Clare College : Byzantine lexicographical texts

Clare College

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably produced in the first half of the 15th century, contains two <i>Byzantine lexicographical texts</i> by two grammarians and classical scholars, contemporaries in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, who were both students of the great scholar Maximos Planoudes.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>One is the <i>Epimerismi</i> of Georgios Lakapenos or Lekapenos, whose studies in Constantinople were followed by eventual settlement in Thessaly. These are passages of lexical commentary on words appearing in Lakapenos's collected letters, a compilation containing 24 of his own letters and another eight written to him by his friend Andronikos Zaridas, here gathered together in a single sequence without the letters themselves. The sequence of the words discussed therefore follows the order in which they appear in the letters which these comments originally annotated. Lakapenos is best known for his letters and their commentary.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The other text is the lexicon of Attic Greek words compiled by the more prominent scholar and teacher Manuel Moschopoulos, who was also the author of the most influential Greek grammar of the Byzantine era. The entries are arranged alphabetically by the first two letters of each word, but not sorted into order beyond that.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>