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The Greek donatus and the study of Greek in the renaissance

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Abstract

This article analyzes the teaching of Greek in the Renaissance through the Greek Donatus or Pylê, a translation of Ianua, the elementary Latin grammar book used in medieval schools. Conceived as a tool for Greeks who wanted to learn Latin, Pylê became a textbook for Westerners interested in learning Greek. The text is in Greek and definitions and paradigms are given correctly, but Greek grammar is often modified to fit into the Latin grammatical categories. Students, who had learned Latin on Ianua, perhaps memorized Pylê in full and learned Greek by “superimposing” the Greek onto the Latin text.

The extant four versions of Pylê are all connected with Venice and/or its colony, Crete. This tradition of Greek studies, certainly inferior to Florentine scholarship, is still important in the cultural history of the Renaissance.

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  1. On the contributions of Byzantium to the Renaissance still fundamental are the studies by D. J. Geanakoplos, in particular: Greek Scholars in Venice: Studies in the Dissemination of Greek Learning from Byzantium to Western Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962; hereafter: Greek Scholars); Interaction of the ‘Sibling’ Byzantine and Western Cultures in the Middle Ages and Italian Renaissance (330–1600) (New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 1976; hereafter: Interaction); and Constantinople and the West: Essays on the Late Byzantine (Palaeologan) and Italian Renaissances and the Byzantine and Roman Churches (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989). See also A. E. Laiou, “Bisanzio e l'Occidente,” in: Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo 3: Le culture circostanti, vol. 1: La cultura bizantina, a cura di G. Cavallo (Roma: Salerno, 2004; hereafter: Cultura): 59 f.

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  2. Opus Tertium 10, p. 33 f. ed. by J. S. Brewer, Fr. Rogeri Bacon opera hactenus inedita, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores or Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the middle ages 15 (London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1859): Non sunt quattuor Latini qui sciant grammaticam Hebraeorum et Graecorum et Arabum…Multi vero inveniuntur, qui sciunt loqui Graecum et Arabicum et Hebraeum inter Latinos, sed paucissimi sunt, qui sciunt rationem grammaticae ipsius, nec sciunt docere eam: tentavi enim permultos. [“There are not four Latins who know the grammar of Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic…Many Latins, indeed, can be found who can speak Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew, but very few are those who know the grammatical system of the language; nor do they know how to teach it: in fact, I tested very many of them.”]

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  3. See the remarks by L. Holtz, Donat et la tradition de l'enseignement grammatical: Étude sur l'Ars Donati et sa diffusion (IV e–IXe siècle) et édition critique, ser. Documents, études et répertoires: Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1981): x: “Le déseintéressement pour tout ce qui est ‘tardif’…ou situé dans le grand no man's land qui s'étend entre l'Antiquité et la Renaissance est cause que, finalement, sur l'ensemble des problèmes de l'enseignement ou de la culture dans le haut Moyen Age, les livres se comptent…et souvent ne prêtent pas une suffisante attention aux textes grammaticaux.”

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  4. W. O. Schmitt, “Maximos Planudes, der lateinische Pseudo-Donatus (Ianua) und seine Übersetzung ins Griechische” (Dissertation Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 1966; hereafter: “Maximos”). Schmitt, at the end of his article “Donati Graeci. Zum Griechischstudium der italienischen Humanisten”, Actes de la XII Conférence Internationale d'Études Classiques “Eirene”: Cluj-Napoca 2–7 octobre 1972, Société des études classiques de la République socialiste de Roumanie (Bucuresti: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România-Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1975; hereafter: “Donati”): 213 n. 1, announced a forthcoming book with the same title, which, however, has never been published. In my Ph.D. dissertation, “Donatus graecus: Learning Greek from Antiquity to the Renaissance” (Columbia University, 2004), I proposed a new edition of one of the four extant versions of the Greek Donatus, Pylê a (see below, pp. 14–15). I will publish the entire corpus in my forthcoming book Donati graeci: Learning Greek in the Renaissance.

  5. On the differences between Venetian and Florentine Humanism see in particular R. G. Witt, In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought LXXIV (Leiden-Boston: E. J. Brill, 2000; hereafter: Footsteps): 85–87, 454–458.

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  6. On Greek studies in the Middle Ages see in particular W. Berschin, Griechisch-lateinisches Mittelalter: von Hieronymus zu Nikolaus von Kues (Bern-München: A. G. Franke Verlag, 1980), English transl. Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages: From Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa, revised and expanded edition (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1988; hereafter: Greek Letters). Of interest is the history of MS Ambrosianus gr. C 126 inf., containing Maximus Planudes' edition of Plutarch's Moralia. The manuscript was already circulating in Padua at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Its owner, Pace of Ferrara, a professor of grammar and logic, had probably received it from Pietro d'Abano, who lived in Constantinople between 1270 and 1290. But Pace did not know Greek; nor, apparently, was he interested in a translation of the text. See Ph. A. Stadter, “Planudes, Plutarch, and Pace of Ferrara,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 16 (1973): 157; N. G. Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992; hereafter: Byzantium): 2.

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  7. W. Berschin, Greek Letters: 3–4. Berschin's conclusions are criticized by G. Cavallo in “La circolazione dei testi greci nell'Europa dell'Alto Medioevo,” Rencontres de cultures dans la philosophie médiévale: Traductions et traducteurs de l'antiquité tardive au XIV e siècle, Actes du colloque international de Cassino (15–17 juin 1989), éd. par J. Hamesse et M. Fattori, Recontres de philosophie médiévale 1, Publications de l'Institut d'Études Médiévales: Textes, études, congrés 11 (Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain; Cassino: Università degli Studi di Cassino, 1990): 50. Cavallo argues that it is necessary to make a clear distinction between a real knowledge of Greek and the use of Greek at modest levels. The evidence collected by Berschin leads Cavallo to affirm “a substantial absence of the Greek language” in the seventh to eleventh centuries: “[The] disappearance of the study of Greek grammar prevented the circulation of texts, and practically limited the use of Greek to symbolic message, sacred, distinctive, or decorative sign, formulaic word, learned stereotype, refined quotation, obscure reference, and even coquetry.” M. McCormick (“Byzantium's Role in the Formation of Early Medieval Civilization: Approaches and Problems,” Illinois Classical Studies 12 [1977]: 220) also warns against overestimating the ‘influence’ of Byzantium on western culture during the Middle Ages.

  8. For example, a papal decree issued during the Council of Vienne (1312) established forty chairs of Oriental languages, including Greek, in the four main universities of the Christian world and at the papal court. The purpose was essentially practical: preparing experts in Biblical studies and Christian missionaries to the East. Although the only result was the institution of the chair of Hebrew at Oxford, the decree can be regarded as a first attempt to bridge the gap between the two halves of Christianity: the West was gradually breaking its isolation. See W. Berschin, Greek Letters: 261 f.

  9. Petrarch never succeeded in reading the manuscript of Homer (now Ambrosianus gr. I 98 inf.) which the Byzantine ambassador Nicholas Sigeros had given him. Cf. Familiarium rerum libri XVIII, 2. 10 (ed. by V. Rossi [Firenze: G. C. Sansoni, 1937]: 277): Homerus…apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectu solo et sepe illum amplexus ac suspirans dico: O magne vir, quam cupide te audirem! [“Homer is mute in my presence, or rather, I am deaf in his presence. However, I rejoice at the mere sight of him and often, embracing him and sighing, I say: ‘O great man, how eagerly I would hear you!’”]. See R. Sowerby, “Early Humanist Failure with Homer (I),” International Journal for the Classical Tradition 4 (1997/1998; hereafter: “Failure”): 39, 45. On Barlaam of Seminara, in Calabria, who played an important role in the religious controversy between Byzantines and Latins, see Hunger: 2.250.

  10. Pilato produced word-for-word Latin translations of the first readings in Byzantine schools: the Iliad, the Odyssey, and part of Euripides' Hecabe. Thus he contributed to the spread of knowledge of the original text of the Homeric poems in the West after centuries of oblivion. See Sowerby, “Failure:” 46 f. Moreover, his explanatory notes raised great interest in mythology, which, for example, stimulated Boccaccio to write his Genealogia deorum gentilium. Interesting documents of Pilato's teaching are found in the notes which Boccaccio and Domenico Silvestri took during one of his classes: see G. Martellotti, “Osservazioni sul carattere orale del primo insegnamento del greco nell'Italia umanistica,” Annali dell'Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Sezione Linguistica 1 (1959): 59–64. On Pilato see A. Fyrigos, “Leonzio Pilato e il fondamento bizantino del preumanesimo italiano,” in: Manuele Crisolora e il ritorno del greco in Occidente. Atti del convegno internazionale (Napoli, 26–29 giugno 1997), a cura di R. Maisano e A. Rollo (Napoli: [s. n.], 2002; hereafter: Crisolora): 19–29.

  11. See N. G. Wilson, Byzantium: 2 ff.

  12. Edited by A. Hilgard in Grammatici Graeci (Lipsiae: B. G. Teubner, 1867-1901; repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965), vol. 4.1 (1889): 3–99.

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  13. Dionysius Thrax (ca. 170-ca. 90 B.c.e.) is considered the author of an elementary Greek grammar, Tέχνη γραμματική. See the edition, with French translation, commentary, and ample bibliography, by J. Lallot, Ars Grammatica: La grammaire de Denys le Thrace, ser. Sciences du langage (Paris: CNRS Editions, 1998).

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  14. The official documents pertaining to Chrysoloras' appointment, sojourn, and teaching in Florence have been published by A. Gherardi, Statuti della Università e Studio Fiorentino dell'anno 1397, Documenti di storia Italiana 7 (Firenze: M. Cellini, 1881; hereafter: Statuti): 363–373. See also E. Garin, Il pensiero pedagogico dello Umanesimo, ser. I Classici della pedagogia Italiana (Firenze: Giuntine, 1958; hereafter: Pensiero): 112–116; R. Weiss, “Gli inizi dello studio del greco a Firenze,” in: Medieval and Humanist Greek. Collected Essays, Medioevo e umanesimo 8 (Padova: Antenore, 1977; hereafter: “Inizi”): 234 ff.

  15. In 1390–91, when in Venice on a diplomatic mission, Chrysoloras gave some Greek lessons to a member of Salutati's circle, Roberto Rossi, who became enthusiastic about his personality and methodology. On his return to Florence, Rossi contributed to the spread of Chrysoloras' reputation. See R. Weiss, “Inizi”: 232; N. G. Wilson, Byzantium: 8.

  16. For example, in 1411 Guarino of Verona wrote to Angelo Corbinelli: Qua in re abs te peto et magis atque magis oro, ut illustrissimo in primis Manuel Chrysolorae gratias habeas suumque attollas ad sidera nomen, quoniam eius viri opera simul et humanitate factum est ut graecarum splendor litterarum ad nostros redierit homines, quos ob earum ignorationem non parvae dudum involverant tenebrae [“With regard to this, I ask and beseech you more insistently to be especially grateful to the most distinguished Manuel Chrysoloras, and to lift his name to the stars. Thanks to his effort as well as to his humanitas, the splendor of Greek letters returned to the men of our age, whom thick darkness had covered for a long time because of their ignorance about them”] (quoted in E. Garin, Pensiero: 308). In his Commentaria rerum suo tempore gestarum, Leonardo Bruni wrote: Retulit…Graecam disciplinam ad nos Chrysoloras Byzantius, vir domi mirabilis ac litterarum Graecarum peritissimus [“Chrysoloras of Byzantium, a distinguished man in his country and very knowledgeable of Greek letters, brought Greek studies back to us”] (quoted in L. Gualdo Rosa, “Le traduzioni dal greco della prima metà del '400: alle radici del classicismo europeo,” in: Hommages à Henry Bardon, publiés sous les auspices de l'Institut de Latin de l'Université de Poitiers par M. Renard et P. Laurens, Collection Latomus 187 [Bruxelles: Latomus, 1985]: 183). See R. G. Witt, Footsteps: 342 f.; P. F. Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore-London: Johns Hopkins University Press 2002; hereafter: Universities): 206 f.

  17. It is not entirely clear why Chrysoloras left Florence, in spite of the high salary and the comfortable life granted to him by the Florentine government: perhaps because of conflicts with some Florentine men of culture, or because of his desire to resume diplomatic missions for his emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus, whom he joined in Pavia after leaving Florence. See R. Weiss, “Inizi”: 238 f.

  18. See document CI, of March 28, 1396 (A. Gherardi, Statuti: 365): Volentes iuventutem nostram posse de utroque fonte bibere, latinisque graeca miscere … decrevimus aliquem utriusque linguae peritum, qui nostros greca docere possit adsciscere [“Wishing that our youth could drink from both springs and combine Greek with Latin…, we have decided to engage an expert in both languages who might teach Greek to our citizens”]. Chrysoloras may have learned Latin in Constantinople, at the Dominican monastery of Pera. On Chrysoloras' Latin education, see Ch. Förstel, “Les grammaires grecques du XVe siècle: Études sur les ouvrages de Manuel Chrysoloras, Théodore Gaza et Constantin Lascaris,” Thèse présentée pour l'obtention du diplôme d'archiviste paléographe, vol. 1 (Paris 1992; hereafter: “Grammaires”): 48.

  19. Quoted by Ch. Förstel, “Grammaires”: 29. On this edition, which does not contain any indications about the place, the year, or the name of the printer, see in particular A. Pertusi, “'Eρωτήματα. Per la storia e le fonti delle prime grammatiche greche a stampa,” Italia Medievale e Umanistica 5 (1962; hereafter: “'Eρωτήματα”): 324 n. 1. On Chrysoloras' teaching method see A. Rollo, “Problemi e prospettive della ricerca su Manuele Crisolora,” in: Crisolora: 31–85 (in particular 71–79).

  20. Handed down by two manuscripts, one of which is fragmentary, Bacon's Greek grammar has been edited by J. L. Heiberg in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 9 (1900): 479–491.

  21. Sic igitur possunt declinationes Graecorum reduci ad tres modos declinandi; sed tamen Graeci moderni aliter procedunt in nominum declinatione [“So, then, Greek declensions can be reduced to three patterns. Modern Greeks, however, follow a different procedure in the declension of nouns”] (p. 485 Heiberg). After a brief account of Theodosius' fifty-six canons iuxta singulas terminationes nominativorum, Bacon remarks that hic modus superfluus est. See A. Pertusi, “'Eρωτήματα”: 341 f.

  22. Calecas' grammar was written between 1390 and 1403. As for Chrysoloras' Erotemata, the earliest extant copy is MS Vaticanus Palatinus gr. 116, which Guarino purchased in Constantinople in 1406. Chrysoloras may have composed his grammar while teaching Roberto Rossi in Venice (1390–91) or Jacopo Angeli in Constantinople (1397). See A. pertusi, “'Eρωτήματα”: 349; Ch. Förstel, “Grammaires”: 24. On the grammar of Manuel Calecas, a pupil of Demetrios Cydones (cf. below, n. 50), see S. Bernardinello, “La grammatica di Manuele Caleca,” Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici n.s. 8–9 (1971/72): 203–218. Manuel Moschopulos, a pupil of Maximus Planudes, was considered the inventor of schedography (cf. below, n. 24); see Hunger: 2.24f., 70f., and the still fundamental articles by J. Keaney, “Moschopulea,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 64 (1971): 303–321, and C. Gallavotti, “Note sulla schedografia di Manuele Moscopulo e suoi precedenti fino a Teodoro Prodromo,” Bollettino dei Classici s. III, 4 (1983): 3–35.

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  23. With the exceptions of Apollonius Dyscolus for Greek and Priscian for Latin, ancient grammarians displayed little interest in syntax. On the other hand, style was an important concern for Latin grammarians, although at a level more advanced than the elementary. For example, the third book of Donatus' Ars maior was dedicated to qualities and defects of style: barbarism, soloecism, Hellenism, and figures of speech.

  24. The pedagogical method implied in both erotemata and ‘schedography’ (from σχέδoζ, gen. σχέδoϑζ, which properly means “sketch”) consisted in parsing words and attributing them to the appropriate grammatical categories. Part of speech, etymology, synonyms and antonyms, and possible references to mythology and history were indicated for each word. Students learned through repetition and by searching for connections and references. In her Alexiad (15.7), Anna Comnena, the daughter of emperor Alexios I Comnenos, criticized schedography

  25. Gaza's grammar was printed in Venice in 1495 by Aldus Manutius, and became popular especially in central Europe, thanks to a partial Latin translation by Erasmus. See P. F. Grendler, Universities: 240. Lascaris wrote his Greek grammar for his pupil Ippolita Sforza, the daughter of Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan, some time after 1458. Published in Milan in 1476 by Dionysius Paravisius, it was the first book to be printed entirely in Greek. A Latin translation by Giovanni Crastone of Piacenza was printed alongside the Greek text by Bonus Accursius (Milan 1480). See Ch. Förstel, “Grammaires”: 83, 97 ff., 183 ff.

  26. Aldus did not include in his Greek syllabus the Greek translation of Cato's Disticha by Maximus Planudes (on which see p. 17). On the contrary, the fact that he published it together with Theocritus' Idylls and Hesiod's Theogony (Venice 1495) suggests that he considered it suitable for a more advanced level of Greek. On Aldus' edition of Theocritus and Hesiod, see T. Plebani, “Omaggio ad Aldo grammatico: origine e tradizione degli insegnanti-stampatori,” in: Aldo Manuzio e l'ambiente veneziano, 1494–1515, a cura di S. Marcon e M. Zorzi (Venezia: Il Cardo, 1994): 82.

  27. Inst. or. 1.1.12–14 (text and translation according to the edition by D. A. Russell, Loeb Classical Library 124 [Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2001]): A sermone Graeco puerum incipere malo, quia Latinum, qui pluribus in usu est, vel nobis nolentibus perbibet, simul quia disciplinis quoque Graecis prius instituendus est, unde et nostrae fluxerunt … Non longe itaque Latina subsequi debent et cito pariter ire. Ita fiet ut, cum aequali cura linguam utramque tueri coeperimus, neutra alteri officiat. [“I prefer a boy to begin by speaking Greek, because he will imbibe Latin, which more people speak, whether he will or no; and also because he will need to be taught Greek learning first, it being the source of ours too … So Latin ought to follow not far behind, and soon proceed side by side with Greek. The result will be that, once we begin to pay equal attention to both languages, neither will get in the way of the other.”]

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  28. De ord. 18 (edited and translated by C. W. Kallendorf in: Humanist Educational Treatises, The I Tatti Renaissance Library 5, [Cambridge, MA-London: Harvard University Press, 2002]: 280 ff.): Quo pacto eam linguam discere possint, pro ingenioli nostri iudicio commonstrabimus. Nec sane me fugit Quintilianum ut ab illis sumatur exordium praecipere, quod mihi ea ratione difficilius videtur: quia, cum ea nobis lingua naturalis non sit, nisi prius aliquod loquendi princpium ex nostra habuerint, in ea perdiscenda pueri nescio quo modo deferentur. Atque ita mihi persuadeo Quintilianum sic praecepisse, quia suis temporibus latinam linguam omnes haberent, nec in ea tanta elaboratione opus esse. [“I shall now indicate, as far as the judgement of my poor wit allows, how students may learn Greek. To be sure, it does not escape me that Quintilian instructs us to begin with the Greek authors. This seems too difficult to me for the following reason: Greek is not a natural language for us, so unless some beginning is first made in Latin, I do not know how children may be brought to learn Greek. So I persuade myself that Quintilian gave this advice because in his time everyone knew Latin, and there was no need to take great pains with it.”]

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  29. De ord. 20 (283–85 ed. C. W. Kallendorf): Ubi vero aliquantum progressi fuerint, tunc vel ex Graeco in Latinum vel ex Latino in Graecum vertere incipient; quo genere exercitationis proprietatem splendoremque verborum et promptitudinem linguae facillime comparabunt; multa enim quae legentem forte fallerent, transferentem nullo modo fugere possunt. [“Indeed, when they have made some progress, they must then begin to translate either from Greek into Latin or from Latin into Greek. This kind of exercise readily yields a vocabulary marked by propriety and distinction as well as facility and readiness of tongue. For many things which may be invisible to a reader are impossible for a translator to overlook”].

  30. The case of the twenty-six-year-old Girolamo Amaseo from Padua deserves to be quoted. In 1493, Girolamo ran away from home to go to Florence and learn Greek at the school of Varinus Favorinus Camers. He describes his experience in a long letter to his brother Gregorio (now in MS Ambrosianus A 59 inf., fols. 1–6; published by G. Pozzi, “Da Padova a Firenze nel 1493,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 9 [1966]: 192–201). In order to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, Girolamo endured every kind of discomfort (bad and expensive food and accommodation, cohabitation with other people, lack of furniture in his dwelling, etc.), besides attending a very intense study program. Classes were held in the morning, in the afternoon, and even at night, and homework was considerable. Girolamo's schoolmates included not only boys and young men, but also mature men in their forties and fifties who had come to Florence from other cities for the same purpose.

  31. P. F. Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy. Literacy and Learning, 1300–1600, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science 107.1 (Baltimore-London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989; hereafter: Schooling): 47.

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  32. P. F. Grendler, Schooling: 48 f.

  33. See W. O. Schmitt, “Maximos”: 91–92.

  34. MS Harleianus lat. 2653 has been identified and analyzed by R. Black, Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, UK-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001): 50 f., 369–72. Other internal markers, singled out by Schmitt (“Maximos”: 99-03; and “Die Ianua (Donatus). Ein Beitrag zur lateinischen Schulgrammatik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance,” Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde 4 [1969]: 72), suggest a date around the mid-twelfth century. On the study of Latin grammar in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance see the recent article by F. Franceschini, “Volkssprachliche Mehrsprachigkeit in lateinischen Grammatiken (Buti, Guarino, Perotti, Erasmus),” in: Mehrsprachigkeit in der Renaissance, hrsg. v. Ch. Maas, A. Volmer, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, ßeiheft 21 (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2005): 231–251 (on Ianua in particular, 233), with ample bibliography.

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  35. The name Ianua comes from the first word of the short introductory elegiac poem: Ianua sum rudibus primam cupientibus artem, “I am the door for the ignorant desiring the first art” (i.e. grammar, the first of the seven liberal arts), which in the Greek translation reads: Пύλη εἱπὶ τoῖς ἀπαθέσι τoῖς ἑÀιθυμoῦσι πρώτη½τέχνην The title Ianua was proposed by R. Sabbadini (“Frammento di una grammatica latino-bergamasca,” Studi Medievali 1 [1904/5]: 284) and adopted ever since. Ianua echoes Roger Bacon's definition of the knowledge of languages as “the first gate of wisdom” (Prima porta sapientiae: Bacon, Opus Tertium, p. 102 Brewer [above, n. 2]) ed. by J. S. Brewer, Fr. Rogeri Bacon opera hactenus inedita, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores or Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the middle ages 15 (London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1859). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the term occurred frequently in the titles of handbooks designed to learn foreign languages.

  36. See, e.g., V. Law, Grammar and Grammarians in the Early Middle Ages, ser. Longman linguistics library (London-New York: Longman, 1997): 83 ff.

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  37. W. O. Schmitt, “Maximos”: 295 n. 132; “Donati”: 210, 212. See also R. Webb, “Art”: 96.

  38. Kóσμioν (decus?) lacks a corresponding term in Latin. See W. O. Schmitt, “Maximos”: 57 n. 61.

  39. Пτωχóς may be a variant of πένης taken from a glossary, or may correspond to the Latin participle egens, used as an adjective. As far as I known, however, egens does not appear in any copy of Ianua.

  40. The middle voice is often confused with the passive, and the aorist with the perfect. The Latin gerund and gerundive are rendered with the verbal adjective in τέoς: thus, amandi, amando, amandum become άγαπητέoυ, άγαπητέω and amandus,-a,-um άγαπητέoς. For the supine, Pylê uses forms of the adjective in τóς, so that amatum and amatu become άγαπητóν and άγαπητoῦ (!).

  41. The following is a list of the manuscripts of Pylê a: A=Angelicus gr. 5 (end 15th c.): described in G. Muccio—P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Index codicum graecorum Bibliothecae Angelicae (Firenze-Roma: Tipografia dei Fratelli Bencini, 1896): 35 f.; B=Vaticanus Barberinianus gr. 10 (end 15th c.): V. Capocci, Codices Barberiniani graeci, vol. 1: Codices 1–163, ser. Bybliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codices manuscripti recensiti (Città del Vaticano: Bybliotheca Vaticana, 1958): 10–11; C=Laurentianus Conventi Soppressi gr. 106 (end 15th–16th c.): Del Furia, Supplementum alterum ad catalogum codicum manuscriptorum graecorum, latinorum, italicorum … Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae (s.l., s.a.), I.2: 787 ff., and E. Rostagno—N. Festa, “Indice dei codici greci Laurenziani non compresi nel catalogo del Bandini,” Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 1 (1893): 153; G=Laurentianus Gaddianus gr. 182 (end 15th–16th c.): A. M. Bandini, Bibliotheca Leopoldina Laurentiana seu Catalogus manuscriptorum … vol. 2 (Florentiae: Typis Caesaris, 1792): 177; E. Rostagno, “Indicis codicum graecorum Bibliothecae Laurentianae supplementum,” Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 6 (1898): 150 f., no. 45; N=Parisinus Bibl. Nat. gr. 2594 (end 15th c.): H. Omont, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque Nationale, vol. 3 (Paris: A. Picard, 1888): 9 f.; O=Oxoniensis Baroccianus gr. 72 (end 15th–16th c.): H. O. Coxe, Bodleian Library Quarto Catalogues, vol. 1: Greek Manuscripts (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1853, repr. 1969): 117–125; Q=Vaticanus Ottobonianus gr. 206 (end 15th c.): E. Feron—F. Battaglini, Codices manuscripti graeci Ottoboniani Bibliothecae Vaticanae, ser. Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codices manuscripti recensiti (Romae: Typographeo Vaticano, 1893): 120 f.; R=Laurentianus Redianus gr. 15 (end 15th c.): E. Rostagno—N. Festa, “Indice”: 219 f.

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  42. M=Venetus Marcianus gr. X 9 (first half 15th c.): E. Mioni, Bibliothecae Divi Marci Venetiarum codices graeci manuscripti, vol. 3, Indici e cataloghi, nuova serie 6 (Roma: Istituto poligraficoe zecca dello Stato, 1972): 45 f.; V=Vaticanus gr. 1388: no description available.

  43. P=Vaticanus Palatinus gr. 234: H. Stevenson, Codices manuscripti Palatini graeci Bibliothecae Vaticanae (Romae: Typographeo Vaticano, 1885): 127 f. Of the part on nouns, only a Greek-Latin glossary remains.

  44. —See above, n. 34. MS Harleianus lat. 2653 has been identified and analyzed by

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  45. The nouns in brackets, quoted in the nominative and genitive only, are added to the definition of the corresponding declension.

  46. The verb εiμi, omitted by most manuscripts of version a, appears in the Cretan-Venetian copies O and R and in the contaminated B and N.

  47. With his translations into Greek, Planudes made accessible to Byzantine readers several Latin works, both theological (Augustine, Cyprian) and secular (Ovid, Cicero, Macrobius, Boethius, Pseudo-Cato, and perhaps Juvenal). On Planudes' translations, see in particular M. Gigante, “La cultura latina a Bisanzio nel secolo XIII,” La Parola del Passato 17 (1962): 32–51; W. O. Schmitt, “Lateinische Literatur in Byzanz. Die Übersetzungen des Maximos Planudes und die moderne Forschung”, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 17 (1968; hereafter: “Literatur”): 127–47; E. A. Fisher, “Planoudes, Holobolos, and the Motivation for Translation,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 43 (2002/3): 77–104; D. Bianconi, “Le traduzioni in greco di testi latini”, in Cultura: 554–568.

  48. K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur von Justinian bis zum Ende des öströmischen Reiches, 2. Aufl., Handbuch der klassischen Altertumwissenschaft 9.1 (München: Beck, 1897): 545.

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  49. C. Wendel, “Planudes, Maximos,” in RE, vol. 20.2 (Stuttgart 1950): 2207.

  50. There were certainly some Latin schools in Constantinople. The Venetian and Genoese merchants who had settled in the city at the end of the eleventh century may have founded their own schools. Latin was studied in Catholic monasteries, such as the Dominican foundation of Pera, where Chrysoloras and the brothers Demetrios and Prochoros Cydones learned Latin. Nothing, however, is known about the textbooks used to learn Latin in Constantinople.

  51. W. O. Schmitt, “Maximos”: 216 ff., summarized in “Literatur”: 142–144.

  52. Both works have been edited by L. Bachmann, Anecdota Graeca e codd. mss. Bibl. Reg. Parisin. (Lipsiae: J. C. Hinrichs, 1928; repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965): 2.1–101 and 103–166. On Planudes' grammatical works and theories see in particular R. H. Robins, The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History, Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 70 (Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993): 201–232.

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  53. The translator uses the Greek grammatical terminology appropriately, and often replaces with calques the Latin terms that do not have any counterpart in Greek (for example, supinum becomes ὑπoθ∈τιº, a calque of sub-ponere, from which supinum is derived). In any case, as Schmitt remarks (“Donati”: 210), “Mit Maximos Planudes … haben die Donati graeci nichts zu tun”.

  54. The copyist of M, priest Nicolaos Phagiannis, in 1426 wrote MS Marcianus gr. 575 (see Vogel-Gardthausen, 360). The watermark (5953 Briquet) is attested to in Venice between 1416 and 1426. P, a miscellaneous manuscript generically assigned to the fifteenth century in Stevenson's catalogue, is written on paper at the beginning of the century: fols 6–11, 87 ff.∼VII. 971 Piccard (Venice 1405–10); fols. 19–77∼2399 Briquet (Venice 1409–15); fol. 77–82∼15654 (Florence 1409–10).

  55. A, fols. 1–51∼2504 Briquet (Vicenza 1474–75, 1477?; Venice 1480–90, 1482); C, fols. 125–164 ∼ 2590 (Nördlingen 1491, Venice 1496, 1499); G∼11699 (Padua 1432) or 11727 (Venice 1462–66), etc.; M=see above, n. 54; O, fols. 266–313∼5159? (Venice 1476); P, fols. 19–76=above, n. 54; Q, fols. 6–54∼2489 (Udine 1467) or 2529 (Udine 1478); R, fols. 111r–151r (116r;–156r)∼2588 (Treviso and Venice 1483) or 2464 (Venice 1471).

  56. A and O were written by Michael Lygizos, active in Crete during the second half of the fifteenth century (Vogel-Gardthausen 315; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 151–153); Lygizos' hand has been recognized also in Q. N was copied by Michael Suliardos, born in Morea and active in Crete, the Venetian colony of Methone, and in Italy between 1477 and 1500 (Vogel-Gardthausen 318–320; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 155, and II A, 148); R by the Cretan priest Georgios Gregoropulos, who lived in Candia between 1450 and 1501 (Vogel-Gardthausen 72–73; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 54 f.).

  57. A note left on fol. 142v reveals that M belonged to Joannes Calphurnius (Giovanni Perlanza dei Ruffinoni), who taught rhetoric in Padua from 1486 to his death in 1503. Calphurnius bequeathed his library to the Paduan monastery of San Giovanni di Verdara (in Viridario). See A. Pertusi, “L'Umanesimo greco dalla fine del secolo XIV agli inizi del secolo XVI,” in: Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3.1: Dal primo Quattrocento al Concilio di Trento, a cura di G. Arnaldi e M. Pastore Stocchi (Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1980–81): 193, 236 ff., 259 f. O was part of the library of the Cretan-Venetian scholar Francesco Barozzi (1537–1604); see G. Spiazzi, “Barozzi, Francesco”, in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 6 (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1964): 495–499. As for Q, according to a note at the top of fol. 6av, in 1510 the thirty-five-year-old Franciscus Hyazchas Plato used Pylê and the nominal canons of Theodosius to learn Greek Corneliani oppidi (i.e., most probably, at Conegliano Veneto), fifteen miles (15000 passuum) from Taurisium (i.e., most probably, Treviso, which is actually about 28 km from Conegliano). Some parts of R were written in Crete and in Venice, as evident from the subscriptiones by Antonios Damilas (fol. 31v, Epictetus' Encheiridion: έν) and Laurentius Lauretanus (fol. 50v, Eratosthenes' letter to Ptolemy: Eνετίσ¹ς, December 5, 1489), respectively. On R see F. Vendruscolo, “Lorenzo Loredan/Λαυρέντιoς Λαρετάνoς ‘copista’ e possessore di codici greci”, Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 38 (1995): 337–363 (hereafter: Vendruscolo, “Lorenzo”).

  58. “Donadi” are often mentioned in Venetian inventories of private libraries, bequests of books, or sales of booksellers of the fifteenth century: see S. Connell, “Books and Their Owners in Venice, 1345–1480”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 35 (1972): 184. However, Donado and Donadello also appear in Florentine documents as synonymous with elementary Latin school books: see, e.g., A. C. De La Mare, “The Shop of a Florentine “Cartolaio’ in 1426”, in: Studi offerti a Roberto Ridolfi, direttore de “La Bibliofilia”, a cura di B. Maracchi Bigiarelli e D. E. Rhodes, Biblioteca di Bibliografia Italiana 71 (Firenze: L. S. Olshki, 1973): 244 ff.

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  59. In Inst. or. 1.1.12–14—(above, n. 27) Quintilian seems to recommend a sort of direct method in the first approach to Greek. Nevertheless, he encourages a parallel study of the Greek and Latin languages and cultures at a higher level of education (cf. Inst. or. 10. 1.46–84, 85–127, al.). In late antiquity, several texts attest to the use of σύγκρισις to learn foreign languages: school exercises on papyri, the bilingual school manuals known as Hermeneumata Pseudo-Dositheana, Dositheus' grammar, and some passages of Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae. See H.I. Marrou, Histoire de l'éducation dans l'antiquité, ser. Collections “Esprit” (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1948): 386 ff., English transl. A History of Education in Antiquity (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956): 263 f.; and the excellent study by R. Cribiore, Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt, American Studies in Papyrology 36 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996). On the use of direct methods (e.g. Berlitz) in the teaching of foreign languages in modern schools see R. Titone, Teaching Foreign Languages. An Historical Sketch (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1968): 100–106; N. Pachler and K. Field, Learning to Teach Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School, Learning to teach subjects in the secondary school series (London-New York: Routledge, 1997): 97–118.

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  60. D. J. Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars: 48. Eight contracts of the years 1551–1654 were published by Th. Detorakis in “”, in: (1971–1994) [Iraklion: , 1996]: 38 ff. These contracts demonstrate that in the sexteenth and seventeenth centuries no changes in the school curriculum had occurred in Crete: Byzantine and medieval school books continued to be used.

  61. Copies of the older version of a (C, G) also reached Florence, perhaps thanks to the continuous cultural interchanges between Venice and the Tuscan city: any Venetian scholar who went to Florence (e.g., Paolo Vergerio), any ‘Florentine’ who went to Venice (e.g., Guarino Guarini), or any Cretan copyist who worked in both cities could have functioned as a trait d'union. On R, copied in Venice and brought to Florence, see F. Vendruscolo, “Lorenzo”: 362.

  62. The most exhaustive study on Zacharias Calliergis is still D. J. Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars: 201–222; Interaction: 180, 204. See also E. Mioni, “Calliergi (Callergi), Zaccharia” in: Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 16 (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1973): 750–753.

  63. The watermark of O, fols. 229–264, corresponds to 2594 Briquet (Venice 1500).

  64. Calliergis' interest in grammar is demonstrated by his Erotemata. Handed down by three manuscripts only, this work had a very limited circulation. Calliergis maintains the traditional patterns of Byzantine-humanist elementary grammar, and often presents paradigms in charts. Other grammatical works have been attributed to Calliergis: for example, some short essays on the Greek alphabet, syllables, numbers, prosody, and accent, copied in the sixteenth-century MS Vaticanus Ottobonianus gr. 173.

  65. See above, n. 56 A and O were written by Michael Lygizos, active in Crete during the second half of the fifteenth century (Vogel-Gardthausen 315; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 151–153); Lygizos' hand has been recognized also in Q. N was copied by Michael Suliardos, born in Morea and active in Crete, the Venetian colony of Methone, and in Italy between 1477 and 1500 (Vogel-Gardthausen 318–320; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 155, and II A, 148); R by the Cretan priest Georgios Gregoropulos, who lived in Candia between 1450 and 1501 (Vogel-Gardthausen 72–73; Gamillscheg-Harlfinger I A, 54 f.).

  66. Franciscus Hyazchas Plato, who undertook the study of Greek on Q, wrote a partial Latin translation beside the Greek text, most probably with the help of a bilingual dictionary; however, his poor knowledge of the Greek writing caused some mistakes. For example, he interpreted the Greek word ἄνθρωπoς, abbreviated \(\overline {\alpha \nu o\varsigma } \), as ἄνoυς, “foolish”, and glossed it with demens. In G and P, an extensive Latin translation, written in red ink in the interlinear spaces (P), or in spaces left blank between the sections of the Greek text (G), probably rendered the help of a teacher unnecessary. A curious detail: P was used by an Italian, a certain Mattia (fol. 1r: “Questo liber opia [sic] de Mattia”), who filled the pages of his book with doodles, such as human heads, letters, words, and even nicely stylized representations of a harbor with ships and of a tournament.

  67. R. Black, “The Curriculum of Italian Elementary and Grammar Schools, 1300–1500”, in: The Shapes of Knowledge from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. by D. R. Kelley and R. H. Popkin, Archives Internationales d'histoire des idées 124 (Dordrecht-Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991): 141 f., etc.

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  68. The only exception is Hyazchas (above, n. 66), who undertook the study of Greek on Q, wrote a partial Latin translation beside the Greek text, most probably with the help of a bilingual dictionary; however, his poor knowledge of the Greek writing caused some mistakes. For example, he interpreted the Greek work \(\overline {\alpha \nu o\varsigma } \), abbreviated ἄνoυς “foolish”, and glossed it with demens. In G and P, an extensive Latin translation, written in red ink in the interlinear spaces (P), or in spaces left blank between the sections of the Greek text (G), probably rendered the help of a teacher unnecessary. A curious detail: P was used by an Italian, a certain Mattia (fol. 1r: “Questo liber opia [sic] de Mattia”), who filed the pages of his book with doodles, such as human heads, letters, words, and even nicely stylized representations of a harbor with ships and of a tournament, who probably came from central Europe (Poland? Hungary?), where Ianua had limited circulation. Hyazchas may have learned his Latin from a different elementary book.

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    Federica Ciccolella

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Ciccolella, F. The Greek donatus and the study of Greek in the renaissance. Int class trad 12, 1–24 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-005-0008-1

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