PLANUDES, MAXIMUS (c. 1260-1330)

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 783 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL

PLANUDES, MAXIMUS (c. 1260-1330) , Byzantine grammarian and theologian, flourished during the reigns of Michael VIII. and Andronicus II: Palaeologi. He was born at

Nicomedia

NICOMEDIA [mod. Ismid]

in Bithynia, but the greater part of his life was spent in Constantinople, where as a monk he devoted himself to studyand teaching. On entering the monastery he changed his

original

ORIGINAL

name Manuel to Maximus. Planudes possessed a knowledge of Latin remarkable at a time when Rome and Italy were regarded with hatred and contempt by the Byzantines. To this accomplishment he probably owed his selection as one of the ambassadors sent by Andronicus II. in 1327 to remonstrate with the Venetians for their attack upon the Genoese

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

in Pera. A more important result was that Planudes, especially by his translations, paved the way for the introduction of the Greek language and literature into the West.
He was the author of numerous works; notably a Greek grammar in the form of question and answer,like the ' Epurltara of Moschopulus, with an appendix on the so-called " political " verse; a treatise on syntax; a biography of Aesop and a

prose

PROSE

version of the fables; scholia on certain Greek authors ; two hexameter poems, one a eulogy of

Claudius

Ptolemaeus, the other an account of the sudden

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

of an ox into a mouse; a treatise on the method of calculating in use amongst the Indians (ed. C. J.

Gerhardt

Halle

, 1865) ; and scholia to the first two books of the Arithmetic of Diophantus. His numerous translations from the Latin included Cicero's Somnium Scipionis with the commentary of Macrobius: Caesar's Gallic War; Ovid's Heroides'and Metamorphoses; Boetius, De consolatione philosophiae; Augustine, De trinitate. These translations were very popular during the middle ages as textbooks for the study of Greek. It is, however, as the editor and compiler of the collection of

minor

poems known by his name (see

ANTHOLOGY

ANTHOLOGY

: Greek) that he is chiefly remembered.
See Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca, ed. Harles, xi. 682; theological writings in Migne, Patrologia graeca, cxlvii; correspondence, ed. M. Treu (1890), with a valuable commentary; K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897) ; J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. (1906), vol. i.

End of Article: PLANUDES, MAXIMUS (c. 1260-1330)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PIG_POL/PLANUDES_MAXIMUS_c_1260_1330_.html">
PLANUDES, MAXIMUS (c. 1260-1330)
</a>

(Previous)
PLANTS

(Next)
PLAQUE

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email