Theodore Pediasimos’s “Theorems on the Nimbi of the Saints”
Theodore Pediasimos’s “Theorems on the Nimbi of the Saints”

Summary/Abstract: The present study provides an edition and translation of a text on the interpretation of haloes by the fourteenth-century scholar Theodore Pediasimos. Entitled “Theorems on the Nimbi of the Saints,” Theodore’s text was appended to the widely read Corpus of Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite who famously employed a metaphor comparing God to a circle. Theodore, who was a friend of the Hesychast theologian Gregory Palamas, abandoned the monastery early in life to teach literature and philosophy in Serres, Greece. Providing a glimpse into theoretical ideas debated by the Hesychasts and their opponents during the Palamite ‘Controversy,’ the “Theorems” are couched in a meditative style. Over the course of eight aphorisms, Theodore argues for the polyvalent symbolism of nimbi, which in his view embody an eclectic variety of meanings. Noticeably absent is any discussion of God’s light, then being fiercely debated by the Hesychasts. Of far more interest to Theodore is the geometry and philosophical content of circles, as well as paradoxes of experience and dialectical reasoning. Presenting a normalized edition of the Greek text with a commentary, this essay situates Theodore’s little-studied “Theorems” within the Byzantine tradition of writing about the icon and alongside contemporary artistic developments

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