Philogelos (bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum Et Romanorum Teubneriana) [Hardcover]

Philogelos ( lover of laughter) is a collection of over 260 jokes of imperial and Byzantine vintage. The humor can seem at times surprisingly modern; at other times it seems so feeble as scarcely to deserve the name. In general it is aimed at the stupidity of persons who are variously called scholastics or citizens of, e.g., Cyme or Abdera. Many of the anecdotes are transmitted in two different versions, and this, together with their various dates of origin, poses special problems for an editor. The present edition is accompanied by a full Index Verborum and an Appendix which gives all the variants necessary for an understanding of the role of Minas Minoides, whose claims to have discovered a new and valuable manuscript are now generally discounted.