HERODIANEA – Herodian the Grammarian: Works, Manuscripts, Heritage

HERODIANEA is a research group developed within a five-year project funded by the “Fondo Italiano per la Scienza” (FIS), launched in 2026 at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Its goal is to produce a new critical edition of the works and fragments attributed to the Greek grammarian Aelius Herodianus, to study the manuscripts that preserve them, and to offer a comprehensive analysis of his ideas about language and their influence in the later grammatical tradition.

Focus

Herodian (2nd century AD) was one of the most important Greek grammarians. He was born in Alexandria, the son of the famous grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus, and later moved to Rome. His most significant work, dedicated to the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180), was On prosody in general, a large handbook in 20 books dealing with Greek accentuation, aspiration (i.e. the h-sound), and vowel length. Today, this work survives only in shortened versions and fragments. Many of Herodian’s other writings have also been lost, rewritten, or summarised over time, making it difficult to reconstruct his original ideas.

Despite this, his influence was enormous. In the Byzantine period, his authority became so great that many later texts were falsely attributed to him. 

Understanding Herodian’s work is important because ancient Greek grammar lies at the foundation of modern Western grammatical traditions. Studying him therefore helps us better understand how our ideas about language developed. 

The scholarly community still lacks a reliable critical edition of Herodian’s works and fragments. Most of them are published in outdated 19th-century editions that do not meet modern scholarly standards. Some texts remain unpublished, and we still do not know exactly how many manuscripts preserve his work.

Over thirty years ago, A. R. Dyck (“Aelius Herodian: Recent Studies and Prospects for Future Research”, in W. Haase (ed.), Sprache und Literatur, 772–794. Vol. 34, bk. 1 of Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II, Berlin 1993) noted that it was too early to attempt a full study of Herodian. Today, thanks to new research tools and better knowledge of ancient texts and their transmission, the time is finally right to undertake this task.

Research Objectives

HERODIANEA addresses the urgent need for a new study of Herodian’s works and ideas. It focuses on three main R(esearch) O(bjectives):

RO1. Mapping texts and manuscripts

The project will identify all works written by Herodian, as well as those later attributed to him, and locate the manuscripts that preserve them. Both authentic and spurious texts will be studied, since what matters is not only what Herodian actually wrote, but also what later readers believed he wrote. Newly identified manuscripts and texts will be included. The manuscripts will be analysed both for their content and their physical features, and key materials will be displayed and annotated through CHS Digital: https://chs-digital.chs.harvard.edu/?index=/iiif-store/api/manifests/index.json.

RO2. New critical editions

The project will produce new critical editions of all Herodianic fragments and works, whether complete or not (only texts edited recently will be left out). By comparing all surviving manuscripts, researchers will identify the different versions of the texts and determine how many of them survive. All texts will be translated into English;

RO3. Study of Herodian’s ideas and legacy

The project will offer the first comprehensive study of Herodian’s grammatical thought and its later influence. It will address key questions such as: What sources did Herodian use? Which works are genuinely his? How are the different texts related? What aspects of language did he focus on? How was his work used in late antiquity and Byzantine education? And how has it influenced modern grammar?

Expected Impact

HERODIANEA is expected to make a major contribution to the study of the origins of Greek and Western grammar. It will be the first project of this scale dedicated to an ancient Greek grammarian and may inspire similar research on other important figures. The project will also have broader implications for the study of Greek literature. Herodian’s works preserve fragments of many ancient authors – such as Hesiod, Sappho, Alcaeus, Aeschylus, and Aristophanes, among others – that might otherwise have been lost. By studying these sources more closely, researchers may improve existing texts or even discover new material. Finally, the project will contribute to linguistics and sociolinguistics by exploring how ideas about “correct language” functioned in Greek-speaking societies, and how Herodian’s work may have helped shape linguistic standards