The Multilingual Physiologus
Studies in the Oldest Greek Recension and its Translations
Edited by Caroline Mace Edited by Jost Gippert
This book uncovers new material about the ancient Christian work known as the Physiologus and affords new insights into its multilingual transmission and reception. Ten chapters and accompanying new editions of sample texts treat the oldest Greek recension of the Physiologus and its early translations into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Produced by a team of specialists in these areas, the book will remain for years to come a Physiologus reference work and a model for dealing with ancient texts transmitted in multiple languages. The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction. The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation. These editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals. The volume affords new insights into this fascinating book’s diffusion, transmission, and reception over the centuries, from its composition at the beginning of the third century CE in Alexandria to the end of the Middle Ages, and across all regions of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin West, Egypt and Ethiopia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Slavia orthodoxa.
This book uncovers new material about the ancient Christian work known as the Physiologus and affords new insights into its multilingual transmission and reception. Ten chapters and accompanying new editions of sample texts treat the oldest Greek recension of the Physiologus and its early translations into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Produced by a team of specialists in these areas, the book will remain for years to come a Physiologus reference work and a model for dealing with ancient texts transmitted in multiple languages. The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction. The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation. These editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals. The volume affords new insights into this fascinating book’s diffusion, transmission, and reception over the centuries, from its composition at the beginning of the third century CE in Alexandria to the end of the Middle Ages, and across all regions of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin West, Egypt and Ethiopia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Slavia orthodoxa.
- Edited by Caroline Mace
- Edited by Jost Gippert
Other Titles in this Series
La litterature des questions et reponses dans l’Antiquite profane et chretienne: de l’enseignement a l’exegese
Actes du seminaire sur le genre des questions et reponses tenu a Ottawa les 27 et 28 septembre 2009
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Philologie, hermeneutique et histoire des textes entre Orient et Occident
Melanges en hommage a Sever J. Voicu
Volume 73
From the Treasure-House of Scripture
An Analysis of Scriptural Sources in De Imitatione Christi
Volume 44
La trasmissione dei testi patristici latini: problemi e prospettive
Atti del convegno Roma, 26-28 ottobre 2009
Volume 60
Scrinium Augustini. The World of Augustine’s Letters
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Augustine's Correspondence, Torun, 25-26 June 2015
Volume 76
Lire Gregoire de Nazianze au Xe siecle
Etudes sur Basile le Minime et ses Commentaires aux Discours 4 et 5
Volume 82
Tractatio Scripturarum. Philological, Exegetical, Rhetorical, and Theological Studies on Augustine’s Sermons
Ministerium Sermonis II
Volume 65
Irenee de Lyon et les debuts de la Bible chretienne
Actes de la Journee du 1.VII. 2014 a Lyon
Volume 77
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
In Defence of Faith, Against the Manichaeans
Critical Edition and Historical, Literary and Theological Study of the Treatise Aduersus Manichaeos, Attributed to Evodius of Uzalis
Volume 79
Litterarum dulces fructus
Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren for his 80th Birthday
Volume 85
Latin Anonymous Sermons from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (AD 300-800)
Classification, Transmission, Dating
Volume 86
Biblical and Manichaean Citations in Titus of Bostra’s Against the Manichaeans
An Annotated Inventory
Volume 78
Eriugena and Creation
Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Eriugenian Studies, held in honor of Edouard Jeauneau, Chicago, 9-12 November 2012
Volume 68
Hieronymus Romanus
Studies on Jerome and Rome on the Occasion of the 1600th Anniversary of his Death
Volume 87
Philosopher-monks, episcopal authority, and the care of the self
The Apophthegmata Patrum in fifth-century Palestine
Volume 80
Les sermons du manuscrit de Vienne (ONB Ms lat. 4147)
Interrogations sur leur unite, leur datation et leur origine avec une nouvelle edition critique et une traduction annotee des vingt-deux sermons Leroy
Volume 95
L’ecclesiologie d’Anselme de Lucques (1063-1086) au service de Gregoire VII
Genese, contenu et impact de sa Collection canonique
Volume 69
The Manuscripts of Leo the Great’s Letters
The Transmission and Reception of Papal Documents in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Volume 83
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