Abstract

Two works are attributed to Peter the Philosopher in the manuscripts, an author active in the reign of Manuel I Comnenos. The first, a letter condemning Patriarch Luke Chrysoberges' practice of astrology, highlights the author's attachment to medical knowledge. The second is a peculiar astronomical treatise that mixes Antiochene descriptions of a hemispherical universe with notions of spherical astronomy. Together these works emphasise Peter the Philosopher's attempt at defining boundaries within which one could study the stars. This article offers an analysis of Peter the Philosopher's works in the context of twelfth-century Byzantine scholarship, an edition and translation of the treatise, as well as a translation of the letter