"Palatine Anthology"

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Palatine Anthology (Anthologia Palatina) is a collection of ancient and Byzantine Greek epigrams of the period from the 7th century BC until 600 AD, found in manuscript in 1606 and considered to have been written in the 10th century based on the Anthology of Kefalas. Along with the Anthology of Planoudis it constitutes the conventionally called Greek Anthology.

General
This is a very rich poetic anthology from over 3,700 epigrams of 370 and poets listed in fifteen chapters (books). It is based on a collection compiled in the early tenth century by Byzantine clergyman and scholar Constantine Kefalas, based on ancient collections. It was named after the Palatine Library of Heidelberg in which the manuscript was found, the Palatinus code 23, by the French scholar Salmasius (Claude de Saumaise). Today most of it is located in the Library of Heidelberg (MS Pal. gr. 23) and one smaller in Paris (Par. Suppl. gr. 384).

Palatine Anthology or "Palatina or Greek Anthology" or "Greek or Palatine Anthology" is called alternatively the whole of the poems of the Palatine manuscript (the "Palatine Anthology" according to the previous definition) with the addition of approximately 400 poems of the Anthology of Planoudis as the 16th book, totaling about 4100 epigrams/poems. It is noted that this definition contradicts the first definition, in which the term Palatine Anthology refers exclusively to the poems of the Palatine manuscript (and not to those written in retrospect on this manuscript, see below for the Sp Collection in the relevant paragraph).

Finally, in a third definition, from some sources the term Palatine Anthology is more or less equivalent to the term Greek Anthology. It is noted that this definition contradicts one of the definitions of Greek Anthology, according to which Greek Anthology is the set of Greek epigrams and poems, not only from the two collections (Palatini and Planoudis), but also from many other sources.

It is therefore noted that sources use (either - rarely - explicitly, or - more commonly - indirectly) any of the above three definitions, which contradict each other. In this text, Palatine Anthology is described in detail primarily in accordance with the first definition, i.e. the Palatine manuscript. Palatine Anthology according to the second and third definitions (either epigrams from Palatine and Planoudis, or epigrams from Palatine and Planoudis and from other sources), is detailed in the Greek Anthology article.

The value of Anthology is great because it rescued the Hellenistic epigram, an important type of Greek poetry from the Alexandrinian times until Justinian times. The effect on Western literature is also great.

The names of Palatinian Anthology - terminology
In the bibliography