1. Biography of George Babouskomites

Information on the life and works of George Babouskomites is only provided by his correspondence,¹ as no other source mentions his name. The surname Babouskomites probably indicates the birthplace of his family, some village called Babo, the exact location of which remains unknown.² George Babouskomites was active in the last years of the reign of John III Vatatzes.

2. The School

The letters he exchanged with scholars and officials, dated to the mid-13^th century, provide a vague picture of the operation of the School of George Babouskomites in the Empire of Nicaea. Most information is included in the letter to John XI Bekkos, one of his students and subsequent patriarch of Constantinople. In that period (ca. 1250) Bekkos had completed his enkyklios paideia and, having left to find new teachers and continue his studies,³ now asked to return to his former teacher. Babouskomites’ reply shows that the school he ran had both a secular and an ecclesiastical direction and provided its students with adequate training for a career as officials of the Church or of the imperial administration.⁴

The school must have been posterior to the schools of Theodore Hexapterygos, Demetrios Karykes and Nikephoros Blemmydes (in Smyrna), while it was earlier than the School at the Church of St. Tryphon in Nicaea (ca. 1255). According to Babouskomites, renowned teachers gave lessons in his school.⁵ But the exact location remains unknown. The letters exchanged between Babouskomites and officials and scholars of Nicaea reveal that the school was far from the capital.⁶ However, it had a remarkable library with a large number of ancient literature works. The scholar and imperial official Makrotos asked at some moment to be sent a manuscript codex including works of Aristotle.⁷

Although there is no direct evidence, it is very likely that the school was supervised by the emperor and was funded by the state. This view may be confirmed by the general educational policy pursued by Vatatzes, which aimed at re-establishing educational structures and promoting letters, as well as by the fact that a number of the persons mentioned in Babouskomites’ correspondence were top state officials connected with the imperial circles.⁸

The available evidence concerning the School of Babouskomites provides information about the level of studies in the schools of Nicaea in that period, as well as about communication among literary figures in the mid-13^th century. In the letters he exchanged with his close friend Babouskomites, the imperial functionary Theophilopoulos stated that he had studied rhetoric, geometry, astronomy and Aristotelian physics.

Moreover, there is important information included in the correspondence of Babouskomites concerning communication among scholars. Based on cooperation and friendship, the scholars of that period formed small groups where they discussed various issues concerning science and knowledge and corresponded frequently. There is evidence that in the mid-13^th century George Babouskomites along with a group of friends (imperial officials) promoted the exchange of books.⁹

The existence of the school evidences the development in letters in the Empire of Nicaea under John III Vatatzes. The operation of the school was an important step in the transition towards a more organised educational system, established under Theodore II Laskaris, with the School at the Church of St. Tryphon in Nicaea, which was succeeded by the Imperial School of Philosophy and the Patriarchal School.

3. Correspondence

The correspondence of Babouskomites includes 11 letters addressed to five friends of his, all scholars and officials. They were his student and subsequent Patriarch John XI Bekkos, Libdikes, a scholar and close friend of Babouskomites, and three notaries of the court: Michael Theophilopoulos, John Makrotos and Nikolas Kostomeres. The letters have been preserved only in an unpublished codex including various works or excerpts from works of ancient and posterior writers and notable philosophers (Aristotle, Dio, Dionysios of Antioch, etc.), dated to the 14^th century.

It is difficult to explain why this collection also included the particular letters of Babouskomites.¹⁰ The correspondence should be dated to the mid-13^th century, seeing as John XI Bekkos was born circa 1230 and is supposed to have been among Babouskomites students.