Sophonias ( el, Σοφονίας; fl. 13th–14th century) was a
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
who wrote
commentaries or paraphrases of the works of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
including ''
De Anima
''On the Soul'' ( Greek: , ''Peri Psychēs''; Latin: ''De Anima'') is a major treatise written by Aristotle c. 350 BC. His discussion centres on the kinds of souls possessed by different kinds of living things, distinguished by their differen ...
'', ''
Sophistici Elenchi'', ''
Prior Analytics'', and the ''
Parva Naturalia'', which are still extant. Little is known about Sophonias, except that he was probably the monk sent by
Michael IX Palaiologos
, image = 154 - Michael IX Palaiologos (Mutinensis - color).png
, caption = 15th-century portrait of Michael IX (from a 15th-century codex containing a copy of the ''Extracts of History'' by Joannes Zonaras)
, succession ...
on an abortive mission to arrange a marriage between Michael and a western princess around 1295.
Work
In his works Sophonias has interwoven the statements of Aristotle with the scholia of
Michael of Ephesus. Some later manuscripts of the ''Parva Naturalia'' commentary ascribe the work to
Themistius
Themistius ( grc-gre, Θεμίστιος ; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamed Euphrades, (eloquent), was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; ...
, but Sophonias' authorship, first proposed by
Valentin Rose, may be regarded as certain, and the method of composition does not resemble Themistius' at all.
Paul Wendland
(Johann Theodor) Paul Wendland (August 17, 1864 – September 10, 1915) was a German classical philologist.
Born in Hohenstein, Province of Prussia, he taught as a professor at the Kiel University (from 1902), Breslau University (from 1906), ...
, "Praefatio," ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'', vol. VI, part VI (Berlin 1903), pp. v–x. Sophonias wrote paraphrases of Aristotle's ''
Categories
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
Philosophy and general uses
*Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally
*Category of being
* ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
*Category (Kant)
* Categories (Peirce)
* ...
'', ''Prior Analytics'', ''Sophistici Elenchi'', ''De Anima'', ''
De Memoria'' and ''
De Somno''.
[John Edwin Sandys, 1903, ''A history of classical scholarship from the sixth century B.C. to the end of the Middle Ages'', page 421. Cambridge University Press] He considered innovative his practice of writing a running explanatory account of every passage in Aristotle, incorporating amplifications of Aristotle's paraphrasers or those critical remarks of the commentators that he thought necessary to understand the text.
[Nicholas J. Moutafakis, 2003, ''Byzantine Philosophy'', page 203] The value of the works of Sophonias is that they contain excerpts from the best of the earlier commentators.
Notes
External links
*Greek texts
''In parva naturalia''''In libros de anima paraphrasis''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sophonias
13th-century births
14th-century deaths
13th-century philosophers
14th-century philosophers
13th-century Byzantine monks
14th-century Byzantine monks
Byzantine philosophers
Commentators on Aristotle
13th-century Byzantine writers
14th-century Byzantine writers