Harvard Byzantine Greek Reading List — Sourced Edition
Every item on Harvard Classics' PhD reading list for Byzantine Greek, with the original Greek text and a free/non-commercial source located wherever one exists, commercial publisher links otherwise. Compiled June 2026.
Verified free, non-commercial source Free general collection (Patrologia Graeca, Bonn Corpus, or similar 19th-c. edition) Commercial / publisher source Best lead found — not independently confirmedGR contains the original Greek
How to read this list. Every entry below now includes a source that gives you the Greek text itself, not just a translation — marked with the green GR tag. Where I could find a free Greek source, it's listed first; gloss/translation language preference (English, then French) is applied after that.
Update: a second pass through this list, searching titles in Greek script rather than English/transliteration, recovered several sources that the first pass missed entirely — most dramatically the Lament for Constantinople, which yielded nothing under its English title but turned up a full critical text within seconds once searched as Ανακάλημα της Κωνσταντινόπολης. Items recovered this way are noted explicitly. A genuine handful of items still have no confirmed free Greek source despite searching properly in Greek — these are specialist texts whose only edition is a 20th/21st-century critical apparatus (Teubner, Sources Chrétiennes, Brepols) that simply isn't digitized anywhere open; for those I give the standard scholarly edition rather than inventing a link.
Byzantine Greek Literature (Harvard's full list, A–Z)
Alexios Makrembolites — Dialogue between Rich and Poor
Re-searched directly in Greek (Διάλογος πλουσίων και πενήτων) — still no free full text located. Full title: Διάλογος πλουσίων καὶ πενήτων· τίνας ἂν εἶπον λόγους πένητες πρὸς πλουσίους καὶ τίνας ἂν πρὸς τοὺς πένητας οὗτοι, written Constantinople, Oct.–Nov. 1343. The Greek text was first edited by Ihor Ševčenko in "Alexios Makrembolites and his 'Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor'," Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta 6 (1960), 187–228 — check JSTOR or your university's database for that journal issue.
Free Patrologia Graeca vol. 97 (Andrew of Crete) — browse via Documenta Catholica Omnia's site map (find his entry under "20_30 Ecclesiae Patres Graeci") GR
English translations of the Great Canon circulate on Orthodox liturgical sites (goarch.org, oca.org) but I could not pin one durable URL in this pass.
Found on re-search using the Greek/German title directly. No confirmed free English translation; a modern Greek translation with introduction by Dimitra Moniou accompanies the most recent critical edition (De Groote, 2012) — commercial.
Found by searching the actual Greek title — missed entirely when searching the English title. Greek edition reference: Vasiliki Tsiouni, Παιδιόφραστος Διήγησις τῶν Ζῴων τῶν Τετραπόδων (Munich, 1972).
Eumathios Makrembolites — Hysmine and Hysminias I–III
Standard 19th-c. Greek edition: Rudolf Hercher, Erotici Scriptores Graeci, vol. 2 (Teubner, 1859). Only vol. 1 (Achilles Tatius, Longus, etc.) is digitized on archive.org; vol. 2, which contains the Byzantine novels, must be consulted via HathiTrust or a library.
No confirmed free English translation; modern translation by Joan Burton, typically packaged in academic anthologies of the Byzantine novel — check Liverpool University Press's catalog.
George Gemistos (Pletho) — Funeral Oration for Kleope Malatesta
Re-searched directly in Greek (Πλήθων, Επιτάφιος, Κλεόπη) — still no free source confirmed for this specific oration. Patrologia Graeca vol. 160 contains other Pletho works and may be worth checking via the DCO site map, but I could not confirm it includes this particular text. C.M. Woodhouse's Gemistos Plethon: The Last of the Hellenes (Oxford, 1986) discusses and partially quotes it — commercial.
George Pisides — Bellum Avaricum; On the Restoration of the True Cross
Free Patrologia Graeca vol. 92 (George Pisides) — via DCO site mapGR
Gregory of Cyprus — Autobiography
No free Greek source located. Standard edition: William Lameere, La tradition manuscrite de la correspondance de Grégoire de Chypre (Brussels/Rome, 1937), which includes the autobiography; a partial English rendering appears in some studies of Byzantine autobiography (e.g. by Martin Hinterberger) but no standalone open edition was found.
Found by searching the Greek title (Ιωάννης Τζέτζης Χιλιάδες) directly. Covers the Histories/Chiliades portion of this entry, though it's the superseded 19th-century edition rather than the modern Leone text — line/chapter numbering may not align exactly with modern citations. No free source found for the Letters; modern critical editions remain commercial: P.A.M. Leone, Ioannis Tzetzae Epistulae (Teubner, 1972) and Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (2nd ed., Galatina, 2007).
Found by searching the Greek title directly. The PDF text I located there is presented as a substantial excerpt (verses 170–273) rather than confirmed complete — check the landing page for the full extent of what's offered. Standard scholarly edition is Carolina Cupane's, in Romanzi cavallereschi bizantini (UTET, Turin, 1995) — commercial, Greek + Italian.
Commercial (EN) Eleni Kefala, full translation in The Conquered: Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity (Dumbarton Oaks, 2020), pp. 30–37
Originally missed entirely — my first search used the English title "Lament for Constantinople," which returns nothing useful. Searching the actual Greek title found all of the above immediately.
Leontios of Neapolis — Life of Symeon the Fool
Free Patrologia Graeca vol. 93 (Leontios of Neapolis) — via DCO site mapGR
Michael Psellos — Encomium for his Mother; Essays on Euripides/Pisides and Heliodorus/Achilles Tatius
Free Constantine Sathas, Bibliotheca Graeca Medii Aevi, vols. IV–V (Athens/Paris, 1874–76) — the original 19th-century edition of Psellos' minor works including these texts; search archive.org/HathiTrust directly by that title (I could not confirm a stable scan link in this pass) GR
No confirmed free English translation. Standard modern critical edition of the essays: Andrew Dyck, Michael Psellus: The Essays on Euripides and George of Pisidia and on Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius (Vienna, 1986) — commercial.
Narrative about the Construction of Hagia Sophia (Patria of Constantinople IV)
Free Theodor Preger, Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum (Leipzig, 1901–07) — Greek text of the Patria; search archive.org/HathiTrust directly by that title GR
Re-searched in Greek (Παύλος Σιλεντιάριος, Έκφρασις) — still no free full Greek text of the Ekphrasis confirmed (Greek Wikisource has a Paul the Silentiary author page, but it only carries his short epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, not this much longer separate work). Modern critical edition: C. De Stefani (Teubner, 2011) — commercial. A complete English translation exists: P.N. Bell, in Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian (Liverpool University Press, 2010) — commercial. Older translated excerpts (with some facing Greek) appear in W.R. Lethaby & Harold Swainson, The Church of Sancta Sophia Constantinople (London, 1894), an out-of-copyright title worth checking on archive.org directly.
Photios — Bibliotheca (selections); Homilies 3, 4
Free Immanuel Bekker's 1824 Greek edition, Photii Bibliotheca — on HathiTrust (search "Photii bibliotheca Bekker 1824") GR
Pitra's selection and numbering predate the standard modern Maas–Trypanis edition (Oxford, 1963–70, commercial, not located free), so cross-check which kontakia by content/incipit rather than number.
Free Patrologia Graeca vol. 116 (Symeon Metaphrastes' menologion) — via DCO site mapGR
No standalone free English translation confirmed; the Pelagia legend is translated in Benedicta Ward, Harlots of the Desert (Cistercian Publications) — commercial.
Symeon the New Theologian — Hymns 2–7, 35
No free Greek source confirmed. Critical edition of the Greek text: Johannes Koder (ed.), Syméon le Nouveau Théologien: Hymnes, Sources Chrétiennes 156, 174, 196 (Paris, Cerf, 1969–73), with French translation by Joseph Paramelle and Louis Neyrand — commercial; a separate critical edition is Athanasios Kambylis, Symeon Neos Theologos: Hymnen (Supplementa Byzantina 3, De Gruyter, 1976). (Note: the Hymns were not included in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, so PG is not a fallback here.) English translation: Daniel K. Griggs, Divine Eros: Hymns of St. Symeon the New Theologian (St Vladimir's Seminary Press) — commercial.
Free Patrologia Graeca vol. 66 (Synesius) — via DCO site mapGR
Augustine FitzGerald's 1930 English translation, The Essays and Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene, is old enough to likely be free on archive.org, but I did not confirm a direct scan link in this pass.
Theodore II Laskaris — Encomium of Nicaea
No free Greek source confirmed; this is a very specialized text. Greek text in L. Tartaglia (ed.), Theodorus II Ducas Lascaris: Opuscula rhetorica (Teubner, Munich/Leipzig, 2000) — commercial, no free version located.
Found by searching the Greek title (Θεόδωρος Μετοχίτης, Σημειώσεις γνωμικαί) directly — also called Ὑπομνηματισμοὶ καὶ σημειώσεις γνωμικαί in Greek. This is the original 19th-century edition (120 essays); the modern critical edition/translation with English on facing pages is Karin Hult, Theodore Metochites on Ancient Authors and Philosophy: Semeioseis Gnomikai 1–26 & 71 (Göteborg, 2002/2016) — commercial, though some Gothenburg University publications are deposited open-access in the GUPEA repository (gupea.ub.gu.se), worth checking directly.
Theodore Prodromos — Katomyomachia; Rhodanthe and Dosikles I–III, VIII, IX
Standard 19th-c. Greek edition: Rudolf Hercher, Erotici Scriptores Graeci, vol. 2 (Teubner, 1859), which contains Rhodanthe and Dosikles. Only vol. 1 (Achilles Tatius, Longus, etc.) is digitized on archive.org; vol. 2 must be consulted via HathiTrust or a library.
Commercial Elizabeth Jeffreys, Four Byzantine Novels (Liverpool University Press) — English translation
Commercial Mango & Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (Oxford University Press) — current standard English translation
Timarion
No free Greek source confirmed. The text was first published by Karl Benedikt Hase with Latin translation and notes in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale, vol. IX (Paris, 1813) — old enough to be public domain and possibly on Gallica (gallica.bnf.fr) given its French Imperial Library origin, but I could not confirm a working link. Standard modern Greek edition: R. Romano, Pseudo-Luciano, Timarione (Naples, 1974) — commercial.
Commercial Barry Baldwin, Timarion (Wayne State University Press) — English translation. Given that the Choniates volume in this same "Byzantine Texts in Translation" series turned out to be freely scanned on archive.org, it's worth searching archive.org directly for "Timarion Baldwin" as a next step.
Δημώδης Γραμματεία / Centre for the Greek Language vernacular literature portal GR
A state-run (Greek Ministry of Education / Centre for the Greek Language) digital portal for medieval and early modern vernacular Greek literature — texts, scholarly introductions, and often full PDFs. This single resource resolved several entries in this list that turned up nothing when searched in English: the Lament for Constantinople, Ptochoprodromos, Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, and the Entertaining Tale of Quadrupeds. Worth browsing directly for any other vernacular Byzantine text — its catalog also covers Digenes Akrites, Belthandros and Chrysantza, Livistros and Rodamne, the Chronicle of the Morea, and more.
Patrologia Graeca (Migne, 161 vols., Greek + Latin) GR
Free Complete set also mirrored on archive.org (search "Patrologia Graeca volume [number]")
Covers: Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Andrew of Crete, Eusebius, Synesius, John Moschos, Leontios of Neapolis, Photios, George Pisides, Symeon Metaphrastes, Niketas Choniates, Theophanes, John Malalas, Anna Komnene, and most other patristic/historical authors on this list, in the original Greek with facing Latin translation.
Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae ("Bonn Corpus," 50 vols., Greek + Latin) GR
Covers the standard 19th-century Greek editions of: Niketas Choniates, Anna Komnene, Theophanes, John Malalas, George Pisides, John Kinnamos, George Kedrenos, Constantine VII, and most other Byzantine chronicle/historical writers on this list.
Hercher's Erotici Scriptores Graeci (1858–59, Greek only) GR
The Byzantine prose romances are in vol. 2 (Tomus alter, 1859): Eumathios (Eustathios) Makrembolites' Hysmine and Hysminias, Theodore Prodromos' Rhodanthe and Dosikles, and Niketas Eugenianos — but only vol. 1 (the ancient novelists) is digitized on archive.org, so vol. 2 must be consulted via HathiTrust or a library.
Wagner's Carmina Graeca Medii Aevi (1874, Greek text of vernacular poems) GR
Covers a range of vernacular medieval Greek poems including the Ptochoprodromika; check its table of contents directly for exact coverage against your specific reading-list entries.