Chronographia (Michael Psellus)

Meanwhile, for the History written by Psellus, we possess only Manuscript 1712 from the National Library of France. It is a true collection original: "corpus" of Byzantine history, beginning with the Creation of the world and ending with the reign of Michael VII. Among the chroniclers included in this volume, Simeon the Logothete is the first, Leo the Deacon is the second, and Michael Psellus—who continued Leo's work—is the third.

This manuscript was purchased in Italy by the coin expert and book lover original: "numismatist and bibliophil" Raphael Trichet from Bordeaux. He shared it with François Combefis, who used it for his scholarly description of Constantinople¹. It is listed as number sixteen among the forty Greek manuscripts in the Trichet collection, though it is identified in the printed catalog by an inaccurate title: Chronicles collected from various authors by Simeon the Logothete². After the owner’s death in 1661, his widow sold the entire collection to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister for King Louis XIV. Colbert placed it with his other acquisitions in the King’s Library The Bibliothèque du Roy, the predecessor to the modern National Library of France, where it is cataloged as number 1712³.

I have personally re-examined original: "recollated" the manuscript for this edition. In the margins of each page, I have marked the corresponding page numbers for both the original handwritten book The codex and the first printed edition The "editio princeps", which I published in 1874 in the fourth volume of the Greek Library of the Middle Ages original: "Bibliotheca Graeca medii aevi". Because it was copied by a careless scribe, the manuscript is riddled with mistakes, which I have attempted to correct. In this labor, I have been assisted by my learned colleague, Mr. Bury, to whom I express my sincere thanks. Some of these corrections may seem quite daring; nevertheless, I venture to offer the following additional suggestions for the consideration of my learned readers⁴:

p. 3, l. 24: "he enjoyed" original: παραπήλαυε. 17, 2: "multitudes" πλήθη. 17, 32: "insults" λοιδορίας. 31, 1: "they capture" αἱροῦσι. 31, 9: "companions" ἑταίρους. 53, 6: "forethought" προμηθείας. 53, 16: "being stationed" ταττόμενος. 72, 2: "slandered" διαβεβλη-.

¹ Origins of Constantinople original: "Origin. Constantinop.", 1664, p. 265.
² Catalog of the books in the library of Raphael Trichet Du Fresne, Paris original: "Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Raphaelis Tricheti Du Fresne, Parisiis", 1662.
³ See Hase in his edition of Leo the Deacon, preface p. xxii.
⁴ [In some passages I would correct the text even more freely than Mr. Sathas. For instance, on page 33, line 4, I would not hesitate to restore "to rebuild in turn" original: ἀντανοικοδομεῖν in place of "to build up again" ἀναντοικοδομεῖν. On page 48, line 2 (and 88, line 10), I have no doubt that Psellus wrote "shamed" or "disgraced" κατησχυμμένος, and there are other such cases, a few of which I have ventured to indicate in the...