The “Collectanea” of Pseudo-Bede
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
21h ago
There is a famous prophecy about the Colosseum, given in variable forms such as this: As long as the Colosseum stands, Rome shall stand. When the Colosseum falls, Rome will fall. But when Rome falls, the world will fall. The source for this is the “Collectanea” of pseudo-Bede. This is not a text that many will be familiar with.  It is listed in the Clavis Patrum Latinorum as CPL 1129, “Collectanea (Excerptiones Patrum: Flores ex diversis)”, i.e. Miscellaneous (Excerpts from the Fathers, sayings from various).  The incipit is “Dic mihi, quaeso, quae est illa mulier”.  It’s ..read more
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From my diary
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
4d ago
I came across someone online who professed that the transmission of texts from antiquity was so full of mistakes that the modern copies are not reliable sources of information about the past.  I demurred, and the response was: We might say that Plato was right all along, what we see is but shadows projected on to the wall of the cave. Naturally I pointed out that our source for these words of Plato is itself a literary text transmitted in the manner which he had just dismissed. But it lead me to the question: just how is Plato’s Republic transmitted?  How do we get our text of Plat ..read more
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More sections of Philodemus’ history of the philosophers discovered, more info on Plato
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
5d ago
An Italian team has revealed that they have managed to read some more of a Herculaneum papyrus, with fascinating results.  They have found literary evidence that Plato was sold into slavery by the Spartans, perhaps in 399 BC, and also the location of his tomb, previously unrecorded. The literary text in question is the Σύνταξις τῶν φιλοσόφων, (“Treatise on the Philosophers”) of Philodemus, of which long sections had already been revealed.  There is a translation of it at Andrew Smith’s Attalus Project here.  Via Google Translate from an article in Italian: The project, in addit ..read more
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The medieval book lists of Rochester Priory
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
6d ago
There are few more charming relics of the middle ages than the contemporary lists of the books owned by this abbey or that priory.  Usually written on a couple of leaves of some other volume, they give a wonderful picture of monastic libraries.  G. Becker’s Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui (1885), online here, prints a great number of these.  It is quite a joy to look through the lists, looking for books.  In the process you gain a deep sense of what sort of books were commonly available.  You need almost no Latin, because the entries are formulaic: only a willingness t ..read more
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Did he really? Could any scholar…? Apparently he did. Angelo Mai and the Editio Princeps of the Vatican Mythographers
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
1w ago
The “Vatican Mythographers” is a set of three ancient texts about pagan mythology, all originally published by Angelo Mai from Vatican manuscripts in 1831.[1]   His edition has been reprinted since, and translated into English and French, but no critical edition has ever appeared. A paper appeared by Kathleen Elliot and J. P. Elder in 1947, in preparation for such an edition, which however never appeared.[2]  This contains the following curious remarks: … his transcriptions are frequently incorrect, a fact which will surprise no one acquainted with this industrious prefect’s ha ..read more
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The unfaithful Penelope – two variants in Greek myth
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
1w ago
Greek mythology was not static.  The stories contained within it could be modified by any poet at their pleasure.  Most of the legends exist in various forms, some of which turn it inside out altogether.  The source of this profusion is probably the need of entertainers to earn a living combined with the Greek fondness for novelty. In the Odyssey, Penelope is faithful to Odysseus despite being pestered by countless suitors for ten years.  She is a type of chastity.  Yet even this legend has been  ruthlessly tampered with.  I thought that it might be interesti ..read more
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ChatGPT going haywire today in Eutychius
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
2w ago
This afternoon I have been working on the end of Eutychius, chapter one, where we encounter the story of Joseph and his less-than-amazing family problems.  As before I have interleaved the sentences: Italian first, my original translation second, and then the output from ChatGPT. But today it’s not working at all.  Today ChatGPT is generating hallucinations, not just once, but many times.  Here’s one: S’abbatté sulla Siria una grave carestia. Giacobbe disse quindi ai suoi figli: “Andate in Egitto a comprare del grano” (148). I fratelli di Giuseppe andarono in Egitto. A severe f ..read more
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From my diary
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
2w ago
I’m working away on revising the translation of Eutychius.  I am glad to say that I am really finding very few outright mistakes, which is encouraging.  I am most of the way through a revised version of chapter 1, and once this is complete then I will update the combined file, and change the version number.  I added a box of version numbers and changes to the back of the file for just this reason. The death of a close family member last year has involved me in endless work to sort out the estate.  It’s going quite well.  The last six weeks have been spent attempting to ..read more
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Eutychius, Annals, now combined into a single file
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
1M ago
It took me five years to turn Pirone’s Italian translation of Eutychius’ Annals into English, using Google Translate.  That process created 102 blog posts. People complained that they couldn’t find the bits that they wanted.  A kind correspondent wrote and emailed me a zip file of those posts, in 102 word documents. So I’ve done it.  I’ve combined them, straightened the formatting somewhat, and added them to the Eutychius home page.  It’s here.  There’s a .docx and a .pdf. Eutychius – or Said ibn Bitriq – was the 10th century Melkite – Greek Orthodox – “Patriarch ..read more
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An English translation of Asterius of Cappadocia, Homily 16 (On the Easter Vigil)
Roger Pearse Blog
by Roger Pearse
1M ago
A twitter post alerts me to the release of the first English translation of Homily 16 by Asterius of Cappadocia (CPG 2815, no.16).  It is one of a collection of 31 homilies which is listed in the CPG, under the title Commentarii in Psalmos, which seems odd.  A translation of an extract from homily 11 is here. The translation is by Nathan Porter, who has kindly made it available on Academia.edu here.  He suggests that it was delivered in the 330s.   His tweet included this lovely image: Note that this is NOT the later author Asterius of Amasea, whose works begin in the ..read more
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