The reception of Aristotle in Byzantium: the first critical edition of George Pachymeres' Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

本项目旨在撰写拜占庭著名学者乔治·帕奇默斯(George Pachymeres)(1242年至公元1242年)撰写的有影响力的评论亚里士多德的尼科马基伦理学(Nicomachean伦理学)的第一个批评版。1310)。该版本将附有英文翻译、广泛的导言和结尾的索引，并将在开放获取的环境中出版，专家和非专业读者均可免费获得，以供在许多情况下使用。拟议的版本已委托德格鲁伊特出版(系列：‘Commentaria in Aristotelem graeca et byzantina’=CAGB)，是一个全面的编辑事业的一部分，这将提供大量未经编辑的拜占庭评论亚里士多德的作品，最终有助于在拜占庭接受亚里士多德的传统和更广泛的亚里士多德研究的发展。该项目具有重大的学术影响。帕奇默斯对尼科马赫伦理学的评论有一个可靠的文本，这对于更广泛地重新评估晚期拜占庭哲学是必要的，因为它将强调这一时期学者们的原始贡献。同时，它将确立并有助于巩固拜占庭晚期(1261-1453)作为一个与亚里士多德进行大量哲学接触的时代的未知重要性。该版本和翻译将通过探索亚里士多德的评论在多大程度上充当说教手册，从而揭示当代教育实践。与之相关的是，它将提高对拜占庭晚期教育进行全方位研究的必要性，这是一个仍然很少被探索和理解的话题。此外，它还将促进对拜占庭哲学与西方神学和哲学之间的联系的进一步研究，并使我们反思知识与阿拉伯哲学的转移。该项目将有助于完善我们对亚里士多德在基督教宗教思想中接受的理解，从而解决异教(即古希腊)哲学如何或多或少容易地融入拜占庭后来几个世纪的基督教学术社区这一激烈的问题。最后但同样重要的是，这项研究的目的是作为一个种子项目，调查被低估的主题，即晚期拜占庭伦理学作为一门理论学科的作用，以及作为一个实践来源，就君士坦丁堡和拜占庭帝国的其他重要部分如何过上美好生活提供建议。除了编辑和翻译之外，这个项目还将出版由研究团队组织的国际会议产生的编辑后的卷。这本书将是对从10世纪到15世纪产生的拜占庭伦理作品的第一次全面研究，并将以《拜占庭伦理作品：延续和转变》为标题。该项目的调查结果将通过其互动的在线门户网站传达给感兴趣的公众，用户可以通过该门户网站提供他们对编辑过程的见解，特别是手稿页边空白处的一些迷人的图表。另一种形式的公众参与将是展示格拉斯哥大学图书馆丰富的特别藏书中的希腊手稿样本，目标客户是当地学校的学生。这被认为是对中世纪手稿文化的教育介绍。该项目照亮了拜占庭文学文化的一个重要时期。因此，更广泛地说，它将有助于重新审视拜占庭研究在当今更广泛的思想史和文化史领域是如何看待的问题。

This project seeks to compose the first-ever critical edition of the influential Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics by the distinguished Byzantine scholar George Pachymeres (1242-ca. 1310). The edition will be accompanied by an English translation, extensive introduction and indexes at the end, and will be published in an open-access environment, freely available to both specialist and lay audience for use in many contexts. The proposed edition has been commissioned for publication by De Gruyter (series: 'Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina' = CAGB) and is part of a comprehensive editorial venture, which will make available a large number of unedited Byzantine commentaries on Aristotle's works, eventually contributing to the reception of the Aristotelian tradition in Byzantium and the development of Aristotelian studies more broadly. The project is of significant academic impact. A reliable text for Pachymeres' Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics is imperative for a wider reassessment of late Byzantine philosophy, as it will emphasise the original contributions made by scholars in this period. At the same time it will establish and help to consolidate the as yet unknown importance of the Late Byzantine period (1261-1453) as an age of considerable philosophical engagement with Aristotle. The edition and translation will throw light on contemporary educational practices by exploring the extent to which Aristotelian commentaries acted as didactic manuals. Relatedly, it will raise the need for an all-encompassing study of late Byzantine education, a topic that is still little explored and poorly understood. Furthermore, it will stimulate further research on the connections between Byzantine philosophy and Western theology and philosophy, and make us reflect on the transfer of knowledge with Arabic philosophy too. The project will help to refine our understanding of Aristotle's reception in Christian religious thought, and thus will tackle the heated question of how pagan (i.e. ancient Greek) philosophy was more or less easily incorporated into the Christian scholarly community of the later centuries of Byzantium. Last but not least, this study is intended to act as a seed project for the investigation of the undervalued topic of the function of Late Byzantine ethics both as a theoretical discipline and as a practical source of advice on how the good life was expected to be led in Constantinople and other significant parts of the Byzantine Empire.Apart from the edition and translation, this project will publish an edited volume arising from an international conference organised by the research team. The volume will be the first comprehensive study of Byzantine ethical works produced from the 10th to the 15th century and will bear the title 'Ethical works in Byzantium: continuities and transformations'. The project's findings will be communicated to the interested public via its interactive online portal, through which users may contribute their insights into the editorial process and especially some fascinating diagrams featuring in the margins of the manuscripts. Another form of public engagement will be a showcase of sample Greek manuscripts from the rich repositories of the Special Collections of the University of Glasgow Library, which will be targeted at pupils from local schools. This is envisaged as an educational introduction to medieval manuscript culture. The project illuminates a momentous period of Byzantine literary culture. More generally, it will therefore help to revisit the issue of how Byzantine studies are seen in the wider fields of intellectual and cultural history today.