18-05-2017, 04:23 PM
Just idle curiosity, but a question for Marco, Rene, Koen - or any member who happens to know.
Rene is right in saying that it would be unexpected to find in 14thC Latin Europe a translation into Latin of Theophrastus' recognised works. The Latin translation circulated by Renaissance literati and bibliophiles had been made by Theodore of Gaza.
The question which interests me is where Theodore got the source-text he used for that translation, and the language in which it was written. Given Theodore's background it could have been in Greek, or in Syriac perhaps. Certainly in Arabic.
And do we know if the copies Theodore worked from remained in the Vatican library? Have they been identified? If so, how old are they?
Just idle curiosity, so if we have no answers to those questions, it doesn't matter.
Rene is right in saying that it would be unexpected to find in 14thC Latin Europe a translation into Latin of Theophrastus' recognised works. The Latin translation circulated by Renaissance literati and bibliophiles had been made by Theodore of Gaza.
The question which interests me is where Theodore got the source-text he used for that translation, and the language in which it was written. Given Theodore's background it could have been in Greek, or in Syriac perhaps. Certainly in Arabic.
And do we know if the copies Theodore worked from remained in the Vatican library? Have they been identified? If so, how old are they?
Just idle curiosity, so if we have no answers to those questions, it doesn't matter.