Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1195

NICEPHORUS. Pliilosophns, in 911 ; but it is questionable whether they are the production of Callistus, or of some other writer. Although Callistus compiled from the works of his predecessors, he entirely re- modelled his materials, and his elegant style caused him to be called Thucydides ecclesiasticus ; while his want of judgment, his credulity, and his love Df the marvellous, in consequence of which his work abounds with fables, induced some critics to style him the Plinius theologorum. He had apparenth studied the classical models, for his style is vastly superior to that of his contemporaries. Of this work there exists only one MS., which was origi- nally in the library of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary and Bohemia (1458 — 14.90), at Ofen or Buda. When this city was taken by the Turks in 1526, the king's library was carried to Con- stantinople, where, soon afterwards, the MS. was purchased by a German scholar, who sold it in his turn to the imperial library in Vienna, where it is still kept. Editions: A Latin version by John Lang, of Erfurt, Basel, 1553, fol. ; the same with scholia, 1560(61); Antwerp, 1560; Paris, 1562, 1573; Frankfort, 1588, fol.; Paris, 1566, 12 vols. 8vo. The principal edition is by Fronto Ducaeus, Paris, 1630, 2 vols, fol., containing the Greek text, with Lang's translation, both carefully re- vised by the editor. 2. 'S.vvTayixa de Templo et Miraculis S. Mariae ad Fontem, extant in MS. in the libraries of the Vatican and of Vienna, the latter very much damaged. 3. Cutalogus Impe- ratorum ConstaniinopoHtanorum, Versibus iamhicis, finishing with Andronicus Palaeologus the elder, who died in 1 327 ; a later hand has added the em- perors down to the capture of Constantinople. Editio princeps, the Greek text, by John Lang, Basel, 1536, 8vo. ; by Labbe in Histor. Protrept. Byzant.^ Paris, 1 648 ; and often, the text or trans- lation as an appendix to other works. 4. Caialogus Patriarchoruni Constantinop., contains 141 persons, the last of whom is Callistus, who was made pa- triarch by the emperor John Cantacuzenus ; later writers have added to the number ; ed. ad calcem Epigrammaium Theodori Frodromi, Basel, 1536, 8vo. ; and by Labbe quoted above, who gives a similar catalogue in prose containing 149 patriarchs. 5. Cutalogus Lihror. Geneseos, Eocodi, Levitici^ Nu- merorurn et Deuteronomici, in iambic verses, extant in MS. 6. Caialogus fSS. Fatrum Ecclesiae, in eighteen iambic verses, first published by Fabricius in Bibl. Graec, quoted below. 7. Cutalogus brevis Hymnographorum Ecdcsiae Graecae^ nine iambic verses, published by Fabricius, ibid. vol. xi. p. 81. 8. Menologium Sanctorum^ in iambic verses, pub- lished by the same, together with Gaulmini Vita Mosis, Hamburg, 1714, 8vo. 9. Ejccidium Hiero- solymitanum, in 1 50 iambic verses, published with a metrical Latin version, hy F. Morellus, in Eop- positio Tliematum Dominicorum^ &c., Paris, 1620, 8vo Further, a great number of hymns, sermons, homilies, epistles, &c. ; Vita S. A?idreae Apostoli, and other minor productions. Hody, the con- tinuator of Cave, was of opinion that Anglicani Schismatis Redargutio^ a work which he published at Oxford, I69i, 4to., ought to be ascribed to Nicephorus Callistus, but he afterwards changed his opinion. See his Letter to a Friend concerning a Collection of Canons, Oxford, 1 692, 4to. That work was written about 1267. (Oudin, Comment, da Script. Ecclesiast. vol. iii. p. 709, &c. ; Cave, Hist. Liu ad an. 1333 : Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vol. NICEPHORUS. 1181 vii. p. 437 ; Hamberger, Nach-ichten von gelehrten M'dnnern.) 4. Chartophylax, a Byzantine monk of very uncertain age, wrote : Solutionum Epistolae II. ad TJieodosium monuchum^ Graece et Latine, in Leun- clavius. Jus Graeco-Romanum., in the twelfth vol. of Biblioth. Fair. Maxim.^ and in Orlhodoocographi. He is said to have lived in the beginning of the ninth century. Fabricius thinks he is the same as Nicephorus Diaconus et Chartophylax, who was present at the second council of Nicaea, and wns afterwards raised to the patriarchate : if so, how- ever, he would be identical with Nicephorus, the famous author of the Breviarium, who was made patriarch in 806. (Cave, Hist. Lit. ad an. 801 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. pp. 608, 674.) 5. Chumnus. [Chumnus.] 6. HiEROMONACHUS. [No. 10.] 7. Gregora.s. [Gregoras.] 8. MoNACHUs, a doubtful person, lived about 1100, according to P. Possinus. One Nicephorus, a monk, is the author of liept (pvhaKrjs KapSlay, De Custodia Cordis, a very interesting and valuable essay, which Possinus published, in Greek and Latin, in his Thesaurtis Asceticus, Paris, 1648, 4 to. (Cave, Hist. Lit. ad an. 1101 ; Fabric. Bild. Graec. vol. vii. p. 679.) 9. Patriarcha, the son of Theodoras, the no- tary or chief secretary of state to the emperor Con- stantine V. Copronymus, was born in 758, held the office of notarius to the emperor Constantine VL (780 — 797), and was present at the second council of Nicaea, in 787, where he defended the images, for which his father had been twice sent into exile. Disgusted with the court intrigues he retired into a convent, and in 806 was raised to the patriarchate, after the death of the patriarch Tara- sius. In 814 he strenuously opposed the emperor Leo Armenus when this prince issued his famous edict against the images. Leo, being unable to bend the stern mind of this patriarch, deposed him in 815, whereupon Nicephorus retired into the convent of St. Theodore, on one of the islands of the Propontis. There he died on the 2nd of June, 828. He is sometimes called Homologeta or Con- fessor, on account of his firm opposition to the iconoclasts and his ensuing deposition. Nicephorus is highly esteemed as the author of several im- portant works, which are distinguislied for their in- trinsic value as much as for the style in which they are written. He wrote better than any of his con- temporaries ; he possessed the rare art of never saying a word too much, nor does he repeat himself, and he persuades equally through nature and art. His principal works are : 1. KuvaTavTivovTToKecos 'Icrropla (XvvTofxos, Bre- viarium Historicum, commonly called Breviarium, one of the best works of the Byzantine period. It begins with the murder of the emperor Mauricius in 602, and is carried down to the marriage of the emperor Leo IV. and Irene, in 770. Editio princeps by D. Petavius, with a Latin version and notes, Paris, 1616, 8vo., together with a fragment of Nicephorus Gregoras, the History of Georgius Pachymeres, &c. Other editions, Paris, 1648, fol., with Theophylactus ; Venice, 1 729. There are two French translations, one by Monterole, Paris, 1618, 8vo., and the other by Morel, ib. 1634, 12rao. 2. Chronologia Compendiaria s. Trif)ariita, from Adam down to the time of the author. As early as about 872 this work was translated into