A Medieval Manuscript from Constantinople in the Collection of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (original) (raw)
Related papers
2011
The British Library has sixty-six Gospel books and seventy-two Gospel lectionaries, spread amongst its various collections of manuscripts. Gospels are by far the most numerous type of Byzantine book to have survived, not just in the British Library, but in all libraries. In surveying these British Library books for my doctoral thesis I was struck by the extent to which, far from resembling one another, they contained many unusual or unique features. This article considers a small number of such Gospel manuscripts, and argues that they were not merely intended to be read in a public or private context, but in addition could function as reliquary-like receptacles, containing holy material. In some cases the presence of this holy material was clear, but in other cases it was disguised or hidden, so that the book’s user had to work in order to find or understand it. An element of cryptographic investigation will therefore be important to my argument. A sixth-century hagiography records ...
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2022
This study concerns an inventory of books, dated 1428/9, inscribed in Sofia, Dujčev gr. 253 (olim Kosinitsa 265), fol. 290r. Although the text was obscurely published in 1886, the vicissitudes of this codex over the following century impeded further research and the inventory continues to be overlooked in studies of Byzantine libraries, books and reading. A new edition, furnishing corrections and filling lacunae, together with a first translation and palaeographical analysis, provide a foundation for introducing this rare document and re-evaluating its context and significance. While the limited prior scholarship generally presumed compilation in a monastic library in 1428/9 and pursued inquiries based on that surmise, examination of Dujčev gr. 253 draws attention to annotations by a member of the Laskaris Leontares family, dated 1431-37, which place the codex in private possession during this period. A survey of 13 extant codices variously connected to this distinguished aristocratic dynasty, c.1400-1455, elucidates acquisition, ownership and use of books in this socio-cultural milieu, with particular reference to this family’s history and social networks. Comparative assessment of this sample of 13 codices and the 21 items recorded in the book-list of 1428/9 affirms the view that it relates to a private rather than an institutional library and distinguishes its potential value for investigating aristocratic book culture in the late Byzantine era.
Don't Judge a Book by its Text-Type: A Study of a Byzantine Manuscript
2020
This paper will discuss the significance of the Greek New Testament manuscript GA 800. GA 800 is a 12th-14th century manuscript of the four canonical Gospels. Since this manuscript has been classified as a member of the Byzantine text-type, others have not considered it worthy of further study. By examining its unique readings, agreements with other manuscripts against the Byzantine text, and wrap-around commentary, this paper will demonstrate that GA 800 has tremendous value for the history of the text of the Gospels and the pursuit of the initial text of the Gospels. This Paper was accepted for the regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in the Southwest Region in March 2020, but the event was cancelled due to COVID-19. Instead, this paper was presented on Zoom on May 7, 2020, and a part of TC Thursdays, put on by the IGNTP.
The Textual Affiliation of Deluxe Byzantine Gospel Books
2016
3 For example, two seemingly closely related illustrated gospel books from the early Palaiologan period (Athos, Iviron 5 and Paris gr. 54) are based on different textual exemplars. See K. Maxwell, Between Constantinople and Rome: An Illuminated Byzantine Gospel Book (Paris gr. 54) and the Union of Churches (Farnham, Surrey, 2014), 51-82. A study reviewing the New Testament textual critics' data for the large group of gospel books of the "decorative" style arrived at different conclusions for the early and middle subgroups of decorative style manuscripts (as defined by Annemarie Weyl Carr, in Byzantine Illumination, 1150-1250: The Study of a Provincial Tradition [Chicago, 1987]) versus the late subgroups. In the latter, manuscripts that are closely related in their decoration may also be closely related in their texts.
Didactic Gospels as Byzantine Heritage in Eastern Europe
1. Bilsel International Efes Scientific Researches and Innovation Congress 22-23 July- İzmir/Turkey, 2023
The Various Forms of “Didactic Gospels” in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in Muscovy, as Byzantine Heritage The full paper is here: https://www.academia.edu/105415724/ - The discussion is here: https://www.academia.edu/s/dd8b788ea7?source=link Join the discussion, please! - This published paper is the first half of the topic, although a long text of about 100.000 n. Please contribute with your critics, remarks, and questions, while the second half of the matter has been being completed. That further step will deal with the various types of D.G. and the questions of Confessionalization. Didactic Gospels were such collections of the Christian Gospels, in which the traditional, sacralized text was accompanied by commentaries and explanations, thus of “teaching” character. These shaped a special genre of semi-liturgical literature in the Ukrainian and Belarusian territories, which were parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (furthermore PLC) in the 16-17th centuries, thus in the epoch that is investigated in this paper, focusing on that special question, whether this literary genre was born under Protestant impacts, or it was already rooted in the earliest culture of Byzantine confession. Didactic Gospels were of great significance in Ukrainian book culture, though they appeared not there but in the much earlier Byzantine tradition of the hand-written (thus manuscript) liturgical books, before the book-printing. As for the printed Didactic Gospels, the archetype was printed by Ivan Fiodoroff in Zabludov, East Poland, in 1769. And the Vilnius/Vilna “Commented Gospel” (Tolkovoe Evangelie) was printed later and may be under the impact of the Didactic Gospel by Fiodoroff. Generally, it was a phenomenon parallel to the Reformation in the West. Therefore, we want to demonstrate in the paper, the “Didactic Gospel” was already an existing genre in Byzantium, too, in the epoch of manuscripts, before book-printing. This was not a Protestant innovation, of course, but appeared before Protestantism. It was a typical Orthodox heritage, as well. However, in Ukrainian book culture, there were different types of the Didactic Gospels according to the Protestant impacts, the Byzantine heritage, and local innovations. That is, the printed “Didactic Gospels” of the Zabludov type were continuations of the earlier Byzantine tradition — while the manuscript gospels were spread on Ukrainian territories and were compiled under Protestant impacts. In conclusion, the author of the paper is of the opinion that Confessionalization went on the Orthodox territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, really, as in Western Protestantism, also in Romanian Orthodoxy, too. “Confessionalization” was the name of those processes, which happened in the 16th century in the religious culture, and resulted in the distinguishing of the religious teachings, also shaping their industrialization, the secular managing of schooling and printing, by communities of secular citizens, by their private capital if they were enough rich. Therefore, the special genre of Didactic Gospels appeared due to the Confessionalization, however, it incorporated earlier Byzantine traditions, too, giving them new forms and new meanings.