Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, and more
One of the drawbacks of doing too much is that you tend to deal with emails a bit too hastily. One of those too hasty “yes that is fine” has come back to bite me.
Regular readers will remember that I commissioned a translation of all the fragments of Philip of Side. Five of these are [...]
I’ve been really unwell this week, so all my projects are on hold. Fortunately, for most of them, the ball is in someone else’s court.
One project has been abandoned. The translation of the remains of Polychronius’ commentary on Daniel will not go ahead. The translator has decided to write an academic article around what he found. [...]
I forgot to mention that fragment 7 of Philip of Side arrived over the weekend as well. It’s the bit which is alchemical in nature.
I’m always wary of alchemical texts. I have a degree in Chemistry, but I find them quite hard to understand. However this one is clear enough, and refers to dyeing copper.
The project to translate all the remaining or supposed fragments of Philip of Side’s 24-book Christian History is going well. Regular readers will remain that the fragments were classified into seven groups. Nos 1, 2, 5 and 6 are done, and 7 is in progress. The translator is doing is very good job, and the [...]
Very busy this week with work-related stuff; too much so, to do anything useful!
The fragments of Philip of Side are coming along nicely. The translator is doing his usual excellent job and ferreting out a lot of useful related information buried in articles in languages none of us know. The publication — which will be free [...]
The first two fragments of the translation of the Christian History of Philip of Side have arrived! And they look very good indeed. The footnotes are very enlightening.
The translator has also volunteered to write an introduction, bringing together an explanation of the various Byzantine epitomes from which the fragments are drawn. This will be of no [...]
When dealing with a lost text, the comments by other ancient writers who read it are usually included with the fragments as testimonia. I need to pay attention to these for Philip of Side.
There seem to be three for Philip of Side’s Christian History. Photius and Socrates HE, book 7, c.27. I would have thought [...]
Fragments of Philip of Side are in the 6th century fictional dialogue set at the court of the Sassanids and known as the Religionsgesprach after Bratke’s publication. But since I learned that Pauline Bringel had made a critical edition in an unpublished French thesis a few years ago, I have been attempting to obtain a [...]
I’ve been trying to understand just what this “kirchegeschichtliches Epitome” text is that all the articles about Philip of Side mention. The catalogue of fragments referred to it quite a bit.
It seems it’s a text whose existence is inferred (don’t you hate that?). Apparently there are three 14th century manuscripts containing excerpts from church histories [...]
The rambling 24 book history written by Philip of Side is lost. The fragments that remain are of considerable interest, however. I intend to get them all put into English and make them available online.
There is an excellent article by Katharina Heyden, which lists all the fragments and discusses them: Die Christliche Geschichte des Philippos [...]