Sophonias

Σοφονίας

(Σοφονίας), a Greek monk who wrote commentaries on Aristotle. Fabricius conjectures that he was the same Sophonias to whom one of the epistles of Simon of Constantinople, probably the same with Simon of Thebes [SIMON, No. 22), is addressed. If this conjecture be admitted he must be placed about the end of the fourteenth century.

Works

The following works of his are extant in MS.: --

1. In Aristotelis Categorias de Homonymis, Synonymis, Paronymis, Heteronymis, Polyonymis, &c.

(Labbe, Nova Biblioth. M Storum Librorum, p. 115.)

2. Παράφρασις εἰς τὸ περὶ ψυχἧς τοῦ σοφωτάτου κυρίου Σοφονίου, Paraphrasis sapientissimi Sophoniae in Aristotelis Libros tres de Anima

(Lambec. Commentar. de Biblioth. Caesaraea, vol. vii. col. 208, ed. Kollar, fol. Vienna, 1766, &c.; Bandini, Catal. Codd. Graec. Laurent. Medic. vol. i. p. 297, vol. iii. coll. 19, 278; Hardt. Catalog. Codd. M Storum Graec. Biblioth. Reg. Bavar. vol. iv. p. 242).

MSS

Morelli (Biblioth. M Sta Graeca et Latina, vol. i. p. 128, comp. Graec. D. Marci Biblioth. p. 116, fol. Venet. 1740) speaks of a MS., Aristotelis Praedicamentorum Paraphrasis, in the Library of St. Mark at Venice, which is anonymous, but is, he says, commonly attributed to the monk Sophonias: it is apparently only another MS. of the work No. 1. No. 2 is in a Florentine MS. ascribed, but erroneously, to Simplicius. Beside these works, there is a MS. in the Library of St. Mark, containing, --

3. Τοῦ σοφωτάτου μοναχοῦ κυρίου Σοφονίου μελέτη, Παῦλος ἐν Ἀθήναις δημηγορῶν, Sophoniae sapientisssimi Monachi Declamnatio: Paulus in Athenis Concionem habens ad Populum

Graeca D. Marci Biblioth. p. 131). This last work is not mentioned by Fabricius.

Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. pp. 209, 236, vol. xi. pp. 334, 714.

[J.C.M]

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.