A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

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Joannes GEOMETRA

64. GEOMETRA, the GEOMETER (Γεωμέτρης), called also PROTOTHRONUS (Πρωτόθρονος), a Greek writer, of whose date nothing is accurately known.

Combéfis, in the Notitia Scriptorum in the first vol. of his Bibliotheca Concionatoria, places him in the ninth or tenth century. Oudin places him in the eleventh century. He is quoted by Macarius Chrysocephalus [CHRYSOCEPHALUS MACARIUS], whom some critics place in the thirteenth, others in the fourteenlth century, in his Catetna in Matthaeum.

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Works

He wrote,--

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1.

Epigramma in S. Crucem

Editions

Published by Allatius in his Excerpta Varia Graecorum Sophistarum, 8vo., Rome, 1641.

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2.

Metaphrasis Canticorum S. Scripturae,

or

Odaruw (s. Canticorum Ecclesiae Metaphrasis

A paraphrase in iambic verse of nine songs from the O. and N. T.

Editions

published by Bandini in his Catal. Codd. Laur. Medic. vol. i. p. 65, &c.

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3. Ὕμνοι δ́ εἰς τὴν ὑπεραγίαν Θεοτόκον,

Hymni quatuor Elegiaci in S. Virginem

With a short Corollarium or epilogue, in iambic verse. These hymns which, from each distich beginning with the word Χαῖρε, are sometimes referred to by the descriptive term Χαιρετισμοὶ.

Editions

They were published by Fed. Morel, with a latin version, 8vo., Paris, 1591, and were reprinted in the Corpus Poetarum Graecorum, fol. Geneva, 1614, vol. ii. p. 746; in the Appendix (or Auetarium) Bibliothecae Patrum of Ducaeus, vol. ii. fol. Paris, 1624; and in the Biblioth. Patrum, vol. xiv. p. 439, &c., Paris, 1654.

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In the they are followed by a Hymnus Alphabeticus, the authorship of which is uncertain.

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4. Ἐπιγράμματα τετράδτιχα ἠθικὰ ὧν ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ Παράδειδος,

Paradisus Tetrastichorum Moralium et Piorum.

Editions

These poems, ninety-nine in number, are commonly said to have been first published by Fed. Morel, 8vo., Paris, 1595; but Oudin says they were published at Venice, 4to., 1563. They were reprinted with the Hymni in S. Virginem, in the Appemlia of Ducaeus, and in the Biblioth. Patrum of 1654. Joannes Geometra wrote several sermons and poems extant in MS.

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Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. viii. pp. 625. 676, vol. x. p. 130; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. Diss. 1 ma. p. 10; Oudin, De Scriptor. et Scriptis Eccles. vol. ii. col. 615.