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Résumé :

This article is at the crossroads of the history of texts and the teaching of science in the medieval period. It also looks at the development of the Greek language during the same period. It studies the transmission of readings of scientific texts in the Palaeologan period through the example of a selection of scholia to the text of Cleomedes’ Caelestia. The study of these scholia has led to the identification of two new readers of Cleomedes, Nicephorus Gregoras and John Chortasmenos. Attention to their wording reveals a particular linguistic use of the term ἔμπροσθεν on the part of Nicephorus Gregoras, as well as a concern to promote understanding of the ancient text of Cleomedes to contemporary readers. Examination of the content of these scholia also shows the existence of a transmission of Nicephorus Gregoras’ work on the Caelestia, which exerts an influence on the subsequent readings of it by Neophytos Prodromenos and, indirectly, John Chortasmenos. It also corrects the attribution of one of these scholia to Isaac Argyros in a more recent manuscript.