Sophianus

(Σοφιανός).

1. Michael. Works A Latin version of Aristotle's treatise De Anima

There is a Latin version by a Michael Sophianus of Aristotle's treatise De Anima.

Of the age of the translator nothing appears to be known unless we could identify him with the subject of one or other of the following articles, which cannot be done without supposing that there is some mistake as to his first name. If, as is likely, he is a different person, we may conjecture that he was one of the many Greek refugees who sought refuge in Italy on the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, or a Greek of Corfu, to which island we judge from the following article a branch of the Sophiani belonged. We may perhaps identify him with the Sophianus, a Greek, who translated into Latin, and addressed to Lelio del Valle, a work De Re Militari et de Militaribus Instrumentis, which is extant in the MS. in the Medicean library at Florence, or with the author of a work In Topica Aristotelis, of Epistolae in Laudem ipsius, and of Epigrammata Sacra, all in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Editions

This was printed with the In Libros de Anima Aristotelis Expositio of St. Thomas Aquinas, Fol. Venice (apud Juntas) 1565. Further Information

Montfaucon, Biblioth. Bibliothecar. vol. i. pp. 331, 502.

2. Nicolaus. Raphael Volaterranus (Commentar. Urban. Lib. xxi.) mentions among the eminent persons of a then recent period, Sophianus, a Greek, who had taught Greek at Rome, but had not much cultivated an acquaintance with Latin. This notice would rather lead us to identify him with the Michael Sophianus just mentioned. [No. 1.] Works Map of Ancient Greece

Vossius (De Natura Artium, lib. ii. seu De Philologia, c. 11.21; Lib. iii. seu De Mathaesi seu De Scientiis Mathematicis, c. 68.14) identifies him with Nicolaus Sophianus, a Greek of Corfu, who drew a map of ancient Greece, which was published, and had its value at the time, though partaking considerably of the imperfection of the geographical science of that day. Greek Grammatical Work

Montfaucon (l.c. p. 187) mentions among the MSS. of the Library of Card. Ottoboni at Rome Nicolai Sophiani Grammatica, apparently a Greek grammar, and in the Library of St. Mark at Venice there is a treatise in Greek by Sophianus, τοῦ Σοφιανοῦ De Syntaxi, cod. ccccxcii. De Praeparatione et Usu Astrolabii

A Greek treatise by Nicolaus Sophianus, De Praeparationes. Confectione et Usu Astrolabii, extant in MS. in various Libraries (Montfaucon, l.c. pp. 632, 741, 1289, Biblioth. Reg. Paris. Catal. Fol. 1740. Codd. mmcdxcix. and mmdcclxxxii. A.). must be ascribed to a later Sophianus who lived in the sixteenth century, as appears by its dedication to Pope Paul III.

The similarity of the subject would lead us to ascribe the map of Greece to this later Sophianus, were it not for the assertion of Vossius.

3. Theodorus. Josias Simler in his Epitome Bibliothecae Gesnerianae (p. 784, ed. Frisii. Fol. Zurich, 1583, comp. Vossius, De Scientiis Mathematicis, c. 58.19), speaks of the works of Theodorus Sophianus, which he terms Astronomica et Musica. The subjects would lead to the suspicion that he had in view the works of the later Nicolaus Sophianus, and gave him in mistake the name of Theodorus. There was, however, a Theodorus Sophianus in the last period of the Byzantine Empire : he was nephew of the patriarch Gennadius II. of Constantinople [Gennadius, No. 2], as appears from the title of the funeral oration which his uncle the patriarch pronounced for him, A. D. 1457--Ἐπιτάφιος τῷ μακαρίῳ Θεοδώρῳ τῷ Σοφιανῷ ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ μονῇ Βατοπεδίου ταφέντι, ὒν εἶπεν ἐξ ὑπογυίου ὁ θεῖος αὐτοῦ Γεννάδιος μοναχὸς ἐν τῷ ταφίῳ, σεπτῷ κη, σϟξέ. Oratio funebris beati Theodori Sophiani, in Sacro Monasterio Batopedii sepulti, quam extempore pronuntiarit avunculus ejus Gennadius monachus ad sepulcrum. 28 Septembris, anno 6965. (A. D. 1457.) (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. 11.382). It is perhaps to this Theodorus Sophianus that we may refer the Sophiani Epistola ad Archiepiscopum Philadelphiensem in the King's Library at Paris. Cod. mccclx. (Catalog. Biblioth. Reg. vol. ii. Fol. Paris 1740). (Vossius, ll. cc. ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. pp. 295, 714.) [J.C.M]