- Henry Aristippus
Henry Aristippus of
Calabria , sometimes known as Enericus or Henricus Aristippus, was thearchdeacon ofCatania (from c. 1155) and later chief "familiaris" (orchancellor ) of thetriumvirate of "familiares" who replaced theEmir Maio of Bari as chief functionaries of the kingdom of Sicily in 1161. According to the chroniclerHugo Falcandus , he was::"mansuetissimi virum ingenii et tam latinis quam grecis litteris eruditum, familiarem sibi delegit ut vicem et officium interim gereret admirati, preessetque notariis, et cum co secretius de regni negotiis pertractaret" [Translation: ] .
While the historian of Norman Sicily,
John Julius Norwich , believes him to have probably been of Norman extraction despite his Greek surname, Donald Matthew considers it self-evident, based on both name and occupations, that he was a Greek. He was first and foremost a scholar and, even Greek he was a scholastic in the Latin church.Aristippus was an envoy to
Constantinople (1158-1160) when he received from the emperorManuel I Comnenus a Greek copy ofPtolemy 's "Almagest ". A student of theSchola Medica Salernitana tracked down Aristippus and his copy onMount Etna (observing an eruption) and proceeded to give a Latin translation. Though this was the first translation, it was not as influential as a later translation from the Arabic. The original manuscript is probably in theBiblioteca Marciana inVenice .Aristippus himself produced the first Latin translation of
Plato 's "Phaedo " (1160) and "Meno " and the fourth book ofAristotle 's "Meteorologica ". He also translatedGregory of Nazianus at the request ofWilliam I of Sicily .In 1161, William appointed three "familiares"—Aristippus,
Sylvester of Marsico , and theBishop Palmer —to replace the assassinated Maio. In 1162, Aristippus was suspected of disloyalty by the king and imprisoned. He died probably soon after in that very year. He may have helped himself to some of the royal concubines during the rebellion of 1161. He does not seem to have been a particularly effective administrator. Sylvester of Marsico died at the same time andMatthew of Ajello and thecaïd Peter replaced him and Aristippus in the "triumvirate."ee also
*
Byzantine scholars in Renaissance ources
*
Hugo Falcandus . [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/falcandus.html "History of the Tyrants of Sicily"] atthe Latin Library .
*Norwich, John Julius. "The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194". Longman:London , 1970.
*Matthew, Donald. "The Norman Kingdom of Sicily".Cambridge University Press : 1992.
*Houben, Hubert. "Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West". Trans. G. A. Loud and Diane Milbourne.Cambridge University Press : 2002.Notes
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