Hostname: page-component-75d7c8f48-x9v92 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-14T04:48:07.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ninety new Greek proverbs of Hermodorus Rhegius: edition and textual history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2026

Toon Van Hal Open the ORCID record for Toon Van Hal [Opens in a new window]  and
Han Lamers
Toon Van Hal*
Affiliation:
University of Oslo University of Leuven
Han Lamers*
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
*
toonv@uio.no
hanla@uio.no
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the early seventeenth century, the Greek Jesuit Hermodorus Rhegius (1579–1655) compiled a collection of Greek proverbs which constitutes important evidence for early modern Greek language and culture. Little is known about Hermodorus aside from his pastoral and educational work across the Aegean islands, primarily on Chios. For over two centuries, his proverbs were known mainly through the work of Charles Du Cange, who cited twenty-seven of them. The early twentieth century, however, saw three additional proverbs uncovered in a manuscript in the National Library of France (Français 9467), and a recent discovery in the Médiathèque d’Orléans (MS 0422) has added ninety more. This article revisits Hermodorus’ legacy in light of this new evidence and presents an edition of all 120 proverbs attributed to his collection, thereby enlarging the corpus fourfold. Tracing the collection’s textual history for the first time, this study also reveals a small network of scholars in early modern France with a keen interest in Greek proverbs.

Keywords

Byzantine GreekproverbsHermodorus RhegiusGreek Jesuits

Information

Type
Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 30
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press or the rights holder(s) must be obtained prior to any commercial use.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham.

ἔπεσε τὸ λάδι μας μέτα στὸ τζουκάλι μας

Hermodorus Rhegius, proverb 85Footnote 1

Denn die Anschauung, dass jedes byzantinische Geisteswerk Abklatsch oder Nachahmung eines antiken Vorbildes sein müsse, ist allgemein verbreitet und trifft für grosse Litteraturgebiete wirklich zu. Für die mittelgriechischen Sprichwörter gilt sie nicht; sie bilden eine der zahlreichen Ausnahmen von der Regel. Footnote 2

Given Karl Krumbacher’s interest in medieval Greek proverbs, it is no surprise that he was fascinated by the so-called Adagia of Hermodorus Rhegius, a collection of an uncertain number of such proverbs gathered by a little-known Greek compiler. While the collection’s significance for proverbial literature and the Greek language has been recognized, Hermodorus’ proverbs were long known only through Charles Du Cange’s Glossarium mediae et infimae Graecitatis (1688). At various points in his dictionary, Du Cange cited twenty-six of them to illustrate the meaning and usage of the words he discussed. He included one further proverb in his commentary on Anna Komnene’s Alexiad, published in 1670.Footnote 3 In the early twentieth century, the discovery of new evidence led to an expansion of Hermodorus’ collection to thirty proverbs. The editions by Émile Legrand (1841–1903) and Johanna Maria Petzold (1878–?), issued independently in consecutive years, were both based on the same manuscript housed in the National Library of France in Paris (Français 9467). These editions supplemented the twenty-seven proverbs previously published by Du Cange with an additional three.Footnote 4

A recently located manuscript in the public library of Orléans, containing 120 proverbs plausibly attributed to Hermodorus, adds ninety new entries to the existing record of the Adagia and provides a more complete text for two known proverbs. This article presents, for the first time, the contents of this new textual witness and clarifies our current understanding of the transmission history of Hermodorus’ collection. After introducing the author and his proverb collection, we briefly discuss the existing scholarship on the subject. Then, we provide an overview of the textual history, before offering the first edition of the new manuscript.

Hermodorus Rhegius and his Adagia

Regarding the life of Hermodorus Rhegius (Ἑρμόδωρος Ῥέγγιος/Ῥέκγιος/Ῥέτζιος, Ermodoro Reggio, 1579–1655), we possess only limited information.Footnote 5 Born on Zakynthos or Chios in 1579,Footnote 6 he studied logic at the Greek College in Rome (1605–8, 1613), an institution for Catholic boys from the Greek-speaking world that aimed to train missionaries for the Roman Catholic Church in the East.Footnote 7 In 1605, while still studying there, Hermodorus joined the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, where he served in various roles and eventually became prefect in 1608, before entering the Society of Jesus on 24 December 1613. He attained the rank of spiritual coadjutor, assisting in pastoral duties, in 1626.Footnote 8 After departing from Rome, Hermodorus lived and worked on various Aegean islands, with a few surviving letters and reports sent to Rome reflecting his pastoral and missionary work.Footnote 9 In 1633, for instance, he reported from Syros that he had converted a young woman who had lived in sin with an infidel for twelve years: unable to confess to a Greek priest due to payment requirements, she embraced the Latin rite after attending Hermodorus’ sermons, a fact he reported with joy.Footnote 10

Within the Aegean world, it seems Hermodorus primarily operated from Chios. From the early fourteenth century until its surrender to the Ottoman Turks in 1566, this island had been under Genoese control. Subsequently, under the Ottomans, the Roman Catholic community remained well represented: around 1638, approximately a quarter of the island’s population was Roman Catholic, while sixty percent were identified as Orthodox.Footnote 11 Among the Catholic orders active on Chios, the Jesuits stood out. Having arrived around 1590, they had by the middle of the seventeenth century established at least three schools on the island and several local divisions of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, which served to enhance the Society’s public outreach.Footnote 12 While his exact role in the community of Chios remains unclear, it is likely that Hermodorus carried out pastoral work and teaching among the island’s Catholic community. He died on Chios on 8 September 1655 at the age of roughly 76. While most of his manuscripts were probably lost in the Massacre of Chios in 1822, he is recognized as the owner of Barb. gr. 203 (Diktyon 64750) in the Vatican Library, which includes the works of George Pachymeres.Footnote 13

Hermodorus probably gathered his proverbs during his travels in the Greek archipelago and on Chios. Thematically, they encompass both religious and secular subjects, while linguistically they appear to reflect a milieu influenced by Italian culture, consistent with the circles in which their compiler moved. We currently have no information as to why Hermodorus collected them. While the complete text of the collection remains unconfirmed, selections have been in circulation since at least the second half of the seventeenth century.

Existing scholarship

Apart from a brief mention among the Greek paroemiologists listed in Fabricius’ Bibliotheca Graeca,Footnote 14 Hermodorus’ proverbs garnered little scholarly attention until the late nineteenth century. In 1888, the young professor Otto Crusius (1857–1918) from Tübingen appears to have rediscovered the collection’s importance.Footnote 15 Crusius’ interest in Hermodorus arose from his broader interest in Greek proverbs, particularly those compiled by Maximos Planoudes, to which he had devoted an article a year earlier.Footnote 16 For the German scholar, who at that time knew of Hermodorus solely through Du Cange’s Glossarium, Hermodorus was to be considered a medieval or early Renaissance scribe, predating Michael Apostolios (1420–78) and his celebrated collection of Greek proverbs, first published in print in 1538.Footnote 17 Intrigued by the similarities between one of each compiler’s proverbs, he speculated that Apostolios might have copied from Hermodorus’ collection, ‘classicizing’ the language in typically humanist fashion. The pioneering Greek folklorist Nikolaos Politis (1852–1921) disagreed with Crusius on this point; from the features of Hermodorus’ language, he inferred that the authorship was probably more recent than Crusius had suggested. He also contended that the similarities between the collections of Hermodorus and Apostolios should be traced back to a common origin in Greek proverbial folklore rather than any direct dependence.Footnote 18 In 1904, one of Crusius’ students, Johanna Maria Petzold, endorsed Politis’ conclusions, observing that the collections of Apostolios and Hermodorus do not show significant overlap.Footnote 19

While his dating may have been erroneous, Crusius nonetheless appears to have been the first to recognize the importance of Hermodorus’ collection, not only for the study of proverbs but also for its use of medieval Greek. In 1894, Karl Krumbacher (1856–1909), the ‘founding father’ of Byzantine studies, also acknowledged its significance. Like Crusius, he highlighted the potential connection between Hermodorus’ and Apostolios’ collections, although he was less explicit regarding the likely direction of influence. It seems Krumbacher was unaware of Crusius’ article on Hermodorus and did not conduct extensive research on the topic himself, but he encouraged Paris-based specialists, particularly Henri Omont (1857–1940) and Émile Legrand, to search for a manuscript containing Hermodorus’ collection or at least the manuscript used by Du Cange.Footnote 20

Omont and Legrand both undertook scholarly projects that introduced them to the proverbs. Cataloguing the manuscripts at the National Library of France, Omont noted that the papers of Du Cange, preserved in MS Français 9467, contained, as he recorded in his inventory, ‘Adagia [neo-graeca] collecta a R(everendo) P(atre) Hermodoro Rhegio’.Footnote 21 Legrand also made significant strides in addressing the gaps in knowledge identified by Crusius and Krumbacher. An avid collector of early modern Greek literature, he was naturally more interested in the proverbs and their compiler than was Omont. While studying the seventeenth century, he encountered Hermodorus and his work during research on the Greek College in Rome.Footnote 22 Legrand collected all the information he could find on Hermodorus and published the thirty proverbs from the manuscript identified by Omont.Footnote 23 Since his work on Hermodorus was published over 120 years ago, there has been little additional scholarship on the topic, aside from Petzold’s edition.

The textual history of Hermodorus’ Adagia and its significance

The textual history of Hermodorus’ Adagia remains understudied. To date, no autograph of the collection has surfaced, nor has a complete compilation been discovered. The transmission of the currently known proverbs (including the ninety added in this article) is attributable to the work of Adrien Parvilliers (1619–78). Born in Amiens on 22 April 1619, Parvilliers joined the Jesuits on 21 August 1637. Sent as a missionary to Syria and Egypt, he arrived in the Levant (at Sidon, in present-day Lebanon) in November 1650.Footnote 24 In Damascus, he took his solemn profession of four vows on 22 August 1654 and shortly thereafter took over local leadership from the versatile Jesuit Hiérôme Queyrot on his death in 1655.Footnote 25 Mastering both classical and dialectal Arabic after just two years, he was highly respected among the local population.Footnote 26 In 1658, he arrived in Egypt.Footnote 27 After a decade abroad, however, he returned to France, probably due to illness,Footnote 28 and settled in Caen. From his correspondence with Du Cange, we learn that Parvilliers made every effort to persuade Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s first minister of state, to allow him to teach Arabic in Paris.Footnote 29 For reasons that remain unclear, his superiors eventually made him leave Caen, and he died on 11 September 1678 in Hesdin, northern France.Footnote 30 The only work that Parvilliers published during his lifetime was a complete description of places in Jerusalem associated with the Passion; this highly successful work resonated with Christian readers well into the nineteenth century.Footnote 31

Nothing is known of Hermodorus and Parvilliers’ potential relationship, yet they may have met on Chios, a common staging point for travellers, or elsewhere in the Aegean, where French Jesuits were particularly active.Footnote 32 If they did encounter one another, it would have been sometime between 1650, when Parvilliers travelled to the Levant, and September 1655, when Hermodorus died. Alternatively, Parvilliers may simply have copied the proverbs after Hermodorus’ death; he does not mention any intermediaries. Parvilliers’ interest in the collection of Hermodorus is part of his wider fascination with the Levant, where Greek was one of the many languages he mastered. According to Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630–1721), one of Parvilliers’ many correspondents, he ‘had collected a great harvest of oriental knowledge’ in the East, which he hoped to publish under the title Interpres Orientis.Footnote 33 This work, however, did not materialize, and Parvilliers’ drafts are said to be lost.Footnote 34 Parvilliers may have intended to include Hermodorus’ collection of proverbs as part of that larger work on ‘oriental’ wisdom.

Ultimately, we owe our knowledge of Hermodorus’ proverbs to Parvilliers’ generosity in disseminating selected examples to interested contacts in France. While he may have sent proverbs to more recipients, we are currently aware of just four:

  1. 1. Parvilliers sent thirty proverbs to the Protestant scholar Jacques Moisant de Brieux (1611–74), an active contributor to French paroemiology and the centre of a vibrant network of scholars in Caen.Footnote 35 The undated list survives in the papers of Charles Du Cange, preserved at the National Library of France (Français 9467, ff. 38r–39v). This list formed the basis of Legrand’s 1903 edition, which was directly based on the manuscript, and Petzold’s 1904 edition, which drew on a transcript (exemplar) of Français 9467 that she claimed to have received from Crusius.Footnote 36 Petzold assumed this was the list Parvilliers sent to Du Cange. Legrand observed that it had been sent to Moisant de Brieux, yet made no further comment.Footnote 37

  2. 2. In May 1667, Parvilliers sent Du Cange two Greek inscriptions along with thirty proverbs, which Du Cange gratefully acknowledged upon receipt.Footnote 38 In a second letter, Parvilliers promised to send Du Cange more proverbs,Footnote 39 and in a third, he mentioned that he could provide an additional 100. It appears, however, that this offer was not followed up.Footnote 40 Parvilliers’ original letter containing the thirty proverbs has not resurfaced. The twenty-six proverbs cited by Du Cange in his 1668 Glossarium likely originated from this correspondence, possibly in combination with Parvilliers’ letter to Moisant de Brieux. Among the sources consulted for his dictionary, he notes the following: ‘Hermodorus Rhegius’ Proverbs, under the title Proverbs Collected by the Reverend Father Hermodorus Rhegius. Adrianus Parvilerius of the Society of Jesus copied them and sent them to me some time ago.’Footnote 41

  3. 3. Legrand mentions a letter from the Jesuit scholar Carlos Sommervogel (1834–1902) indicating that in 1670, Parvilliers sent fifty proverbs to Pierre-Daniel Huet, a good friend of Moisant de Brieux’s and a member of his literary circle, the Academia Briosa. Huet maintained good relations with the Jesuits.Footnote 42 As in his letter to Du Cange, Parvilliers also mentioned to Huet that he had access to another hundred or so additional proverbs. We do not know whether Sommervogel had access to Parvilliers’ original letter to Huet, but, apparently unknown to Legrand, the letter is preserved in a manuscript of the National Library of France (Français 15188, ff. 355–356).Footnote 43 The list with fifty proverbs has not yet been located.

  4. 4. The largest, and previously unknown, selection from Hermodorus’ collection, totalling 120 proverbs, was sent by Parvilliers to Louis Gaudefroy (d. 1725), who transcribed them in a manuscript now preserved in the Médiathèque d’Orléans (MS 0422). These hitherto unpublished proverbs contribute ninety new entries to the existing record of thirty published by Legrand and Petzold. Gaudefroy’s biographer refers briefly to these proverbs (‘ce curieux fragment de littérature grecque’) but does not seem to recognize their historical significance and fails to mention either Hermodorus or Parvilliers.Footnote 44 Since the latter stated in his letters to Du Cange and Huet that he had approximately 100 (‘une centaine’) proverbs in addition to the thirty–fifty he shared with them, this list of 120 likely represents the majority, if not all, of the proverbs that Parvilliers copied from Hermodorus’ collection.Footnote 45 Furthermore, Gaudefroy added Latin and French translations, along with moral interpretations.

Crusius and Krumbacher highlighted the importance of Hermodorus’ collection for the study of the Greek language and Greek proverbs. A linguistic analysis of the collection, addressing dialectical variation, influences from Latin and other languages, and classicizing tendencies, could reveal how its language reflects the proverbs’ provenance and offer insights into the language of Hermodorus and his contemporaries. The presence of Latinisms, for example, suggests that the proverbs were used in circles with Italian influence, consistent with the milieu in which Hermodorus operated. Further research is also needed to position the collection within the existing record of post-antique Greek proverbs. Contemporary collections are particularly important here, including the largely forgotten compilation by the Orientalist Levinus Warner (c. 1616–65). Although Hermodorus’ collection has not yet been linked to Warner’s, the two display interesting overlaps and variants, suggesting something of the liveliness of the tradition to which they responded.Footnote 46 The connection with Warner’s collection appears, indeed, to be a more promising avenue for further research than that with Apostolios’ collection, as Hermodorus and Warner share a similar scope, whereas Apostolios primarily focuses on ancient proverbs. Beyond its literary and linguistic significance, Hermodorus’ collection also holds historical value, illustrating early interest in Greek proverbs among both Greek and learned Western European audiences. Its history has uncovered, as the above discussion demonstrates, a cross-confessional network of French scholars with a keen interest in Greek proverbs. It remains to be explored how these scholars’ interests in the material overlapped and differed, as well as how this might connect to the broader European fascination with contemporary Greece emerging during the period.

The manuscript in Orléans and its scribe

Below, we present a diplomatic edition of the text of 120 Greek proverbs in the redaction by Parvilliers and Gaudefroy, preserved in MS 0422 (formerly 362) in the Médiathèque d’Orléans.

The manuscript, consisting of 433 paper folios written by Gaudefroy, was donated to the library by his children in 1725, along with at least five other manuscripts of his composition. Gaudefroy, also known as Godefroy or Gaudeffroy,Footnote 47 practised medicine in Orléans from 1657 until his death in 1725.Footnote 48 His manuscripts include extensive indices, occasional prefaces, and carefully crafted illustrations, all of which warrant closer examination.Footnote 49 MS 0422 contains texts on various subjects that demonstrate his eclectic interests and his affinity for multiple languages.Footnote 50 It includes a collection of hieroglyphs, portraits of mythological and historical figures, notes on Arab physicians, antiquities from Rhodes, Egypt, Sicily, and Tenedos, information about mummies, Greek inscriptions, Arabic proverbs, and more.Footnote 51

The list of Greek proverbs is preceded by a concise preface in which Gaudefroy explains that the proverbs were collected by Hermodorus and that he himself received them from Parvilliers. Gaudefroy also notes that, for each proverb, he has included a word-for-word Latin translation, a French rendering, and a brief explanation of its meaning. These additions have been included in the edition below.

Edition of the proverbs

The edition is based on the text of MS 0422 (ff. 99r–104r: ‘Greek proverbs that are currently used in Greece’) from the Médiathèque d’Orléans. The edition provides the Greek text (column 2), Gaudefroy’s Latin and French translations (columns 3 and 4), and, where applicable, further explanations added by him (column 5). While we have organized the text in a table for clarity, Figure 1 illustrates Gaudefroy’s original layout. A superscripted word in the edition indicates a term originally written above the preceding word.

Fig. 1. The first leaf of ‘Proverbes Grecs’ (Médiathèque d’Orléans, MS 0422, f. 99r).

The text is presented in its original form as far as is possible. In the Greek text, we have retained the original spelling and placement of diacritics, including variations such as -αις for -ες, ταῖς for τις, as well as inconsistencies, such as ὅνταν alongside ὄνταν, ἄγουστου alongside αὔγουστον, and ἀπανθήξῃ alongside ἀπαντήξῃ. We have also preserved the original French orthography, except for the capitalization. Abbreviations and ligatures in both French and Greek have been resolved. Punctuation has been regularized. Simple erasures have not been recorded.

Proverbs already published by Du Cange are marked with an asterisk (*) for those included in his Glossarium and a paragraph sign (§) for the one example that appears in his commentary on the Alexiad. The three additional proverbs published by Legrand and Petzold are marked with a dagger (†). For ease of reference, the numbers from the list of Moisant de Brieux, preserved in Français 9467, are included in brackets; these also correspond to the numbering used in the editions by Legrand and Petzold, which are based on that manuscript.

Divergences from Moisant de Brieux’s list are typically minor: Français 9467 has διαβαίνουν in prov. 2, ἀπαντήξῃ in prov. 4, ἔρηαιο in prov. 5, παπὰ in prov. 7, φτωχὸς in prov. 18, νύφη in prov. 20, γαϊτανοφρυδοὺ in prov. 36, and νερὸ in prov. 37. In two instances, Français 9467 presents a less complete text than Gaudefroy’s manuscript: in the former, the alternative for prov. 9 (ὁποῦ στέκει … ξεύρει) is missing, while prov. 17 is transmitted only partially, as the phrase εἶναι … ἀρέσει is absent.

Suggestions for emendation have been documented in the footnotes.

Proverbes Grecs
qui sont maintenant en usage
en Grece

Le R. P. Parvilliers de la Compagnie de Jesus qui a demeuré dix ans au Levant m’a communiqué de sa grace entre autres curiositez les proverbes qui sont aujourdhuy usitez par les Grecs, et qui ont esté ramassez par le R. P. Hermodore de Rhegio. Ils sont en grec vulgaire: Je me suis avisé d’y joindre, une interpretation latine de mot a mot, et une francoise en suite, avec la moralité. Les voicy.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the staff of the Médiathèque d’Orléans for their advice and support during our visits to the library in July 2025. We also wish to thank Francesco Trespidi for his assistance in providing an initial transcription of the Greek text, as well as Anastasia Maravela and Vasileios Pappas for sharing their insights on some Greek-related issues. We are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Research for this publication was made possible through the EU-funded Twinning Project ‘Greek Heritage in European Culture and Identity’ (GrECI) under the Horizon WIDERA-2021 ACCESS call (grant no. 101079379). The article is freely available thanks to the Open Access Agreement with the University of Oslo.

We dedicate this article to the memory of Luc Van der Stockt and Nico de Glas, Hellenists and masters of the witty phrase.

Toon Van Hal (PhD, University of Leuven, 2008) is currently Professor at the Linguistics Department of the University of Leuven as well as Professor II at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, and the History of Art and Ideas of the University of Oslo. He mainly publishes on the history of ideas on language and languages over time.

Han Lamers (PhD, Leiden University, 2013) is Professor of Classics at the University of Oslo and Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome. His most recent monograph, which includes a critical edition of the Latin poems of Manilius Cabacius Rallus of Sparta, was published in 2024 in the Renaissance Society of America Texts and Studies Series (Brill). Lamers also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Symbolae Osloenses: Norwegian Journal of Greek and Latin Studies.

References

1 ‘Our oil spilled, yet it fell right into our pot.’

2 K. Krumbacher, Mittelgriechische Sprichwörter (Munich 1893) 1.

3 C. Du Cange, Ἰωάννου Κιννάμου βασιλικοῦ γραμματικοῦ ἱστοριῶν λόγοι ἕξ (Paris 1670) 225. It concerns proverb 8 in the collection published here, not previously included in modern editions of Hermodorus’ collection.

4 É. Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique ou description raisonnée des ouvrages publiés par des Grecs au dix-septième siècle, V (Paris 1903) 243–4; M. Petzold, Quaestiones paroemiographicae miscellaneae: dissertatio inauguralis (Leipzig 1904) 68–9.

5 Most information on Hermodorus stems from Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique, V, 240–4. The data compiled by Legrand was confirmed and enhanced by the archival research presented in Z. Tsirpanles, Το Ελληνικό Κολλέγιο της Ρώμης και οι μαθητές του (1576–1700) (Thessaloniki 1980) 394–5 (no. 226). See also A. Fyrigos, Il Collegio greco di Roma: ricerche sugli allunni, la direzione, l’attività (Rome 1983) 17; T. Papadopoulos, ‘Αἰγαιοπελαγῖται μαθηταὶ τοῦ ἐν Ῥώμῃ Φροντιστηρίου τοῦ Ἁγίου Ἀθανασίου’, Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Κυκλαδικῶν Μελετῶν 8 (1970) 484–566 (541).

6 There is some confusion regarding Hermodorus’ birthplace. He is at least once referred to as ‘Hermodorus Rhegius Chius’, yet contemporaries also believed he was born on Zakynthos, with some suggesting that he may have had Chian ancestry. See the evidence gathered in Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique, V, 240–2 (Legrand himself believed Hermodorus was born in Zakynthos). The Reggio family is recorded in early modern Chios and was sometimes believed to have Genoese origins: see G. I. Zolotas, Ἱστορία τῆς Χίου, I.2 (Athens 1923) 208–10.

7 On this college, see Fyrigos, Il Collegio greco di Roma; Tsirpanles, Το Ελληνικό Κολλέγιο.

8 On this role, see E. J. Burrus, ‘Father Jacques Marquette, S.J.: his priesthood in the light of the Jesuit Roman archives’, The Catholic Historical Review 41.3 (1955) 257–71.

9 For the most complete overview of the known documents pertaining to Hermodorus, see Tsirpanles, Το Ελληνικό Κολλέγιο, 394–95 (no. 226).

10 Hermodorus’ report is preserved in Rome, Historical Archives of ‘De Propaganda Fide’, Visite e Collegi, vol. 12 (1634), 1633, ff. 223r–226v, cited in E. Borromeo, ‘Conversions intra chrétiennes dans l’Empire ottoman au xviie s.: le cas des passages du catholicisme à l’orthodoxie. Quelques reflexions’, Études Balkaniques 16 (2009) 61–76 (73). See also E. Borromeo, ‘Les Cyclades à l’époque ottomane: l’insularité vue par les missionnaires jésuites (1625–1644)’, in N. Vatin and G. Veinstein (eds), Insularités ottomanes (Paris 2004) 123–44.

11 G. Hofmann, Vescovadi cattolici della Grecia, I: Chios (Rome 1934) 16.

12 On Chios in the period, see A. M. Vlasto, A History of the Island of Chios, A.D. 70–1822, tr. A. P. Ralli (London 1913) 66–72; A. M. Vlasto, Χιακὰ ἤτοι ἱστορία τῆς νήσου Χίου […], II (Hermopolis 1840) 80–96. On the role and position of the Roman Catholic Church on the island, see also Hofmann, Vescovadi cattolici della Grecia, I: Chios, 13–24. On education and learning, including Catholic scholars and teachers, see G. I. Zolotas, Ἱστορία τῆς Χίου, III.1 (Athens 1926) 373–657; K. Amantos, ‘Ἡ παιδεία εἰς τὴν Τουρκοκρατουμένην Χίον (1566–1822)’, Ἑλληνικά: ἱστορικὸν περιοδικὸν δημοσίευμα 3 (1930) 381–414 (esp. 381–7). None of these works mentions Hermodorus. On the role of the congregations, see M. Tadros, The Jesuits in Syria: 1625–1683 (Cham 2024) 118.

13 V. Laurent, ‘Les manuscrits de l’histoire byzantine de Georges Pachymère’, Byzantion 5.1 (1929) 129–205 (156).

14 J. A. Fabricius, Bibliothecae graecae Liber IV (Hamburg 1717) 286.

15 O. Crusius, ‘Die Adagia des Hermodorus Rhegius’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 43 (1888) 478–9.

16 O. Crusius, ‘Ueber die Sprichwörtersammlung des Maximus Planudes’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 42 (1887) 386–425.

17 M. Apostolios, ᾽Αποστολίου τοῦ Βυζαντίου παροιμίαι. Apostolii Bisantii paroemia (Basel 1538). Daniel Heinsius published a revised edition in 1619 with Pierre Pantin, the so-called editio Pantiniana (M. Apostolios, Μιχαήλου ᾽Αποστολίου παροιμίαι. Michaelis Apostolii Paroemiae. Nunc demum, post Epitomen Basiliensem, integrae cum Petri Pantini versione, ejusque & Doctorum Notis, in lucem editae, ed. D. Heinsius [Leiden 1619]), before the collection was integrated into the Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum (E. L. von Leutsch [ed.], Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum [Göttingen 1851] 233–744). On the status quaestionis, see L. M. Ciolfi, ‘The Apostolis: a family of modern paremiologists in the XVIth century (Part I: written evidences)’, in R. Soares and O. Lauhakangas (eds), 7th Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs: proceedings (Tavira, 3–10 November 2013) (Tavira 2014) 174–84.

18 N. G. Politis, Μελέται περὶ τοῦ βίου καὶ τῆς γλῶσσης τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ λαοῦ, I (Athens 1899) κς´–κζ´.

19 Petzold, Quaestiones paroemiographicae, 2, 68.

20 Krumbacher, Mittelgriechische Sprichwörter, 262–3.

21 H. Omont, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque nationale (1898) 230.

22 Legrand’s work on the Greek College is evidenced by his extensive notes and transcripts from the College’s archives, preserved in the National Library of France (Français 2138–2147), although these volumes do not seem to contain any information about Hermodorus.

23 See Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique II, 453 and V, 240–2.

24 Letter in C. Libois, Monumenta Proximi-Orientis, V: Égypte (1591–1699) (Rome 2002) 175–6.

25 C. Libois, ‘Les Jésuites de l’ancienne Compagnie en Egypte’, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 51 (1982) 161–89 (182). On Queyrot, see B. Heyberger, Les chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique (Syrie, Liban, Palestine, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles) (Rome 1994) passim.

26 A. Rabbath, Documents inédits pour servir à l’histoire du christianisme en Orient (XVI–XIX siècle), II (Paris–Leipzig 1910) 220–1; Heyberger, Les chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique (Syrie, Liban, Palestine, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles) 321. See also S. Brentjes, ‘“Renegades” and missionaries as minorities in the transfer of knowledge’, in E. Ihsanoglu, K. Chatzis, and E. Nicolaidis (eds), Multicultural Science in the Ottoman Empire (Turnhout 2003) 63–70 (65–6); Tadros, The Jesuits in Syria, passim.

27 Libois, ‘Les Jésuites de l’ancienne Compagnie en Egypte’, 182. Libois offers different life dates: 19 April 1620 – 4 November 1678.

28 L. Moreri, Nouveau supplement au grand dictionnaire historique genealogique, geographique […], II (1749) 240; Anon., Missionnaires jésuites du Levant dans l’Ancienne Compagnie: 1523–1820 (Beyrouth 1935) 54–5.

29 ‘[L]’interest des negoce en plus de deux mille lieues de costes de ce pais ou l’on parle cette langue pourra faire reussir cette affaire. En ce cas je quitterois la predication, et aurois habitude avec les doctes de paris’ (f. 236v), in C. Du Cange, ‘Copies de lettres écrites à ou par Du Cange’, Paris (1644) (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-3543).

30 P.-D. Huet, Memoirs of the Life of Peter Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches, tr. J. Aikin, II (London 1810) 38, 126. See also Z. Shalev, Sacred Words and Worlds: geography, religion, and scholarship, 1550–1700 (Leiden 2011) 80–1.

31 See especially Shalev, Sacred Words and Worlds, 81.

32 On the former point, see M. Loy, ‘Early modern travellers in the Aegean: routes and networks’, The Annual of the British School at Athens 114 (2019) 369–98 (386). On the latter, see V. Laurent, ‘La mission des Jésuites à Naxos de 1617 à 1643’, Revue des études byzantines 33.174 (1934) 218–26.

33 Huet, Memoirs of the Life of Peter Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches, II, 38–9. English translation of P.-D. Huet, Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus (Amsterdam 1718) 239–40. Parvilliers himself commented on the project in his 1670 letter to Huet, on which see below.

34 See, e.g., P. Aregon, ‘La Normandie des arabisants (xve siècle – xxie siècle)’, in La soif d’Orient des Normands (Caen 2022) 37–63 (47).

35 J. Moisant de Brieux, Œuvres choisies: précédées de l’essai sur Moisant de Brieux, sa vie et ses œuvres, ed. R. Delorme (Caen 1875). Moisant de Brieux wrote some Latin verses eulogizing the polyglot Parvilliers after his return to France: see J. Moisant de Brieux, Poematum pars altera (Caen 1669) 88.

36 This appears to have been a fair copy of the list; however, in prov. 37 (28 in her edition), Petzold prints χαύῃς instead of χύνῃς.

37 Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique V, 243; Petzold, Quaestiones paroemiographicae, 2, 68–70.

38 Du Cange, ‘Copies de lettres écrites à ou par Du Cange’ (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-3543). It concerns copies of the originals, hence no annexes are present. In his first letter, dated 3 May 1667, Parvilliers writes: ‘Je joints a ces deux inscriptions une trentaine de proverbes grecs vulgaires pour vostre divertissement’ (f. 235r). Du Cange replied on 16 May 1667, thoroughly examining the two inscriptions and, towards the end of his letter, expressing his gratitude for the Greek proverbs: ‘je vous rend tres humbles graces de vos proverbes grecs vulgaires, dont je saurai faire usage dans l’occasion’ (f. 238v).

39 The letter was sent exactly one month later, thanking Du Cange for his enlightening comments on the inscriptions: ‘Puisque vous avez agréé les proverbes grec-vulgaires, je tascheray a mon premier loisir de vous en envoyer encore d’autres’ (f. 235r).

40 The third letter, dated 4 July 1667, states: ‘j’ay encore une centaine de proverbes Grecs vulgaires, s’ils peuvent vous estre utiles, je vous les envoyeray volontiers’ (f. 235v), which suggests that Du Cange had mentioned the proverbs in a preceding letter that has not survived. The final letter to Du Cange that has been preserved makes no further reference to the collection. See also [Jean C. Du Fresne d’Aubigny], Mémoire historique (Paris 1766) 33–4.

41 Hermodori Rhegii Adagia, hoc tit(ulo) Adagia collecta a R(everendo) P(atre) Hermodoro Rhegio. Descripsit Adrianus Parvilerius Soc(ietatis) Jesu, & ad me olim misit. See C. Du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis, 2 (Lyon 1688) 27.

42 A. Shelford, Transforming the Republic of Letters: Pierre-Daniel Huet and European intellectual life, 1650–1720 (Rochester 2017) 55, 74. On Huet’s relationship with the Protestants and the Jesuits, see also D. Ribard, ‘Les usages politiques des intellectuels protestants à la cour de Louis XIV (Anne Le Fèvre, André Dacier, Pierre-Daniel Huet et Tanneguy Le Fèvre)’, Littératures classiques 72.2 (2010) 49–62 (56–62).

43 The letter, as communicated by Sommervogel, was published in Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique, V, 245–6.

44 [Dr] Charpignon, ‘Notice sur Louis Gaudefroy, Médecin à Orléans, de 1657 à 1725’, Mémoires de la Société d’agriculture, sciences, belles-lettres et arts d’Orléans 17 (1875) 5–30 (12).

45 As can be gleaned from the edition below, the selections that Parvilliers sent to Moisant de Brieux and Du Cange largely coincide with the first third of the list of 120 proverbs sent to Gaudefroy. The items included in the selection for Moisant de Brieux appear in the same order as they do in Gaudefroy’s list. We can only speculate about the reasoning behind Parvilliers’ choices selecting the proverbs, such as why he did not include those pertaining to the months, nos. 12–14 in the current edition.

46 Warner’s collection was first published in 1900 by the Dutch Hellenist Derk Christiaan Hesseling, under the title Συλλογὴ Ἑλληνικῶν παροιμιῶν ὑπὸ Levinus Warner, in N. G. Politis, Μελέται περὶ τοῦ βίου καὶ τῆς γλῶσσης τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ λαοῦ, II (Athens 1900) 11–127.

47 See L. Gaudefroy, ‘[Tome 2]’, f. 1r and 2r, respectively (Médiathèque d’Orléans, MS 0423). Some of Gaudefroy’s manuscripts are inscribed ‘Ludovicus Gaudefroy, doctor medicus Aurelianus’.

48 Charpignon, ‘Notice sur Louis Gaudefroy, Médecin à Orléans, de 1657 à 1725’, 8. Assuming he earned his doctorate not before the age of 25, he would have lived to the impressive age of 93.

49 See, e.g., L. Gaudefroy, ‘Aesculapius’ f. 116r–118v (Médiathèque d’Orléans, MS 0287). For a preface, see L. Gaudefroy, ‘Hetruscae disciplina’, f. 1r–1v (Médiathèque d’Orléans, MS 0292).

50 Gaudefroy makes frequent use of the Arabic script to note down Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, the Hebrew script to note Hebrew and Rabbinic, the Syriac script to note Aramaic and Syriac (mostly accompanied with a transcription, in contrast to Greek). In addition, he is familiar with Samaritan and Ethiopic (Gaudefroy, ‘[Tome 2]’, ff. 199r–200r), with the Coptic writing system (e.g. Gaudefroy, ‘[Tome 2]’, f. 394r) and, to some extent, with Chinese (Gaudefroy, ‘[Tome 2]’, f. 372v). As to contemporary Greek, he shows familiarity with its pronunciation and writing conventions: Gaudefroy, ‘[Tome 2]’, f. 201r.

51 A full description is offered by C. Cuissard, Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Departements, XII: Orléans (Paris 1889) 210–11.

52 ἔρημο (suggested by Legrand, Bibliographie Hellénique, V, 243; Petzold, Quaestiones paroemiographi-ca, 68).

53 παπὰ (also the reading of BnF, Français 9467, fol. 38r).

54 φυρνᾷ (cf. Politis, Μελέται, 2, 32 s.v. ἀκριβός 1).

55 ἢ

56 νερὸ (also the reading of BnF, Français 9467, f. 39r).

57 ouvriers

58 Perhaps ὁ Ἰωάννης or ὁ Ἰάννης (cf. prov. 32 and 105). Alternatively, ὁ γκιώνης (‘owl’)?

Figure 0

Fig. 1. The first leaf of ‘Proverbes Grecs’ (Médiathèque d’Orléans, MS 0422, f. 99r).