Donatus graecus : learning Greek from Antiquity to the Renaissance

This dissertation offers a study and a critical edition of the Greek Donatus or Pyle. The Greek Donatus is an anonymous Greek translation of the so-called Donatus or lanua, a grammar book used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in learning elementary Latin. The eleven manuscripts which have transmitted it reveal that at least three different versions ofPyle were circulating in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All of them are still unpublished. The first version, Pyle a, transmitted by eight manuscripts, is the object ofthe present study. Attributed to the Byzantine scholar Maximus Planudes (ca. 1255-1305), Pyle a is actually a word-for-word translation of Ianua, probably, it was originally written between the lines of the Latin text, for the benefit of Greeks who wanted to learn Latin by themselves. Between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, the Greek version became an independent grammar, used by Westerners to leam Greek. The evidence offered by manuscripts points to a bilingual environment, such as Crete or Venice, as the place of origin of Pyle a. Thus, the Greek Donatus, in spite of its flaws in the treatment of Greek grammar, represents a tradition of Greek studies independent from Byzantine-humanist Greek grammar (Manuel Chrysoloras, Theodore Gaza, Constantine Lascaris, etc.), and important to complete the picture of the humanist revival of Greek studies. Chapters 1 and 2 analyze the characteristics of the Latin lanua and its use in schools. In Chapter 3, the rediscovery of Greek culture and the beginning of Greek studies in the West are examined. Chapter 4 is a study of the manuscript tradition of the three versions of the Greek Donatus. Chapter 5 contains a discussion of the fundamental problems of the authorship, style, time and place of origin, purpose, and use of Pyle a. A critical edition of the Greek text, based on the eight manuscripts so far identified, is given together with the transcription of an edition oflanua (Pescia 1492), very similar to the original ofPyle a as reconstructed from the Greek translation.