Kougeas, ‘Maximus
Planudes und Juvenal,’ Philologus 73 (1914) 318-319: Planoudes, in translating Beothius’
Consolation, noted that Boethius quotes Juvenal, and then translates some Juvenal in
Greek: Ταῦτα ἐκ τοῦ Ἰουβεναλίου τοῦ Ῥωμαίου σατυρικοῦ ποιητοῦ ὁ Βοηθὸς ἔλαβε
κἀκείνου δὲ τὰ ἔπη εἰς τὸ ἑλληνικὸν μετηγάγομεν φησὶ δε; then he gives a couple of
lines. Ed. of Latin and Greek in P. E. Easterling and E. J. Kenney, Ovidiana Graeca:
Fragments of a Byzantine Version of Ovid’s Amatory Works (= Proceedings of the Cambridge
Philological Society Suppl. 1, Cambridge 1965); preliminary discussion of the constitution
of the text: E. J. Kenney, ‘A Byzantine Version of Ovid,’ Hermes 91 (1963) 213-227; survey
of the state of these fragments: Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metempsychosis,’ 42-43.
DIONYSIUS CATO, Disticha (or “Catunculus,” third or fourth century AD): V.

Ortoleva, Maximus Planudes: Disticha Catonis in Graecum translata (Rome: Ateneo 1992 =
Bibliotheca Athena 28) 1-19. The Greek title is ΚΑΤΩΝ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΣ ΜΕΤΕΝΕΧΘΕΙΣ ΕΙΣ
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΝ ΦΩΝΗΝ ΠΑΡΑ ΤΟΥ ΥΨΗΛΟΤΑΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΣΟΦΩΤΑΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΟΥ
ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΠΛΑΝΟΥΔΗ. See Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 82.
AUGUSTINE, De Trinitate: M. Papathomopoulos, G. Rigotti, and I. Tsavare,

Αὐγουστίνου: Περὶ Τριάδος βιβλία πεντεκαίδεκα ἅπερ ἐκ τῆς Λατίνων διαλέκτου εἰς τὴν
Ἑλλάδα μετήνεγκε Μάξιμος ὁ Πλανούδης (Athens: Academy of Athens 1995 = Βιβλιοθήκη Α.
Μανούση 3) 1:2-463; 2:465-995 (odd pages). Title: Τοῦ μακαριωτάτου Αὐγουστίνου
ἐπισκόπου Ἱππῶνος περὶ Τριάδος βιβλία πέντε πρὸς τοῖς δέκα, ἅπερ ἐκ τῆς Λατίνων
διαλέκτου εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα μετήνεγκεν ὁ σοφώτατος καὶ τιμιώτατος μοναχῶν κύριος
Μάξιμος ὁ Πλανούδης. Demetrios Kydones owned a copy of this translation: Mercati,
Notizie, 159-160. This text was useful for the debates over Union: Fisher, ‘Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ 51; see in general, E. Fisher, ‘Planoudes’ De
trinitate, the Art of Translation, and the Beholder’s Share,’ in G. Demacopoulos and A.
Papanikolaou, eds., Orthodox Readings of Augustine (Crestwood NY: St. Vladimir’s Press
2008) 41-61, at 56 she quotes and translates Demetrios Kydones’ remarks on Planoudes’
efforts to translate this text in light of the latter’s opposition to Catholicism (remarks
that were later quoted by Bessarion in PG 161:312). See the Anthology. Then, at 57-58,
she quotes and translates Bessarion’s remarks on Planoudes’ efforts to translate this
text, again in light of Planoudes’ opposition to Catholic theology (from the same text
by Bessarion, in PG 161:317). Their assumption seems to be that Planoudes should have
accepted the Latins’ theological position given how close he was to Augustine and how
much exposure he evidently had to their theology. So a good translator must also be a
partisan. Odd logic. At 58-59, she quotes the accusation of an anonymous Dominican
made against Planoudes of producing a bad translation. At 59-61 she quotes and
translates Scholarios’ critique of Planoudes’ translation (from Oeuvres, v. 2, 228-229).
These texts together constitute an interesting and “dense” commentary on the politics
of theological translation in Byzantium.
BOETHIUS, Consolation of Philosophy: A. Megas, Maximos Planudes: Boethii de

philosophiae consolatione in linguam graecam translati (Thessalonike 1996 = Λατινο-
ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη 9). This is prefaced by a brief Vita Boethii (pp. 58-61), followed by the
text (pp. 65-355), and then some scholia (pp. 357-378). The main text has the following
title: Ἀννιτίου Μαλλίου Σεβηρίνου Βοηθοῦ ἀπὸ ὑπάτων τέλους τῶν πατρικίων βίβλος
Περὶ παραμυθίας τῆς Φιλοσοφίας, ἣν μετήνεγκεν ἐκ τῆς λατίνων φωνῆς εἰς τὴν
ἑλλάδα διάλεκτον Μάξιμος μοναχὸς ὁ Πλανούδης. The Vita reveals no Byzantine
themes or personal comments by Maximos (see Ryder, Kydones, 25 n. 125), but it has the
following interesting comment (4): φασὶ δὲ καὶ βίβλον αὐτὸν ἑτέραν συνθεῖναι
θεολογικὴν κατὰ Νεστορίου καὶ Εὐτυχοῦς, ἔνθα καὶ τῆς ἐν Χαλκηδόνι συνόδου
μέμνηται· ὡς ἐκ τούτου δῆλον εἶναι Χριστιανὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι. The scholia were
translated from the Latin exemplar: Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 93. Why is there
another edition of the same translation? M. Papathomopoulos, Anicii Manlii Severini
Boethii De consolatione philosophiae: traduction grecque de Maxime Planude: édition critique
du texte grec avec une introduction, le texte latin, les scholies et des index (Athens: Akademia
Athinon 1999). The first complete ed. was E. A. Bétant, De la consolation de la philosophie,
traduction grecque de Maxime Planudes (Geneva 1871).
In the letter prefacing his earlier translation of Boethius’ De topicis differentiis,
specifically in sections 10-15, Holobolos summarized the contents of the Consolation.
This was before there was a full translation.
PSEUDO-CYPRIAN or PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE, De duodecim abusivis saeculi: W. O.

Schmitt, ‘Pseudo-Cyprians “De diodecim abusivis saeculi” in der Übersetzung des
Maximos Planudes,’ in Studia Byzantina II (Berlin 1973) 13-36; G. N. Giannakis, ‘Μάξιμου
Πλανούδη, Μετάφραση τοῦ ‘Περὶ τῶν δώδεκα βαθμῶν τῆς παραχρήσεως’ τοῦ Ψευδο-
Αὐγουστίνου,᾽ Δωδώνη 3 (1974) 217-258; discussion in Ryder, Kydones, 21. This text was
useful for debates over Union: Fisher, ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ 51.
PRISCIAN, Institutiones Grammaticae: in his own Grammar, ed. L. Bachmann, Anecdota

Graeca, v. 2 (Leipzig 1828) 3-101 and 106-166, Planoudes seems to be quoting Priscian in
translation: Robins, Grammarians, 210-211 (with a sample comparison). But does he
mention him, thus acknowledging the fact of translation? A TLG search of those works
suggests not, so this is unacknowledged translation, whose existence is a modern
inference. Maybe there was a preexisting translation in a textbook of some kind. Cf.
Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 81-82, 83 (top); used or made by Planoudes: Fisher,
‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sailing to Byzantium,’ 47.
DEMETRIOS KYDONES
There were reports of a Dominican active in Constantinople, Guillaume Bernard de

Gailhac, making translations of Aquinas, but we don’t hear more about them: Ryder,
Kydones, 17. General discussion of the translations by the Kydones brothers and of
Aquinas in general include the following:
Rackl, M., ‘Die griechische Übersetzung der Summa theologiae des hl. Thomas von
Aquin,’ Byzantinische Zeitschrift 24 (1923-1924) 48-60.
Papadopoulos, S.G., Ἑλληνικαὶ μεταφράσεις Θωμιστικῶν ἔργων: Φιλοθωμισταὶ καὶ
ἀντιθωμισταὶ ἐν Βυζαντίῳ. Συμβολὴ εἰς τὴν ἱστορίαν τῆς βυζαντινῆς θεολογίας
(Βιβλιοθήκη τῆς ἐν Ἀθήναις Φιλεκπαιδευτικῆς Ἑταιρείας 47 (Athens 1967). This
is the standard discussion, from which Ryder, Kydones, gets her information.
Glykofrydi-Leontsini, A., ‘Demetrius Cydones as a Translator of Latin Texts,’ in C.
Dendrinos et al., eds., Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of
Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides (London 2003)
175-185.
Kianka, F., ‘Demetrius Cydones and Thomas Aquinas,’ Byzantion 52 (1982) 264-286.
Ryder, J., The Career and Writings of Demetrius Kydones: A Study of Fourteenth-Century
Byzantine Politics, Religion and Society (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010) 13-37.
For lists of Demetrios Kydones’ translations from Latin, see Mercati, Notizie, passim;
and Tinnefeld, Demetrios Kydones: Briefe, v. 1, 1, around p. 70. The question of the
standing of the Latin Fathers was important to him and he wrote a separate
short treatise on it: De patrum Latinorum auctoritate ad amicum quendam:
Tinnefeld, Demetrios Kydones: Briefe, v. 1, 1, p. 63.
APOLOGIA I: ed. G. Mercati, ‘Apologie della propria fede. 1. Ai Greci Ortodossi,’ in

Notizie di Procoro e Demetrio Cidone, Manuele Caleca e Teodoro Meliteniota ed altri appunti
per la storia della teologia e della letteratura Bizantina del secolo xiv (Vatican City: Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana, 1931 = Studi e Testi 56) 359-403. The Apologia I is the key text for
translation, but there are also II: ‘Apologie della propria fede. 2. Difesa della propria
sincerita,’ in ibid. 403-425; and finally III: ‘Apologie della propria fede. 3. Il Testamento
religioso,’ in ibid. 425-435. Translations: H.-G. Beck, ‘Die Apologia des Demetrius
Kydones,’ Ostkirchliche Studien 1 (1952) 208-225, 264-282; and (made not from the Greek
but from Beck’s German) J. Likoudis, Ending the Byzantine Greek Schism, Containing the
14th c. Apologia of Demetrios Kydones for Unity with Rome and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Contra
errores graecorum (New York: Catholics United for the Faith, 1992). In theory, a good
chunk of the Apologia should go in the Anthology. In some of his letters he also talks
about his translation activities, so these should be included along with the Apologia:
Ryder, Kydones, 35 (citing letter L25); also C. Wright, ‘Towards an Edition of Demetrios
Kydones’ Autograph Translation of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae, Prima Pars,’
Nicolaus 40 (2013) 15-30, here 18.
HILARIUS OF POITIERS, Creed extracted from his sermon delivered after Pentecost,
on the feast of the Holy Trinity, ed. PG 150:40-41; see Mercati, Notizie, 67 n. 1 (in Vat. gr.
677, among other texts translated by Kydones); Ryder, Kydones, 27. Kydones quotes
from this sermon-creed in his On the Procession of the Holy Spirit in PG 154:952-953.
CREEDS of Toledo I (400 AD) and Toledo III (589 AD) (doubful to be by Kydones,
possibly by Kalekas): P. Canart, Codices Vaticani Graeci: Codices 1745-1962 (Vatican City
19701-1973) 451; Mercati, Notizie, 97 (Vat. gr. 1897); Ryder, Kydones, 27. For the translation
of Toledo I, see now Chr. Arabatzis, ‘Η ελληνική μετάφραση του Συμβόλου της Α´
Συνόδου του Τολέδου από τον Δημήτριο Κυδώνη ή τον Μανουήλ Καλέκα,’ Βυζαντινά 21
(2000) 385-398.
AUGUSTINE: D. Kalamakis, Ἀνθολόγιον ἐκ τῶν ἔργων Αὐγουστίνου Ἵππωνος ἐξελληνισθὲν

ὑπὸ Δημητρίου τοῦ Κυδώνη (Athens: Parnassos Literary Society 1996) 55-138. Title: Τοῦ
μακαρίου Αὐγουστίνου ἐπισκόπου Ἱππῶνος κεφάλαια ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ λόγων
παρεκβληθέντα, ἑρμηνευθέντα δὲ ἐκ τοῦ λατινικοῦ παρ’ ἐμοῦ Δημητρίου. There does
not appear to be an introduction. There is the following concluding remark (section
389): Ταῦτα εὕρηται μόνα· εἰ δέ τις καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ζητήσας εὕροι καὶ τοῖς παροῦσι τὰ
εὑρημένα προσθείη, οὐκ ὀλίγον ὠφελείας συνεισοίσει τοῖς φιλολόγοις, ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἡμῖν
χαριεῖται οὐκ ὀκνῶν καὶ τὰ παρ’ ἡμῶν ἑρμηνευθέντα διορθώσασθαι· ἐν πολλοῖς γὰρ
ἦσαν ἐφθαρμένα τὰ ῥωμαϊκὰ γράμματα· ὅθεν τὴν τοῦ μακαρίου τούτου διάνοιαν
ἀναλαμβάνοντας ἐχρῆν ἑρμηνεύειν.
AUGUSTINE, extracts from the Commentary on the Gospel of John: ed. A. Mai, Novae
patrum bibliothecae tomus primus (Rome 1844) 414-427; Rackl, ‘Die griechische
Übersetzung,’ 26; Ryder, Kydones, 24.
AUGUSTINE, extracts from the Against Julian (Contra Iulianum): Rackl, ‘Die
griechische Übersetzung,’ 27-28; Mercati, Notizie, 159, 162; Ryder, Kydones, 24. No edition
cited.
AUGUSTINE, short extracts from the Enchiridion: Mercati, Notizie, 32 (quoting a later
catalogue that attributes it to Demetrios only); Ryder, Kydones, 24. No edition cited.
This may have been by Prochoros, or both brothers.
PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE (FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE), De fide ad Petrum: A. Koltsiou-

Niketa, Φουλγεντίου, Πρὸς Πέτρον περὶ πίστεως, ἑρμηνευθὲν παρὰ Δημητρίου τοῦ Κυδώνη
(Thessalonike: Ἐκδόσεις Π. Πουρναρᾶ 1999 = Φιλοσοφικὴ καὶ Θεολογικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη 40)
51-111. There does not appear to be an introduction, but it survives in an autograph
copy: Mercati, Notizie, 162 (Vat. gr. 1096); Ryder, Kydones, 22-23.
PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE, Soliloquia: A. Koltsiou-Niketa, Δημητρίου Κυδώνη Μετάφραση

τοῦ ψευδοαυγουστίνειου Soliloquia (Athens: Academy of Athens, 2005 = Corpus
Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini 11) 1-86. There does not appear to be an
introduction by Kydones. See Rackl, ‘Die griechische Übersetzung,’ 23-24; Ryder,
Kydones, 23.
PSEUDO-PROSPER OF AQUITAINE, Liber sententiorum (incomplete translation,

with 388 of 392 sententiae): D. Ch. Kalamakis, Ἀνθολόγιον ἐκ τῶν ἔργων Αὐγουστίνου
Ἱππώνος ἑξελληνισθὲν ὑπὸ Δημητρίου Κυδώνη (Athens 1996); cf. Mercati, Notizie, 162 (Vat.
gr. 1096); Ryder, Kydones, 23.
GREGORY THE GREAT, Homily 26.1-6 (selection): Mercati, Notizie, 65; Ryder, Kydones,
26.
DONATION OF CONSTANTINE: possibly done by Kydones: Mercati, Notizie, 162-165;

Ryder, Kydones, 28. See the Section below on “Additional Translations.”
PETRUS OF POITIER (?), Geneaologia Christi ab Adam (an abridgment ca. 1200 of
Petrus Comestor’s Genealogia Scholastica): Mercati, Notizie, 144-145; Ryder, Kydones, 27.
ANSELM OF CANTERBURY, De processione Spiritus sancti, and De azymo et

fermentato ad Walerrannum episcopum: no edition cited. Mercati, Notizie, 65, 67 n. 1, 165-
166; Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 320; Ryder, Kydones, 26.
AQUINAS, Summa theologicae (three of the four main sections): G. Leontsinis, A.

Glykofridi-Leontsini, P. A. Demetracopoulos, S. E. Sideri, P. Photopoulou, H.
Kalokairinou, and I. D. Spyralatos, Δημητρίου Κυδώνη Θωμᾶ Ἀκυινάτου Σούμμα θεολογικὴ
ἐξελληνισθεῖσα (Athens 1976-2011 = Corpus philosophorum graecorum recentiorum 15-18).
Not in the TLG. Someone is working on the other part: C. Wright, ‘Towards an Edition
of Demetrios Kydones’ Autograph Translation of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae,
Prima Pars,’ Nicolaus 40 (2013) 15-30.
AQUINAS, Summae contra gentiles, sections (books 3-4). See Mercati, Notizie, 160-161
(Vat. gr. 616); Ryder, Kydones, 17; there is a manuscript with a date of completion: 24
December 1354.
AQUINAS, De rationibus fidei contra Saracenos, Graecos et Armenos ad Cantorem

Antiochiae; and De articulis fidei et Ecclesiae sacramentis ad archiepiscopum
Panormitanum: Papadopoulos, Ἑλληνικαὶ μεταφράσεις, 56-60; Ryder, Kydones, 18: there
do not appear to be editions of these translations. The first of these was apparently
translated again by someone else in the same century.
BERNARD GUI, Vita s. Thomae Aquinatis, ch. 54-55 (containing lists of Aquinas’
works): Ryder, Kydones, 19 (no edition of the translation given).
RICCOLDO PENNINI DA MONTE CROCE, Refutation of the Koran: ed. PG 154: 1035-
1152. Title: Ῥικάρδου τοῦ τῷ τάγματι τῶν παρὰ Λατίνοις καλουμένων Ἀδελφῶν
Πρεδικατόρων κατειλεγμένου ἀνασκευὴ τῆς παρὰ τοῦ καταράτου Μαχουμὲθ τοῖς
Σαρρακηνοῖς τεθείσης νομοθεσίας, μετενεχθεῖσα ἐκ τῆς Ἰταλῆς διαλέκτου εἰς τὴν
Ἑλλάδα διά τινος Δημητρίου. Kydones wrote a brief encomium of Riccoldo for the
occasion: ed Mercati, Notizie, 161; cf. Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 321. Apparently,
in 1360 John VI Kantakouzenos used this in his own work against Islam: E. Trapp,
Manuel II Palaiologus: Dialog mit einem “Perser” (Vienna 1966) 35. See Lumpe, ‘Abendland
und Byzanz,’ 321.
IOANNES V PALAIOLOGOS, Confession of Faith (1369): Mercati, Notizie, 146-147;

Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 323; Ryder, Kydones, 28.
Ordo missae dominicanus (a liturgical text), ed. A. Baumstark, ‘“Liturgia S. Gregorii

Magni”, eine griechische Uebersetzung der römischen Messe,’ Oriens Christianus 4
(1904) 1-27.
PROCHOROS KYDONES
AUGUSTINE, Letters (eight of them): H. Hunger, Prochoros Kydones, Übersetzung von

acht Briefen des Hl. Augustinus (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1984 = Wiener Studien. Beiheft 9) 19-80.
AUGUSTINE, De libero arbitrio 1.1-90: H. Hunger, Prochoros Kydones’ Übersetzungen von

S. Augustinus, De libero arbitrio I 1-90, und Ps.-Augustinus, De decem plagis Aegyptiorum
(Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990 = Wiener Studien. Beiheft
14) 13-53. Title: Περὶ τῆς αὐτεξουσιότητος ἑρμηνευθὲν παρὰ τοῦ ἱερομονάχου κῦρ
Προχόρου. That this is incomplete may be due to ms. survival, not choice: Ryder,
Kydones, 29.
AUGUSTINE, De vera religione (a fragment in Vat. gr. 1096, he translated at least the
first nine chapters): Mercati, Notizie, 28-29; Ryder, Kydones, 22, no edition cited. That
this is fragmentary may be due to ms. survival, not choice: Ryder, Kydones, 29.
AUGUSTINE, De beata vita (a fragment in Vat. gr. 609): Mercati, Notizie, 29-30; Ryder,
Kydones, 22, no edition cited. That this is fragmentary may be due to ms. survival, not
choice: Ryder, Kydones, 29.
PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE (Caesarius of Arles?), De decem verbis legis et plagis

Aegyptiorum: H. Hunger, Prochoros Kydones’ Übersetzungen von S. Augustinus, De libero
arbitrio I 1-90, und Ps.-Augustinus, De decem plagis Aegyptiorum (Vienna: Österreichische
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990 = Wiener Studien. Beiheft 14) 55-69. Title: Τοῦ
μακαρίου Αὐγουστίνου παράλληλα τῶν δέκα νομικῶν παραγγελμάτων καὶ τῶν ιʹ
αἰγυπτιακῶν πληγῶν· τίνι πληγῇ πλήσσεται ὁ τίνα ἐντολὴν παραβάς. μετεγλωττίσθη
δὲ ἐκ τῆς Λατίνων φωνῆς εἰς τὴν Ἑλληνίδα διάλεκτον παρὰ τοῦ σοφωτάτου καὶ
λογιωτάτου ἐν ἱερομονάχοις κύρου Προχόρου τοῦ Κυδώνη.
JEROME, prefaces (praefationes) to the books of the Bible: fragments of translations of

them made by Prochoros came into the hands of Demetrios Kydones: Mercati, Notizie,
39 (in Vat. gr. 1102); Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 312.
BOETHIUS, De topicis differentiis (a second translation after that by Holobolos, but

known from only one ms., so presumably it wasn’t as successful): D. Z. Nikitas,
Boethius, De topicis differentiis καὶ οἱ βυζαντινὲς μεταφράσεις τῶν Μανουὴλ Ὁλοβώλου καὶ
Προχόρου Κυδώνη. (Athens, Paris, and Brussels, 1990 = Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi.
Philosophi Byzantini 5) 205-232; cf. Ryder, Kydones, 25 n. 126.
AQUINAS, Summa theologiae (parts): Mercati, Notizie, 33-37; Ryder, Kydones, 18 (there
does not appear to be an edition).
AQUINAS, De mundi aeternitate: probably by Prochoros: Mercati, Notizie, 33; Ryder,

Kydones, 19 (no edition cited).
AQUINAS, preface to the Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Ryder, Kydones, 19

(no edition cited).
HERVAEUS NATALIS’ (Hervé Nédélec, d. 1323) Commentary on the Sentences of Peter

Lombard: a partial translation came into the hands of Demetrios Kydones: Mercati,
Notizie, 37-39 (in Vat. gr. 609 and 1102), and it seems that Demetrios made the note:
Ἐρβαίου ἑρμηνευθὲν παρὰ τοῦ ἱερομονάχου κυροῦ Προχόρου; Lumpe, ‘Abendland
und Byzanz,’ 322; Ryder, Kydones, 28.
MANUEL KALEKAS
BOETHIUS, De trinitate: Mercati, Notizie, 80 (Vat. gr. 614); see A. Pertusi, ‘Gli studi
latini di Manuele Caleca e la traduzione greca del (de trinitate) di Boezio,’ Miscellanea
Giovanni Galbiati (Milan 1951) v. 3, 283-312.
ANSELM OF CANTERBURY, Cur Deus homo: Mercati, Notizie, 80 (Vat. gr. 614), 90.
AQUINAS, Sermo de festo Corporis Christi (possibly translated by Demetrios Kydones):

Papadopoulos, Ἑλληνικαὶ μεταφράσεις, 61.
LATIN LITURGICAL TEXTS, e.g., Missa Ambrosiana in Nativitate Domini: ed. A. M.

Cuomo, ‘La terza messa ambrosiana di natale tradotta in greco e commentata da
Manuele Caleca,’ Ricerche Storiche sulla Chiesa Ambrosiana 27 (2010) 9-99, available here.
See Mercati, Notizie, 77-80; Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 322.
ADDITIONAL TRANSLATIONS FROM LATIN

MADE IN THE LATER BYZANTINE PERIOD
PSEUDO-MASHA’ALLAH, On the Astrolabe, Greek version (ca. 1300) from ms.

Oxoniensis Cromwellianus 12; ed. with French translation in A. Tihon, R. Leurquin
and C. Scheuren, Une version byzantine du traitê sur l’astrolabe du Pseudo-Messahalla
(Louvain 2001 = Corpus des Astronomes Byzantins 10). The Latin astronomical treatise
from which this selection on the astrolabe was taken is the Tractatus astrolabii edicionis
Messehallach, ed. in R. T. Gunther, Chaucer and Messahalla on the Astrolabe, v. 5 of Early
Science in Oxford (Oxford 1929) 137–231. See the discussions by A. Tihon, ‘Traités
byzantins sur l’astrolabe,’ Physis 32 (1995) 323-357; E. Fisher, ‘Arabs, Latins and Persians
Bearing Gifts: Greek Translations of Astronomical Texts, ca. 1300,’ Byzantine and
Modern Greek Studies 36 (2012) 161-177, here 162-166.
ANONYMOUS TREATISE On the Astrolabe, ed. A. Delatte, Anecdota atheniensia et alia,

v. 2 (Liège 1939) 254-262, a version of an unidentified Arabo-Latin treatise that basically
reproduces Arabic learning. A. Tihon, ‘Traités byzantins sur l’astrolabe,’ Physis 32
(1995) 323-357, here 325 and 335-336, tentatively proposes a late thirteenth-century date.
See also E. Fisher, ‘Arabs, Latins and Persians Bearing Gifts: Greek Translations of
Astronomical Texts, ca. 1300,’ Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 36 (2012) 161-177, here
166-167.
THE TOLEDAN TABLES, translated from the Latin translation perhaps by Georgios
Lapithes, the friend of Nikephoros Gregoras. “The Toledan Tables were composed
originally in Arabic in about 1070 by al- Zarqāli on the basis, primarily, of the Zīj al-
Sindhind written by al-Khwārizmi in the early ninth century… The Arabic version is
lost” but there are many copies of the Latin translation by Gerhard of Cremona (d.
1187). The Greek translation was made in the 1330s or 1340s, probably on Cyprus: D.
Pingree, ‘The Byzantine Version of the Toledan Tables: The Work of George Lapithes?,’
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 30 (1976) 85-132; idem, ‘Indian,’ 152. Pingree transcribes some
sections of the text, with commentary.
THE ALPHONSINE TABLES, attributed to the king of Castille Alfonso X (1252-1284) and
widely disseminated in the West, were adapted by Demetrios Chrysoloras in 1380. The
unique manuscript, Vat. gr. 1059, was copied by Ioannes Chortasmenos: A. Tihon,
‘L’astronomie byzantine à l’aube de la Renaissance (de 1352 à la fin du XVe siècle),’
Byzantion 66 (1996) 244-280, here 259-260.
AUGUSTINE, excerpts from the Speculum: Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 314, citing
only the ms. Par. gr. 1234 5r. lines 24 ff., not any other studies.
PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE, De purgatorio, possibly translated by Manuel Kalekas (see

above): Mercati, Notizie, 97 (in Vat. gr. 1879); Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 314.
DONATUS, Small Grammar (Ianua), a fifteenth-century Greek translation: Hunger,

Literatur, v. 2, 68 n. 54; Fisher, ‘Planoudes, Holobolos,’ 83; Robins, Grammarians, 202
(who seems to think it is by Planoudes).
THE LATIN MASS, from the Ordo Romanus antiquus: ed. J. Darrouzès, ‘Conference sur
la primauté du Pape à Constantinople,’ Revue des études byzantines 19 (1961) 76-85, esp.
81. This was probably made by Latins and possibly in occupied Constantinople; for
discussion and context, see E. Fisher, ‘Homo Byzantinus and Homo Italicus in Late
Thirteenth-Century Byzantium,’ in J. M. Ziolkowski, ed., Dante and the Greeks
(Dumbarton Oaks 2014) 63-82, at 69.
DONATION OF CONSTANTINE: D. Angelov, ‘The Donation of Constantine and the

Church in Late Byzantium,’ in idem, ed., Church and Society in Late Byzantium
(Kalamazoo 2009) 91-157, lists four versions or variants of a Greek translation of the
Donation, dating from the middle and later Byzantine period: the Balsamon version,
possibly eleventh century, named after him because he quotes it and not because he
made it: ed. in Rallis and Potles, Syntagma, v. 1, 145-148 (older ed. in PG 104:1077-1081);
the Blastares version (an abridgment of the Balsamon version), ed. in Rallis and Potles,
Syntagma, v. 6, 261-262; the Kydones version: ed. cited in Angelov, ‘The Donation,’ 146
n. 64; and the Chrysoberges version: ed. cited in Angelov, ‘The Donation,’ 146 n. 71.
The Diairesis of Dialectical Topoi, a translation of a contemporary Latin logical work

that in some mss. accompanies Pachymeres’ Philosophia (who did not, as far as we
know, read Latin): ed. as an appendix to D. Z. Nikitas, Boethius, De topicis differentiis καὶ
οἱ βυζαντινὲς μεταφράσεις τῶν Μανουὴλ Ὁλοβώλου καὶ Προχόρου Κυδώνη (Athens, Paris,
and Brussels, 1990 = Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini 5). The title in
the earliest ms. is Ἡ διαίρεσις τῶν τόπων τῶν διαλεκτικῶν, καθὼς διεῖλεν αὐτοὺς τῶν
Ἰταλῶν τις καλούμενος Βοήτιος, οἳ δὴ καὶ μετηνέχθησαν πρὸς τὴν Ἑλλάδα διάλεκτον:
B. Bydén, ‘“Strangle Them with These Meshes of Syllogisms!”: Latin Philosophy in
Greek Translations of the Thirteenth Century,’ in J. O. Rosenqvist, ed., Interaction and
Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture (Stockholm and New York 2004) 133-157, here 140-142,
spec. 141, and 152-157. In a much later ms. it is attributed to Pachymeres, and Bydén says
it could have been his, but overall it seems that it should be treated as anonymous.
THE RULE OF SAINT FRANCIS, a fragment of a translation, probably made by

Franciscans in occupied Constantinople; ed. S. Salaville, ‘Fragment inédit de
traduction grecque de la Règle de saint François,’ Échos d’Orient 28 (1929) 167-172, esp.
168 n.2, 170 n. 1 and n. 3; for discussion and context, see E. Fisher, ‘Homo Byzantinus and
Homo Italicus in Late Thirteenth-Century Byzantium,’ in J. M. Ziolkowski, ed., Dante
and the Greeks (Dumbarton Oaks 2014) 63-82, at 69.
VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS (d. ca. 1264), Speculum Doctrinale (selections from books 4
and 5): ed. and commentary I. Pérez Martín, ‘El Libro de Actor: Una traducción bizantina
del Speculum Doctrinale de Beauvais (Vat. Gr. 12 Y 1144),’ Revue des études byzantines 55
(1997) 81-136. The Byzantine title is Ἐπιγραφαὶ παρεκβληθεῖσαι ἀπὸ λατινικοῦ βιβλίου
Ἄκτορος καλουμένου. The translation was probably made by a Byzantine scholar (ca.
1300), because it makes mistakes with certain Latin names.
AQUINAS, from the Quaestiones disputata, specifically the De potentia and De

spiritualibus craeturis: Ryder, Kydones, 19-20, no edition of these translations is cited.
AQUINAS, selections from the Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles collected
and translated (anew?) by Gennadios Scholarios: ed. M. Jugie, L. Petit, and X. A.
Siderides, Oeuvres complètes de Georges (Gennadios) Scholarios (Paris 1928 ff.), v. 5, 339-510;
v. 6, 1-153; and v. 5, 1-338 (respectively).
ALBERT THE GREAT (d. 1280), Theological Compendium (or so the work is attributed):
Greek translation in cod. Matrit. O 9 (nr. 21): Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 320.
RAYMOND DE MÉVOUILLON (d. 1294), ascetical works translated in cod. Petroburg.

113: Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 321.
AN ORACLE attributed to Theodorus Presbyterus translated from Latin by Ioannes

Rhyzanos: Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 331, citing bibliography but giving no
more details.
I am not including here translations into Greek made by Italian humanists or by Byzantines
who lived under western rule (e.g., on Venetian Crete) or who moved permanently to Italy, as
they belong to a different context. To be sure, some of those listed above may have been made
by Byzantines who were briefly spending time there, but their target audience was presumably
Byzantine, back home.
Theodoros Gazes translated mostly from Greek into Latin for his Italian patrons, but
he did some translation in the opposite direction too: G. Salanitro, M. Tullii Ciceronis
liber De senectute in Graecum translatus (Leipzig: Teubner 1987); also a threatening letter
by pope Nicolaus V to Konstantinos XI Palaiologos (but this goes under chancery
documents, and so is not included in this survey). Bessarion probably also translated
from Latin into Greek. For Joseph of Methone (n. Ioannes Plousiadenos), see Lumpe,
‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 323. The Greek translation of Caesar’s Gallic War was done
after 1544: H. Heller, ‘De graeco metaphraste commentariorum Caesaris,’ Philologus 12
(1857) 107-149; and L. W. Daly, ‘The Greek Version of Caesar’s Gallic War,’ Transactions
of the American Philological Association 77 (1946) 78-82.
FRANKISH GREECE
There is a debate as to whether the Chronicle of the Morea, ed. J. Schmitt (London:
Methuen & Co. 1904) was written originally in French and then translated into Greek,
or the reverse. The latest discussion affirms the priority of the Greek version: T.
Shawcross, The Chronicle of Morea: Historiography in Crusader Greece (Oxford, 2009). In
any case, there is no reference in either the Greek or the French version to it being a
translation from the other language.
R. Beaton, The Medieval Greek Romance, 2nd ed. (London and New York 1996) 135-145
lists six late Byzantine vernacular poems as translations (or close enough) of French
romans: The War of Troy; Florios and Platzia-Flora; Imperios and Margarona; Apollonios of
Tyre; and the Theseid; cf. the older survey in Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 331-343
(but going much later past 1453 AD). There may be more. I have wondered, though,
whether these texts (along with all the other Greek vernacular romances in the same
tradition) were “Byzantine” or whether they were produced and largely consumed by
the Greek-speaking Franks in the new colonies after 1204. Cf. P. Tivadar, ‘Métaphraser
et mettre en roman: diglossie et bilinguisme à Byzance et en France au XIIIe siècle,’ in
P. Renaud, ed., Les situations de plurilinguisme en Europe (Paris 2014 = Cahiers de la
Nouvelle Europe, Collection du Centre Interuniversitaire d’Etudes Hongroises 11) 25-37.
Ὁ πόλεμος τῆς Τρωάδος (The War of Troy), ed. and tr. M. Papathomopoulos and E. M.
Jeffreys (Athens: MIET) 1996, is a translation of Benoît de Saint-Maure’s Roman de Troie
(twelfth century).
Florios and Platzia-Flora, ed. E. Kriaras, Βυζαντινὰ ἱπποτικὰ μυθιστορήματα (Athens 1955 =
Βασική βιβλιοθήκη v. 2) 131-196; ed. F. J. Ortolá Salas, Florio y Platzia Flora: una novela
bizantina de época paleólogica (Madrid: Universidad de Cádiz, 1998 = Nueva Roma 6) 108-
202, is a translation from an early fourteenth-century Tuscan version of the popular
story Floire et Blanchflor called Il Cantare di Fiorio e Biancifiore. In the title (Salas ed.) it is
called a “foreign” tale: ΔΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΟΣ ΕΡΩΤΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΞΕΝΗ. This may refer
to the setting of the story rather than its origin.
Imperios and Margarona, ed. E. Kriaras, Βυζαντινὰ ἱπποτικὰ μυθιστορήματα (Athens 1955 =
Βασική βιβλιοθήκη v. 2) 197-249, is a rather free translation of the French tale Pierre de
Provence et la Belle Maguelonne. The title is similar to that of Florios (see above).
Apollonios of Tyre, unrhymed: ed. W. Wagner, Medieval Greek Texts (London 1870) 63-90;
rhymed: ed. G. Kechayoglou, Ἀπόκοπος - Ἀπολώνιος - Ἱστορία τῆς Σωσάνης (Athens 1982 =
Λαϊκὰ λογοτεχνικὰ ἔντυπα v. 1) 63-90, a translation of a prose version in Italian. The sole
ms. calls it a translation from the Latin into Romaïkon, i.e., Greek: Μεταγλώττισμα ἀπὸ
λατινικὸν εἰς Ρωμαϊκόν (Beaton, Romance, 253 n. 35).
Theseid, book 1 only ed. I. Follieri, Il Teseida neogreco, Libro I (Rome 1959), a translation
of Boccaccio’s work, but this was done in western-ruled territories long after the fall of
Constantinople, it does not technically fall within our purview.
In addition, tales from the Arthurian cycle circulated in the eastern Mediterranean
during the Latin colonization. There is a 307-line text in Greek conventionally called
The Old Knight (though its title is missing), which comes from the romance Guiron le
Courtois (aka Palamedes) in either its French or Italian version; the translation was made
between 1280 and 1450: ed. P. Breillat, ‘La table ronde en orient: Le poème grec du
vieux chevalier,’ Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire 55 (1938) 308-373, here 326-340; see
Lumpe, ‘Abendland und Byzanz,’ 333-334; Beaton, Romance, 142-145.
TRANSLATIONS FROM HEBREW (via Latin?)
Three Jewish Astronomical Tables: “at the beginning of the fifteenth century, three
Jewish astronomical treatises were adapted into Greek: the Six Wings (Shesh
Kenaphayim, Ἑξαπτέρυγον) of Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils of Tarascon (in ca. 1365),
adapted by Michael Chrysokokkes [a notary of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople] (ca.
1434/5); the Cycles of Bonjorn (Jacob ben David Yom-Tob, Perpignan, ca. 1361), by
Markos Eugenikos (ca. 1444); and the Paved Way (Orah Selulah) of Isaac ben Salomon
ben Zaddiq Alhadib (ca. 1370-1426), by Matthew Kamariotes (d. 1490/1). These treatises
were also explained in anonymous works, some of them written in vernacular Greek.
We do not know exactly how these treatises were introduced into Constantinople nor
why Jewish philosophy and astronomy became so influential in Byzantium at that
time. This is a phenomenon little studied and sometimes denied by Byzantinists”: A.
Tihon, ‘Astronomy,’ in A. Kaldellis and N. Siniossoglou, eds., The Cambridge Intellectual
History of Byzantium (Cambridge 2017) 183-197. For Micahel Chrysokokkes’
Hexapterygon, see text ed. (written by hand!) and translation by P. Solon, The
Hexapterygon of Michael Chrysokokkes: Greek Text with English Translation and Notes
(PhD Dissertation: Brown University, 1968); and idem, ‘The Six Wings of Immanuel
Bonfils and Michael Chrysococces,’ Centaurus 15 (1970) 1-20 (the Greek mss. noted on
pp. 16-17 n. 6). For Eugenikos’ work, see G. Mercati, Scritti d’Isidoro il Cardinale Ruteno
(Rome 1926 = Studi e Testi 46) 42-46. His translation, and that of Kamariotes, appear to
be unpublished. Note that Markos Eugenikos, at least, worked from the Latin version
of Yom-Tob.

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Kaldellis, Catalogue of Translations into Byzantine Greek (version III) 1

CATALOGUE OF TRANSLATIONS INTO BYZANTINE GREEK

The following catalogue does not include:

The existing bibliography on translations into Greek focuses on particular source

Translation (?) from Egyptian hieroglyphics

TRANSLATION (?) FROM EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS

A fifth-century treatise on how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics, with mostly (but

TRANSLATIONS FROM LATIN, FOURTH TO EIGHTH CENTURIES

For the “language question” in the early Church, see:

DOSITHEUS, Ars grammatica, ed. J. Tolkiehn, Dosithei ars grammatica (Leipzig:

CONSTANTIUS II’s adlection of THEMISTIOS to the Senate: a Greek translation of

HIPPIATRIKA translations: A. McCabe, A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine:

LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI allegedly translated by ATHANASIOS OF ALEXANDRIA:

AMBROSE OF MILAN: his De fide and De incarnationis dominicae sacramento had

JEROME, De virginatate ad Eustochium, translated by his friend Sophronios of

A LATIN CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CONSULAR LIST (covering parts of the fourth

The BASILIKA (ca. 900) represent a condensation of sixth-century translations of the

Theophilos the antecessor’s PARAPHRASE OF THE INSTITUTES is a translation of

TRANSLATIONS FROM ARMENIAN

[See also “Hagiography” below for more texts in that genre.]

AGATHANGELOS, History of Armenia (focusing on the career of Gregory the

The NARRATIO DE REBUS ARMENIAE is a brief (20 page) pro-Chalcedonian

An Armenian prophesy (exploited by Basileios I): G. Garitte, ‘La vision de S. Sahak en

TRANSLATION FROM PERSIAN, SIXTH CENTURY

PERSIAN LORE (history, religion, and ethnography) in AGATHIAS, Histories 2.23-32,

TRANSLATIONS FROM SYRIAC

There is a useful bibliography here:

[See also “Hagiography” below for texts in that genre.]

THE APOCALYPSE OF PSEUDO-METHODIOS (ca. 700): ed. A. C. Lolos, Die

SINBAD TALES: Michael Andreopoulos, The Book of the Philosopher Syntipas,

Graeco-Arabica 1 (1982) 105-130. There is a thirteenth-century reworking of the Greek

TRANSLATIONS FROM COPTIC

[See also “Hagiography” below for texts in that genre.]

Lists of translated hagiographical texts:

Examples of Latin-to-Greek translations of hagiographic texts:

Passio Perpetuae: V. Reichmann, Römische Literatur in griechischer Übersetzung =

Paulinus, vita Ambrosii, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ἀνάλεκτα Ἱεροσολυμιτικῆς

General bibliography for the eastern languages in general:

l’hagiographie byzantine (Brussels 1950) 165-218, esp. 179-180 for Syriac (a

[Editions of translated saints’ lives are hereafter presented alphabetically by editor.]

Delehaye, Hippolyte, ‘S. Sadoth episcopi Seleuciae et Ctesiphontis Acta graeca,’

Delehaye, Hippolyte, ‘SS. Ionae et Barachisii martyrum in Perside Acta graeca,’

Devos, Paul, ‘Le dossier hagiographique de S. Jacques l’Intercis,’ Analecta Bollandiana 71

Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A., in Pravoslavnij Palestinskij Sbornik 12 (St Petersburg 1892) 1-

vita of Timothy of Kakhushta: the Greek translation is lost. J. C. Lamoreaux and C.

Only the second one (Timothy) is listed in M. N. Swanson, ‘Arabic Hagiography,’ in S.

ὑπομνημάτων ταύτην ἀψευδῶν μεταφράσαντας.

TRANSLATIONS FROM SLAVONIC

TRANSLATIONS FROM ARABIC

[See also “Hagiography” section above for texts in that genre.]

of Arabic should not be ruled out.

Arabic: MEDICAL WRITINGS

an Institute that aspires to provide a comprehensive online publication of the

SYMEON SETH, Refutation of Galen (primarily of the De naturalibus facultatibus), ed.

AVICENNA (IBN SINA), De pulsibus, translated as Ἀναγκαιοτάτη διδασκαλία περὶ

Pseudo-IBN SINA, On Urines, translated by one Christodoulos and interpreted by

NIKOLAOS “MYREPSOS” (thirteenth century?), Dynameron, an (unpublished) book

KONSTANTINOS MELITENIOTES (?), Antidotarium Persicum: Αὗται αἱ ἀντίδοτοι

Arabic: PHARMACOLOGY and ΒΟΤΑΝΥ

The eleventh-century ms. Athos, Megistês Lauras Ω 75 (based on an archetype of ca.

SYMEON SETH (later eleventh century), Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus

NAJIB AD-DIN-E-SAMARQANDI (d. 1222): translations of three (unpublished) works