Philological and Historical Commentary on
the Historical Relations of George Pachymeris
Georgios Pachymeris (app. 1242-1308) is one of the most prolific Byzantine scholars. His work includes comments on philosophical texts (mainly Aristotle and Plato), rhetorical studies and treatises, poetical texts, an extensive Tetrabiblos, and of course the Historical Relations, an exhaustive historiographical narrative of the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologus (1258-1282) and part of the reign of Andronikos II (1282-1307).
This historiographical work has attracted the interest of the research community, especially after the completion of the new edition of A. Failler in the series Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Many of the issues raised therein (prosopographical, chronological, etc.) have been thoroughly studied in recent years. There is an immediate need for a reconsideration and presentation of the results of scholarly research and this is the aim of the
More specifically, the program’s scope entails the compilation of a detailed historical and literary commentary in the historiographical text of Georgios Pachymeris, starting from the critical edition of A. Failler on the basis of the abundant bibliography on the topic.
While a considerable number of companion volumes with detailed commentaries have been written about the major historiographers of the ancient Greek literature, respective commentaries on the historiographical works of the Byzantine literature are very few (see for example: the Commentary on de administrandoimperio [1962], Zorzi’s book for Choniates [2008], J. Haldon's book on Leon VI;s Tactica [2014]).
A companion volume / commentary along these lines will be presented as a result of this research.
