Eustathios, Holobolos, and Planoudes: The Study of Geography in Early Palaiologan Constantinople

The article examines aspects of the study of geography in Constantinople from the late twelfth to the late thirteenth century. Eustathios of Thessaloniki’s parekbolai on Dionysios Periegetes are demonstrated to be a source for the praise of Constantinople by the ‘rhetor’ Manuel Holobolos in the 1260s. Educational and textual aspects of the reception of Eustathios’ work are surveyed, with a focus on the excerpts in Vaticanus gr. 915. The turn to Ptolemy’s Geography in the circle of Maximos Planoudes is reassessed from the twin viewpoints of the evolving study of ancient geography and the scholarly networks in early Palaiologan Constantinople.