Nikolaos Myrepsos Dynameron, Critical edition

• Applicant: Elias Valiakos, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 314068007

The proposed project consists of the complete edition of the Dynameron by Nicholas Myrepsos'. This text consists of seven manuscripts, which are kept in five libraries. Three of them can be found in the French National Library in Paris (namely Par. Gr. 2237, Par. Gr. 2238 and Par. Gr. 2243), one in Great Lavra Monastery at Mount Athos (E 192), in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Barocc. 171), at the Royal Library of the Escorial, (Rev. 83) and in the Greek National Library in Athens (EBE 1478). All other texts titled as Dynameron, or appearing in manuscript catalogs under the name of Nicholas Myrepsos, are not identical with our text. We are not sure that the perceived author Nicholas Myrepsos has been a historical person. There is however evidence to the contrary. The Dynameron is a great collection of a total of 2667 prescriptions. This kind of writing named Iatrosophion, has been handed down in the late-byzantine era in considerable numbers. The Dynameron is one of the oldest texts of the genre and is characterized mainly by its unusually large completeness. In this text, all the then-known diseases are mentioned. The materials for the recipe preparation that is, plants, oil, earth metals, animal products, etc. are carefully listed. The detailed steps for preparing each recipe along with correct use and dosage are described carefully. The Dynameron is a fundamental medical history text for the Byzantine years and even today some of its recipes could be applied. The Dynameron follows a long tradition of medicopharmaceutical manuals, dating to Hippocrates. Some of its recipes can be followed back to the 1st century. On the other hand various plant names appear here for the first time, in written history. Linguistically, the text contains a diverse lineage of words both contemporary to the author or dating back all the way to the classics. We also note a lot of loanwords from Persian, Arabic and Latin.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants