Manuel Phil

Phil's teacher was George Pachimer . Being connected by bonds of kinship with old generic surnames, for example Melissino , and with the Imperial House of Paleologists , Phil was in close relationship with the court and, as a messenger, traveled on behalf of Andronicus the Elder to the Turks, whom he calls Persians, Arabs, Indians and Tatars (tavroskifs) . He visited the Tatars in 1293 to marry between the khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtay and the daughter of the emperor Maria. Andronik the Elder, offended by some words of Phil's panegyric in honor of the emperor, described in the Chronography (which has not come down to us), imprisoned him. Phil was later released under an oath not to write anything offensive to the person of the emperor.

Phil's literary works opened up access to acquaintance with many prominent statesmen, church and literary figures. Phil’s numerous works are scattered in manuscripts in all major European libraries. The best edition is Miller 's Manuelis Philae carmina ( Paris , 1855 - 1857 ).

Phil wrote, according to the Byzantine tradition, a poetic meter , which, although it is called "iambic," but in a strict, classical sense, does not have the properties of iamba . All Phil's works fall into two groups: narrative poems and lyric poems. The first category includes: “About the properties of animals”, “About the elephant”, “About strufokamil”, “About plants” and others. Lyric poems are divided into dramatic , hagiographic and epigrams . Dramatic include: “A man talking to the soul”, “Dramatic moral description” and “Monody” (in honor of John Paleologue ). To hagiographic - small plays dedicated to the chanting of holidays , apostles , prophets , saints , temples and especially icons . Phil's epigrams are laudatory hymns to noble contemporaries.

Phil can be considered a representative of the extreme decline of Byzantine poetry of the XIV century . This is a poet-pleaser, pompously flattering, glorifying the "mighty of this world"; his style is distinguished by an abundance of images , figures, all kinds of rhetorical devices that make reading difficult. He possessed versatile knowledge and responded equally to all cases of the court political life of Byzantium. Phil constantly complained about his poverty .

Phil's works are of great importance for the Byzantine history of the late XIII and first half of the XIV centuries . Especially valuable material is given by the historical poem “On the military exploits of the marvelous protostrator” (337 verses). Phil refers here to the geography of Thrace , Macedonia and the countries beyond Hahem . By way of presentation, the poem is a curious monument of Greek historical literature. The hero of the poem, Mikhail Tarkhaniot Head, makes trips to Bulgaria , the Adriatic coast and Macedonia. The poem consists of 3 parts: introduction, main part and presentation. Apart from the hero, Bulgarian kings take an active part in the action: Konstantin and his wife Maria, despot Svyatoslav , Lakhana and others. The events of the Bulgarian-Byzantine war of 1306 and the campaign in Albania and Macedonia are successively described. Ignorance of medieval geography and history makes Phil's poem somewhat difficult to read. The presentation itself is not always impartial. A detailed analysis of the content of the poem gives the work of H. Loparev “Byzantine poet Manuel Phil. On the history of Bulgaria in the XIII-XIV centuries ”( St. Petersburg , 1891 ).

• Phil, Manuel // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.