Preface
vii PREFACE The general aims of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum are explained in the Preface to Volume I, by Paul Oskar Kristeller, which is reprinted below. As in past volumes, the articles in Volume 9 have not been chosen to illustrate any particular theme, but are simply the first contributions completed after Volume 8 went to press. The proportion of Latin articles (three) as opposed to Greek (one) is similar to that in Volumes 3–6. Although quite different fields (philosophy, history, and literature) are represented, a common theme of moral improvement has nevertheless emerged, by accident rather than design, rendering most of the articles complementary and, indeed, still relevant to the concerns of our own day, as they were to those of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. ****** The sole article in the Greek section of Volume 9 treats Epictetus (ca. 50–125/130 a.d.), one of the chief sources for Stoic teachings in the Roman imperial period. His two surviving works, the Dissertationes and the Encheiridion, were preserved thanks to the devotion of his student Arrian and show that Epictetus’ concern was principally with Stoic ethics. For Epictetus the goal of philosophy was the attainment of freedom and happiness through a kind of moral and intellectual discipline which taught the philosopher to attach importance only to those things under his control. His thought had wide appeal not only in his own time, for figures such as Marcus Aurelius, but also in later centuries. Not surprisingly, Epictetus was a well-known figure among both pagan and Christian writers in late antiquity, though much less so in the Latin West after the fifth century. Italian humanists revived interest in Epictetus in the Latin world and produced two fifteeenth-century translations of the Encheiridion . The latter soon became a popular text in Angelo Poliziano’s rendition and remained so until the publication of Hieronymus Wolf’s version in 1563. An Italian humanist also prepared the first extant translation, made ca. 1500, of the Dissertationes. Then interest in translating Epictetus’ works shifted to northern Europe, where a Neo-Stoic movement flourished during the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially among Protestant scholars in France, Germany, and the Dutch Republic . The sixteenth-century translations that have been located were all produced by scholars from those regions. They are responsible as well for the known commentaries on the Epictetan corpus. The Encheiridion attracted the first commentary (1543), to be followed shortly thereafter (1554) by the first commentary on the Dissertationes. Epictetus’ writings were an important element in seventeenthcentury Christian interpretations of Stoicism and continued to be of interest for a variety of reasons; in our own times they have even provided themes for modern novels and inspiration for modern theories of practical psychology. In the Latin section, Gregory, bishop of Tours, is the first author to be treated but the latest (538 or 539–594) in terms of chronology. Of the seven works which he wrote or commissioned, the historical and hagiographical compositions were the most influential. His Decem libri historiarum is a principal source for the history of sixth-century Francia. His Libri octo miraculorum, together with his other hagiographical pieces, helped to shape that genre in the Middle Ages. Moreover, many authors excerpted and adapted passages from his writings for their own purposes. Hence selections from Gregory’s works can be found not only in later historical writings but also in texts concerned with canon law, preaching, and theology. However, despite their popularity, his historical and hagiographical writings were never the subject of commentary; they were regarded primarily as sources of information rather than models of thought and expression, and therefore as texts that did not repay study in the classroom. Nor did his other, much less popular works (the De cursu stellarum ratio and a now- viii preface fragmentary exposition of the Psalms) attract the attention of commentators. Continuing the predominant practice of the manuscript age, Gregory first appeared in print in the form of excerpts, with the publication of passages from the Historiae and the Libri octo miraculorum in the 1511 Paris edition of the Martinellus, a dossier of medieval texts concerning St. Martin of Tours. The editio princeps of the complete text of the Historiae followed a year later at Paris. Generally speaking, from that time on, the Historiae have overshadowed Gregory’s other works until the last quarter of the twentieth century, when new perspectives shifted scholarly attention to his hagiographical writings. Proceeding in reverse chronological...
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