George Hamartolos
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George Hamartolos or Hamartolus (Greek: Γεώργιος Ἁμαρτωλός) was a monk at Constantinople under Michael III (842–867) and the author of a chronicle of some importance. Hamartolus is not his name but the epithet he gives to himself in the title of his work: "A compendious chronicle from various chroniclers and interpreters, gathered together and arranged by George, a sinner (ὐπὸ Γεωργίου ἁμαρτωλοῦ)". It is a common form among Byzantine monks. German 19th century scholar Karl Krumbacher (Byz. Litt., 358) protested against the use of this epithet as a name and proposed (and used) the form Georgios Monachos (Γεώργιος Μοναχός "George the Monk").
Nothing is known about him except from the internal evidence of his work, which establishes his period (in the preface he speaks of Michael III as the reigning emperor) and his calling (he refers to himself several times as a monk).
Chronicle
The chronicle consists of four books. The first treats of profane history from
George describes his ideal and principles in the preface. He has used ancient Greek and modern Greek sources, has especially consulted edifying works, and has striven to relate such things as were useful and necessary, with a strict adherence to truth, rather than to please the reader by artistic writing or pretensions to literary style. But of so great a mass of material he has chosen only what is most useful and necessary. In effect, the questions that seemed most useful and necessary to ecclesiastical persons at Constantinople in the ninth century are those that are discussed. There are copious pious reflections and theological excursuses. He writes of how idols were invented, the origin of monks, the religion of the
The first book treats of an astonishingly miscellaneous collection of persons — Adam,
Continuations
Various people, among them notably "
In spite of his crude ideas and the violent hatred of iconoclasts that makes him always unjust towards them, his work has considerable value for the history of the last years before the schism of
Editions
- Combefis, François (ed.). "Bioi ton neon Basileon (βίοι τῶν νέων βασιλέων)." In Maxima bibliotheca (Scriptores post Theophanem) Paris, 1685; reprinted, Venice, 1729. The last part of Book IV of the chronicle and the continuation (813–948).
- Muralt, E. de (ed). Georgii monachi, dicti Hamartoli, Chronicon ab orbe condito ad annum p. chr. 842 et a diversis scriptoribus usq. ad ann. 1143 continuatum. St. Petersburg, 1859. The first edition of the whole work. It does not represent the original text, but one of the many modified versions (from a Moscow twelfth-century manuscript), and is in many ways deficient and misleading (see Krumbacher's criticism in Byz. Litt., p. 357).
- Migne, Jacques Paul. Patrologia Graeca 110. Reprint of the previous edition, with a Latin translation.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1909). "George Hamartolus". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "George the Monk". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Afinogenov, D. "The Date of Georgios Monachos Reconsidered." BZ 92 (1999). pp. 437–47.
External links