2.32 TS – Reading Hermogenes in Byzantium and Beyond

When the Corpus Hermogenianum, which had formed the backbone of rhetorical education in the Byzantine Empire, came to Europe in the wake of the migration of Byzantine intellectuals, it was an instant success, fueled by the demand of the new bourgeois classes for a practical component in education. Thirty years after the first printed edition by Aldo Manuzio (1508), Hermogenes became central in the pedagogy of Johannes Sturm and Melanchthon, while Aphthonius’ progymnasmata were the best-selling textbook of the Renaissance, later reaching Mexico and South America. The corpus however did not come alone. It was often interwoven with Byzantine pedagogical exegeses. Planudes’ commentary already circulated in France before and after the Aldine edition. An 11th-century copy of the Corpus, Basel Univ. Bibl. F.IV.19, glossed by George Baiophoros in the early 1400s, made its way to Basel, possibly to serve the needs of Latin students learning Greek. In 1571, Andreas Darmarios sold a copy of John Doxapatres’ commentary on On Invention to Antonio de Covarrubias. The Dutch scholar Gerhard Johan Vossius (1577-1649) read his Hermogenes together with John Tzetzes’ commentary. And Antonio Bonfini’s first complete translation of Hermogenes into Latin was offered as a response to George of Trebizond’s take on Hermogenean theory. After discussing progress made in recovering and editing Byzantine commentaries on Hermogenes, this session will explore the notion of “deep receptions,” challenging current historiographies about the transfer of knowledge between East and West. It will thus map an interconnected transnational trajectory, showing how Byzantine material on Hermogenes contributed ideas and theories to the creation of a new European intellectual framework.