Levan Gigineishvili

The aim of the research project is to complete a full annotated English translation and accompanying study of the Georgian translation of and commentaries upon Proclus’ Elements of Theology by the twelfth-century Georgian Christian Neoplatonist, Ioane Petritsi. The study and translation of this text is of crucial importance for establishing the best Greek readings of Proclus, for the variant readings of extant manuscripts show sometimes significant differences: the Georgian translation was made from a now lost, codex that predates all the existing Greek manuscripts. Besides, Petritsi’s commentaries represent an original philosophical system that effectively tries to bring to unity and harmonize the Neoplatonist and the Biblical traditions, which results in a creative synthesis, unique in its kind both for the contemporary Byzantine and Western worlds. The project includes the identification of Petritsi’s philosophical and theological sources and of his place in the history of Byzantine philosophy.