Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Hermias and Julian the Emperor

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

This Greek manuscript contains three texts, by Hermias and Julian the Emperor. The first text, Hermias' Satire on the Profane Philosophers (the date is uncertain, perhaps ca. 200 CE) is an ironical exposition of the contradictions in the theories of the major ancient philosophers and philosophical schools. The remaining two texts, by the Roman emperor Julian (331-363 CE), are the Hymn to king Helios dedicated to Sallust, an oration in praise of the Sun, and the Misopogon (literally "Beard-hater"), a satirical work written against the people of Antioch, who did not understand Julian's paganism (the beard of the title being a reference to the "philosophical" beard of the emperor). The manuscript was written by one of the more prolific Greek scribes of the 16th c., Andreas Darmarios. Darmarios, also a dealer of manuscripts, had his headquarters in Venice, but travelled frequently in Europe in order to sell and copy manuscripts. During one of his sojourns in Spain, in 1576, he copied MS Trinity O.8.7, while he was in prison (see T. Martínez Manzano, Historia del fondo manuscrito griego de la Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca, 2015), pp. 208-209). In the space of 15 days Darmarios copied these texts by Hermias and Julian four times over (see M.L. Sosower, 'Some Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nacional correctly and incorrectly attributed to Camillus Venetus, in The legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: three hundred years of studies on Greek handwriting, ed. by A. Bravo García, I. Pérez Martín, J.S. Codoñer (Turnhout, 2010), pp. 217-232, 791-797: 223): he completed El Escorial, Real Biblioteca, y.III.12 on 17th November; Trinity O.8.7 on 20th November, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0005/bsb00050977/images/index.html'> Munich, Bayerische Staatsbiliothek, Cod. Gr. 339</a> on 26th November, and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0005/bsb00050969/images/index.html'> Munich, Bayerische Staatsbiliothek, gr. 305</a> (only Julian's texts) on 1st December. Dr Erika Elia