Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Sophonias

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SOPHO′NIAS (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. The following works of his are extant in MS.: —1. In Aristotelis Categorias de Homonymis, Synonymis, Paronymis, Heteronymis, Polyonymis, &c. (Labbe, Nova Biblioth. MStorum Librorum, p. 115.) 2. Παράφρασις εἰς τὸ περὶ ψυχῆς 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. MStorum Graec. Biblioth. Reg. Bavar. vol. iv. p. 242). Morelli (Biblioth. MSta 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 sapientissimi Monachi Declamatio: Paulus in Athenis Concionem habens ad Populum (Graeca D. Marci Biblioth. p. 131). This last work is not mentioned by Fabricius. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. pp. 209, 236, vol. xi. pp. 334, 714) [J.C. M.]