Nicephorus Gregoras
Nicephorus Gregoras (
Life
Gregoras was born at
Downfall of Andronicus II
When Andronicus was dethroned (1328) by his grandson
Gregoras remained loyal until the death of the elder Andronicus. Thereafter he succeeded in gaining the favour of Andronicus III, who appointed him to conduct negotiations for a union of the Greek and Latin churches with the ambassadors of Pope John XXII. The negotiations, which took place in 1333, failed to achieve a resolution.[3]
Hesychast controversy
Beginning in 1346, Gregoras took an important part in the
Campaign against doctrine of Gregorius Palamas
Although the doctrine of Gregorius Palamas came to be accepted by the majority of the Orthodox Church, Gregoras persisted in campaigning against what he considered a heretical doctrine forced upon the Church by a robber council. He became a monk and devoted himself to campaigning against the Palamites, destroying his friendship with John Cantacuzene. He was first placed under house arrest, then confined to the
Writings
Gregoras' chief work is his Byzantine History, in 37 books, covering the years 1204 to 1359. It partly supplements and partly continues the work of
The other writings of Gregoras, which (with a few exceptions) still remain unpublished, attest his great versatility. Amongst them may be mentioned a history of the dispute with Palamas; biographies of his uncle and early instructor John, metropolitan of Heraclea, and of the martyr Codratus of Antioch; funeral orations for Theodore Metochites, and the two emperors Andronicus; commentaries on the wanderings of Odysseus and on Synesius's treatise on dreams;[6] tracts on orthography and on words of doubtful meaning; a philosophical dialogue called Phlorentius or Concerning Wisdom; astronomical treatises on the date of Easter, on the preparation of the astrolabe and on the predictive calculation of solar eclipses;[7] and an extensive correspondence.[8][3]
Editions: in Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, by L. Schopen and I. Bekker, with life and list of works by J. Boivin (1829–1855); J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxlviii., cxlix.; see also Karl Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).[3]
Notes
- ISBN 978-1-4438-6299-8.
- ^ Theodossiou, E. T., Manimanis, V. N., Dimitrijevic, M. S., & Danezis, E., The Greatest Byzantine Astronomer Nicephoros Gregoras and Serbs, Publications of the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Vol. 80, p. 269-274, 2006
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), pp. 232f
- ^ Nicol, Last Centuries, p. 234
- ^ Niceforo Gregora, Explicatio in librum Synesii de insomniis, a cura di P. Pietrosanti, Collana Pynakes, Levante, 1999
- ^ J. Mogenet, A. Tihon, R. Royez, A. Berg, Nicéphore Grégoras - Calcul de l’éclipse de soleil du 16 Juillet 1330, Corpus des astronomes byzantins, I, Gleben, 1983
- ^ I. Sevcenko, Some autographs of Nicephore Gregoras in Recueil des travaux de l'Institut d'études byzantines, VIII, pp. 435-450.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gregoras, Nicephorus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 562. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the