Mischa Meier, Christine Radtki, Fabian Schulz, Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas. Author – Werk – Überlieferung (Malalas Studien 1), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, 310 pp., ISBN 879-3-515-11099-0

Summary

Owing to the large amount of valuable information it contains on the history of Antioch on the Orontes in the Hellenistic and Roman period, the Chronographia, a historical work written in the 6th century CE by John Malalas, who came from this city, is a popular work among scholars. Yet this does not prevent it from having become the target of a number of uncomplimentary comments. These have been common since the 19th century, when German philologists were critical about the work – judgments, incidentally, which were not based on any thorough research. Although attempts to verify these opinions followed in the late 19th century, to date no fundamental changes to them have ensued. However, scholars’ interest in Malalas’ work has resulted in more systematic studies on it, as well as a translation into English and German, and a new critical edition of the Greek text. Many indications suggest that research on Malalas’ Chronographia has entered a new phase, thanks to the founding in 2013 at the University of Tübingen of a centre for research on Malalas led by Mischa Meier. The centre's ambition is to conduct systematic and in-depth studies on his work and to hold annual conferences at which their results will be presented. The first of these took place in 2014 in Tübingen, with papers presented by participants from eight countries. These papers have been published in the first volume of the series Malalas Studien. Schriften zur Chronik des Johannes Malalas.

The Introduction (Einleitung), written by the conference organisers (M. Meier, C. Radtki, F. Schulz, Zur Entwicklung der Malalas-Forschung – einige Orientierungslinien, pp. 7‒23), provides a concise overview of the current state of research on the Chronographia, the problems associated with the author himself, determining the time when his work was written and the fate of his text. This presentation is concluded by a bibliography of the previous publications concerning Malalas and his work (pp. 20‒23).

The conference took as its subject several selected issues. These are clearly displayed in the book's format.