Illustration by Georgios Klontzas from a bilingual Greek–Latin manuscript made in 1577 (now Bodleian, MS Barocci 170)

The Oracles of Leo the Wise (Greek Tou sophōtatou basileōs Leontos chrēsmoi; Latin Oracula Leonis or Vaticinia Leonis) is a Greek collection of oracles attributed to the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise (886–912). In actuality, the collection was first put together in the twelfth century by an anonymous editor probably working in Constantinople.^[1]

At the core of the collection are six oracles composed shortly after 815. A further four oracles were added to the collection after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The numbering of the oracles varies between manuscripts. These ten form the first part and are vaticinia ex eventu, records of past events written as prophecy. The five oracles in the second part are actual prophecies.^[1] This set of fifteen or sixteen oracles is written in iambic verse in a high register of Greek.^[2] A second set of seven longer poems in popular Greek was attached to the collection probably in the fourteenth century.^[3]

Dozens of manuscripts survive,^[4] some of them lavishly illustrated.^[1] None is earlier than the fall of Constantinople (1453). There is no critical edition, although several manuscripts have been published. The earliest reference to the Oracles is much earlier than the manuscripts. It is found in the work of Niketas Choniates around 1200.^[1]

The Oracles circulated alongside the Cento of the True Emperor.^[5] There is a literary relationship between the two, but the Cento is not a paraphrase of the Oracles as formerly thought. It is not even certain that the author of the Cento quotes the Oracles rather than the latter's source.^[6] The Oracles was translated into Latin in the thirteenth century. This is usually dated to 1280–1292, but Katelyn Mesler argues for an earlier period (1250–1275).^[7] They circulated in Latin as the Cardinal Prophecies and spawned a family of texts known as the Pope Prophecies.^[8] A new Latin translation was made around 1577 by Francesco Barozzi, who interpreted the text for his patron, Giacomo Foscarini, as prophesying Christian victory over the Ottoman Empire.^[9] Two bilingual manuscript copies of Barozzi's work illustrated by Georgios Klontzas survive.^[10]

Old Slavonic translations of the Oracles are also known in Bulgarian, Serbian and Russian recensions. The Serbian text, known from a fifteenth-century manuscript, is attributed to Stefan Lazarević (1402–1427).^[11]

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