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556 GREEK LITERATURE.
other scholars, was published by Bernard, Leyden, 1757, 8vo. The work has been recently edited by Ritschl, with valuable Prolegomena, Halle, 1832, 8vo. An edition of the Orations and Epistles was published at Upsala, 1693,4to, by Laurentius Norrmann. Two additional orations were published in the Nova Collectio Veterum Scriptorum of Mai, vol. iii., p. 145, seqq.; p. 173, seqq., 1827, 4to.
XL georgius lecapenus, a monk of Thessaly, lived about the middle of the fourteenth century, and wrote, among other things, a lexicon of Attic words, in alphabetical order, extracts from which have been given by Villoison, Anecdota Graca, vol. ii., p. 79, and by Matthsei, Lect. Mosq., vol. L, p. 55.
AUTHORS OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER COLLECTIONS.
XII. PHOTius,1 of whose life we have already given a sketch, compiled, among other works, a Mvpi6fiip\oj/ % BtjSAtofl^/o? (Myriobiblum sen Bibliothe-ca). This is the most important and valuable of his works. It may be described as an extensive review of ancient Greek literature, by a scholar of immense erudition and sound judgment. It is an extraordinary monument of literary energy, for it was written while the author was engaged in his embassy to Assyria, at the request of his brother Tarasius, who was much grieved at the separation, and desired an account of the books which Photius had read in his absence. It thus conveys a pleasing impression, not only of the literary acquirements and extraordinary industry, but of the fraternal affection of the writer. It opens with a prefatory address to Tarasius, recapitulating the circumstances under which it was composed, and stating that it contained a notice of two hundred and seventy-nine volumes. The extant copies contain a notice of two hundred and eighty: the discrepancy, which is of little moment, may have originated either in the mistake of Photius himself, or in some alteration of the divisions by some transcriber. The two hundred and eighty divisions of the Bibliotheca, must be understood to express the number of volumes (codices) or manuscripts, and not of writers or of works. The works of some writers, as, for instance, of Philo Judaeus (Cod. 103-105), occupy several divisions ; and, on the other hand, one division (for instance, Cod. 125, Justini Martyris Scripta Varia) sometimes comprehends a notice of several different works written in one codex. The writers examined are of all classes : the greater number, however, are theologians, writers of ecclesiastical history, and of the biography of eminent churchmen; but several are secular historians, philosophers, and orators, heathen or Christian, of remote or recent times, lexicographers, and medical writers ; only one or two are poets, and those on religious subjects, and there are also one or two writers of romances or love-tales. There is no formal classification of these various writers, though a series of writers or writings of the same class frequently occurs. In fact, the works appear to be arranged in the order in which they were read. The notices of the writers vary much in length: those in the earlier part are very briefly noticed, the later ones more fully. Several valuable works, now lost, are known to us chiefly by the analyses or extracts which Photius has given of them.
1 Smitht Diet. Biogr., s. v.