[Next Project] Baarlam and Ioasaph (trans. G. R. Woodward and H. Mattingly)

[Weijia Cheng]

PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/749

HT: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009011452

For my next project, I would like to work on Barlaam and Ioasaph. It is a hagiographic novel that was popular in medieval Europe. The most interesting thing about this novel is that it is very distantly based on the story of the Buddha, which was reinterpreted and retranslated several times until it became a Christian hagiography (with the result that Barlaam and Ioasaph became venerated as actual saints).

The author of this book is unknown. The text has a reference to "John the Monk" which later got interpreted as John of Damascus, but that was probably a spurious attribution. 

[Alex Cabal]

OK! Please send a link to your repo. You can just list the author as
anonymous like our other anonymous books.

On 12/16/25 7:52 PM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/749
> HT: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009011452
>

> For my next project, I would like to work on /Barlaam and Ioasaph/. It

> is a hagiographic novel that was popular in medieval Europe. The most
> interesting thing about this novel is that it is very distantly based on
> the story of the Buddha, which was reinterpreted and retranslated
> several times until it became a Christian hagiography (with the result
> that Barlaam and Ioasaph became venerated as actual saints).
>
> The author of this book is unknown. The text has a reference to "John

> the Monk" which later got interpreted as John of Damascus <https://
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Damascus>, but that was probably a
> spurious attribution.
>
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[Weijia Cheng]

Repo: https://github.com/weijia-cheng/anonymous_barlaam-and-ioasaph_george-ratcliffe-woodward_harold-mattingly

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Emma will manage with Lukas reviewing.

On 12/17/25 12:44 PM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Repo: https://github.com/weijia-cheng/anonymous_barlaam-and-
> ioasaph_george-ratcliffe-woodward_harold-mattingly

>
> On Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 11:51:39 AM UTC-5 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK! Please send a link to your repo. You can just list the author as
> anonymous like our other anonymous books.
>
> On 12/16/25 7:52 PM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks wrote:

> > PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/749 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/749>
> > HT: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009011452 <https://
> catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009011452>

> >
> > For my next project, I would like to work on /Barlaam and
> Ioasaph/. It
> > is a hagiographic novel that was popular in medieval Europe. The
> most
> > interesting thing about this novel is that it is very distantly
> based on
> > the story of the Buddha, which was reinterpreted and retranslated
> > several times until it became a Christian hagiography (with the
> result
> > that Barlaam and Ioasaph became venerated as actual saints).
> >
> > The author of this book is unknown. The text has a reference to
> "John
> > the Monk" which later got interpreted as John of Damascus <https://

> > en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Damascus <http://en.wikipedia.org/

> wiki/John_of_Damascus>>, but that was probably a
> > spurious attribution.
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
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> send
> > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
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[Weijia Cheng]

The scans have a preface, bibliography, and a biography of St. John of Damascus that were not transcribed in PG. I will transcribe the preface (it has some interesting context) but not the bibliography or biography since they are not directly relevant to the  text.

[Emma Sweeney]

Sounds good.

Emma

[Weijia Cheng]

For the cover art, I would like to use this painting of St. Anthony. Monks (including Barlaam, one of the protagonists) are very prominent in the narrative and the early Renaissance style fits with the time period when this book was popular.

[Emma Sweeney]

Looks good! I've added it to the art DB.

Emma

[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, this is ready for review: https://github.com/weijia-cheng/anonymous_barlaam-and-ioasaph_george-ratcliffe-woodward_harold-mattingly

[Weijia Cheng]

Lukas, I just wanted to flag this for your review in case this got lost. I probably can't address any review comments until Sunday anyways, so no rush.

[Lukas Bystricky]

Ah thanks for the reminder. I'll get to that this weekend. 

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