The Happy Lexigrapher

Dimitrios Papanikolaou (University of Democritus)

Ed. by Sophia Papaioannou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.7.1.01: Byzantine Writing and culture, 476-1453.
Vol. editors: Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus)

Dates

Born c. 1400
Died c. 1500
Activity c. 1400-c. 1500

Places

Born in Greece
Active in Greece

Activities

Primary

Lexicographer

Resources

N/A's Works

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A medieval-era Greek lexicographer (ca. 1400 AD), whose name remains unknown. His conventional name (the Happy Lexicographer) has been taken from one of his entries: “perigēthēs = happy, like me” (ancient Greek text in Maas 1938: 58).

His activity is very well documented in cod. Cracow, Bibliotheca Jagiellońska inv. nr. 2626 (formerly Berlin, Preussische Staatsbibliothek, cod. Berolinensis graecus quart. 13), folios 1-103. This is a particularly worn manuscript, written in a 14th century North Italian paper by a number of scribes who lived ca. 1400 AD; into the text, the Happy Lexicographer (who probably coordinated the whole process of copying) seems to have added around 700 supplements to an older text of the Greek lexicon entitled Synagoge. [On the Synagoge, a lexicon of the late

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1378 words

Citation: Papanikolaou, Dimitrios. "The Happy Lexigrapher". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 November 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14683, accessed 22 November 2024.]