Maximus Planudes

Maximos Planudes ( Latinized Maximus Planudes, * 1260 in Nicomedia in Bithynia, † 1330 in Constantinople Opel ) was a Byzantine grammarian and theologian, who flourished under the emperors Michael VIII and Andronikos II. He spent most of his life in Constantinople Opel, where he devoted himself as a monk studying and teaching. Upon entering the monastery at a young age, he changed his original name of Manuel in Maximos.

Planudes possessed a remarkable knowledge of the Latin language at a time, were considered in the Rome and Italy by the Byzantines with hatred and contempt. This skill he owes well that he was sent by Andronikos in 1327 as ambassador to Venice, to protest against the attack by the Venetians to the Genoese branch in Pera. An important result of his journey was that Planudes, especially with his translations of the Greek language and literature pioneered in Western Europe.

He was the author of many works on classical philology, history, and mathematics, including: a Greek grammar in the form of question and answer, similar to Έρωτήματα ( Erotémata, " questions ") of Manuel Moschopulos, with an appendix on the so-called political verse; a treatise on syntax; a biography of Aesop and his Fables prose version; Scholia to some Greek works; two poems in hexameters, as a panegyric on Claudius Ptolemy, whose Geography was rediscovered Planudes and provided with maps, the other about the sudden transformation of an ox in a mouse; a treatise on the art of calculation among the Indians; Scholia to the first two books of the arithmetic of Diophantus of Alexandria; Comments on Theocritus. In addition, he left behind a collection of proverbs and numerous letters.

Its various translations from the Latin of Cicero also include Somnium Scipionis with commentary by Macrobius, Caesar's Bellum Gallicum, Ovid's Heroides and Metamorphoses, Boethius ' De consolatione philosophiae, Augustine's De Trinitate and the so-called Disticha Catonis. These translations were used as textbooks for the Greek very popular in the Middle Ages. The best known is Planudes as editor of the Greek Anthology, an important collection of Greek epigrams from ancient times and the Middle Ages that were in the version ( Anthologia Planudea ) printed first, and so known to the learned world.

Expenditure

• Vincenzo Ortoleva (ed.): Maximus Planudes: Disticha Catonis Translata in Graecum. 1992 Rome
• Anna Maria Pavano (ed.): Maximus Planudes: M. Tulli Ciceronis Somnium Scipionis Translatum in Graecum. 1992 Rome
• Anastasios Megas Ch (eds.): Macrobii commentariorum in " Somnium Scipionis " libri duo in linguam Graecam translati. Thessaloniki 1995
• Manolis Papathomopoulos (ed.): Anicii Manlii Severini Boethii De consolatione philosophiae. Traduction grecque de Maxime Planude. The Academy of Athens, Athens, 1999, ISBN 2-7116-8333-8 ( critical edition )

• Jean -François Boissonade (ed.): Anecdota Graeca, 6 volumes, 1829-1844, reprint 1962
• Carl Immanuel Gerhardt ( ed.): Maximus Planudes: The arithmetic book. After the manuscripts of the Imperial Library at Paris. HW Schmidt, Hall 1865 (online at Google Book Search )
• Jacques Paul Migne (ed.): Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca, Volume 147, 1865 ( theological writings )
• Max Treu ( ed.): Maximilian monachi Planudis Epistulae. Gutsmann, Wroclaw 1890 ( digitized )