Studies relating to the College of St. Athanasius in Rome : together with a text and commentary on MS. Barb. Gr. 138

This thesis seeks to explain how a knowledge of the Classical language and literature survived in Greece under Ottoman rule when all education for Greeks had been prohibited. That is survived at all is largely due to the establishment of Saint Athanasios' College in Rome by Pope Gregory XIII. The first part of the thesis contains a history of the College together with details of its curriculum, methods of teaching and an account of some of the teachers and outstanding students. This part also contains a survey of the degrees awarded and an appreciation of the work of graduates who taught in Greece and Italy. The second part of the thesis consists of an edited text of MS. Barb. Gr. 138. This text of 1664 consists of fifteen poems in Latin with their translations into Classical Greek, or in the case of two, Italian, written by students of the College in honour of their patron Cardinal Francisco Barberini. The Poems are translated in the thesis and each has a commentary together with notes on the metres employed. (D74042/87)