Agapius, Universal History (1909) part 2. Translator's Introduction

KITAB AL-`UNVAN

UNIVERSAL HISTORY

WRITTEN BY

AGAPIUS (MAHBOUB) OF MENBIDJ

EDITED AND TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH

BY

ALEXANDER VASILIEV

Professor at the University of Dorpat

SECOND PART (I)

PATR.OR. T. VII. F. 4.

NOTICE

The edition of the text of the second part of Agapius is based on the unique manuscript of Florence which is unfortunately incomplete at the end and stops in the middle of a sentence in the course of the 8th century of our era.  There are also in this manuscript some pages which, because of moisture, are completely illegible;  these are all indicated in the text.  The lack of manuscripts in general and the bad condition of the manuscript of Florence in particular may perhaps excuse us for certain passages which have not been deciphered, nor sufficiently interpreted. 

For this edition I have at my disposal the copy of the manuscript of Florence which I made in 1903, and the photographs of this manuscript that M. Graffin had kindness to get for me in 1909. 

This manuscript has the shelfmark at the Library of Florence CXXXII ¹. 

We have carefully reported in the apparatus all the readings of this manuscript which we have thought necessary to correct in the text;  it appeared useless to us to put a siglum before each one of these readings, since they refer to only one manuscript. 

In the apparatus we faithfully reproduce the omissions of the diacritical points.  These omissions are also very frequent in the proper names.

1. Assemani, Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae et Palatinae Codicum MSS orientalium catalogus. Florentiae, 1742, p.213. 

This text was turned into English by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2008. This file and all material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.