NICEFORO CALLISTO XANTHOPOULOS. — Little information is available about the life of this Byzantine ecclesiastical writer. From indications of dates, some vague and others precise, which are found in his works, whether published or in manuscript, it may reasonably be inferred that he lived from approximately 1256 to 1335. He was a priest in the church of S. Sofia in Constantinople (Cod. Miscell. gr. 79, of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and PG 145, 609 C) and, later, a monk under the name of Nilo (Cod. Vat. Reg. Suec. 182, f. 1).
WORKS. – A complete and definitive list of the works of N. C. would be premature; the known works may be classified as follows:
1. Historical writings
The work that immortalized N. is his Ecclesiastica Historia (PG 145, 559; 146; 147, 1–448), in 18 books. It begins with the origins of Christianity and ends with the death of Phocas (618). The first letter of each book forms the acrostic Νικηφόρου Καλλιάτου. From the dedication to the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282–1328), N. C.’s theological position regarding the Latins may be discerned (PG 145, 592). The historical value of this work is highly unequal; the judgment depends on the discovery of the sources used. He also left a catalogue of the bishops and patriarchs of Constantinople: Eutroatio de episcopis Byzantii (PG 147, 449–68); a short poem De excidio Hierusalem (PG 147, 601); a life of St. Nicholas of Myra, etc.2. Liturgical writings
The following are known to be his: a) the Triodion, in which he explains the origin and arrangement of the principal feasts of the Triodion in the liturgical calendar (Venice 1639 and 1650); the additional Pentecostarion is of doubtful authenticity; b) an Ermeneia, or explanation of liturgical terms; c) a commentary (Exegesis) εἰς τοὺς ἀναβαθμοὺς τῶν ὀκτὼ ἠχῶν (Cod. Miscell. gr. 79, f. 5); d) another commentary on the hymn of the troparion by St. Cosmas the Melode to the Virgin: Ἐξῆγησις εἰς τὴν τιμωτέραν, κτλ. (Cod. Miscell. gr. 79, f. 181, and Cod. gr. Roe 3, f. 131, of the Bodleian Library at Oxford); e) a summary of the Triodion in iambic verse (sections 2–6 were published by Athanasiadis, Ἐρμηνεία εἰς τοὺς ἀναβαθμοὺς τῆς ὀκτὼ ἦχον παρὰ τοῦ Νικηφόρου Καλλιάτου τοῦ Σανθοπούλου [Jerusalem 1862], critically defective).3. Exegetical writings
On Holy Scripture N. C. left a Σύνοψις θείας Γραφῆς (PG 147, 607–24) and a summary in iambic verse of Jewish history from the time of the Maccabees: Συνεκτικὴ πρὸς θείαν Γραφὴν (ibid. 623–32).The Ecclesiastical History of N. C. was published in Latin by J. Lange at Basel in 1555 (not 1553); in French in 1567;
in German by Fugger von Kirchberg in 1588 at Ingolstadt;
in Greek-Latin by Fronten Le Duc (Ducæus) in Paris in 1630.
Martiniano Roncaglia
NICETAS BYZANTINE, also called φιλόσοφος and διδάσκαλος. – A few years later than the patriarch Photius, he flourished in the second half of the ninth century.
N., whose life remains unknown, was a brilliant dialectician and polemicist, as his treatises against the Muslims demonstrate: Refutation of the book of Muhammad and of the 2 epistles of the Hagarenes to the emperor Michael III; against the Armenians: Refutation of the letter of the king of Armenia; and against the Latins: Capita syllogistica XXIV. This last pamphlet, edited by S. Pissidios, Βιβλίον καλούμενον 'Ραντισμού Στηλίτευσις' (Leipzig 1758, pp. 230–48), was published a second time by J. Hergenröther, Monumenta graeca ad Photium eiusque historiam pertinentia (Regensburg 1869, pp. 84–138); the others are found in PG 105, 588–684.