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

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Weijia Cheng

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Dec 16, 2025, 8:52:10 PM12/16/25
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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

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Dec 17, 2025, 11:51:39 AM12/17/25
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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

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Dec 17, 2025, 1:44:39 PM12/17/25
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Alex Cabal

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Dec 17, 2025, 1:45:56 PM12/17/25
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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.
> >
> > --
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> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/325cc07a-4f97-41b6-
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Weijia Cheng

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Dec 18, 2025, 2:00:18 PM12/18/25
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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

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Dec 18, 2025, 8:41:07 PM12/18/25
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Sounds good.

Emma

Weijia Cheng

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:01:21 AMJan 16
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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

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Jan 17, 2026, 12:24:43 AMJan 17
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Looks good! I've added it to the art DB.

Emma

Weijia Cheng

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Feb 9, 2026, 8:44:00 PMFeb 9
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Weijia Cheng

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Feb 12, 2026, 2:35:50 PMFeb 12
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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

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Feb 12, 2026, 2:54:02 PMFeb 12
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Ah thanks for the reminder. I'll get to that this weekend. 

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Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 14, 2026, 3:10:19 AMFeb 14
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Good work as always Weijia. A couple small things to look at. I wasn't able to access the scans you linked to, even with a VPN, but I trust you didn't miss anything big. 

Weijia Cheng

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Feb 14, 2026, 7:00:15 PMFeb 14
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Thanks! Two of the issues you flagged were intended, but I fixed the others.

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 15, 2026, 1:20:42 AMFeb 15
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Ok, looks good to me Weijia. Off to you Alex. 

Alex Cabal

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Feb 17, 2026, 5:03:44 PMFeb 17
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OK, looks good Weijia, thanks! Great work as always. I've released it.

On 2/15/26 1:20 AM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
> Ok, looks good to me Weijia. Off to you Alex.
>
> On Sunday, February 15, 2026 at 1:00:15 AM UTC+1 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> Thanks! Two of the issues you flagged were intended, but I fixed the
> others.
>
> On Saturday, February 14, 2026 at 3:10:19 AM UTC-5
> lukasby...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Good work as always Weijia. A couple small things to look at. I
> wasn't able to access the scans you linked to, even with a VPN,
> but I trust you didn't miss anything big.
>
> On Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 8:54:02 PM UTC+1 Lukas
> Bystricky wrote:
>
> Ah thanks for the reminder. I'll get to that this weekend.
>
> On Thu, Feb 12, 2026, 20:35 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard
> Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> On Monday, February 9, 2026 at 8:44:00 PM UTC-5 Weijia
> Cheng wrote:
>
> Ok, this is ready for review: https://github.com/
> weijia-cheng/anonymous_barlaam-and-ioasaph_george-
> ratcliffe-woodward_harold-mattingly <https://
> github.com/weijia-cheng/anonymous_barlaam-and-
> ioasaph_george-ratcliffe-woodward_harold-mattingly>
>
> On Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 12:24:43 AM UTC-5
> Emma Sweeney wrote:
>
> Looks good! I've added it to the art DB.
>
> Emma
> On Friday, January 16, 2026 at 10:01:21 AM UTC-5
> weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> For the cover art, I would like to use this
> painting of St. Anthony <https://
> www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/
> search/458967>. Monks (including Barlaam,
> and- <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> <https://
> > www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/749
> <http://www.gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/749>>
> > > HT: https://
> catalog.hathitrust.org/
> Record/009011452 <https://
> catalog.hathitrust.org/
> Record/009011452> <https://
> > catalog.hathitrust.org/
> Record/009011452 <http://
> catalog.hathitrust.org/
> John_of_Damascus> <http://
> en.wikipedia.org/ <http://
> en.wikipedia.org/>
> > wiki/John_of_Damascus>>, but
> that was probably a
> > > spurious attribution.
> > >
> > > --
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