Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

MAXIMUS PLANUDES (c. 1260-1330)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 783 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

MAXIMUS See also:PLANUDES (c. 1260-1330)  , See also:Byzantine grammarian and theologian, flourished during the reigns of See also:Michael VIII. and Andronicus II: Palaeologi . He was See also:born at See also:Nicomedia in See also:Bithynia, but the greater See also:part of his See also:life was spent in See also:Constantinople, where as a See also:monk he devoted himself to studyand teaching . On entering the monastery he changed his See also:original name See also:Manuel to See also:Maximus . See also:Planudes possessed a knowledge of Latin remarkable at a See also:time when See also:Rome and See also: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 See also:settlement in Pera . A more important result was that Planudes, especially by his See also:translations, paved the way for the introduction of the See also:Greek See also:language and literature into the See also:West . He was the author of numerous See also:works; notably a Greek See also:grammar in the See also:form of question and See also:answer,like the ' Epurltµara of See also:Moschopulus, with an appendix on the so-called " See also:political " See also:verse; a See also:treatise on syntax; a See also:biography of See also:Aesop and a See also:prose version of the fables; scholia on certain Greek authors ; two See also:hexameter poems, one a eulogy of See also:Claudius See also:Ptolemaeus, the other an See also:account of the sudden See also:change of an ox into a See also:mouse; a treatise on the method of calculating in use amongst the See also:Indians (ed . C . J . See also:Gerhardt, See also:Halle, 1865) ; and scholia to the first two books of the See also:Arithmetic of See also:Diophantus . His numerous translations from the Latin included See also:Cicero's Somnium Scipionis with the commentary of See also:Macrobius: See also:Caesar's Gallic See also:War; See also:Ovid's Heroides'and Metamorphoses; See also:Boetius, De consolatione philosophiae; See also:Augustine, De trinitate . These translations were very popular during the See also:middle ages as textbooks for the study of Greek .

It is, however, as the editor and compiler of the collection of See also:

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

End of Article: MAXIMUS PLANUDES (c. 1260-1330)
[back]
PLANTS
[next]
PLAQUE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.