A Tale of Two Manuscripts

Authors

  • Michael M. Pozdnev St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.110

Abstract

The post-Renaissance copies of Aristotle’s Poetics were mostly made for scholarly use. The  copyists such as Anton Salvini, a Florentine polymath, librarian and professor of Greek, drew  on MSS as well as on printed editions in an attempt to establish the text they could use for  translation or academic teaching. Still uncertain remains the rationale of the latest known  manuscipts — from the Vatopedi monastery on Mt. Athos (ca. mid 18th cent.) and from Bucharest  (of the early 19th cent.). Several similarities these copies display suppose common  provenance. The Greek diaspora in Bucharest blossomed around 1800 and Romania is linked  to Vatopedi by a long tradition of orthodox learning. The MSS in question provide an overall  impression of a schoolwork. The Athoan is of supreme quality while the Romanian often  resembles an abstract. The first MS was probably written soon after the foundation of the  Athonite Academy near Vatopedi. Aristotle’s Poetics is hardly suitable for monastic learning,  but Eugenius Bulgaris who was the headmaster of Athonias from 1753 to 1758 introduced  ancient texts into its curriculum: from one of his letters we conjecture that Plato and Aristotle  were studied there. It is thus reasonable to suppose that the cod. Vatopedius was made in the  Athonias for learning purposes. By 1800 the Academy was in decline but they still taught disciplines  and read texts introduced by Bulgaris. So, the Bucarestensis could have been written  in the same place. Judging by the composition of the codex its maker was nurturing interest in  ancient and modern Greek literature.

Keywords:

Aristotle, Poetics, manuscripts, Athonias Academy, Bulgaris

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Published

2019-06-25

How to Cite

Pozdnev, M. (2019). A Tale of Two Manuscripts. Philologia Classica, 14(1), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.110

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2019)

Section

De philologis et philologia

License

Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.