Pembroke College : Letters

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055-c. 1126)

Pembroke College

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, written in the mid-17th century, contains a Latin translation of the content of Pemboke College, MS LC II.233.2. That manuscript contains 61 Greek <i>Letters of Theophylact of Ohrid</i>, Metropolitan of Bulgaria in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Originally from the Greek island of Euboia, Theophylact was appointed in 1078 to the see of Ohrid, which covered the whole of the former Bulgarian Empire conquered by Byzantium earlier in the century. His letters, addressed to a variety of other clerics, imperial officials and members of the imperial family, are a major source for the history of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule. He was also the author of a range of religious texts, including homilies, biblical commentaries and hagiography.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The translation is a working copy, containing various changes where the translator's interpretation changed, and remains unfinished. Blank spaces have been left for many passages, including one entire letter, presumably due to difficulties in translation. The translator scrupulously observed the numbering sequence of the Greek original, leaving the translation of a letter inadvertantly left unnumbered in the Greek original unnumbered here as well.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>