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Barlaam and Ioasaph

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Robert Lee Wolff
Robert Lee Wolff
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Harvard University
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Extract

Source of half a hundred medieval popular romances, the Greek version of the Barlaam and Ioasaph legend has been variously ascribed to three different authors widely separated in time: to St. John of Damascus (c. 676–749), to an anonymous author supposed to have flourished about 600, and to St. Euthymius (d. 1028), a monk of Mount Athos. All three attributions are at present current; it now seems clear that we must discard the first two, and that we are justified in naming Euthymius as the author of this Greek version. The oriental language from which he derived this version we can now identify as Georgian. A brief summary of the evidence which may be adduced for all three attributions is in order here.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 1939 , pp. 131 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1939

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References

1 The Buddhist origin of the narrative, and the Indian origin of the Apologues are too well-known to need comment, and not sufficiently relevant here to need full bibliographical references, of which there are a great many. See, however, Wolff, R. L., The Apology of Aristides — A Re-Examination, Harvard Theological Review, XXX, 1937, pp. 233–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 233, note 1.

2 Listed, but not arranged in a pedigree, by Zotenberg, H., Notice sur le Livre de Barlaam et Josaphat, accompagnée d'extraits du texte grec et des versions arabes et éthiopiennes, in Notices et extraits des Mss. de la Bibliothèque Nationale, vol. XXVIII, Paris, 1886, pp. 3Google Scholar ff.

3 Woodward, G. R. and Mattingly, H., St. John Damascene, Barlaam and Ioasaph, London, Heinemann, 1914 (Loeb Classical Library), p. 3Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., p. xx.

5 Op. cit., passim.

6 Harris, J. Rendel, A New Christian Apology in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, VII, 1923, pp. 355–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Quest for Quadratus in Ibid., VIII, 1924, pp. 384–97; The Sources of Barlaam and Joasaph in Ibid., IX, 1925, pp. 119–29. More important are: Robinson, J. Armitage, The Passion of St. Catherine and the Romance of Barlaam and Joasaph in Journal of Theological Studies, XXV, 1924, pp. 246–53Google Scholar; and Klostermann, E. und Seeberg, E., Die Apologie der heiligen Katharina in Schriften der Königsberger gelehrten Gesellschaft, I, 2, 1924Google Scholar. See especially the review of all the above by Delehaye, Father H. in Analecta Bollandiana, XLV, 1927, pp. 151–3Google Scholar.

7 Wolff, op. cit., pp. 241 ff.

8 He arrives at this e silentio — There is no mention of the Mohammedans in the Greek Barlaam.

9 In it concur: E. Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph, Eine Bibliographisch-literargeschichtliche Studie, in Abhandlungen der Philosophisch-Philologischen Klasse der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, XX, 1894, pp. 1–87Google Scholar; Jacobs, J., Barlaam and Josaphat, London, David Nutt, 1896Google Scholar, who follows Kuhn entirely; and Krumbacher, K., Geschichte der Byzantinischen Literatur von Justinian bis zum Ende des Oströmischen Reiches, 2nd ed., München, 1897, pp. 889–91Google Scholar. This last contains an excellent bibliography up to 1897.

10 The material in this and the following paragraphs may be fully elucidated by reference to the following: Peeters, P., La Première Traduction Latine de Barlaam et Joasaph et son Original Grec, Analecta Bollandiana, XLIX, 1931, pp. 276–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wolff, op. cit., p. 234, note 2.

11 Zapiski Vostočnago Otdelenija Imp. Russk. Arch. obščestva, II, 1887, pp. 166–74Google Scholar. (This periodical hereafter referred to as Zapiski.)

12 Venice Marc. VII. 26, as follows:

[Ἱσ]τορία [ψυχ]ωϕελὴς ἐκ τῆς ἐνδοτέρας τῶν Αἰθιόπων χώρας πρὸς τὴν ἠλίαν πόλιν μετενεχθεὶς δία Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ μονῆς τοῦ ἁγίου σάββα μεταϕρασθῆσα δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱβήρων πρὸς τὴν ἑλάδα γλῶσσαν ὑπὲρ εὐθυμί[ου] ἀνδρὸς τιμίου καὶ εὐσεβοῦς τοῦ λεγομένου ἤβηρος.

Paris Bibl. Nat. 1771 as follows:

Λόγοι ψυχοϕελῆς μετενεχθεῖσαι ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν Ἐθιόπων ἐσωτέρας χώρας τῆς Ῥωμαίων γῆς καὶ μεταβληθήσαι ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ᾽Eθίοπων διαλέκτου ἐπὶ τὴν ἑλληνίδα γλῶσσαν παρὰ Εὐθυμίου τοῦ ἁγιοτάτου μοναχοῦ τοῦ Ἤβυρος τοῦ καὶ γεγωνότος καθηγητοῦ τῆς μεγάλης λάβρας τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀθανασίου τοῦ ἁγίου ὤρους. Peeters, op. cit., pp. 282–3.

13 Wolff, op. cit., p. 234 note 2. ‘This life, written by Euthymius’ relative and successor, St. George the Hagiorite, is now available in a Latin translation by Father Paul Peeters: Vies des S.S. Jean et Euthyme in Histoires Monastiques Géorgiennes, extract from Analecta Bollandiana, XXXVI–VII, Bruxelles, 1923Google Scholar. The Balavar reference appears on p. 15: “Balahvarum... ex hiberico sermone in Graecum convertit.”’

14 Partially published by N. Marr, Mudrost’ Balavari (The Wisdom of Balavar) in Zapiski, III, 1888, pp. 223–60Google Scholar. Then published in full (in Georgian) by Takaishvili, E., Sibrdzne Balahvarisi, Tiflis, 1895Google Scholar, and translated into Russian by I. Džavakhov in Zapiski, XI, 1897–1898, pp. 5–48Google Scholar. An English translation by Prof. R. P. Blake is available in the Widener Library at Harvard.

15 Hommel, F. in N. Weisslovits, Prinz und Derwisch, Munich, 1890, pp. 129–78Google Scholar, and Marr, N., Armjano-gruzinskie materialy dlja istorii Dužepoleznoi Povesti o Varlaame i Ioasafe, in Zapiski, XI, 1898, pp. 49–78Google Scholar, and Agiographičeski Materialy, in Zapiski, XIII, 1901, pp. 89–103Google Scholar.

16 See above, note 10.

17 A. Poncelet, Catal. Cod. Hag. Lat. Bibl. Neapolitanarum, Analecta Bollandiana, XXX, 1922, pp. 173–7 catalogues this manuscript, and reprints part of the prologue to the Barlaam translation. B. de Gaiffier, Analecta Bollandiana, XLVIII, 1930, p. 428, in reviewing G. Moldenhauer's Die Legende von Barlaam und Josaphat auf der Iberischen Halbinsel (Iberisch here refers to Spain and Portugal, not to Georgia) Halle, 1929, points out that Moldenhauer has neglected this Latin translation. Except for these mentions, until Peeters’ article this manuscript has as far as I know been ignored by scholars.

18 It has been my privilege to work from a photostatic reproduction of this section of the manuscript, now available in the Widener Library. I have entirely transcribed it, and find that it throws some interesting sidelights upon the legend, besides supplying the material here published. I hope soon to publish further articles on these matters.

19 Peeters, op. cit., p. 281. Naples ms. 416v 2. The MS. is double-columned: Thus the above notation means folio 416, verso, column 2.

20 Peeters, op. cit., pp. 277–9 reprints this prologue, which, in the ms., runs from 416v 2 to 417v 1.

21 Ibid., pp. 279–80 and 286–7. Peeters cites also the evidence for Euthymius’ authorship afforded by the Gelathi ms. of the Testament of St. John, Euthymius’ father. Cf. Wolff, op. cit., p. 246 and notes. Thus we have Euthymius’ authorship confirmed twice in Georgian, twice in Greek, and once in Latin.

22 See Blake, R. P., Georgian Theological Literature, in Journal of Theological Studies, XXVI, 1924, pp. 54 ffGoogle Scholar.

23 The Pehlevi version, or rather versions are noted in the Kitab-al-Fihrist of Abu'l Faraj an-Nadim, who died about 1000 A.D. This work is a list of those Pehlevi (middle Persian) books translated into Arabic. The Pehlevi version was probably done at the court of Khusro I in the sixth century when many pieces of Indian literature were translated, and was almost certainly the first Christian form of the legend. The reason for assuming a Syriac text is that many works passed into Greek from the Pehlevi via Syriac; Barlaam and Ioasaph, however, took the more unusual route of Arabic and Georgian. See Christensen, A., L'Iran sous les Sassanides, vol. 48 of the Annales du Musée Guimet, Paris & Copenhagen, 1936, p. 424Google Scholar; Peeters, op. cit., p. 306. The Kitab-al-Fihrist is edited by Fluegel, G., Rödiger, J. and Müller, A. — 2 volumes, Leipzig, 1871–2Google Scholar. The oldest Arabic version of Barlaam and Ioasaph is published by Hommel, F., Die älteste Arabische Barlaamversion, in Verhandlungen des 7 internationalen Orientalisten Congresses, Semit. Section, Vienna, 1887, pp. 115–65Google Scholar, and is translated into English by E. Rehatsek, Book of the King's Son and the Ascetic, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series, XXII, pp. 119–155.

24 Peeters, op. cit., passim.

25 Naples ms. 501r 2–501v 1.

26 In a forthcoming study I expect to discuss at length the technique of this translator.

27 Allen, W. E. D., History of the Georgian People, London, Kegan Paul, 1932Google Scholar. Passim, especially map to illustrate historical geography of Georgia from the tenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century A.D.

28 Ibid., pp. 28–9.

29 Procopius, De Bello Gothico IV, 4, ed. Haury, II, pp. 498–500, Leipzig, Teubner, 1905Google Scholar; see also Dieterich, K., Byzantinische Quellen zur Länder und Völkerkunde, vol. V of Quellen und Forschungen zur Erd- und Kulturkunde ed. Stübe, R., Leipzig, 1912, 1, p. 52Google Scholar.

30 Ed. De Boor, Leipzig, Teubner, 1885, II, pp. 309–10Google Scholar, 391 ff.

31 Ed. Bekker, Bonn, 1838, p. 203Google Scholar.

32 De Administrando Imperio, Chapter 46, cited by Dieterich, op. cit., I, p. 50.

33 II, Chapters 4 and 5 — cited by Dieterich, op. cit., II, p. 27.

34 Allen, op. cit., pp. 80–1.

35 Ibid., pp. 84 ff.

36 See Brosset, M., Histoire de La Géorgie, St. Petersburg, 1849, I, p. 330Google Scholar; and Additions et Eclaircissements, 1851Google Scholar, Addition XII, Rapports entre la Géorgie et la Grèce sous Bagrat IV, pp. 218–226.

37 Marr, N., Ioann Petriski, Gruzinski Neoplatonik XI–XII veka, Zapiski, XIX, 1909, pp. 53–113Google Scholar.

38 Ibid., p. 100. Italus’ story is found in Anna Comnena, Alexiad, tr. Dawes, London, Kegan Paul, 1928, pp. 132–7.

39 Marr, op. cit., p. 108, and note 1.