Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopulos ( Νικηφόρος Κάλλιστος Ξανθόπουλος, * about 1268/1274; † after 1328 ) was the last great Greek church historian.

Nikephoros was cleric and in his last years a monk. He is considered one of the most important ecclesiastical writers of the late Byzantium. His main work is a church history in 18 books ( Historia Ecclesiastica ), which is now preserved only in a manuscript ( Austrian National Library, Vind. Hist. Gr 8). It covers the period up to 610, where the author strongly supported for the first four centuries to the late antique church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, Theodoret and Evagrius Scholasticus. For the last two centuries Nikephoros provides valuable material, since he had access to documents now lost in Constantinople Opel and for some events his church history is the only surviving source. There is a table of contents for a further 5 books which would cover the period up to 911. Whether these are lost or were never written, is unclear.

He has also written lists of the Byzantine Emperor, the Patriarch of Constantinople Opel, a poem about the fall of Jerusalem, a Bibelsynopsis and liturgical writings.

Expenditure

• Nicephori Callisti Xanthopuli ... Ecclesiasticae historiae libri decem et octo. Latin translation of Johann Lange. Feyerabend, Frankfurt 1588
• Nicephori Callisti Xanthopuli ecclesiasticae historiae libri XVIII. In: Migne: Patrologia Graeca. 145-147. Paris 1865. Reprint Brepols, Turnhout about 1967.
• Project of the new edition: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/byzanz/nkx.htm.