The Book of Sindbad the Philosopher, rendered Syntipas in Greek, was translated into learned Byzantine Greek in the late 11th century by Michael Andreopoulos in eastern Asia Minor. Andreopoulos translated the text from the Syriac version, which in its turn was a translation of the 9th-century Arabic translation of a Persian original. In the 13th century, Andreopoulos’ text was rewritten in a slightly less ‘elevated’ linguistic register, termed 'Metaphrasis' in scholarship. From the 16th century onwards translations into lower linguistic registers begin to appear; these are known as the Post-Byzantine versions of the text. The Greek Syntipas has come down to us in 25 manuscripts, as well as in numerous chapbooks printed in Venice and Athens (for which see Kechayoglou 2024).
The metaphrasis is a rather faithful ‘rewording’ of Andreopoulos’ translation. The two versions offer largely the same text, though the metaphrasis has one extra story that seems to be unique to it, as it does not appear in Andreopoulos or any of the eastern text traditions of Sindbad. The metaphrasis also changes the storyline of one of the stories to an ostensibly more plausible one. These and other minor differences can help to determine which unseen or understudied manuscripts belong to which tradition.
While several studies and editions of the Syntipas narrative exist, many of the editions need updating. For example, an examination of the manuscripts of the Andreopoulos version to which Jernstedt did not have access at the time is necessary: at least one of them often offers better readings (Vind. phil. gr. 173; see Hinterberger 2023) than the three manuscripts used by Jernstedt. The same holds true for the manuscripts of the Metaphrasis, for which no fewer than seven have not yet been properly collated and studied. Moreover, there are other manuscripts containing the text, especially in the Greek Library of Parliament and the Athos monasteries, for which the catalogues are often inadequate. Occasionally, there is confusion between the Book of Syntipas and the collection of fables attributed to Syntipas (e.g. in Dresd. gr. Da. 33), as well as between Syntipas and Stephanites and Ichnelates. For instance, in the manuscript Hieros. Patr. 208, Syntipas appears after the text of Stephanites and Ichnelates but is not mentioned in the library catalogue. The same holds true for a large excerpt of Syntipas in another known manuscript, Monac. gr. 525. It is therefore likely that there are more such cases, and it would be worth examining manuscripts that contain the texts frequently found alongside Syntipas, such as Stephanites and Ichnelates, the collection of fables attributed to Syntipas, and the Life of Aesop.
[By Marjolijne Janssen, edited by Jane Bonsall]