Yesterday I mentioned N. G. Wilson’s statement that a complete
copy of Diodorus Siculus existed in 1453. This led me to look
again at his two books on how ancient Greek literature came to
the west. These excellent volumes are Scholars of Byzantium,
which discusses the fate of that literature in the Eastern Roman
Empire from 400-1453; and From Byzantium to Italy, which talks
about how it then got to Italy. The statement about Diodorus is
on the last page of text of the latter, p. 162, and note 4 on
it, which tells us that Constantine Lascaris saw that volume in
the imperial palace, PG 161:198. This is the last volume of the
PG, in fact; containing material by Bessarion, George
Trapezuntinus, Constantine Lascaris, Theodore of Gaza, and
Andronicus Callistus. The work by Constantine Lascaris is De
scriptoribus Graecis Patria Siculis – Greek writers from Sicily
– is in Latin, addressed to a renaissance ruler of Sicily, and
commences on col. 195. Various writers are listed. I transcribe
the whole entry on Diodorus