Manuel Moschopoulos ( Latinized as Manuel Moschopulus; ), was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

commentator and grammarian, who lived during the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century and was an important figure in the Palaiologan Renaissance. ''Moschopoulos'' means "little calf," and is probably a nickname.

Life

Moschopoulos was a student of Maximos Planudes and possibly his successor as a head of a school in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, where he taught throughout his life. A mysterious and ill-documented excursion into politics led to his imprisonment for a while.

Works

His chief work is ''Erotemata grammaticalia'' (), in the form of question and answer, based upon an anonymous epitome of grammar, and supplemented by a lexicon of

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

s. He was also the author of ''scholia'' on the first and second books of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'', on

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

Theocritus Theocritus (; , ''Theokritos''; ; born 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings ...

Pindar Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

and other classical and later authors; of

riddle A riddle is a :wikt:statement, statement, question, or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or Allegory, alleg ...

s, letters, and a treatise on the

magic square In mathematics, especially History of mathematics, historical and recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diago ...

s. His grammatical treatises formed the foundation of the labors of such promoters of classical studies as

Manuel Chrysoloras Manuel (or Emmanuel) Chrysoloras (; c. 1350 – 15 April 1415) was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek classical scholar, Renaissance humanist, humanist, philosopher, professor, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. Serv ...

, Theodorus Gaza, Guarini, and Constantine Lascaris. As an editor, while making many false conjectures, he was responsible for clearing many long-standing errors in the traditional texts. His comments when original, are mainly lexicographical. Moschopoulos' treatise on

magic squares In mathematics, especially historical and recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. The " ...

is dedicated to Nicholas Rhabdas, his contemporary mathematician. Other works include an anti-Latin theological pamphlet. A selection from his works under the title of ''Manuelis Moschopuli opuscula grammatica'' was published by F. N. Titze (Leipzig, 1822); see also

Karl Krumbacher Karl Krumbacher (23 September 1856 – 12 December 1909) was a German scholar who was an expert on Byzantine Greek language, literature, history and culture. He was one of the principal founders of Byzantine Studies as an independent academi ...

, ''Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur'' (1897) and M. Treu, ''Maximi monachi Planudis epistulae'' (1890), p. 208.

References

External links

Manuel Moschopoulos
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Convergence
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Manuelis Moschopuli cretensis Opuscula grammatica, in quibus et de usitata graecis ex omni aevo diphthongorum pronuntiatione doctrina insignis : E codice nuper in Bohemia reperto nunc primum edidit graece / Praefationem cum diatribe literaria de Moschopulis et animadversiones suas adiecit Franciscus Nicolaus Titze
digitised book in Latin and Ancient Greek at th
Hathi Trust digital library
(original at Harvard). {{DEFAULTSORT:Moschopoulos, Manuel 13th-century births 14th-century deaths Grammarians from the Byzantine Empire Magic squares 13th-century Byzantine people 14th-century Byzantine writers