An edition of Prochoros Cydones' (ca. 1330-1369/71) unpublished Greek translation of Thomas Aquinas' Quaestiones disputatae de potentia and Quaestio disputata de spiritualibus creaturis.

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

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Abstract

The thesis is a case-study of the transmission of Latin philosophical and theological texts in Byzantium in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, on the basis of an edition of the hitherto unpublished Greek translations of two of Thomas Aquinas’ Quaestiones disputatae of Thomas Aquinas, De potentia and De spiritualibus creaturis, by the Byzantine scholar and theologian Prochoros Cydones (ca. 1330-1369/71). These two works are the only cases of this distinct, university-based philological genre, which emerged in Western Europe from early thirteenth century onwards, that were translated into Greek in Late Byzantium. The thesis also investigates Cydones’ metaphrastic process in the light of the transmission of these two texts in the extant Greek manuscripts compared against the edited Latin text.

The thesis comprises an Introduction, three Parts (I-III) and a Conclusion.
The Introduction consists of two Sections (1-2). Section 1 presents the aims and scope of the thesis, the approach and methodology, and discusses the subject of translations of philosophical and theological texts in Byzantium and the West considering also previous scholarship. Section 2 gives information on Prochoros Cydones, placing his life and activities in the historical and cultural context of the intellectual and theological dialogue between East and West in that period, focusing on the two texts edited in the thesis as part of the reception of Thomism in Byzantium.

Part I gives a description of the extant manuscripts (MSS) transmitting the two translations, followed by a textual and palaeographical examination of the Greek text, in order to establish the relations of the MSS and reconstruct the stemmata codicum. The printed editions of the Latin text are also briefly presented.

Part II contains the edition of the two translations, accompanied by an apparatus criticus and an apparatus fontium, preceded by a note on the editorial conventions and the sigla and abbreviations used in the apparatuses.

Part III is devoted to a detailed examination of the method and technique Cydones used in rendering the two original Latin texts into Greek through a philological commentary (including a lexical and stylistic analysis) based on a collation of his Greek translations with the Latin original texts in the modern critical editions.

The Conclusions summarise the findings of the research and assess the impact of Prochoros Cydones’ translations of these two Thomistic texts on Late Byzantine literature in particular, and his contribution to the efforts of scholars, theologians and intellectuals of his time to bridge the Greek East and the Latin West in general.

The thesis closes with full bibliography and Plates with facsimiles of selected folios of MSS cited therein.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationPh.D.
Awarding Institution
  • Royal Holloway, University of London
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Dendrinos, Charalambos, Supervisor
  • Sheppard, Anne, Advisor
  • Demetracopoulos, John, Advisor, External person
Thesis sponsors
Award date1 Nov 2017
Publication statusUnpublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Prochoros Kydones
  • Prochoros Cydones
  • De spiritualibus creaturis
  • De potentia
  • quaestiones disputatae
  • quaestio disputata
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • Michail Konstantinou-Rizos
  • Michael Konstantinou Rizos

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