Philippus Solitarius

PHILIPPUS SOLITARIUS: Greek monk of the late eleventh century. In 1095 he completed, apparently at Constantinople, his mystic and devotional "Mirror," a dialogue in political verse which represents Body and Soul as setting forth their mutual relations as factors of human nature, and as making preparation for death. The Greek text is still unedited, except for scanty fragments (ed. P. Lambecius, Commentarii de bibliotheca Cæsarea Vindobonensi, v. 76–84, Vienna, 1778; C. Oudin, Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiæ antiquis, ii. 851, Frankfort, 1722; J. B. Cotelerius, on Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 42, in his Sanctorum Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt opera, 2 vols., Paris, 1672), but was translated into Latin prose by the Jesuit Jacobus Pontanus (Ingolstadt, 1604; most convenient reprint in MPG, cxxvii. 701–902). Closely akin to the "Mirror" is the short poem "Lamentations" (ed. E. Auvray, Paris, 1875; E. S. Shuckburgh, in Emmanuel College Magazine, vol. v.), which may in reality be the eighth book of the "Mirror," which was omitted by Pontanus. A new redaction of both poems was prepared by Phialites in the twelfth century, and the Vienna manuscripts of the "Mirror" contain noteworthy additions, especially on the dogmas and rites of the Armenians, Jacobites, and Romans (the two former portions ed. F. Combefis, Auctuarium novum bibliothecæ Græco-Latinorum patrum, ii. 261, 271, Paris, 1648.

(Philipp Meyer.)

Bibliography: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 742–744; P. Lambecius, Commentarium de . . . bibliotheca Cæsarea Vindebonensi, v. 78–84, Vienna, 1778; KL, ix. 2023.