Andreas Darmarios (1540–) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

scribe, manuscript dealer and forger. Darmarios was born in

Monemvasia Monemvasia (, or ) is a town and municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located in mainland Greece on a tied island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. Monemvasia is connected to the rest of the mainland by a ...

in 1540.Mark L. Sosower,
A Forger Revisited: Andreas Darmarios and Beinecke 269
" ''Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik'' 43 (1993): 289–306. In one colophon, he refers to himself as an Epidaurian.Lynn Leverenz, "Four Manuscripts of Unattached Scholia on Oppian's ''Halieutica'' by Andreas Darmarios," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'' 36.1 (1995): 101–114. He relocated from Greece to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

around 1563. Although Venice remained his primary home, he made at least eleven trips to Spain between 1570 and 1587. His main stops were

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

.Lynn Leverenz, "Four Manuscripts of Unattached Scholia on Oppian's ''Halieutica'' by Andreas Darmarios," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'' 36.1 (1995): 101–114. He visited

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

in 1584. He probably retired to Spain, dying there in 1587 or 1591. Darmarios was a scribe and also a trader who employed scribes. He made numerous copies of the

Greek classics Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, ar ...

for noble patrons.

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

, "The So-Called Tzetzes Scholia on Philostratus and Andreas Darmarios," ''The Classical Quarterly'' 5.3–4 (1955): 195–200. He was probably the most prolific seller of classical

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s in the second half of the 16th century.Lynn Leverenz and Donald F. Jackson,
The Sources of ''Beinecke Manuscript'' 269
" ''Revue d'Histoire des Textes'' 22 (1992): 289–291. Among his patrons and clients were King

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

and numerous humanists, including ,

Andreas Schott Andreas Schott (latinised as ''Andreas Schottus'' and ''Andreas Scottus''; 12 September 1552 – 23 January 1629) was an academic, linguist, translator, editor and a Jesuit priest from Antwerp in the Habsburg Netherlands. He was mainly known ...

, Antonio Agustín, and . Darmarios has been accused of serious

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific mens rea, intent to wikt:defraud#English, defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be fo ...

. He certainly falsified titles and attributions in many cases. In the 17th century, David Colville accused him of introducing errors and falsehoods in every manuscript he touched. Often these false attributions were intended to increase the value of the manuscripts. He attributed a series of anonymous

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

he collected to

John Tzetzes John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancien ...

. He conspired with another Greek scribe active in Venice, Nicholas Choniates, to falsely attribute some anonymous scholia to

Thomas Magister Thomas, surnamed Magister or Magistros (), also known by the monastic name Theodoulos Monachos, was a native of Thessalonica, a Byzantine scholar and grammarian and confidential adviser of Andronikos II Palaiologos (ruled 1282–1328). His chi ...

, to alter the attribution of the ''Chronicon'' of

George Hamartolos George Hamartolos or Hamartolus () was a monk at Constantinople under Michael III (842–867) and the author of a chronicle of some importance. Hamartolus is not his name but the epithet he gives to himself in the title of his work: "A compendiou ...

to a certain John Sikeliotes and to attribute a ''Selections from the Prophets'' to Michael Syncellus. The extent of Darmarios' forgery and whether or not it was limited to titles and attributions—"the production of new works of old authors"—is of importance because several texts can be traced back only as far as copies he made.

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