Bibliotheca (Photius)

The Bibliotheca (Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη) or Myriobiblos (Μυριόβιβλος, "Ten Thousand Books") was a ninth-century work of Byzantine Patriarch of Constantinople Photius, dedicated to his brother and composed of 279 reviews of books which he had read.

Overview

Bibliotheca was not meant to be used as a reference work, but was widely used as such in the 9th century, and is one of the first Byzantine works that could be called an encyclopedia.^[1] Reynolds and Wilson call it "a fascinating production, in which Photius shows himself the inventor of the book-review,"^[2] and say its "280 sections... vary in length from a single sentence to several pages".^[2] The works he notes are mainly Christian and pagan authors from the 5th century BC to his own time in the 9th century AD. Almost half the books mentioned no longer survive. These would have disappeared in the Sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, in the final Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, or in the following centuries of Ottoman rule, during which wealth and literacy contracted dramatically in the subordinate Greek community.

Possible Abbasid link

Some older scholarship had speculated that Bibliotheca might have been composed in Baghdad at the time of Photius' embassy to the Abbasid court, since many of the mentioned works are rarely cited during the period before Photius, i.e. the so-called Byzantine "Dark Ages" (c. 630–800),^[3] and since it was known that the Abbasids were interested in translating Greek science and philosophy.^[4] However, modern specialists of the period, such as Paul Lemerle, have pointed out that this cannot be the case, since Photius himself clearly states in his preface and postscript to the Bibliotheca that after he was chosen to take part in the embassy, he sent his brother a summary of the works he had read previously "since the time that I learned how to understand and evaluate literature," i.e. from his youth.^[5] A further difficulty with supposing that Bibliotheca was composed during rather than before the embassy, besides Photius' own explicit statement, is that the majority of the works in Bibliotheca are of Christian patristic theology, and most of the secular works are histories, grammars, and works of literature, particularly rhetoric, rather than works of philosophy or science, and the Abbasids showed no interest in having Greek history or Greek high literature like rhetoric translated, nor were they interested in translating Greek Christian works. Their interest in Greek texts was confined almost exclusively to science, philosophy and medicine.^[6] In fact, "there is almost no overlap (other than some Galen, Dioscorides, and Vindonius Anatolius) between the inventory of secular works in Photius's Bibliotheca and those works that were translated into Arabic"^[7] in the Abbasid period.

Editions

Editio princeps (in Greek): David Hoeschel, Augsburg, 1601. Modern critical edition by R. Henry.

N°	Author	Title	Religion	Cons.	CPG
1	Theodore of Mopsuestia	On the Genuineness of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite	Christian	Lost
2	Hadrian the monk	Introduction to the Scriptures	Christian	Extant	6527
3	Nonnosus	History	Christian	Lost
4	Theodore of Mopsuestia	For Basil Against Eunomius	Christian	Lost	3859
5	Sophronius	For Basil Against Eunomius	Christian	Lost
6	Gregory of Nyssa	For Basil Against Eunomius 1	Christian	Extant	3135?
7	Gregory of Nyssa	For Basil Against Eunomius 2	Christian	Lost	3136?
8	Origen	De Principiis	Christian	Extant	1482
9	Eusebius	Praeparatio Evangelica	Christian	Extant	3486
10	Eusebius	Demonstratio Evangelica	Christian	Extant	3487
11	Eusebius	Praeparatio Ecclesiastica	Christian	Lost
12	Eusebius	Demonstratio Ecclesiastica	Christian	Lost
13	Eusebius	Refutation and defence	Christian	Lost
14	Apollinarius	Against the Heathen	Christian	Lost
14	Apollinarius	On Piety	Christian	Lost
14	Apollinarius	On Truth	Christian	Lost
15	Gelasius of Cyzicus	Acts of the First Council – Nicaea	Christian	Extant
16	Various	Acts of the Third Council – Ephesus	Christian	Lost
17	Various	Acts of the Fourth Council – Chalcedon	Christian	Lost
18	Various	Acts of the Fifth Council – Constantinople	Christian	Lost
19	Various	Acts of the Sixth Council – Constantinople II	Christian	Lost
20	Various	Acts of the Seventh Council – Nicaea II	Christian	Lost
21	John Philoponus	On the Resurrection	Christian	Lost	7272
22	Theodosius the Monk	Refutation of John Philoponus	Christian	Lost
23	Conon	Refutation of John Philoponus	Christian	Lost	7283
23	Eugenius	Refutation of John Philoponus	Christian	Lost
23	Themistius	Refutation of John Philoponus	Pagan	Lost
24	anonymous	Acts of a disputation between Tritheites and Hesitators	Christian	Lost
25	John Chrysostom	Notes on Death	Christian	Lost	4343
25	John Chrysostom	Homilies on the Ascension	Christian	Extant	4343
25	John Chrysostom	Homilies on Pentecost	Christian	Extant
26	Synesius of Cyrene	On Providence	Christian	Extant	630-1
26	Synesius of Cyrene	On the Kingdom	Christian	Lost	5640
27	Eusebius	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Extant	3495
28	Socrates	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Extant	6028
29	Evagrius Scholasticus	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Extant	7500
30	Sozomen	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Extant	6030
31	Theodoret	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Extant	6222
32	Athanasius	Letters	Christian	Extant
33	Justus of Tiberias	Chronicle of the Kings of the Jews	Jewish	Lost
34	Julius Africanus	Chronography	Christian	Lost	1690
35	Philip of Side	Christian History	Christian	Lost	6026
36	Cosmas Indicopleustes	Christian Topography	Christian	Extant	7468
37	anonymous	On Government	Christian	Lost
38	Theodore of Mopsuestia	Commentary on Genesis	Christian	Lost	3827
39	Eusebius	Against Hierocles	Christian	Extant	3485
40	Philostorgius	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Lost	6032
41	John of Aegae	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Lost
42	Basil of Cilicia	Ecclesiastical History	Christian	Lost
43	John Philoponus	On the Hexaemeron	Christian	Extant	7265
44	Philostratus	Life of Apollonius of Tyana	Pagan	Extant
45	Andronicianus	Against the Eunomians	Christian	Lost
46	Theodoret	Against Heresies			6215
	Theodoret	Eranistes	Christian	Lost
	Theodoret	Polymorphos	Christian	Lost
47	Josephus	The Jewish War	Jewish	Extant
48	Hippolytus	On the Universe	Christian	Lost	1898
49	Cyril of Alexandria	Against Nestorius	Christian	Extant	5217
50	Nicias the Monk	Against the Seven Chapters of Philoponus	Christian	Lost
51	Hesychius	On the Brazen Serpent	Christian	Lost
52	anonymous	Acts of the synod of Side, 383, against the Messalians	Christian	Lost
53	anonymous	Acts of the synod of Carthage, 412 or 411, against the Pelagians	Christian	Lost
54	Various	Copy of the Proceedings taken against the Doctrines of Nestorius	Christian	Lost
55	John Philoponus	Against the Fourth Council	Christian	Lost	7271
56	Theodoret	Against Heresies	Christian	Extant	6223
57	Appian	Roman History	Pagan	Extant
58	Arrian	Parthica	Pagan	Lost
59	Various	Acts of the Synod of the Oak, 403	Christian	Lost
60	Herodotus	History	Pagan	Extant
61	Aeschines	Against Timarchus	Pagan	Extant
61	Aeschines	On the False Embassy	Pagan	Extant
61	Aeschines	Against Ctesiphon	Pagan	Extant
62	Praxagoras of Athens	History of Constantine the Great	Pagan	Lost
	Praxagoras of Athens	The Kings of Athens	Pagan	Lost
	Praxagoras of Athens	Alexander King of Macedon	Pagan	Lost
63	Procopius	History	Christian	Extant
64	Theophanes of Byzantium	History	Christian	Lost
65	Theophylact Simocatta	Histories	Christian	Extant
66	Nicephorus	Historical Epitome	Christian	Lost
67	Sergius the Confessor	History	Christian	Lost
68	Cephalion	Historical Epitome	Pagan	Lost
69	Hesychius	History	Christian	Lost
	Hesychius	On Justin	Christian	Lost
70	Diodorus Siculus	Historical Library	Pagan	Extant
71	Cassius Dio	History	Pagan	Extant
72	Ctesias	Persica	Pagan	Lost
72	Ctesias	History of India	Pagan	Lost
73	Heliodorus	Aethiopica	Pagan	Extant
74	Themistius	Political Orations	Pagan	Lost
74	Lesbonax	Speeches	Pagan	Lost
75	John Philoponus	On the Trinity against John Scholasticus	Christian	Extant	7268
76	Josephus	Antiquities of the Jews	Jewish	Extant
77	Eunapius	Chronicle	Pagan	Extant
78	Malchus	Byzantine History	Pagan	Lost
79	Candidus	History	Christian	Extant
80	Olympiodorus	Histories	Pagan	Lost
81	Theodore of Mopsuestia	On Persian Magic	Christian	Lost	6213
82	Dexippus	History	Pagan	Lost
82	Dexippus	Historical Epitome	Pagan	Lost
	Dexippus	Scythia	Pagan	Lost
83	Dionysius of Halicarnassus	Histories	Pagan	Extant
84	Dionysius of Halicarnassus	Synopsis	Pagan	Lost
85	Heraclian	Against the Manichaeans	Christian	Lost	6801
86	John Chrysostom	Letters	Christian	Extant	4402-3. 4405
87	Achilles Tatius	Leucippe and Clitophon	Pagan	Extant
88	Gelasius of Cyzicus	Proceedings of the Synod of Nicaea	Christian	Extant	6034
89	Gelasius of Caesarea	Continuation of the History of Eusebius Pamphili	Christian	Lost	3521
90	Libanius	Various works	Pagan	Extant
91	Arrian	History of the Reign of Alexander	Pagan	Extant
92	Arrian	Continuation	Pagan	Lost
93	Arrian	Bithynica	Pagan	Lost
94	Iamblichus	Dramaticon	Pagan	Lost
95	John Scythopolita	Against Schismatics	Christian	Lost
	John Scythopolita	Against Eutyches and Dioscorus	Christian	Lost
96	George of Alexandria	Life of St. Chrysostom	Christian	Extant	7979
97	Phlegon of Tralles	Collection of Chronicles and List of Olympian Victors	Pagan	Lost
98	Zosimus	New History	Pagan	Extant
99	Herodian	History	Pagan	Extant
100	The Emperor Hadrian	Declamations	Pagan	Extant
101	Victorinus	Panegyrics on the Emperor Zeno	Christian	Lost
102	Gelasius of Caesarea	Against the Anomoeans	Christian	Lost	3520
103	Philo Judaeus	Allegories of the Sacred Laws	Jewish	Lost
103	Philo Judaeus	On the Civil Life	Jewish	Lost
104	Philo Judaeus	On the Essenes and Therapeutae	Jewish	Extant
105	Philo Judaeus	Against Flaccus	Jewish	Extant
105	Philo Judaeus	Against Gaius	Jewish	Extant
106	Theognostus of Alexandria	Outlines	Christian	Lost	1626
107	Basil of Cilicia	Against John Scythopolita	Christian	Lost
108	Theodore of Alexandria	Against Themistius	Christian	Lost	7295
109	Clement of Alexandria	Outlines	Christian	Lost	1380
110	Clement of Alexandria	The Tutor	Christian	Extant	1376
111	Clement of Alexandria	The Miscellanies	Christian	Extant	1377
112-3	Clement of Rome	Apostolic Constitutions and Recognitions	Christian	Extant	1730
114	Leucius Charinus	Circuits of the Apostles	Christian	Lost
115	anonymous	Against the Quartodecimans	Christian	Lost
115	Metrodorus	On the date of Easter	Christian	Lost
116	anonymous	A Third Volume on the Holy Easter Feast	Christian	Lost
117	anonymous	In Defense of Origen	Christian	Lost
118	Pamphilus of Caesarea	Defense of Origen	Christian	Extant	1715
119	Pierius	Homilies	Christian	Lost
120	Irenaeus	Against Heresies	Christian	Extant	1306
121	Hippolytus	Against Heresies	Christian	Extant	1897
122	Epiphanius	Panarion	Christian	Extant	3745
123	Epiphanius	Ancoratus	Christian	Extant	3744
124	Epiphanius	On Weights and Measures	Christian	Extant
125	Justin Martyr	Apology	Christian	Extant	1073, 1076, 1084
126	Clement of Rome	Letters to the Corinthians	Christian	Extant
126	Polycarp	Letter to the Philippians	Christian	Extant
127	Eusebius	Life of Constantine	Christian	Extant	3496
128	Lucian	Dialogues	Pagan	Extant
129	Lucius of Patrae	Metamorphoses	Pagan	Lost
130	Damascius	Incredible Stories	Pagan	Lost
131	Amyntianus	On Alexander	Pagan	Lost
132-5	Palladius et.al.	Declamations	Pagan	Lost
136	Cyril of Alexandria	Thesauri	Christian	Extant	5215
137	Eunomius of Cyzicus	Apology	Christian	Lost	3455
138	Eunomius of Cyzicus	Against Basil	Christian	Lost	3456
138	Eunomius of Cyzicus	Letters	Christian	Lost	3456
139	Athanasius	Commentary on Ecclesiastes	Christian	Lost	2141
139	Athanasius	Commentary on the Song of Songs	Christian	Lost	2141
140	Athanasius	Against Arius and his doctrines			2093
141	Basil	The Six Days' Work			2835
142	Basil	Moral Discourses			2877
143	Basil	Letters			2900
144	Basil	Ascetica			2876 or 2875
145	Helladius	Lexicon
146	anonymous	Lexicon of the 'pure style'
147	anonymous	Lexicon of the 'serious style'
148	anonymous	Lexicon of the 'political style'
149	Valerius Pollio	Lexicon
150	Julian	Lexicon --
150	Philostratus	Lexicon --
150	Valerius Diodorus	Lexicon
151	Timaeus	Lexicon to Plato
152	Aelius Dionysius of Halicarnassus	Lexicon of Attic Words
153	Pausanias	Lexicon
154	Boethus [ca]	List of Platonic Words
155	Boethus	On the Words of Doubtful Meaning in Plato
156	Dorotheus	Of New and Foreign Words in Plato
157	Moeris	Attic Words
158	Phrynichus the Arabian	Rhetorical Equipment
159	Isocrates	Orations, Letters
160	Choricius	Declamations
161	Sopater	Various Extracts
162	Eusebius of Thessalonica	Against the Aphthartodocetae
163	Vindanius Anatolius of Berytus	A Collection of Agricultural Precepts
164	Galen	On Medical Schools
165	Himerius	Declamations
166	Antonius Diogenes	The Wonders Beyond Thule	Pagan	Lost	2877
167	Joannes Stobaeus	Anthology	Pagan	Extant	2900
168	Basil of Seleucia	Sermons	Christian	Extant
170	anonymous	Precursors of Christianity	Christian	Lost
171	Eustratios of Constantinople	On the Status of Souls after Death	Christian	Extant
172-4	John Chrysostom	Homilies on Genesis	Christian	Extant
175	Pamphile of Epidaurus	Historical Commentaries	Pagan	Lost
176	Theopompus	Philippica	Pagan	Lost
177	Theodore of Mopsuestia	Against those who say that men sin by nature and not by intention	Christian	Lost
178	Pedanius Dioscorides	De materia medica	Pagan	Extant
179	Agapius (Manichaean)	Manichaean pamphlets	Manichaean	Lost
180	John the Lydian	On Prodigies	Christian	Extant
180	John the Lydian	On the months	Christian	Extant
180	John the Lydian	On the Public Magistracies	Christian	Extant
181	Damascius	Life of Isidore	Pagan	Lost
182	Eulogios of Alexandria	Against Navatus
183	Eudocius	Paraphrase of the Octateuch			6022
184	Eudocius	Paraphrase of Zechariah, etc			6023-4
185	Dionysius of Aegae	'Dictyaques' (?)
186	Conon etc	Narrations
187	Nicomachus of Gerasa	Arithmetical Theology
188	Alexander of Mindos	Collection of marvels
	Protagoras	Universal Geography
189	Sotion	Strange Stories about water
	Nicolas of Damascus	Strange customs
	Acestorides	Urban Fables
190	Ptolemy Hephaestion	New History		Lost
191	Basil of Caesarea	Ascetics			2875
192A	Maximus the Confessor	Questions to Thalassios			7688
192B	Maximus the Confessor	Letters (27)			7699
193	Maximus the Confessor	Various			7692-3
194	Maximus the Confessor	Various letters and theological centuries			7699, 7694, 7700, 7705
195	Maximus the Confessor	Letter and dialogue between Pyrrhos and Maximus			7698
196	Ephrem of Nisibis	Various 'parénèses'			3905, 3906, 3933, 3936, 3942
197	Cassian	Three works
198	anonymous	Summary of a spiritual prayer
199	John Moschos	Spiritual prayer
200	Mark the Monk	Various works			6090-4, 6097-6100
201	Diadochus of Photicia	Various works
202	Hippolytus of Rome	Commentary on Daniel and On Christ			1872-3
203	Theodoret of Cyr	Commentary on Daniel			6027
204	Theodoret of Cyrrhus	Questions on the Octateuch			6200
205	Theodoret of Cyrrhus	Commentaries on the 12 prophets			6208
206	Procopius of Gaza	Various scholia
207	Procopius of Gaza	Commentary on Isaiah			7434
208	Eulogios of Alexandria	Against the Navatians			6976
209	Dion of Prusa	Discourses (80)
210	Caesarius of Nazianzen	Questions and responses			7482
211	Dionysius of Aegae	'Dictyaques' (?)
212	Aenesidemus	Pyrrhonian writings
213	Agatharchidus of Cnidos	On the Red Sea
214	Hierocles	On providence and destiny
215	John Philoponos	Against the treatise on the statues of Jamblichus
216	Oribasius	Epitome of the works of Galen
217	Oribasius	Medical collection
218	Oribasius	Epitome of the Medical collection
219	Oribasius	Euphoristes
220	Theon of Alexandria	The man
221	Aetius of Amida	Work on medicine
222	Job the Monk	On the incarnation			6984
223	Diodorus of Tarsus	Against destiny			3821
224	Memnon of Heraclea	History of Heraclea
225	Eulogios of Alexandria	Against Severus and Theodosius			6976
226	Eulogios of Alexandria	Against Theodosius and Severus			6976
227	Eulogois of Alexandria	Against the Theodosians and Gaianites			6976
228	Ephrem of Antioch	Letters and sermons			6908
229	Ephrem of Antioch	Four works			6908
230	Eulogios of Alexandria	Various treatises			6976
231	Sophronius of Jerusalem	Synodical letter to Sergius of Constantinople			7635
232	Stephen Gobar	Miscellany			7300
233	Germain of Constantinople	On the true and legitimate retribution			8022
234	Methodius of Olympus	On the resurrection			1812
235	Methodius of Olympus	On creatures			1817
236	Methodius of Olympus	On arbitrary freedom			1811
237	Methodius of Olympus	Banquet of 10 virgins			1810
238	Flavius Josephus	Antiquities of the Jews
239	Proclus	Manual of Literature
240	John Philoponus	On the Hexameron			7265
241	Philostratus of Tyre	Life of Apollonius of Tyana
242	Damascius of Damascus	Life of the Philosopher Isidore
243	Himerius,	Declamations
244	Diodorus Siculus	Historical Library
245	Plutarch of Chaeronea	Parallel Lives
246	Aelius Aristides	Panathenaicus
247	Aelius Aristides	For rhetoric against Plato
248	Aelius Aristides	General apology
249	anonymous	Life of Pythagoras
250	Agatharchidus of Cnidos	On the Red Sea
251	Hierocles	On providence
252	anonymous	Life of St. Gregory the Great
253	anonymous	Martyrology of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
254	anonymous	Martyrology of the apostle Timothy
255	anonymous	Martyrology of St. Demetrius
256	anonymous	Life of the holy fathers Metrophanus and Alexander
>257	anonymous	Life of Paul of Constantinople
258	anonymous	Life of Athanasius of Constantinople
259	Antiphon	Orations
260	Isocrates	Orations
261	Andocidus	Orations
262	Lysias	Orations
263	Isaeus	Orations
264	Aeschines	Orations
265	Demosthenes	Orations
266	Hyperidus	Orations
267	Dinarchus	Orations
268	Lycurgus	Life
269	Hesychius of Jerusalem	Eulogy of St. Andrew			6571
270	John Chrysostom	Sermon on St. Paul
271	Asterius of Amaseus	Homilies			3260-1
272	Leontius of Arabissos	On the creation and on Lazarus
273	Theodoret of Cyrrhus	On St. John Chrysostom			6225
274	John Chrysostom	Various sermons
275	Hesychius of Jerusalem, etc,	Homily on James the brother of the Lord			6574
276	Nilus of Ancyra	Fragments of homilies			6078
277	John Chrysostom	Extracts of various homilies
278	Theophrastus of Eresos	Extracts of various treatises
279	Helladius	Chrestomathy
280	Eulogios of Alexandria	Against the Navatians			6976

References

^ Jenkins, Romilly J. H. (1963). "The Hellenistic Origins of Byzantine Literature". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 17. JSTOR: 47. doi:10.2307/1291189. ISSN 0070-7546. JSTOR 1291189.
^ ^a ^b Reynolds, L. D. and N.G. Wilson (1991). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (3rd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 321. ISBN 0-19-872145-5.
^ Paul Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase: Notes and Remarks on Education and Culture in Byzantium from its Origins to the 10th century. Canberra: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986, 81–84.
^ Jokisch, Islamic Imperial Law (2007), pp. 364–386)
^ As Lemerle says "it is clear that this was written, and therefore that the collection has been composed, before the completion of the embassy (Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase, 40).
^ As Paul Lemerle puts it, "while the renaissance in Hellenism in Byzantium extended progressively and more or less rapidly to all spheres of ancient literature including poetry, theatre, rhetoric, history, etc., Islam took an interest only in the sciences on the one hand, and philosophy on the other, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase, 26–27
^ Dmitri Gutas, Greek thought, Arab Culture, 1998, 186.

External links

Photius, Bibliotheca at The Tertullian Project
Photius, Bibliotheca (original text in Greek)

[1] Jenkins, Romilly J. H. (1963). "The Hellenistic Origins of Byzantine Literature". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 17. JSTOR: 47. doi:10.2307/1291189. ISSN 0070-7546. JSTOR 1291189.

[Reynolds_1991_321-2] Reynolds, L. D. and N.G. Wilson (1991). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (3rd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 321. ISBN 0-19-872145-5.

[3] Paul Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase: Notes and Remarks on Education and Culture in Byzantium from its Origins to the 10th century. Canberra: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986, 81–84.

[4] Jokisch, Islamic Imperial Law (2007), pp. 364–386)

[5] As Lemerle says "it is clear that this was written, and therefore that the collection has been composed, before the completion of the embassy (Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase, 40).

[6] As Paul Lemerle puts it, "while the renaissance in Hellenism in Byzantium extended progressively and more or less rapidly to all spheres of ancient literature including poetry, theatre, rhetoric, history, etc., Islam took an interest only in the sciences on the one hand, and philosophy on the other, Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase, 26–27

[7] Dmitri Gutas, Greek thought, Arab Culture, 1998, 186.

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