Nonnus
Nonnus
Nonnus, of Panopolis in Upper Egypt (c. 400), the reputed author of two poems in hexameters; one, Dionysiaka, about the mysteries of Bacchus, and the other the “Paraphrase of the Fourth Gospel”. Dräseke proposes Apollinaris of Laodicea (Theolog. Litteraturzeitung, 1891, 332), and a fourteenth-century Manuscript suggests Ammonius as the author of the “Paraphrase”, but the similarity of style makes it very probable that the two poems have the same author. Nonnus would then seem to have been a pagan when he wrote the first, and afterwards to have become a Christian. Nothing else is known of his life. The “Paraphrase” is not completely extant; 3750 lines of it, now divided into twenty-one chapters, are known. It has some importance as evidence of the text its author used, and has been studied as a source of textual criticism (Blass, “Evang. Sec. Ioh. cum variæ lectionis delectu”, Leipzig, 1902; Janssen in “Texte u. Untersuchungen”, XXIII, 4, Leipzig, 1903). Otherwise it has little interest or merit. It is merely a repetition of the Gospel, verse by verse, inflated with fantastic epithets and the addition of imaginary details. The “Paraphrase” was first published by the Aldine Press in 1501. The edition of Heinsius (Leyden, 1627) is reprinted in P. G., XLIII, 749-1228. The best modern edition is by Scheindler: “Nonni Panopolitani paraphrasis s. evang. Ioannei” (Leipzig, 1881).
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FABRICIUS-HARLES, Bibl. græca, VIII (Hamburg, 1802), 601-12; KOECHLY, Opuscula philologica, I (Leipzig, 1881), 421-46; KINKEL, Die Ueberlieferung der Paraphrase des en. Ioh. von Nonnos, I (Zurich, 1870); TIEDKE, Nonniana (Berlin, 1883).
ADRIAN FORTESCUE. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Nonnus
(), a Greek poet, flourished at Panopolis, in Egypt, near the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian aera. We have no particulars respecting his life, except that he became a Christian when he was advanced inn age. He was the author of two works in Greek, which have come down to us, the and a paraphrase in verse of the Gospel of John. The former work gives an account of the adventures of Dionysus from the time of his birth to his return from his expedition into India; and the early books also contain, by way of introduction, the history of Europa and Cadmus, the battle of the giants, and numerous other mythological stories. . This work, which contains thirty-eight books, and is written in-hexameter verse, has been condemned by Daniel Heinsius, Joseph Scaliger, and other critics, for its inflated style, and has been pronounced to be unworthy of perusal; but it must be admitted that it contains passages of considerable beauty, and supplies us with information on many mythological subjects which we should not be able to obtain elsewhere. It appears probable that this work was written before Nonnus became a Christian. The best edition of the Dionysiaca is that of Grafe (Leips. 1819-26, 2 vols. 8vo). D. Heinsius wrote a dissertation on this author, which was published at Leyden in 1610, with the text of the Dionysiaca. Six books of this poem, from the eighth to the thirteenth inclusive, were published by Moser, with a preface by Creuzer (Heidelberg, 1809). A French translation of the Dionysiaca was published at Paris in 1625. The Paraphrase of St. John, which is a poor performance, and has been very unfavorably criticized by Heinsius in his Aristarchus Sacer (Leyden, 1627), was published for the first time at Venice in 1501. It is entitled . The best edition of it is by Passow (Leips. 1834). This work, however, is of some value, as it contains a few important readings, which have been of considerable use to the editors of the Greek Testament. It omits the history of the woman taken in adultery, which we have at the beginning of the eighth chapter of John’s gospel, and which is considered by Griesbach and many other critics to be an interpolation. In 19:14 Nonnus appears to have read about the third hour, instead of about the sixth (see Griesbach on that passage). There is also a Collection of Histories or Fables, which are cited by Gregory Nazianzen in his work against Julian, and which are ascribed by some critics to the author of the Dionysiaca. But Bentley, in his Dissertations on Phalaris, has given good reasons for believing that the collection was composed by another individual of the same name. There were several other writers of the name of Nonnus, of whom an account is given in Fabricius, Bibl. Graeca, 8:601, 602, ed. Harles. See Ouwaroff, Nonus de Panopolis (1817, 4to); Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. 38:228; Penny Cyclop. s.v.; Engl. Cyclop. s.v. (J. N. P.)