The greatest of these was his so-called Library,^910 which is a unique work, being nothing
less than notices, critiques and extracts of two hundred and eighty works of the most diverse kinds,
which he had read. Of the authors quoted about eighty are known to us only through this work. The
Library was the response to the wish of his brother Tarasius, and was composed while Photius was
a layman. The majority of the works mentioned are theological, the rest are grammatical, lexical,
rhetorical, imaginative, historical, philosophical, scientific and medical. No poets are mentioned
or quoted, except the authors of three or four metrical paraphrases of portions of Scripture. The
works are all in Greek, either as originals or, as in the case of a few, in Greek translations. Gregory
the Great and Cassian are the only Latin ecclesiastical writers with whom Photius betrays any
intimate acquaintance. As far as profane literature is concerned, the Library makes the best exhibit
in history, and the poorest in grammar. Romances are mentioned, also miscellanies. In the religious
part of his work Chrysostom and Athanasius are most prominent. Of the now lost works mentioned
by Photius the most important is by an anonymous Constantinopolitan author of the first half of
the seventh century, who in fifteen books presented testimonies in favor of Christianity by different
Greek, Persian, Thracian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chaldean and Jewish scholars.
Unique and invaluable as the Library is, it has been criticized because more attention is
given to some minor works than to other important ones; the criticisms are not always fair or worthy;
the works spoken of are really few, while a much larger anthology might have been made; and
again there is no order or method in the selection. It is, however, to be borne in mind that the object
of the work was to mention only those books which had been read in the circle to which he and his
brother belonged, during the absence of the latter; that it was hastily prepared, and was to have
been followed by a second.^911 Taking these facts into consideration there is nothing but praise to
be given to the great scholar who in a wholly undesigned fashion has laid posterity under heavy
obligation by jotting down his criticisms upon or making excerpts of the more important works
which came under his observation during a comparatively short space of time.
Among the Greek fathers, he esteems most highly Athanasius, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory
Nazianzen, Epiphanius, Ephraem, Cyril of Alexandria, the fictitious Dionysius the Areopagite, and
Maximus; among the Latin fathers, Leo. I. and Gregory I. He recognizes also Ambrose, Augustin,
and Jerome as fathers, but often disputes their views. Of the ante-Nicene writers he has a rather
low opinion, because they did not come up to his standard of orthodoxy; he charges Origen with
blasphemous errors, and Eusebius with Arianism.
One of the earlier works of Photius, perhaps his earliest, was his Greek Lexicon,^912 which
he began in his youth and completed before the Library, although he revised it from time to time.
He made use of the glossaries and lexica of former workers, whose names he has preserved in his
Library, and has been in turn used by later lexicographers, e.g. Suidas (ninth century). Photius
designed to remove the difficulties in the reading of the earlier and classic Greek profane and sacred
literature. To this end he paid particular attention to the explanation of the old Attic expressions
and figures of speech.
(^910) Bibliotheca orΜυριοβίβλιον, Migne, CIII., CIV. col. 9-356; Hergenröther, III. pp. 13-31.
(^911) Hergenröther, p. 14, 28-31.
(^912) Best edition, by Dobrée,Φωτίου λέξεων συναγωγή. Photii Lexicon e codice Galeano descripsit R. Porsonus. London,
1822, 2 vols.; reprinted 1823 in Leipzig.