Manuel Philes
Manuel Philes (* around 1275 or 1280; † around 1345 or 1350), from Ephesus , was a Byzantine poet .
At an early age, Manuel Philes moved back to Constantinople , where he became the pupil of Georgios Pachymeres , in whose honor he later wrote a memorandum. Philes seems to have traveled extensively and his writings contain a great deal of information about the Byzantine imperial court and distinguished Byzantines. After offending an emperor by indiscreet comments in a chronograph, he was thrown into prison, from which he was only released after a humiliating apology.
Philes is the counterpart to Theodoros Prodromos in the time of the Comnenes ; his character, as is clear from his poems, is that of a begging poet, constantly advocating his poverty, and ready to resort to the most exaggerated flattery in order to catch the benevolent attention of the great. With one insignificant exception, all of his works are written in meter, most of them in twelve-syllable iambic trimeters , the rest in fifteen-syllable "political" meter.
Manuel Philes wrote poetry on a wide variety of subjects: on the characteristics of animals, based mainly on the work of Älian and Oppian , a didactic poem of over 2000 lines, Michael IX. Dedicated to Palaiologos ; about the elephant; about plants; a necrological poem, presumably in connection with a death in the imperial house; a panegyric on John VI. Kantakuzenos , in the form of a dialogue; a conversation between a man and his soul; ecclesiastic subjects such as church festivals, Christian faith, the saints and the church fathers; about works of art, perhaps the most valuable part of his work because of their attitude to Byzantine iconography and also because of its outstanding literary quality; Occasional poems, mostly in the form of begging sayings in verse.
expenditure
- Manuelis Philae Carmina. Ex codicibus Escurialensibus, Florentinis, Parisinis et Vaticanis nunc primum edidit Emmanuel Miller . Paris 1855-1857.
literature
- Karl Krumbacher : History of Byzantine Literature . CH Beck, Munich 1891, pp. 374-381, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
- Philes, Manuel . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 21 : Payn - Polka . London 1911, p. 375 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Literature by and about Manuel Philes in the catalog of the German National Library
Remarks
- ↑ after Krummbacher, p. 374
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Manuel Philes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Byzantine poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1275 or 1280 |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 1345 or 1350 |