Federica Scognamiglio

This paper examines a brief paraenetic poem (Carmen Marcianum, henceforth CM), hitherto unpublished and preserved in an additional quire of the Marc. gr. VII, 51. The main feature of the CM is the use of exact quotations borrowed from other Byzantine poets (namely, John Mauropous and Nicholas of Corcyra) as ‘stylistic tiles’ for the poem on the vanity of human concerns. Besides exact quotations, the CM provides vivid examples and poetical images of vanitas rerum, while (re)writing the text closely in Mauropous’ steps.

The paper deals with the Paraphrasis Bodleiana of Babrius and its peculiarities as a moralistic collection in the Medieval transmission of Aesopic materials. The Paraphrasis Bodleiana gives major attention to the epimythia or promythia, the moral of the fable, as a particular interest of the collector of this corpus. For example, in one manuscript of the Paraphrasis Bodleiana (Vat. Pal. Gr. 367), a monk-copyist added two other epimythia for two fables with a specific moralistic purpose. The paraphrases of Babrius’ fables in the Bodleiana, as well as Aesopic fables tout court, therefore illustrate a process of moralization that fables underwent in the course of their transmission over the centuries.

24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies -- Venice-Padua 22-27 August 2022. Free communication.

Abstract: A hitherto unpublished paraenetic cento in Byzantine dodecasyllables has been preserved in an additional quire of the Marc. gr. VII, 51 (14th century). This brief anonymous poem borrows verses from John Mauropous, Nicholas of Corcyra and other sources, but its phrasing also recalls common places about the vanity of human life and its concerns. Through the analysis of quotations, metaphors and other figures of speech, the paper will show how this brief cento is a clear example of the long-lasting rewriting tradition in Byzantium for paraenetic purpose, albeit with the remarkably innovative use of non-classical poetic sources.

In the alphabetic acrostich Ἄκουσον, ὦ παῖ, τῆς ἐμῆς συμβουλίας, a twenty-four-line poem with moral advices, the author Ignatios the Deacon addresses his sententiae to his pupils. The dialogue between the master-writer and the pupils is not new to either the acrostich tradition or the sub-genre of didactic literature: the purpose of this poem is to communicate the moral and Christian advices directly to the pupils – and to any reader. Therefore, Du-Stil is clearly a feature of this genre, like in other acrostichs such as the one of Gregory of Nazianzus or other anonymous ones. The direct speech to a reader, using the imperatives, implies an Ich-Stil of the author, and – in the case of Ignatios – a master. Like the other acrostichs, the one written by Ignatios is focused on “how to be a good Christian”, and the author gives the typical advices for such purpose. What is slightly different from the other acrostichs, then? The tips given by Ignatios are those usually addressed to a Christian pupil, but they are an ἐμὴ συμβουλία, an advice of mine, of Ignatios himself: they may appear to be his own moral heritage. To be mild and humble, to remember the law of God and Deum timere, everything is introduced by the master himself, in something like a Du-und-Ich Stil in the first lines: «Listen to my advice, my boy… and write it upon your heart». In other words, Ignatios uses the didactic conventions to draw a moral sketch of himself.

In the wide tradition of Aesopic fables, there are families of manuscripts, the recensiones – in number of five according to Chambry’s edition (Paris 1925-1926). In three of these recensiones, namely in the Vindobonensis, the Bodleiana and the mixta (2nd, 4th and 5th), some prose fables have been metaphrased in the Byzantine verse, the dodecasyllable. The Byzantine redactions of the Aesopic fables have been edited as “variants” of the prose ones in the whole Aesopic edition of Chambry – but these dodecasyllable fables are an evident attempt made by Byzantine scholars (or copysts?) to renovate and versify the Aesopic materials, in a way to be suitable to Byzantine poetic taste. The dodecasyllable fables are at any rate anonymous, and this process of metaphrasing from prose to verse fables has its raison d’être in the didactic and moralistic purpose – feature not so uncommon in Byzantine literature and scholarship. Even if most of the dodecasyllable fables are linked to the Aesopic recensiones and they consist in metaphrases of extant prose fables, some are very peculiar and unique, for example the fables on the ms. Vat. gr. 777 (14th century), that is the largest Aesopic manuscript with his ca. 240 fables. In this Vaticanus, some fables are metaphrased version of other recensiones, but still we can find dodecasyllable fables not attested elsewhere. The metaphrased fables in dodecasyllable are a clear example of how to renew a classic text, and how Aesop and his tradition of fables underwent a process of moralization over the centuries.

Tesi discussa il 19.02.2019. Votazione: 110/110 e lode.

This work, as the title says, is a research on Babrius’ textual transmission. This research is divided in four different chapters, each concerning a different aspect of the tradition and the work of Babrius (the poet, the manuscript tradition, the ancient tradition and the waxen tablets). The research started from the critical edition of Crusius (published in 1897), from the latest critical edition of the work of Babrius (by Luzzatto and La Penna, 1986) and from the Notes on the Constitution of the Text by Vaio (2001). The aim of the present work is to highlight, on one side, likely problems in the definition of the relationships between the manuscripts, and, on the other hand, of the role of the ancient tradition (papyri, ancient authors and waxen tablets).

This work is a result of a research on the use (and reuse) of the classical Greek history and historic writers, such as Herodotus and Thucydides: the field of this research is to be found in the fourth century C.E. Antioch (the so called period Spätantike), and mainly in the works of Libanius, the rhetoric professor. In the first chapter, the author is presented in his historical and cultural milieu, and his background is essentially the history (and the examples) of the classical Greece, most of all classical Athens. Then the research analyses the relationship between Libanius and the pagan emperor Julian, who represents the policy of pagan restauratio, and the rhetoric training of Libanius and the use of classical texts in his works. Libanius chooses and reuses the Persian Wars and the hero of Salamis, Themistocles, in his works, and most of all in those involved in the julianic policy. In the second chapter, this research of classical background is set on the Julianic Orations, the ones written for the pagan Emperor Julian, but just four of these orations dedicated to Julian contain memories of Themistocles, and refer only to him (Orations 13, 15, 17, 18), two times in the sense of comparison with the Emperor.