MICHAEL CONSTANTINE PSELLUS the younger was born at Constantinople in 1020, of a consular and patrician family. He studied at Athens, and by his talents and vast industry made himself master of all the learning of the age, including theology, law, physics, mathematics, philosophy, and history. At Constantinople he taught philosophy, rhetoric, and dialectic with the greatest success, and was honoured with the title of "Prince of Philosophers" by the emperors, who sometimes sought his advice and employed his services. But in 1078, when his pupil, the emperor Michael Ducas, was deposed, Psellus shared his downfall, being compelled by the new emperor, Nicephorus Botanias, to retire to a monastery. On his accession to the empire in 1081 Alexius Comnenus deprived Psellus of his title of " Prince of Philosophers " and transferred it to his less talented rival John the Italian. He appears to have been still alive in 1105 and perhaps in 1110.

Of his works, which are very numerous, many have not yet been printed. Even of those which have been printed there is no complete edition. Of his published works we may mention - (1) his mathematical Opus in quatuor Mathentaticas Diseiplinas, Arithmeticam, Musicarn, Geometriam, et Astronomiam, published at Venice in 1532, and several times reprinted, as at Basel in 1556 with the notes of Xylander ; (2) a Paraphrase of Aristotle's ilepl Jpavelas, published in Greek by Aldus at Venice in 1503 ; (3) Synopsis legurn, in iambic verse, edited with a Latin translation and notes by Franciscus Bosquetus, Paris, 1632 ; (4) De Vitiis et Virtutibus, et Allegorix, in iambic verse, published by Arsenius at Rome (no date), and reprinted at Basel, 1544 ; (5) Ilept-iveryelas accett6Inoo SLcao-yos (De operations dtemonum dialogus), translated into Latin by Petrus Morellus and published at Paris in 1577 ; (6) De tepid urn virtutibus, published in Greek and Latin at Toulouse in 1615 (for 5 and 6 see MICHAELPSELLUS above).

PSEUDONYMOUS LITERATURE. See BIBLIOGRAPHY, vol. Hi. pp. 657-658.