CATHOLIC TRADITION. SIXTH CENTURY, YEAR 520.
PROCOPIUS OF GAZA, CHRISTIAN SOPHIST AND INTERPRETER, ALL EXISTING WORKS.
PROCOPIUS OF GAZA, CHRISTIAN RHETOR AND INTERPRETER, ALL THE WORKS THAT COULD BE FOUND, HITHERTO PUBLISHED ONLY PIECEMEAL BY THE CARE OF VARIOUS MEN, NAMELY JACOB GESNER, JEAN CURTERIUS, FRANÇOIS COMBEFIS, JUAN IRIARTE, J.-B. GASPARD D’ANSSE DE VILLOISON, AND CARDINAL ANGELO MAI; NOW BROUGHT TOGETHER INTO A SINGLE CORPUS WITH GREAT LABOR, AND AS DILIGENTLY REVISED AND EMENDED AS POSSIBLE; EDITED BY J.-P. MIGNE, PUBLISHER OF THE BIBLIOTHECA CLERI UNIVERSÆ, OR THE COMPLETE COURSES ON THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF ECCLESIASTICAL SCIENCE.
VOLUME ONE.
SOLD FOR 3 VOLS. 30 FRENCH FRANCS.
PRINTED AND SOLD BY J.-P. MIGNE, PUBLISHER, IN THE STREET CALLED THIBAUT, FORMERLY D’AMBOISE, NEAR THE GATE OF PARIS COMMONLY CALLED THE D'ENFER GATE, OR PETIT-MONTROUGE, BUT NOW WITHIN THE WALLS OF PARIS. 1865
CATHOLIC TRADITION. SIXTH CENTURY, YEAR 520.
LIST OF THE AUTHORS AND WORKS CONTAINED IN PART I OF THIS EIGHTY-SEVENTH VOLUME.
PROCOPIUS OF GAZA.
Commentary on Genesis, edited in Latin by Jakob Gesner, and in Greek by Angelo Mai. Included are various readings and fragments taken from the Leipzig Catena. col. 19
Commentaries on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Book of Joshua, Judges, the Books of Kings, and Chronicles, edited in Latin by Jakob Gesner. On the opposite side [i.e., in parallel], we have placed the Greek fragments from the same Leipzig Catena. 511-1201
Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, edited by Angelo Mai in Greek only. We have added our own translation. 1219
Paris. — From the Press of L. Migne.
NOTITIA.
(FABRIC. Biblioth. Gr. ed. Harles, tom. VIII, p. 563.)
Procopius Gazaeus, a Christian sophist, famous in the time of Justin the Thracian (c. 520 A.D.), preceptor to Choricius the sophist—who also succeeded him and praised him in a learned oration when he had died A (a)—which Gottfried Olearius, a Leipzig theologian, intended to publish along with the excellent Commentaries of this Procopius on the Octateuch and the Song of Songs, described from the Greek codex in the Augsburg library B (b) and illustrated with his own version and notes, was prevented from doing so by death. These scholia on the Octateuch, long since praised by Photius in Cod. 206, we have hitherto possessed only in Latin, from the less accurate version of Conrad Clauser, who translated the Scholia on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, and in some copies it appears under the name of Claudius Thrasybulus; the rest are from the version of Hartmann Hamberger of Zurich, published at Zurich in 1555, folio C (c). The scholia on the four books of Kings and the two of Chronicles, which were likewise read by Photius, were interpreted by Ludovicus Lavater D (d), with whose version Jo. Meursius published them in Greek from his own codex, and added corrections (Leiden, 1620, 4to [and in Meursius's Opp., tom. VIII, p. 1 sqq.]). His *Exegetical Eclogues* on Proverbs exist in Greek in manuscript in the codex of the most Christian King, no. 2636, concerning which see Montfaucon in *Palæographia Græca*, p. 278 sq. This also seems to be the same as the commentary of Procopius on Proverbs which Turrianus praises in *Defensionis epistolarum Pontificum*, IV, 4, 6, 17. The excellent commentary by the same Procopius on Isaiah, similarly praised by Photius, was published in Greek with his own version by Jo. Curterius (Paris, 1580, folio) A (e). But the *Ascetic Discourses* or orations of various kinds, and the Homeric *Loci* attributed to Procopius, which the same Photius praises in Cod. 106, are…
A not extant (f), so far as I know, although Nic. Alemannus, in his preface to the *Anecdota* of the other Procopius, of Caesarea, seems to mention certain unpublished Declamations of Procopius of Gaza (g). Aeneas of Gaza, a contemporary of his, refers to this Procopius in epistle 19: «ὁ δὲ Προκόπιος». However, John Marcianaeus in volume IV of his *Jerome*, page last, and John Clericus in *Bibliotheca selecta* volume XVII, page 143 sqq., refute Isaac Vossius, who, in his response to the third set of objections by Rich. Simon, page 118, wished to conclude from epistle 26 of Procopius to a certain Jerome staying in Egypt that Procopius, the writer of the epistles, was a contemporary of Jerome of Stridon. FABR.
Fabricius had indeed discussed the Epistles of Procopius in vol. I, but I thought it better and more convenient to set down only the beginning there (page 690, n. 30), and to reserve the rest for this place, omitting what Fabricius himself had repeated in this passage. Fabricius therefore wrote what follows in that place: «Procopius was not only an outstanding orator; but, as Choricius testifies, he was also so instructed in the knowledge of divine things and in the acquaintance of the Holy Scriptures that he might seem a miracle for having progressed so far in the faculty of speaking. Nor was he any less outstanding in noble character, so that, except for his habit alone, he resembled a priest, and he converted many to a better life by his oratory.» Regarding the epistle of Procopius to Jerome, see Fabr. below, book V, chap. 24, page 375 sqq. vol. VIII. 60 Epistles of Procopius were printed in *Collectio Epistolarum Graecarum* (Venice, by Aldus, 1499, 4to) and both in Greek and Latin in the *Collectio Cujaciana* page 429 sqq. 22 Epistles were reprinted in Jo. Patusa’s *Encyclopaedia philologica* vol. I, page 233 sqq. The Epistles of Procopius are in cod. 1038 and 2022 of the Paris public library. In the Royal cod. Matrit. 116 (see Iriart, *Cat. codd. Gr.* p. 466, especially p. 469). In the Laurentian Medicean library, in cod. 33, n. 11, plut. 32, there are 112 epistles, or rather 110, because of the duplicated numbers 64 and 65. Therefore, they are almost twice as numerous as in the Cujacian Collection, reviewed above in vol. I, from page 429 to p. 447, of all of which Bandini, in *Cat. codd. Laur. Gr.* II, page 183 sqq., provided the incipits and an index arranged in alphabetical order; he also notes that in the Cujacian Collection only 39 were edited from those preserved in the codex, but that conversely 21 epistles are missing from that codex which are found in that collection. Ibid. in cod. 12, n. 20, plut. 57, there are 40 Epistles of Procopius, of which fifteen are among the edited ones: seven, however, do not appear either in the former codex or in the Cujacian Collection; regarding which see Bandini, loc. cit., page 351 sqq. In the Nanian codex 278, n. 3, there are 58 Epistles of Procopius (see *Cat. codd. Nan.* page 461). Among the Vossian codices are Epistles of Procopius of Gaza and others, according to *Cat. codd. Angliae* II, page 60, n. 2222. Five Epistles are in the Escorial codex; see Plüer, *Itinerarium per Hispaniam*, page 188. HARL.
p. 189. The same are in cod. 41 of the Bavarian Electors at Munich; see *Cat. codd. Gr.*, p. 15. At Venice, in the library of St. Mark, cod. 22 is Procopius of Gaza’s *Epitome of Commentaries on Ecclesiastes* drawn from the voice of Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen, Evagrius, Didymus, Nilus, and especially Olympiodorus; and in cod. 24, *Procopius’ Commentary on Isaiah* (*Cat. codd. Gr.* page 21 and 22). In Paris, in the public library, cod. 155 is *Procopius’ Interpretation Epitome on the Song of Solomon and the Proverbs of Solomon*. In cod. 154, *Procopius’ Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon*, and in cod. 172, n. 1, *Procopius’ Commentary on the Song of Solomon*, in Greek, unpublished; n. 2, *Commentary of the same on the Proverbs of Solomon* collected from the writings of Apollinaris, Basil, and others; see *cat. codd.* tom. II, p. 25 and 27. At Rome, in the Ottobonian library, *Procopius on Proverbs*, twice; see Montfaucon, *Bibliotheca bibliothecarum mss.* I, page 187 B and 188 D. Among the codices of Thom. Gale, n. 5896, in *Cat. codd. Angliae* etc. I, page 186, are *Fragments of ancient interpreters from Procopius on Isaiah*. HARL.
(f) Concerning the *Homeric Metaphrases* of Procopius, see above in vol. I, page 520, 93. Moreover, two orations were discovered and published after Fabricius’ time. The learned Villoison, in *Anecdota Graeca*, II, page 28 sqq., edited one oration previously unknown, the *Panegyric on the Emperor Anastasius* (Πανηγυρικὸν εἰς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα Ἀναστάσιον), from the Venetian Marcian cod. 428, and adorned it with learned observations; and as he now points out, Procopius illuminates the life of Anastasius more clearly and relates many things about him which are read nowhere else, neither among the ancients nor among the more recent writers who have pursued the life of Anastasius. Furthermore, Iriarte, in *Cat. codd. Gr. Matrit.* page 264 sqq., was the first to publish in Greek from codex 72 the *Monody* of Procopius of Gaza, that is, a lamentation on St. Sophia, which collapsed due to an earthquake. II.
(g) Cf. Villoison, *Anecd. Gr.* II, p. 46 sqq. note, where he demonstrates that Fabricius correctly attributed the *Orations and Metaphrases* to Procopius in this passage, but wrongly retracted his opinion in vol. IX, p. 423. HARL.