Primary source · Greek

The Bibliotheca (Myriobiblon)

Name: The Bibliotheca (Myriobiblon)
Author: Photius of Constantinople

Photius of Constantinople · 9th century

Patrologia Graeca, vol. 103 (Migne) — manuscript witness to The Bibliotheca (Myriobiblon) — Patrologia Graeca, vol. 103 (Migne) — 1860Eastern Orthodox St. Fathers and other notable Christian writers · Public domain · Commons

What this text is

The learned patriarch's descriptions of books read — many now lost — including the church history of Gelasius of Caesarea, which survives chiefly through notices like his.

Public-domain translations

Summarized (from the Greek)

[Photius describes (codd. 88–89) the continuation of Eusebius's history by 'Gelasius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine,' nephew of Cyril of Jerusalem — a work since lost except as quarried by the later historians.]

Manuscript witnesses

Venice, Marcianus gr. 450 & 451

10th c.

The two great codices on which the text of the Bibliotheca rests.

PRINCIPAL WITNESSES

Patrologia Graeca, vol. 103 (Migne)

1860

Standard pre-critical text.

PRINTED PROXY

Provenance

Constantinople; the patriarch's reading notes on 280 volumes

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Photius: Bibliothèque (Collection Budé)
René Henry, 1959–1977
The critical edition with French translation.
The Nature of the Bibliotheca of Photius
Warren Treadgold, 1980
The standard study of the work's composition.