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.