Activities Two Presentations on Armenian Translations from Greek in Washington and Pisa
Two Presentations on Armenian Translations from Greek in Washington and Pisa
ArmEn team member Irene Tinti was invited to Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., to take part in the
Fall Byzantine Studies Colloquium organised by colloquiarch Dr Emilio Bonfiglio and held on 3 November 2023.
The Colloquium focused on Armeno-Byzantine interconnectedness, addressing among other topics the impact Armenian scholars had on the dissemination of Byzantine culture (see
programme).
In this context, Tinti presented a paper titled “
Plato in Armenian: Between Translation and Adaptation”, briefly discussing the arguments in favour of an attribution of the extant versions of five Platonic or Pseudo-Platonic dialogues (the Timaeus, Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Laws, and Minos) to the Byzantinophile Grigor Magistros Pahlawowni (c. 990–1059) and/or to his circle of collaborators, whose activity coincided chronologically with a renewed interest in Platonism in Byzantine circles. She then showed that the Platonic versions — despite their Hellenizing character — are not literal translations from the Greek, and discussed the kind of changes that were introduced into the texts to adapt them to their new context and to a Christian Armenian audience far removed in time from the original composition. This analysis is especially relevant because— contrary to what was previously believed—the Armenian Platonic dossier had some degree of textual circulation and influence in Mediaeval Armenian circles.
Tinti was also invited to give a lecture at the University of Pisa on 22 November, in the context of the XVII Settimana di Formazione dottorale (17 th Doctoral Study Week) organised by the Centro interuniversitario GrAL (Greco, arabo, latino) on the topic of the pseudo-Aristotelic De Mundo and its translations (Il De Mundo pseudo-aristotelico tra greco siriaco arabo e latino). Her lecture focused on the Armenian De Mundo, a Hellenising (although not strictly literal) version of uncertain date that is still severely understudied. Within this context, Tinti discussed methodological issues and addressed the challenges linked to using Armenian versions for the purpose of reconstructing the Greek source texts, as well as the need to take into due consideration the potential agency of the translators.