The present paper examines the editorial methods and practices of M. Planoudes
in selected specimens of his work (Antologia Planudea, editions of Herodotus,
Plutarch, Theognis, the paraphrase of Vita Aesopi, fragments of K. Manasses’
Romance and the translations of Ovid’s Love Poems and Juvenal). In particular,
through the comparison of the finished work with contemporary sources or with
its originals, it is possible to arrive at definite conclusions concerning
Planoudes’ standpoint with respect to obscenity, as well as overt and covert
sexual allusions. His regular practice is to change or omit words, phrases,
expressions and even whole passages containing such references. This is
especially obvious and systematic in his various anthologies. In general, one
may observe that ‘censorship’ and ‘bowdlerization’ constitute for Planoudes a
means of legitimization and integration of classical literature in the Byzantine
culture of the Palaeologan period.
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