Η Σούμμα (Σουΐδας - Σούδα), Summa (Suidas - Suda)

The first, and indeed only, alphabetically arranged encyclopedia in antiquity was edited for the last time around 1100 A.D., and has come down to us, owing to scribal errors, as the Σουΐδα or Σούδα. It was originally titled Σούμμα (=Summa), like other encyclopedias of its time, such as Henricus Gandavensis’ Summa theologiae and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae and Summa contra gentiles. It was titled Σούμμα because it was a conflation of a number of earlier lexicons and encyclopedias. At some point the title was erroneously copied as ΣΟΥΜΑ, with one Μ; later on the Μ was misread as ΙΔ, giving ΣΟΥΙΔΑ; and subsequently the Ι was omitted, giving ΣΟΥΔΑ. lts 400 biographies of ancient Greek, Latin, Jewish, Christian, and Byzantine writers make the Σούμμα the largest surviving ancient literary work. Much material from Callimachus' Πίνακες eventually found its way into the Σούμμα's pages; likewise later works by the Latin writers Varro, Nepos, Suetonius, and Hieronymus, via the Πίναξ of Hesychius of Miletus, a Byzantine writer of the sixth century.