Reading Geography at the School of Planudes: Strabo and Pausanias in the Συναγωγή

The paper surveys the section of the collection of excerpts compiled by Maximos Planudes at the end of the 13th century, known at Συναγωγή, devoted to Strabo’s Geographia and Pausanias’ Descriptio Graeciae. By taking into account the contents of the passages included by Planudes in his collection and the excerpting technique he employed in abridging the text of Strabo and Pausanias, the essay sheds light on his reading interests and the reasons why he put together these materials. A review of the passages highlighted by marks of attention in the most ancient witnesses of the Συναγωγή and those selected by Nikephoros Gregoras in his own notebook supplies data on the readership of the collection in the first half of the 14th century.