The Tübingen Theosophy: Some philological notes on chronology and structure

The collection of oracles and other wisdom sentences known as Tübingen Theosophy is a quite brief excerpt – it is traditionally divided in 91 paragraphs since the edition of Karl Buresch, 1889 – of a much longer work (counting four βιβλία) entitled simply Theosophy (Θεοσοφία) which is almost completely lost. The Tübingen Theosophy is preserved in only one manuscript belonging today to the University Library of Tübingen (Mb 27), which gives the work its customary name. In my paper, I propose to study the Tübingen Theosophy as a work of literature in its own right, not only as a starting point to reconstruct the original and somewhat elusive Theosophy. First of all, I will make an attempt to establish some hard facts about the Tübingen Theosophy such as its date, title and provenance. In a second step, I would like to examine more closely the relationship between the Tübingen Theosophy and the original Theosophy, trying to define the main interests and the working method of the excerptor: Which parts of the Theosophy did he select for inclusion, which parts are altogether omitted, and why? Did he slavishly ‘copy and paste’ his model or come up with modifications and comments? For this purpose, I will identify and analyze some passages in the excerpt where, in my opinion, we can hear the voice or see the hand of this anonymous byzantine writer. It will turn out that the collected oracles in the Tübingen Theosophy have a much more polyphonic and ‘personal’ character than generally believed.