Remarques sur les scolies anciennes de l’Almageste

This paper intends to examine the hypothesis proposed by David Pingree in a paper published in 1994, “The Teaching of the Almagest in Late Antiquity”, in Barnes, T.D. (ed.), The Sciences in Greco-Roman Society, Apeiron 27,4 : 75-98. In this essay D. Pingree suggests that the scholia of the Almagest issued from the Neoplatonician teaching of Alexandria were compiled in Syria around 600, in a Nestorian milieu. The present paper is divided in two parts: first, a general presentation of the problems raised by the scholia and the manuscript tradition; secondly, an edition with a French translation and a brief analysis of the scholia quoted by D. Pingree for supporting the idea of a passage to Syria. Another little scholion comparing Pappus and Theon is also published. The analysis shows that there are no clear elements showing a link with Syria. In addition an annex gives a list of the passages of Theon written in the scholia of book III of the Almagest (based on the unedited papers of Joseph Mogenet), and some examples of laudative epithets used in the 5th and 6th centuries for naming the great scientists or philosophers of the time.