John the Monk

ANNO DOMINI DCXX. JOANNES MOSCHUS. NOTITIA.

^A John Moschus (a), by nickname Eukratas (b) (whence others have fashioned the corrupted name Everates or Eviratis), practiced the monastic life in the monastery of St. Theodosius (c), at Jerusalem, and in the desert by the Jordan, and in the new laura of St. Sabas, having also served in the office of canonarch or precentor, as he himself testifies in chapter 50. After he had visited, during the times of the emperors Tiberius and Maurice (d), through a long pilgrimage, very many monasteries of Syria and Egypt and also of the West, he turned his mind to writing and composed that most famous book on the Lives of the monks of that age up to the times of Heraclius (e), which is not lacking in fabulous narratives. He addressed it to Sophronius the sophist, his disciple (f) and companion on his travels (subsequently Patriarch of Jerusalem), whom he calls "sacred and faithful son" in the preface, and "brother" in chapters 92 and 135, and "abbot, brother" in chapter 102; and he remembers him again in chapters 21, 69, 110, 111, 113, 157, 162, and 77, where he testifies that Stephanus the sophist had associated with him. Everywhere he inveighs against the heresy of Severus the Acephalous, nor does he deny that he benefited from the writings of others which existed before that time concerning the life and deeds of the monks. Thus in chapter 55 he praises the *Geronticon*, and in chapter 112: "And as we were reading in the *Paradisus* the sayings of the holy Fathers." I have discovered it noted by John Bollandus that he died in the year of our Lord 620. ^B The title of the book is *Pratum*, "the meadow," *viridarium*, "the pleasure-garden," "new paradise," *Leimon* or *Leimonarium*, and *Neos Paradeisos* or "New Paradise" (g). In the published codices it is completed in 220 chapters, although Photius...

^A regarding the constant reading; but he also testifies that in his own age there were codices more complete than others [(h)], and in some there were 342 *διηγήματα* (narrations) or chapters. In the margin of the ms. codex it is called *Patericon* by Margunius. See Rosweydus, p. 20, *Prolegomena ad Vitas Patrum*.

It first appeared in print translated into Italian, by I know not what translator, a publication of which Lipomanus makes mention. Fabr. Fossius in *Cat. bibl. Magliabech.* tom. II, col. 817 sq. reviewed the work: *Vitæ SS. Patrum*; in Italian, Vicenza, 1479, fol. min. The first part is attributed to Jerome; the second to Eradius; the third to Jo. Monachus; the fourth to Leontius, bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus; the fifth to Theophilus, Sergius, and Elchinus: to which is added the *Pratum Spirituale* of John Eviratus to Sophronius, rendered into Italian from the Latin of Ambrosius Camaldulensis by Feo Belcarius, etc. Then another edition at Venice, 1488, fol. min. (and Venice, 1634, 4to. See Paiton, l. c., p. 139 sq.), which he reviewed in part more fully in col. 818 sq. - Paiton in *Bibliotheca degli autori antichi Gr. e Lat. volgarizzati*, tom. II, sub voc. S. Girolamo, p. 135 sqq., enumerates many Italian versions of Jerome’s *Vitæ SS. Patrum*, to many of which is added the Italian version of the *Pratum Spirituale* (col *Prato spirituale*, checked against the Latin and reduced to the Tuscan tongue, etc.), Venice, 1542, fol. (Paiton notes that in the back of the exemplar a first edition of 1475 had been noted.) Ibid. 1557, fol. - 1565, 4to. - 1568, 4to. - 1569, fol. - 1579, 4to. - *Col Prato fiorito*, Venice, 1580, 4to. - Corrected by Jo. Mar. Verdizotti, ibid. 1585, 4to. - Amended, ibid. 1589, 4to. - 1605, 4to. - Brescia, 1619, 4to. Venice, 1620, 4to. - *Col Prato spirituale*, newly corrected and amended in this last impression. *Il Paradiso*, etc., Venice, 1623, 4to. - 1668, 1672, 1678, 4to; Florence, 1731, 4to; in tom. II, edited by Domenico Maria Manni, who noted in Paiton, p. 141, that the *Pratum Spirituale* was translated from Greek into the Latin tongue by Ambrosius Camaldulensis, a. 1422. HARL.

Then in Latin from the interpretation of Ambrosius Camaldulensis, in the seventh volume of Aloysius Lipomanus, Venice, 1558, 4to. And from there printed separately at Cologne, 1583, and quite simply in the *Bibliothecæ Patrum*. It occupies the place of the tenth book in the *Vitæ Patrum* of Heribert Rosweydus, who also added brief notes. Antwerp, 1615; Lyons, 1617; Antwerp, 1628, fol. Finally, it saw the light in Greek and Latin in the *Auctarium Bibl. Patrum* by Ducæus, Paris, 1624, tom. II, p. 1057; and in the *Bibliotheca Patrum*, Paris, a. 1644, 1654, tom. XIII. But Jo. Baptista Cotelerius supplied the Greek text, which was truncated in many chapters [(i)], from ms. codices—one from the Royal Library (2464) and three Colbertine ones—and published those supplements in Greek and Latin. Paris, 1681, 4to, tom. II of *Monumenta Ecclesiæ Græcæ*, p. 341-456.

Paschasius Auriacus (d'Orange), lector of the Order of Friars Minor in the convent at Lille, did not translate Moschus’ *Pratum* into Latin (as Possevinus reports in tom. II of his *Apparatus S. p. 426*), but into French, which version of his appeared at Louvain, a. 1599. See Sweertius’ *Athenæ Belgicæ*, p. 592. Jo. Moschus’ *Historiola* concerning Bishop Synesius and the philosopher Evagrius was edited in Greek and Latin from the Barocci codex of the Bodleian Library by Car. Christi. Woog. Leipzig, 1758, 4to. See Saxius, *Onom. lit.* I, p. 468; and II, p. 68. HARL.

After Nicephorus VIII, 41, *Hist.*, celebrated Palladius’ *Lausiaca*, he adds: ^B *Καὶ Σωφρόνιος ὁ Ἱεροσολύμων καὶ ἀγαθὴν ἱστορίαν περί τούτων (μοναχῶν) ἡμῖν καταλέλοιπεν, Λειμῶνα καὶ Νέον Παράδεισον τὴν συγγραφὴν ὀνομάσας.* Sophronius Hierosolymitanus also left us a rich and useful history concerning these (monks), under the title of *Pratum* and *Novus Paradisus*, which he gave to his writing. He means, therefore, Sophronius, who succeeded to the patriarchate of Jerusalem in A.C. 629, after Modestus, and died in the year 638, for whose life refer to Papebrochius in the *Acta Sanctorum* for March 11, tom. II, p. 65 sq., as I said in the previous eighth volume, p. 199 sq. (see vol. IX, p. 167 sq. n. 17 of our edition) while I was going through his writings. John Damascene, lib. I, *Pro imaginibus*, p. 328, cites a passage from the *Λειμωνάριον* of our holy Father.

NOTES

(h) Phot. *Καὶ τὰ διηγήματα δὲ οὐχὶ τὸν ἴσον ἀριθμὸν ἐν πᾶσιν εὑρήσεις τοῖς βιβλίοις διασεσωσμένα. Ἀλλ᾽ ἔν τισι καὶ εἰς δύο καὶ τεσσαράκοντα καὶ τριακοσίοις διηπλωμένα· τοῦτο μὲν ἐνίων κεφαλαίων ἐπὶ διαιρέσει τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ συναυξομένου, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ διηγημάτων ἔστιν ὧν παρενθήκη.* Mention is made of this work also in the questions of Anastasius, q. 60, p. 338, where a passage is cited from the *Λειμωνάριον*. Furthermore, in the *Life of Gregory the Great*, written by John the Deacon about the year 872 and found in Surius on March 12, book I, c. 45: "Nevertheless, from the book that is spoken of as *Λειμών* by the Greeks, but which is understood by the Latins as *Campus* or *Pratum*, my mentor, among other miracles famous throughout the whole world, translated for me, writing: 'There related to us a presbyter named Peter, concerning St. Gregory, etc.,'" from Moschus’ cap. 192. And book IV, cap. 65: "But lest the humility of so great a prelate be believed to be impressed by mere words, it remains that the same humility of the father be demonstrated by living deeds through the accounts of the Greeks recently translated for me. In which it is manifestly recorded thus: 'There related to us the abbot John the Persian, etc.,'" from Moschus’ cap. 151.

(i) Chapters 5, 7, 9, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 24, 26, 28, up to 42, 44, 51, 59, 61, 62, 74, 75, 76, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 100, 102, 103, 104, 106, 109, 110, 111, 115, 117, 120, 121, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 137, 138, 139, 140, 144, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 178, 179, 180, 191, 202, up to 206, 208, 209, 211, up to 219 are missing; and part of chapters 8, 18, 57, 69, 103, 127, 156, 163, 197.