The Corpus Dionysiacum and its sources: Re-examining the evidence

In 1895 Stiglmayr and Koch in two epoch-making articles argued that On the Divine Names 4.18-35 was a bad copy of Proclus’ On the Subsistence of Evils. This was very quickly almost universally accepted, but a century and a quarter of working within this model has yielded very little agreement over the Pseudo-Dionysius’ identity, motives, or even basic theological or philosophical positions. On the other hand there have been enormous advances in the textual scholarship: we now have critical editions of the Greek and almost all the early versions, a new Greek source for Proclus, and a much better understanding of the complex ms. tradition. We also now have recently developed quantitative textual analysis techniques which can be applied to the topic. This research project will thoroughly examine, for the first time, Stiglmayr and Koch’s analyses of the parallel passages, in the light of these developments.