A book of Psalms from eleventh-century Byzantium. The complex of texts and images in Vat. gr. 752. Ediz. illustrata 8821009521, 9788821009525

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A BOOK OF PSALMS FROM ELEVENTH-CENTURY BYZANTIUM: THE COMPLEX OF TEXTS AND IMAGES IN VAT. GR. 752

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STUDI E TESTI ———————————— 504 ————————————

A BOOK OF PSALMS FROM ELEVENTH-CENTURY BYZANTIUM: THE COMPLEX OF TEXTS AND IMAGES IN VAT. GR. 752 edited by

Barbara Crostini & Glenn Peers

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA 2016

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La collana “Studi e testi” è curata dalla / The “Studi e testi” series is edited by the Commissione per l’editoria della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Marco Buonocore (Segretario) Eleonora Giampiccolo Timothy Janz Antonio Manfredi Claudia Montuschi Cesare Pasini Ambrogio M. Piazzoni (Presidente) Delio V. Proverbio Adalbert Roth Paolo Vian Descrizione bibliografica in / Bibliographic description at www.vaticanlibrary.va Crediti fotografici / Photo credits: © Bibliothèques d’Amiens-Métropole, Amiens (p. 584, fig. 3); Museum für spätantike und byzantinische Kunst, Berlin (p. 538, fig. 27); Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (p. 602, fig. 9); St John’s College, Cambridge (p. 586, fig. 4); Cathedral Library, Durham (p. 591, fig. 5); Library of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem (p. 74, fig. 21; p. 108, fig. 33; p. 143, fig. 48; p. 149, fig. 50); British Library, London (p. 494, fig. 1; p. 575, fig. 1; p. 593, fig. 6; p. 594, fig. 7; p. 596, fig. 8); Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (p. 342, fig. 2; p. 344, fig. 3; p. 346, fig. 4); Bodleian Library, Oxford (p. 349, fig. 5; p. 399, fig. 11); National Library, Paris (p. 389, fig. 2; p. 511, fig. 17; p. 578, fig. 2); National Library, Saint Petersburg (p. 508, fig. 14); Hohe Domkirche Trier (p. 532, fig. 20); Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht (p. 606, fig. 10); Biblioteca Marciana, Venice (p. 512, fig. 18); Biblioteca Capitolare, Verona (p. 339, fig. 1); Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C. (p. 536, fig. 24; p. 543, fig. 32). Tutte le altre immagini sono / All other images are © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Un facsimile virtuale del manoscritto con descrizioni delle immagini, trascrizioni di didascalie e commenti è in preparazione / A virtual facsimile of the manuscript with descriptions of images, as well as transcriptions of captions and commentary, is in preparation by the editors.

Stampato con il contributo dell’associazione / Published with the support of the American Friends of the Vatican Library

—————— Proprietà letteraria riservata © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2016 ISBN 978-88-210-0952-1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Psalms and Odes in Vat. gr. 752

.........................

7

List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13

B. CROSTINI – G. PEERS, Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15

C. PASINI, Preface: Sweden and the Vatican Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

B. CROSTINI – G. PEERS, Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21

PART I: THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS CONTEXT 1. F. D’AIUTO, Il Vat. gr. 752: fattura materiale, scrittura, mise en page (con qualche osservazione sul Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53) . . . .

43

2. A. ACCONCIA LONGO, Il «Poema» di introduzione del Salterio Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

157

3. D. KRAUSMÜLLER, Codex Vat. gr. 752: Some Remarks about its Pictorial Programme and its Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

179

4. CH. GASTGEBER, The So-Called Schism of 1054 and its Impact on Byzantine Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

193

PART II: THE TEXTS a. The Biblical Text 5. E. VARDEN, Cum Davide versari. The Psalter as Acquired Self-Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

229

6. S. GILLINGHAM, David and Christ Sing the Psalms: the Psalter as Prophecy and Liturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

241

b. The Commentary Text 7. R. CEULEMANS, The Catena of Vat. gr. 752 (with an Appendix on Giovanni Mercati’s Unpublished Notes on the MS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

261

8. S. J. VOICU, How Many Authors? Hesychius on the Psalms . . . . . . . .

301

9. B. CROSTINI with M. FINCATI, Hesychios of Jerusalem’s Prologue to the Psalms Revisited in the Light of Vat. gr. 752 and its Illustrative Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

329

10. M. A. BARBÀRA, Note sulla tecnica redazionale dei Commenti scoliastici di Esichio di Gerusalemme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

383

11. S. TAMPELLINI, Il Commentarius in Leviticum di Esichio di Gerusalemme. Annotazioni introduttive su alcuni aspetti e problemi riguardanti il testo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

415

12. T. FERNÁNDEZ, The Greek Fragment of the Commentary on Leviticus by Hesychius of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

431

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART III: THE IMAGES 13. G. PEERS, Process and Meaning: Penitence, Prayer and Pedagogy in Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

437

14. M. KOMINKO, Make Music with Understanding: Music, Musicians and Choristers in the Miniatures of Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

467

15. C. J. HILSDALE, The Limits of Visual Polemicism in Vat. gr. 752 . . . .

493

16. M. MEYER, Urban Topographies: Representing Space in Vat. gr. 752

517

17. N. S. TRAHOULIA, Vat. gr. 752 and Vat. gr. 1927: Related Manuscripts?

547

18. D. REILLY, Meditation, Translation, the Liturgy, and the Medieval Illustrated Psalter in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

569

19. T. JANZ, Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

609

List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

613

Index of Miniatures from Vat. gr. 752 Discussed in this Volume . . . . . . .

619

List of Manuscripts Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

623

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LIST OF PSALMS AND ODES IN VAT. GR. 752 Psalm number (LXX) Tome I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Psalm Folios

Titles with Hesychian Gloss

Folios with Images

19r-19a/v 19a/v-21v 22r-23r 23v-24v 25r-27v 27v-29v 29v-33r 33r-34v 34v-40v 41r-42r 42v-44r 44r-46r 46r-47r 47v-48v 48v-50v 50v-53v 54r-62r 62r-64r 64r-65v 65v-67v 67v-72v 72v-74r 74r-76r 76r-79r 79r-81v 81v-84v 84v-86v 86v-88v 88v-90v 90v-94v 94v-96v 96v-99v

19r 19a/r-20r 22r 23v 25r-v (l.2) 27v-28r 29v-30r 33r 34v 41r 42v 44r-45r 46r 47v 48v 50v-51r 54r-v 62r 64r 65v 67v-68r 72v-73r 74r 76r 79r-80r 81v-82r 84v-85r 86v-87r 88v 90v 94v-95r 96v-97r

19r 20r 22r 23v 25r 27v, 28r 29v, 30r 33r 34v 41r 42v, 43r 44r-v, 45r 46r 47v 48v 50v, 51a/r, 51b/r 54r-v 62r / 65v 68r 72v n.p. 76r 79v 80r, 82r 85r 87r 88v 90v 94v 97r

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LIST OF PSALMS AND ODES IN VAT. GR. 752

Psalm number (LXX) 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

Psalm Folios 99v-103v 104r-109r 109r-v.120r-121v 121v-128r 128r-131v 131v-134r 134r-137v 137v-139v 139v-142r 142r-143v 143v-148r 148r-151r 151r-153r 153r-154r 154r-156v 156v-159v 159v-162v 162v-166r 166r-168v 168v-170r 170r-171v 171v-175r 175r-178r 178r-180r 180r-182r 182r-186r 186r-189r 189r-190v 190v-193r 193r-195r 195r-197r 197r-200r 200r-203r 203r-204r 204r-210r 210v-216v 216v-218r 218r-222v

Titles with Hesychian Gloss 99v-110v 104r-v 109r-v 121v-122r 128r 131v 134r 137v 139v-140r 142r-v 143v 148r 151r 153r 154r-v 156v 159v 162v-163v 166r-167r 168v 170r-v 171v 175v-176r 178r-v 180r-v 182r-v 186r 189r 190v-191r 193r 195r-v 197r-v 200r 203r 204r 210v 216v-217r 218r

Folios with Images 100r-v 104r-v 109v 121v 128r 131v 134r 137v 139v 142v 144r 148r 151r 153r 154v 156v 159v 162v, 163r-v, 164r 166v 168v 170r 171v 176r 178v 180v 182v, 183r 186v, 187r 189r 191r 193r-v 195v 197v 200r 203r 204r 210v 217r 218v

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9

LIST OF PSALMS AND ODES IN VAT. GR. 752

Psalm number (LXX) 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Tome II 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95

96 97 98:7 99 100:2

Psalm Folios 222v-226r 226r-230v 230v-234v 234v-236r 236r-238r 238r-241r 241r-250v 251r-252v 252v-255r 255r-258v 258v-261r 261r-262r 262r-264v 264v-267r 267r-269v 269v-272r 272r-273r 273r-276v [274 displaced] 276v-283a/v 283a/v-286v 286v-289v 289v-292r 292v-293v 294r-297r 297r-299v [des. mut.] 300r-301v [inc. mut., tit., et des. mut.] 302r-303v [inc. mut.] 303v-305v 305v-306v [des. mut.] / 307r-308r [inc. mut.]

Titles with Hesychian Gloss 222v 226r-v 230v 234v 236r-v 238r-v 241r-v

Folios with Images

252v 255r-v 258v 261r 262r 264v 267r 269v 272r 273r

252v 255v 258v 261r 262v 265r 267v 269v 272r 273r, 274r

276v 283a/v-284r 286v-287v 289v 292r-v 294r 297r

277r 284r 287v 290r 292v 294r 297v, 298r

300r inc. mut.

300r

302r inc. mut.

303v

303v 305v

/ 305v

/ /

/ /

222v 226v 230v 234v 236v 238v 241v

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LIST OF PSALMS AND ODES IN VAT. GR. 752

Psalm number (LXX) 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119

Psalm Folios 308r-312v 313r-316v 317r-322r 322r-328v 328v-336r 336r-342r 342r-344r 344r-349r 349r-350v 350v-352v 352v-354r 354r-355r 355r-358v 358v-360r 360r-361v 361v-326r 362r-366r 366r-389v 389v-389b/r

Titles with Hesychian Gloss 308r-v 313r 317r 322r 328v 336r 342r 344r 349r 350v 352v 354r 355r 358v-359r 360r 361v 362r 366r 389v-389a/v

120

389b/v-389c/v

389b/v

121

389c/v-389e/r

389c/v

122

389e/r-390r

389e/r

123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135

390r-391v 391v-393r 393r-394v 394v-396v 396v-397v 397v-399v 399v-401r 401r-402r 402r-405r 405r-407r 407r-v 408r-410v 410v-414r

390r 391v 393r 394v 396v 397v-398v 399v 401r 402r 405r-406v 407r-v 408r 410v

Folios with Images 308v 313r 317r 322v 328v 336r 342r 344v 349v 350v 352v 354r 355r 359r 360r, 361v / 362r 366r 389a/r [= DW 385r] 389b/v [= DW 386v] 389c/v [= DW 387v] 389e/v [= DW 389v] 390v 392r 393v 395v 396v 398r 399v 401r 402v 405v 407r 408r 411r

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LIST OF PSALMS AND ODES IN VAT. GR. 752

Psalm number (LXX) 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151

Psalm Folios 414r-416v / 417r-420v 420v-423r 423r-425v 425v-428r 427v-431v 431v-434v 434v-438r 438r-440r 440r-442r 442r-443v 443v-445v 445v-447r 447r-v 448r-449r

Odes I II III IV V VI VII

450r-453v 453v-462v 462v-465r 465r-469r 469r-472r 472r-473v 473v-484v

VIII IX X XI XII

485r-486r 486r-487v 488r 488v-491r 491r-v

Titles with Hesychian Gloss 414r / 417r 420v 423r-v 425v-426v 427v-429v 431v 434v 438r 440r 442r 443v 445v 447r 448r

11

Folios with Images 414v / 417r 421r 423v 425v, 426r-v, 428v 429r, 429v 432r 434v 438v 440r 442r 443v 445v 447r 448r-v, 449r 449v (full page) 450r 453v 462v 465r 469r 472r 473v, 478v, 479r, 480v, 481r, 482r-v, 484r 485r 486r 488r 488v /

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter = The Barberini Psalter. Codex Vaticanus Barberinianus Graecus 372. Introduction and Commentary, [by] J. ANDERSON – P. CANART – Ch. WALTER, Zürich – New York 1989 (Belser Colour Microfiche Editions. Manuscripts from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Byzantine Manuscripts, 1). BARBER, Theodore Psalter = Ch. BARBER, Theodore Psalter, electronic facsimile, Champaign, IL – London 2000. BHG = F. HALKIN, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, Bruxelles 19573. CB = HESYCH. H., Commentarius breuis: ed. V. JAGIÒ, Supplementum Psalterii Bononiensis: incerti auctoris explanatio Psalmorum Graeca ad fidem codicum edidit..., Vindobonae 1917 (CPG 6553). CBM = I. HUTTER, Corpus der byzantinischen Miniaturenhandschriften, (...), III: Oxford, Bodleian Library (...); IV: Oxford, Christ Church; V: Oxford, College Libraries, Stuttgart 1977-1997 (Denkmäler der Buchkunst, 2-3, 5, 9, 13). CC.CM = Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis, Turnhout 1966CCSL = Corpus christianorum. Series Latina, Turnhout 1953CCSG = Corpus christianorum. Series Graeca, Turnhout 1977CM = HESYCH. H., Commentarius magnus (CPG 6554; mostly unpublished). CPG = M. GEERARD [et al.], Clavis Patrum Graecorum, I-III, IIIA, IV-V, [necnon] Supplementum, Turnhout 1974-2003 (Corpus christianorum). DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Add. 19.352 = S. DER NERSESSIAN, L’illustration des psautiers grecs du Moyen Âge. II. Londres, Add. 19.352, Paris 1970 (Bibliothèque des Cahiers archéologiques, 5). DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci = Codices Vaticani Graeci, III: Codices 604-866, recensuit R. DEVREESSE (...), in Bibliotheca Vaticana 1950 (Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codices manu scripti recensiti [...]). DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs = R. DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs grecs des Psaumes, Città del Vaticano 1970 (Studi e testi, 264). DE WALD = E. T. DE WALD, The Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint, III: Psalms and Odes, 2: Vaticanus Graecus 752, Princeton – London – The Hague 1942. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes = G. DORIVAL, Les chaînes exégétiques grecques sur les Psaumes. Contribution à l’étude d’une forme littéraire, I-IV, Leuven 19861995 (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense. Études et documents, 43-46). DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem = S. DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psaumes dans le Psautier de Jérusalem, cod. Taphou 53: Rôle des tituli, in Byzantine East, Latin West. Art-Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, ed. D. MOURIKI [et al.], Princeton 1995, pp. 347-354. ERIKSSON, Scholia = M. ERIKSSON, The Scholia by Hesychius of Jerusalem on the Minor Prophets. Edited with an Introduction..., Uppsala Universitet 2012 [diss.]. HUTTER, Theodoros = I. HUTTER, Theodoros βιβλιογράφος und die Buchmalerei in Studiu, in Ὀπώρα, Studi in onore di Mgr. Paul Canart per il LXX compleanno,

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ed. S. LUCÀ – L. PERRIA [= Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, n.s. 51 (1997), pp. 177-208]. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor = IOLI KALAVREZOU – NICOLETTE TRAHOULIA – SHALOM SABAR, Critique of the Emperor in the Vatican Psalter gr. 752, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993), 195-219. KARO – LIETZMANN = G. KARO – I. LIETZMANN, Catenarum Graecarum Catalogus, in Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologischhistorische Klasse [1902], pp. 1-66, 299-350, 559-620. LAKE = K. and S. LAKE, Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts to the Year 1200, I-X [and] Indices, Boston, Mass. 1934-1945 (Monumenta Palaeographica Vetera. First Series). LEROY – SAUTEL, Répertoire de réglures = Répertoire de réglures dans les manuscrits grecs sur parchemin, Base de données établie par J.-H. SAUTEL à l’aide du fichier LEROY et des catalogues récents à l’Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (CNRS), Turnhout 1995 (Bibliologia, 13). LSJ = The Online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon: http://www.tlg.uci.edu MAGDALINO – NELSON, Old Testament = The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington D.C. 2010 (Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia). MENNES, Inventaris = R. MENNES, Hesychius van Jerusalem. Inventaris van de Griekse handschriftelijke overlevering met de uitgave en vertaling van de Grote Commentaar op psalm 100 en 102, Gent 1971 [diss.]. MERCATI, Il commentario = G. MERCATI, Il commentario d’Esichio Gerosolimitano sui Salmi, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica, Roma 1901 (Studi e testi, 5), pp. 145-179. PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS = A. PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη (...), I-V, ἐν Πετρουπόλει 1891-1915. PARPULOV, Toward a History = G. R. PARPULOV, Toward a History of Byzantine Psalters, Univ. Chicago 2004 [diss.]; now published, Plovdiv 2014: see online pdf at https://ia802700.us.archive.org/19/items/ByzPsalters/ByzPsalters.pdf. References in this volume are given to the dissertation, except in the paper by D’Aiuto. PG = Patrologiae cursus completus (...). Series Graeca (...), accurante J.-P. MIGNE, ICLXI, Lutetiae Parisiorum 1857-1866. RAHLFS, Verzeichnis = A. RAHLFS, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, Berlin 1914 (Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, 2). RGK = Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten, 800-1600, Erstellt von E. GAMILLSCHEG und D. HARLFINGER [H. HUNGER, P. ELEUTERI], I-III, Wien 1981-1997 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik, III/1-3). RONDEAU, Commentaires = M.-J. RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques du Psautier (IIIe-Ve siècles), I: Les travaux des Pères grecs et latins sur le Psautier. Recherches et bilan, Roma 1982 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 219). SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke = A. SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke. Die hexaplarischen Psalmenfragmente der Handschriften Vaticanus graecus 752 und Canonicianus graecus 62, Freiburg – Göttingen 1975 (Orbis biblicus et orientalis, 8). TitPs = HESYCH. H., De titulis Psalmorum, PG 27, 649-1344 (CPG 6552).

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FOREWORD Most of the papers here gathered were first read out at the Ars edendi workshop held in Rome 11-13 June 2012, an event that saw the first joining of forces of a number of international scholars in re-assessing the evidence in this manuscript. Ars edendi is a research programme funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation for the period 2008-2015 and operates within the Department of Romance Studies and Classics at Stockholm University, supporting a number of projects editing medieval Latin and Greek texts, including the present project directed by Barbara Crostini and aiming to achieve an online edition of Psalter Vaticanus graecus 752 (see www.arsedendi.org). The occasion of the workshop marked a further instance in the ongoing collaboration between Swedish institutions and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, as the opening speech of the Prefect, Mons. Cesare Pasini, reprinted here as the volume’s Preface, testifies. We would also like to remember that the second day, dedicated to scholarship on the catena and on the writings of the Church Father, Hesychius of Jerusalem, fittingly took place at the Institutum Patristicum “Augustinianum”. Participants to the workshop had the opportunity of seeing the manuscripts Vat. gr. 752, Vat. gr. 1927 and Pal. gr. 44 in a private exhibition organized in the Salone Sistino of the Vatican Library by Dr Sever Voicu, whose constant assistance and unfailing help we would like gratefully to acknowledge here. Not all papers delivered at the workshop are included in this volume, while others were commissioned ad hoc as topics needed covering or new interests arose. Needless to say, despite casting our nets wide, the result is far from complete, and indeed raising future interest in this manuscript is perhaps what we count as the most valuable achievement of this undertaking. The last word, if it ever can be uttered in a historical, open-ended context, is certainly far from being pronounced here. So here is, in fact, a beginning. And one might question the involvement of many different scholars in such a tentative way, given that resources were, in fact, limited by the literature available and the quality of the images at hand. Ars edendi was key to sponsoring a new colour reproduction of the whole codex, but even so, de visu encounters with the manuscript itself — one of the Vatican Reserve — were in fact still very much hoped for but not always entirely attainable especially by some of the art-historians involved. Special thanks go to Dr Paolo Vian, who authorized many such A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 15-16.

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FOREWORD

viewings, as well as to the Library staff, who physically carried the burden of the two huge tomes on these several occasions. A beginning must always reckon with what has come before, and draw up a clear status quaestionis, so that a good basis is in place for further work. This platform is provided here with the help of other scholars: for it is more than a (in this case, short) list of publications. Rather, it is an allround perception of the object in its field, as broadly defined as possible. It is, in our view, what experts in Byzantine and related subjects can be called upon to write with respect to one such object at a specific time, as well as what they can say at present about locating this eleventh-century illuminated manuscript within their spheres of knowledge. Many perceived this as a daunting task; some withdrew. We tried to respect the variety of the contributions by refraining from imposing toostrict editorial controls on language, preferred name forms, or manners of citation. Still, some perceived us as demanding editors. The mystery of the Psalter and its illustration, the enigma of a book about which — as for so many other Greek manuscripts — so little is actually known, so much is tantalizing, still defeats and defies clear statements of contextualization and interpretation. Its (perceived) marginal status, comparable to the fate of literature regarded as second-rate on subjective and contingent (whether aesthetic or ideological) grounds, does not make its complex, subtly researched message less worthy of investigation. Of course, we did not expect answers to be ready for us on a plate. Yet genuine efforts always produce surprising results, and we are grateful to all who put their mind to thinking out the evidence of Vat. gr. 752, speakers as well as participants, and relating what they saw to their network of notions in their respective fields. Surely this is no useless exercise, and the result, though varied and even at times contradictory from the disparate points of view, provides a source of reflection and a new placing of this object, this biblical book, in the context of our time. BC / GP

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CESARE PASINI

PREFACE SWEDEN AND THE VATICAN LIBRARY Ars edendi Workshop, 11 June 2012 Swedish Institute at Rome Good evening everyone, I greet all those present at this workshop and particularly thank Professor Barbro Santillo Frizell, director of the Swedish Institute for Classical Studies in Rome, who is hosting us this evening. A manuscript of the Vatican Library, Vat. gr. 752, will be studied in this workshop. I will not take time now to speak of this Book of Psalms from eleventh-century Byzantium, but I will rather place myself in a more general perspective, taking a broader view. This research promoted by the Ars edendi programme of the Department of French, Italian and Classical Languages of Stockholm University, is inserted into a rich tradition of contact between the Vatican Library and the Swedish world. This is the justification for the title of my talk: Sweden and the Vatican Library. Speaking at the site of the Swedish Institute, first of all, I would like to recall the collaboration that saw, in the eighties, the scientific institutes of Rome united with the Vatican Library in launching the first attempts at networking between libraries. Among the first institutions engaged in the construction of a common catalogue, I am pleased to mention the Swedish Institute. The bylaws of this network, called URBS (“Unione Romana Biblioteche Scientifiche”), were signed in 1996. Since 2002, and definitively since 2006, the Vatican Library has had to follow its own path, but the spirit of collaboration of that undertaking is a positive sign that we clearly do not want to forget. *

*

*

Certainly the most relevant contact between the Swedish world and the Vatican Library was the arrival in our institution of the library of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689): it not only had the effect of enriching the library of the Popes with a remarkable collection of manuscripts, but A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 17-20.

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CESARE PASINI

in some ways has been a benchmark for many subsequent occasions of encounter, in a climate of positive as well as friendly cooperation, between our institution and the Swedish world. I do not want to retrace here the history that led the manuscripts of the library of Queen Christina of Sweden to the Vatican Library. It has been studied and described many times. Most recently it can be found explained in an accurate and comprehensive way in the Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca Vaticana, edited by Francesco D’Aiuto and Paolo Vian, which — by the way — will be presented on Thursday, June 14 [2012], in the ancient rooms of the original site of the Vatican Library.1 I would just like to recall that Christina, after having renounced the crown of Sweden and having been converted to Catholicism in 1655, came down to Rome with her rich library, which was further increased in Italy. Already in Innsbruck she was able to meet Lucas Holste, then the “primo custode” (nowadays known as the Prefect) of the Vatican Library, who received her profession of faith. Holste wanted to acquire Christina’s collection for the Vatican Library, but the undertaking was not possible for him. The endeavor did succeed for Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni, upon the death of Christina on April 19, 1689: he, in fact still a Cardinal in those months, had entered into negotiations for the purchase of the library for his personal library, but in the meanwhile, having become Pope, he in fact acquired those manuscripts for the Vatican Library in March 1690. Thus about 2,100 manuscripts, including Latin, Greek and Eastern ones, came into the Vatican. I will not dwell in detail on the complex history of some sections or individual manuscripts in this collection, which then entered the Vatican Library among the Ottoboniani codices, or were rather placed in other collections, or vice versa, the situation for which, under the shelfmark Reginenses graeci et latini, groups of manuscripts from other collections are also found. I would however point out that on April 25, 1794, within the Odescalchi collection purchased for a substantial sum, a collection of coins and medals which had also belonged to Christina entered the library: the Queen had actually already accumulated over 15,000 coins in Stockholm; then she enriched her collection, among other things, with the purchase of the celebrated Roman medallions owned by the antiquarian Francis Godfrey. These collections, however, except for a small part of the bronze medals still preserved in the Vatican Numismatic Cabinet, were transported to Paris along with most of the Numismatic Cabinet during the Napoleonic occupation, and were never returned to Rome. The collection 1 F. D’AIUTO – P. VIAN, Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca Vaticana, 2 voll., Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 466-467).

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PREFACE: SWEDEN AND THE VATICAN LIBRARY

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of manuscripts, although also “transferred” to Paris, suffered no damage; luckily these were subsequently in large part returned to the Library after the fall of Napoleon. *

*

*

The presence of the manuscripts of Queen Christina in the Vatican Library was commemorated in two major exhibitions, in October 19662 and in the year 1989,3 the three hundredth anniversary of her death. Equally linked to our context, one can also remember the exhibition organized to solemnize the sixth centenary of the canonization of St Bridget of Sweden.4 Speaking of exhibitions, another is planned next year, in two periods, from 18 April to 9 December [2013]. In order to explain this event, I must mention with gratitude a beautiful collaboration that has taken place in recent years. I would like to point out that from the spring of 2008 to October 2010 we were able to restore 170 manuscripts and 96 printed volumes from the Reginenses through a grant from the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation in Stockholm. It is obvious that a library cannot be limited to safeguarding its collections, whether they be manuscripts or printed books; it is its duty also to study them, showcase them and make them available to scholars, and it has its own specific task to conserve them, actively rather than passively, against the inevitable ravages of time, or against the damage caused by consultation, by photographic reproductions and by other causes. This state-of-affairs also of course applies to the manuscripts of Queen Christina of Sweden in the Vatican Library. Well, so large an intervention was possible thanks to the Swedish Ambassador Fredrick Vahlquist (from May 2002 to June 2008 accredited to the Holy See, now moved to represent his country in Croatia), who in this way showed us his friendship, and his respectful and affectionate attention to our institution. I am equally pleased to recall the generous support of King Gustaf VI Adolf’s Foundation for Swedish Culture (the Foundation — allow me to mention — bears the name of King Gustaf VI Adolf who, while still Crown Prince, founded the Institute in 1925). Thanks to the funding from the Foundation and to the invaluable involvement of Ambassador Vahlquist 2

Catalogue: Cristina di Svezia. Mostra di documenti vaticani, Città del Vaticano 1966. Catalogue: Cristina di Svezia a Roma 1655-1689 / Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome, 1655-1689. Mostra di documenti. Introduzione di Marie Louise Rodén, Città del Vaticano 1989. 4 Catalogue: Rosa rorans bonitatem. Mostra per il sesto centenario della canonizzazione di santa Brigida di Svezia, [sl] 1991. 3

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CESARE PASINI

and his successor Ambassador Ulla Gundmundson, it was possible to carry out a very special restoration of a Byzantine manuscript, MS Vat. gr. 1522, a luxury parchment Gospel Lectionary dated to the tenth century with five full-page miniatures as well as a beautiful series of pages decorated with arches containing verses in honor of the Evangelists and prayers for the purchaser. The restoration provided an opportunity to test a new method for setting color pigments that are detached from the illuminations, by applying spray adhesive with an ultrasonic humidification machine or using a brush to apply an adhesive under the microscope. The exhibition planned for the coming year5 will be devoted to showing the results of the restoration achieved to commemorate the figure of Queen Christina. It will also include the manuscript restored thanks to the King Gustaf VI Adolf’s Foundation and will be hosted in The Royal Armoury, although some manuscripts will be exhibited in the Cathedral of Stockholm [Storkyrkan]: the choice of this site was facilitated by the very warm contacts that the Vatican Library has maintained for a long time with the Reverend Åke Bonnier, Dean of the Cathedral, recently elected to the bishopric of Skara, one of the oldest in the land of Sweden. To Åke Bonnier and his love for books we are also indebted for his generous support of the cataloging of incunabula of the Apostolic Library. Maybe I gave the impression that our library receives a great deal from people and institutions in Sweden. This is a correct impression, and on my part, on our part, there is heartfelt gratitude. But I want to get rid of a possible misunderstanding. What has been created is not a meeting of interests or needs. It is rather a meeting of people who share the value of books, libraries and culture, and then make joint efforts and combine their energies to protect cultural heritage and develop those cultures. Everdeeper personal understandings are born out of the common undertaking. I hope that an equally positive and constructive spirit will unite all those who collaborate in the research during this workshop and bring their contributions during the course of these days of the workshop.

5

Catalogue: Bilder av Kristina. Drottning av Sverige — Drottning i Rom, Stockholm 2013.

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BARBARA CROSTINI – GLENN PEERS

INTRODUCTION This collection of essays offers new and deeper perspectives on a relatively little-studied (though often-quoted1) manuscript of the Greek Psalter at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, codex Vaticanus graecus 752. As the title suggests, the perspective of the editors is an inter-disciplinary one. Thus, the volume covers three broad areas: the material aspects concerning the manuscript, the textual contents consisting of Psalms and their catena commentary, and the over two hundred images that illustrate the psalms. Barbara Crostini has been mainly responsible for Parts I-II, and Glenn Peers for Part III, and the writing of this introduction follows this basic division of tasks. Ultimately, however, the editors would like to see these parts not as divided, but as mutually integrated, each providing clues to the major unresolved issues of provenance and production of this codex. Thus, it is capturing the complexity of the interrelationship between these elements in the creation and use of the manuscript that remains our ideal aim. Consider Vat. gr. 752 as a particular edition of the sacred page. As such, it came about and first lived in a specific context. Grasping this reality, though a past and necessarily elusive one, is surely the historian’s task, and his/her attempt at doing so is both limited and sharpened by the tools at his/her disposal. The first part of this volume is an attempt to address this historical context. How does this wider Byzantine world come to be reflected in the page constructed in this manuscript, in its combination of texts and images, in its specific choices of presentation and commentary? Starting from the book in its materiality, Francesco D’Aiuto’s privileged view of this Psalter from, as it were, its home ground, provides a much more accurate palaeographical and codicological basis than until now available. Relating this product with contemporary ones, D’Aiuto’s essay foregrounds comparison with the Psalter Jerusalem, Hagiou Taphou 53, a codex on whose trail the work by Georgi Parpulov on illuminated psalters 1 The full-page illumination of the Dance of the Hebrew Women on fol. 449v is what has secured the manuscript’s place in art-history books. The fact that this folio is hardly mentioned in this volume should not of course be taken as lack of appreciation, but rather as looking for a more contextualized perspective on this production as a whole.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 000), pp. 21-40.

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had already set scholars.2 Reasoning from within the codex, D’Aiuto attempts to retrace the very process of production of this manuscript, which, perhaps because of its unevenness and variety of collaborators at different levels of skill, lies open for inspection more than other, more polished manuscripts. He emphasizes the fact that the product, though coherent overall, fails to achieve the highest level, and only presents few traces in favour of a secure attribution to Constantinople, particularly in a few illuminated initials, given that even the rubrication process remained unfinished. Ultimately, he refrains from risking an alternative hypothesis for provenance, namely that of considering a provincial location wherein a Constantinopolitan influx — in terms of models or of artists — could have been, albeit intermittently, available, rather favouring the possibility of some secondary monastic milieu in the capital as its source. In any case, the monastic component appears to him central, and a way of explaining also the fluctuating standards of execution in both writing and illuminations. The focus of Augusta Acconcia Longo on the dedicatory poem in the manuscript, written in gold uncials at fol. 17r-v, has the double purpose of improving the text philologically with respect to the transcription of Ernst De Wald (1891-1968), repeated ever since in all the literature, and to supplant the old-fashioned English translation by Charles Rufus Morey (1877-1955),3 which has the effect on the modern reader of mummifying the words rather than bringing their poetry to life. Based on her Greek edition and elegant Italian version, we submit here an alternative English rendition of these verses: 1. O Lord, you who once created the whole world with your Word and still are saving it now, as it is your nature to care for human beings, by your saving providence cooperate with the scribe and the owner, for in you is the salvation of mortals. 2. I am the book of the Psalms of David: to the scribe I bring best fame, but to the owner the grace of divine scripture and to the students a heart that tells of His glory4 and to the viewers fully inspired minds and to the psalm singers abundance of spirit. 3. By plucking the cords of the kinnor in harmony 2 The work on illuminated psalters by PARPULOV, Toward a History, is the most recent sustained study of this typology of manuscripts. A Companion to Greek Illuminated Psalters is currently in preparation for Brill, edited by Prof. Maria Evangelatou. 3 DE WALD, p. 12 and n. 3. 4 Cp. Pindar ε λ λ ν, a song that tells of his glory, B.5. 196.

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David escaped the spirit that twisted up Saul. (Similarly,) when we sing the words of the psalter we trample upon the heads of our spiritual enemies.5 4. When David, on his psalm-chanting lyre, pulls the divine bows-and-arrows he truly smites every attack of the demons, [of the spirit, he wounds and pursues and turns them away, while he lifts up as on wings all the souls of the faithful towards God and away from base thoughts to the salvation of the soul in deeds.

Acconcia Longo shows how this poem of 22 lines is in fact composed of four shorter and distinct jambic (i.e. dodecasyllabic verse) compositions, in turn found together or independently in a number of other manuscripts: those presented here are probably but a sample of the actual diffusion of the compositions in psalter manuscripts, those known at the current state of research. Although textual links create another kind of inscrutable network, where exact dependence is impossible to prove, nevertheless similarities in ‘peripheral’ or ‘paratextual’ content can strengthen the relation between manuscripts assessed or established on other grounds. For example, the same shortened version of the Letter of Athanasius to Marcellinus can be read in Vat. gr. 752 and Taphou 53, thus further drawing together these manuscripts beyond the detected palaeographical evidence. If only one could set a specified and fixed context, one would be able to draw consequences, to expand and test hypotheses, to enlarge meanings. The context of Vat. gr. 752 remains less specified here than one might have hoped, and certainly arguments can be made for one or other hypothesis concerning location and sponsorship, concerning use and audience, using hints that do not, in the end, result as solid or incontrovertible as they might have at first appeared. Are these the interesting questions? Is it necessary to answer them? Of course, the answer is affirmative at one level, and the frustration of the unknown and undetermined cannot entirely be removed. In trying to provide a context, the year of the manuscript’s Paschal tables, 1059, can be used as a secure point of reference. The middle of the eleventh century has long been perceived as pivotal in the relation between East and West, a kind of cusp after which the crusading vortex absorbed Christianity in what was ultimately a centrifugal motion around that symbolic and historical centre, Jerusalem. How far was this perception present in the work of the compilers of this edition of the Psalms, or at the workshop putting together this parchment and preparing the material for this book? Constantinople still looms so large in our knowledge of Byzantium that 5

Cf. Gen 3:15.

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its name has been attached to this manuscript also, and with it, its courtly context and imperial overtones on one hand, and on the other its connection with the Stoudites, whose monastery flourished and indeed multiplied in a spectrum of other foundations in the Comnenian period. Irmgard Hutter’s articles studying the manuscript production of mid eleventh-century Constantinople, and now her volume in this series on the Leo Bible,6 stand as foundations to our approach to this manuscript. On the other hand, arguments for drawing the codex’s inception towards the Byzantine periphery are above all stylistic: in particular, the perceived unevenness of its confection, removing its place from the creations at the highest level, such as Basil’s Menologion — to name but one fellow codex in today’s library7 — make maintaining the capital as its birth-place problematic. While the iconographical use of Pope Sylvester creates a strong parallel with the Stoudite Physiologos, codex Smyrna, Theological Library, B. 8,8 it is perhaps only because we are now deprived of a wider context for these images that they stand out for us grouped together as notable exceptions. The essays by Dirk Krausmüller and Christian Gastgeber sharpen this issue of historical context, the first more closely related to the historiography concerning the manuscript, and specifically the suggestions made in the seminal article by Ioli Kalavrezou, Nicolette Trahoulia and Shalom Sabar,9 Gastgeber providing the current, revisionist view of the balance between Greeks and Latins on the eve and aftermath of the Keroularian affair. Whether or not Constantinopolitan in origin, the Psalter could indeed still reflect a wider ecclesio-political context that may not have been alien to the same, or similar, issues. Antioch, for example, where Archbishop Peter sought to maintain a balanced view between the divisions among Christians and the need for unity in front of a greater enemy — as Gastgeber depicts him — or somewhere in Palestine, where Hesychius’s commentary on the Psalter and perhaps also the very genre of catena originated, would still be places where the tensions within the oikoumene might be acutely felt, and the proximity of the advancing Islamic world would certainly not 6 HUTTER, Theodros; P. CANART – I. HUTTER et al., La Bible du Patrice Léon – Codex Reginensis graecus 1, Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 463). 7 El Menologio de Basilio II. Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1613; libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, ed. by F. D’AIUTO, Città del Vaticano 2008. 8 M. BERNABÒ – G. PEERS – R. TARASCONI, Il Fisiologo di Smirne. Le miniature del perduto codice B.8 della Biblioteca della Scuola Evangelica di Smirne, Florence 1998 (Millennio medievale, 7). 9 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor.

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have been felt less. A different location would definitely remove the artifact from an imperial context, tied to the court and its see, but would not subtract it entirely from a potentially looser monastic identity, nor from the possibility of being the vehicle for commentary of a socio-political or ecclesiological nature. The figure of David as monarch and the intriguing dedication of the Letter of Athanasius to a king expressed in the miniature that accompanies this text10 need not be strictly interpreted as pointing to the emperor, but perhaps more humbly to a local ruler. Yet the monastic context still stands out, above all in the sophisticated exegetical framework that this text of the Psalms is given through this specific catena and set of miniatures. It is tempting, of course, to tie those few hints to a bigger picture that we think we know more of. Vat. gr. 752 could be seen not just as an expression of the conflicts between the Greek and Latin churches summarized in one date, 1054, but conversely as a potential source of information about them, a witness providing insights lost in the subsequent erasure of the memory of these events in the written sources. How much this could be the case lies in the delicate question of interpretation. Bringing to bear a fuller understanding of the commentary text is necessary in order to assess more carefully the type of elucidation it throws on the choice of images accompanying it. Abducting the codex from the Byzantine capital was certainly not the foreseeable outcome of this group of studies, and in any case there remains divergence of opinion. But one consequence of voicing the mere possibility of a different, non-Constantinopolitan context is surely that of opening up the narrow, text-book funnel of Grecophile interpretation on which previous scholarship has relied. Krausmüller undercuts the Constantinoplecentred courtly assumptions of the Kalavrezou article, mainly pointing to a lack of comprehensiveness in the approach of what was, to be fair, a preparatory article for a longer study that never came to be. Looking at the whole, however still as work-in-progress, shows up inconsistencies in the well-wrought web of arguments, which Krausmüller puts his finger on. Fitting book projects onto history may not be as neatly straightforward as one might like. As Gastgeber well explains, 1054 did not divide sheep from goats. His analysis of allegiances prior to the schism events, as revealed in episcopal lists of attendance at local synods, is emblematic of a fluid and changing 10

For another example of illustrated prologue text, see A. IACOBINI, La «Lettera di Aristea»: un prologo illustrato agli Ottateuchi mediobizantini, in Arte medievale, II ser., 7 (1993), pp. 79-96.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 395v.

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balance of powers within the Byzantine Church itself. Gastgeber paints the personalities involved one after the other, framing their expectations within some inevitable parameters that depict the historical trajectory of their ideas and actions: the pope’s, shaped by the Western hegemony and underpinned by new reform ideals, noble in themselves but unhelpful in the circumstances; the patriarch’s, influenced by ambition set within a new framework of rising power when confronted with secular authority or in respect of other Eastern sees. The games between the parties are far from open, and the emperor in particular is depicted here as performing a double role, that ultimately did not benefit him either way — neither from inside his own church, nor for his wider international alliances. But while most actors appear opportunistic in their choices, Psellos stands out as truly intellectual in his pro-Latin, anti-Keroularian stance, though he too transforms chameleon-like (unsurprisingly for him) to marry Keroularios’s niece and extoll him at his death with a funerary oration. Now Psellos wrote poems on the Psalter, and an illuminated Psalter now at Dumbarton Oaks transmits his text.11 One might put forward the hypothesis of these objects being the vehicle of diplomatic exchange in the midst of the allegiances forged and broken during the controversy, the networks of friendship or power that Gastgeber highlights. It is worth keeping this avenue of research open for the future contextualization of this eleventh-century illuminated Psalter.12 From whatever ideological viewpoint, interpreting the images of Pope Sylvester as a symbol of Keroularios, as suggested by Kalavrezou, appears perverse and aimed at fitting the discourse ad hoc into very narrowly defined parameters. Here is the pope of the Donation celebrating the Eucharist and hearing confession, at a time when the definition of such sacraments and of their correct performance was at the centre of theological debates, not only between East and West, but also within each tradition. Moreover, the caption to the image on fol. 395v, featuring as the poster image for the Rome workshop (fig. 1-2), is composed of an intriguing collage between a Psalm quotation and a Gospel reference, combined to form a Petrine speech placed in David’s mouth. This speech-act is visualized on the poster as a speech-bubble: “David says, Unless the Lord at his second coming builds the church (cf. Ps 126:1), as he said to Peter: ‘You are Peter...’ (Mt 16:18)”. De Wald’s description of this illustration to Ps 126 is non11 L. NEES, An Illuminated Byzantine Psalter at Harvard University, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 29 (1975), pp. 207-224. 12 See P. HUBER, Bild und Botschaft, Byzantinischen Miniaturen zum Alten und Neuen Testament, Zurich 1973. On gift exchange, see A. CUTLER, Gift and Gift-Exchange as Aspects of the Byzantine, Arab, and Related Economies, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55 (2001), 247-278.

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BARBARA CROSTINI – GLENN PEERS















(Ps. 126:1) ‘ ... (Mt.

16:18) 

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Constantinople: On the Complex of Texts and Images in Vat. gr. 752 An Ars edendi Workshop

Rome, 11-12 June 2012  

Fig. 2 – Poster from Conference in 2012. Tuesday, 11th June: Wednesday, 12th June:

Swedish institute,

Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum

Via Omero committal. It14reads: “David with a follower isVI, standing at the left before Via Paolo 25 - Aula Minor     a building with a balcony and is pointing to the right half of the picture 16.00-21.30 9.00-17.00 where a priest is officiating at an altar set within a domed ciborium flanked After a short introduction, the papers This day is going to focus on the Psalby a presented turret”.13 But can one take lightly the words of the institution this afternoon will especially tar manuscripts and also the Catena of the church, as traditionally interpreted, being illustrated with the act focus on Art historical matters. commentary. Paperstogether on Hesychius of Eucharistic celebration? Who is thiswork priest? Can just be an ordinary, on the Vat he gr 752 manuscripts will A musical individual aperetif in thewhen Gardenhe of is theplaced alsoin besuch presented. anonymous an ecclesiologically loadinstitue will follow the presentations. ed context? The question is at least worth posing. One aim of a re-assessment of Vat. gr. 752 is to broaden the context within which we can place this or any similar object at the very least to The workshop is organized by: Barbara Crostini (Stockholm and Glenn a Mediterranean-wide perspective. Both the biblicaluniversity) Word, namely, the Peers (University Texas atofAustin). choice of a Book of Psalms, and theofcontext biblical commentary and imagery referred to it,[email protected] branch out into a wider network of meanings across For more information: or [email protected] 13

DE WALD, p. 36.

Ars edendi är ett forskningsprogram vid Institutionen för franska, italienska och klassiska språk. För mer information: www.arsedendi.org

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frontiers, cultures and even religions. It is unnecessarily limiting to restrict one’s view exclusively to Byzantine products when trying to delve deeper into Byzantine material, when it is evident that Constantinople did not exist in splendid isolation, but — whether willingly or unwillingly — was kept in focus from all sides, Western as well as Eastern, for historical as well as strategic reasons, and increasingly for its sensitive geographical placing in the changing tides of the Mediterranean basin. Suzy Dufrenne has written in her last, testament-like article on Byzantine Psalters that further research must still be undertaken in the field of the relation between Latin and Greek strategies of illumination, keeping in mind that the material at our disposal may not be fully representative of the wealth and extent of either tradition.14 When, in the eleventh century, the production of illuminated and commented Bibles (the so-called Atlantic Bibles15) came to uphold and display the essential reformist and monastic-driven impetus in the Latin church, it would seem a missed opportunity not to try to relate this phenomenon to a similar process of reappraisal of the Sacred Scriptures in the East, which has left traces in the production of illuminated psalters and Octateuchs. In particular, the fact that commentaries, and not just biblical narratives, were involved in the process of devising pictorial programmes must be stressed. This attention to the patristic word as a necessary mediation of Scripture, and of images as a further step assisting the reader/viewer in the act of appropriation and actualization of that word, has been underlined as a special trait of the manuscript in question. Vat. gr. 752, in fact, places its illustrations within the commentary column, that is, treats the illustrations as part of the comment, often linking them to the words of the catena through their captions. Meditating on this characteristic trait should open the way to significant comparisons, for example with the manuscripts illustrating the commentary of Odo of Asti (†1120),16 or even with the later Jewish manuscripts of

14

S. DUFRENNE, L’image dans les psautiers byzantins à illustration intégrales, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. BÜTTNER, Turnhout 2004, pp. 157-163, at p. 163: “[...] il faut souligner la façon dont j’ai abordé nos Psautiers, simple amorce, en fait, d’une recherche analytique: ce type de recherche devra être poursuivi, sans prétendre dans l’immédiat à des généralités qui ne serait que de fausses conclusions. Le travail ici amorcé n’est donc qu’une invitation à poursuivre ce type d’analyse, dans le but, plus lointain, de futurs grands débats”. 15 Le Bibbie Atlantiche. Il Libro delle Scritture tra monumentalità e rappresentazione, ed. by M. MANIACI – G. OROFINO, Milan 2001. 16 W. CAHN, Illuminated Psalter Commentaries, in Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions, ed. by H. W. ATTRIDGE – M. E. FASSLER, Leiden 2003, pp. 241-264; H. TOUBERT, Contribution à l’iconographie des psautiers. Le com-

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illustrated Haggadahs.17 If Vat. gr. 752 appears also in this respect an unicum in the Greek world (as far as the extant evidence goes), nevertheless it is better understood when viewing the phenomenon on a broader scale. If Rome was not Babylon upon the striking of 1054, neither was the middle-Eastern context of Byzantium a moot point. The biblical Sitz-imLeben and the echoes of Origen’s Hexapla present in the text and even in the commentary thanks to the overwhelming choice of glosses from Hesychius of Jerusalem establishes a special point of reference towards the Jewish world, responsible for the very existence of the Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint. Besides the legendary seventy, mythically framed by the narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, other Jewish translators such as Aquila and Symmachus come to life in the illustrations of Vat. gr. 752 (cf. fols 9r and 187r), again in a manner that appears to us unique. These images flesh out the frequent recourse to the philological work of these translators in the early Psalm commentaries, such as that by Eusebius of Caesarea, and emphasize, on one hand, the didactic value of these first interpreters of the Hebrew but also, on the other, their holiness by depicting them haloed in these unusual and unexpected portraits. These characters, together with the Old Testament actors that come to speak and perform their act in the images of this codex, keep the Jewish context of these biblical prayers present to the Christian observer. Rather than satirize, or exclude, the Jews, as has been claimed for other ninth-century Psalter manuscript depictions,18 it is at least possible that the aim behind all this attention was to prepare a dialogue across otherwise-perceived divides. This operation would be all the more interesting if it had a contemporary context in mind, perhaps in those Karaite communities within Byzantium who placed the Psalter at the centre of their faith. And in this one respect, the key article written on Vat. gr. 752 by Ioli Kalavrezou (1945-) and collaborators19 points, we think, in the right direction: whether we understand it or not, all this fussing around an old, familiar text, such as the Psalms, was done with an agenda in mind. It happened because the Psalms were no dead word, but continued to be the (metaphorical or poetic) expression of a set of values and ideals that were worth repeating, emphasizing, repackaging for consumption in the mentaire des Psaumes d’Odon d’Asti, illustré à l’abbaye de Farfa, in Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, Temps modernes 88.2 (1976), pp. 581-619. 17 K. KOGMAN-APPEL, Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday, Philadelphia 2006. 18 See esp. K. CORRIGAN, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters, Cambridge 1992, who was the first to place these Byzantine creations into a wider interreligious context. 19 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor.

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present. The centrality of the Bible for the ‘imaginaire médiéval’ need not be highlighting anew, if not perhaps for the fact that most of the studies about this concept are Western- or Latin-based. Because of the choices in scholarship, what could be said along these lines for the Byzantine world has remained trapped in a limbo.20 Current trends have gone as far as transforming Byzantium into a predominantly secular society.21 If the achievement of this book is to make this manuscript speak again to a contemporary world, we must come down to its texts. The book’s cultural weight, its being placed in the web of knowledge and viewing, gives a sense of continuity to the enterprise, one that we endeavoured to capture by devoting some studies to linking the ancient Psalter with more timeless uses of the Psalms. The introspective function of the Psalms as prayers, whether used in a monastic or homely environment, is self-consciously expounded by the Norwegian Cistercian, Erik Varden OCSO, with specific reference to the Byzantine context. The inter-religious prophetic role of the Psalter between Judaism and Christianity is portrayed around David’s figure by the biblical scholar, Susan Gillingham, whose recent survey of Psalter reception, though not primarily based on manuscript studies, sets the scene for any further work.22 And yet it is clear that the work achieved so far is but the shadow of the work to come. In particular, in the field of Hesychian studies, much is to be discovered as yet. The catena of Vat. gr. 752 is not — as a non-specialist might expect — a florilegium of well-known passages from well-known authors. The naming of ‘pseudo-Athanasius’ in De Wald’s descriptions should have been a sign of warning and a harbinger of complications. Since the improvement on this pseudonymity by the attribution of this text to Hesychius of Jerusalem had already happened some time before De Wald was writing, one wonders why he chose to keep the ‘pseudo-Athanasius’ designation, rather than move onto embracing the identification of this work proposed by Mercati.23 Was it prudence? Was it a measure of diffidence? Was it just to avoid puzzlement when one tried to match a different name to works 20 Recent attempts such as the collected papers in The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by R. S. NELSON – P. MAGDALINO, Washington DC 2010, with an article by G. PARPULOV, Psalter and Personal Piety in Byzantium, pp. 77-105, and the twin volume awaited from the proceedings of the 2013 Dumbarton Oaks Spring Symposium on The New Testament in Byzantium, organized by Robert Nelson and Derek Krueger, exude a somewhat daring and tentative aura about them, and are a very welcome antidote to the present state of scholarship. 21 See for example the evaluation of Basil II and of Psellos’s attitude to monasticism in A. KALDELLIS, The Argument of Psellos’ Chronographia, Leiden 1999, pp. 80-89. 22 S. GILLINGHAM, Psalms through the Centuries, Oxford 2011. 23 MERCATI, Il commentario, was published in 1901.

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quoted from PG 27, a volume containing the works of Athanasius? Whatever it was, De Wald’s descriptions can already be improved just by replacing this designation with the author’s name. Yet it so happens that a more precise name creates a fuzzier picture than the open-ended, suspension-ofjudgement pseudo-designation. Therefore, gathering as much information as possible on the Hesychian status quaestionis was the primary aim of the essays concerning the commentary part. Reinhart Ceulemans’s comprehensive presentation of the catena to Vat. gr. 752 and his evaluation of the biblical text are remarkable in clarifying these issues. Ceulemans’s essay highlights that the precise structure of the catena is still in need of further study, especially concerning specific sections such as the beginning, from Ps 1 to Ps 39, as well as the portion from Ps 77:36 to Ps 82:6. Moreover, it remains unclear to what biblical text the Psalms belong, which, as Dorival claims, can be generally referred back to a ‘Palestinian edition’. Ceulemans also highlights the work of Mercati (published here for the first time as an appendix to Ceulemans’s article) and Schenker in studying the Hexaplaric readings found in both Psalter text and catena in this manuscript, a choice that would deserve further scrutiny and that raises the question of models for an enterprise that, by the eleventh century, was uncommon. One could think that questions of location and origin for this production need to take into account this particular trait in its creation also. Finally, Ceulemans reviews the arguments for and against considering this catena either as composed specifically for this Psalter, or derived from a previous non-extant manuscript where the selection of passages had already been made, a matter still disputed in scholarship. He concludes that “the burden of proof lies with those who wish to argue that the creation of catena type XXII does not coincide with the fabrication of Vat. gr. 752”, given above all the extreme proximity of the absolute date of creation of the catena and that of this manuscript. This is an important conclusion for this project, since the specific choice of extracts for the catena is all the more valuable for the understanding of the manuscript, if it was made ad hoc to suit the illustrations and the overall scheme of the manuscript’s presentation. Ceulemans also discusses the two descendants of Vat. gr. 752, the partial twelfth-century copy, Bodleian Library, Canonicianus gr. 22, and the presumed St Anne Skete, no. 7, since unfortunately this Athonite manuscript has not yet become available for study. Since the catena makes use of the Hesychian corpus fully, an investigation of Hesychius’s commentaries on the Psalms was clearly a priority. The catena alternates between passages from the short glosses published by Antonelli as De titulis psalmorum in PG 27, 643-1344 (CPG 6552) and

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passages from the glosses edited by Jagiò (CPG 6553);24 it also incorporates some lexicographical entries from the other Hesychius, famous for his Lexicon, and it might well use passages from the Long Commentary (CPG 6554) among the texts that remain both unidentified and, so far, still imponderable. This catena displays very few lemmata of attribution, which really appear only on very few pages, so that all the spade work of transcription and identification — with the help of the mighty TLG — needs to be done from scratch (with the exception of the samples described by Dorival25). But here even the TLG finds an early limit. The text of CPG 6552, for example, is not contained in it, so a transcription of Hesychius’s De titulis psalmorum is, for want of any other merits, the first digital and thereby searchable rendition of this text. The text of the Long Commentary instead is dispersed like fragments of mosaic tesserae after an explosion: Annaclara Cataldi Palau patiently listed all the published excerpts in her description of a new Bodleian manuscript containing what might be called the direct transmission of these Psalm-based homilies,26 elsewhere camouflaged among Chrysostom’s preaching texts of similar length and intent, and set aside, in this case, as pseudo-Chrysostom. But an editio princeps of this text is clearly a desideratum. Undaunted in the face of this arduous task, Sever Voicu in his essay takes the bull by the horns, asking: “Who was this Hesychius really? How many Hesychii must we discern behind this one designation”? Voicu raises the fundamental question of attribution on the basis of a sample of readings from the three still poorly-known psalter commentaries, pointing out the way to further research. He finds that while the Short (Antonelli) and Long Commentaries disagree about their exegetical principles, since the former depends on Origen, whereas the latter is clearly Antiochene; moreover, the text published by Jagiò has a quality of its own, and moreover one not so easily categorizable. The proverbial ‘can of worms’ is thus opened. Although Hesychius’s Prologue to the Psalms is not contained among the prefatory texts to this Psalter, Barbara Crostini and Mariachiara Fincati consider it as foundational of Hesychius’s exegetical approach. Mercati’s 24

Supplementum Psalterii Bononiensis. Incerti auctoris explanatio graeca, Vienna 1917. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 54-113, includes Psalms 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 50, 51, 61, 75-78, 91, 100, 101, 118, 131, 141, and 150. 26 A. CATALDI PALAU, Un nuovo manoscritto del “Grande commento” ai Salmi di Esichio di Gerusalemme, Oxford Auct. T. II. 3, in EAD., Studies in Greek manuscripts. I-II, Spoleto 2008 (Testi, studi, strumenti, 24), pp. 157-181, orig. pr. in Ὀπ ρα: Studi in onore dei mgr Paul Canart per il LXX compleanno, [= Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata n.s. 52 (1998)], pp. 161-183; EAD., A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts from the Meerman Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 2012, pp. 197-204. 25

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edition of 1901 has remained the only one of this text, which addresses the fundamental issue, for Christians as well as for Jews, of the authorship of the Psalter. By providing a new edition that includes the collation of two further medieval manuscripts and one uncial fragment, and appending an English translation, we aim to make Hesychius’s views on Psalm authorship better known, and to set the scene for the interpretation of the characters appearing in the manuscript’s title illustrations, such as the sons of Kore. Maria Antonietta Barbàra turns her attention to the important question of mise-en-page for glosses, with repercussions on the understanding of the original intention for the gathering of such material. She includes some of the Prophets manuscripts in her wide-ranging survey of witnesses to Hesychian commentary tradition.27 In her hometown of Messina, at the University Library, lies a precious palimpsest with the uncial text of Hesychius’s Long Commentary, still requiring much work, as Voicu points out.28 It was a particular concern to retrace the wider diffusion of Hesychian material beyond the Byzantine world. The article by Stefano Tampellini lists the manuscripts of the Latin version of Hesychius’s Commentary on Leviticus, whose wide diffusion in Carolingian monasteries demonstrates how important a critical edition of this text would be. A better Latin text than the one currently printed in PG 93, 787-1180 would also enable a more accurate assessment of the Greek fragments, which keep re-emerging in disparate contexts, such as that in the Florilegium Coislinianum addressed in this volume by a member of the Leuven group working on this compilation, Tomás Fernández, who generously accepted this challenge. The Hesychius passages purportedly contained in Latin catenae commonly referred to as the ‘Glossa ordinaria’, signalled in the article about Hesychius in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, also ought to be investigated in the context of Hesychian reception.29 Given this multi-lingual transmission,30 Hesychius may have been used consciously as an author providing good shared understanding for theological dialogue and exchange. It may be for this reason that he was deemed a suitable author for a catena on the eve of another difficult ecclesiological juncture.31 *

*

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A recent edition of these Glosses was presented in the dissertation ERIKSSON, Scholia. See the preliminary remarks in the essay by Sever Voicu, who undertook a research trip to Messina with funds from the Ars edendi in September 2013. 29 J. KIRCHMEYER, Hésychius de Jerusalem, in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité VII (1968), cols 399-408. 30 The Georgian and Armenian translations are not considered in this volume. 31 See B. CROSTINI, Hesychius of Jerusalem: an Exegete for both East and West, in Patristic Studies in the Twenty-first Century: Proceedings of an International Conference to Mark the 50th 28

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Despite the strikingly original qualities of Vat. gr. 752, we recognize that scholars have largely ignored the manuscript. Ernst De Wald produced two volumes in the series The Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint, the first on Vat. gr. 1927, and the second, on Vat. gr. 752, came out a year later in 1942.32 With volumes edited by Albert Mathias Friend (1894-1956) and Kurt Weitzmann (1904-1993), the series continued sporadically to 1990, when Weitzmann published his study of Byzantine Octateuch manuscripts in collaboration with Massimo Bernabò (1951- ), here volume 2; in 1986, Weitzmann had produced the penultimate volume in the series, though listed as volume 1, on the Cotton Genesis in collaboration with Herbert L. Kessler (1941- ). These studies represent a strong tendency in (what one might call) the Princeton school of manuscript studies, which was led largely by Weitzmann for many decades in his role as professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.33 The series was not prolific, but it did produce several volumes over a remarkable span of time with a clear consistency of purpose and methods, which largely sidestepped many divergent approaches emerging concurrently in the discipline of art history. De Wald’s volumes cannot be faulted on those terms, however. They were the first in the series, and they made exposition a virtue for understanding and future research. The Vat. gr. 752 volume is a handsome, oversized production, and it contains good black-and-white photographs of the manuscript’s illustrations, concise descriptions of them, and helpful tools in the clearly written history and description of the codex, summary and index. The productive qualities of the study were noted immediately, and in typically incisive fashion, by Sirarpie Der Nersessian (1896-1989) in her review in Art Bulletin.34 Despite the direction given by a leading scholar in the field at the time, other scholars gave the manuscript little attention.

Anniversary of the International Association of Patristic Studies, ed. by C. HARRISON – B. BITTON-ASHKELONY – T. DE BRUYN, Turnhout 2015, pp. 343-364. 32 Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint, Psalms and Odes, vol. 3 pt. 1 (Vaticanus Graecus 1927) and pt. 2 (Vaticanus Graecus 752). 33 D. WRIGHT, The School of Princeton and the Seventh Day of Creation, in Princeton University Publishing (Summer 1980), pp. 7-8; M. BERNABÒ, Lo studio della illustrazione dei manoscritti greci del Vecchio Testamento: ca. 1820-1990, in Medioevo e Rinascimento 9, n.s. 6 (1995), pp. 261-299; M.-L. DOLEZAL, Manuscript Studies in the Twentieth Century: Kurt Weitzmann Reconsidered, in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 22 (1998), pp. 216-263; Byzantium at Princeton: Byzantine Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, ed. by S. ÒURÇIÒ – A. ST CLAIR, Princeton 1986, and K. WEITZMANN, Sailing with Byzantium from Europe to America: the Memoirs of an Art Historian, Munich 1994, pp. 97-98. 34 S. DER NERSESSIAN, review of DE WALD, in Art Bulletin 25.4 (1943), pp. 375-378.

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And the series, very much of its time, went into hibernation for several decades before waking for Weitzmann’s final, co-written studies. Some fifty years later, the first dedicated study of the manuscript appeared in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, written by Ioli Kalavrezou and two of her students, Nicolette Trahoulia and Shalom Sabar.35 This collaborative venture brought up to date important questions raised by De Wald (and by Der Nersessian) and sought to provide an argument for context, which De Wald had abjured in his book. The article presented the manuscript for a new readership, though one still very much within conventional circles of Byzantine Studies; no reference to contemporary debates about means and ends of art historical research appeared in that study. The study relies on close, seemingly unexceptionable presentation of the material conditions of Vat. gr. 752 and of the iconographic content of the illustrations. The title of the article is forthright about its position: the manuscript was intended as a visual criticism of the emperor, his power and moral authority, in relation to the church. To this end, the figures of St Sylvester and David, as well as the sons of Kore, stand for typological positions with contemporary (that is, 1050s) resonance: overweening secular power, and eternal judgment and retribution at the hands of God’s representatives on earth. While admitting to the tentativeness of their argument (a feature underlined by the number of subjunctives, conditionals and passives in their verb choices), the authors assert that the manuscript belonged to a Stoudite milieu in which resistance to imperial interference, including the Keroularios affair, was (theoretically) strong. This volume contains criticism — direct and indirect — of the methods and conclusions of that study, in the papers of Krausmüller and Peers, and it also contains continued support from a member of that collaborative group in the new study of Nicolette Trahoulia. On behalf of the former, an argument entirely invested in this careful study of both text and image in the manuscript is attempted; the merits of the argument should be judged altogether on its engagement with the object. In favor of the latter, a context is asserted that takes into account the complexity of events in the capital in the 1050s. The assumption, then, is that the book intersects with these national and international disputes over church-state relations, perhaps a large burden for one Psalter to bear, and it also relies on a larger degree of circumstantial evidence than many historians would accept. However, a balanced and updated presentation of divergent positions is available in this volume. A fatal flaw of the Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar argument is the 35

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor.

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absence of real engagement with the strata of text and image each page reveals on close examination. Without attention to the interactions among image, captions, catenae and Psalms, no explanation can be sufficient for this faceted production of scripture, and its visual and textual commentaries. Readers are encouraged to engage the arguments included here, evaluate them, and return to the manuscript for new, better analyses of this fascinating Psalter. The art-historical essays contained in this volume present various aspects of the visual program of the manuscript, but with no claims to completeness, or to be programmatic in its readings, either in terms of content or method. They present possible interpretative positions, always provisional before the prospect of a more complete presentation of text and image online. In the meanwhile, a sufficient degree of legibility in highresolution scans has been achieved for this group of art historians to have had advantages over previous researchers. In this vein, Peers demonstrates that a close reading of the manuscript itself can articulate arguments and positions made by many of the images and texts in this manuscript. Largely eschewing references to contemporary manuscripts, in acknowledgement of the unique qualities of Vat. gr. 752, he provides a sizable sampling of themes that relate to teaching, penance and forgiveness. While he does not abdicate a hypothesis of patron and circumstances behind this psalter’s commissioning, his argument aims to be as absent of preconceptions of the type of context as can be achieved with knowledge of pre-existing bibliography. In all cases presented, iconography previously presented as ideologically active on the plane of church-state relations is more self-evidently about individual-sized ethical problems. In other words, David is not in the first regard, or perhaps at all here, the model of a flawed ruler who must recognize the authority of the high priest for his sins, nor is St Sylvester solely a representative of Rome and the West, nor a surrogate for Michael Keroularios. Alternative explanations are made evident through considering the complex of images, catena and captions as fully intentional statements about faith and behaviour. And yet, choices like Sylvester, and others such as Arethas, Dositheus, Aquila, and so on, need fuller contextualization and generalizations are unavoidable at this stage in the development of our knowledge of this manuscript and of that particularly fraught decade, within which its conception and execution occurred. In “Make Music with Understanding: Music, Musicians and Choristers in the Miniatures of Vat. gr. 752”, Maja Kominko examines carefully an element often mentioned in passing — on account of some of the striking images — but never pointedly analyzed, the musical component of the

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illustration cycle. She provides a corrective view this way of the interpretation of the sons of Kore, said to be paradigms for schismatics by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar. Instead, Kominko places those offspring in the deep history of Hebrew scripture, which came to be Christians’ too. By looking closely at the representation and meaning of sound and melody in the manuscript, Kominko is able to bring clarity to presence of and work by the composers and singers of the Psalms. In “The Limits of Visual Polemicism in Vat. gr. 752”, Cecily Hilsdale takes a critical stand against a disciplinary habit, identifying precise circumstances and persons connected with a work of art. As she points out, the manuscript contains a wide array of images that deal broadly with sacred history, without ever ‘breaking character’. If the patron and designers of the commentaries and images wanted to provide a gloss on contemporary politics, why disguise those intentions so thoroughly? In order to probe prior assumptions, Hilsdale examines two related facets of the manuscript: unusual, often unique, choices for illustrating the text (primarily the sons of Kore again), and the use of dress to provide contemporary, identifiable settings for the scriptural scenes. But each of these elements, in the final regard, do not bring greater precision, and Hilsdale rightly points out our search for ‘arguments through art’ is in this case not directed at the proper aspects yet. Art historians still need to overturn habit, if we are to find real meanings in the manuscript. In “Urban Topographies: Representing Space in Vat. gr. 752”, Mati Meyer examines the description of space in the manuscript’s illustration, not with an eye to finding ‘real’ structures in the illustrations, but with the intent of using the heuristic lens of architecture and space to comprehend concepts of sacred and profane worlds. Examination of civic and religious spaces reveals that the designers and painters were seeking to capture a “general reality” of urban topography (perhaps Constantinople itself). Meyer carefully analyzes the visual evidence of the monuments, walled cities, palaces and churches described in the manuscript, and attempts to position fluid urban facets in a comprehensive program using movement, time and practice. By no means least important, Nicolette Trahoulia brings us back not only to De Wald’s study mate in the never-completed Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint series, Vat. gr. 1927, but also to some of the arguments made in the Dumbarton Oaks Papers study to which she herself contributed. She argues that David is consistently a negative exemplar of imperial rule in both the Psalters De Wald published, as was the case in so many monuments of the period, in her view. David takes instruction and correction for his sin and is strongly judged, in Trahoulia’s interpretation

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of the manuscripts’ ‘messages’. Trahoulia argues that the same anti-imperial stance is present in Vat. gr. 752 and Vat. gr. 1927, and both need to be related ultimately to high-level conflicts of the 1050s. Because of the importance of East-West relations in the eleventh century, both historically and historiographically, Diane Reilly’s thorough presentation of psalters in the ninth through eleventh centuries is especially useful. We were drawn in the first place to the possibility of understanding better meanings and realities of contacts between Rome and Constantinople for the context of 752, and so drawing on the expertise of a western manuscript specialist appeared a necessary component for this collection. The results are still not fully clear, however, and possible points of contact among Latin and Greek production centres for psalters need still to be established. And yet the treatment of the devotional context among monastics, the uses of psalters for prayer in both monastic and lay setting, as well as for pedagogy, reveals the rich parallels beginning to be explored by Byzantinists, too, and some research goals open to them. *

*

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This Ars edendi project aims to encourage research on this enigmatic manuscript ultimately through the creation of a digital resource. A complete online presentation of the codex on the Vatican Library website is designed to make both texts and images available, enabling more thorough and detailed research than has been possible to this point in time. In neither of the seminal publications on Vat. gr. 752 was the entire body of illustrations and texts reproduced, and those pages that were illustrated were black-and-white versions only. While De Wald provided transcriptions and translations of the captions (which can be invaluable since ink tracing has been lost even in the 75 years since his work was published), the idiosyncrasies of the manuscript really demand full exposition. An immediate correspondence between texts and images will be made evident in the online product. The collective impact of these essays on this ongoing Ars edendi project is considerable. Not only is the description of the manuscript from the palaeographical and codicological standpoints accomplished here to a higher level than before, but the project’s main aim of the transcription and study of this catena finds justification in the problems and puzzles that still lie open to scholarship. The online facsimile that is planned for the manuscript will presuppose this volume at its foundation. On the other hand, this volume is now relying to an extent on the realization of the online edition, as images in colour will only be available in the digital medium.

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If Hesychius scholarship, spurred by the study of this catena, is slowly setting in motion, the methodology of catenae scholarship, which reached a new dimension with the publication of the four volumes by Gilles Dorival, can also further improve by devising forms of electronic publication for the grouping and comparison of sources according to retrievable parameters. Although this project is limited to one manuscript, it has acted as inspiration for more extended research in the field.36 It is a special honour to be publishing these essays in the series to which Cardinal Mercati contributed so much, so fundamentally. We hope to be taking his erudition and passion for the Sacred Word and the Vatican manuscripts one small step forward.

36

As explained in greater detail in B. CROSTINI, Editing a Greek Catena from a Single Illuminated Manuscript (Vat. gr. 752), in The Arts of Editing Medieval Greek and Latin: a Casebook, ed. by E. GÖRANSSON – G. IVERSEN et al., Toronto 2016.

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PART I THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS CONTEXT

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FRANCESCO D’AIUTO

IL VAT. GR. 752: FATTURA MATERIALE, SCRITTURA, MISE EN PAGE (CON QUALCHE OSSERVAZIONE SUL SALTERIO HIEROSOL. S. SEPULCRI 53)* SOMMARIO: Abbreviazioni bibliografiche, p. 43. – 1. Il «Salterio Vaticano» (Vat. gr. 752): caratteristiche di un manufatto librario mediobizantino, p. 45. – 2. Materiali per un riesame del Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, p. 89. – 3. Un’ipotesi ricostruttiva circa la progettazione del Vat. gr. 752 e le sue fasi esecutive, p. 102. – 4. Un ultimo sguardo al Vat. gr. 752: qualche osservazione sullo stile delle miniature, p. 120. – Appendice I: Le iniziali ornate del Vat. gr. 752, p. 130. – Appendice II: Le miniature e l’ornamentazione del codice Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, p. 139. – Addendum, p. 152.

Abbreviazioni bibliografiche Actes de Lavra, I = Actes de Lavra, I: Des origines à 1204, éd. diplomatique par P. LEMERLE – A. GUILLOU – N. SVORONOS avec la collaboration de D. PAPACHRYSSANTHOU, Paris 1970 (Archives de l’Athos, 5). ALEXOPOULOS – VAN DEN HOEK, Endicott Scroll = S. ALEXOPOULOS – A. VAN DEN HOEK, The Endicott Scroll and Its Place in the History of Private Communion Prayers, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 60 (2006), pp. 146-188 (con 3 figg. color.). BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlich-syrische Psalterillustration = A. BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlich-syrische Psalterillustration in einer byzantinischen Abkürzung, in Oriens Christianus 5 (1905), pp. 295-320. BLACHOPOULOU, γουρ ς = Ph. Th. BLACHOPOULOU, γουρ ς. β ος και η πολιτε α του βυ α τι ο ρ ο τα της βορειοα ατολικής ελοπο ήσου στις αρ ς του 13ου αι α, ε λον 2002 [la dissertazione di laurea (Johannesburg 2001) da cui il volume deriva è in rete: https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/handle/10210/2576]. BRAUN, Musical Instruments = J. BRAUN, Musical Instruments in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, in Early Music 8/3 (July 1980), pp. 312-327 (con 8 figg.). Βυ . γγραφα τμου, II = Βυ α τι γγραφα τ ς μο ς τμου, II: ημοσ λειτουργ , [ed.] M. NYSTAZOPOULOU-PELEKIDOU, ν ι 1980. D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro = F. D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro: un estudio paleográfico y codicológico, in El «Menologio de Basilio II», Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1613. Libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, dirigido por F. D’AIUTO, edición española a cargo de I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, Città del Vaticano – Atenas – Madrid 2008 (Colección Scriptorium, 18), pp. 91-130 (con 19 figg.). * [Nota di redazione (febbraio 2015). — Solo quando questo articolo era già stato consegnato per la stampa da molti mesi è apparsa online, con la data del 29.12.2014, una rielaborazione della dissertazione di PARPULOV, Towards a History, di cui l’autore ha potuto tenere conto qui soltanto in misura molto limitata, cf. infra, Addendum, pp. 152-156. Si segnala inoltre che tutti i websites citati in questo articolo sono stati verificati per l’ultima volta in data 13.02.2015]. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 43-156.

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D’AIUTO – VIAN, Guida ai fondi = Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca Vaticana, I-II, a cura di F. D’AIUTO e P. VIAN, Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 466-467). DÖLGER – KARAYANNOPULOS = F. DÖLGER – J. KARAYANNOPULOS, Byzantinische Urkundenlehre, I: Die Kaiserurkunden, München 1968 (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, XII: Byzantinisches Handbuch, 3/1) GRIERSON, Tombs and Obits = Ph. GRIERSON, The Tombs and Obits of the Byzantine Emperors (337-1042), With an Additional Note by C. MANGO – I. ŠEVÇENKO, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16 (1962), pp. 1-63. GULMINI, Manoscritti miniati di Torino, II = N. U. GULMINI, I manoscritti miniati della Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, II: I manoscritti greci, 1-2, Torino 1989. HR = ρολ γιο τ μ γα, περι ο τὴ πρ πουσα α τ κολουθ α , ἐν 1876. HUNGER, Epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel = H. HUNGER, Epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel. Beitrag zu einem kaum beachteten Kapitel der griechischen Paläographie, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 26 (1977), pp. 193-210 (con X tavv. f.t.). HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste» = I. HUTTER, «Le copiste du Métaphraste». On a Center for Manuscript Production in Eleventh Century Constantinople, in I manoscritti greci tra riflessione e dibattito. Atti del V Colloquio Internazionale di Paleografia Greca (Cremona, 4-10 ottobre 1998), I-III, a cura di G. PRATO, Firenze 2000 (Papyrologica Florentina, 31): II, pp. 535-586; III, pp. 281-321 (tavv. 1-39). HUTTER, Corpus = I. HUTTER, Corpus der byzantinischen Miniaturenhandschriften, (...), I-III: Oxford, Bodleian Library (...); IV: Oxford, Christ Church; V: Oxford, College Libraries, Stuttgart 1977-1997 (Denkmäler der Buchkunst, 2-3, 5, 9, 13). HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien = HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 29 (1980), pp. 331-354 (con 13 figg. f.t.). JANIN, Géographie ecclésiastique, I/3 = R. JANIN, La géographie ecclésiastique de l’Empire byzantin, I: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Œcuménique, 3: Les églises et les monastères, Paris 19692. LAZAREV, Istorija = V. N. LAZAREV, Istorija vizantijskoj àivopisi, [I-II], Moskva 19862. LAZAREV, Storia = V. LAZAREV, Storia della pittura bizantina, Torino 1967. LOWDEN, Observations = J. LOWDEN, Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters, in The Art Bulletin 70/2 (June 1988), pp. 242-260 (con 12 figg.). MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – TOUFEXI-PASCHOU, Catalogue = A. MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – Ch. TOUFEXI PASCHOU, Catalogue of the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts of the National Library of Greece, I: Manuscripts of New Testament texts 10th-12th Century; II: Manuscripts of New Testament texts 13th-15th Century; III: Homilies of the Church Fathers and Menologia 9th-12th Century, Athens 1978-1997. Oriente cristiano e santità = Oriente cristiano e santità. Figure e storie di santi tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, [catalogo della mostra: Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2 luglio – 14 novembre 1998], a cura di S. GENTILE, Roma – Milano 1998. PBW = Prosopography of the Byzantine World, ed. by M. JEFFREYS [et al.] (http://db.pbw.kcl. ac.uk). POLEMIS, Doukai = D. I. POLEMIS, The Doukai. A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography, London 1968. PUCKO, O leningradskich fragmentach = V. PUCKO, O leningradskich fragmentach Ierusalimskoj Psaltyri 1053-1054 gg. (GPB, Greç. 266), in Revue des études sud-est européennes 19 (1981) nr. 3 [= Mélanges offerts au XVIe Congrès International d’Études Byzantines, Vienne, Octobre 1981], pp. 507-515 (con 6 figg.). SAUTEL, Trois tétraévangiles jumeaux = J.-H. SAUTEL, Trois tétraévangiles jumeaux entourés de la chaîne de Pierre de Laodicée. Étude de la mise en page et de la réglure, in Quinio 3 (2001) [2002], pp. 113-135 (con 6 figg.)

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SPATHARAKIS, Corpus = I. SPATHARAKIS, Corpus of Dated Illuminated Greek Manuscripts to the Year 1453, I: Text; II: Illustrations, Leiden 1981 (Byzantina Neerlandica, 8/1-2). ησαυρο = S. M. PELEKANIDES – P. K. CHRISTU – Ch. TSIUME – S. N. KADAS, θησαυρο το γ ου ρους, ειρ : κο ογραφημ α ειρ γραφα, I-IV, ν ι 1973-1991. VOCOTOPOULOS, Jerusalem = P. L. VOCOTOPOULOS, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Athens – Jerusalem 2002. WEITZMANN, An Imperial Lectionary = K. WEITZMANN, An Imperial Lectionary in the Monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos. Its Origin and Its Wanderings, in Revue des études sud-est européennes 7 (1969), pp. 239-253 (con 7 figg.) [rist. anast. in ID., Byzantine Liturgical Psalters and Gospels, London 1980, nr. XII].

1. Il «Salterio Vaticano» (Vat. gr. 752): caratteristiche di un manufatto librario mediobizantino Il limitato obiettivo che mi propongo in questo contributo è quello di offrire un’analisi — ancora mancante, a dispetto della vasta bibliografia relativa al codice — del Salterio Vat. gr. 752 in quanto manufatto librario, con particolare riferimento agli aspetti grafici e codicologici, formulando inoltre qualche riflessione sull’interazione spesso imperfetta, nelle pagine del volume, fra testo, commento e illustrazioni1. Come è evidente a chiunque abbia avuto modo di esaminarlo dal vero, questo celebre Salterio greco miniato corredato di commento catenario si presenta come un curioso manoscritto dall’apparenza a tratti dissonante, se non addirittura trasandata, a motivo della compresenza in esso di elementi contrastanti e di una pluralità di interventi non sempre armonicamente accordati gli uni con gli altri. Da un lato, infatti, il codice è caratterizzato da un programma iconografico insolitamente ricco, per il quale non si possono additare paralleli in altri Salteri bizantini miniati giunti sino a noi2; ma, d’altro canto, a dispetto dello straordinario sforzo illustrativo e dell’impegno economico certamente non piccolo connesso con tale impresa calligrafica e miniatoria, il livello d’esecuzione nel suo complesso, dal punto di vista sia grafico sia pittorico, è lontano dal potersi dire eccellente. 1 Per la bibliografia relativa al manoscritto — per la massima parte d’interesse storicoartistico — rinvio ai volumi di sussidi bibliografici per i codici vaticani elencati in D’AIUTO – VIAN, Guida ai fondi, I, p. 31 (nrr. 2.2:1-6), e inoltre alla banca-dati catalografica e bibliografica contenuta nel catalogo online dei manoscritti della Biblioteca Vaticana (http://www.mss. vatlib.it/gui/console?service=scan). I pochi contributi a stampa che facciano un qualche riferimento ad aspetti grafici o codicologici, e quelli che per altri versi offrano elementi rilevanti ai fini delle argomentazioni qui presentate, saranno citati suo loco nel corso della trattazione. La descrizione del manoscritto è pubblicata in DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, pp. 266-268. 2 Tutte le miniature del codice sono pubblicate in bianco e nero e inoltre descritte nella monografia dedicata al nostro Salterio da DE WALD. Seppure en passant, alcune importanti osservazioni — che aprono la via a uno studio iconografico d’insieme del codice, che tuttora manca — sono state formulate da HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, pp. 331-343.

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Il contrasto fra gli ambiziosi obiettivi perseguiti e la flagrante mediocrità dei risultati raggiunti fa sorgere una serie di interrogativi circa committenza, contesto di produzione, destinazione d’uso e finalità di questo lussuoso manoscritto che, splendido nelle intenzioni, ma forse minato da una certa dose di sperimentalismo soprattutto nell’organizzazione dei corredi esegetici, oltre che penalizzato dall’insufficiente competenza di alcuni degli artigiani del libro che parteciparono al suo allestimento, nella sua concreta realizzazione finisce per dimostrarsi sotto molti punti di vista inadeguato alle aspettative. Per meglio motivare, però, queste prime impressioni e per cercare di spiegare le ragioni di un simile stato di cose, sarà bene procedere con ordine partendo, in primo luogo, dalla considerazione della struttura codicologica del manoscritto. *

*

*

Il Vat. gr. 752 è un poderoso manoscritto ora suddiviso in due tomi, ma che in origine doveva essere rilegato in un pesante volume unico3. Conta allo stato attuale 488 fogli, sebbene la foliazione tardo-rinascimentale in numeri arabi, complici diverse sviste, giunga alla cifra di 4914. Si deve rimarcare, peraltro, che una situazione coincidente con l’attuale è già registrata in una nota aggiunta nel margine superiore del f. 491v, ultima pagina del codice, in apparenza databile al XIV o XV secolo — † ἐτο τ ν τ ι λ ( ν) νε λ(λ ) | υπ («Questo libro è di 488 fogli») —, e inoltre, con lieve variazione di conteggio in difetto, in una diversa nota grosso modo coeva — † ε ν τ λλ( ) τ( ) λτου τ τ( ), τετρ ό ι ο ( ον)τ( ) ( ) πτ † («I fogli di questo manoscritto sono 487») — che si legge nel margine inferiore del medesimo foglio5 (fig. 1). Un ulteriore computo, inve3

Il secondo tomo inizia (da Ps 77:61b) con il trentaduesimo fascicolo, al f. 251. Ff. 491 numerati in inchiostro bruno, nell’angolo superiore esterno di ciascun foglio recto, da mano del secolo XVI-XVII (+ ff. 19a, 283a, 389a-e; – ff. 110-119, numeri questi ultimi inavvertitamente omessi da chi eseguì la foliazione del codice), ovvero ff. 488 effettivi. Sembra una svista l’affermazione di Robert Devreesse (DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, p. 266) per cui mancherebbe il foglio numerato 274: esso si presenta in realtà soltanto rilegato fuori ordine, lontano dalla sua posizione corretta tra i ff. 273 e 275, ed erroneamente anticipato tra i ff. 267 e 268, situazione già registrata, qualche anno prima rispetto al catalogo di Devreesse, in DE WALD, p. X. L’errato conteggio dello stesso De Wald (ibid., p. XI), secondo il quale il codice annovererebbe soltanto 487 fogli — come asserito anche nella nota nel margine inferiore del f. 491v —, sembra derivare dal non aver computato in tale cifra quanto rimane dell’attuale f. 19a, del quale resta la sola porzione equivalente alla colonna interna del testo, giacché tale foglio fu mutilato ab antiquo della colonna esterna che forse conteneva sul verso una miniatura. 5 Non escluderei del tutto, nonostante l’esiguità degli specimina, che alla mano che appone questa nota possa essere eventualmente riferita anche una nota di possesso vergata in 4

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 491v: conteggi dei fogli nei margini superiore e inferiore.

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Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 1r (particolare): conteggio dei fogli.

ce, nel margine superiore del f. 1r, anch’esso del XIV o XV secolo, annovera erroneamente 485 fogli: † ἐτο το το λ ( ν) νε - | λ υπε («Questo libro è di 485 fogli») (fig. 2). Incerta è, peraltro, l’esatta sequenza cronologica delle tre note — evidentemente motivate da esigenze patrimoniali di salvaguardia dell’integrità del codice —, che paiono dovute ad altrettante mani cronologicamente non troppo distanti l’una dall’altra6. In ogni caso, è evidente che tutti questi conteggi tardomedievali registrano una situazione ormai alterata rispetto alle origini, giacché è chiaro che all’altezza cronologica del XIV-XV secolo il codice doveva aver già perduto qua e là un certo numero di fogli, come rilevava nel 1950, nel catalogo a stampa di questa porzione del fondo Vaticano greco, Robert Devreesse7. Lo studioso segnalava infatti la caduta, con lacuna, di un foglio dopo il f. 299 e di un altro dopo il f. 301, e inoltre di un intero bifoglio, quello centrale del fascicolo, dopo il f. 306, e ancora di un foglio dopo il f. 415; additava poi pure la perdita di un ulteriore foglio alla fine del manoscritto, sebbene in questo caso si debba osservare che l’attuale ultimo del codice, il f. 491, conclude un quaternione regolare8, e perciò pare più probabile basso a sinistra nel f. 2r: λε τ( ) π ντ ν ου [- a.c.], ovvero «Libro della Pantanassa» (fig. 3). Il manoscritto pare dunque esser appartenuto fra XIV e XV secolo a un monastero intitolato alla Vergine Π ντ ν che, come già De Wald (DE WALD, p. IX), non saprei se si debba identificare — come riteneva DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, p. 268 — con la celebre fondazione omonima di Mistrà, nel Peloponneso (cf. da ultimo M. ASPRA BARDABAKE – M. EMMANUEL, ο ή της α τ ασσας στο υστρ . ι τοι ογραφ ες του 15ου αι α, ν 2005 [ υ ντιν ν ε , ειρ. 4]), oppure con qualche altro monastero in altra località ma avente la stessa intitolazione, magari quello, piuttosto noto, che sorgeva nella capitale, sul quale cf. JANIN, Géographie ecclésiastique, I/3, pp. 215-216; lo stesso Raymond Janin, in effetti, nel menzionare (ibid., p. 216) la nota di possesso del Vat. gr. 752, restava in dubbio circa la possibilità che essa andasse riferita al monastero costantinopolitano o a quello di Mistrà. 6 Secondo DE WALD, p. XI, il conteggio nel margine inferiore del f. 491v (487 fogli) risalirebbe al XII-XIII secolo — datazione che a me pare poco probabile —, mentre il computo di f. 1r (485 fogli) sarebbe coevo (sec. XIV-XV) e di mano graficamente vicina a quella del conto dei fogli presente nel margine superiore del f. 491v, che peraltro offre nel suo conteggio una cifra differente (488 fogli). 7 DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, pp. 267-268. 8 Ibid., III, p. 268, Devreesse sostiene che l’attuale f. 491 dovesse essere in origine il penultimo del fascicolo cui appartiene: il sessantatreesimo fascicolo del codice, però, che credo in realtà integro, è attualmente un quaternione regolare (ff. 484-491), e non abbiamo alcuna

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 2r (particolare): nota di possesso «della (Vergine) Pantanassa».

che, dopo di esso, il manoscritto presentasse qualcosa di più che un unico foglio isolato: tali fogli finali perduti — il cui numero è imprecisabile, e che non sappiamo se costituenti un esiguo fascicolo di comodo o se articolati in uno o addirittura più quaternioni — dovevano del resto contenere certamente la porzione terminale del testo scritturistico principale, con gli ultimi versetti della Preghiera di Manasse (Od 12:9b-15), ma potevano inoltre recare, con buona verosimiglianza, ulteriore materiale testuale accessorio — come del resto accade alla fine del Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 che, come vedremo, è sotto tanti punti di vista «gemello» del nostro9 —, e forse persino il colofone del manoscritto. Un’ulteriore lacuna, sfuggita a Devreesse — e prima che a lui anche all’analisi codicologica contenuta nella monografia di taglio storico-artistico sul Salterio Vaticano pubblicata qualche anno prima da Ernest T. De Wald —, si nota, infine, dopo il f. 481, dove manca un foglio singolo, con danno per il testo10. Questa e le altre mutilazioni precedentemente elencate ragione di credere che contasse un tempo nove fogli, come parrebbe supporre Devreesse quando asserisce (ibid.) che si registrerebbe la caduta del «fasc ultimi folium supremum (post 491v)». 9 Cf. infra, pp. 89-102. — Dato, però, che il Salterio Vaticano rientra nella tipologia di manoscritto con commento catenario e non di piccolo Salterio per uso personale, è probabile che l’eventuale selezione di testi posti alla fine di esso differisse dalla piccola serie di preghiere di comunione e post-comunione, tipiche della devozione privata, presenti alla fine del codicetto di Gerusalemme, cf. infra, pp. 151-152. 10 L’asportazione di un foglio dopo f. 481 non era stata finora segnalata, apparentemente: manca il testo di una parte del Cantico dei Tre Fanciulli (Od 8) τ τ ν ιοπολ( τ ν), come si legge nel codice, precisamente la parte equivalente a Od 8:73 ss. (≈ Dan 3:73-88) fin quasi alla dossologia finale (cf. HR, pp. 50 lin. 24-51 lin. 6). Si noti che nel codice, dopo i versetti iniziali ai ff. 479v-480v (Od 8:52-56 ≈ Dan 3:52-56, cf. HR, p. 49 linn. 19-32), l’Ode VIII è, per la parte seguente (qui detta νο τ ν ν τρι ν π ν, Od 8:57-88 ≈ Dan 3:57-88), trascritta in due differenti Fassungen: oltre che «secondo l’agiopolita» ai ff. 480v-482r (con la lacuna menzionata), anche nella redazione «secondo l’ecclesiaste» — inscr. τ τ ν ἐ λ ι τ( ν) λλετ( ι) ο τ — ai ff. 482r-484v. Sulle tradizioni «dell’agiopolita» e «dell’ecclesiaste», che si riflettono anche nelle differenti indicazioni sticometriche riscontrabili nei Salteri, cf. ad es. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, III, p. 27; IV, pp. 104-105; PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 12 e n. 6 [e più diffusamente nell’edizione online del 2014, pp. 57, 94-102]; su un piano generale, un mero cenno in R. F. TAFT, I libri liturgici, in Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo, III: Le culture circostanti, Direttori: M. CAPALDO, F. CARDINI, G. CAVALLO, B. SCARCIA AMORETTI, 1: La cultura bizantina, a cura di G. CAVALLO, Roma 2004, pp. 229-256: 233; ma si veda soprat-

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possono essere interpretate, almeno in parte, come asportazioni probabilmente miranti a riutilizzare elementi del corredo illustrativo del codice11. Per analoghi fini di riuso di scene miniate deve essere stata asportata, del resto, anche la colonna esterna del f. 19a. Se ne desume, dunque, che il numero delle miniature presenti nel codice doveva essere in origine ancor più elevato che adesso. Forse per riusarne, invece, la porzione di pergamena restata bianca è stato asportato l’ampio margine inferiore dei ff. 268 e 273, solidali fra loro. Accanto ai conteggi sopra menzionati si può notare che un’ulteriore conferma dell’antichità delle perdite di fogli singoli avutesi dopo i ff. 299 e 301 — con l’asportazione dei fogli che dovevano contenere i titoli dei Salmi 95 e 96 e le miniature che li accompagnavano — sta nel fatto che una mano non professionale, che attribuirei dubitativamente al XIV o XV secolo, tentò di riannodare il filo del testo biblico mancante, supplendo le lacune createsi mediante il reintegro dei soli versetti dei Salmi, senza l’esegesi, sia nel margine inferiore del f. 299v (Ps 94:10b-11) sia in quello supeFig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 299v (particolare): reintegro riore del f. 302r (Ps 95:13b)12 (sec. XIV-XV) di lacuna testuale a seguito dell’a(fig. 4). sportazione di un foglio. tutto il recente studio di S. PARENTI, The Cathedral Rite of Constantinople: Evolution of a Local Tradition, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 77 (2011), pp. 449-469. 11 Così già DE WALD, p. XI, il quale supponeva però che i fogli asportati fossero in numero ancor maggiore rispetto a quello postulato da Devreesse, ovvero nove: oltre alla caduta di fogli — che sono da ritenere effettivamente mancanti — tra gli attuali ff. 299 e 300 (1 f.), 301 e 302 (1 f.), 306 e 307 (2 ff.), 415 e 416 (1 f.), lo studioso ipotizzava infatti che si fossero verificate ulteriori asportazioni — in corrispondenza di irregolarità di struttura fascicolare, ma, in questi casi, senza che effettivamente si riscontrino lacune testuali (cf. infra, pp. 55-57) — anche tra i ff. 96 e 97 (1 f.), 102 e 103 (1 f.), 156 e 157 (1 f.), 483 e 484 (1 f.). Mi pare tuttavia improbabile che in questi ultimi quattro casi siano realmente avvenute delle mutilazioni, che avrebbero dovuto riguardare in tal caso fogli interamente miniati sul recto e sul verso, o comunque del tutto privi di testo scritturistico, dislocati in punti del codice nei quali a mio avviso difficilmente ci si potrebbe attendere consimili interventi illustrativi «maggiori». 12 Non stupisca l’esiguità del testo scritturistico qui risarcito: i fogli mancanti dovevano contenere infatti nella colonna più interna di ciascuna pagina, accanto a questa minima porzione di testo biblico, soprattutto gli ampi tituli introduttivi dei Salmi 95 e 96 — inclusi, come d’uso nel nostro codice, gli argumenta dell’«Esichio Antonelli» (cf. infra, p. 113) — vergati in maiuscoletta distintiva, mentre nelle colonne più esterne probabilmente, oltre al materiale esegetico, stavano le miniature relative ai medesimi Salmi, le quali rappresentano il motivo per cui probabilmente i fogli sono stati asportati.

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Diversamente da Devreesse, invece, non credo che la terza unità fascicolare del manoscritto consistesse originariamente in un quaternione anziché in un semplice bifoglio qual è adesso (ff. 17-18), e che si sia dunque verificata la perdita di ben tre fogli prima del f. 17 e di altrettanti dopo il f. 1813. Nel bifoglio in questione, infatti, sono contenute soltanto miniature, sia tabellari (f. 17v) sia a piena pagina (f. 18r-v), e inoltre epigrammi vergati in oro (f. 17r-v)14: tale genere di illustrazioni previe o di testi preliminari crisografati con funzione di dedica, o di sontuose pagine «frontespiziali» o liminari, era del resto spesso realizzato su fogli singoli o bifogli isolati, o almeno su un fascicolo di comodo di consistenza ridotta, evidentemente da eseguirsi a parte e da inserirsi nel manoscritto in maniera indipendente dalla regolare fascicolazione15 (fig. 5). Il codice misura attualmente mm 334 × 265 (f. 251), esibendo una taglia piuttosto grande che si può, tuttavia, considerare normale per un simile manoscritto mediobizantino di pregio16. Abbiamo, peraltro, elementi concreti per ritenere che tali dimensioni non coincidano con quelle originarie, e che anzi il codice sia stato alquanto smarginato, forse ripetutamente in più fasi, in occasione di differenti campagne di legatura: certo è che il manoscritto deve esser stato rifilato per non meno di 10 mm complessivi in altezza e di 10-12 mm in larghezza, e si deve anzi credere che il sacrificio dei margini possa esser stato finanche maggiore rispetto a quel che oggi è ricostruibile con sicurezza17. 13

L’opinione che quello ai ff. 17-18 fosse ab origine un bifoglio isolato era già espressa da PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 89 [nell’ed. online 2014, p. 123]. 14 Su questi epigrammi si veda il saggio di Augusta Acconcia Longo in questo stesso volume alle pp. 157-178. 15 Si veda ad esempio quanto osservato in D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro, pp. 92, 113-114. Del resto, altre osservazioni sconsigliano, nel caso specifico del Vat. gr. 752, di pensare alla caduta di fogli prima e dopo il bifoglio ai ff. 17-18, come si vedrà infra, pp. 56-57, 106-107. 16 Per analoghe dimensioni in manoscritti miniati bizantini press’a poco coevi basti ricordare, nel medesimo fondo Vaticano greco della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, i celeberrimi Vat. gr. 1156 (sec. XI, fine: Lezionario dei Vangeli; mm 354 × 270 ca., cf. I Vangeli dei Popoli. La Parola e l’immagine del Cristo nelle culture e nella storia, [catalogo della mostra: Città del Vaticano, Palazzo della Cancelleria, 21 giugno – 10 dicembre 2000], a cura di F. D’AIUTO – G. MORELLO – A. PIAZZONI, Roma – Città del Vaticano 2000, pp. 244-248 nr. 54, con ulteriore bibliografia) e 1613 (ante an. 1025: Sinassario B, più noto come «Menologio di Basilio II»; mm 365-355 × 292-285, cf. D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro). 17 Ai ff. 75, 87 e 167 antiche false pieghe, o «orecchie», dell’angolo superiore esterno hanno permesso di conservare una piccola porzione di foglio eccedente le attuali dimensioni cui il blocco dei fascicoli è stato ridotto dalla rifilatura: se ne ricavano le dimensioni della parte di margine certamente sacrificata che sono state citate sopra, nel testo. La generalizzata perdita, inoltre, della foratura di guida per le righe rettrici e per le righe marginali orizzontali — oltre al probabile sacrificio delle segnature di fascicolo originarie, cf. infra, p. 57 e n. 29 — costituisce un’evidente conferma della consistente smarginatura subìta dal manoscritto.

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Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, ff. 17v-18r: carmi in maiuscola e parte del ciclo di miniature del dodekaorton.

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Non è agevole neppure calcolare con qualche precisione l’originario spessore che il blocco dei fogli nel suo complesso doveva avere quando il manoscritto era ancora rilegato in un solo volume, giacché, dopo che il codice fu suddiviso in due tomi — il che dové certamente accadere entro la fine del XVIII secolo, come si desume dalle attuali legature delle due parti, risalenti a quell’epoca18 —, numerosi fogli cartacei furono inseriti, a scopo di protezione, fra le pagine contenenti miniature o elementi di ornato19. Dal momento che lo spessore della compagine dei fogli misura attualmente mm 80-90 ca. per ciascuno dei due tomi, si può ipotizzare che il manoscritto, al tempo in cui consisteva in un solo volume e non era stato ancora interfogliato con i citati fogli cartacei, avesse all’incirca uno spessore complessivo di 155 mm. Si trattava, insomma, in origine di un manoscritto in un solo tomo che al giorno d’oggi apparirebbe voluminoso e pesante, ma le cui dimensioni e la cui mole sono tutt’altro che insoliti per l’età mediobizantina, specialmente nell’ambito di quella produzione manoscritta scritturistica, liturgica o agiografica che manifesti intenzioni d’apparato o si accompagni a pretese di esibizione di status20. La pergamena impiegata è di qualità complessivamente buona, sebbene 18 Le legature di entrambi i volumi conservano rivestimenti dei piatti riferibili alla fine del XVIII secolo e di manifattura vaticana, in pelle bruno-rossiccia con cornice semplice impressa in oro a doppio filetto, con l’aggiunta di un minuscolo fiorellino a cinque petali in ciascuno dei quattro angoli. I dorsi di tali legature furono poi rifatti una prima volta — come quelli di numerosissime altre legature vaticane tardo-settecentesche in pelle bruno-rossiccia con analoghe impressioni in oro, cf. ad es. F. D’AIUTO, Palatini greci, in D’AIUTO – VIAN, Guida ai fondi, I, pp. 463-466: 465-466 — durante il pontificato di Pio IX (1846-1878), e più precisamente essendo cardinale bibliotecario (1853-1854) Angelo Mai (1782-1854): gli stemmi del pontefice e del cardinale, impressi in oro, sono infatti ancora visibili sui rivestimenti in pelle bruna chiara di tali dorsi rifatti, in seguito staccati e sostituiti in quanto logori, ma ancor oggi conservati all’interno di ciascuno dei due tomi, incollati ognuno sulla controguardia anteriore del volume di provenienza. I dorsi attuali delle legature, ulteriormente rinnovati e sostituiti nella seconda metà del XX secolo, sono invece entrambi «anonimi», ovvero privi di stemmi: in pelle bruna chiara il primo, mentre in pelle rosso-brunastra, più simile a quella del rivestimento tardo-settecentesco, è il dorso, un po’ più recente, del secondo tomo, che fu rifatto da Ezio Consoli, restauratore della Biblioteca Vaticana, al momento dell’intervento ricordato da un cartellino incollato sulla controguardia posteriore del volume (si veda il registro nr. 8 del Laboratorio di restauro, sotto la data del 1° novembre 1996). 19 La carta di questi fogli di protezione, anch’essa apparentemente della fine del XVIII secolo o dell’inizio del successivo, reca come filigrana un giglio incluso in un doppio cerchio e come contromarca la scritta «GF | SORDINI | FABRIANO». 20 Simili grandi dimensioni, per la verità, non sono particolarmente comuni per il Salterio (cf. LOWDEN, Observations, pp. 245-246, 248 fig. 4), sebbene possano rinvenirsi misure analoghe o perfino superiori laddove, come nel Vat. gr. 752, i Salmi siano accompagnati, oltre che da un eventuale corredo miniato, da un ampio apparato di commento catenario: si pensi ad es. al famoso «Salterio di Basilio II» Marc. gr. Z. 17 (ante an. 1025; mm 392 × 302), per le cui caratteristiche codicologiche si veda in breve D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como

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non eccellente. Lo spessore delle membrane mostra qualche variazione, ma è in genere medio, come accade di norma in manoscritti mediobizantini di pregio dalle dimensioni considerevoli21. In effetti, per volumi di formato medio-grande o grande non si utilizzavano di solito membrane troppo sottili, al fine di meglio contrastare la tendenza dei fogli di pergamena — materiale igroscopico — ad arrotolarsi su sé stessi lasciando all’esterno il più elastico lato carne22, fenomeno che, ovviamente, tenderebbe ad amplificarsi in maniera fastidiosa laddove grandi fogli membranacei piuttosto sottili fossero utilizzati in un codice di notevoli dimensioni. Nel complesso, la pergamena del nostro codice non mostra difetti gravi: si nota chiaramente in tutto il manoscritto una certa differenza cromatica fra i lati pelo e carne — appena più tendente al giallo crema il primo, mentre il secondo è più chiaro e di colore bianco talora lievemente grigiastro –; e di tanto in tanto sono alquanto più visibili del dovuto la grana della pergamena o le tracce di follicoli e bulbi piliferi, o addirittura, pur di rado, si intravedono le radici dei peli (cf. ad es. ff. 61r, 65r, 83r, 195v, 197v, 198r, 262r, 268r, 275v-276r, 281v-282r). Del tutto assenti, invece, le irregolarità dei margini, o lisières, e inoltre i fori di concia, a eccezione, per quanto attiene a questi ultimi, di poche occorrenze di buchi in genere piuttosto piccoli che, in ogni caso, di rado si riscontrano all’interno dello specchio di scrittura (come ad es. al f. 281). Complessivamente la pergamena può essere dunque giudicata di qualità medio-alta, restando però lontana dalla raffinata lavorazione di quelle membrane lisce, sottili, senza difetti, uniformemente chiare e dai riflessi perlacei, lievemente traslucide, che si possono osservare in manoscritti che si collocano ai vertici della produzione libraria mediobizantina come — per limitarci a qualche esempio emblematico — il «Menologio di Basilio II» Vat. gr. 1613 o il Salterio dello stesso sovrano Marc. gr. Z. 1723. La struttura fascicolare del Vat. gr. 752 è sufficientemente regolare, ma non del tutto omogenea. La maggior parte dei 63 fascicoli giuntici (ora libro, pp. 106-114. — Circa le dimensioni, usualmente molto più ridotte, dei manoscritti del Salterio nel mondo bizantino si veda anche infra, p. 103. 21 Cf. ad es. quanto osservato in D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro, pp. 96, 112. 22 «The flesh side is generally more receptive to humidity, so the skin will curl in the direction of the hair side», come si legge in THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC AND ARTISTIC WORKS – BOOK AND PAPER GROUP, Paper Conservation Catalog, [s.l.] 19907, § 4: «Support Problems», p. 97 [http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/pcc/]; cf. anche B. BISCHOFF, Latin Palaeography. Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Cambridge [et alibi] 1990, p. 9 [trad. di ID., Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters, Berlin 19862, p. 24]. 23 Per entrambi si rinvia ancora una volta a D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro, p. 96.

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ripartiti fra i due tomi: 31 nel primo, 32 nel secondo) sono, infatti, quaternioni o lo erano in origine, prima delle mutilazioni subìte24: 1°-2° fascicolo (nrr. , b): quaternioni (ff. 1-8; 9-16); 3° fascicolo (non numerato): bifoglio (ff. 17-18); 4°-12° fascicolo (nrr. c-h, i, k, l): quaternioni (ff. 19.19a-25; 26-33; 34-41; 42-49; 50-57; 58-65; 66-73; 74-81, 82-89); 13°-14° fascicolo (nrr. m-n): di sette fogli (ff. 90-96; 97-103; i ff. 90 e 97, primi dei rispettivi fascicoli, sono privi di foglio solidale, e la struttura fascicolare corrisponde dunque apparentemente a quella di due quaternioni di cui manchi, in entrambi i casi, l’ultimo foglio, senza però danno per il testo); 15°-19° fascicolo (nrr. o-s): quaternioni (ff. 104-109 e 120-121; 122-129; 130-137; 138-145; 146-153); 20° fascicolo (nr. t): di nove fogli (ff. 154-162, ovvero una sorta di quaternione regolare con l’aggiunta di un foglio singolo [f. 159] dopo il quinto foglio [f. 158], causando un vis-à-vis irregolare, lato carne contro lato pelo, nei ff. 159v-160r); 21°-37° fascicolo (nrr. u, x, y, z, A-H, I, K, L-N): quaternioni (ff. 163-170; 171-178; 179-186; 187-194; 195-202; 203-210; 211218; 219-226; 227-234; 235-242; 243-250; 251-258; 259-266; 267-274; 275-282; 283, 283a e 284-289; 290-297; si noti che il f. 274, ultimo del fascicolo cui appartiene, è attualmente collocato, per errore del legatore, fuori della corretta sequenza, ovvero dopo il f. 267 cui è solidale); 38° fascicolo (nr. O): ternione, già quaternione da cui è caduto il terzo bifoglio, con detrimento del testo (ff. 298-303); 39° fascicolo (nr. P): ternione, già quaternione da cui è caduto il bifoglio centrale, con danno per il testo (ff. 304-309); 40°-52° fascicolo: (nrr. Q-T, V, X, Y, Z, Aa-Ee): quaternioni (ff. 310317; 318-325; 326-333; 334-341; 342-349; 350-357; 358-365; 366-373; 374-381; 382389; 389a-e e 390-392; 393-400; 401-408); 53° fascicolo (nr. Ff): di sette fogli, già quaternione, mutilato dell’ultimo foglio, con danno per il testo (ff. 409-415); 54°-56° fascicolo (nrr. Gg, Hh, Ii): quaternioni (ff. 416-423; 424-431; 432-439); 57° fascicolo (nr. Kk): di sette fogli, in apparenza così fin dall’origine (ff. 440-446, con vis-à-vis irregolare, carne contro pelo, fra i ff. 445v e 446r, giacché il f. 441 è singolo, senza foglio solidale); 58°-59° fascicolo (nrr. Ll, Mm): quaternioni (ff. 447-454; 455-462); 60° fascicolo (nr. Nn): ternione (ff. 463-468); 61° fascicolo (nr. Oo): quaternione (ff. 469-476); 62° fascicolo (nr. Pp): di sette fogli, già quaternione mutilato del sesto foglio (ff. 477-483; il f. 479 è ora singolo, essendo stato asportato un foglio dopo f. 481); 63° fascicolo (nr. Qq): quaternione (ff. 484-491).

Fra le eccezioni spicca in particolare il terzo fascicolo (ff. 17-18) che, come si è detto, era probabilmente un bifoglio sin dall’origine25, mentre non abbiamo alcun elemento per dire se alla fine del manoscritto i già 24 Nella descrizione qui offerta è riferita per ciascun fascicolo la lettera alfabetica o la coppia di lettere con le quali esso è contrassegnato nella numerazione a registro di cui si dirà infra, pp. 57-58. Per quanto attiene alla fascicolazione, si consideri anche la dettagliata analisi di DE WALD, pp. IX-XI, rispetto alla quale poche sono le divergenze presenti nel resoconto offerto in questa sede, relative per lo più ad alcune correzioni di errori nella foliazione in numeri arabi tardo-rinascimentale che furono materialmente effettuate dopo la descrizione di De Wald. 25 Cf. supra, p. 51.

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ricordati fogli perduti fossero organizzati in un fascicolo di comodo o piuttosto in uno o più quaternioni. Di tanto in tanto, inoltre, all’interno dei fascicoli un bifoglio — spesso il secondo o il terzo del quaternione, per meglio nascondere i talons — è sostituito da una coppia di fogli singoli abbinati26: nel manoscritto, quindi, furono usate talvolta, accoppiate a due a due, membrane che non raggiungevano le ragguardevoli dimensioni del bifoglio standard del codice27, secondo una pratica di ottimizzazione economica dell’uso della pergamena che è piuttosto comune nella produzione manoscritta bizantina, e che si riscontra talora anche in codici di gran lusso28. Va però osservato che nel Salterio Vaticano si rileva in aggiunta un certo numero di fascicoli con numero dispari di fogli, per lo più sette (come nel tredicesimo, quattordicesimo, cinquantasettesimo, sessantaduesimo), ma occasionalmente anche nove (come nel ventesimo), senza che ciò si leghi a lacune testuali e dunque a perdite accertate di fogli: se non si tratta qui della conseguenza della poco probabile caduta o asportazione di qualche foglio singolo che magari, anziché testo, poteva contenere miniature a piena pagina — la cui perdita, dunque, non avrebbe lasciato tracce rilevabili nella sequenza testuale —, possiamo immaginare che questi fascicoli con fogli dispari, se originariamente tali, siano anch’essi conseguenza dell’uso, a fini di economia, di membrane di dimensioni inferiori a quelle del bifoglio regolare, senza però che si sia fatto in tal caso neppure lo sforzo di appaiarle accortamente in coppie di fogli singoli rispettando, di conseguenza, la regola del vis-à-vis fra lati pelo o lati carne. Non sono visibili segnature di fascicolo originarie, o comunque in lettere o cifre greche: se mai esistite, si saranno perdute a causa dell’abbondante rifilatura subìta progressivamente, nel corso del tempo, dal manoscritto29. Si riscontra invece una numerazione a registro in lettere latine (prima mi26 Ad esempio i ff. 76 e 79, singoli, al posto del terzo bifoglio dell’undicesimo fascicolo; i ff. 98 e 102, in sostituzione del secondo bifoglio del quattordicesimo fascicolo; i ff. 105 e 120 e i ff. 107 e 108, in vece del secondo e del quarto bifoglio del quindicesimo fascicolo; i ff. 211 e 218, al posto del primo bifoglio del ventisettesimo fascicolo; i ff. 368 e 371, in sostituzione del terzo bifoglio del quarantasettesimo fascicolo. 27 Le dimensioni originarie del bifoglio possono essere calcolate come di almeno mm 554 × 345 ca., sulla base dei dati riferiti supra, p. 51 e n. 17. 28 Cf. D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro, pp. 93, 124-125 n. 10. 29 Robert Devreesse additava un’unica segnatura greca di fascicolo (λ = 30) nel margine superiore del f. 235r, primo foglio del trentesimo fascicolo (cf. DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, p. 267). Non mi pare, tuttavia, di potervela effettivamente riscontrare. Se non si tratta di una cattiva interpretazione, da parte dello studioso, di quelle che a me paiono essere tracce di sporco, visibili nell’angolo superiore esterno di tale pagina, dovremo ritenere che verso la metà del XX secolo lo studioso potesse ancora vedere una segnatura di fascicolo poi totalmente scomparsa.

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nuscole, poi maiuscole, infine maiuscole e minuscole appaiate) e numeri romani (a i, a ii, a iii, a iiii, e a seguire b i, b ii... e così via, poi A, B... fino a Z, e infine Aa, Bb... fino a Qq): essa è visibile a partire dal f. 1r, collocata verso il centro del margine inferiore di ciascun lato recto dei primi quattro Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 384r (particolare): numerazione dei fascicoli a fogli di ogni fascicolo. Tale numerazione registro in lettere latine e numeri a registro, che tralascia il terzo fascicolo, romani (sec. XV-XVI). ovvero il bifoglio dei ff. 17-18, è di mano probabilmente tardo-quattrocentesca o dei primi anni del Cinquecento (fig. 6). È molto probabile che essa risalga, dunque, a un’epoca in cui il codice era da poco entrato o forse stava per entrare nella Biblioteca Vaticana, ove esso risulta attestato almeno a partire dall’inventario del 148130. Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 18v (particolare): segnatura di fascicolo Un’indipendente serie di segnature di fascicolo ebraiche — difficili a datarsi, ma ebraica. che sarei portato a considerare anteriori alla numerazione latina a registro — si vede invece nell’angolo inferiore interno dell’ultimo foglio verso di ciascun fascicolo, almeno da f. 18v (‫= ב‬ 2) fino a f. 57v (‫ = ז‬7) (fig. 7): resta oscuro quale possa essere il significato di questa curiosa presenza alloglotta nel codice, e se essa vada riferita a un’età anteriore o successiva all’arrivo del manoscritto in Italia, né è chiaro se lo scrivente ebraico sia stato a un certo punto il possessore di questo libro cristiano, o eventualmente il tramite d’una vendita di esso ad acqui30 R. DEVREESSE, Le fonds grec de la Bibliothèque Vaticane des origines à Paul V, Città del Vaticano 1965 (Studi e testi, 244), p. 82 (nr. 1); cf. anche ibid., pp. 122 (nr. 1), 186 (nr. 1), 260 (nr. 392). Dagli antichi inventari della Biblioteca Vaticana si evince che il manoscritto era, tra la fine del Quattro- e i primi decenni del Cinquecento, rilegato in seta grezza («in serico salvatico») e che in apparenza occupava una sorta di posto d’onore all’interno della sala detta Bibliotheca Graeca, quale primo volume della lista inventariale dei libri biblici disposti «in primo bancho», giacché gli esemplari di codici scritturistici più preziosi per il loro corredo di miniature o per antichità sono elencati non a caso tutti all’inizio di tale banco. Nel 1533, invece, nell’inventario redatto a seguito del riordino avvenuto all’indomani del sacco di Roma del 1527, il codice risulta esser stato ormai trasferito nella camera Parva Secreta, ove si trovava chiuso nel quarto armarium della stanza perché a quel tempo dissolutum — ovvero sfascicolato, o quanto meno parzialmente scucito o mal legato — ed evidentemente in attesa di restauro o, meglio, di una nuova legatura, cf. Librorum Graecorum Bibliothecae Vaticanae Index a Nicolao De Maioranis compositus et Fausto Saboeo collatus Anno 1533, curantibus M. R. DILTS – M. L. SOSOWER – A. MANFREDI, Città del Vaticano 1998 (Studi e testi, 384; Studi e documenti sulla formazione della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 3), p. 98 (nr. 831).

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renti cristiani, o se infine abbia potuto avere un qualche ruolo in una campagna di «restauro» o nuova legatura del manoscritto, come il fatto che la sua mano compaia associata a segnature di fascicolo potrebbe far supporre31. Meglio contestualizzabile, invece, è una breve noterella turca del secolo XIV o XV, posta a fronte e a commento Fig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 217r (particolare): nota turca a della miniatura del f. 217r32 commento della miniatura. (fig. 8): il codice doveva essere a quel tempo ancora in Oriente — a Costantinopoli o in un’area non lontana dalla capitale bizantina, oppure in Anatolia —, come del resto si può inferire anche dai più o meno coevi conteggi dei fogli, di mani greche orientali, che abbiamo ricordato sopra33. La rigatura del codice è eseguita a punta secca — talora con troppo vigore al punto da produrre, alla lunga, tagli laddove le membrane erano più delicate —, e sistema e tipo di rigatura sono uniformi in tutto il manoscritto34. Il sistema adottato, in particolare, è il numero 1 secondo la codifica di Julien Leory, ovvero il più comune in assoluto all’interno della produzione libraria bizantina; il tipo di rigatura, codificabile come K 54C2g, parrebbe al contrario da considerarsi un hapax, giacché nessun altro codice che lo adotti è registrato nella nuova edizione, aggiornata da Jacques-Hubert 31 Un’ulteriore, più evanescente traccia ebraica nel codice pare consistere in quel che sembra un numero — purtroppo mal leggibile e di non univoca interpretazione — posto nell’angolo superiore esterno di f. 484r, primo foglio del sessantatreesimo ed ultimo fascicolo. Ringrazio vivamente l’amico e collega Delio V. Proverbio per aver esaminato, su mia richiesta, i numeri ebraici rilevati nel codice, come pure la nota turca di cui infra, n. 32. 32 La nota va riferita, infatti, alla miniatura accanto alla quale essa è apposta. Trascrizione e traduzione — che si devono all’amico e collega Delio V. Proverbio, che ringrazio anche per i commenti ad esse intercalati — recitano come segue: Yüˉ z naq›-ı öˉ ldÿ bû â külünç(-dür) («il disegno del volto è evanido» — una lettura Yüˉ z-i-naq› «la superficie della miniatura», generalizzando l’osservazione, renderebbe ostica l’interpretazione di öˉ ldÿ: «è scomparsa, è venuta meno» —, «brandisce [litt.: ha] un mazzuolo», scil. «di ferro»: külünç, variante turca del persiano kulunk). 33 Cf. supra, pp. 46-48. 34 Le incisioni del supporto membranaceo occasionalmente causate dalla rigatura, in particolare lungo le linee marginali, hanno talora originato mutilazioni di alcune porzioni del foglio o avranno magari favorito intenzionali asportazioni parziali dei margini bianchi.

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Sautel, del repertorio di rigature di Leroy35 (fig. 9). Di per sé, tuttavia, tale tipo di rigatura non potrà essere giudicato veramente peculiare, dal momento che la sua rarità sembra derivare soltanto dalla combinazione di due caratteristiche per certi versi banali, ovvero da un lato la presenza di doppie linee verticali delimitanti l’intercolumnio (indice K della codifica Leroy)36, e dall’altro l’ampia spaziatura che distanzia l’una dall’altra le due righe che costituiscono ciascuna coppia di linee marginali orizzontali, sia nel margine superiore sia in quello inferiore del foglio (indice g)37. NaturalFig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 83r: rigatura del tipo mente, la coesistenza di queste K 54C2g Leroy. due peculiarità non manca di attestazioni in un certo numero di manoscritti bizantini, ove però è associata a tipi di rigatura diversi dal nostro per questo o quel dettaglio38. Varrà la pena di notare, d’altra parte, che un’ulteriore lieve variante del medesimo tipo di rigatura, caratterizzata dall’assenza di righe marginali orizzontali inferiori, si può rilevare in un gruppo di fogli del nostro Salterio Vaticano (ff. 50-57), che dunque esibiscono il tipo K 52C2ag, anch’esso apparentemente non attestato altrove. La mise en page del manoscritto è su due colonne, con il testo principale biblico trascritto sempre su quella interna, ovvero la colonna di sinistra nel recto del foglio, quella di destra nel verso39. Nei due ultimi fogli del codice, 35

Cf. LEROY – SAUTEL, Répertoire de réglures, p. 299. La sigla utilizzata per un tipo di rigatura quale quella adottata nel Salterio Vaticano è, invece, AAb1a nella differente codifica, specificamente elaborata per i manoscritti con commento catenario, proposta da DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 65 in particolare. 36 L’indice K della codifica Leroy è ricorrente, fra l’altro, proprio nei manoscritti con commento catenario, come notato da DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 57, 63-65, che ivi lo segnala anche in relazione al Vat. gr. 752. 37 LEROY – SAUTEL, Répertoire de réglures, pp. 21, 25. 38 Si vedano ad esempio il tipo K 44C2gs ovvero, pur con valenza lievemente diversa dell’indice g, i tipi K 66D2dg, K 66E2dg, K 68E2dg, cf. ibid., s.vv. 39 Per questo tipo di disposizione nei manoscritti con commento catenario cf. infra,

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tuttavia, in corrispondenza della Preghiera di Manasse, che non è accompagnata da commento a margine, il testo scritturistico eccezionalmente occupa entrambe le colonne. La stessa disposizione su due colonne è del resto adottata per i vari testi introduttivi trascritti ai ff. 3r-16v. Le righe sia tracciate che scritte sono 19 per pagina, ma occasionalmente il copista può trascrivere una ventesima riga o parte di riga del testo principale nel margine inferiore: in tal caso ciò avviene senza ausilio di rigatura supplementare a punta secca e con il fine evidente di completare sulla stessa pagina una determinata porzione del testo o semplicemente un versetto o semi-versetto di un Salmo. Il testo del commento catenario è vergato, invece, nella colonna esterna della pagina in scrittura di modulo minore e su linee più serrate, in numero quasi doppio rispetto alle linee per pagina del testo principale [idealmente: 19 + (19 – 1) = 37]: non si è però sentita l’esigenza di tracciare per il commento una più fitta lineatura supplementare intercalata alle 19 righe previste dallo schema di base della rigatura, a differenza di quanto talora si osserva in altri più raffinati manoscritti mediobizantini contenenti testi corredati di commento catenario40. Nel nostro codice, invece, ci si serve per il commento, senza adattarla, della medesima rigatura con ampia interlinea usata per il testo principale, limitandosi di norma a raddoppiare di numero le linee effettivamente scritte, vergate in corpo minore, rispetto a quelle tracciate, e riducendo perciò proporzionalmente a metà lo spazio fra le righe scritte: ne risulta che il commento, una riga sì e una no, ora pende come d’uso dal rigo ora fluttua liberamente, in campo aperto, a mezza altezza nello spazio dell’unità di rigatura (fig. 10). È evidente, a questo punto, come una simile mise en page sia in qualche misura inadeguata e mortificante per un manoscritto che, come il nostro, per la progettualità sottesa e la ricchezza di mezzi impiegati abbia l’evidente ambizione di collocarsi all’interno della gamma medio-alta della produzione libraria mediobizantina. La mano che via via copiava il testo principale — o mano D, come la definiremo più avanti — trascriveva, infatti, i Salmi nella colonna interna di ciascuna pagina riservando invece uniformemente al commento sempre il medesimo spazio dell’intera colonna esterna, e questo nonostante il fatto che peso ed estensione delle masse di scolii esegetici, da copiarsi evidentemente in un secondo momento, potessero variare notevolmente da pagina a pagina e da un Salmo all’altro. Ciò significa che i due diversi scribi che, come vedremo, si alternarono nella trascrizione/compopp. 115-118 e nn. 121, 123. — Un evidente errore materiale è quello per cui al f. 26v i contenuti di colonna esterna e interna si invertono, con il testo biblico trascritto nella prima e il commento nella seconda. 40 Cf. infra, p. 63 e n. 42.

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Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 36r: mise en page di testo e commentario.

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sizione del commento catenario si trovarono costretti di quando in quando a comprimere o dilatare il ritmo della loro scrittura, e talvolta — si può facilmente immaginare — dovettero omettere parti del commento, rispetto a quanto leggevano negli antigrafi utilizzati per la loro compilazione, pur di adattarsi al ridotto spazio predisposto41 (fig. 11). Anche in questo, dunque, constatiamo una notevole Fig. 11 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 46r (particolare): imperfetta disposizione del commento catenario. distanza rispetto alla raffinata strategia di bilanciamento di testo e commento che si riscontra in numerosi manoscritti mediobizantini di pregio, fra i quali ad esempio il già ricordato celeberrimo «Salterio di Basilio II» Marc. gr. Z. 17, ma anche altri meno noti e non così lussuosi codici vetero- e neotestamentari, quali ad esempio tre Tetravangeli dei secoli X e XI studiati sotto questo aspetto qualche anno fa da Jacques-Hubert Sautel42. Passando all’analisi paleografica e alla caratterizzazione delle diverse mani di scribi operanti nel manoscritto, ad alcune delle quali si è già alluso incidentalmente, devo in primo luogo ammettere un qualche senso di frustrazione per non esser riuscito in questo caso, nonostante gli sforzi fatti, a raggiungere quei risultati in termini di identificazioni ulteriori di mani — oltre all’unica segnalata finora, di cui si dirà più avanti e che è indubbio

41 Ciò sarà valso soprattutto fin quando non si verificò, dopo il primo centinaio di fogli del codice, un cambiamento di strategia nell’impaginazione della catena, in concomitanza con un cambio di mano di copista, cf. infra, pp. 75, 115-118. 42 Per la studiata calibratura variabile della rigatura di testo e commento marginale del «Salterio di Basilio II» cf. D’AIUTO, El «Menologio de Basilio II» como libro, pp. 113, 114 (fig. II.3.14), 128 n. 53. Comportano differenziazione di unità di rigatura fra testo e commentario anche gli espedienti adottati per impaginare armoniosamente testo e catena encadrante nei Tetravangeli Par. Coisl. 20, 21 e 22, cf. SAUTEL, Trois tétraévangiles jumeaux.

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Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 102r: copista D (nella colonna sinistra).

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merito di Georgi Parpulov43 — che avrebbero potuto contribuire a illuminare meglio il contesto di produzione del nostro Salterio. Ha certo giocato a sfavore la componente di capricciosa casualità che regola le agnizioni paleografiche, vanificando ogni tentativo di rintracciare le mani dei copisti del Salterio Vaticano nella produzione manoscritta greca coeva. Temo però che l’insuccesso sia dovuto almeno in parte al fatto che tre su quattro delle grafie principali attestate nel manoscritto sono decisamente banali e convenzionali, se non addirittura impersonalmente artificiali, senza però d’altro canto riuscire ad assurgere — con la sola eccezione, forse, di quella che definiremo mano C — a un livello di professionalità calligrafica realmente elevata. Un simile quadro di generale appiattimento sugli standards grafici correnti a Bisanzio nel terzo quarto dell’XI secolo non lascia, dunque, gran margine per tentare di identificare altrove le stesse mani sulla base dei rari tic individualizzanti, mediante confronti paleografici che di necessità devono ancora basarsi, per larga parte, sui ridotti specimina di manoscritti comparabili già pubblicati o sulla casuale scelta di codici greci digitalizzati le cui immagini siano disponibili in rete. Comunque sia, varrà senz’altro la pena di passare in rassegna gli anonimi copisti del nostro Salterio, di delimitarne l’operato all’interno del manoscritto e di additare le caratteristiche salienti delle loro scritture. Fra le quattro mani principali che a mio parere si riscontrano nel nostro Salterio, la prima che tratteremo è quella del copista D, cui si deve la copia del testo scritturistico (Salmi, seguìti dalle Odi bibliche) lungo tutto il manoscritto (ff. 19r-491v)44 (figg. 10, 12). La sua è una grafia molto regolare e di modulo grande, dalle movenze alquanto artificiali, in cui si può riconoscere un tipico esempio di Perlschrift seriore: la mano può essere riferita a un copista abile, dall’educazione calligrafica piuttosto buona e che si dimostra senz’altro professionale, seppure non di primissimo livello negli esiti grafici attinti. La sua scrittura presenta qualche artificiosità, come 43 Cf. PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 89-92, 178 n. 46 [nell’ed. online 2014, pp. 124, 130]; si veda anche una comunicazione inedita del 2004 di cui si può leggere solo un breve abstract: ID., The Scribes and Painters of Eight Byzantine Psalters, in Thirtieth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers. October 28-31, 2004, The Walters Art Museum and The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, [s.l., s.d.], pp. 86-87 (cf. http://www.bsana.net/conference/archives/2004/abstracts_2004.html). — Precisazioni circa la proposta, non del tutto coincidente con la mia, di suddivisione delle mani del Salterio Vaticano sono state formulate verbalmente da Parpulov, che ringrazio, nella discussione seguìta al paper da me presentato al Workshop del 2012 di cui si pubblicano gli Atti in questa sede. Cf. anche infra, Addendum, pp. 152-156. 44 Le sigle alfabetiche qui impiegate per contrassegnare gli anonimi copisti sono state loro attribuite con riferimento all’ordine di apparizione di ciascuna mano all’interno del manoscritto.

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Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 4r (particolare): copista A (testi prefatori).

Fig. 14 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 62r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario).

si può ad esempio vedere nel tracciato rigido e poco naturale di una legatura come epsilon-xi; alcune lettere rotonde o con elementi ricurvi tendono a gonfiarsi lievemente, come si nota nel theta tanto biblico quanto aperto, nello zeta in forma di numero tre o nello xi di analoga forma richiusa su se stessa, e ancora nell’abbreviazione tachigrafica per la cono nel sigma maiugiunzione scolo «lunato», oltre che talvolta nei nuclei tondi di alcune lettere minuscole; altra morfologia identificativa di questa mano è quella del lambda maiuscolo, lievemente inclinato a destra, con il secondo tratto che inizia, in alto, con un piccolo deposito d’inchiostro in forma di bottone per poi terminare in fondo incurvandosi lievemente verso l’alto in un breve uncino. Rari sono, in questa

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sorvegliata grafia, tanto le sovrapposizioni di lettere quanto i prolungamenti di tratti o gli svolazzi nei margini (tab. I). Allo stesso copista va riferita la maiuscola distintiva in rosso carminio usata in titoli, rubriche e simili, per lo meno laddove tracciata entro la (o in connessione con la) colonna interna della pagina, così come pure sue potrebbero essere almeno in parte le inizialette calligrafiche in carminio dei versetti o semi-versetti del testo salmico, quando non aggiunte in seguito dalle mani A (di rado, ad es. nel fascicolo 10°: ff. 66v-73v) e C (più spesso, ma in modo sovente non distinguibile con certezza dalla mano D), responsabili nelle stesse pagine della copia del commento. Dal canto suo, invece, la mano A, ovvero la prima in ordine di apparizione all’interno del manoscritto, è forse la più interessante e, per certi versi, Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 444r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario). individuale: la grafia di questo anonimo copista appare nei testi preliminari e prefatori vergati su entrambe le colonne nei ff. 1r-8v (fig. 13), e inoltre nel commento a margine, sulle sole colonne esterne delle pagine, nei ff. 19r-97v (fig. 14) per tornare in séguito curiosamente, in un unico foglio, verso la fine del manoscritto, al f. 444r-v, laddove però lo scriba ricompare solo per trascrivere poche decine di righe dell’esegesi del Salmo 148 (fig. 15). Nel suo complesso la mano A appare piuttosto irregolare e poco uniforme nella spaziatura, specialmente nella copia del commentario, e, come vedremo meglio più avanti, anche l’aspetto d’insieme, il ductus e le morfologie sono piuttosto mutevoli (tab. II). Le caratteristiche di questa mano,

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Tab. I – Copista D: lettere e legature caratteristiche.

Tab. II – Copista A: lettere e legature caratteristiche.

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d’altra parte, la rendono alquanto inusuale nel panorama grafico della seconda metà dell’XI secolo, dominato da scritture formali arrotondate più o meno fortemente influenzate dalla moda Perlschrift nei suoi sviluppi seriori. Nella mano A, al contrario, le morfologie più tipiche di lettere e legature esibiscono una certa angolosità nel tracciato e mostrano una spiccata predilezione per la Fraktur delle linee ricurve: per tale sua preferenza per le curve spezzate e le forme frante, ma Fig. 16 – BAV, Pal. gr. 382, f. 239r (particolare): , copista del «Menologio Imanche per l’irregolarità di moperiale di Mosca». dulo e di passo, la mano A sembra dunque appartenere a una tendenza grafica che, pur minoritaria e appartata, si riscontra però fra secondo e terzo quarto del secolo XI in un certo numero di grafie individuali, come ad esempio, negli anni Trenta-Quaranta, nella mano del copista Nicola responsabile della copia del «Menologio Imperiale di Mosca» (Mosqu. Synod. gr. 183 [Vlad. 376])45 (fig. 16), o come — fatte le debite distinzioni in relazione agli esiti formali — in quella dell’anonimo «copiste du Métaphraste» attivo nel terzo quarto del medesimo secolo, studiato da Julien Leroy e più di recente da Irmgard Hutter46, o infine, come la scrittura, amante delle asimmetrie e vagamente untidy, del Giovanni monaco che nel 1044 trascrisse gli Atti degli Apostoli Lond. B.L. Add. 2000347. 45 F. D’AIUTO, Nuovi elementi per la datazione del Menologio Imperiale: i copisti degli esemplari miniati, in Rendiconti [della] Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche [dell’]Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, ser. IX, 8 (1997), pp. 715-747 (con V tavv.): 736-738, 745-747 (tavv. III-V); ID., Nuovi manoscritti di Nicola calligrafo, copista del «Menologio Imperiale di Mosca» (con qualche osservazione sugli inventari della Biblioteca Vaticana del 1481 e del 1484), in Studi in onore del cardinale Raffaele Farina, I, a cura di A. M. PIAZZONI, Città del Vaticano 2013 (Studi e testi, 477), pp. 303-401 (con 20 figg. color.): 309-353 (e figg. 1-9). 46 J. LEROY, Un copiste des Ménologes métaphrastiques, in Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, n.s. 27 (1990), pp. 101-131 (con 4 tavv. f.t.); HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», con la precedente bibliografia. Si veda anche la sintetica caratterizzazione grafica di L. PERRIA, ραφ ς. Per una storia della scrittura greca libraria (secoli IV a.C.-XVI d.C.), Roma – Città del Vaticano 2011 (Quaderni di , 1; [Exempla scripturarum. Quaderni, 1]), p. 129. 47 LAKE, II, p. 15 (nr. 70) e pl. 126; RGK, I, nr. 195. Una riproduzione integrale del codice

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Una variante della mano A più regolare e in certa misura più arrotondata si riscontra nei testi preliminari dei ff. 3r-8v, in corrispondenza di un’interlinea più ampia: di fatto, l’anonimo copista, che ha usato per trascrivere questi scritti introduttivi fogli rigati con la stessa generosa unità di rigatura adottata per il testo scritturistico principale, non ha però ingrandito proporzionalmente il modulo della sua grafia. L’impressione che se ne ricava è insolita, giacché il vero e proprio bianco fra le righe scritte risulta più ampio di quel che ci si aspetterebbe; in questo spazio interlineare, però, i radi tratti prolungati e svolazzi ornamentali possono tuttavia dispiegarsi liberamente, con un effetto simile all’impression d’ensemble che si ricava da certi documenti coevi48 (figg. 13, 17). Diversa, più spontanea, libera e a tratti corsiveggiante è invece la variante della mano A che si nota nel commento marginale a partire dal f. 19r: la somiglianza con scritture documentarie coeve è qui persino più evidente e di tanto in tanto si notano morfologie «stirate» e lettere o legature curiosamente alterate, che richiamano consimili artifici delle scritture di cancelleria (figg. 14-15, 18-19). Vale la pena di notare che anche questa mano utilizza una sua propria Auszeichnungsmajuskel per titoli, rubriche e così via. La stessa maiuscola distintiva della mano A si riconosce facilmente all’inizio del manoscritto nelle tavole di computo pasquale (ff. 1r-2v), che, racchiuse entro il tipico schema ornamentale a cerchi annodati fra loro49, ci offrono la possibilità di si può esaminare online sul sito web della British Library («Digitised Manuscripts»: http:// www.bl.uk/manuscripts/). — Non databile né localizzabile, ma attribuita all’XI secolo e affine alla nostra mano A, è pure la grafia di un anonimo scriba attestata in un altro codice dello stesso fondo manoscritto, il Lond. B.L. Add. 40655, almeno stando a quel che posso giudicare dall’unico specimen che mi risulta pubblicato, cf. A. CATALDI PALAU, Greek Manuscripts from the Meteora Monasteries in the Burdett-Coutts Collection, in EAD., Studies in Greek Manuscripts, II, Spoleto 2008 (Testi, studi, strumenti, 24), pp. 585-613 (con XII tavv. f.t.): 608 e tav. IX (studio apparso anche in Chrizograf 3 [2009] [= Srednevekovye kniànye centry: mestnye tradicii i meàregional’nye svjazi. Trudy meàdunarodnoj nauçnoj konferencii, Moskva, 5-7 sentjabrja 2005 g. / Mediaeval book centres: local traditions and inter-regional connections. Proceedings of the International Symposium, Moscow, 5-7 September 2005], pp. 144-178: 166 e tav. IX). Qualche affinità mi pare di poter riscontrare, inoltre, con l’anonimo copista dello Hierosol. S. Sab. 359, anch’esso non datato ma riferito all’XI secolo, cf. W. H. P. HATCH, The Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament in Jerusalem. Facsimiles and descriptions, Paris 1934 (American Schools of Oriental Research. Publications of the Jerusalem School, 2), pl. VIII. 48 Cf. ad es. Actes d’Esphigménou, éd. diplomatique par J. LEFORT, Paris 1973 (Archives de l’Athos, 6), [I], pp. 43-46 nr. 2, e [II], pl. III (an. 1037: atto dell’egumeno e protos Teoctisto); Actes de Saint-Pantéléèmôn, éd. diplomatique par P. LEMERLE – G. DAGRON – S. ÒIRKOVIÒ, Paris 1973 (Archives de l’Athos, 12): [I], pp. 36-38 nr. 3; [II], pl. III (an. 1044?: atto dell’asecretis Giovanni, recensore di Boleron-Strymon-Tessalonica). 49 Lo schema a cerchi annodati, divenuto nell’XI secolo ormai tradizionale, si riscontra già a partire da quello che è stato additato come il primo esempio di occorrenza delle tavole

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Fig. 17 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 5r (particolare): copista A (testi prefatori).

Fig. 18 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 20r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario).

Fig. 19 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 30v (particolare): copista A (commento catenario).

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datare approssimativamente il codice intorno all’anno 1058/1059: l’annus mundi 6567 è, infatti, il primo per il quale vi si offra il calcolo della data della Pasqua50 (fig. 20). A Georgi Parpulov si deve la recente proposta di identificare tale mano A del Vat. gr. 752 con quella del copista di un altro celebre Salterio miniato databile allo stesso decennio, il codice Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 5351 (fig. 21): la datazione di quest’ultimo manoscritto al 1053/1054 si basa sul calcolo, espressamente riferito a tale anno, che, come diremo, si legge scritto dal medesimo copista sul f. 227v52. L’attribuzione a una stessa mano dei due Salteri vaticano (per una parte, dovremo precisare) e gerosolimitano (per intero) formulata da Parpulov è certamente corretta e del tutto condivisibile53: nonostante si tratti di due prodotti librari per molti aspetti diversi per finalità e ambizioni, tale identificazione apre nuove prospettive circa la questione dell’ambiente di produzione del nostro Vat. gr. 752, come avremo modo di dire più avanti prendendo in esame il codice di Gerusalemme. pasquali (ο π λιον) all’interno di un Salterio manoscritto bizantino (LOWDEN, Observations, pp. 244-245; cf. anche PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 20 e n. 31 [nell’ed. online 2014, p. 61 e n. 62]), ovvero il codice Oxon. Bodl. Auct. D.4.1, databile grazie a queste tavole intorno all’anno 950/951, cf. HUTTER, Corpus, I, pp. 27-28 (nr. 18): 28 («Sechs Kreisen aus miteinander verknoteten, einfachen Farbbändern, orange und grün, für die Indiktionen der Jahre a.m. 6459-6464 = a.d. 951-956»); III, pp. 324-325. Per qualche altro esempio datato, risalente al X secolo, di applicazione alle tavole pasquali dello schema a cerchi annodati cf. LAKE, III, p. 17 (nr. 124) e pl. 210 (Ambr. F 12 sup., an. 961 ca.); VI, p. 13 (nr. 235) e pl. 421 (Petropol. gr. 264, an. 976?). 50 Ognuna delle quattro pagine che compongono le tavole pasquali comprende otto cerchi annodati contenenti il calcolo per altrettanti anni consecutivi. Tali cerchi sono ripartiti in due file verticali di quattro, disposte rispettivamente a sinistra e a destra di una fascia miniata centrale a sviluppo verticale con scene della vita di David disposte su quattro (f. 1r) o su tre registri (ff. 1v-2v) (fig. 20). Gli anni per i quali nel codice si effettua il calcolo sono, dunque, in tutto trentadue, iniziando con l’anno , i.e. 6567 (= 1058/1059 a.D.) e finendo con l’anno ϟ , i.e. 6598 (= 1089/1090 a.D.). 51 Cf. supra, pp. 63-65 e n. 43. — I codici gerosolimitano e vaticano erano stati già accostati fra loro, all’interno di studi storico-artistici, dal punto di vista sia iconografico sia stilistico, cf. ad es. HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, pp. 342-343. 52 Sulla datazione del codice gerosolimitano cf. infra, pp. 89-92. 53 Nell’impossibilità di ottenere dalla Library of Congress di Washington, nonostante ripetuti tentativi, un microfilm duplicato del codice gerosolimitano, ho potuto verificare l’identità di mano inizialmente soltanto su alcune immagini del medesimo manoscritto già pubblicate (cf. i riferimenti forniti infra, pp. 139-152), per la verità relative quasi soltanto alle miniature, e soprattutto sulle riproduzioni integrali di alcuni fogli mostratemi dallo stesso Georgi Parpulov — che ringrazio vivamente — nella discussione seguìta alla presentazione orale di questo mio paper (cf. supra, p. 65 n. 43). In séguito ho esaminato un microfilm integrale in bianco e nero del codice, purtroppo di cattiva qualità, in possesso di Barbara Crostini, che lo ha gentilmente messo a mia disposizione, e infine ho ottenuto il permesso di consultare nel luglio 2013 — sia pure soltanto in due brevi sedute di lavoro — il manoscritto originale nella Biblioteca del Patriarcato a Gerusalemme, cf. infra, p. 90 n. 75.

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Fig. 20 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 2v: ultima delle tavole di computo pasquale.

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Fig. 21 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 195r.

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t ornando al s alterio Vaticano, un’altra mano, quella del copista B, appare in modo isolato nella trascrizione del solo f. 9r, ovvero la prima pagina del secondo quaternione, quindi sùbito dopo il primo intervento della mano a , che è responsabile della copia del primo fascicolo. In una sorta di rapida staffetta, questo anonimo scriba B continua a copiare il testo introduttivo iniziato nel quaternione precedente dalla mano a , per poi lasciare il posto dopo una sola pagina a un ulteriore scriba, la mano c . È ovviamente difficile giudicare la mano B sulla base di questo specimen grafico molto limitato — cui forse, con qualche incertezza, si potrebbe aggiungere una nota nel margine esterno del f. 21v —, e tutto quanto si può dire è che la sua pare una grafia minuscola dal piglio vagamente corsiveggiante, piuttosto arrotondata, sufficientemente abile, caratterizzata da modulo piccolo e regolare, con un certo qual effetto chiaroscurale dovuto agli ispessimenti d’inchiostro alla fine dei tratti o laddove un tratto risulti raddoppiato (fig. 22). Infine, la mano c , che, come si è detto, è forse la più professionale, appartiene a un copista che si esibisce in una sorta di Perlschrift seriore piuttosto disinvolta ed elegantemente eseguita: la sua grafia si riscontra nell’ultima parte dei testi introduttivi nei ff. 9v-16v — sconfinando peraltro, per chiudere il testo che stava trascrivendo, su due righe isolate nel margine superiore di f. 17r —, per poi tornare nella trascrizione della gran parte del commento catenario, ove adotta una variante meno formale e meno posata della medesima scrittura (figg. 23-24). l a presenza della mano c nel commento catenario, in particolare, inizia al f. 84r, dove essa comincia ad aggiungere le esegesi «alternative» del materiale complementare della catena, introdotte dalla rubrica λλ(ο ) — e non più λλ( ), come usava indicare la mano a 54 —, negli spazi lasciati bianchi fra l’uno e l’altro scolio della fonte principale (il cosiddetto «e sichio a ntonelli»), già precedentemente copiata dallo scriba a ; dopo poche pagine, tuttavia, precisamente dal f. 98r fino alla fine del volume, la mano c diviene l’unica responsabile della trascrizione della catena, giacché il copista a scompare, pur tornando poi brevemente, come si è detto, per vergare il commento catenario nell’intero f. 444r-v. Ovviamente, la scrittura della mano c mostra 54

c he simile genere di oscillazioni nella forma della rubrica introduttiva fra λλ(ο ) e ) possa essere talora indicativo, nella nostra catena del Vat. gr. 752, di punti di snodo relativi a una diversa gestione delle fonti della catena — anziché, come qui, di passaggio di mano di copista — è postulato ad esempio, per un altro passo, da DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 98; ma lo stacco che ivi si segnala va posto, se non erro, nel corso della catena al s almo 107, ove il copista c inizia a impiegare, pur non costantemente, la forma λλ( ) anziché λλ(ο ). l a questione delle due forme della rubrica andrebbe approfondita, a mio avviso, compiendo un rilevamento sistematico in tutto il codice contestualmente a un riesame della costruzione della catena e delle sue fonti.

λλ(

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f ig. 22 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 9r: copista B (testi prefatori).

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t ab. III – c opista c : lettere e legature caratteristiche.

considerevole variabilità a seconda delle occasioni di scrittura: nei testi preliminari scritti su entrambe le colonne nei ff. 9v-16v la scrittura è più regolare e calligrafica, mentre nella trascrizione della catena diviene decisamente corsiveggiante, meno controllata e, invece, più ricca di legature e abbreviazioni (tab. III). a lla mano c , nelle sezioni del codice di sua competenza, si devono apparentemente anche le rubriche, le inizialette e i segni di rinvio in carminio relativi alla parte di catena da essa copiata, come del resto alla mano a si doveva, in precedenza, la rubricatura della parte dell’esegesi da essa trascritta55. a nche la maiuscola distintiva di c è, in corrispondenza del commento catenario, alquanto più rilasciata e corriva di quella usata nei ff. 9 e seguenti, in corrispondenza dei testi introduttivi: si tratta però di un mero cambio di ductus, del resto rilevabile, come si è detto, anche nella grafia minuscola di c , e da considerarsi naturale, giacché nella copia dei commentari era tradizionale, in età mediobizantina, l’uso di grafie più ra55

l a transizione è, per le parti rubricate, graduale. s e non erro, la mano a traccia le inizialette in carminio della catena — poi ripassate in oro, non saprei se da altra mano — solo fino al f. 89v, mentre probabilmente dal f. 90r gli subentra in questo compito la mano c , che per parte sua inizia invece già qualche foglio prima a realizzare le rubrichette introduttive alle glosse del «secondo» commentario, glosse da lui copiate sin dal f. 84r: ivi, infatti, le rubrichette cambiano di formulazione, da λλ( ) (= «altrimenti») ad λλ(ο ) (= «altro»), marcando così anche nella forma grammaticale il cambio della mano che le realizza, cf. supra, p. 75 e n. 54. Non sarà forse casuale, allora, che proprio a partire dal f. 84r frammenti esaplari relativi a Ps 26 e seguenti (cf. SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6), con le attribuzioni ai singoli traduttori, comincino a essere segnalati dalla mano c in marginalia rubricati (e fino al f. 94r ripassati in oro).

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f ig. 23 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 13r: copista c (testi prefatori).

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f ig. 24 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 165r: copista c (nel commento catenario) e copista D (testo principale).

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f ig. 25 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 33r (particolare): mano e , didascalia della miniatura.

pide o corsiveggianti rispetto alle scritture solenni e posate di norma usate per il testo principale56. a lmeno due mani ulteriori, la cui partecipazione alla realizzazione del codice è peraltro limitata ad aspetti secondari, possono essere individuate nel manoscritto. a lla prima delle due, ovvero alla mano e , si devono le didascalie in inchiostro rosso delle miniature, vergate in una convenzionale maiuscoletta a tratti piuttosto rudimentale e disallineata, genericamente affine all’alexandrinische Auszeichnungsschrift per alcune morfologie, come l’alpha, o l’ypsilon «a rondinella», ma di fatto non del tutto riducibile a tale grafia (figg. 25-26). t ali didascalie, per la verità, non sono sempre ben leggibili, giacché l’inchiostro rosso in molti casi sembra non aver aderito bene allo sfondo dorato delle miniature. In ogni caso, la mano che le appone — se pure si tratta sempre di una sola mano, visto che il cattivo stato di conservazione non consente di accertarlo soprattutto in alcune zone del codice, come quella iniziale57 — non sembra accostabile per la sua grafia a nessun’altra delle scritture maiuscole impiegate dalle mani principali del manoscritto. l e didascalie sono caratterizzate, in generale, da un uso abbastanza fitto delle abbreviazioni, certo al fine di limitare 56 Vale inoltre la pena di notare che, sebbene la qualità degli inchiostri e del carminio in particolare — qui un rosso violaceo intenso e coprente — sia in genere piuttosto buona, un certo numero di inizialette e rubriche eseguite da c fanno uso, in una limitata sezione del codice (ff. 264v-298r), di un carminio particolarmente scadente, d’un rosa pallido evanescente al limite dell’illegibilità: ulteriore sintomo di imperfezione in questo ambizioso lavoro collettivo che conosce repentini e inspiegabili alti e bassi. — c hiaramente di mano non connessa con quelle impegnate nella fattura del codice, ma di un successivo lettore, sono invece le spalmature/sovralineature acquerellate di verde tenue occasionalmente eseguite, per evidenziarli, su alcuni incipit o rubriche di glosse esegetiche vergati dalla mano c ai ff. 202v e 203r. 57 Piuttosto sconcertante è il contrasto fra le tante didascalie perfettamente integre (cf. ad es. ff. 33r, 34v) e le numerose altre che sono, invece, svanite in gran parte o del tutto per il logoramento della pellicola pittorica e soprattutto per la poca tenuta del pigmento rosso sul fondo oro della miniatura (cf. ad es. ff. 1r-9r); lo stato di conservazione è inoltre apparentemente peggiorato rispetto ai tempi di e rnest t . De Wald, che, a metà del XX secolo, poté leggere molte captions meglio di quanto possiamo farlo oggi noi. t ale stato di cose è particolarmente penoso nella prima parte del codice, laddove (come si vedrà meglio infra, pp. 120130) alle diverse mani di artisti responsabili delle miniature potevano forse corrispondere diverse mani di estensori delle didascalie — giacché non di rado queste venivano apposte, nei manoscritti mediobizantini, dai pittori stessi anziché dai copisti.

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f ig. 26 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 34v (particolare): mano e , didascalia della miniatura.

l’estensione fisica dei loro testi, che sono abbastanza dettagliati e prolissi, e inoltre da una certa rudezza che sul piano linguistico si traduce in frequenti errori ortografici e in interessanti slittamenti morfologici e sintattici verso il greco demotico58. Nel caso di una sola didascalia, precisamente quella della miniatura del f. 29v, mi pare di poter ravvisare con sicurezza una maiuscoletta rossa di mano diversa e ancor più scadente, alla quale non assegnerò tuttavia una 58 Gli errori ortografici, del resto, affliggono talora anche altre mani del codice, come ad esempio lo stesso scriba c nell’esegesi a margine del f. 264r (nona-quinta riga dal basso, e passim); ma è probabile che in quest’ultimo caso dall’antigrafo dipendano le anortografie, che però qui il copista c non si è arrischiato a sanare nemmeno nel caso degli errori più banali. Più interessante e tipico, invece, è il caso delle anortografie e dei demoticismi che si riscontrano, come si è detto, nelle didascalie apposte sulle miniature del Vat. gr. 752 dalla mano e : in questo caso si tratta, infatti, di brevi testi forse in buona parte composti ex novo per il ricco e innovativo corredo illustrativo del codice, e il rubricatore potrebbe allora esserne qui anche l’autore, o per lo meno un rielaboratore partendo da una traccia preesistente. È bene però sottolineare che le forme linguisticamente moderne o «sgrammaticate» non dovranno indurci a pensare necessariamente a un ambiente di produzione «provinciale» o comunque non metropolitano. t ratti demotici e scorrettezze ortografiche, infatti, si riscontrano sovente in legende che corredano miniature mediobizantine di sicura origine costantinopolitana, come ben sa chi frequenta i manoscritti bizantini miniati, e si rilevano piuttosto spesso anche in iscrizioni presenti su oggetti d’arte di elevata committenza e di raffinata esecuzione riferibili alla capitale bizantina: si veda ad esempio quanto osservato di recente in f . D’AIUTO, Le ambiguità di un reliquiario. Il «braccio di s. Ermolao» nella pieve di Calci (Pisa), in Erga/Logoi 1 (2013), nr. 2, pp. 31-72 (con 8 figg.): 48 n. 48, 53-54 n. 63.

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f ig. 27 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 29v (particolare): «pentimento» e riscrittura della didascalia della miniatura.

lettera alfabetica, non potendo determinare se essa sia contemporanea o successiva alla manifattura del codice. t ale mano compare, infatti, in maniera isolata nella caption di una sola miniatura, laddove una precedente didascalia — della mano e , a quanto pare — è stata evidentemente sostituita a posteriori (fig. 27). Di tale didascalia originaria, infatti, mal leggibile ma apparentemente di analogo tenore, si nota ancora traccia parzialmente coperta dalla rozza cornice a Treppenmotiven della miniatura. c iò può far pensare a un «pentimento» da parte del miniaturista stesso al momento di aggiungere la cornice intorno alla sua miniatura, che avrebbe dunque causato lo spostamento della didascalia più all’interno nel campo miniato, sempre entro il fondo oro; oppure meglio, visto che la mano che appone la didascalia in questo caso cambia, potremmo immaginare che la nuova didascalia sia stata apposta dalla mano stessa che potrebbe aver aggiunto alle miniature le cornici, in tal caso evidentemente après coup. s e così stanno le cose, le sgraziate cornici a Treppenmotiven, che contribuiscono non poco ad avvilire la nostra percezione delle miniature del Vat. gr. 752, potrebbero essere state per la verità eseguite a una certa distanza di tempo dalla manifattura del codice, con un intervento di completamento e abbellimento, o addirittura di «restauro», che ne avrebbe, però, degradato esteticamente le miniature ben al di là dei demeriti — innegabili, per parte loro — dei pittori. s imili cornici, del resto, come pure le iniziali e l’ornamentazione maggiore, potevano forse esser state lasciate nel Vat. gr. 752 in sospeso nell’attesa di affidarle a un ornatista specializzato, che però mai si trovò, lasciando dunque il lavoro incompleto: dal che, forse, derivò a un certo punto la decisione di eseguirle — pur rozzamente e alla bell’e meglio — ad opera di qualcuno degli artigiani coinvolti sin dall’origine nella manifattura del codice, ovvero, al contrario, ad opera di qualcuno che, avendo per le mani il codice qualche tempo più tardi, pretese di completarlo anche in simili aspetti dell’ornato pur non possedendo, o non avendo saputo trovare presso altri, le competenze necessarie per farlo59. 59 In certi casi sembra, in effetti, di poter cogliere qualche ritocco delle miniature in occasione dell’esecuzione delle cornici ornamentali, come ad es. al f. 360r, dove all’aggiunta

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f ig. 28 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 17r (particolare): mano f .

t ornando, infine, alle mani dei copisti coinvolti nella manifattura del s alterio Vaticano, noteremo che la sontuosa maiuscola ornamentale del f. 17r-v, ivi impiegata per la trascrizione in oro dei quattro book epigrams introduttivi — qui stranamente presentati senza stacchi, come se si trattasse d’un solo componimento60 — appartiene con ogni verosimiglianza alla mano di un rubricatore e/o ornatista professionista, un chrysographos che indicheremo come mano f 61 (fig. 28). Quella da lui utilizzata è una tipologia di scrittura decorativa non rara in età mediobizantina: una sorta di epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel62 le cui morfologie di base sono però fortemente arricchite di elementi ornamentali quali foglioline d’edera, flosculi o semi-palmette, che sbocciano o pendono soprattutto dalle estremità superiori e inferiori tanto delle lettere quanto dei loro singoli tratti63. Oltre della cornice pare essersi accompagnato un rifacimento parziale dell’illustrazione, con accorciamento delle gambe dei personaggi e ritocco dei troni e dei cuscini rossi sui quali essi sono seduti. 60 a l riguardo si veda il saggio di a ugusta a cconcia l ongo all’interno di questo stesso volume, pp. 157-178 e figg. 1-2. 61 Non abbiamo elementi concreti pro o contro un’attribuzione alla mano del chrysographos f anche della doratura di iniziali, titoli e rubriche dall’inizio del codice al f. 96v, dove egli si sarebbe eventualmente limitato a ripassare quanto tracciato in carminio da altri (cf. supra, p. 77 e n. 55), senza alterare le morfologie delle lettere. s consiglierebbe, tuttavia, tale identificazione di mano l’impressione, che il bifoglio ff. 17-18 fa, d’esser stato realizzato verosimilmente a parte e d’esser stato forse affidato, richiedendo competenze più raffinate, a professionisti esterni all’ambiente in cui il Vat. gr. 752 vide la luce (cf. infra, pp. 106-109). 62 H. HUNGER, Minuskel und Auszeichnungsschriften im 10.-12. Jahrhundert, in La paléographie grecque et byzantine. Paris, 21-25 octobre 1974, Paris 1977 (c olloques internationaux du c entre National de la r echerche s cientifique, 559), pp. 201-220 (con 19 figg.): 207-208 e figg. 13-14; ID., Epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel. 63 a scanso di equivoci, avverto che tale tipo di Auszeichnungsschrift decorativa morfologicamente basata sulla epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel non ha nulla a che vedere dal punto di vista tipologico con quella che, invece, Herbert Hunger battezzò Schnörkelschrift

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ma NI Pr INc IPal I: copista

a:

testi introduttivi

testo principale

ff. 1r-8v

—

commento catenario

ff. 19r-97v, 444r-v (incluse le rubriche che introducono le glosse di commento fino al f. 83v, e le relative inizialette fino al f. 89v; ma nei ff. 84v-97v copia solo la «prima serie» di scolii esegetici)

B: c:

f. 9r

—

ff. 9v-16v

—

(sconfinando di due righe nel marg. sup. di f. 17r)

D:

—

— ff. 84r-443v, 445r-490v (incluse le rubriche che introducono le glosse di commento a partire dal f. 84r, e le inizialette del medesimo dal f. 90r; ma nei ff. 84r-97v copia solo la «seconda serie» di scolii esegetici)

ff. 19r-491v

—

(inclusa la maiuscola distintiva dei titoli dei s almi e probabilmente le inizialette dei loro versetti)

ma NI sec ONDar Ie :

e:

parte delle didascalie delle miniature

(in esse si riscontrano però anche altre mani, non sempre ben distinguibili fra loro)

f:

carmi crisografati al f. 17r-v t ab. IV – r iepilogo delle mani dei copisti del codice Vat. gr. 752.

che in simili pagine «frontespiziali» o di dedica, o nelle scritture distintive impiegate per titoli e rubriche64, tali esuberanti ed elaborate morfologie di maiuscole si riscontrano piuttosto spesso nello stesso periodo — la seconda metà dell’XI secolo — impiegate come singole iniziali calligrafiche65. (HUNGER, Epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel, pp. 199-200) e che Pasquale Orsini vorrebbe ora definire maiuscola «liturgica ornata» (P. ORSINI, Scrittura come immagine. Morfologia e storia della maiuscola liturgica bizantina, r oma 2013, pp. 81-88). 64 Occasionalmente nell’Athen. B.N. gr. 2363 (ad es. al f. 1r), che mostra tracciati di lettere e forme di ornato talmente simili da far quasi sospettare identità di mano col chrysographos del f. 17r-v del s alterio Vaticano, cf. MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – TOUFEXI-PASCHOU, Catalogue, I, pp. 149-154 (nr. 35) e figg. 325-348: 325 (il codice è da datarsi nella seconda metà dell’XI secolo, anziché fra XI e XII secolo); HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 24; oppure nel Lond. B.L. Loan 36/23, f. 1r (ibid., tav. 19). 65 u n repertorio simile mostrano le iniziali calligrafiche maggiori, dorate, del coevo manoscritto nazianzenico Athen. B.N. gr. 2073, cf. MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – TOUFEXI-PASCHOU, Catalogue, III, figg. 323-328.

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Del resto, anche alcune inizialette eseguite nel Vat. gr. 752 dalla mano c — come ad esempio ai ff. 175v, 178r-v, 179v, 186r, 195r, 203r — sembrano attingere grosso modo al medesimo repertorio; si deve però respingere, a mio avviso, il sospetto che allo scriba c si debba anche l’elegante intervento in crisografia del f. 17r-v che qui abbiamo assegnato alla mano f : il tipo di esecuzione, infatti, mi sembra differire, come pure gli elementi ornamentali favoriti, essendo in particolare assente, o diversamente disegnata, la fogliolina d’edera che caratterizza insistentemente l’intervento del chrysographos nel f. 17. *

*

*

s arà utile, a questo punto, tirare le somme di quanto detto finora e tentare un primo inquadramento e giudizio complessivo di questo strano manoscritto, la cui riuscita — come si è detto — risulta sorprendentemente tanto diversa rispetto alle elevate aspirazioni iniziali. s u un piatto della bilancia, infatti, dovremo porre la gran quantità di buona pergamena impiegata, la ricchezza di materiale esegetico raro proposto in una combinazione originale, le centinaia di miniature su sfondo d’oro e un programma illustrativo insolito e molto ricco; dall’altra parte, invece, pesano le incoerenze formali, i ripensamenti nell’organizzazione della pagina, la disposizione non ideale del corredo visuale e delle stesse masse testuali e inoltre diversi indizi di «non finito». Proverò a esemplificare tali difetti in una breve casistica: 1) di quando in quando si nota un imperfetto aggiustamento delle immagini rispetto ai testi, laddove le prime si espandono disarmonicamente al di fuori del ristretto spazio che ad esse era stato riservato dallo scriba, tanto da finire persino per sovrapporsi lievemente al testo ricoprendo la scrittura (ad es. ai ff. 3r, 4r-v, e così via). In diversi casi, poi, la miniatura occupa una superficie irregolare anziché, come di norma, rettangolare, sconfinando ed estendendosi disordinatamente nei margini o dovunque ci sia spazio e generando campi miniati di forma vistosamente asimmetrica (ad es. ai ff. 3r, 5r, 7r) anziché, come di norma, quadrangolare (fig. 29); in certe altre sezioni del volume, invece, le scenette miniate sono confinate entro spazi a forma di campana (ff. 9r, 10v, 11v, 164r) (fig. 22). In generale, si ha quasi l’impressione che l’originaria pianificazione del ciclo illustrativo potesse forse non prevedere gli sfondi aurei e le cornici che li racchiudono, ma soltanto piccole scenette da dipingersi in campo aperto direttamente sul fondo bianco della pergamena, come in tanti altri prodotti riferibili al coevo style mignon della seconda metà dell’XI secolo: un ripensamento e

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f ig. 29 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 7r.

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una possibile promozione a posteriori di queste miniature, da parte dei pittori coinvolti nella decorazione del s alterio, al rango superiore di illustrazioni su sfondo d’oro entro cornici potrebbe allora aver contribuito a generare distorsioni e asimmetrie del campo miniato66; 2) la tavolozza delle miniature e dell’ornato f ig. 30 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 354r. non è sempre coerente con quanto di norma si osserva nella produzione miniata costantinopolitana di questo periodo. I colori, peraltro, sono spesso alterati a motivo dell’ossidazione della biacca, che in numerose miniature tende a trasformare il pigmento bianco in un grigio-bruno piuttosto scuro, fenomeno che, potenziato in molti casi da danni da umidità, colpisce con particolare gravità gli incarnati dei personaggi rappresentati. Quanto alla figura umana, a parte rade eccezioni di cui si dirà, la struttura fisica appare tozza e pesante, lontana dalle proporzioni esili ed elegantemente — seppur innaturalmente — allungate prevalenti nello style mignon e riscontrabili, in questo periodo, in numerosi prodotti riferibili alla capitale (fig. 30); 3) le cornici delle miniature sono in genere rudimentali e mal allineate e i loro Treppenmotiven sono eseguiti in maniera molto rozza e in alcuni casi estremamente frettolosa (ad es. ai ff. 222v, 226v, 267v-274r, 405v), non

66

HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, p. 343, osservava che le cornici che racchiudono le miniature nel s alterio Vaticano rappresentano con buona probabilità un’innovazione rispetto alla forma in cui le relative scene dovevano apparire nelle fonti iconografiche disparate — forse in parte miniature marginali in campo aperto anziché tabellari — di cui si sono serviti i pittori del Vat. gr. 752 per la loro creazione ad hoc di un ciclo iconografico nuovo e particolarmente ricco per questo singolare s alterio con catena. Va però notato che le miniature del codice gerosolimitano «gemello», come vedremo, sono anch’esse per lo più tabellari (ma talvolta con margini irregolari) su fondo oro ed esibiscono analoghe cornici per lo più con Treppenmotiven (cf. infra, pp. 139-152, a ppendice II): tali analogie ben si spiegano se il copista a del codice vaticano e unico scriba del gerosolimitano va considerato come una sorta di concepteur del Vat. gr. 752, cf. infra, p. 103.

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trovando, a mio giudizio, alcun paragone possibile nella produzione coeva d’origine costantinopolitana certa67 (figg. 8, 20, 27, 30); 4) i copisti, come si è visto, si susseguono fra loro in una sequenza che dà l’impressione di una scarsa pianificazione: la pluralità di mani diverse per carattere l’una dall’altra può forse far pensare che il volume sia stato prodotto — o anche solo completato aggiungendo al testo biblico gli apparati esegetici e i testi introduttivi — magari all’interno di una comunità monastica piuttosto che entro una bottega laica; 5) analoga impressione di progettazione insufficiente si ricava dalla considerazione della rudimentale distribuzione di testo e commentario, della spesso noncurante asimmetria di disposizione degli scolii esegetici entro pagine affrontate, e della drastica tecnica di selezione/sforbiciatura — evidentemente operata dai copisti in progress nell’atto stesso di trascriverle — delle porzioni di esegesi, più o meno lunghe, da copiarsi accanto al testo: soprattutto nel primo centinaio di fogli, prima che subentri definitivamente la mano c , le glosse esegetiche danno infatti l’idea — per il loro stesso aspetto grafico e per il ritmo irregolare, ora più ora meno fitto, della scrittura — di essere state occasionalmente tagliate oppure, in alternativa, compresse riducendo il modulo della scrittura così da adattarsi allo spazio disponibile, malamente programmato proprio perché sempre uniforme pagina dopo pagina, riservandosi all’esegesi sempre e comunque la sola colonna esterna, pur in presenza di una densità testuale piuttosto variabile del commentario; 6) infine, molteplici sono gli elementi che concorrono a dare a questo manoscritto una chiara apparenza di «non finito». t itoli, rubriche e iniziali minori tracciati in inchiostro carminio hanno ricevuto la prevista doratura solo all’inizio del codice, fino al f. 96v (e per giunta saltando i ff. 86v [da lin. 9]-89r, 94v-96r). l ’ornamentazione del manoscritto è anch’essa in67 Diverse e meno scadenti tipologie di cornici, più coerenti con la datazione al terzo quarto dell’XI secolo e con un’eventuale localizzazione in un centro metropolitano, compaiono nel codice in due diverse riprese. u na prima volta, nei ff. 7v-12r, si notano delle semplici cornici lineari a filetto singolo in rosso vivo, in corrispondenza di quella che più avanti chiameremo maniera pittorica nr. 3 (ai ff. 7v-8r, cf. infra, pp. 122-123) e poi in associazione con le miniature dallo sfondo «a campana» (ai ff. 9r, 10v, 11v): fra l’altro, questi sono i fogli in cui, dal punto di vista paleografico, si assiste al passaggio dalla mano a (fino al f. 8v) allo scriba B (f. 9r) e infine alla mano c (dal f. 9v); ulteriori occorrenze isolate di semplici cornici rosse a filetto singolo sono però ai ff. 27v, 183r, 290r, forse a motivo di mancanza dello spazio necessario per realizzare più ampie cornici con Treppenmotiven. u na seconda tipologia minoritaria di cornici, a nastro lineare monocromo in rosso o blu, variamente segmentato e con ornamenti a forma di mandorla ai quattro angoli, compare ai ff. 447r-448v, 453v-473v, e poi nei ff. 484r-488v in cui si vedono le ultime miniature conservatesi del codice, in corrispondenza di un ulteriore cambio di maniera pittorica (cf. infra, p. 127 n. 130).

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completa, tanto che, ad esempio, le previste iniziali maggiori policrome all’inizio di ciascun s almo non sono state eseguite (e anzi per la massima parte neppure disegnate), a eccezione di poche, e piuttosto convenzionali68. In generale, i motivi ornamentali sono, in relazione al periodo, abbastanza comuni, e — come vedremo meglio più avanti — trovano buoni paralleli in prodotti coevi riferibili al terzo quarto dell’XI secolo, soprattutto nell’ornamentazione dei menologi attribuiti all’anonimo «copiste du métaphraste», già citato, e in generale nella produzione ascrivibile in senso lato a lui e al suo collega di atelier e utimio69. In conclusione, vero è che incoerenze e défaillances come quelle riscontrate nel s alterio Vaticano non sono di fatto rare nei codici miniati mediobizantini e, in certa limitata misura, si rilevano persino in manoscritti di lusso di sicura origine costantinopolitana. t uttavia, l’accumulo e l’insistenza di tutti questi difetti nel Vat. gr. 752 è sorprendente, e allora, al termine di questa analisi, non si può non confermare quanto ebbe a dire en passant del nostro codice Irmgard Hutter a metà degli anni Novanta del secolo scorso70: né gli aspetti codicologici né quelli grafici forniscono alcuna motivazione concreta per ritenere che il s alterio Vaticano sia un prodotto del monastero costantinopolitano di s tudio, al contrario di quanto è stato talora proposto sulla base di analisi storico-artistiche e soprattutto iconografiche. e anzi, fatta forse astrazione dall’importante indizio rappresentato dalle poche iniziali policrome e da qualche altro elemento di ornato, si potrebbe andar oltre in questa stessa direzione affermando che non ci sono motivi cogenti per assegnare il codice — o almeno, l’interezza della sua realizzazione — a maestranze costantinopolitane piuttosto che di qualche altro centro metropolitano che fosse influenzato dalla capitale e nutrisse l’ambizione di esprimere una significativa produzione libraria. ma su questo punto sarà bene tornare più avanti71, dopo aver esaminato comparativamente il s alterio gemello — pur se «gemello diverso» — conservato a Gerusalemme. 2. Materiali per un riesame del Salterio Hierosol. s . s epulcri 53 Il s alterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 è un codice ben noto agli storici dell’arte, e sovente menzionato negli studi come termine di confronto da68 Per una descrizione analitica delle iniziali «maggiori» del s alterio Vaticano e per indicazioni circa i confronti possibili cf. infra, pp. 130-139, a ppendice I. 69 c f. infra, pp. 135-139 passim. 70 HUTTER, Theodoros, p. 201. 71 c f. infra, pp. 126-130 e n. 130.

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tabile per la pittura bizantina della seconda metà dell’XI secolo72, sebbene — come vedremo — la tradizionale cronologia al 1053/1054, basata su un calcolo del ciclo lunare di mano del copista (f. 227v), sia stata negli anni Novanta del secolo scorso ritenuta non credibile e messa temerariamente in discussione73 (fig. 21). a questa notorietà nell’ambito della bibliografia storico-artistica non corrisponde, tuttavia, un’adeguata attenzione da parte di paleografi e codicologi — certo anche a motivo della scarsa accessibilità della collezione presso la quale è conservato il codice —, e così, di fatto, ben poco si sa riguardo alla sua fattura materiale, eccezion fatta per le poche indicazioni ricavabili dal vecchio catalogo di a thanasios Papadopoulos Kerameus; né, ovviamente, la sommaria descrizione contenuta nel recente catalogo dei manoscritti miniati di Panagiotis Vocotopoulos ha potuto contribuire alla conoscenza degli aspetti grafici e «archeologici»74. a vendo avuto la possibilità di esaminare il manoscritto nell’agosto 2013 — sia pure in due sole brevi sedute di lavoro, purtroppo non del tutto sufficienti alla bisogna —, credo utile pubblicare qui le mie osservazioni sul codice75: sia pur a rischio di qualche imperfezione a causa della rapidità con la quale ho dovuto lavorare in loco, spero che i dati qui presentati forniranno spunti utili in particolare a chi voglia intraprendere uno studio storico-artistico comparativo dei s alteri gerosolimitano e vaticano, soprattutto in chiave di analisi dello stile e di individuazione delle mani. *

*

*

c ome è noto, il codice Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 può essere datato con discreta esattezza grazie a un’indicazione che troviamo al f. 227v, ove, all’interno della trattazione del ciclo lunare e del metodo di calcolo della

72 l a bibliografia sul codice è ampia: si rinvia qui soltanto alla scheda catalografica di PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, I, pp. 130-134 (con 1 tav. f.t.), che, per i quattro fogli asportati verso la metà del XIX secolo che oggi si conservano a s . Pietroburgo (Petropol. gr. 266), è integrata ibid., V, pp. 483-485; si veda inoltre la recente descrizione sommaria all’interno del catalogo dei manoscritti miniati di Gerusalemme ad opera di VOCOTOPOULOS, Jerusalem, pp. 68-69 (con bibliografia scelta); cf. anche BRAUN, Musical Instruments, pp. 318-320, 327 e figg. 3a-b; SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, I, pp. 21-22 (nrr. 58-59, con bibliografia); DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem. Per ulteriori titoli si vedano in aggiunta s . J. VOICU – S. D’ALISERA, I.MA.G.E.S. Index in manuscriptorum Graecorum edita specimina, r oma 1981, p. 331. 73 c f. infra, p. 91. 74 c f. supra, n. 72. 75 r ingrazio s .e . a ristarchos, arcivescovo di Konstantina e ρ ν ρ ι ρ τε del Patriarcato Greco Ortodosso di Gerusalemme, nonché bibliotecario della Biblioteca Patriarcale, per avermi ammesso alla consultazione, e il suo collaboratore, l’archimandrita a ristoboulos, per la grande cortesia e disponibilità dimostratami.

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data della Pasqua76, si legge di mano del copista stesso: τ π τ ε ό ου τ ἐνε τ ν (ι τι νο ) τ (...) (ovvero, «Gli anni dalla creazione del mondo fino alla presente indizione sono 6562...»)77. l ’anno ivi indicato, nel quale si può immaginare che il codice sia stato scritto, è dunque l’annus mundi 6562, ovvero 1053/1054 dell’èra cristiana: tale datazione è stata a torto messa in discussione da s uzy Dufrenne — sulla scorta di più antiche osservazioni di Kirsopp e s ilva l ake — in un articolo pubblicato nel 1995, in cui la studiosa proponeva un abbassamento della cronologia del codice di Gerusalemme verso la fine dell’XI secolo o meglio l’inizio del XII78; ma la recente identificazione ad opera di Parpulov del copista dello Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 nel s alterio Vaticano, che come abbiamo visto è a sua volta databile intorno all’anno 1058/1059 grazie alle tavole del computo pasquale, toglie ogni residuo dubbio circa la data ricavabile dal f. 227v del s alterio Gerosolimitano. In tale ultimo codice si può vedere — come si dirà meglio più avanti — una sorta di «edizione compatta» del s alterio che doveva costituire una specie di standard vigente, nell’ambiente in cui esso fu prodotto, in relazione a un uso devozionale privato: solo pochi anni più tardi tale edizione minor del s alterio sarebbe stata invece sottoposta a una sorta di processo di «espansione», tanto nel suo corredo esegetico quanto in quello illustrativo, all’interno dell’ambizioso progetto librario rappresentato dal s alterio Vaticano79. l e tavole pasquali del manoscritto gerosolimitano (f. 15r-v), invece, disposte come al solito entro cerchi annodati80, riguardano, almeno allo stato attuale, i soli anni del mondo da ο (= annus mundi 6673, a.D. 1164/1165] a π [= annus mundi 6689, a.D. 1180/1181], e costituiscono un’evidente aggiunta seriore d’altra mano, forse a sostituzione di un precedente set di tavole coevo alla data di manifattura del codice: non possono, 76

ο οι ν τ ν Π του ε λ ου τ ν λ ιν, inc. ρ ιν επτε ρ ου ν ν ρ ετ ι...

f f. 227r-230, inscr.

ε ρ ει πρ τ το

λ ν τ ρ ν τ τ ν, ἐν ο ειν τι ρ ετ ι ν ι τι ν π τ

77 Per immagini del f. 227v, ove si può leggere questa data, si vedano PAPADOPOULOSKERAMEUS, I, tav. f.t. fra le pp. 132-133; LAKE, I, p. 10 (nr. 6) e pl. 11. 78 DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, pp. 347-348; cf. in precedenza LAKE, I, p. 10. l a datazione alla prima metà del XII secolo è stata fatta propria, più di recente, anche da VOCOTOPOULOS, Jerusalem, p. 68. 79 PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 97, sembrava portato a considerare, dal punto di vista testuale, il s alterio Gerosolimitano una sorta di «reduced version (minus the commentary)» rispetto al s alterio Vaticano [l’osservazione è omessa nell’ed. online 2014]. mi pare tuttavia che, sia da un punto di vista cronologico che di funzionalità, sia meglio parlare del Vat. gr. 752 in termini di «espansione» — con lo scopo di obbedire a un’altra finalità e modalità di fruizione del s alterio — rispetto allo Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53. 80 c f. supra, pp. 70-72 e n. 49.

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dunque, essere prese in considerazione per la datazione del manoscritto, ma ne documentano soltanto, con alcune annotazioni di cui diremo più avanti, l’uso prolungato nel tempo e la «fortuna» ulteriore81. Il codice di Gerusalemme si compone allo stato attuale di 232 fogli, numerati di recente (sec. XIX o XX) a matita in numeri arabi, nell’angolo superiore esterno di ciascun foglio recto, come ff. 1-231 (+ 87bis). Il manoscritto inizia e termina mutilo, e ha subìto inoltre diverse asportazioni di fogli, alcune delle quali ben documentabili: quattro fogli, in particolare, furono sottratti dall’allora archimandrita (dal 1834, poi vescovo, 1865-1877, dell’eparchia di Çigirin nell’attuale u craina) Porfirij u spenskij (1804-1885)82, e sono ora conservati (Petropol. gr. 266) presso la r ossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka di s . Pietroburgo83. Per di più, il f. 1 — fra gli altri che hanno subìto danneggiamenti — si presenta vistosamente strappato in senso verticale lungo il margine esterno. l e attuali dimensioni sono di mm 185 × 165 ca. (ad es., f. 7r: mm 182 × 160; f. 66r: mm 187 × 167), ma è evidente che il manoscritto è stato rifilato piuttosto pesantemente e che in origine i margini dovevano essere più ampi. l a pergamena è di qualità media, pur mostrando una certa discromia fra lato pelo e lato carne. Non mancano imperfezioni di lavorazione: ad esempio, sono ben visibili follicoli e radici dei peli, fra gli altri, ai ff. 9r, 81

Va smentito, dunque, il ragionamento dei l ake (LAKE, I, p. 10) ripreso poi dalla Dufrenne (DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, p. 347), la quale ultima su queste tavole di computo pasquale del XII secolo, considerate mutile dell’inizio, costruisce un’ipotesi di spostamento della datazione del codice (tradizionalmente ascritto al 1053/1054) verso la fine dell’XI secolo o meglio ancora i decenni iniziali del secolo successivo. Già i l ake, infatti, calcolavano nel 1116/1117 l’anno d’inizio dell’ipotetica porzione perduta delle tavole pasquali del codice gerosolimitano che a loro parere poteva essere ospitata sùbito prima del f. 15 in tre fogli perduti del terzo fascicolo, il quale sarebbe allora da ricostruirsi come originario quaternione ora ridotto a soli cinque fogli (ff. 12-16). t uttavia, si potrebbe anche a buon diritto supporre che, al contrario, nei fogli perduti — se davvero sono mai esistiti, e se questo non è invece un fascicolo di comodo — fossero contenute le tavole pasquali originarie della metà dell’XI secolo, poi sostituite da quelle, risalenti all’an. 1165 circa, contenute nel f. 15r-v, che forse era rimasto bianco, o che altrimenti rappresenta la sostituzione di un ulteriore foglio perduto: la struttura del terzo fascicolo, del resto, è oggi difficile da rilevare, e mentre il f. 14 è certamente singolo, non sono sicuro che gli apparenti bifogli ai ff. 12+16 e 13+15 costituiscano delle effettive coppie di fogli solidali ab origine. 82 s u di lui e sui suoi soggiorni a Gerusalemme fra il 1842 e il 1854 e poi ancora nel 1858, con interruzioni, si veda in breve almeno a . TAMBORRA, Porfirij Uspenskij tra Vienna, Gerusalemme e Roma (1840-1854), in Europa Orientalis 8 (1989), pp. 313-321 (con bibliografia). Ovviamente, la fonte principale è l’autobiografia: P. USPENSKIJ, Kniga bytija moego (...), I-VIII, s .-Peterburg 1894-1902. 83 c f. PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, I, p. 133 n. 1; V, pp. 483-485; E. E. GRANSTREM, Katalog greçeskich rukopisej leningradskich chranilišç, III: Rukopisi XI v., in Vizantijskij Vremennik 19 (1961), pp. 194-239: 203 (nr. 206).

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11r, 67v, 98v, e così via; al f. 44 si riscontra un occhio vetroso all’interno dello specchio, e al f. 63 un altro al di fuori di esso; al f. 109 si nota un foro nel margine inferiore. l a composizione fascicolare del codice è per quaternioni, con occasionali eccezioni dovute in buona parte a mutilazioni subìte dal manoscritto ex post: 1° fascicolo: di tre fogli (ff. 1-3; la cucitura corre tra i ff. 1 e 2: si tratta forse di un originario binione mutilato del primo foglio; il codice inizia mutilo); 2° fascicolo: quaternione (ff. 4-11); 3° fascicolo: di cinque fogli (ff. 12-16); 4°-14° fascicolo: quaternioni (ff. 17-24; 25-32; 33-40; 41-48; 49-56; 57-64; 65-72; 73-80; 81-87bis; 8895; 96-103); 15° fascicolo: di sette fogli (ff. 104-110, originariamente quaternione decurtato di un foglio dopo f. 108, con danno per il testo: tale foglio è l’attuale f. 1 del Petropol. gr. 266); 16°-19° fascicolo: quaternioni (ff. 111-118; 119-126; 127-134; 135-142); 20° fascicolo: di sette fogli (ff. 143-149, già quaternione, mutilato del primo foglio con danno per il testo, mentre l’ultimo, già ad esso solidale, è ora precariamente assicurato al fascicolo successivo da una rozza cucitura con filo rosso); 21°-22° fascicolo: quaternioni (ff. 150-157; 158-165); 23° fascicolo: attualmente ternione (ff. 166-171, già quaternione cui è stato asportato il bifoglio centrale, ora ff. 2-3 del Petropol. gr. 266); 24°-29° fascicolo: quaternioni (ff. 172-179; 180-187; 188-195; 196-203; 204-211; 212-219; il f. 213, che conteneva una miniatura, è stato malamente lacerato nell’asportarla); 30° fascicolo: attualmente ternione (ff. 220225, in origine di almeno sette fogli, giacché ne è stato asportato un foglio tra i ff. 224 e 225, che costituisce l’attuale f. 4 del Petropol. gr. 266); 31° fascicolo: attualmente ternione (ff. 226-231, fascicolo molto danneggiato, sulla cui originaria struttura fascicolare è difficile pronunciarsi; il codice, inoltre, termina mutilo).

Vale la pena di segnalare che — come altrove nella produzione mediobizantina persino d’alto livello e come si è osservato nel nostro s alterio Vaticano84 — anche in questo codice si verifica abbastanza spesso la sostituzione di un bifoglio con due «mezzi bifogli»: in questo caso, a essere sostituito è sempre il secondo bifoglio del fascicolo85. l a rigatura è eseguita con il sistema 1 l eroy, ovvero foglio per foglio sul lato pelo86, e secondo lo schema 32c 1, un tipo a colonna unica piuttosto comune, qui realizzato per 18 righe tracciate e scritte (fig. 31). Dalle righe rettrici la scrittura tendenzialmente pende, ma talora è a cavaliere di esse; di rado si nota in fondo alla pagina il completamento di un versetto, che avviene lasciando fluttuare un diciannovesimo rigo scritto supplementare 84

c f. supra, p. 57. s i vedano le coppie di singletons ai ff. 89 e 94, 151 e 156, 189 e 194, 197 e 202. 86 Nel poco tempo a mia disposizione ho potuto verificare in loco analiticamente, in relazione a questo dato, solo alcune porzioni del codice, precisamente i fascicoli 6°-9° e 16°-19°, ai ff. 33-64, 111-142. 85

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al di sopra della linea marginale inferiore, e non facendolo pendere da essa come per lo più avviene nel caso delle rettrici (cf. ad es. f. 96v). l ’unità di rigatura misura 6 mm ca. l o specchio di scrittura è insolitamente quasi quadrato, anzi lievemente più largo che alto (113-116 × 118, cf. ff. 7r, 66r). l a pesante rifilatura subìta soprattutto, si direbbe, lungo il margine esterno fa sì che la riga marginale verticale esterna tenda in alcuni fogli a scomparire. Per la verità, non sono certo — dato lo scarso tempo avuto a dif ig. 31 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 (f. 66r): rigatu- sposizione per condurre l’esame ra del tipo 32c 1 l eroy. codicologico — di esser riuscito a individuare tutti i tipi di rigatura presenti nel codice. Interessante è però notare che almeno in un paio di casi sono stati qui riutilizzati bifogli, evidentemente restati bianchi, che dovevano esser stati rigati per un diverso manoscritto (o per più diversi manoscritti?) dalle dimensioni maggiori e con un numero di righe per pagina più elevato: ciò si nota nel bifoglio ai ff. 97+102, che pare rigato secondo il tipo 42a 1 oppure 41a 1a l eroy (per un numero di righe non precisabile, ma almeno 23) e nel bifoglio ai ff. 143+148, forse rigato secondo il tipo 32c 1 l eroy, o magari — non lo si può escludere — 31c 1a (per 22 righe). I tipi di rigatura rilevati in questi due bifogli sono, in effetti, non del tutto coincidenti fra loro, ma le distanze tra le varie righe dello schema lineato sono tutto sommato compatibili: si potrebbe dunque anche ipotizzare che tali fogli fossero stati in origine rigati per un unico codice, diverso dal s alterio di Gerusalemme, che al suo interno utilizzasse in alternanza tipi di rigatura diversi ma sufficientemente affini fra loro (fig. 32). l ’inchiostro usato per il testo principale è di color bruno medio, mentre un carminio non troppo intenso è impiegato per le inizialette (che sono semplici, e di mano del copista stesso), i titoli, le rubriche e inoltre, insieme al bruno, per le linee ornate. l a scrittura del codice, ivi inclusa la maiuscola distintiva, è opera, come si è detto, di una sola mano identificabile con quella del copista a del Vat. gr. 752 — fatte salve, come anticipato, le tavole pasquali al f. 15r-v, e una serie di note seriori di varia natura e di diverse mani delle quali si dirà più avanti –; all’interno, però, dei ff. 17r-25r,

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f ig. 32 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53: rigature di fogli inizialmente preparati per altri codici (ff. 97r, 143r).

e a tratti anche oltre, si nota che il testo principale, semievanido, è stato ripassato da una mano più tarda in inchiostro nero, sistematicamente o per piccole porzioni. Dati interessanti sulla storia del codice e circa gli ambienti in cui esso dové circolare ci offrono, in questo caso, alcune note avventizie di varia indole, databili alla fine del XII secolo. a l f. 14v si leggono, infatti, in alto due annotazioni relative alle nascite di due bimbe di nome s ofia e Zoe, rispettivamente negli anni del mondo ϟ [6698 = a.D. 1189, 26 novembre] e [6700 = a.D. 1192, 20 febbraio], apposte da una stessa mano, quella del padre87: † (ν ) νοε( )ρ( ) ( ν .) ἐ ενν ( ) υ τ ρ ου ο ρ( ) ( ρ τ( ) νυ τ( ) | ε τρ τ ἐπι ο ( ) ρ( ) υρι ( ) τ ) τ (ι ) ν το (ν ) νοε( ) ρ( ου) | ἐν τει ϟ ἐπ τ( ) ιλ(ε ) ου το ρ τ(ο)ρ(ο ) το λου † † † † Nel mese di novembre, nell’indizione ottava, nacque mia figlia s ofia, di sabato, tardi, verso l’ora terza della notte, sul principiar del giorno di domenica 26 del mese di novembre, nell’anno 6698, sotto il regno dell’imperatore Isacco a ngelo. † † † (ν ) ε( )ρ(ου ρ ) ρ( ) ε ( ν .) ρ τ ( ) ( ) ρ( ) | ε ό τ λου. ου το ρ τορο το †

87

τει ἐ ενν ό τει τ( )

υ( τ )ρ ου ( ι)λ(ε )

c orreggo tacitamente, qui e più avanti, piccole imprecisioni delle trascrizioni di PAPAI, p. 131.

DOPOULOS-KERAMEUS,

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† Il 20 febbraio, giovedì, nell’indizione decima, anno 6700, nacque mia figlia Zoe verso l’ora settima del giorno, nel settimo anno di regno dell’imperatore Isacco a ngelo.

t ali due note, con il loro greco ortograficamente corretto e con la grafia abile e spigliata che le verga88 — unitamente all’insistenza in entrambe su un’esplicita datazione sotto il regno (il primo periodo: 1185-1195) di Isacco II a ngelo —, sembrano indicarci nel loro estensore un uomo sufficientemente colto, forse un laico altolocato che si direbbe attivo nella capitale, se non addirittura nell’entourage di corte: in ogni caso, un personaggio che di questo s alterio miniato, evidentemente in suo possesso come strumento di devozione personale, poteva permettersi di fare al contempo una sorta di «libro di famiglia» nelle cui pagine bianche annotare gli eventi che riguardavano il suo nucleo familiare89. Quest’impressione è ulteriormente rafforzata dalla presenza nella stessa pagina (f. 14v), più in basso, di un’ulteriore annotazione purtroppo semievanida, stavolta d’altra mano, e appena più tarda. s i tratta di una nota obituaria relativa a una nobile giovine, tale Ducena ( ο ιν ) forse figlia90 di un m s guropulo, della quale si dice che dopo aver condotto vita di vergine fu sepolta nel monastero «dell’e foro» (το ορο ), essendo morta sedicenne nell’indizione I di una domenica 27 settembre, con ogni probabilità anche in questo caso alla fine del XII secolo, e dunque — integreremo noi sulla base dei dati cronologici presenti nella nota — nell’anno 119891: [± 6] ( ν .) υ τ( )ρ το dum?] λι νον

τ (νι) επτε ρ ( ) ρ ουροπ(ου)λ(ου) υρο [± 2] | τ ε τ ν ε ( ν) ον ν το

υρι[

] | [± 12] ου ιν [± 5: an ἐτ τ supplen(υρ ο)υ | τ ρο ι ( ν)

88 s i tratta di una grafia che parrebbe di ascendenza documentaria e anzi nello specifico cancelleresca, a giudicare dalle forti analogie con documenti press’a poco coevi, cf. ad es. Actes de Lavra, I, nr. 65 (an. 1181, praktikon del vestiarita a ndronico Vatatze), e gli altri due documenti atoniti ricordati infra, p. 98 n. 96. 89 c i si può chiedere se al momento dell’arrivo, qualche anno prima, del manoscritto nelle mani sue o di qualche altro esponente della medesima famiglia risalga l’aggiunta/aggiornamento delle tavole pasquali per gli anni 1165-1181 che, all’interno del codice, si riscontra nel foglio immediatamente successivo (f. 15r-v) rispetto a quello (f. 14v) in cui sono registrate le due nascite di cui si è detto. 90 l a lettura del vocabolo υ τ( )ρ («figlia») è, in effetti, incerta. s econdo la trascrizione, peraltro non esente da piccole sviste, offerta da PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, I, p. 131, si dovrebbe qui leggere invece ετ («sposa»): in tal caso, però, dovremmo quanto meno pensare a una promessa di matrimonio mai celebrato né consumato, in considerazione di quanto si dice nella nota stessa circa la π ρ εν della defunta. 91 t ale datazione si basa sui nuovi elementi ricavati dall’autopsia del manoscritto, giacché PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, I, p. 131, leggeva l’incipit della nota in maniera difettosa.

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ου

[Nell’anno...] nell’indizione prima, domenica 27 settembre [morì...] Ducena, figlia (?) di messer m[...] s guropulo, e le sue spoglie [furono deposte (?)] nel venerando monastero del s ignore e s alvatore nostro detto dell’Emphoros. † In vita restò vergine, ebbe ogni virtù e ripose le sue attese in Dio. † Visse sedici anni e tre mesi.

s e la lettura qui dubitativamente proposta fosse corretta, avremmo a che fare con un’attestazione, nel personaggio femminile ricordato — una Ducena figlia d’uno s guropulo —, dell’accostamento del cognomen Duca al Familienname s guro/s guropulo92: associazione che è attestata per quest’ultima famiglia solo più tardi, ma che si rispecchia in una generale tendenza all’assunzione per varie vie del cognomen aggiuntivo Duca che è riscontrabile presso altre famiglie bizantine nel medesimo XII secolo93. Più interessante è notare che, in questa nota obituaria del s alterio Gerosolimitano, ci troviamo di fronte a un personaggio femminile che pare di condizione sociale elevata, forse non casualmente sepolto presso il monastero dell’e mphoros o per meglio dire — rimosso l’avventizio infisso nasale davanti a labiale, tipico della pronuncia greco-demotica — dell’e phoros («c olui che vede», epiteto probabilmente da intendersi come riferito a c risto), una fondazione monastica costantinopolitana sulla quale ci fornisce qualche ragguaglio nei primi anni del XIII secolo Niceta c oniata, localizzandola nei pressi dello Zeuxippo, dunque a nord-est del Palazzo94. s i tratta, in effetti, di un luogo che, all’altezza cronologica della fine del XII secolo, potrebbe non rappresentare, per la nostra Ducena, un luogo di sepoltura qualunque: nei suoi pressi, infatti, era stato abbandonato il 12 settembre 1185 il cadavere di a ndronico I (1183-1185), oltraggiato dalla folla, e ivi esso era stato poi sepolto senza i dovuti onori95. l a Ducena congiunta d’uno s guropulo, sepolta all’e mphoros tredici anni dopo l’imperatore deposto e assassinato dal volgo di c ostantinopoli, potrebbe dunque esser stata membro di una famiglia che aveva avuto un 92

POLEMIS, Doukai, pp. 175-177, s.vv. s gouropoulos, s gouros. c f. anche BLACHOPOULOU, γουρ ς, p. 142 e passim. 93 POLEMIS, Doukai, pp. 80-188 (§ III: «t he name of Doukas in other families»); cf. anche a . KAZHDAN – A. CUTLER, Doukas, in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, I, New York – Oxford 1991, pp. 655-656. 94 NIC. CHON. Hist., XI,8,14 [ed. in NICETA CONIATA, Grandezza e catastrofe di Bisanzio (Narrazione cronologica), II: (Libri IX-XIV), a cura di a . PONTANI, t esto critico di J.-l . VAN DIETEN, milano 1999, pp. 305-309]. c f. JANIN, Géographie ecclésiastique, I/3, pp. 131-132. 95 GRIERSON, Tombs and Obits, p. 15 e n. 55.

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qualche legame con la corte, e forse in particolare con la figura di a ndronico I c omneno? u na simile ambientazione, se verosimile, si potrebbe retroattivamente riverberare da questa nota obituaria (an. 1198) sulle due note di nascita (ann. 1189 e 1192) apposte poco più in alto sulla stessa pagina: è evidente, infatti, che il divario cronologico fra le tre note è piuttosto scarso, e considerando il contenuto, attinente in tutti e tre i casi a eventi familiari, e la giustapposizione probabilmente voluta su un medesimo foglio, forte è la tentazione di riconnettere tutti i fatti in esse registrati a un medesimo nucleo familiare, appunto quello della famiglia s guropulo/s guro. s i potrà allora ricordare — in relazione al m s guropulo menzionato nella nota obituaria — che per gli anni Novanta del XII secolo è noto, ad esempio, un michele s guro che in quanto ιλι ρ τι ό , attestato negli anni Novanta del XII secolo (dal 1192 fino al 1197), operò all’interno del sekreton del megas logariastes Giovanni Belissariota96: sarà troppo av96 s i veda la voce relativa a michele s guro («michael 236») in PBW (http://db.pbw.kcl. ac.uk/pbw2011/entity/person/120425); ma cf. anche BLACHOPOULOU, γουρ ς, pp. 29, 139. Dei documenti in cui il personaggio è attestato, il più antico è dell’aprile 1192 (Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches von 565-1453, bearbeitet von f . DÖLGER, II: Regesten von 1025-1204, (...) bearbeitet von P. WIRTH, mit Nachträgen zu r egesten f aszikel 3, münchen 19952 [c orpus der griechischen u rkunden des mittelalters und der neueren Zeit, r eihe a : r egesten, a bt. I], nr. 1609): si tratta del celebre crisobollo di Isacco II a ngelo per i Genovesi (ed. in f . MIKLOSICH – I. MÜLLER, Acta et diplomata Graeca medii aevi sacra et profana, III, Vindobonae 1865, pp. 25-37; e in G. BERTOLOTTO, Nuova serie di documenti sulle relazioni di Genova coll’Impero bizantino, raccolti dal can. Angelo Sanguineti [...], in Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria 28 [1897], pp. 339-573: 413-433), nel quale si rileva a tergo (cf. ibid., p. 423) la tipica formula di Registriervermerk τε τρ ... — da riferirsi alla procedura di registrazione dell’atto che vigeva negli uffici finanziari imperiali, cf. DÖLGER – KARAYANNOPULOS, p. 37 e passim — apposta dal grammatikòs michele s guro [sul quale, in relazione a questo documento, cf. ibid., pp. 98 n. 10, 160 e t af. 51, e inoltre c . OTTEN-FROUX, L’enregistrement du chrysobulle de 1192 aux Pisans, in Revue des études byzantines 42 (1984), pp. 241-248: 246, 247; f . LUZZATI LAGANÀ, In margine agli accordi tra Bisanzio e Genova e Pisa del 1192, in Bollettino storico pisano 54 (1985), pp. 245-248: 246; sul crisobollo per Genova si veda anche s . ORIGONE, Bisanzio e Genova, Genova 1992, pp. 96-100, e, da ultimo, la trattazione in D. PENNA, The Byzantine Imperial Acts to Venice, Pisa and Genoa, 10th-12th Centuries, (diss.), t he Hague 2012 (consultabile nel sito dell’u niversità di Groningen, http://dissertations. ub.rug.nl), pp. 157-167, con la precedente bibliografia]. a ltri due documenti in cui è attestato michele s guro, rispettivamente del maggio e del giugno 1196, sono editi in Actes de Lavra, I, nrr. 67-68: si tratta di atti del gran logariasta e logoteta τ ν ε ρ τ ν Giovanni Belissariota, nei quali il consueto Registriervermerk è ancora una volta di michele s guro (cf. ibid., I, nr. 67 lin. 115; nr. 68 lin. 54; su questi due atti si veda anche P. LEMERLE, Notes sur l’administration byzantine à la veille de la IVe croisade, d’après deux documents inédits des archives de Lavra, in Revue des études byzantines 19 [1961] [= Mélanges Raymond Janin], pp. 258-272). Infine, un quarto documento, del novembre 1197, è pubblicato in Βυ . γγραφα τμου, II, pp. 108-114 nr. 57: si tratta di una ρ del gran logariasta Giovanni Belissariota, nella quale si legge l’indicazione conclusiva (lin. 14) ι το ουρο ι ( λ), corrispondente in senso diplomatistico a un ι -Vermerk [sul quale cf. DÖLGER – KARAYANNOPULOS, pp. 37-38 e passim; ma si

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venturoso voler vedere in questo stesso michele s guro un congiunto della Ducena ( ο ιν ) sepolta all’e mphoros nel 1198 e delle due fanciulle, s ofia e Zoe, nate nel 1189 e nel 1192? f ra l’altro, la grafia delle due note di nascita degli anni 1189 e 1192 non pare stilisticamente troppo distante — anche se la mediocre qualità delle riproduzioni sulle quali ho eseguito il confronto e l’esiguità degli specimina non mi consentono di definire meglio il rapporto — da quelle attestate nel crisobollo genovese e nei due documenti lavrioti passati per le mani del citato michele s guro, che ne curò la registrazione97. s i potrebbe allora ipotizzare che michele s guro(pulo) o un altro membro della famiglia degli s guri/s guropuli abbia apposto sul codice gerosolimitano le note di nascita delle proprie figlie relative agli anni 1189 e 1192, e che qualche anno più tardi, nel 1198 — essendo michele lontano, o magari già defunto, visto che per via documentaria è attestato soltanto fino al 1197 —, una diversa mano di qualche personaggio a lui vicino abbia annotato, sùbito sotto nella stessa pagina del manoscritto, la morte di un altro membro della famiglia, ovvero la già ricordata Ducena, che doveva esser nata verso il 1182. t ale ricostruzione è senza dubbio arrischiata, ma se cogliesse nel segno ci troveremmo a poter identificare in michele s guro/ s guropulo il probabile possessore del s alterio Gerosolimitano all’altezza cronologica dei decenni conclusivi del XII secolo. veda anche N. OIKONOMIDÈS, La chancellerie impériale de Byzance du 13e au 15 e siècle, in Revue des études byzantines 43 (1985), pp. 167-195: 178-179]. 97 Dei quattro documenti citati alla nota precedente, una buona riproduzione del dettaglio dei soli Registriervermerke sul verso del crisobollo del 1192 per i Genovesi è in DÖLGER – KARAYANNOPULOS, t af. 51; fotografie, purtroppo in scala molto ridotta, dei due documenti originali atoniti del 1196 sono pubblicate a corredo dell’edizione in Actes de Lavra, I, nrr. 67-68; l’unica immagine del documento di Patmos del 1197 che sia a me accessibile, invece, ovvero quella presente in rete nel sito α κτης / Pandektis dell’ ν τιτο το υ ντιν ν ρευ ν ν dell’ νι ό ρυ ρευν ν (http://pandektis.ekt.gr/pandektis, nella sezione: ον τ ρι ρ ε – ρ ου ρου ι Π τ ου), è purtroppo di qualità così scadente da non consentire di apprezzarne gli aspetti grafici (di tale ultimo documento, peraltro, non ci è giunto l’originale, ma una copia autenticata contemporanea o di poco successiva). — Vale la pena di segnalare che nello stesso torno d’anni — e per giunta anche negli stessi due documenti lavrioti del 1196 ricordati nella nota precedente in relazione a michele s guro — è attestato, in qualità di ρ τι ό e di ιλι νοτ ριο del ρετον τ λ , un Giovanni s guro (PBW, s.v. «Ioannes 337», http://db.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/pbw2011/entity/person/120301; cf. Actes de Lavra, I, pp. 353 [nr. 67 lin. 107], 356-357 [nr. 68 linn. 16 e 50]; Βυ . γγραφα τμου, II, pp. 93 [nr. 56 lin. 22], 102, 123 [nr. 59 lin. 25], 131 [nr. 60 lin. 27]) che potrebbe esser stato un parente del nostro michele; le sottoscrizioni apposte da questo Giovanni s guro in documenti patmiaci dell’ottobre 1195 e del dicembre 1203, dei quali si conservano gli originali, sono però anch’esse mal visibili nelle riproduzioni offerte dal citato website α κτης, le quali, a mia conoscenza, sono le uniche sinora pubblicate, a parte una fotografia del documento del 1195 stampata, in dimensioni fortemente ridotte, in θησαυρο τ ς ο ς τμου, ενι ἐποπτ. a . D. KOMINES, ν 1988, p. 354 fig. 13.

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a l di là, tuttavia, dell’esatta identificazione dei personaggi che compaiono nelle annotazioni che abbiamo fin qui discusso — ben lungi dall’essere dimostrabile —, non si può contestare, a mio parere, che il s alterio di Gerusalemme si trovasse alla fine del XII secolo in mani private di laici altolocati, coerentemente con la destinazione probabile, sin dalle origini, di un libricino dei s almi miniato e di qualche pretesa che sembra esser nato per la devozione personale di un personaggio d’un certo rango, e che a questo stesso impiego fu votato per secoli. s embra di poter indovinare, inoltre, che esso fosse in quell’epoca a c ostantinopoli o comunque non lontano dalla capitale, elemento che potrebbe indurci, pur dubitativamente, a proiettare all’indietro nel tempo una tale localizzazione costantinopolitana, e costituirebbe quindi un labile indizio utile a ricondurre a questo stesso ambito l’origine del codice gerosolimitano e forse, parallelamente, del s alterio Vaticano. s i potrebbe allora persino valorizzare una nota di possesso, probabilmente del XIV o XV secolo, presente sul f. 2r di quest’ultimo codice, che lega il «gemello» s alterio Vaticano a un monastero della Vergine Pantanassa (fig. 3) — intitolazione, per la verità, comune e banale — che ci si può chiedere se non sia da identificarsi con l’omonima fondazione della capitale98: un monastero, questo, anch’esso importante, e che fra l’altro nel 1204 ospitò la sepoltura del successore di a ndronico I, il già ricordato Isacco II a ngelo (1185-1195, 1203-1204)99. f ino a che punto, però, sarà lecito dare valore retroattivo a questa indicazione di possesso del s alterio Vaticano? s ebbene tale s alterio con catena, con tutta evidenza, non sia un codice legato in primo luogo alla devozione personale come il codice gerosolimitano, e nonostante, fra le altre destinazioni possibili, si possa ragionevolmente sospettare che sia stato in origine allestito per una comunità monastica100, l’epoca tarda di fondazione della Pantanassa costantinopolitana, da collocarsi nella seconda metà del XII secolo — la sua costruzione risulta infatti esser stata completata per impulso di Isacco II a ngelo, che ivi fece prendere i voti alla sua primogenita —, induce a ritenere che il s alterio Vaticano non possa esser stato destinato fin dal principio a tale monastero, per giunta femminile101. r imaniamo, dunque, su un terreno incerto. Non mancano nel codice gerosolimitano altre note avventizie, non sempre facilmente leggibili, che mi rammarico di non aver avuto l’agio di esaminare e trascrivere in situ, giacché risultano pressoché indecifrabili nelle 98

c f. supra, pp. 46-48 n. 5. GRIERSON, Tombs and Obits, p. 15 e n. 56. 100 c f. supra, p. 88. 101 JANIN, Géographie ecclésiastique, I/3, p. 216. 99

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scadenti riproduzioni a mia disposizione: così, ad esempio, al f. 5v, ove si leggono probabilmente ricette mediche apposte da una mano del XVI secolo, e ancora ai ff. 12v, 14r, 15r, e così via. l ’ultimo stadio delle peregrinazioni del codice è, invece, certificato da una nota di possesso greca del XVI secolo che si legge chiaramente sul f. 17r: † το το τ λτ ρ ον ε ν ι το τ ου τ( υ)ρο τ ν | ρ ν, ( ) ποιο ν( ρ π)ο τ λ ει π τ | τ ον( ) τ( ριον), ( ) ό ει τ τ λον, ν εν ι ρ νο :– † Questo s alterio è della s . c roce dei Georgiani, e chi lo sottragga a tale monastero o ne tagli via un foglio, sia scomunicato.

s e ne ricava che a quel tempo il manoscritto faceva già parte della collezione del monastero gerosolimitano della s . c roce, la cui componente etnica georgiana si avverte bene nella nota d’analogo tenore, ma con qualche informazione in più, che si legge, sùbito sotto la nota di possesso greca, nello stesso f. 17r102: Dio perdoni a ndria iarondos [= ροντο ?], acquirente di questo s alterio, amen. Dio perdoni anche voi che chiederete il perdono per lui, amen. c hi sottragga (?) questo s alterio al monastero della c roce o [ne] tagli o strappi (?) un foglio, sia maledetto fino alla s econda Venuta.

Quando, come e attraverso quali vicende il codice sia definitivamente passato dal possesso di laici, dopo la fine del XII secolo, a una collezione libraria monastica — e in particolare, a quel celebre monastero agiopolita dei Georgiani che ne ha veicolato l’arrivo nella raccolta manoscritta del Patriarcato Ortodosso di Gerusalemme — rimane, almeno per il momento, oscuro. a questo stesso periodo finale gerosolimitano, in ogni caso, deve risalire la legatura, piuttosto modesta e relativamente recente (del XVIII o XIX secolo?), con cuffie sporgenti e capitelli di tipo bizantino, in pelle bruna scura, decorata sui piatti con una semplice croce di s. a ndrea e cornice a doppio filetto tutt’intorno, impresse a secco; una rozza correggia dal piatto posteriore va ad agganciarsi sul tenone confitto nel labbro davanti del piatto anteriore, mentre un taglio trasversale nel rivestimento di ambo i piatti e del dorso è stato maldestramente ricucito: pare quasi trattarsi di un danneggiamento intenzionale, come per poter ispezionare l’interno della legatura, riparato poi alla meglio. s i tratta, in ogni caso, di una legatura

102

l ’ha letta e tradotta per me l’amico e collega Gaga s hurgaia, che ringrazio vivamente.

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rustica e nuda, che non offre indizi utili a ricostruire l’ultima fase della parabola storica del manoscritto. 3. Un’ipotesi ricostruttiva circa la progettazione del Salterio Vat. gr. 752 e le sue fasi esecutive Giunti alla fine di questa trattazione parallela dei due manoscritti vaticano e gerosolimitano, varrà la pena di volgere indietro lo sguardo al cammino percorso fin qui, per riflettere in particolare, alla luce dell’analisi svolta e della comparazione che si può istituire fra i due manufatti, sul carattere eccentrico del s alterio Vaticano: si tenterà così di darne una qualche spiegazione che ci aiuti a definire meglio il Sitz im Leben del codice all’interno della produzione di s alteri commentati e miniati mediobizantini, e allo stesso tempo permetta di recuperare una plausibile scansione delle sue fasi di esecuzione e una migliore caratterizzazione dei ruoli effettivi delle singole mani coinvolte. Va da sé che quanto si leggerà in questo paragrafo altro non è che un’ipotesi interpretativa — che comporta, peraltro, diversi elementi di alea —, accanto a una possibile ricostruzione della sequenza degli interventi basata su indizi il cui significato non è, però, sempre certo e univoco. Innanzitutto, si può ragionare sulle finalità che ci si propose nel produrre questo curioso manoscritto: da quanto detto in precedenza si evince che, col Vat. gr. 752, si intendeva creare un esemplare di una sorta di editio maior del s alterio che, oltre al mero testo dei s almi con illustrazioni come nel codicetto gerosolimitano di qualche anno prima — di dimensioni più piccole e verosimilmente destinato piuttosto a uso di devozione personale103 —, contenesse invece in aggiunta un corredo esegetico ricco e vario, attinto a fonti testuali non fra le più comuni che, come vedremo, sembrano assemblate in questa forma peculiare per la prima volta. e sso doveva esibire inoltre una sorta di dettagliato commento visivo «continuo» — oltre 250 scene miniate104 —, che però, mancando per lo più di paralleli iconografici stringenti e mostrando non pochi squilibri e disarmonie nella sua realizzazione, si direbbe allestito almeno in parte estemporaneamente, e per ciò stesso, ancora una volta, ad hoc per questo codice, forse per larga parte 103 s ulla differenza d’uso e d’intenzione fra i piccoli s alteri semplici, concepiti come pocket-books per eccellenza, e i voluminosi manoscritti del s alterio con catena, si veda in breve PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 31-32, 33-35 [nell’ed. online 2014, pp. 68, 69, 77]. c f. anche ID., Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium, in MAGDALINO – NELSON, Old Testament, pp. 77-105 (con 5 figg.): 82; per una menzione del nostro s alterio Gerosolimitano, in particolare, cf. ibid., p. 92 n. 68. 104 ma il numero delle miniature doveva essere in origine ancor più alto, prima delle mutilazioni subìte, cf. supra, pp. 46-50.

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senza attingere a un modello preesistente. s i volle insomma produrre un codice dalle caratteristiche speciali — non a caso, eccezionale anche nelle dimensioni rispetto alla media dei s alteri bizantini105 —, che fungesse da autorevole sussidio allo studio o da guida alla meditazione: un manoscritto che, certo, si potrebbe da un lato immaginare destinato a un alto prelato o comunque a un insigne committente, ma che pure — al contrario e forse meglio — può esser stato scritto per entrare nel patrimonio librario di una comunità all’interno della quale poteva essere impiegato per la ruminatio della sacra pagina. c oordinatore dei lavori e forse anche concepteur dell’opera pare esser stato il copista a , proprio in quanto il più eccentrico fra gli scribi che ricorrono nel codice vaticano, almeno a giudicare in base agli standards calligrafici coevi: anziché esser stato incaricato della trascrizione da altri, con la sua grafia bizzarra e talora substandard, si potrà immaginare che il copista a sia stato egli stesso, in qualche modo, il motore organizzativo dell’impresa, circostanza che gli avrà consentito di ritagliarsi in essa un ruolo non troppo appariscente e allo stesso tempo di condizionarne e indirizzarne il risultato. f ra l’altro, un suo ruolo defilato ma autorevole spiegherebbe perché si riprenda a corredo del s alterio Vaticano, come ha ben visto Georgi Parpulov, la medesima e tutt’altro che scontata serie di testi accessori prosastici e poetici iniziali che, pressoché nello stesso ordine, erano già presenti nel piccolo s alterio di Gerusalemme, interamente vergato dal nostro scriba a solo qualche anno prima106: il nuovo progetto 105

LOWDEN, Observations, p. 248. l ’importante osservazione è di PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 89-90 [nell’ed. online 2014, pp. 124, 130]. l a serie dei testi preliminari, nei due codici Vaticano (= V) e Gerosolimitano (= G), è la seguente (con rinvio per ciascuna voce, fra parentesi quadre, alle sigle alfanumeriche adottate nell’utile appendice D2 di PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 256-299 [in parte modificate nell’ed. online 2014, pp. 145-175; ecco perché si forniranno talora doppie sigle, riferite la prima al dattiloscritto e la seconda all’ed. online]): 1) [X1] G, ff. 1r-3r (inc. mut.) = V, ff. 3r-5r (c PG 4542.1) Prooem. in Psalmos (ed. PG 55, coll. 531-534); || 2) [J, vel J1] G, ff. 3r-4r = V, ff. 5r-8v (c PG 6202, n. [a]) Ioseppi Methodus, sive De modo quo Psalterium conflatum est, quoque Psalmi dispositi, fragmentum (e catenis sub nomine t heodoreti ed. in PG 84, coll. 20-24); || 3) [e P, vel e 6] G, f. 4v = V, f. 8v (ex c PG 6202) De dispositione Psalmorum, fragmentum (e catenis sub nomine t heodoreti ed. in PG 84, col. 25a 1-13; cf. etiam a thanasii Argumentum in Psalmos c PG 2238 ed. in PG 27, coll. 56a 1357a 3) || 4) [H1] G, ff. 4v-5v = V, ff. 8v-9v (ex c PG 2249) Synopseos scripturae sacrae excerptum de commentatoribus Psalmorum, in t heodoreti catena insertum (ed. PG 84, coll. 28B12-29B3; cf. etiam PG 28, coll. 433B11-436B3; 106, coll. 124c 2-125a 12, ubi sub nomine Ioseppi ponitur); || 5) [s , vel D2] G, ff. 5v-6v = V, ff. 9v-10r (ex c PG 6202) s ymmachi Interpretatio vocis diapsalma in t heodoreti catena inserta (ed. PG 84, col. 28a 5-B11); || 6) [D, vel J2] G, ff. 6v-7v = V, ff. 10r-11r (ex c PG 6202) t heodoreti Quae sint a Davide in fine gesta (fragmentum e catenis sub nomine t heodoreti ed. PG 106

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del s alterio Vaticano appare, infatti, come si è detto sopra, una sorta di «espansione» — mediante l’aggiunta di consistente materiale esegetico in una combinazione innovativa e di un corredo illustrativo più ricco elaborato ex novo — di una struttura di base del s alterio con corredo semplice di paratesti iniziali e finali che era già familiare all’anonimo copista-coordinatore qui definito mano a . Dietro lo scriba a si potrebbe allora vedere la figura, forse meglio che di un laico, piuttosto di un ecclesiastico o ancor più probabilmente di un monaco di buona cultura, dotato di una discreta educazione grafica, pur se non orientata in senso professionalmente calligrafico, e magari con un personale interesse all’esegesi scritturistica — se pure egli non si fece, sotto questo aspetto, interprete di preferenze o esigenze altrui —, il quale sarebbe stato nella condizione di poter organizzare all’interno della sua cerchia (o del suo monastero?), verosimilmente con un concorso parziale di maestranze esterne, un’intrapresa grafica e miniatoria collettiva di notevole impegno. u n’impresa che potrebbe aver avuto origine dalla trouvaille di un apparato esegetico non comune — si pensi ai rari materiali esaplari preservati nella catena del Vat. gr. 752 in relazione a Ps 77-82107 — che si voleva mettere a frutto e valorizzare all’interno di un prodotto librario d’eccellenza, destinato nelle intenzioni a costituire una novità all’interno della produzione corrente di s alteri con commento catenario, e che infatti finisce per costituire una sorta di unicum all’interno della tradizione manoscritta del s alterio giunta sino a noi108. Primo passo di tale impresa sembra esser stata la copia del testo scritturistico nella colonna più interna di ciascuna pagina: essa è stata affidata, come si è detto, a un calligrafo di buon livello, ovvero la mano D (figg. 12, 24). Piuttosto che di un personaggio interno all’istituzione o alla comunità/ cerchia nella quale il coordinatore del manoscritto operava, si ha l’impres84, coll. 25a 14-28a 4; cf. etiam PG 106, coll. 85D8-88B15); || 7) [m, vel J3] G, ff. 7v-8r = V, f. 11r-v (ex c PG 2249: Synopseos scripturae sacrae excerptum De libris deperditis qui in s cripturis memorantur (fragmentum e catenis sub nomine t heodoreti ed. PG 84, col. 32a 4-B8; cf. etiam PG 28, coll. 436c -437a ; 106, coll. 121D-124B); || 8) [a 1/a 3] G, ff. 8r-12v = V, ff. 11v-17r (c PG 2097) a thanasii a lex. Epistula ad Marcellinum, excerpta (ed. PG 27, coll. 12-46). 107 SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, passim. 108 Per la composita catena ai s almi del Vat. gr. 752 cf. KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 58-59 (catena nr. XXII); c PG, IV, nr. c 35; e soprattutto l’analisi di SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 3-34, ulteriormente perfezionata in DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 54-113 (che classifica la nostra come una «catena secondaria costantinopolitana», del tipo in particolare d’una «catena figlia», avente come base un s alterio di tipo palestinese con scolii). s i veda inoltre lo studio di r einhart c eulemans pubblicato in questo stesso volume, pp. 261-300.

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sione che in questo caso ci si sia avvalsi di un copista di professione, effettivamente molto capace, sebbene non fra i più eleganti e raffinati del suo tempo; difficile è però dire se questi fosse attivo a c ostantinopoli o in qualche altro centro maggiore dell’Oriente bizantino, anche in considerazione della stereotipicità della sua grafia. Il compito affidatogli era quello di dare al testo principale, da copiarsi in una scrittura di modulo maggiore, il solenne aspetto calligrafico ritenuto confacente a una produzione che ambiva a essere d’alto livello: un libro nel quale si doveva riservare ampio spazio all’apparato decorativo e di commento, ma per il quale non si poteva o non si voleva prevedere esattamente, nel momento in cui la mano D trascriveva i s almi, lo sviluppo e l’estensione precisi, per ogni singola pagina, di ciascuna porzione accessoria di contenuto paratestuale, tanto esegetico quanto illustrativo. O meglio, certamente non poteva prevederne le proporzioni, nel trascrivere il testo biblico, la mano D, che probabilmente non lavorò nell’auspicabile stretta collaborazione con chi doveva effettuare i successivi interventi per introdurre nel codice il commento e le miniature: questo perché forse, come si è accennato, il copista D operava altrove, in un contesto esterno, in un diverso atelier monastico o laico che si può immaginare ubicato in un centro cittadino maggiore, forse nella capitale, e non necessariamente nello stesso ambiente in cui si sarà compiuto il resto dell’allestimento del volume. s e così non fu, d’altra parte, e se il copista D effettivamente lavorò nel medesimo contesto in cui operarono le altre mani attestate nel codice, dovremmo pensare che ci fu un’inadeguata e semplicisticamente poco duttile pianificazione iniziale dello spazio da destinare al paratesto esegetico e visuale del volume, e che fra maestranze attive in una medesima sede sia mancata, sotto questo punto di vista, la coordinazione necessaria. Può peraltro aver influito, nella scelta di impostare in questo modo poco meditato la mise en page del s alterio Vaticano, il modello manoscritto della fonte primaria utilizzata per compilare la catena, che doveva probabilmente aver l’aspetto, come vedremo, di un codice su due colonne, con i s almi in quella interna e un corredo di scolii non troppo fitti su quella esterna109: tale modello semplice era però destinato a essere modificato e stravolto in corso d’opera, forse in parte contro la stessa pianificazione iniziale, nel corso della copia di masse di esegesi crescenti — e fattesi più complesse per intarsio di fonti — accanto al testo biblico. u na volta completato il lavoro di copia dei s almi da parte della mano D, il copista a deve aver iniziato ad aggiungere da un lato l’esegesi sulla colonna esterna, di fianco al testo principale, dall’altro i testi accessori iniziali e forse finali, se effettivamente questi ultimi vi erano, prima della 109

c f. infra, p. 113.

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mutilazione subìta in fine dal codice (figg. 13-15, 17-20). Non sapremmo dire in quale sequenza tali interventi siano avvenuti, se cioè lo scriba a si sia prima applicato alla copia/assemblaggio degli scolii esegetici, dal f. 19r fino al f. 97v, o piuttosto alla trascrizione dei testi introduttivi nei ff. 1r-8v. È possibile, peraltro, che tali interventi del copista a siano stati effettuati grosso modo in parallelo fra loro, o comunque senza un eccessivo scarto di tempo fra l’uno e l’altro. f atto sta che entrambi si interrompono bruscamente: si può immaginare che sia sopraggiunto qualche impedimento alla continuazione del lavoro da parte dello scriba a , o che egli sia stato indotto dalle circostanze — o forse, meglio, si sia determinato sua sponte — a cedere il passo ad altre mani, calligraficamente più abili e inoltre più capaci nell’impaginazione della catena. Nella sezione iniziale del codice, la copia dei testi introduttivi fu a questo punto ripresa nel nuovo fascicolo, al f. 9r, dalla mano B (fig. 22): questa si limitò a copiare soltanto tale pagina per intero, per poi interrompersi e a quanto pare scomparire dalla manifattura del codice. Il compito di portare avanti la trascrizione, infatti, sia nella porzione iniziale dei testi introduttivi a partire dal f. 9v e sino alla fine al f. 16v, e inoltre anche nella copia del commento catenario, fu affidato a questo punto a quello che abbiamo detto essere il miglior calligrafo coinvolto nell’operazione, lo scriba c (figg. 23-24). l a trascrizione dei testi introduttivi da parte di c avvenne, come si è visto, in continuità rispetto a B a partire dal f. 9v, e dimostra peraltro la preesistenza del bifoglio costituito dai ff. 17-18 (figg. 5, 28) rispetto al suo intervento: questo bifoglio — i cui due fogli non abbiamo ragioni per dubitare che fossero solidali già in origine, pur essendo oggi tenuti insieme mediante una brachetta membranacea di restauro110 — doveva essere già stato aggiunto al manoscritto quando iniziò ad operare nel codice la mano c , giacché quest’ultima, come si è anticipato, scrisse nel margine superiore del f. 17r due linee di testo con poche parole conclusive del testo prefatorio vergato ai ff. 11v-16v, ovvero la lettera, sovente usata come proemio ai s almi, indirizzata da a tanasio a lessandrino a marcellino111. Il bifoglio in questione, quindi, doveva esser stato preventivamente affidato a un abile chrysographos probabilmente d’una bottega esterna e inoltre a un miniaturista — sempre che non si tratti qui di una stessa persona capace di svolgere entrambe le mansioni —, incaricati di creare un 110 u na possibilità da non scartare a priori è, però, che si trattasse in origine di due fogli singoli, eseguiti a parte e aggiunti come tali alla normale fascicolazione: in ogni caso, essi si devono ritenere pertinenti a un intervento «specialistico» unitario. 111 c PG 2097, ed. in PG 27, coll. 12-45; cf. PARPULOV, Toward a History, II, p. 256 [nell’ed. online 2014, p. 145] (a ppendix D2, testo nr. a 1).

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t ab. V – c opista a : morfologie tipiche delle inizialette calligrafiche dei due codici e inoltre della maiuscola distintiva epigrafica adottata per la trascrizione dei carmi introduttivi al f. 17r-v del Vat. gr. 752.

sontuoso bifoglio «frontespiziale» con testi poetici in maiuscole d’oro e un ricco set di miniature con scene del Nuovo t estamento, secondo l’ovvia interpretazione tipologica in senso cristologico del s alterio. È possibile dunque che anche per questo bifoglio, come plausibilmente già per la copia del testo dei s almi, si sia fatto ricorso a una committenza esterna affidandone l’allestimento a maestranze specializzate, almeno per la parte calligrafica (mentre per le miniature, logore al limite dell’illeggibilità, sussistono dubbi che non è possibile sciogliere, come vedremo più avanti). t uttavia, la selezione di quattro epigrammi copiati uno di séguito all’altro nel f. 17r-v coincide perfettamente con i versi copiati in maiuscoletta nei ff. 13r-14r del s alterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, là di mano del copista principale del testo, ovvero lo stesso scriba a del nostro s alterio Vaticano112 (fig. 33). È evidente, dunque, che nel caso del codice vaticano si è cercato di ottenere, come pure nella copia del testo dei s almi, un diverso e più nobile effetto estetico rispetto al codice gerosolimitano: il copista a — se fu lui effettivamente il concepteur del volume — ha affidato stavolta ad altro calligrafo specialista nella crisografia, decisamente più abile di lui, il compito, da lui molto mediocremente eseguito nel s alterio di Gerusalemme, di copiare gli stessi carmi in una grafia maiuscola d’apparato, col risultato che in entrambi i codici — per scarsa competenza letteraria dei due scribi, e fors’anche per una poco perspicua distinzione già nell’antigrafo — i quattro carmi sono fusi inavvertitamente in un’unica composizione-monstre, essendosi omesso di segnalare debitamente la fine di un epigramma e l’inizio dell’altro113. 112 l e forme delle lettere maiuscole utilizzate per la trascrizione degli epigrammi nei ff. 13r-14r del s alterio Gerosolimitano coincidono infatti con quelle delle iniziali calligrafiche presenti, all’interno del s alterio Vaticano, nelle sezioni del commento catenario attribuibili alla mano a : si confrontino in particolare le morfologie, rivelative, di epsilon, kappa (in cui l’ultimo tratto obliquo è per la prima parte orizzontalizzato, per poi spezzarsi e scendere quasi verticalmente verso il basso), pi, ypsilon, e così via (tab. V). 113 u n’apparente conferma di questa ricostruzione viene dal fatto che il bifoglio ai ff. 1718 presenta la medesima rigatura che si riscontra nel resto del codice: una rigatura ovviamente inutile, se non addirittura fastidiosa, nel f. 18r-v, le cui due facciate sono entrambe miniate a piena pagina, mentre nel f. 17r-v il chrysographos l’ha modificata, intercalandovi opportunamente ad altezze diverse un certo numero di ulteriori linee tirate a secco, così da poter serrare in alto e in basso entro una coppia di righe rettrici — secondo l’indice t di tipo speciale nella codifica di Julien l eroy, cf. LEROY – SAUTEL, Répertoire de réglures, p. 27 — le let-

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f ig. 33 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 13v: carmi introduttivi, di mano del copista principale, alias copista a del s alterio Vaticano.

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c he dunque, contro l’ipotesi formulata da r obert Devreesse114, si tratti qui proprio di un unico bifoglio affidato a mani professionali differenti dal resto del codice, e non di quel che resta di un’unità fascicolare originariamente più consistente che si presenterebbe oggi decurtata, è dimostrato sia dalla continuità testuale del testo c PG 2097 vergato dalla mano c tra la fine di f. 16v e, per le ultime parole, il margine superiore di f. 17r — prova del fatto che non sono caduti fogli tra i ff. 16 e 17 — sia dalla continuità iconografico-illustrativa fra i ff. 17v e 18r, giacché nel primo sono raffigurate — in una miniatura tabellare bipartita impaginata nella colonna interna, restata bianca, della pagina — le prime due scene, a nnunciazione e Natività, del ciclo cristologico che continua nella miniatura a piena pagina suddivisa in nove scomparti del f. 18r, ove sono offerti in successione gli episodi della Presentazione al t empio, del Battesimo di c risto, della t rasfigurazione, dell’Ingresso di c risto a Gerusalemme, della c rocifissione, dell’Anastasis, dell’a scensione, della Pentecoste e infine della Dormizione di maria (fig. 5), per terminare poi al f. 18v — a fronte dell’inizio del s alterio sul f. 19r, all’interno di un’ulteriore e più vasta miniatura a piena pagina in cui sono assemblate in alto con funzione accessoria, ai due angoli superiori, altre due scenette — con gli episodi delle mirofore al s epolcro vuoto e della r esurrezione di l azzaro, che completano così in modo sovrabbondante, portandolo con quest’ultima al numero simbolico di tredici scene, il dodekaorton miniato iniziato al f. 17v e proseguito al f. 18r (fig. 34). a parte questi due ultimi piccoli episodi collocati nella parte alta della pagina, però, il cuore della miniatura del f. 18v è rappresentato da David stante, coronato e abbigliato in vesti regali, attorniato ai due lati, in coppie, dai musici-salmisti a saf, Iditum, Heman e forse Neman e su un registro inferiore da due musicanti che suonano il flauto (a sinistra) e il salterio (a destra); in alto invece, al di sopra della figura di David, sta entro una mandorla il c risto in gloria, assiso sul trono, con la mano destra benedicente e un libro chiuso nella sinistra, a ribadire l’interpretazione cristologica che presiede all’esegesi cristiana del s alterio: giacché David è al contempo antenato di Gesù e, con lettura messianica del libro dei s almi, typos del c risto nelle sue sofferenze terrene e nella sua regalità celeste. Nulla manca, dunque, prima, dopo o entro il bifoglio ai ff. 17-18, che — ripeto — dové essere concepito come unità fascicolare autonoma e in sé concettualmente compiuta, e che era evidentemente già bell’e pronto — almeno per quanto attiene al testo crisografato, insieme al blocco maggiore tere maiuscole della sua scrittura ornamentale, impaginata su sole 14 righe per pagina contro le 19 del testo dei s almi. 114 c f. supra, p. 51.

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f ig. 34 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 18v.

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del codice contenente il testo dei s almi forse non ancora accompagnato da commento — nel momento in cui la mano c si accingeva a vergare l’ultima parte della serie dei testi introduttivi contenuta all’interno del secondo fascicolo del codice. u gualmente interessante, in quanto rivelativa del modo di procedere nell’allestimento del codice, è la maniera in cui la medesima mano c inizia il suo intervento, più avanti nel manoscritto, riprendendo la copia del commento portata avanti dalla mano a fino al f. 97v, e ivi interrotta. Va osservato, infatti, che il copista a nelle ultime pagine di questo suo intervento, a partire dal f. 84r, si era limitato a trascrivere solo la prima fonte esegetica (di norma, il cosiddetto «e sichio a ntonelli») tra le due o talora più che nel nostro codice si leggono intrecciate fra loro accanto al testo dei s almi: come è noto, infatti, il Vat. gr. 752 ci riporta in apparenza (almeno) due serie di esegesi alternate, la seconda delle quali, in ciascuna glossa, è preceduta dalla sigla λλ( ) («altrimenti») ovvero λλ(ο ) («altro [scil. commentatore]»)115. Particolarmente significativa, allora, è la modalità del cambio di mano in due tappe fra gli scribi a e c , che avviene nel passaggio dal f. 83v al f. 84r per gli scolii della «seconda» delle due esegesi copiate, e invece nella transizione fra i ff. 97v e 98r per quanto riguarda la «prima»116 (fig. 35). e videntemente, il copista a aveva proceduto, per un certo nume115 In effetti il s alterio Vaticano alterna, nella colonna esterna di ciascuna delle sue pagine, da un lato, come fonte principale, gli scolii dell’«e sichio a ntonelli», dall’altro, in quello che chiameremo qui cumulativamente e grossolanamente «secondo commento» e che nel manoscritto è in genere preceduto dalla sigla λλ(ο ), materiali attinti come «fonte complementare privilegiata» alla catena crisostomico-teodoretea, oltre che via via ad altre fonti accessorie minoritarie piuttosto eterogenee. a tutto questo materiale esegetico, nell’originale forma in cui esso appare assemblato nel Vat. gr. 752 (e nel suo apografo Oxon. Bodl. Canon. gr. 62, del sec. XII, probabilmente sua copia diretta, almeno fino alla catena a Ps 103:10, dove l’oxoniense cambia comportamento distaccandosi, fino alla fine, dall’esegesi come rappresentata dal s alterio Vaticano), si assegna il nr. XXII nella classificazione delle catene ad opera di KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 58-59; un ulteriore possibile testimone, più tardo, della stessa catena — non ancora, però, studiato in dettaglio — è stato infine additato di recente nell’Athous S. Annae 7, del secolo XVI (cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 3; IV, p. 55). Per tutto questo si veda SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 3-34, la cui analisi è completata e precisata da DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 81-82, 86-87; IV, pp. 54-113 (ibid., pp. 110-111, una sintesi delle rettifiche apportate rispetto alla trattazione di s chenker). s i veda inoltre lo studio di r einhart c eulemans in questo stesso volume alle pp. 261-300. 116 l ’ultimo intervento della mano a che mi sembra di poter rilevare nella trascrizione della catena, prima della definitiva transizione alla mano c , è alla quartultima riga della col. I del f. 97v. Non sarà casuale, allora, che proprio in questa zona del codice, precisamente in corrispondenza del f. 98v, sia individuabile anche uno dei punti di stacco e di cambiamento di strategia di selezione delle fonti nella costruzione del commento catenario (cf. SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 11, che fa iniziare proprio qui la sezione b, relativa a Ps 32:14-39:4b, della catena XXII). In effetti, come si vedrà meglio più avanti, i copisti del Vat. gr. 752 sono essi stessi i compilatori, in scribendo, della peculiare forma di catena ai s almi che

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f ig. 35 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 84r (particolare): inizio dell’alternanza dei copisti a e c nella copia delle due diverse serie di scolii che compongono la catena.

ro di fogli, alla copia della sola prima serie di scolii (l’«e sichio a ntonelli»), riservandosi poi di riempire gli spazi lasciati bianchi fra le glosse di essa con gli scolii del «secondo commentario», come aveva già fatto in precedenza fino al f. 83v. Questo indizio di carattere grafico — ovvero l’alternanza regolare, nella trascrizione dell’uno e dell’altro commento, delle due mani a e c all’interno dei ff. 84r-97v — ci testimonia, quindi, direttamente e visivamente che l’assemblaggio e l’incastro dei due diversi commentari non fu attinto a un precedente antigrafo nel quale essi fossero stati già alternati e mescolati, ma venne realizzato ad hoc per il Vat. gr. 752 partendo da distinti modelli — manoscritti diversi contenenti le differenti esegesi dei s almi —, che vennero evidentemente rifusi qui per la prima volta in un’artificiale unità ad opera dei copisti stessi, dando così vita alla cosiddetta catena XXII117.

il codice esibisce, e dunque è naturale che al cambio di mano si associ in questo caso un mutamento nella scelta e nella modalità di assemblaggio delle fonti. 117 a queste stesse conclusioni — ovvero che gli scribi del Vat. gr. 752 sono anche gli organizzatori/creatori della catena nr. XXII, appositamente composta per questo codice — giunse circa quarant’anni or sono, su base testuale, la fine analisi della nostra catena condotta da a drian s chenker (SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 10-34), il quale però non si era accorto della pluralità di mani di copisti presenti nel codice, che egli sembra ritenere per intero opera di un unico scriba-catenista (ibid., p. 14), fatto salvo il caso di alcune glosse del commentario al f. 98v da lui erroneamente ritenute aggiunte successive d’altra mano (ibid., pp. 11-12), laddove invece, a dire il vero, si registrano più interventi scaglionati nel tempo della medesima mano c . Di parere lievemente diverso si dichiarava, nel 1980,

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c iò rende ancor più evidente l’imperfezione e la grossolanità, dal punto di vista della gestione della mise en page, della tecnica di allestimento della catena marginale all’interno del nostro codice, e in special modo nella sua prima parte, fin verso il f. 100 del codice. Il primo scriba, o copista a , adottò infatti l’empirica e poco meditata strategia di collocare nella colonna più esterna della pagina in primo luogo i più stringati scolii della prima delle due esegesi da trascrivere — di norma, come si è detto, il cosiddetto «e sichio a ntonelli» —, che sono disposti per lo più esattamente all’altezza del versetto o semi-versetto corrispondente del s almo, scritto nella colonna interna della pagina. In ciò egli ripeteva con ogni probabilità, come si è detto, l’aspetto materiale del manoscritto della fonte principale che aveva davanti, ovvero un codice del s alterio con scolii di tipo palestinese, che doveva avere nella colonna esterna solamente, o quasi solamente, gli scolii dell’«e sichio a ntonelli», i cui argumenta erano invece scritti nella colonna interna insieme al testo biblico, posizione nella quale, infatti, essi risultano trascritti da D anche nel nostro Vat. gr. 752118. In un secondo momento, sempre nella colonna esterna del nostro s alterio Vaticano, nell’esiguo spazio rimasto fra l’uno e l’altro scolio di tale «primo commento», lo scriba a inseriva dopo la sigla λλ( ) le glosse del cosiddetto «secondo commento» — che in realtà, via via che si avanza nel codice, si rivela un complesso collage, realizzato in scribendo, di fonti catenarie e non, di varia natura, diversificato nella sua miscela a seconda delle varie sezioni rinvenibili nella nostra catena119. t ale lavoro di copia del «secondo commento», successivamente alla mano a , fu portato avanti, come si è visto, per i ff. 84r-97v dallo scriba c , incaricato poi di continuare a trascrivere in forma alternata Irmgard Hutter, che si chiedeva se anziché direttamente ai copisti del Vat. gr. 752 non si dovesse attribuire la composizione della catena nr. XXII a una sorta di «redattore» del testo del medesimo manoscritto vaticano, da identificarsi magari con l’anonimo committente del codice (HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, pp. 341-342). Indipendentemente, sembra dubitare del fatto che il Vat. gr. 752 possa essere il codice capostipite della catena XXII, nel quale essa fu creata e allestita ex novo, anche DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 77, 113, per il quale l’«originale» della catena del s alterio Vaticano andrebbe datato fra gli anni Quaranta del X secolo e la prima metà dell’XI. t uttavia, le nuove ricerche condotte sul Vat. gr. 752 in quest’occasione sembrano indirizzarci in un’altra direzione, ovvero verso una valorizzazione del ruolo attivo in particolare del copista a nella concezione e pianificazione complessiva del volume e nell’iniziativa della creazione della catena XXII, sebbene anche il copista c debba aver avuto per la parte della medesima catena da lui trascritta una funzione — esercitata in maniera relativamente autonoma — di «autore» della scelta dei passi e di responsabile dell’assemblaggio delle fonti esegetiche: l’analisi grafica e codicologica effettuata, infatti, conferma in pieno per altra via — senza lasciare, credo, spazio a dubbi — la bontà dell’intuizione di a drian s chenker e costituisce a mio avviso una prova inoppugnabile del fatto che la catena XXII è stata creata proprio in occasione dell’allestimento del Vat. gr. 752. 118 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 86-87; IV, p. 104. 119 c ome è ben dimostrato ibid., IV, pp. 54-113: 106-109 in particolare.

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tanto la «prima» quanto la «seconda» delle due esegesi fino alla fine del codice, continuando così la vera e propria costruzione della catena stessa. s i trattava, in ogni caso, di un modo di procedere che, come già evidenziato, tendeva a imporre un’artificialmente rigorosa uniformità di estensione dello spazio degli scolii esegetici relativi a ciascun versetto o semi-versetto, all’interno della colonna esterna della pagina: si deve perciò immaginare che soprattutto i singoli scolii del «secondo commentario» siano stati spesso scorciati e sfrondati per adattarf ig. 36 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 63v (particolare): imperfetta gestione li all’esiguo posto dispodello spazio riservato alla seconda serie di scolii esegenibile fra l’una e l’altra tici da parte del copista a , che si sforza di intercalarli a quelli della prima serie da lui precedentemente copiati. glossa, precedentemente trascritta, del «primo commentario». l a tecnica di riduzione impiegata è evidente anche all’occhio — e i sacrifici in questo caso furono probabilmente più forti — in relazione al «secondo commentario»: gli scolii di quest’ultimo, infatti, si trovano spesso come compressi e strizzati entro uno spazio fisico esiguo — quello rimasto, per l’appunto, dopo la copia, all’altezza del versetto salmico corrispondente, degli scolii dell’«e sichio a ntonelli» —, fatto che talvolta, nella copia del «secondo commentario», spinge il ritmo della scrittura del copista a ad addensarsi e le abbreviazioni a infittirsi, o che costringe lo scriba a fuoriuscire lateralmente dalle linee di giustificazione della colonna esterna per poter completare nel margine o nell’intercolumnio un’espressione o un concetto (si vedano, per fare solo qualche esempio, i ff. 40v, 46r, 56v, 57r, 63v, e così via) (figg. 11, 36).

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Diverso, più abile nella gestione dei due testi e più capace di nuances nelle scelte circa lo spazio da riservare a ciascuno dei due commenti sarà l’approccio dello scriba c , una volta divenuto unico copista del commentario a partire dal f. 98r. Dopo aver evidentemente seguìto per pochi fogli la stessa imperfetta tecnica del suo predecessore, copiando dapprima un certo numero di glosse della prima serie e poi inserendo le esegesi del «secondo commento» nei ristretti spazi rimasti bianchi, gradualmente egli sembra maturare una più accorta strategia, che mi pare meglio visibile a partire dal f. 106v: il copista c si lascia, infatti, condizionare molto meno dalla corrispondenza sulla stessa riga tra versetto salmico e relativo scolio, che era stata per lo più perseguita dalla mano a fino a quel punto, e con ciò permette, ove necessario, alle glosse di valicare il confine assegnato all’esegesi di ciascun versetto, aiutandosi con segni di rinvio — più di quanto non facesse la mano a — a mantenere un’agevole connessione visiva fra versetto e glossa corrispondente quando disposti ad altezze diverse nella pagina. e gli copia, inoltre, con ogni evidenza le glosse dei «due commenti» alternandole contestualmente — anziché continuare a trascrivere gruppi di glosse del «primo commentario» per intercalarvi soltanto ex post quelle del «secondo» —, il che gli permette di sfruttare meglio lo spazio e non lo costringe a decurtare in maniera troppo brusca il «secondo commento» o a serrarne antiesteticamente il ritmo di scrittura. e gli deborda, infine, fuori dello specchio, ove gli paia necessario — più sistematicamente di quanto non avesse fatto già talora la mano a —, cercando spazio aggiuntivo per il commento catenario in righe supplementari di testo vergate a tutta pagina nel margine inferiore o, talora, anche in quello superiore del foglio120. Insomma, lo scriba c tende a trasformare man mano anche visivamente quello che era in partenza un manoscritto a due colonne, con testo sulla colonna interna della pagina e commento su quella esterna121, in un codice con commento catenario marginale «inquadrante»122 (fig. 37). 120 t alora, al contrario, il copista c dà agli scolii la forma di «calligrammi» (normalmente trascrivendoli in disposizione cruciforme o di triangolo rovesciato, o di clessidra, cf. ad es. ff. 287r, 358v, 428r, 453r, 490v) così da riempire meglio il sovrabbondante spazio disponibile senza lasciare vuoti in fondo alla colonna destinata all’esegesi: per questo genere di fenomeni nella mise en page di un commento catenario cf. ad es. SAUTEL, Trois tétraévangiles jumeaux, pp. 118, 135. Più in generale, I. HUTTER, Marginalia decorata, in The Legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: Three Hundred Years of Studies on Greek Handwriting. Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium of Greek Palaeography (Madrid – Salamanca, 15-20 September 2008), ed. by a . BRAVO GARCÍA and I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, with the assistance of J. SIGNES CODOÑER, t urnhout 2010 (Bibliologia, 31a -B), [I], pp. 97-106; [II], pp. 719-734 (pl. 1-14). 121 r icordo che la disposizione dell’esegesi sulla sola colonna esterna della pagina, rispetto al testo principale collocato sulla colonna interna, corrisponde allo schema della catena «a due colonne» secondo la definizione di DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 56. 122 s i veda l’interessante analisi delle variazioni d’impaginazione del nostro codice da

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f ig. 37 – Vat. gr. 752, ff. 151v-152r: gestione dell’impaginazione della catena da parte del copista c .

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Quest’ultima è una tipologia di presentazione del commentario decisamente più nuova e attuale rispetto a quella, da tempo divenuta old-fashioned, del commentario disposto nella sola colonna esterna123, una modalità di distribuzione che, come si è detto, lo scriba a aveva evidentemente attinto e replicato acriticamente dal manoscritto antigrafo della sua fonte principale — ovvero un s alterio palestinese corredato di scolii dell’«e sichio a ntonelli» — e che non era stato in grado di modificare e correggere quando il graduale, cospicuo arricchimento della catena con l’aggiunta di fonti complementari aveva iniziato a sfigurare il rudimentale schema di disposizione degli scolii alla stessa altezza del versetto, sulla sola colonna esterna della pagina. l o scriba c , invece, doveva essere più versato, rispetto alla mano a , nella complessa gestione di commenti catenari marginali «inquadranti», e anzi ci si può chiedere se la transizione dal copista a al copista c che si registra nel commentario definitivamente tra il f. 97v e il f. 98r non sia principalmente dovuta alla constatazione, da parte dello scriba a , della propria scarsa capacità di gestire lo spazio necessario alla catena entro la sola colonna esterna della pagina, e dunque alla decisione di «passare la mano» affidando, da quel punto in poi, la copia della catena — o meglio, la vera e propria «costruzione» di essa — a un copista più capace di gestire la complessità d’impaginazione d’una catena «a cornice». u n ulteriore dato interessante da rilevare è che il passaggio, nella trascrizione della catena, dalla mano a alla mano c si accompagna negli stessi fogli alla cessazione (dopo i ff. 86v-89r, dal f. 94v con un isolato ritorno al f. 96v) della doratura delle scritture distintive, delle inizialette calligrafiche e degli altri elementi segnaletici, ivi inclusi, fra l’altro, le ricordate sigle λλ( ) / λλ(ο ) che introducono la seconda serie di glosse esegetiche e i segni di rinvio fra glosse e versetti dei s almi124. In effetti, rispettivamente alla mano a e alla mano c va attribuita anche la paternità, per le pagine in cui vergano la catena, della stesura in carminio delle inizialette del comparte di DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 74-79, che non rileva tuttavia che esse si devono in gran parte al subentrare del copista c . s i tenga comunque presente che le due diverse forme di presentazione d’una catena erano di fatto, con tutta evidenza, ritenute equivalenti e intercambiabili dai copisti, almeno a un’altezza cronologica tarda quale quella del nostro s alterio Vaticano (metà del sec. XI), cf. ibid., I, pp. 48-49, 96. 123 c f. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 95: «avant les années 750, le modèle des chaînes à deux colonnes [...] passe à la disposition marginale. l a disposition sur deux colonnes [scil. quella in cui il testo è sulla colonna interna della pagina, la catena su quella esterna] devient alors une survivance d’un modèle périmé, normalement remplacé par le nouveau modèle qu’est la disposition marginale». 124 l a doratura termina, dunque, con l’ultima pagina (f. 96v) del tredicesimo fascicolo del codice, dato anch’esso non casuale, ma piuttosto indicativo dell’articolazione delle operazioni di manifattura libraria per lotti di fascicoli.

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mentario stesso e inoltre degli elementi segnaletici accessori, mentre, come si è detto, le lunghe inscriptiones dei s almi, che includono gli argumenta dell’«e sichio a ntonelli», erano già state vergate in carminio in maiuscoletta dalla medesima mano D che aveva copiato in minuscola il testo biblico. s i può allora immaginare che una prima campagna di doratura di titoli, rubriche, inizialette ed elementi segnaletici si sia avuta durante o subito dopo la copia del commento, fino al f. 97v, da parte dello scriba a — non saprei se per mano di lui stesso —, dunque forse in una fase di breve sosta nel lavoro di trascrizione che deve aver consentito di effettuare un primo intervento di crisografia anteriormente alla continuazione della trascrizione ad opera della mano c . Dopo che, invece, il codice fu definitivamente completato per opera di quest’ultima, terminata quindi la trascrizione della catena nell’intero manoscritto, la doratura delle iniziali e delle scritture e parti distintive non fu più ripresa, e d’altro canto restarono «non finite» anche le iniziali maggiori, talvolta solo disegnate in inchiostro bruno diluito, ma più spesso del tutto mancanti125. u n’ultima sorpresa — ma, al contempo, anche una minimale conferma della bontà della nostra interpretazione di un ruolo di copista-concepteur dello scriba a e, in ultima analisi, di «primo redattore» del testo e organizzatore del corredo visivo del codice — viene dal riapparire, come si è detto, della sua mano nella trascrizione della catena per il solo f. 444r-v (fig. 15). l o scriba a è responsabile della copia dell’intera porzione di catena presente in tale foglio, iniziando dal punto in cui si era interrotto il copista c alla fine di f. 443v, e cedendogli nuovamente il passo dopo la fine del f. 444v, così che c riprende all’inizio del f. 445r il filo della trascrizione dell’esegesi fin lì condotta dal copista a . l e mani a e c , perciò, dovevano evidentemente collaborare in sincronia, e sarebbe sbagliato pensare che c abbia completato a distanza di tempo il lavoro intrapreso da a . ma la ricomparsa occasionale di a induce anche a credere che questi, come si è detto, vegliasse sull’allestimento complessivo del volume, con un probabile ruolo di controllo che poteva comportare un affidamento, da parte sua, dei diversi compiti ai vari artigiani del libro coinvolti: un ruolo, insomma, che gli conferiva l’autorità di intervenire a suo piacimento, anche solo episodicamente — all’interno del commento di un s almo qualunque, in un foglio interno di un fascicolo il cui commento è per il resto trascritto da un altro copista —, come appunto accade al f. 444r-v.

125

c f. infra, pp. 130-139, a ppendice I.

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4. Un ultimo sguardo al Vat. gr. 752: qualche osservazione sullo stile delle miniature Un’approfondita e seria riflessione meriterebbe, infine, la questione delle diverse mani di ornatisti e pittori coinvolti nell’impresa. Non essendo uno storico dell’arte, tuttavia, non sono in grado di compiere personalmente l’accurato esame stilistico — che comporterebbe fra l’altro una distinzione tra le diverse mani di artisti operanti nel codice — che mi pare essere ancor oggi uno dei maggiori desiderata della ricerca sul Vat. gr. 752. In attesa che qualche studioso più competente affronti finalmente in maniera analitica questo tema davvero cruciale nella ricerca sul Salterio Vaticano, mi limiterò a proporre alcune osservazioni — per lo più relative a fenomeni macroscopici e tutto sommato «esteriori» — che permetteranno forse un primo incrocio di dati rispetto a quanto emerso dall’analisi graficocodicologica. Come si è già anticipato, infatti, sono evidenti nell’illustrazione e decorazione del codice discrasie e vistose differenze da una pagina all’altra, probabilmente riconducibili anch’esse a una pluralità di mani di pittori operanti nel codice, non sempre ben accordate fra loro126: la tavolozza è di rado luminosa, ricca e dominata da colori pastello come di norma per l’epoca, molto più spesso tende all’uso di poche tinte piuttosto cupe usate in maniera assoluta, senza sfumature, in stesure opache coprenti; la vistosa alterazione dei pigmenti è un fenomeno riscontrabile in associazione con questo genere di palette; le proporzioni dei corpi sono variabili, e solo raramente tendono all’eleganza delle slanciate figurine tipiche del coevo style mignon costantinopolitano, mentre più spesso sono sgraziate, tozze e persino deformi; la forma stessa del campo miniato è variabile, sovente asimmetrica o non riconducibile a figure geometriche regolari. Tentando una prima esemplificazione della sconcertante varietas e disomogeneità formale riscontrabile nel Salterio Vaticano — senza alcuna ambizione di riconoscere effettivamente le diverse mani di artisti e di delimitarne con precisione il campo d’azione all’interno del manoscritto, ma nella speranza di incuriosire gli storici dell’arte e sollecitarli ad approfondire e sistematizzare l’indagine —, distinguerei qui provvisoriamente, limitandomi ai primi venticinque fogli del codice, le seguenti «maniere» pittoriche: 1) (ad es. ai ff. 1r-7r, esclusa l’ornamentazione del f. 3r, per ripren126 Cf. supra, pp. 84-89. [N.B. Quando questo articolo era già stato consegnato per la stampa, sintetiche osservazioni sulle miniature e sull’ornato del Vat. gr. 752 — non sempre coincidenti con quelle da me svolte qui alle pp. 120-130 — sono state pubblicate in PARPULOV, Toward a History (ed. online 2014), pp. 124-126].

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dere poi forse al f. 12r): gli incarnati sono alquanto più rosati che nella media delle illustrazioni del codice, e le proporzioni dei corpi appena più esili; le espressioni facciali sono rese con qualche maggiore analiticità ed espressività per quanto attiene al solo personaggio principale, mentre i volti delle figure secondarie sono schematici, imprecisi, caratterizzati da allucinata fissità, marcate occhiaie; l’esecuzione dei corpi e degli elementi paesaggistici o architettonici della scena è sommaria, a tratti impressionistica, ma Fig. 38 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 4v (particolare). in ciò nella norma per l’epoca; la tavolozza è limitata a pochi colori contrastanti e opachi: si notano soltanto rosso minio, un azzurro-grigiastro, bruno-nerastro, rosa, lilla chiaro, più di rado verde o arancione, oltre all’oro per sfondi e dettagli; le tinte sono tendenzialmente piatte, poco o punto sfumate; si nota in genere una modesta alterazione dei pigmenti, ma un flaking abbastanza diffuso; questa maniera si associa per lo più a sgraziate e imprecise cornici a Treppenmotiven entro una fascia delimitata internamente ed esternamente da un semplice filetto rosso (fig. 38); 2) (f. 3r, con riferimento alla sola ornamentazione): un’isolata, graziosa fascia ornamentale, con volatili e frutti/bacche entro volute fitomorfe del tipo di norma associato a ornato Blütenblattstil, è sovrastata da una coppia di scimmie affrontate al fonte — che ha forma di anfora dal cui piede furiescono ai due lati fiori —, in atto di portarsi alla bocca dei frutti; inoltre, nella stessa pagina, un’iniziale M costituita da una coppia di leoni affrontati, ritti sulle zampe posteriori, anch’essi ai due lati di un fonte; in questo isolato episodio all’interno dell’ornamentazione del manoscritto, l’esecuzione è particolarmente analitica e accurata, il disegno minuto e ricco di dettagli; la tavolozza è molto più varia che nel resto del manoscritto, e ricca di sfumature e transizioni cromatiche graduali, con uso di verde in varie tonalità, blu oltremare, rosso vivo, viola/lilla, grigio, giallo limone, e così via; molto buona è la padronanza della tecnica Blütenblattstil, ed evidente la perfetta conoscenza delle più aggiornate tendenze stilistiche e dei motivi alla moda dell’ornamentazione costantinopolitana coeva, rispetto alla

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quale questa fascia mostra chiari addentellati127 (fig. 39); 3) (ff. 7v-8r): sporadica apparizione di una maniera pittorica caratterizzata da incarnati rosati, esili e slanciate proporzioni dei corpi, pose nobilmente aggraziate, panneggi finemente classicheggianti, visi eseguiti con accuratezza individualizzante e personalizzazione psicologica, pur entro scene talora affollate di personaggi; l’esecuzione è analitica e minuziosa, la miniaturizzazione dei personaggi è Fig. 39 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 3r (particolare). molto spinta ma non per questo la resa risulta meno attenta alla nettezza del dettaglio, lo stile è tipico della più raffinata produzione costantinopolitana del tempo; la tavolozza, ricca e ben accordata, dominata da colori pastello, include azzurro-grigiastro, rosso minio chiaro opaco, rosa/ lilla chiaro, bruno, verde, arancione, beige, colori spesso in diverse nuances e tutti sapientemente sfumati, risaltando in quieta armonia sul fondo dorato; i pigmenti non presentano le vistose alterazioni e il diffuso flaking che affliggono la massima parte delle miniature del codice, indizio di miglior consapevolezza tecnica da parte dell’artista responsabile di queste 127 Fra i confronti utili in manoscritti coevi possiamo ad esempio ricordare l’Athen. B.N. gr. 2363, f. 115r, che esibisce lo stesso tipo, per la verità comune, di fontana in forma di anfora dalla pancia cuoriforme sopra una fascia/pyle (cf. MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – TOUFEXIPASCHOU, Catalogue, I, fig. 328), o l’Athen. B.N. gr. 2676, f. 1r, per le foglie e i fiori alla base del vaso (cf. ibid., fig. 388), per i quali si veda anche l’Athous Chilandar. 105, f. 83r (cf. ησαυρο , II, fig. 417). Per il motivo dei doppi girari al cui interno sono uccellini e bacche si vedano ad esempio, con diverso pattern vegetale, l’Athen. B.N. gr. 2554, f. 1r (cf. MARAVA-CHATZINICOLAOU – TOUFEXI-PASCHOU, Catalogue, III, fig. 208; HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 15/2), oppure il Sin. gr. 503, f. 1r (cf. K. WEITZMANN – G. GALAVARIS, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, I: From the Ninth to the Twelfth Century, Princeton, N.J. 1990, pl. CVII fig. 292), o ancora l’Ott. gr. 88, f. 1r (cf. HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 5/1), o infine, più tardo di qualche decennio, il l ezionario di Venezia, Istituto Ellenico, 2, f. 3v (nell’ampia fascia che fa da cornice alla carpet page, cf. J. LOWDEN, The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary. The Story of a Byzantine Book, New York – New Haven – l ondon 2009, p. 80 fig. 91). Per la coppia di scimmie affrontate, accovacciate, con un fiore o frutto nella zampa, si veda il già citato Athen. B.N. gr. 2554, f. 155v (in cima a una pyle, cf. HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», p. 580), e inoltre le due scimmie racchiuse in altrettanti tondi inclusi in una pyle di un manoscritto coevo d’ambito studita, il cosiddetto «Salterio Barberini» Barb. gr. 372, f. 130r (cf. ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter, p. 104; HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 16/2).

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Fig. 40 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 7v (particolare).

poche miniature; le scenette sono qui racchiuse entro cornici lineari rosse a filetto semplice; il campo miniato è rigorosamente simmetrico, di forma regolare, studiatamente collocato entro la pagina, e il fondo dorato non si sovrappone maldestramente alla scrittura come invece accade piuttosto spesso altrove nel codice (fig. 40); 4) (ff. 9r-11v): in questa ulteriore maniera gli incarnati, brunastri, si presentano alquanto scuri a motivo dell’alterazione dei pigmenti; le proporzioni dei corpi sono abbastanza slanciate; l’esecuzione appare schematica; la limitata tavolozza, con colori scuri e opachi forse anche a motivo delle alterazioni, include blu di Prussia, rosso minio, lilla scuro e brunonerastro, sul fondo oro; il campo miniato ha una caratteristica forma di campana, ed è delimitato da una semplice cornice lineare rossa (fig. 22); non sono in grado di dire, al momento, se la mano sia diversa da quella della maniera nr. 1; 5) (f. 19r): un differente modo di dipingere si riscontra qui in una pyle, affiancata ai lati da due snelli cipressi e sovrastata da una coppia di pavoni al fonte; nei medaglioni che scandiscono la struttura della «porta»

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Fig. 41 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 19r (particolare).

sono ospitati in alto una Deesis «ampliata» che include due ulteriori personaggi, l’arcangelo michele (?) a sinistra e David a destra, e sui due montanti varie figurine di animali, soprattutto volatili; inoltre, a questo stesso intervento pertiene anche l’iniziale figurata M formata da due personaggi maschili, abbigliati in corta tunica, affrontati: gli incarnati sono piuttosto scuri, olivastri, senza che ciò si debba, in apparenza, ad alterazione dei pigmenti; le figure umane e animali, nell’iniziale come nella pyle, sono tozze e, per quanto attiene alle prime, poco proporzionate; la tavolozza è dominata dal contrasto di azzurro oltremare e rosso vivo sul fondo oro,

Fig. 42 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 23v (particolare).

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ma include anche verde malva, arancione becco d’oca, grigio perlaceo, colori tutti che, forse per la consunzione degli strati superficiali dei pigmenti, appaiono opachi; l’iniziale figurata, in campo aperto, si sovrappone lievemente alla scrittura ma senza alterarne la leggibilità, e anzi con un grazioso effetto apparentemente studiato (fig. 41); 6) (ad es. ff. 20r, 23v, 25r): anche in questa maniera gli incarnati appaiono brunastri, a motivo dei pigmenti alterati; le proporzioni della figura umana sono mutevoli, in genere non troppo slanciate ma talvolta eccessivamente sottili; l’esecuzione è sommaria e la qualità modesta; la tavolozza include poche tinte opache in netto contrasto, come un blu di Prussia o blu metallico, un rosso minio sporco, lilla scuro, marrone bruciato, bruno-nerastro, oltre all’oro dello sfondo (fig. 42); le modeste e imprecise cornici a Treppenmotiven sono della stessa tipologia riscontrata in associazione alla «maniera» nr. 1; 7) (ad es. f. 22r): in questa Fig. 43 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 22r (particolare). maniera gli incarnati appaiono brunastri perché alterati; le proporzioni dei corpi sono naturali, l’esecuzione delle figure è sommaria, ma più accurata nei volti; la tavolozza include blu di Prussia o blu metallico, rosso minio, lilla scuro, bruno-aranciato, marrone bruciato, brunonerastro, varie tonalità di verde spento opaco, e inoltre un grigio tortora, forse per ossidazione del bianco, oltre al fondo oro; anche in questo caso si notano le solite cornici con sgraziati Treppenmotiven (fig. 43); se non fosse

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per i visi dei personaggi, più accurati e meno inespressivi, e per l’aggiunta del verde alla palette, non differirebbe dalla maniera nr. 6; 8) (ff. 17v-18v): infine, tornando indietro ai ff. 17-18, si dovrà osservare che lo stato di conservazione estremamente precario di questo bifoglio isolato, le cui miniature hanno patito di flaking dei pigmenti tanto esteso da rendere quasi illeggibili le scene, rende impossibile, a mio avviso, accertare se anch’esse siano da ricondurre a una delle maniere già descritte; si può solo notare che disegno e composizione delle scene appaiono buoni, molto migliori che nella media delle altre illustrazioni del manoscritto; le solite cornici con rozzi Treppenmotiven potrebbero far pensare a un’identità di mano, ma non si può del resto escludere che tali cornici siano state aggiunte a posteriori da un’altra delle mani operanti nel manoscritto; d’altra parte, la tavolozza è meno limitata che nelle maniere nrr. 1, 4, 6-7, e le proporzioni delle figure più esili; i pochi, frammentari volti di personaggi ancora visibili nel bifoglio non permettono di farsi un’idea precisa del modo di rappresentare le fattezze del viso tipico di questo bifoglio, e di chiarire se in ciò esso diverga sostanzialmente dalle varie maniere sopra individuate (figg. 5, 34). In sintesi, le migliori prove pittoriche sono quelle, del tutto episodiche, associate alle «maniere» nr. 2 (f. 3r: la sola ornamentazione) e nr. 3 (ff. 7v8r: in tutto, quattro scene miniate)128: con ogni probabilità abbiamo qui a che fare con l’intervento di due diverse mani (ma non si può neppure escludere completamente che si tratti di una stessa mano di pittore e or128 Alla nostra maniera nr. 3 si riferisce una fine osservazione di Kurt Weitzmann, che del Salterio Vaticano ebbe incidentalmente occasione di scrivere: «The majority of its miniatures are a good deal rougher [scil. than the miniatures in the l ectionary Athous Dionys. 587] but a few which illustrate the preface are of a considerably higher quality and almost reach the level of the Dionysiou codex. In particular there is a picture of David blessing two groups of prophets flanking him [scil. Vat. gr. 752, f. 8r] which resembles most closely a scene in the lectionary with Christ blessing the disciples not only in the compositional arrangement but also in stylistic details [scil. Athous Dionys. 587, f. 32v, cf. ησαυρο , I, fig. 206]. The ponderation of the slim, ascetic figures with their small heads which show strained expressions, the garments, still treated according to classical formulae but covering dematerialized bodies, the predominance of the gold ground and at the same time the preservation of a small strip of earth with tufts of grass, all these features are so close in both miniatures (...)», cf. WEITZMANN, An Imperial Lectionary, p. 247. — Devo precisare però che, al di là di una pur sensibile vicinanza stilistica, da un accurato esame comparativo non ricavo affatto la sensazione che nel l ezionario atonita possa trovarsi traccia della medesima elegante mano d’artista che si nasconde nella nostra maniera nr. 3, e dunque il raffronto istituito da Weitzmann andrà inteso nel senso di una conferma rispetto alla piena partecipazione e adesione, da parte del pittore della maniera nr. 3, alle tendenze pittoriche e ai modi espressivi più aggiornati della pittura costantinopolitana coeva, così come attestati anche nella lussuosa produzione del manoscritto di Dionysiou.

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natista) che si rivelano perfettamente al corrente dei modi della più raffinata produzione miniata della capitale dell’Impero nel terzo quarto dell’XI secolo (figg. 39-40). Sono evidentemente interventi limitati, che del resto si verificano in una zona del codice, quella dei fascicoli contenenti i testi preliminari (ff. 1-18), nella quale si assiste all’avvicendarsi di più mani di calligrafi (A, B, C e il chrysographos F): di conseguenza, non si può non chiedersi — interrogativo che rimane per il momento senza una risposta — se qualcuno di questi calligrafi non abbia funto al contempo almeno occasionalmente anche da pittore129. Altrettanto sporadico e isolato, nella sua posizione liminare all’inizio del testo dei Salmi, è l’emergere della maniera nr. 5 al f. 19r: anche qui abbiamo a che fare con un ornatista il cui intervento rimane one-shot, non potendosi apparentemente rinvenire la stessa mano in altri elementi del corredo decorativo del nostro codice (fig. 41). l a qualità è, in questo caso, più modesta e l’esecuzione meno sapiente di quelle riscontrabili nell’intervento dell’ornatista della «maniera» nr. 2, ma nel complesso questo artista non manca di vivacità espressiva e di aggiornamento, quanto ai motivi, rispetto alla miniatura costantinopolitana del periodo. Impossibile, invece, dire qualcosa di certo circa la mano che interviene nel bifoglio ai ff. 17-18: il pessimo stato di conservazione delle miniature, ridotte alle ombre di se stesse dalle diffuse cadute di pigmenti, non permette di confermare la vaga impressione che esse si debbano a un’ulteriore mano di professionista, diversa da quelle responsabili delle «maniere» nrr. 1, 4, 6-7. Queste ultime sono, peraltro, le «maniere» che paiono ricorrere, in modo pressoché esclusivo, lungo tutto il resto del codice, ad esclusione dei fogli iniziali: non saprei dire a quante mani di pittori esse corrispondano, ma forse a più d’una, in probabile rapporto di collaborazione anche entro una stessa miniatura130. È evidente, del resto, che il grosso 129 Un buon candidato — ma l’ipotesi sarebbe da verificare mediante un esame autoptico del codice — è un pittore e/o ornatista quale quello attivo nel già citato Athen. B.N. gr. 2363, cf. supra, nn. 64 e 127. 130 Una mano ulteriore dalle attitudini pittoriche migliori si può invece cogliere, credo, in una parte delle miniature dei fogli finali del codice, laddove significativamente le cornici delle miniature presentano una foggia ancora diversa — a fascia monocroma in rosso o in blu, spesso con elementi a mandorla o lanceolati disposti obliquamente verso l’esterno ai quattro angoli —, mentre gli esiti raggiunti sono occasionalmente di livello più elevato e di stile più prossimo alla produzione della capitale nella seconda metà dell’XI secolo: si veda ad esempio il f. 473v (fig. 44). Fra l’altro, per un buon confronto iconografico in relazione all’angelo che in tale ultima miniatura sovrasta i tre giovani ebrei nella fornace, si può ricorrere al coevo Taurin. B.N. B.II.4 (Passio dei ss. Eustrazio, Aussenzio, Eugenio, mardario e Oreste BHG 646, in un manoscritto da attribuirsi alla seconda metà o fine del sec. XI), f. 3v (GULMINI, Manoscritti miniati di Torino, II/1, tav. III; II/2, fig. 81; cf. anche Oriente cristiano e santità, pp. 203-204 nr. 29).

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del lavoro di illustrazione e decorazione del codice è stato eseguito da maestranze di seconda scelta — come si capisce fra l’altro anche dalla scarsa qualità dei pigmenti da esse utilizzati, che sovente si alterano o si distaccano dalla pergamena —, e insomma con le forze disponibili nell’ambiente di produzione del codice, senza poter fare ricorso ad artisti costantinopolitani o metropolitani di più elevate capacità. Possono aver portato a un tale stato di cose diverse contingenze: le risorse economiche Fig. 44 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 473v (particolare). limitate non avranno permesso un affidamento dell’intero lavoro di allestimento del volume a copisti e artisti esterni all’istituzione cui esso era destinato o all’interno della quale fu concepito; oppure può aver giocato a sfavore la distanza dalla capitale e dai suoi migliori atelier di pittura, se immaginiamo che il Salterio Vaticano sia un prodotto periferico — sia pure magari di un’area non troppo lontana da Costantinopoli — che solo occasionalmente si sarebbe potuto giovare di sporadici interventi di artisti e/o calligrafi metropolitani di passaggio, ovvero un manoscritto del quale solamente parti scelte avrebbero potuto essere oggetto di limitati incarichi affidati a distanza ad artisti attivi nella Polis; infine, laddove invece il Salterio Vaticano rappresenti, al contrario, un prodotto di origine costantinopolitana, dovremmo pensare che abbia prevalso nel suo allestimento una tendenza in certo senso «autarchica» che, all’interno di un centro scrittorio forse monastico meno à la page di altri dal punto di vista calligrafico e artistico, abbia portato a privilegiare forze interne, affidando «in casa» a scribi e decoratori non sempre all’altezza il compito di portare a termine un volume miniato dalle ambizioni tanto elevate131. 131

Ricapitolando qui per un’ultima volta gli sparuti indizi che parrebbero militare a favore di una possibile origine costantinopolitana del Salterio Vaticano, ricorderemo: la tarda nota di possesso forse riferibile al monastero costantinopolitano della Pantanassa (cf. supra, n. 5 e p. 100); la probabile circolazione del «gemello» Salterio Gerosolimitano a Costantinopoli, poco prima della fine del XII secolo, a quanto pare potersi ricavare dalla prosopografia e dalla topografia documentate nelle annotazioni avventizie di nascita e di morte sul f. 14v (cf. supra, pp. 95-100); gli interventi nel Salterio Vaticano di uno o forse più ornatisti

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Del resto, anche il confronto con il codice gerosolimitano pare contribuire, per certi versi, a confermare questo quadro. Il pur rapido esame diretto del manoscritto da me condotto nell’agosto 2013 e l’osservazione delle immagini in mio possesso — per quanto in gran parte di cattiva qualità, e quasi tutte in bianco e nero — mi suggeriscono che le mani di pittori attive nel Salterio di Gerusalemme, forse più d’una, probabilmente non siano le stesse che si riscontrano nel Vat. gr. 752. Il manoscritto gerosolimitano esibisce un apparato illustrativo di qualità mediamente appena più alta che nel codice vaticano, sia pur mancando degli highlights rappresentati dagli sporadici interventi professionali di più elevato livello riscontrabili in quest’ultimo, come si è detto, ai ff. 3r e 7v-8r e nel bifoglio crisografato ff. 17r-18v. D’altra parte, come nel Salterio Vaticano così anche nel codice gerosolimitano si notano talora un certo disallineamento e qualche irregolarità di contorni del campo nelle scene miniate, ma anche e soprattutto sbrigatività e ripetitività della narrazione pittorica, schematicità nella raffigurazione della figura umana, fissità e genericità delle espressioni e sommarietà dei dettagli dell’ambientazione: caratteristiche che rappresentano da un lato indizi di analoga imperfezione della pianificazione dello spazio da riservare alle illustrazioni — la quale, del resto, si deve in tutti e due i codici all’anonimo copista A del Vaticanus, fatto che spiega la comune difettosità —, dall’altro conseguenze di una scelta di maestranze dalle modeste capacità professionali. Se effettivamente queste prime impressioni ricavate dal codice cogliessero nel segno — ma mi auguro che altri, avendo maggior agio di analizzare il codice gerosolimitano dal vero, possano vagliarne la correttezza e soprattutto approfondire le osservazioni sullo stile dei pittori —, dovremmo pensare che il Salterio di Gerusalemme sia in tutto e per tutto partecipe della medesima appartata cultura grafica e della stessa incerta estetica di formazione costantinopolitana, documentata da addentellati iconografici e stilistici cogenti, nella fascia di f. 3r, nel bifoglio crisografato (ff. 17-18) e soprattutto nelle pur rade iniziali ornate (cf. supra, pp. 121-123 e n. 127, e in particolare infra, pp. 130-139, Appendice I). Si può aggiungere, inoltre, che intorno alla metà del XII secolo o poco oltre sembra esser stato tratto dal Vat. gr. 752 un apografo — che si ritiene diretto, senza intermediari — nell’Oxon. Bodl. Canon. 62 (cf. supra, n. 115), che ne ripete sia il testo (fatta salva una differenziazione nell’ultima parte della catena a partire da Ps 103, cf. già SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 3-34 passim; DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 5; IV, pp. 109-110 in particolare) sia l’iconografia (per quanto attiene alle due sole miniature in esso presenti, cf. HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien; cf. anche EAD., Corpus, III/1, pp. 134-135 nr. 89). Si presume che tale codice oxoniense vada per motivi grafici e storico-artistici ricondotto alla capitale bizantina (HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, p. 332: «Canon. 62 ist in einem Scriptorium mit qualitätvoller Buchproduktion, vermutlich in Konstantinopel, entstanden»), il che parrebbe concorrere a documentare la presenza del Salterio Vaticano a Costantinopoli a circa un secolo di distanza dalla sua manifattura (così EAD., Corpus, III/1, p. 134).

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attestate nel Salterio Vaticano: due manoscritti che rappresenterebbero esiti curiosi, se non addirittura maldestri temptamina, di una cultura libraria autarchica e forse periferica, o comunque certamente marginale ed eccentrica rispetto al main stream della grande produzione calligrafica e miniatoria costantinopolitana del terzo quarto dell’XI secolo. mi pare molto difficile, allora, che il manoscritto vaticano possa essere stato commissionato per la corte o addirittura allestito — come pure è stato supposto — for an imperial viewer132, e mi sembra, inoltre, poco probabile che la sua origine debba essere cercata nel monastero costantinopolitano di Studio133, intorno al quale press’a poco nello stesso torno d’anni ruota una produzione miniata di tutt’altro livello qualitativo, marcata da esperienze grafiche e pittoriche di segno molto diverso134.

APPENDICE I l E INIZIAl I ORNATE DEl VAT. GR. 752 Gli unici elementi del corredo miniato del Salterio Vaticano che non hanno ricevuto sinora alcuna attenzione sono le iniziali «maggiori». Come si è già detto, si tratta in realtà di un ristretto manipolo di iniziali ornate policrome effettivamente eseguite e colorate (sette in tutto: ff. 3r, 5v, 19r, 43r, 45r, 46r, 47v), alle quali si affianca un certo numero di casi ulteriori in cui è stato eseguito il solo disegno preparatorio in inchiostro bruno — con vario grado di diluizione — per iniziali che non furono mai più completate né campite di colore (altre sei: ff. 20r, 22v, 23v, 25v, 344v, 352v). 132

Come sembrava pensare ad es. PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 87 [ma tale ipotesi è assente dall’ed. online 2014]. 133 Come è stato ipotizzato, sulla base di supposti riferimenti in alcune specifiche iconografie a fatti della storia politica e religiosa della Costantinopoli della metà dell’XI secolo, da KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 219. Precedentemente una localizzazione costantinopolitana, e forse studita, del Salterio Vaticano pare ad esempio esser stata evocata allusivamente su basi stilistiche — ma non esplicitata — da WEITZMANN, An Imperial Lectionary, pp. 247-248; un’origine costantinopolitana è affermata anche da LAZAREV, Storia, pp. 142, 175 n. 68 (= ID., Istorija, I, pp. 71, 215 n. 68). 134 Si veda l’importante lavoro di HUTTER, Theodoros, p. 201 in particolare, per la critica della corrente localizzazione a Studio del Vat. gr. 752. Che si debbano invece approfondire gli aspetti di critica ideologica legata all’attualità che paiono desumibili dalle iconografie del manoscritto, per poter riconsiderare una possibile provenienza studita, ritiene B. CROSTINI LAPPIN, Navigando per il Salterio: riflessioni intorno all’edizione elettronica del manoscritto Londra, British Library, Addit. 19.352 (seconda parte), in Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata, n.s. 56-57 (2002-2003), pp. 133-209: 188, 207.

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s e si pensa che, secondo la pianificazione originaria, si prevedeva la realizzazione di un’iniziale ornata policroma all’inizio di ciascuno dei 151 s almi e inoltre delle Odi bibliche, oltre che al principio di alcuni dei testi introduttivi, è evidente come le iniziali effettivamente dipinte o anche solo disegnate a inchiostro rappresentino complessivamente poco più del 7% del totale. a ciò si aggiunga la mancanza di una fascia o di un altro elemento d’ornamentazione maggiore — mai eseguito nonostante fosse stato lasciato bianco il relativo spazio — all’inizio della sezione delle Odi bibliche (f. 450r). Viene allora spontaneo chiedersi perché il manoscritto sia rimasto tanto largamente incompleto proprio sotto il punto di vista dell’ornamentazione mentre altri elementi della decorazione «maggiore» sono stati portati a termine, considerando in particolare che invece la ricca e analitica illustrazione del codice continua fino alla fine del manoscritto senza che si evidenzino mancanze, o che si notino scene solo provvisoriamente disegnate e non effettivamente dipinte. Da questo punto di vista, la mancanza delle iniziali miniate fa il paio con la già ricordata interruzione, nel codice, della crisografia dopo il f. 96v: da quel punto in poi, come abbiamo visto, titoli, rubriche e iniziali minori smettono definitivamente di essere ripassati in oro, per restare invece allo stato della semplice esecuzione di base in carminio135. Il fatto è — mi pare — che tanto la crisografia quanto l’esecuzione delle iniziali miniate rappresentano da un lato l’ultimo stadio di perfezionamento della manifattura di un simile codice con pretese d’apparato, dall’altro una sorta di estremo lusso che ci si concede nella pratica di manifattura libraria: un quid pluris che si poteva anche rimandare a un secondo momento — quando si fossero avute sotto mano le maestranze specializzate adatte all’uopo —, mentre certamente il corredo illustrativo, che in un codice come il s alterio Vaticano intende assumere una valenza esegetico-esplicativa supplementare rispetto al commento catenario, doveva essere sentito come parte integrante e imprescindibile dell’impresa, e anzi come uno degli obiettivi primari di essa, non potendosi perciò rinviarlo nell’attesa di tempi migliori, forse persino a costo di affidarne l’esecuzione a pittori poco qualificati come poi, di fatto, è accaduto. u n’ulteriore complicazione risiede nel fatto che le poche iniziali effettivamente eseguite o solo disegnate non sembrano neppure riferibili a una sola mano, ma a più d’una. s e ciò pare meglio comprensibile nella prima parte del codice, in relazione alle occorrenze di iniziali miniate o solo disegnate tra i ff. 3r e 25v — dal momento che in questa zona del manoscritto si rileva, come si è detto, una più che probabile compresenza di diverse mani 135

c f. supra, pp. 88-89, 118-119 e n. 124.

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f igg. 45a-e – Vat. gr. 752, ff. 5v, 43r, 45r, 46r, 47v (particolari): «secondo ornatista delle iniziali».

di pittori anche in relazione al resto dell’ornamentazione e del corredo illustrativo136 —, una nuova difficoltà interpretativa pone il successivo riaffiorare nel codice di gruppi di iniziali, in altre due riprese, dopo parecchie iniziali mancanti (prima tra i ff. 43r e 47v e poi, molto più avanti, ai ff. 344v e 352v). s i tratterà, in questi ultimi casi, di nuovi interventi sporadici delle medesime mani che abbiamo visto operare nell’ornamentazione dei primi fogli del manoscritto, oppure abbiamo qui a che fare con occasionali integrazioni da parte di altri pittori-ornatisti, magari dopo un certo lasso di tempo? s ono più d’uno, anzi almeno tre, gli ornatisti diversi che mi sembra di poter individuare nelle iniziali. Quello di cui ci occuperemo per primo è il meno abile ma — forse anche per questo — il più riconoscibile, e anche il più ricorrente: poiché egli appare per secondo a partire dall’inizio del codice, lo definiremo qui «secondo ornatista delle iniziali», attribuendogli le iniziali ornate policrome ai ff. 5v, 43r, 45r, 46r, 47v (figg. 45a-e). l e sue iniziali hanno una base cloisonnée con fronde e segmenti fitomorfi piuttosto scarni e sottili, all’apparenza quasi disseccati, e presentano colori che tendono a confondersi fra loro, con blu e verde scuri insistentemente puntinati di lumeggiature chiare; il disegno della figura umana e delle sue singole parti è piuttosto ingenuo e difettoso, e la doratura alquanto grossolana dei contorni non ha giovato alla leggibilità, già imperfetta in partenza a causa della scarsa accuratezza d’esecuzione; i motivi impiegati, però, come si vedrà qui sotto nell’analisi delle singole iniziali a lui attribuite, sono piuttosto solidamente ancorati nella tradizione costantinopolitana della seconda metà dell’XI secolo. Per parte sua, il «primo ornatista delle iniziali» — che compare al f. 3r in un’iniziale policroma zoomorfa (M) costituita da una coppia di leoni al fonte — parrebbe invece, come si è già detto, lo stesso capace artista 136

c f. supra, pp. 120-128.

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f igg. 46a-d – Vat. gr. 752, ff. 20r, 22v, 23v, 25v (particolari): primo gruppo di iniziali schizzate a inchiostro.

che è responsabile della delicata fascia ornamentale con uccellini e bacche entro girali e, al di sopra, una coppia di scimmie al fonte che compare nella medesima pagina137 (fig. 39): l’identica forma della sommità del fonte, nell’iniziale e al di sopra della fascia, e la coerenza cromatica complessiva sembrano spingerci in questa direzione. a nalogamente, il probabile «terzo ornatista di iniziali», quello dell’iniziale policroma antropomorfa (M) al f. 19r, pare potersi identificare col modesto ma vivace pittore che nella stessa pagina esegue una pyle che con l’iniziale condivide gamma cromatica e colorito scuro negli incarnati delle figure138 (fig. 41). Più problematica mi pare, invece, la distinzione delle mani all’interno dell’insieme delle iniziali di cui esiste il solo disegno preparatorio, e irta di dubbi una loro eventuale associazione con le altre mani di ornatisti presenti nel codice: esercizio particolarmente difficile è, del resto, cercare di raggruppare fra loro, riconducendole a un medesimo artista, da un lato iniziali policrome dipinte, dall’altro iniziali che sono solo sommariamente delineate al tratto, e che non si intuisce sempre in che modo avrebbero potuto esser poi sviluppate e interpretate dal pittore — non necessariamente lo stesso che le aveva schizzate a inchiostro — nella loro stesura definitiva. t ali iniziali solo disegnate si ritrovano in due piccoli gruppi: uno all’inizio del codice (ff. 20r, 22v, 23v, 25v) (figg. 46a-d) e un altro nella seconda parte di esso, molto più avanti (ff. 344v e 352v) (figg. 47a-b): questo secondo gruppo mostra maggiore coerenza e affinità nel disegno, nella tonalità di inchiostro bruno-rossiccio, nello spessore del tratto, e nella solida corpo137 138

c f. supra, pp. 121-122 e n. 127. c f. supra, pp. 123-125.

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f igg. 47a-b – Vat. gr. 752, ff. 344v e 352v (particolari): secondo gruppo di iniziali schizzate a inchiostro.

reità della figura umana e animale, dovendosi con ogni probabilità a una sola mano. Il primo gruppo invece è in apparenza più eterogeneo, la diluizione e la sfumatura dell’inchiostro bruno sembra variare da un’iniziale all’altra, come pure la nitidezza del tratto, che è massima al f. 25v, minima fino all’evanescenza nel f. 22v; diversa pure la scioltezza e rapidità del tracciato, notevole nella nervosa figuretta dell’iniziale del f. 25v, mentre più pastoso e largo è il disegno dell’epsilon del f. 23v. Insomma, se le iniziali dei ff. 344v e 352v sembrano opera di un’unica mano — che però non saprei se identica ad altra mano di pittore attestata in iniziali policrome del codice —, difficile è dire se ad essa almeno in parte si possano attribuire anche le iniziali disegnate del primo gruppo, verso le quali un aggancio molto tenue — e ben lungi dall’essere una prova — potrebbe essere rappresentato dalla predilezione per il comune motivo della serpe che si avvolge intorno a un pilastrino o una colonnina, riscontrabile oltre che al f. 352v anche ai ff. 20r e 22v. c iò detto, e riconosciuta anche nelle poche iniziali ornate una sorprendente pluralità di mani, va sottolineato che resta ignota la sequenza cronologica degli interventi, e dunque non sappiamo se essi siano da considerarsi tutti sostanzialmente coevi: è incerto, cioè, se si debba ipotizzare una reale collaborazione di tutte o di alcune almeno di queste mani di ornatisti fra loro e con le altre mani di pittori che lavorano alla decorazione del codice. a gganci precisi fra queste iniziali e il resto della decorazione/ornamentazione, infatti, non se ne rinvengono, sebbene la tavolozza sia abbastanza simile. e tuttavia nel loro complesso, anche per i motivi ornamentali utilizzati, gli ornatisti che realizzano le iniziali rivelano precisi legami con la produzione costantinopolitana della seconda metà dell’XI secolo o addirittura più specificamente del terzo quarto del medesimo secolo, che

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ci inducono a supporre se non altro un non troppo grande décalage cronologico fra i vari interventi pittorici. Quello degli addentellati con la produzione costantinopolitana coeva è, d’altra parte, l’aspetto più interessante emerso dall’analisi: i motivi antropomorfici e zoomorfici, con varie scenette di genere, che sono impiegati in queste iniziali si rivelano infatti diffusi nella capitale, in particolare — ma non solo — nella produzione che ruota intorno all’anonimo «copiste du métaphraste» (il cui unico codice datato sinora noto è il Mosquens. Mus. Hist. Synod. gr. 9 [382 Vlad.], dell’an. 1063) e al suo collega di atelier e utimio139. Da questo punto di vista, anzi, se queste iniziali fossero da ritenersi pienamente coeve al resto del s alterio Vaticano, databile come si è detto intorno al 1058/1059, esse rappresenterebbero uno dei più precoci esempi di tali specifiche tipologie di iniziale all’interno della produzione miniata bizantina. l e nostre iniziali, allora, così partecipi delle mode ornamentali costantinopolitane, rappresentano la traccia significativa di un solido legame con la cultura figurativa della capitale dell’Impero, e forse il principale elemento che potrebbe contribuire a sorreggere l’ipotesi, per il nostro s alterio Vaticano, di un ambiente di produzione metropolitano o dell’apporto almeno parziale di maestranze attive a c ostantinopoli o quanto meno ivi educate. mi sembra che valga, dunque, la pena di presentare qui una descrizione analitica delle iniziali stesse, corredata dei riferimenti ai migliori confronti che sono riuscito a reperire per i loro motivi nella produzione miniata coeva, sia — direi soprattutto — nella produzione dell’atelier del «copiste du métaphraste», sia, ad esempio, in uno straordinario codice attribuibile al terzo quarto dell’XI secolo che è celebre proprio per le sue numerosissime iniziali ornate particolarmente fantasiose e talora poco convenzionali, ovvero il Gregorio Nazianzeno Taurin. B.N. c .I.6140: (f. 3r: fig. 39): iniziale M (inc. di c PG 4542.1: Prooem. in Psalmos), policroma, zoomorfica, costituita da una coppia di leoni affrontati al fonte, ritti sulle zampe posteriori intorno alle quali si attorcigliano le code [una lieve variante — in cui anziché la fontana centrale si ha 139

a l riguardo, cf. supra, pp. 69 e n. 46, 89 e n. 69. G. GALAVARIS, The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory Nazianzenus, Princeton, N.J. 1969 (s tudies in manuscript Illumination, 6), pp. 259-260 (nr. 36), figg. 19-60; GULMINI, Manoscritti miniati di Torino, II/1, pp. 32-33 (nr. 16); II/2, figg. 44-75; G. GALAVARIS, λλη ική η. γραφική Βυ α τι ειρογρ φ , ν 1995, pp. 85 (figg. 81-86), 230-231; Oriente cristiano e santità, pp. 175-176 nr. 19; a . BOONEN, Les initiales historiées du discours 44 de Grégoire de Nazianze dans le manuscrit de Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, C.I.6 (gr. 16), in α μη 6 (2009) [= εμπλο . Studi in onore di Irmgard Hutter, I], pp. 271-289 (con 6 figg. f.t.). 140

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al centro un semplice elemento fitomorfo verticale del tipo cloisonné sul quale poggiano le zampe anteriori i due leoni, le cui code inoltre non si avvolgono intorno a quelle posteriori — è nel coevo manoscritto studita noto come «s alterio Barberini», Barb. gr. 372, f. 6r (cf. ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter, p. 56; HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 16/1)]; (f. 5v: fig. 45a): iniziale (inc. di c PG 6202, n. [a]: Ioseppi Methodus), policroma, di tipo cloisonné in blu e verde, con lumeggiature chiare, e rosso/rosa, con contorni in oro, di fattura piuttosto modesta; (f. 19r: fig. 41): iniziale M (Ps 1) policroma, antropomorfica, costituita da due personaggi maschili dagli incarnati piuttosto scuri, abbigliati in corte tuniche — azzurra per quello più a sinistra, rossa per quello sulla destra —, raffigurati affrontati, di tre quarti; il personaggio di destra tiene in mano un esile bastone, che si colloca al centro della composizione, forse a evocare mediante tale attributo due figure di viandanti (con allusione a Ps 1:1, ριο ν ρ ο πορε θη ἐν ουλ ε ν, ρτ λ ν ο τ …); (f. 20r: fig. 46a): disegno preparatorio di iniziale I (Ps 2), tracciato in inchiostro bruno diluito: l’asta è costituita da una colonna intorno alla quale avviluppa le sue spire una serpe, che sale a insidiare un’anatrella appollaiata sul capitello, vòlta di profilo verso destra; come negli altri casi analoghi che si enumereranno più avanti, è difficile dire se si tratti di un disegno preparatorio legato al primitivo piano di decorazione del manoscritto, evidentemente restato interrotto, o se sia invece un intervento successivo teso a colmare le lacune dell’ornamentazione, non finita, del codice [il motivo del serpente che, avvolgendolo nelle sue spire, sale su un pilastro, arbusto o tronco d’albero (cf. anche qui infra, ad ff. 22v, 352v) è comunemente impiegato nelle iniziali miniate mediobizantine (cf. ad es. HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 39/9; f . D’AIUTO, Per lo studio dei manoscritti greci miniati del fondo r ossiano della Biblioteca Vaticana, in Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 110/2 [2008], pp. 241-261 [con figg. 32-38 f.t]: 252-253 e n. 31, fig. 3). In particolare, poi, il più specifico tema dell’ascesa della serpe protesa a insidiare un uccello o la sua nidiata è ampiamente attestato nella cultura figurativa dell’Oriente mediterraneo medievale: oltre a essere noto da celebri realizzazioni in automata — come gli orologi figurati posti presso alcuni degli ingressi della moschea degli Omayyadi a Damasco (f .B. FLOOD, The Great Mosque of Damascus. Studies on the Making of an Umayyad Visual Culture, l eiden – Boston – Köln 2001 [Islamic History and c ivilization. s tudies and t exts, 33], pp. 114-138), prototipi derivanti del resto da macchine idrauliche di tradizione ellenistica e bizantina (cf. PHILO BYZ., Pneumatica, 40, in B. CARRA DE VAUX, Le livre des appareils pneumatiques et des machines hydrauliques par Philon de Byzance [...], in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale et des autres bibliothèques 38 [1902], pp. 27-229: 176-178) —, il soggetto è ad esempio largamente presente nella miniatura armena d’età ciliciana, dove talora si sviluppa ulteriormente nel motivo della difesa della nidiata, da parte dell’uccello-madre, contro le insidie del serpente (cf. s . DER NERSESSIAN, Miniature Painting in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century, ed. s . AGEMIAN, with an introduction by a .W. CARR, I-II, Washington, D.c . 1993 [Dumbarton Oaks s tudies, 31]: I, pp. 5, 38, 151;

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II, figg. 3, 103, 112, 631; cf. anche a . SIRINIAN – F. D’AIUTO, I codici armeni miniati μη 12 [2015], in corso a Roma nel Duecento, I: Contesto, iconografie, stili, in α di stampa, n. 49 e contesto). l a simbologia di quest’ultima e più completa variante del motivo rinvia chiaramente, in ambito cristiano, alla discesa di c risto dai cieli per liberare l’umanità dalle insidie di s atana (cf. Physiologus, red. III ps.-Basil., 15, ed. in Physiologus, ed. f . SBORDONE, mediolani – Genuae – r omae – Neapoli 1936, pp. 282 lin. 14-283 lin. 11)]; (f. 22v: fig. 46b): disegno preparatorio di iniziale K (Ps 3) tracciato in un pallidissimo inchiostro bruno diluito: l’asta verticale è costituita da una colonnina o pilastrino, contro il fusto del quale apparentemente si staglia, disposto di profilo verso destra, un volatile che lotta (?) con una serpe, il cui corpo costituisce i due tratti obliqui della lettera; (f. 23v: fig. 46c): disegno preparatorio di iniziale E (Ps 4) tracciato in inchiostro bruno diluito: iniziale a base fitomorfica, in cui il tratto orizzontale centrale della lettera è però costituito da un braccio umano rivestito di un’ampia manica d’abito, con mano benedicente, cf. anche infra, ad f. 46r; (f. 25v: fig. 46d): disegno preparatorio di iniziale T (Ps 5) tracciato in inchiostro bruno diluito: iniziale antropomorfa, ove è sommariamente raffigurato un uomo rivestito di corta tunica, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra ma con il capo girato all’indietro verso sinistra, che con un piccolo martello tenuto nella mano destra batte una simandra in forma di trave orizzontalmente sospesa al di sopra della sua testa [una variante iconografica di questo tipo di iniziale, con un personaggio, in diversa posa, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, che, stavolta ben riconoscibile come monaco grazie all’abbigliamento, reca sulla spalla sinistra la simandra di tipo portatile e nella destra il martelletto, è in un’iniziale T del coevo Taurin. B.N. c .I.6, f. 85v (non ne conosco riproduzioni pubblicate; nel medesimo codice, forse d’analogo soggetto è un’iniziale poco visibile nella colonna interna del f. 72r, cf. GULMINI, Manoscritti miniati di Torino, II/2, fig. 36); nello stesso torno d’anni, la simandra portatile è raffigurata, fra l’altro, in due miniature marginali del coevo manoscritto studita noto come «s alterio Barberini», Barb. gr. 372, f. 106v (cf. ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter, p. 95)].

a ncora, dopo un certo numero di iniziali mancanti: (f. 43r: fig. 45b): iniziale C, ovvero sigma lunato (Ps 11), policroma, zoomorfica, costituita nella parte superiore della sua curvatura da un pavone di profilo rivolto verso destra con la coda chiusa — dal corpo blu con ali dorate, coda dorata occhiata di blu, zampe delineate in arancione —, che china il capo verso il basso, mentre la parte inferiore della lettera è formata da un ritorto racemo vegetale di tipo cloisonné in blu e verde lumeggiati rispettivamente in bianco e in giallo sporco e contornati d’oro; (f. 45r: fig. 45c): iniziale E (Ps 12) policroma antropo-zoomorfica, in cui su una struttura fitomorfica di tipologia cloisonnée (in rosso, azzurro e verde su oro) si inserisce, nella parte centrale, la figura di profilo (soltanto il volto e il braccio destro, con ampia manica azzurra, protesi verso destra) di un uomo che regge in mano una coppa, mentre la parte alta della lettera è costituita da un volatile di profilo

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(in azzurro e verde) che si china verso la coppa quasi a bere da essa; l’esecuzione è modesta, il volto umano è confuso al limite dell’illeggibilità [precisi e numerosi confronti tipologici per questa iniziale sono ad esempio nei coevi Oxon. Bodl. Cromwell 19, p. 1; Lond. B.L. Loan 36/23, f. 59r; Athous Chiland. 105, f. 1r; Athen. B.N. gr. 2363, f. 1r; e Oxon. Bodl. Laud. gr. 37, f. 6r (HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tavv. 18/1, 20/1, 21/1, 24 e 38/6; si veda anche ibid., pp. 561-562, 563, 565, 582, 583; per il manoscritto di c hilandar cf. anche ησαυρο , II, fig. 417; per il l audiano e il c romwell cf. anche HUTTER, Corpus, I, figg. 258 e 266); al di fuori della produzione latamente gravitante intorno all’atelier del «copiste du métaphraste» e del suo collega e utimio, una variante di questa tipologia di epsilon (con l’uomo di profilo rappresentato, però, a figura intera) si trova anche, tra le rare concessioni alla routine all’interno di un originalissimo repertorio di iniziali, nel già citato Taurin. B.N. c .I.6, f. 10r (non ne conosco riproduzioni pubblicate)]; (f. 46r: fig. 45d): iniziale E (Ps 13) policroma, antropo-fitomorfica, nella cui struttura fitomorfica di tipo cloisonné (in rosso, azzurro e verde contornati d’oro) si inserisce, a sostituire il tratto orizzontale centrale della lettera, un braccio umano con mano benedicente, quest’ultima piuttosto rozzamente eseguita [la tipologia è estremamente diffusa e addirittura banale: rinvio a un solo esempio coevo dall’Athous Pantocr. 10, f. 3r (HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 28)]; (f. 47v: fig. 45e): iniziale K (Ps 14) policroma fito-zoomorfica, costituita per la sua parte sinistra da un’asta verticale fitomorfica cloisonnée (in rosso, azzurro lumeggiato di bianco e verde lumeggiato di giallo sporco/verdastro, contornati in oro), mentre la parte destra è costituita da un pavone rivolto di profilo verso sinistra, ma con il capo torto all’indietro verso destra, con corpo blu/azzurro, ali rosse toccate d’azzurro, coda chiusa dorata e occhiata in azzurro [confronti tipologici, fra i molti possibili, nei coevi Ott. gr. 88, f. 1r; Vat. gr. 817, f. 3r; Athous Laur. 46, f. 57r; Sin. gr. 500, f. 175r; Sin. gr. 503, f. 61v; Oxon. Bodl. Cromwell 19, pp. 513 e 640 (HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tavv. 5/1-2, 31/6, 32/8, 34/9 e 35/7-8; per il c romwell cf. anche HUTTER, Corpus, I, fig. 268)].

Infine, dopo un gran numero di iniziali mancanti: (f. 344v: fig. 47a): disegno preparatorio di iniziale O (Ps 108) tracciato in inchiostro bruno: una volpe di profilo, con il corpo rivolto verso sinistra ma con il capo vòlto all’indietro verso destra a mordersi la coda; nell’occhiello dell’iniziale è visibile la letterina d’attente in inchiostro carminio [una variante orientata specularmente è in un’iniziale omicron nel coevo Ba V, Pal. gr. 1, f. 1r (HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 12/1); il motivo ricorre, nello stesso periodo, anche al di fuori delle iniziali: si veda la coppia di volpi simmetricamente affrontate in due medaglioni che decorano una pyle del già ricordato codice d’ambito studita noto come «s alterio Barberini», Barb. gr. 372, f. 130r (cf. HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 16/2)]; (f. 352v: fig. 47b): disegno preparatorio di iniziale M (Ps 111) tracciato in inchiostro bruno diluito: le due aste verticali laterali della lettera sono costituite da due pilastrini, intorno ai quali avvolgono le loro spire, salendo, altrettante serpi, che dall’alto convergono poi verso il centro a mordere il capo, che si direbbe coronato,

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di un tyrannos [una diversa variante di tale motivo di revenge initial è in un’iniziale omicron nel quasi coevo (an. 1063) Mosqu. Mus. Hist. Synod. gr. 9 (382 Vlad.), f. 28v (HUTTER, «Copiste du Métaphraste», tav. 32/3; cf. anche ibid., p. 545)].

APPENDICE II le mINIature e l ’Or Name Nta ZIONe Del c ODIce HIEROSOL. S. SEPULCRI 53 Dell’apparato illustrativo e ornamentale del s alterio Gerosolimitano non mancano descrizioni, seppure scarne, sommarie e non sufficientemente sistematiche141. Il fine che mi propongo in questa appendice — in considerazione della scarsa accessibilità del manoscritto, e sfruttando l’occasione dell’esame diretto che del manufatto mi è stato possibile effettuare — è quello di offrire una più ordinata e analitica descrizione dell’intero corredo illustrativo e ornamentale del manoscritto, ivi inclusi l’ornamentazione minore e gli impieghi ornamentali della scrittura, così da agevolare ad altri la comparazione con il s alterio Vaticano, il quale è, da questo punto di vista, molto meglio servito grazie alle dettagliate descrizioni e alle fotografie delle sue miniature pubblicate da e rnest t . De Wald142. mi auguro che lo spirito di servizio che caratterizza queste pagine — che intendono fungere da fonte di prima informazione per chi vorrà intraprendere, in futuro, un’analisi stilistica e iconografica comparata dei due manoscritti — mi garantisca l’indulgenza del lettore per le carenze e le lacune nelle mie osservazioni, effettuate di gran carriera nel poco tempo concessomi per studiare l’originale manoscritto, e poi con grande difficoltà verificate e integrate per i dati mancanti o incerti, fin dove mi è stato possibile, servendomi delle cattive riproduzioni in mio possesso, per lo più in bianco e nero143. s ulla base non dell’autopsia, ma della bibliografia disponibile e 141

s emplici elenchi dei soggetti delle miniature si trovano in PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, I, pp. 132-133; V, pp. 483-485; e in SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, I, pp. 21-22 (nrr. 58-59). s i veda anche la lista selettiva offerta da DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, pp. 350-351. 142 DE WALD. 143 Del manoscritto Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, oltre alle foto pubblicate in varie sedi di cui si darà conto più avanti a séguito della descrizione di ciascuna miniatura, si può segnalare che a Washington, presso la l ibrary of c ongress, è conservata una serie di fotografie in bianco e nero — al momento, inaccessibili a chi scrive — scattate nel corso della missione patrocinata dalla l ibrary of c ongress negli anni 1949-1950, cf. Checklist of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates in Jerusalem Microfilmed for the Library of Congress, 1949-50, prepared under the direction of K.W. CLARK, Washington 1953 (relativamente ai seguenti fogli: ff. 8r, 16v, 68v, 70v, 75v, 81r, 82r, 84v, 89v, 99v, 102r, 104r, 118v, 125r, 127r, 132r, 138v, 143r, 162v, 182r, 189r, 189v, 195r, 203r, 204r, 205v, 218v, 219v, 221v, 226r). c opie di tali fotografie — anch’esse inaccessibili a chi scrive — sono inoltre possedute dall’ar-

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delle immagini che ne sono state pubblicate, darò inoltre notizia anche dei frammenti del Gerosolimitano che si conservano, come si è detto, a s . Pietroburgo (Petropol. B.N. gr. 266), restituendoli virtualmente al posto che loro compete nella descrizione del manoscritto144. l a trattazione seguirà l’ordine dei fogli del codice, e comprenderà una succinta descrizione dell’iconografia e dei colori, includendo indicazioni circa le dimensioni delle miniature e lo stato di conservazione di ciascuna scena illustrativa o elemento ornamentale, e inoltre riguardo la sua posizione nella pagina e il suo rapporto con il testo e con la pagina scritta in cui si colloca, con l’aggiunta, infine, di notizie circa le riproduzioni che ne sono state pubblicate o che sono disponibili in rete: (f. 3r): fascia decorativa rettangolare, posta a separare i testi, dell’altezza di un’interlinea, riempita d’un ondulato tralcio fitomorfo; il disegno è eseguito en réserve (in negativo), stagliandosi il motivo risparmiato sullo sfondo rosso vivo; (f. 8r): una semplice linea ornata «studita» in inchiostro bruno e rosso carminio, con piccole T contrariées nelle ondulazioni, e con un flosculo a tre petali a chiudere ciascuna delle due estremità; (f. 8r): miniatura su fondo oro (in corrispondenza dell’incipit di c PG 2097: a thanasii a lex., Epistula ad Marcellinum): s. a tanasio a lessandrino assiso, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, in atto di scrivere; il santo, nimbato, è vestito di sticharion blu cobalto chiaro, phelonion rosato con sfumature di lilla pallido e omophorion; la tavolozza include anche un verde malva impiegato per caratterizzare il suolo erboso, un bruno scurissimo, quasi nero, per lo sgabello, sul quale è posto un cuscino rosso vivo; una cornice formata da una sequenza di cerchietti blu tracciati sul fondo oro, entro ciascuno dei quali sta un fiorellino rosso, borda soltanto il lato superiore del campo miniato e la parte superiore dei due lati sinistro e destro; la miniatura, rettangolare (mm 57 × 49 ca.), è collocata nella zona inferiore destra della pagina, sconfinando fuori dallo specchio verso il basso e occupando così anche una parte del margine inferiore; lo stato di conservazione è mediocre, a motivo di vaste zone di flaking dei pigmenti; (f. 8r): iniziale A ornata policroma, l’unica del codice, rozzamente eseguita, con dominanza di blu, con una serpe che costituisce il tratto obliquo sinistro della lettera e morde l’asta che forma il tratto obliquo di destra; (f. 12v): disposizione cruciforme della porzione finale del testo; (ff. 13r-14r): il «carme» introduttivo — incongruo assemblaggio, in realtà, di quattro distinti epigrammi, come si è detto (cf. supra, pp. 107-108) — è trascritto in maiuscola, in inchiostro rosso carminio, dal copista stesso del codice, con disposizione cruciforme del testo nella parte inferiore del f. 14r; (f. 15r-v): entro cerchi disegnati in inchiostro al compasso — nove per pagina, chivio fotografico di Dumbarton Oaks (cf. http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/icfa_ pdfs/doaks-icfa-illuminated-manuscripts.pdf). 144 In particolare, mi servo per questi frammenti della dettagliata descrizione di PUCKO, O leningradskich fragmentach, p. 508.

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tre per lato in uno schema ad andamento quadrato —, raccordati fra loro da semplici tratti ondulati e cerchietti, sono trascritte le tavole pasquali per gli anni da ο (= 1164/1165) a π (= 1180/1181), che rappresentano un’aggiunta seriore d’altra mano; (f. 16v): miniatura a piena pagina (mm 120 × 85 ca.), a fronte dell’inizio del s alterio: David assiso, al centro, affiancato ai lati da due personaggi stanti, sotto un’arcata cuspidata, su fondo oro; la miniatura è molto danneggiata dalla caduta di pigmenti, pressoché totale in corrispondenza delle tre figure, che dunque non è possibile descrivere in dettaglio; (f. 17r): in apertura del testo del s alterio, una semplice fascia Blütenblattstil dell’altezza di una sola interlinea, forse ritoccata successivamente nei colori, su fondo oro: la palette comprende blu, rosso vivo o rosato, un verde sporco, utilizzati però in maniera non coerente con la prassi vigente nello stile Blütenblatt «classico», giacché i fiorellini entro medaglioni circolari hanno i due petali inferiori in blu, quello superiore in verde, mentre il rosso è riservato a piccole foglie che si insinuano negli spazi di risulta fra i medaglioni; (f. 68v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 44): il levita c ore, annunciato dalla didascalia come πρ(ο τ ) ορ (la mano della didascalia, come pure altrove, non pare la stessa del copista del codice); c ore è seduto, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, davanti allo scrittoio ingombro degli strumenti del calligrafo — in posa, dunque, tipica del ritratto d’autore e generalmente applicata agli evangelisti —, in atto di scrivere su un lungo rotolo posto sulle sue ginocchia; ha capelli bruni, è vestito all’antica di tunica azzurra e himation tra rosa e lilla; gli arredi comprendono un sedile con cuscino rosso vivo sul quale il personaggio è assiso e un leggio ligneo, di color marrone; il suolo è campito in due tonalità di verde, malva e abete; lo sfondo è dorato, e in corrispondenza di esso la parte alta della miniatura, lungo il limite superiore e per le parti superiori dei due lati sinistro e destro, è delimitata da una cornice decorativa con semplici Treppenmotiven; la miniatura (mm 46 × 57 ca.) occupa qui un campo rettangolare del tutto interno allo specchio, in alto a destra nella pagina, per un’altezza di circa sei interlinea; lo stato di conservazione è precario, giacché si sono avute ampie cadute di pigmenti [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 1]; (f. 70v): linea ornata come al f. 8r, e iniziale maggiore , non campita di colore; (f. 70v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 46): il levita c ore, rappresentato con iconografia e palette simili al ritratto di f. 68v — ma qui manca il leggio sopra lo scrittoio — e identificato dalla medesima didascalia; qui la miniatura (mm 37 × 58 ca.), che occupa la parte inferiore destra dello specchio per l’altezza di tre interlinea, fuoriesce in basso scendendo nel margine inferiore per un’altezza pari ad altre due interlinea circa; al solito, il fondo oro della miniatura è delimitato in alto su tre lati da una cornicetta con banali Treppenmotiven; sul lato sinistro, in basso, dagli ideali limiti rettangolari del campo miniato fuoriesce il masso sul quale c ore è seduto [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 2]; (f. 75v): iniziale maggiore , non campita di colore; (f. 75v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 50): David al centro, seduto, con didascalia πρ(ο τ ) (υ ) , mentre sulla sinistra è un angelo stante vòlto di

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tre quarti verso di lui con una lancia nella mano destra, e a destra è invece Nathan che, anche lui ritratto stante e rivolto verso David a rimproverarlo, ha il braccio destro levato in gesto di adlocutio, ed è identificato dalla didascalia πρ(ο τ ) ν che fuoriesce dal fondo oro della miniatura; Nathan tiene un rotolo chiuso nella sinistra, ed è abbigliato con tunica azzurra e himation rosa/lilla, mentre l’angelo è abbigliato come Nathan, e David invece è vestito d’una tunica azzurra bordata all’orlo inferiore e ai polsi in oro; i volti dei personaggi sono illeggibili, e in generale si notano nella miniatura, mal conservata, pesanti cadute di pigmento; la miniatura (mm 49 × 67 ca.) è posta in basso a destra nella pagina, ed è collocata internamente allo specchio, dal quale fuoriesce lievemente in basso allungandosi nel margine inferiore per l’altezza di un’interlinea circa; colpisce l’irregolarità del campo miniato, il cui lato sinistro disegna una sorta di esse, che rende l’area miniata più larga in alto e più stretta in basso; la sola parte alta della miniatura, in corrispondenza del fondo oro, è delimitata su tre lati da una cornicetta con minuti motivi Blütenblattstil; (f. 81r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 55): David stante, collocato di tre quarti verso il margine esterno del foglio, coronato, ritratto in attitudine di orante con le mani levate dinanzi alle porte di un edificio bruno con timpano azzurro, visibile sulla sinistra; identificato dalla didascalia πρ(ο τ ) (υ ) , ha lo sguardo rivolto verso l’alto a destra, volgendo le spalle all’edificio, quasi ne uscisse; è abbigliato d’un manto blu sopra una tunica rosso vivo; sia il volto che la corona sono pressoché illeggibili, giacché la miniatura ha patito ampio flaking dei pigmenti; il suolo, erboso, è convenzionalmente definito da una doppia fascia in verde di diversa gradazione, di tonalità malva e, più scuro, verde abete; la miniatura (mm 51 × 57 ca.) è interna allo specchio, in basso a destra nella pagina (all’altezza delle linn. 10-17); la sola parte alta della miniatura, in corrispondenza del fondo oro, è delimitata sui lati superiore e sinistro da una minuta cornice con una fila di piccoli cerchi; (f. 82r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 56): David stante, in età giovanile, al centro della miniatura, rivolto a destra verso s aul, che è disteso su un giaciglio bianco bordato d’un drappo rosso orlato in basso di nero; David e s aul sono entrambi rivestiti di un manto blu su una tunica rossa, e sono coronati; alle spalle di David è un armigero in braghe rosse e blusa scura, che regge uno scudο rotondo con la sinistra; la miniatura (mm 38 × 78 ca.) ha un campo curiosamente irregolare a forma di trapezio rettangolo con lato obliquo sulla sinistra, e dunque la larghezza di essa varia, crescendo gradualmente sulla sinistra nel procedere dall’alto verso il basso; la parte alta della miniatura, in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven; le didascalie, che come di norma nelle altre miniature sono anche qui in rosso su fondo oro, in questo caso sono quasi del tutto svanite e illeggibili; il suolo è, come nella miniatura precedente, convenzionalmente segnato da una fascia erbosa in due tonalità di verde; (f. 84v: fig. 48): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 58): David con due guardie; David è effigiato come uomo maturo, coronato, seduto di tre quarti verso destra sopra uno sgabello dorato, con i piedi su un suppedaneo gemmato, sotto un arco o ciborio, abbigliato con manto azzurro su tunica rossa orlata d’oro in basso, sulla spalla e ai polsi, coronato, calzato di rosso; la consueta didascalia recita προ( τ ) (υ ) ; alle sue spalle, sulla sinistra, un edificio colorato di rosso con tetto blu;

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davanti a lui, sulla destra, stanno due uomini armati, uno più anziano con capelli e barba grigi — sulla destra, con uno scudo rotondo e con braghe rosse sotto un manto blu —, l’altro più giovane — sulla sinistra, con braghe e blusa in rosso scuro sotto un manto verde malva, e in mano un’asta, entrambi con calzari bianchi —; la miniatura (mm 60 × 80 ca.) è collocata entro lo specchio scritto, a mezz’alf ig. 48 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 84v (particolare). tezza nella pagina, sulla destra; è una delle immagini meglio conservate; la parte alta della miniatura, in corrispondenza del fondo oro, è delimitata sui lati superiore e destro da una cornice con fiori blu a quattro petali entro uno schema ripetuto a rombi, e negli spazi di risulta flosculi rosati [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero, in una riproduzione purtroppo di scarsa qualità, in BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlich-syrische Psalterillustration, t af. VI.1; un’immagine a colori è disponibile in rete nell’a rchivio millet del Princeton Index of c hristian a rt, https://ica.princeton.edu/millet/]; (f. 89v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 64): il profeta e zechiele (?), rappresentato come un uomo barbato dalle lunghe chiome, stante, vòlto di tre quarti verso destra, con le mani levate in gesto di preghiera; è vestito d’un manto marrone su una tunica ocra, quasi in abito monastico; il suolo erboso è colorato di verde malva; la miniatura (mm 62 × 37 ca.), come diverse altre successive, è collocata in basso a sinistra entro lo specchio di scrittura; la parte alta di essa, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, è delimitata da una sorta di cornice che si può definire a «kyma semplificato»145; l’immagine, come diverse delle miniature successive, è ancor oggi protetta da un pezzo di tela mobile, in questo caso di colore blu, cucito lungo il solo lato superiore; (f. 99v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 70): uno dei figli di Ionadab, raffigurato come un giovane nimbato, vestito di corta tunica e calzari, in piedi in posa di orante, rivolto di tre quarti a destra verso la zona centrale della scena, apparentemente vuota, o nella quale si può forse ravvisare la traccia di un qualche elemento 145 s i tratta di una tipologia di Ornamentrahmen abbastanza diffusa in età mediobizantina, in cui in genere al motivo campito in oro si associa un fondo diviso in segmenti di vari colori alternati, di norma rosso, verde, blu, come si vede ad esempio, in una variante con motivo specularmente raddoppiato, nelle cornici che racchiudono le miniature nell’Athous Cutlum. 60, codice che va attribuito al pieno XI secolo anziché al XII come asserito in ησαυρο , I, pp. 451-452 e figg. 295-299.

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evanido (un tumulo?); la miniatura (mm 56 × 56 ca.), posizionata in basso a sinistra nella pagina, è per la gran parte esterna allo specchio scritto, invadendo il margine inferiore; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, è delimitata da una cornice del tipo di quella del f. 89v, ma col motivo specularmente doppiato su un fondo in più colori; l’immagine è protetta da un pezzo di tela rossa mobile cucito lungo il lato superiore [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 3]; (f. 102r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 71): David, identificato dalla consueta didascalia πρ(ο τ ) (υ ) , raffigurato anziano, stante, coronato e nimbato, abbigliato con manto blu sopra una tunica rossa orlata d’oro, calzari rossi, in atteggiamento di orante, rivolto di profilo verso destra; la linea del suolo, erboso, è segnata al solito in verde malva e verde prato scuro; la miniatura (mm 55 × 53 ca.) è disposta entro lo specchio, nella porzione inferiore sinistra della pagina; nella parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, è delimitata da una cornice con minuti Treppenmotiven che compongono schemi cruciformi; lo stato di conservazione è buono; l’immagine è protetta da un pezzo di tela rossa mobile cucito lungo il lato superiore [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 4]; (f. 104r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 72): a saf, identificato dalla didascalia come πρ(ο τ ) , rappresentato in ginocchio di profilo, rivolto verso destra, in atteggiamento di supplica; è abbigliato con una tunica azzurra sotto una sorta di himation verde acqua; il suolo erboso è suddiviso in due fasce, verde abete e verde prato chiaro, suddivise da una linea ondulata; la miniatura (mm 47 × 47 ca.) è interna allo specchio di scrittura, collocata nella parte sinistra della pagina, nella fascia medio-bassa di essa; in alto, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, l’immagine è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu; lo stato di conservazione è buono; agli angoli della miniatura, palmette disposte obliquamente verso l’esterno [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 5]; (Petropol. gr. 266, f. 1r: la miniatura è su un foglio singolo già collocato fra gli attuali ff. 108 e 109 dello Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 75): a saf, identificato dalla didascalia come πρ(ο τ ) , rappresentato come un uomo nella sua piena maturità, nimbato, rivolto verso destra di tre quarti, in piedi, in atteggiamento di orante, rivestito di tunica azzurra e himation purpureo, ai piedi sandali; il suolo erboso è segnato, al solito, in due fasce dalla diversa tonalità di verde, suddivise dalla tipica linea ondulata; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven; la miniatura (mm 63 × 43 ca., secondo le fonti bibliografiche consultate) è interna allo specchio di scrittura, collocata nella parte sinistra della pagina, a mezza altezza; lo stato di conservazione è buono, ma si notano fenomeni di flaking dei pigmenti ai quattro angoli della miniatura e nella sua parte inferiore [una riproduzione in bianco e nero dell’intero foglio è in Iskusstvo Vizantij v sobranijach SSSR. Katalog vystavki: Leningrad, Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaà, 1977, II: Iskusstvo epochi ikonoborçestva. Iskusstvo IX-XI vekov, moskva 1977, pp. 38-39 (nr. 489): 38; di cattiva qualità le immagini in bianco e nero in PUCKO, O lenin-

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gradskich fragmentach, p. 509 figg. 1-2 (foglio intero e particolare della miniatura); una buona riproduzione in bianco e nero è anche in LAZAREV, Istorija, tav. 120, e inoltre in ID., Storia, fig. 148]; (f. 118v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 79): a saf, identificato dalla dida, rappresentato come un uomo anziano, rivolto di scalia come πρ(ο τ ) tre quarti verso destra, seduto allo scrittoio, davanti a un leggio sul quale è dispiegato un rotolo dal quale egli copia il testo su un nuovo esemplare posto sulle sue ginocchia; è rivestito di tunica azzurra e himation nei toni del giallo e dell’ocra chiaro; il suolo erboso è segnato, al solito, in verde; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice del tipo di quella del f. 89v, con fondo in più colori; la miniatura (mm 52 × 52 ca.) è interna allo specchio di scrittura, ed è collocata nella parte sinistra della pagina, a mezza altezza [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, II, fig. 104]; (f. 125r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 85): David, abbigliato al solito con tunica rossa e manto azzurro, coronato e nimbato, rappresentato anziano, stante, in atteggiamento di orante, con il busto volto di tre quarti verso destra ma con la parte inferiore del corpo rappresentata frontalmente; il suolo erboso è, al solito, segnato in verde; la miniatura (mm 44 × 40 ca.), interna allo specchio di scrittura, occupa la parte inferiore sinistra della pagina; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice a Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu, anche qui, come spesso si nota nel codice, malamente eseguiti [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 6]; (f. 127r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 87): e than, rappresentato come un uomo maturo, con barba e capelli bruni, nimbato, rivestito d’una tunica rossa e d’un himation rosa dalla tonalità intensa; è raffigurato stante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra in atteggiamento di orante, con lo sguardo verso l’alto a uno stilizzato spicchio di volta celeste; il suolo erboso è suddiviso in due fasce, verde abete e verde prato chiaro, suddivise da una linea ondulata; la miniatura (mm 48 × 50 ca.) non fuoriesce dallo specchio di scrittura — ma i piedi del personaggio sconfinano in basso fuori dal campo miniato —, ed è posizionata in basso a sinistra nella pagina; in alto, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, l’immagine è delimitata da una cornice a Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu; ai due vertici superiori della miniatura, palmette disposte obliquamente verso l’esterno; la miniatura è abbastanza ben conservata; è protetta da un pezzo di tela rossa mobile cucito lungo il lato superiore [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, II, fig. 107]; (f. 132r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 89): mosè, raffigurato come un giovane stante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, in atteggiamento di orante, abbigliato all’antica con tunica e himation in azzurro e arancione; nell’area del viso la caduta dei pigmenti fa emergere il disegno preparatorio; la miniatura (mm 54 × 40 ca.) non fuoriesce dallo specchio di scrittura — ma un piede del personaggio sconfina in basso dal campo miniato —, ed è posizionata a mezza altezza nella pagina, nella zona destra di essa; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice a Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu,

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quasi del tutto svanita; l’immagine è protetta da un pezzo di stoffa damascata cucito lungo il margine superiore del campo miniato [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 7]; (f. 138v: fig. 49): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 95): due muratori all’opera; uno, vestito di braghe marroni e blusa blu, con un concio in mano, è rappresentato di tre quarti, rivolto a destra verso il muro che sta edificando, colorato di ocra/arancione; accanto al muro e ai piedi del personaggio la linea del suolo è segnata in verde prato pallido; l’altro muratore è rappresentato più in basso in scala più piccola — all’incirca la metà —, vestito di braghe in azzurro chiaro e blusa marrone, ed è evidentemente intento a preparare della calf ig. 49 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 138v (particolare). cina entro un pozzo interrato il cui coperchio bruno si vede poco sopra; la miniatura (mm 55 × 55 ca.) è interna allo specchio di scrittura, posizionata nell’angolo inferiore sinistro di esso, ma, dei due operai, quello intento a edificare il muro fuoriesce dal campo miniato quadrato a sinistra lateralmente con la schiena e in basso con i piedi, mentre l’altro lavorante, che mescola la calcina, è addirittura disegnato in campo aperto completamente al di fuori dello specchio, nel margine inferiore del foglio; nella sua parte alta, in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, il campo miniato è delimitato da una minuta cornice con una sequenza di cerchietti blu che ospitano al loro interno un fiorellino rosso [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero, in un’immagine purtroppo di scarsa qualità, in BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlich-syrische Psalterillustration, t af. VI.2; un’immagine a colori è disponibile in rete nell’a rchivio millet del Princeton Index of c hristian a rt]; (f. 143r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 101): la preghiera del povero, rappresentato come un giovane stante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra in atteggiamento di orante, abbigliato d’una lunga tunica blu bordata di rosso al collo e all’orlo inferiore; il suolo erboso è segnato in due tonalità di verde, abete e prato, separate da una linea ondulata; la miniatura (mm 65 × 45) è interna allo specchio di scrittura, fuoriuscendone solo in alto per sconfinare nel margine superiore per l’altezza di un’interlinea, ed è posizionata nell’angolo superiore destro dello spec-

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chio stesso; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, il campo miniato è delimitato da una cornice a Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in DUFRENNE, Psautier de Jérusalem, fig. 8]; (f. 162v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 109): David anziano, nimbato, abbigliato d’una tunica verde acqua sotto un manto rosso vivo come i calzari, con corona aurea, è inginocchiato, supplice, rivolto di profilo verso sinistra, dinanzi a c risto in trono che ha la mano destra levata nell’atteggiamento di insegnare e nella sinistra tiene un libro; c risto ha una veste di color viola scuro sotto un manto blu scuro, i piedi sul suppedaneo, il trono è aureo e gemmato con cuscino rosso vivo, il libro ha una legatura gemmata e tagli colorati in rosso vivo; la caduta di pigmenti in corrispondenza del volto del c risto lascia intravedere anche in questo caso un buon disegno preparatorio; a destra, al di sopra del re prostrato, si vede l’hetoimasia in forma di trono identico al precedente ma di dimensioni minori, sul quale è un libro chiuso posato su un drappo blu, e più sopra una croce patriarcale semievanida; il suolo è convenzionalmente segnato in verde prato e più in basso in verde abete; la miniatura (mm 58 × 60 ca.), quasi del tutto interna allo specchio, è disposta nella fascia mediana della pagina, verso sinistra, ma sconfina leggermente nel margine esterno del foglio; il campo è delimitato da una semplice cornice lineare a doppio filetto in rosso vivo; l’immagine è protetta da un pezzo di tela grossa di colore rosso cucito lungo il margine superiore del campo miniato [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero, in un’immagine purtroppo di scarsa qualità, in BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlich-syrische Psalterillustration, t af. VII/1, donde poi è stata ripubblicata in e . H. KANTOROWICZ, The Quinity of Winchester, in Art Bulletin 29/2 (June 1947), pp. 73-85: fig. 33 (rist. in ID., Selected Studies, l ocust Valley 1965, pp. 100-120: pl. 33 fig. 33); un’immagine in bianco e nero di qualità soddisfacente è in SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, II, fig. 106]; (Petropol. gr. 266, f. 3r: la miniatura è sul secondo foglio di un bifoglio, ff. 2-3, ora conservato a s . Pietroburgo sotto la segnatura citata, un tempo collocato fra gli attuali ff. 168 e 169 dello Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 118): David assiso dinanzi a tre cadaveri — iconografia legata all’uso di questo s almo nell’ufficio bizantino per i defunti —; il salmista, coronato e nimbato, è rappresentato come un uomo anziano, abbigliato di tunica rosa orlata d’oro e manto azzurro con tablion dorato, seduto su un sedile pieghevole146 dotato d’un cuscino con ricami dorati; i piedi di David sono appoggiati su un suppedaneo gemmato che fuoriesce leggermente, in basso, dal campo rettangolare della miniatura; indica dinanzi a sé i tre cadaveri, che sono distesi — senza tuttavia poggiare sul suolo, ma apparentemente fluttuando sul fondo oro della miniatura —, interamente avvolti in bende dalle quali fuoriescono solo i volti e i piedi, calzati; il suolo è segnato in verde; la miniatura (mm 78 × 113 ca., secondo le fonti bibliografiche), interna allo specchio e larga quanto esso, occupa l’intera metà superiore della pagina; nella sua parte alta, sui tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata 146 t ale tipologia di sedile, erede della sella curilis dei magistrati romani, nell’iconografia bizantina è segno di dignità imperiale o regale, cf. ad es. m. G. PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images. Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11th-15th Centuries), l eiden – Boston 2003 (t he medieval mediterranean, 41), pp. 168-169.

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da una cornice a Treppenmotiven [di cattiva qualità la riproduzione in bianco e nero dell’intero foglio in PUCKO, O leningradskich fragmentach, p. 510 ill. 3; una buona fotografia in bianco e nero del foglio è in LAZAREV, Storia, fig. 147; ancora in bianco e nero la pagina è pubblicata anche in PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 208 fig. 3 (molto migliore la qualità dell’immagine, anch’essa in bianco e nero, della sola miniatura nell’ed. online 2014, fig. 10)]; (f. 182r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 126): s alomone, raffigurato coronato e nimbato, con tunica rosso vivo bordata d’oro ai polsi, alle spalle e all’orlo inferiore, e con manto blu, calzari rossi con gemme e perle, è seduto di tre quarti, rivolto verso destra, su un sedile pieghevole bianco con cuscino bruno, i piedi posati su uno scuro suppedaneo gemmato; scrive su un rotolo poggiato sulla gamba sinistra; dinanzi a lui, sulla destra, si vede un alto edificio — il t empio — con la porta aperta, sulla quale è una tettoia a valva azzurra, e il tetto rosso, con muri bruni a bande azzurre bordate di bianco; il suolo è segnato in un verde malva chiaro, opaco; la miniatura (mm 55 × 50 ca.) è interna allo specchio e posta nella zona mediana sinistra della pagina, ma la forma del campo miniato è alquanto irregolare, giacché il lato destro è obliquo e dunque la larghezza del campo decresce lievemente dall’alto verso il basso; nella sua parte alta, sui lati superiore e sinistro in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice a Treppenmotiven in bianco e blu; l’immagine è posta all’incirca a mezza altezza della pagina, allineata a sinistra; la miniatura è ben conservata [un’immagine a colori della miniatura è disponibile in rete nell’a rchivio millet del Princeton Index of c hristian a rt]; (f. 189r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 136): due giovani ebrei, rappresentati sulla sinistra di profilo, seduti su massi uno di fronte all’altro, con il mento poggiato sul pugno chiuso in atteggiamento di mestizia, entrambi vestiti di tuniche, l’uno, più a sinistra, azzurra, l’altro bruna; ai rami di due alberi disposti sulla destra sono appese stilizzate cetre o arpe di forma triangolare o rettangolare; dall’alto a sinistra, tagliando diagonalmente il campo miniato, a separare i giovani dagli alberi, scorre un fiume che a mo’ di cascata attraversa l’intera composizione fino all’angolo inferiore destro; il suolo è, al solito, segnato convenzionalmente in verde; la miniatura (mm 53 × 53 ca.) è interna allo specchio, posizionata nella zona medio-alta della pagina, nella zona sinistra di essa, ma tende leggermente a fuoriuscire dallo specchio verso sinistra, mentre personaggi (il giovane più a sinistra) ed elementi iconografici (il tratto superiore del fiume, in alto a sinistra) finiscono per debordare lievemente dal campo, che appare perciò di forma alquanto irregolare; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice a minutissimi Treppenmotiven cruciformi in rosso, bianco e blu; lo stato di conservazione della miniatura è mediocre, rilevandosi ampio flaking dei pigmenti [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in BRAUN, Musical Instruments, p. 319 fig. 3a]; (f. 189v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 137): Zaccaria, nimbato, raffigurato come uomo maturo, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, nell’atto di inginocchiarsi, avvolto in tunica e himation, con lo sguardo a uno stilizzato spicchio di cielo in alto a destra; la miniatura (mm 53 × 46 ca.), posta in basso a destra nella pagina, fuoriesce notevolmente in basso dallo specchio di scrittura, invadendo il margine

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f ig. 50 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 203r (particolare).

inferiore per l’altezza di circa tre interlinea; la parziale caduta dei pigmenti in corrispondenza del viso lascia intravedere il disegno preparatorio; il suolo, collinare con un dosso sulla destra, è segnato in verde malva e verde prato, in fasce delimitate da linee ondulate; la cornice è del tipo di quella che si vede al f. 89v, in più colori; (f. 195r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 142): David inseguito da a ssalonne (fig. 21); David, a destra, è raffigurato anziano, coronato e nimbato, con tunica e calzari rossi e manto blu scuro, il corpo rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, con le braccia distese in avanti in affannosa ricerca di soccorso, e il capo girato all’indietro verso l’inseguitore; a ssalonne, raffigurato sulla sinistra, con chioma e barba brune, è vestito di braghe rosse, blusa azzurra chiara e manto bruno, calzari bianchi, e reca nella sinistra uno scudo verde scuro, nella destra una lancia; il suolo è convenzionalmente segnato in verde prato; la miniatura (mm 60 × 70 ca.) è interna allo specchio, posizionata nella parte medio-alta della pagina, nella zona sinistra di essa, ma i personaggi tendono a fuoriuscire dal campo miniato invadendo il margine interno del foglio (a ssalonne) o a sconfinare lievemente in basso (David); la miniatura, che sulla destra presenta un curioso margine ondulato irregolare che sembra avvolgere la figura di David fuggitivo, è delimitata lungo i lati superiore e sinistro da una cornicetta formata da una sequenza di cerchietti blu che ospitano un fiorellino rosso [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in SPATHARAKIS, Corpus, II, fig. 105, e più di recente a colori, con la riproduzione del foglio intero che la contiene, in VOCOTOPOULOS, Jerusalem, p. 69 fig. 29; un’immagine a colori della miniatura è disponibile in rete nell’a rchivio millet del Princeton Index of c hristian a rt]; (f. 203r): linea ornata ondulata, con piccoli semicerchi nelle anse, e fiorellini a tre petali alle estremità, e inoltre iniziale calligrafica M (Ps 151, inc. ι ρ ν...); (f. 203r: fig. 50): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Ps 151): David, raffigurato con fattezze giovanili, nimbato, occupa l’estrema sinistra del campo miniato, ma è rivolto di tre quarti verso destra; è seduto su un masso, con le gambe scompo-

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stamente larghe, tiene il salterio sulle ginocchia, è abbigliato d’una corta tunica di colore bruno, orlata di verde malva intorno al collo, e ai piedi ha fasce color verde acqua; i capelli sono corti e ricciuti, lo sguardo assente, ingenuamente difettose le proporzioni del corpo, che si staglia sulla stilizzata pendice dorata d’un declivio; davanti a lui, sulla destra, si vede al pascolo, su un prato verde malva chiaro, un gregge di capre infantilmente stilizzate; la miniatura (mm 49 × 105) si estende in larghezza per l’intero specchio di scrittura, marcando così la transizione all’extracanonico Ps 151, ed è posta nella fascia medio-bassa della pagina; il campo miniato si presenta di forma irregolare sul solo bordo sinistro, che segue il contorno della figura di David; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice del tipo di quella che si vede al f. 89v, in più colori; colpisce la scarsa qualità dell’esecuzione, ma lo stile non è certo singolare in relazione all’epoca [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero in BRAUN, Musical Instruments, p. 319 fig. 3b; un’immagine a colori della miniatura è disponibile in rete nell’a rchivio millet del Princeton Index of c hristian a rt]; (f. 204r): linea ornata ondulata, con piccole T contrariées nelle anse, e fiorellini a tre petali alle estremità; (f. 204r): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Od 1 = e x 15:1 ss.): mosè, raffigurato come un giovane privo di nimbo, stante, in atteggiamento di orante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, abbigliato d’una tunica azzurra sulla quale è posato un himation di colore rosa intenso; guarda in alto a destra verso uno stilizzato spicchio di volta celeste; il suolo è convenzionalmente segnato in due fasce, separate da una linea ondulata, di colore verde di tonalità rispettivamente malva e abete; la miniatura (mm 47 × 47 ca.) è interna allo specchio, di cui occupa la fascia medio-alta, verso destra; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, l’immagine è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven cruciformi in rosso, bianco e blu; (f. 205v): miniatura (in corrispondenza di Od 2 = Deut 32:1 ss.): mosè, raffigurato secondo la stessa iconografia della miniatura precedente, ma in questo caso nimbato, e rivestito di himation lilla; il suolo è convenzionalmente segnato in verde malva; la miniatura (mm 57 × 42 ca.), interna allo specchio, ne occupa la parte inferiore destra; la cornice è del tipo di quella che si vede al f. 89v, in più colori; (f. 213r): miniatura ora mancante (in corrispondenza di Od 5 = Is 26:9 ss.): essa — forse un ritratto di Isaia? — occupava la parte inferiore destra dello specchio di scrittura, probabilmente sconfinando nel margine inferiore; il foglio è stato malamente lacerato per asportarla; (f. 214v): miniatura (Od 6 = Ion 2:3 ss.): Giona, calvo e con fronte spaziosa, corta barba grigia, abbigliato con tunica arancione e, intorno ai fianchi, un himation bruno, è raffigurato frontalmente in atteggiamento di orante, fuoriuscendo con tutto il busto dalle fauci spalancate del mostro marino che, di color verde marcio/ malva, si avvolge in spire sotto di lui; il mare, in basso, è segnato d’un livido azzurro opaco; la miniatura (mm 55 × 50 ca.), interna allo specchio, occupa la zona destra della fascia mediana della pagina; di forma irregolare, il campo miniato è quadrangolare nella sua parte destra, sinuosamente irregolare in quella sinistra, laddove i suoi contorni seguono il profilo del mostro marino; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati

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in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven in bianco sporco e blu; ampio flaking ha colpito la scena, in particolare in corrispondenza del mare e del mostro [la miniatura è pubblicata in bianco e nero, in un’immagine purtroppo di scarsa qualità, in BAUMSTARK, Frühchristlichsyrische Psalterillustration, t af. VII.2]; (f. 218v): miniatura (Od 9a = l c 1:47 ss.): a nnunciazione; l’angelo, nimbato, è a sinistra, stante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, con la mano levata in posa di adlocutio; ha ali in bruno scuro toccato di rosso alle estremità delle penne, ed è vestito d’una tunica azzurra e d’un himation lilla pallido raccolto ai fianchi; a destra è la Vergine, stante, raffigurata frontalmente, dinanzi a un ricco trono dorato con cuscino azzurro sulla seduta; ha calzature in rosso vivo, in segno di regalità, e tunica azzurra sotto il manto viola scuro nel quale la figura è racchiusa; il capo aureolato è lievemente chino a sinistra verso l’angelo, in segno di docile accettazione della volontà divina; la miniatura (mm 52 × 55 ca.) è posizionata nella pagina in basso a destra, e fuoriesce dallo specchio di scrittura invadendo il margine inferiore per un’altezza equivalente a due interlinea; nella sua parte alta, in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven in bianco sporco e blu; l’esteso flaking dei pigmenti fa emergere il disegno preparatorio del volto di maria; (f. 219v): miniatura (Od 9b = l c 1:68 ss.): Zaccaria, raffigurato come un vegliardo con capelli e barba grigi, tunica azzurra bordata d’oro ai polsi e all’orlo inferiore, manto rosso vivo con ricami in oro al collo, calzari neri, i piedi su un suppedaneo gemmato, è assiso, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, su un sedile pieghevole bianco, e scrive su un rotolo (?) che tiene sulle ginocchia; il suolo è compattamente segnato in verde abete; la miniatura (mm 48 × 32 ca.), posta nella fascia medio-alta della pagina e allineata a destra, è interna allo specchio; la parte alta dell’immagine, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, è delimitata da una cornice del tipo di quella che si vede al f. 89v, in più colori; (f. 221v): miniatura (Od 12): manasse, rappresentato come un vegliardo coronato e nimbato di tre quarti, prostrato verso destra in atteggiamento di supplica, con lo sguardo rivolto in alto a destra verso uno stilizzato spicchio di volta celeste; ha capelli e barba grigi, tunica azzurra bordata d’oro ai polsi e in basso, manto rosso vivo ricamato in oro al collo; il suolo è segnato in un compatto verde malva; la miniatura (mm 27 × 46 ca.), collocata nella fascia medio-alta della pagina, verso destra, è interna allo specchio di scrittura; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven in bianco sporco e blu; (Petropol. gr. 266, f. 4r: su un foglio singolo già collocato fra gli attuali ff. 224 e 225 dello Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53): miniatura (in corrispondenza della preghiera prima della comunione, attribuita al c risostomo, inc. ριε, ο ε ιο ο τε ν ν ου π τ ν τ ν ε λ το ο ου τ υ ..., cf. ALEXOPOULOS – VAN DEN HOEK, Endicott Scroll, p. 180 [nr. 1.3]): Giovanni c risostomo, stante, rivolto di tre quarti verso destra, è rivestito dei paramenti episcopali, tunica verde con sfumature rosate, epitrachelion bianco con ricamo dorato in basso, phelonion purpureo e omophorion bianco con piccole croci nere; in atteggiamento di orante, ha lo

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sguardo rivolto verso la volta celeste, uno spicchio della quale, in tre sfumature di azzurro, si vede nell’angolo superiore destro dell’immagine; la miniatura (mm 65 × 50 ca., secondo le fonti bibliografiche) è delimitata su tre lati, in corrispondenza del fondo oro, da una cornice con Treppenmotiven, ed è collocata nella parte inferiore sinistra della pagina, per la sua gran parte all’interno dello specchio, fuoriuscendone però in basso per un’altezza pari a circa tre interlinea; lo stato di conservazione è buono, eccetto che per un modesto flaking nella parte bassa dell’immagine [una riproduzione di cattiva qualità dell’intero foglio, in bianco e nero, in PUCKO, O leningradskich fragmentach, p. 510 ill. 4]; (f. 226r): miniatura (in corrispondenza della preghiera dopo la comunione, qui non attribuita esplicitamente al c risostomo, inc. ρι τ οι, ιλ ν ρ πε, τι ι πολλ ν ότ τ ν ου οιν νόν ε εν ι..., cf. ALEXOPOULOS – VAN DEN HOEK, Endicott Scroll, pp. 151-152, 183 [nr. 3.6]): Giovanni c risostomo, raffigurato stante, di tre quarti, rivolto verso destra, ove si vede un altare coperto d’un drappo rosso su cui sono le specie eucaristiche; il santo, quasi calvo e con corta barba sul mento, è rivestito di sticharion ocra e phelonion bruno, omophorion bianco con crocette nere, e ha le mani levate verso destra in atteggiamento di preghiera; il suolo è compattamente segnato in verde abete; la miniatura (mm 53 × 64 ca.), collocata nella fascia medio-alta della pagina, sulla destra, è interna allo specchio; lo stato di conservazione è mediocre, a motivo di diffuso flaking dei pigmenti e dell’oro dello sfondo; nella sua parte alta, su tre lati in corrispondenza del fondo dorato, la miniatura è delimitata da una cornice con Treppenmotiven in bianco sporco e blu [in bianco e nero la miniatura è pubblicata in PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 209 fig. 4 (molto migliore la qualità dell’immagine, anch’essa in bianco e nero, nell’ed. online 2014, fig. 11)].

ADDENDUM (febbraio 2015) Il presente articolo era stato da molti mesi terminato e consegnato ai curatori del volume (giugno 2014), quando è apparsa sul web in data 30.12.2014 una rielaborazione della dissertazione di PARPULOV, Towards a History. Di essa ho potuto servirmi in questa sede soltanto in minima parte, limitandomi ad aggiornare i miei rinvii bibliografici al lavoro dello studioso, che erano precedentemente riferiti alla sola dissertazione dattiloscritta del 2004147. Non ho potuto tenere affatto conto, invece, dei molteplici nuovi spunti di ricerca sul s alterio bizantino presenti nella sola redazione online, e soprattutto — con particolare riferimento al codice Vat. gr. 752 — non sono stato in grado di utilizzare nella mia trattazione il nuovo capitolo 4.1, «t he making of a Byzantine Psalter» (in PARPULOV, Towards a History [ed. online 2014], pp. 122-126), non presente nella precedente stesura dat147

Inoltre, l’esemplare dattiloscritto consultato non comprendeva le a ppendici a -B.

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tiloscritta. In tale capitolo lo studioso, forse stimolato dalla discussione seguìta al nostro workshop del 2012 e proponendosi di esemplificare il processo di manifattura di un tipico s alterio bizantino, sintetizza in poche pagine le tappe dell’allestimento del Vat. gr. 752 in maniera parallela alla più dettagliata ricostruzione offerta in questa sede, presentando fra l’altro una ripartizione tra le diverse mani di copisti sostanzialmente coincidente — fatti salvi alcuni particolari — con quella esposta a voce nel mio paper tre anni fa. Per facilitare al lettore il confronto di dati fra il lavoro di Parpulov e il mio, e per favorire l’ulteriore progresso degli studi sul s alterio Vaticano, elencherò qui di seguito una serie di punti di consonanza o discordanza fra la presente trattazione e quella dello studioso bulgaro. r ilevo innanzitutto che, come già avevo proposto in occasione del workshop del 2012, anche Parpulov (ed. online 2014, pp. 123-124) ritiene ora che l’analisi della ripartizione del lavoro fra le mani degli scribi del Vat. gr. 752, soprattutto in relazione alla loro alternanza nel copiare il commentario nel margine, conforti l’ipotesi già emessa da a drian s chenker che tale catena esegetica sia stata creata ad hoc per il nostro manoscritto (su questo argomento, più diffusamente, si veda supra, pp. 112-113 e n. 117). a l di là dei tecnicismi codicologico-paleografici o storico-artistici, si tratta di uno dei punti nodali dell’analisi da me offerta in questa sede, e di un’acquisizione gravida di conseguenze ai fini dello studio della catena marginale del Vat. gr. 752: sono quindi particolarmente lieto di questa consonanza di vedute. c ome già anticipato, Parpulov (ed. online 2014, p. 123) presenta una suddivisione fra le mani dei copisti del Vat. gr. 752 molto simile a quella da me proposta nel 2012 (e qui più analiticamente esposta supra, pp. 63-85), ad eccezione dei seguenti dettagli: 1) secondo Parpulov la mano del copista B, attivo sul solo f. 9r, non sarebbe che una mera variante grafica di quella dello scriba c . l a variazione di ductus e di modulo da parte di quello che per lo studioso bulgaro è da ritenersi un unico scriba (contrassegnato da Parpulov con la sigla s 3) sarebbe intenzionale, dovendosi a un tentativo, da parte del copista, di adattare stilisticamente nel f. 9r la propria grafia a quella, visibile nella pagina a fronte (f. 8v), della mano a (ovvero, il copista s 2 secondo la sigla attribuitagli da Parpulov). r esto tuttavia del parere che qui si debba riscontrare una mano differente: il f. 9r (mano B) non esibisce, rispetto alle pagine successive (mano c ), un mero cambio di movenze e di modulo, ma anche un repertorio morfologico in parte differente; 2) per Parpulov il copista a (da lui identificato con la sigla s 2) interviene nella copia del commento marginale solo fino al recto o al verso del f. 97 (il dato, probabilmente per una piccola svista, è riferito in maniera oscillante nell’ed. online 2014, p. 123 linn. 19 e 32); è evidente che, nella trascrizione/composizione della catena, egli opera fino al f. 97v in alternanza con la mano c (= s 3 per Parpulov); inol-

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tre, il copista c resta l’unico responsabile della copia del commento catenario non a partire dal verso di f. 98 (Parpulov, ed. online 2014, p. 123 lin. 21), ma dal recto del medesimo foglio; 3) secondo Parpulov (ed. online 2014, p. 124), le iniziali in rosso carminio all’inizio dei versetti sarebbero state aggiunte dallo scriba D (= s 1 per Parpulov) al testo dei s almi da lui stesso copiato solo limitatamente ai fascicoli 35°-38° (= ff. 275303) e nel bifoglio centrale del fascicolo 40° (ff. 313-314), mentre in tutto il resto del s alterio sarebbero state integrate in seguito dai copisti a (= s 2) e c (= s 3), responsabili della trascrizione del commento. Per parte mia, ritengo che la mano a intervenga molto limitatamente in tal senso (ad es. nei ff. 66r-73v, o al f. 88 lin. 9, e forse in altre rare occasioni), mentre la mano c , che certamente lavora all’aggiunta delle inizialette, non è sotto questo rispetto sempre distinguibile con certezza dallo scriba D, e dunque non è facile stabilire, per tale aspetto, gli esatti confini dell’attività dei due copisti; 4) Parpulov (ed. online, p. 126) ritiene che la gran parte delle didascalie delle miniature siano state eseguite dal copista a (= s 2 per Parpulov), ad eccezione di quelle ai ff. 20r-72v, 90v-100v, 128r-137v, 180v-193v, 217v che si dovrebbero allo scriba c (= s 3) e di quelle ai ff. 478v e 482r-v che andrebbero attribuite al pittore da lui denominato P1. a mio parere, invece, le didascalie sono almeno in buona parte riconducibili a una mano e , diversa da quelle dei copisti principali (cf. supra, pp. 80-82), che però potrebbe non esser stata la sola ad apporle: le cattive condizioni di conservazione di tali captions e la limitatezza di estensione degli specimina morfologico-alfabetici da esse offerti non permettono, mi pare, di pronunciarsi in maniera troppo assertiva; 5) diversamente da Parpulov, che al riguardo resta in dubbio (ed. online 2014, p. 123), io credo invece che si possa attribuire con certezza la copia degli epigrammi crisografati del f. 17r-v a uno specialista esterno — ovvero la mano cui ho assegnato la sigla f (cf. supra, pp. 83-85) —, e non ritengo significative le occasionali analogie tra le raffinate morfologie di maiuscole «fiorite» dei carmi vergati in tali pagine e le forme di inizialette in carminio sporadicamente dotate di lieve ornato di penna che la mano c (= s 3 per Parpulov) usa talora premettere alle glosse di commento da essa trascritte: questo genere di svolazzi, flosculi e orpelli ornamentali sono, in effetti, comunissimi in iniziali calligrafiche e scritture distintive della seconda metà dell’XI secolo; le somiglianze rilevate da Parpulov fra la scrittura ornata del f. 17r-v e alcune inizialette della mano c sono, dunque, dovute all’influsso d’una diffusa moda del tempo, né implicano qui alcuna identità di mano (cf. supra, p. 85), in quanto le modalità esecutive e l’effetto estetico conseguito restano, a mio parere, molto diversi fra le mani f e c .

Nella nuova redazione del suo saggio sui s alteri (ed. online, pp. 124126), inoltre, Parpulov offre ora — in piena autonomia, giacché di questo tema non avevo quasi fatto parola nel mio paper del 2012 — una sua analisi relativa alle mani degli artisti attivi nel Vat. gr. 752, che rappresenta anch’essa uno sviluppo del tutto assente dalla tesi dattiloscritta del 2004. l e sue osservazioni e deduzioni al riguardo divergono in parte da quel-

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le elaborate per la presente redazione scritta, fortemente ampliata, della mia comunicazione del 2012 (cf. supra, pp. 120-130). c osì, rispetto alla mia prudenza nell’individuazione di singole mani di artisti all’interno del codice, e al tentativo da me fatto di una mera classificazione delle diverse maniere pittoriche riscontrabili nel Vat. gr. 752, Parpulov con maggior audacia e assertività ritiene da un lato di poter ravvisare — basandosi sulle cadute di pigmento che permettono di intravedere talvolta il disegno preparatorio — due distinte mani di disegnatori (o almeno, due differenti modi di disegnare) da lui denominati D1 e D2, dall’altro di poter distinguere tre diverse mani di pittori, ovvero P1 (ritenuto forse identicabile con il disegnatore D1), P2 e P3. Per quanto attiene ai disegnatori, per la verità, stando a quel che vedo sull’originale laddove il disegno preparatorio affiora, non mi pare che a identificare con certezza differenti mani di autori dei disegni preparatori bastino il variare dello spessore e della definizione del tratto, o l’occasionale maggior analiticità di resa dei dettagli. c irca i pittori, invece, Parpulov (ed. online 2014, p. 125) attribuisce la massima parte delle miniature alla mano P1, riferendo invece le sole scene dei ff. 447r, 465r-473v, 484r-488v al pittore P2, e individuando inoltre nei ff. 7v-8r l’intervento episodico di un terzo artista P3 il cui stile «is similar to P2, but the quality of his work is appreciably higher». Nella mia analisi, invece, mi sono limitato a distinguere otto o nove differenti maniere pittoriche (cf. supra, pp. 120-126, 127 n. 130), senza l’ambizione di individuare con certezza in esse altrettante mani diverse, e basandomi a tal fine, provvisoriamente, su una campionatura analitica limitata ai primi venticinque fogli del codice. I risultati dell’esame da me condotto presentano alcune significative consonanze con quelli della sommaria analisi ora pubblicata da Parpulov, in special modo per quanto attiene alle mani da lui designate P2 e P3. In particolare, anch’io ho riconosciuto ai ff. 7v-8r la peculiarità della «maniera» nr. 3 (mano P3 per Parpulov), che ho infatti attribuito all’intervento episodico di un eccellente miniatore professionista esterno alla bottega, chiedendomi al contempo dubitativamente, come pure lo studioso bulgaro, se tale miniaturista non possa identificarsi con la mano dell’abile artista — anch’egli certamente esterno all’atelier di copia — ravvisabile in quella «maniera» nr. 2 che si riscontra isolatamente nell’aggraziata ornamentazione della fascia e dell’iniziale del f. 3r (cf. supra, pp. 121-122; Parpulov, ed. online 2014, pp. 125 e 126). Inoltre, anche a me sembra che una mano ben caratterizzata (equivalente alla mano P2 di Parpulov) e di qualità più elevata rispetto agli altri artisti attivi nella gran parte delle miniature del codice sia ravvisabile in alcune delle scene dei fogli finali del manoscritto

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(cf. supra, p. 127 n. 130, ove richiamavo come esempio di questa maniera la miniatura del f. 473v; cf. anche Parpulov, ed. online 2014, p. 125). Quanto alle poche iniziali ornate che si rinvengono nel codice — tredici, e non dodici come risulterebbe da Parpulov ed. online 2014, p. 126, che non ha notato quella a stento visibile sul f. 22v —, rispetto alla mia posizione scettica circa la possibilità di individuare con certezza in esse le mani degli stessi artisti responsabili dell’illustrazione del codice (cf. supra, pp. 132134) lo studioso bulgaro si mostra anche in questo caso più assertivo (ed. online 2014, p. 126), ritenendo che l’iniziale al f. 25v sia attribuibile al disegnatore D1, quelle ai ff. 20r, 23v al disegnatore D2, e infine quelle colorate e dorate ai ff. 5v, 19r, 43r-47v forse all’elegante pittore da lui definito P2 (per il quale cf. qui supra, p. 127 n. 130): identificazione, quest’ultima, che mi sembra poco probabile, soprattutto se si pone a confronto la rozza resa dei volti e delle mani delle figure umane nelle iniziali dei ff. 45r e 46r con quella ad esempio delle miniature dei ff. 473v o 485r, e se, più in generale, si considera l’abilità dimostrata dal pittore di queste ultime miniature, tanto lontana dalla stentata e malferma esecuzione che caratterizza l’ornatista responsabile delle iniziali dei ff. 43r-47v. r ipeto invece che, a mio parere, le iniziali colorate e dorate ai ff. 5v, 43r, 45r, 46r, 47v vanno attribuite a quello che ho definito «secondo ornatista delle iniziali», mentre a interventi isolati d’altre mani (il «primo» e il «terzo ornatista delle iniziali») si devono rispettivamente quelle al f. 3r e al f. 19r (cf. supra, pp. 132-133). Delle iniziali soltanto disegnate, quelle ai ff. 344v e 352v si devono probabilmente a un medesimo disegnatore, mentre è dubbio se almeno in parte a lui stesso o invece a una (o più d’una) mano ulteriore si debbano le iniziali ai ff. 20r, 22v, 23v, 25v (cf. supra, pp. 133-134). Infine, ancora sotto qualche altro specifico profilo le analisi degli aspetti storico-artistici del Vat. gr. 752 condotte in modo parallelo e indipendente da Parpulov e da me convergono in maniera significativa. c osì, ad esempio, anche a Parpulov (ed. online, p. 125) le cornici delle miniature paiono un elemento eseguito a posteriori rispetto alle miniature, e forse estraneo alla pianificazione iniziale del volume, come già suggerivo nel mio paper del 2012 (e come ho affermato supra, pp. 82, 87-88): si tratta, del resto, di una conclusione nella quale non si poteva non concordare, a partire fra l’altro da un’acuta osservazione fatta al riguardo anni fa da Irmgard Hutter (cf. supra, p. 87 n. 66).

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IL «POEMA» DI INTRODUZIONE DEL SALTERIO VAT. GR. 752 Parlare di «poema», a proposito dei versi premessi all’inizio dei Salmi nel Vat. gr. 7521, è una formulazione di comodo che non risponde alla realtà delle cose, come dirò subito dopo. Si tratta di 22 versi giambici, che si ritrovano, nello stesso ordine, ma con piccole varianti, anche nel Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri (da ora Taphou) 532, un codice imparentato col Vat. gr. 752, anche se la sua decorazione è diversa e più scarna rispetto a quella del Vaticano3. Dal Taphou 53 i versi sono stati editi da Papadopoulos-Kerameus4. I versi, disposti su due colonne nel f. 17r-v del Vaticano (fig. 1-2), prima del Salterio, sono copiati di seguito, senza interruzioni, tranne il punto che divide un verso dall’altro, ma che non è sempre presente, da un rubricatore che li ha trascritti in maiuscola epigrafica e in lettere d’oro. Da questo manoscritto essi sono stati pubblicati, con la presentazione di uno per rigo e in minuscole, da De Wald nello studio introduttivo alla riproduzione fotografica del manoscritto5. Quella di De Wald è una trascrizione «quasi» diplomatica, che riproduce anche piccoli errori di ortografia del codice, e conferma l’idea di una composizione unica, non solo graficamente. Anche Papadopoulos-Kerameus, nel pubblicare i versi dal Taphou 53, ff. 13r-14r (fig. 3-5), parla di «poema giambico del calligrafo», e non espri1

Descrizione in R. DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, III, Codices 604-866, Città del Vaticano 1950, pp. 266-268. La riproduzione del codice in DE WALD. Si veda anche PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 86-92. 2 Descrizione in A. I. PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθ κη, , San Pietroburgo 1891, pp. 130-134; P. L. VOCOTOPOULOS, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscrits of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Athens and Jerusalem 2002, pp. 68-69, fig. 29. Cfr. anche S. DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psaumes dans le Psautier de Jérusalem, cod. Taphou 53: Rôle des tituli, in Byzantine East, Latin West: Art-Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, ed. by D. MOURIKI et al., Princeton 1995, pp. 347-354; PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 89-92. 3 Cfr. D’Aiuto, pp. 89-102. 4 PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθ κη, , pp. 131-132. 5 DE WALD, p. XII, con traduzione inglese. Da qui il testo greco è ripreso, con qualche correzione ortografica, in KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 196. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 157-178.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 17r.

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Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, f. 17v.

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me alcun sospetto sulla natura composita del poema stesso6. Quindi proprio la disposizione dei versi, anche nel codice di Gerusalemme, ha indotto l’editore a pensare a una composizione unica. Il testo edito dallo studioso greco presenta piccole varianti rispetto al Vaticano. A un più attento esame, questi versi non costituiscono un’opera unitaria e originale. Si tratta, in realtà, della somma di quattro brevi epigrammi, testimoniati, indipendentemente l’uno dall’altro, in numerosi altri manoscritti7. La presentazione dei versi nel Vat. gr. 752 non indica separazione tra un epigramma e l’altro. Non solo i versi dello stesso epigramma sono trascritti uno di seguito all’altro senza andare a capo, ma persino l’incipit di singoli epigrammi, il secondo e il quarto, per essere precisi, è posto a metà del rigo, di seguito al verso finale del primo e del terzo poemetto, senza lettere iniziali o segni che indichino una separazione dai versi precedenti. Simile è la presentazione dei versi nel Taphou 53, che, però, li riporta su una sola colonna. Non è un fatto isolato, poiché fenomeni simili si riscontrano anche in altri manoscritti, che hanno talvolta ingannato gli editori moderni. Un esempio di presentazione dei versi ingannevole, che ha confuso prima di tutti gli autori del catalogo, si incontra nell’ Ambros. H 60 sup., che al f. 1r-v contiene una serie di 7 epigrammi, i cui versi sono disposti su due colonne, con il primo sulla colonna di sinistra e il seguente su quella di destra: una disposizione frequente nei manoscritti, che tuttavia ha spesso suscitato equivoci sia tra i copisti medievali sia tra gli editori moderni8. In questo caso, il verso iniziale dei vari epigrammi può trovarsi sia sulla colonna di sinistra sia su quella di destra. Inoltre, su 7 epigrammi, 5 sono evidenziati da un’iniziale maiuscola ornata, ma due, il 4° e il 5°, non possiedono segni di distinzione e, per di più, iniziano tutti e due sulla colonna di destra, tanto da sembrare la prosecuzione dell’epigramma n° 39. Un altro esempio, 6

PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθ κη, , p. 131: ν . 13 -14 ν ιν ε π ενον το λλι ρ ου ε ον, ο τινο π ρ λε π τ προ ν τερ λ τ . Accetta evidentemente l’indicazione ε το λλι ρ ου riportata da una mano recente nel margine superiore del foglio. 7 Gli incipit dei singoli epigrammi sono riportati, indipendentemente l’uno dall’altro, nel repertorio di I. VASSIS, Initia Carminum Byzantinorum, Berlin – New York 2005 (Supplementa Byzantina, 8). 8 Per il manoscritto ambrosiano, se ne veda la descrizione in AE. MARTINI – D. BASSI, Catalogus codicum Graecorum Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, I, Milano 1906, pp. 531-532; si veda anche il caso segnalato da E. Follieri, infra, n. 15. 9 Per completezza di informazione, do qui gli incipit dei 7 componimenti, due dei quali appartengono anche alla serie del Vat. gr. 752: 1) υ ελ οντι (cfr. infra, n. 18); 2) ουε υ (infra, n. 37 e passim); 3) ο πνε το (infra, n. 34 ss, e passim); 4) υιτι π υ (infra, n. 27 e passim); 5) ρον εο π υ εν (cfr. PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 394, n° 56,

τ ιτ

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dove, però, la colpa è soprattutto dell’editore, A. M. Bandini, che pubblica10, dal Laur. Plut. IX, 3 (Scala Paradisi), come un unico carme di 28 versi, due poemetti, di cui gli ultimi 5 versi sono, tra parentesi, il primo epigramma della nostra serie, inc. π ντ ον11. Nel caso del Bandini l’errore è giustificato almeno in parte dalla presentazione non omogenea dei versi che si trova ai ff. 353v-354v del manoscritto12. Mentre infatti a f. 353v i primi poemetti sono nettamente separati da fasce ornamentali a vivaci colori, dalla seconda colonna dello stesso foglio 353v, dopo l’indicazione λλοι ( τ οι), per tutto il f. 354r e fino alla metà della prima colonna del f. 354v, non vi sono segni appariscenti di separazione. Segni distintivi marginali e poco vistosi, che Bandini non ha notato tutti, appaiono invece all’inizio dell’epigramma π ντ ον (= vv. 24-28 di un unico poemetto secondo l’edizione Bandini) e dei due epigrammi finali, che Bandini, p. 391, pubblica come fossero una sola composizione. Un fenomeno simile, anche se più ridotto, si incontra anche nel Monac. gr. 252 e nel Sinait. gr. 163313. Un’ultima osservazione: l’esame dei soli manoscritti consultati per questo studio ha evidenziato una variegata casistica dei sistemi utilizzati dai copisti medievali nella presentazione di brevi componimenti in versi. Il criterio principale cui il copista si ispira è, in genere, quello del risparmio di spazio. Ma, talvolta, alla necessità di risparmiare spazio si aggiunge un’esigenza estetica e una ricerca di simmetria che possono complicare agli occhi di un lettore moderno la comprensione del testo14. Non è questo il luogo per addentrarsi in tale campo di indagine, ma vale forse la pena di sottolineare la possibilità di arricchire le indagini sull’«ordine dei versi» iniziate molti anni fa da Enrica Follieri15. Già negli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso, Silvio Giuseppe Mercati (1877-1963), imbattutosi in epigrammi di questo tipo trascritti nel Salterio Vat. gr. 342, epigrammi che riapparivano, talvolta con l’omissione o l’aggiunta di versi, o di nomi di amanuensi, in altri manoscritti, anche di da un altro codice); 6) περ τ πνε (ibid., p. 362, n° 2); 7) ου ι ν ρ (ibid., p. 371, n° 18). 10 A. M. BANDINI, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae, I, Firenze 1764, p. 390. 11 Su cui si veda infra, nn. 22ss. e passim. 12 Le pagine del manoscritto sono ora consultabili online sulla Teca Digitale della Biblioteca Laurenziana, con i termini di ricerca ‘plut.09.03’. 13 Si veda rispettivamente infra, n. 70 e n. 81 per questi due mss. 14 Cfr., ad esempio, i casi dell’Ott. gr. 398, e del Sinait. gr. 11 (27): infra, nn. 38, 40 e 80. 15 E. FOLLIERI, L’ordine dei versi in alcuni epigrammi bizantini, in Byzantion 34 (1964), pp. 447-467, ristampato in EAD., Byzantina et Italograeca. Studi di Filologia e di Paleografia, a cura di A. ACCONCIA LONGO – L. PERRIA – A. LUZZI, Roma 1997 (Storia e Letteratura, 195), pp. 49-66.

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Fig. 3 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 13r.

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Fig. 4 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 13v.

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Fig. 5 – Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 14r.

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diverso contenuto, si augurava la raccolta e l’analisi delle poesie sul Salterio16. E, negli stessi anni, auspici simili esprimeva Enrica Follieri17, che ha tra l’altro pubblicato due tra i più pregevoli e interessanti carmi tratti da Salteri18. La stessa Follieri individuava inoltre procedimenti simili a quello che ci interessa, cioè l’utilizzo di più epigrammi dello stesso soggetto uniti a formare apparentemente un’unica composizione, nella tradizione manoscritta di epigrammi dedicati agli evangelisti19. Era, insomma, più diffusa di quanto si pensi l’abitudine di raccogliere, accorpare e adattare caso per caso, più o meno abilmente, composizioni, che la Follieri definisce res nullius20, alle più diverse necessità. Oggi, un notevole passo avanti è costituito dal libro di Parpulov sui Salteri, che in appendice raccoglie 56 epigrammi di diversa lunghezza, editi e inediti21, e ci permette di seguire la diffusione e l’intreccio di questo tipo di composizioni attraverso la tradizione manoscritta del Salterio, e non solo di questo. Infatti il contenuto del primo dei quattro epigrammi, inc. π ντ ον ἐν λ τ π λ ι, di 5 versi22, non ha nulla che lo leghi ai Salmi o a David. È piuttosto una preghiera, una richiesta della protezione divina sull’amanuense e sul committente del codice, che, con l’aggiunta di nomi, potrebbe trasformarsi in una sottoscrizione metrica. Lo stesso epigramma si legge, in verità, in alcuni Salteri: oltre che nei due già nominati, Vat. gr. 752 e Taphou 53, esso è riportato in un Salterio Ambrosiano (+ 24 sup.), che Martini e Bassi datano al IX-X secolo23, e nel più tardo Vat. gr. 1866, del XIV secolo24. Ma si legge anche, come dicevamo 16 S. G. MERCATI, Confessione di fede di Michele categumeno del monastero fondato da Michele Attaliate, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 21 (1955), pp. 265-273; ID., Su una poesia giambica nel codice 605 del monastero di Dionisio nel Monte Athos, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 52 (1959), pp. 11-12. Ambedue gli articoli sono ristampati in S. G. MERCATI, Collectanea Byzantina, I, Città di Castello 1970, pp. 609-617, 618-620: cfr. in particolare pp. 613-614. 17 E. FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico in onore di Davide, in Studi Bizantini 9 (1957) (= Silloge bizantina in onore di Silvio Giuseppe Mercati), pp. 101-116, a p. 101; EAD., L’ordine dei versi, pp. 63-66. 18 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, p. 116, inc. ρο ν λ ου ι π ντ νλ ν, di 35 vv.; EAD., L’ordine dei versi, pp. 63-66, inc. υ ελ οντι τ ἐ λ , di 9 vv. 19 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, pp. 103-105, n. 2. 20 Ibid., p. 105 nota. 21 PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 361-395. 22 Ibid., p. 369, n° 15. 23 MARTINI – BASSI, Catalogus, II, pp. 878-879. Oltre a questo, riportato al f. 7v, il codice (cfr. infra, nn. 28 e 64), riporta a f. 8v il nostro quarto epigramma, ο πνε το τ ε , e alla fine, f. 193r, il secondo, υιτι π υ . 24 P. CANART, Codices Vaticani Graeci, Codices 1745-1962, I: Codicum enarrationes, in Bi-

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più sopra, nel Laur. Plut. IX, 3, un Giovanni Climaco che il Bandini data al X secolo25, dove costituisce i 5 versi finali di una serie di 28 versi trascritti in lettere auree26. Il secondo segmento, di sei versi27, è invece chiaramente legato alla trascrizione di un Salterio: «Io sono il libro dei canti di David» recita il primo verso ( υιτι π υ λτο τ ν), e prosegue elencando i benefici che esso arreca a chi lo ha trascritto, a chi lo ha commissionato, a chi lo legge, a chi lo guarda, a chi esegue il canto dei Salmi. In parte, quindi, esso rappresenta una ripetizione del contenuto del primo epigramma, nella menzione del copista e del committente, ma ricorda anche i fruitori del manufatto, e cioè chi lo legge, chi lo guarda, e questo fa pensare che l’epigramma sia stato in origine dedicato a un codice con miniature, e infine chi esegue il canto. È bene tuttavia sottolineare che, nei numerosi manoscritti che riportano l’epigramma (Parpulov ne elenca 14), alcuni, ad esempio l’Ambrosiano + 24, già citato, tramandano solo i primi 3 versi, celebrando in tal modo soltanto il copista e il committente28. All’inizio del terzo epigramma, una distrazione del copista denuncia e conferma la natura composita del «poema». Il primo verso, senza separazione o segni diacritici, né prima né dopo, inizia con la parola λλ (sic), che darebbe al verso stesso una lunghezza di 14 sillabe. Evidentemente il copista, o un copista anteriore, ha trovato nell’esemplare di copia l’indicazione λλ , sottinteso ἐπι ρ τ o ποι τ , o una simile dicitura (si tratta di indicazioni frequenti nei manoscritti), e l’ha inserita nel testo del «poema», come se fosse parte integrante del verso, anziché una rubrica, normalmente evidenziata dal colore diverso dell’inchiostro, posta a indicare la separazione tra due entità distinte29. bliotheca Vaticana 1970, p. 397. 25 BANDINI, Catalogus, I, p. 390. 26 Cfr. supra, n. 11 e passim. 27 PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 365 n° 8. 28 Cfr. ibid., apparato: tra i codici segnalati da Parpulov, oltre a quelli che riportano solo i vv. 1-3 (Hieros. Taphou 45, Athen. gr. 7, Athen. gr. 6, Ambros. + 24), ve ne sono due che aggiungono ai primi 3 vv. un quarto verso, che chiude in un tetrastico il breve componimento. Uno, il Sinait. gr. 19, del X secolo, aggiunge un verso scorretto nella prosodia e nel metro (13 sillabe?), che deriva comunque dal v. 4 del poemetto stesso, ο ν νε ιν το ἐ ν [νου ιν]: cfr. la descrizione di P. G. NIKOLOPOULOS, Ἱερ ο ὴ κα ρ ιεπισκοπὴ ι . α ε ρ ματα το ι , Atene 1998, p. 145 e tav. 58. L’altro, il Paris. gr. 12, del 1418, conclude con un v. 4 di 12 sillabe, scorretto nella prosodia, ma di senso compiuto: λ ιν λ τ ντ το ελετ ι. Da segnalare ancora che un codice tardo, il Paris. gr. 2743, del secolo XVI, tramanda un epigramma di 10 vv., inc. ιτι ν π υ λτο τ ν, che sembra un adattamento del nostro: cfr. I. SAJDAK, Ioannis Geometrae carmen, in Eos 24 (1919-1920), p. 44. Sulle varianti del carme, si veda anche VASSIS, Initia Carminum, p. 132. 29 La trascrizione di DE WALD, p. XII, conserva nel testo λλ (sic), che appare anche

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La distrazione del copista serve se non altro a eliminare anche l’ultima possibilità che la sequenza dei versi sia una composizione unitaria, da cui si sarebbero nel tempo distaccati gruppi di versi, assumendo in tal modo una vita indipendente. Nell’edizione di Papadopulos-Kerameus dal Taphou 53, le due sillabe in più non ci sono, ma si tratta di una tacita correzione dell’editore, che, nel pubblicare i versi, dichiara di aver corretto, senza segnalarli, i più evidenti errori del copista30, poiché in realtà anche il manoscritto di Gerusalemme riporta λλ . Per il contenuto, questo terzo epigramma, inc. ιν ν υ ἐ ελ τ ν ιν ρ ν31, di soli 4 versi, ricorda l’episodio in cui Davide, mentre suona la cetra, sfugge a Saul che, sconvolto da uno spirito maligno, sta per ucciderlo32, ed è costruito sul parallelo tra David che al suono della cetra sfugge alla gelosia omicida di Saul e i fedeli che al canto dei Salmi sconfiggono, anzi schiacciano la testa dei nemici spirituali. Esso, diversamente dal precedente, non è molto diffuso: finora, oltre che nel Vat. gr. 752 e nel Taphou 53, è segnalato soltanto nell’Oxford, Christ Church 42, dell’inizio del XII secolo, dove conta due versi in più, che contengono un’invocazione per la remissione dei peccati del copista33. Infine il quarto epigramma, che è anche il più noto e diffuso del gruppo e quello letterariamente più interessante. Di 7 versi, edito già da Leone Allacci nel 164334 e in alcuni cataloghi di manoscritti, esso è testimoniato in almeno 19 codici del Salterio, con omissioni di versi e varianti35. Del resto anche nel Taphou 53, e di qui nell’edizione di Papadopoulos-Kerameus, si registra una variante rispetto al Vat. gr. 75236. Negli Analecta Sacra del Pitra, esso costituisce un unicum, cioè corrisponde ai vv. 6-12 dell’insieme, con i 5 vv. dell’epigramma ουε υ το 37. Il Pitra leggeva il doppio epigramma nell’Ott. gr. 398, π ρ ν ρ

nell’edizione di KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 196, derivata dallo stesso Vat. gr. 752. 30 Cfr. supra, n. 6. 31 PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 369, n° 14. 32 I Regn 18:10-11. 33 I. HUTTER, Corpus der byzantinischen Miniaturenhandschriften, IV, Stuttgart 1993, p. 60: τ τ ε ρ ντι τ ν λ τ ν λ ιν π ρ ου ιουρ τ ν λ ν (vv. 5-6). 34 L. ALLATIUS, De libris et rebus ecclesiasticis Graecorum dissertationes et observationes variae, Parisiis 1643, p. 63. 35 PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 362-363, n° 3. 36 Al v. 2 (= v. 17 dell’insieme). La lezione del Taphou 53, con un errore di omofonia corretto dall’editore (cf. supra, n. 6), è riportata anche in altri codici. 37 J. B. PITRA, Analecta Sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, II, Tusculi 1884, pp. 440-441.

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f. 37v38, mentre nel Barb. gr. 340 (III 59)39, f. 14, rinveniva solo i vv. 6-12, cioè il nostro quarto componimento, inc. ο Πνε το τ ε τ λ . Un altro caso di assemblaggio di più composizioni in una40. ουε υ το π ρ ν ρ come Già Enrica Follieri considerava il più diffuso tra gli epigrammi per David41, e il nostro ο Πνε το τ ε τ λ come secondo in ordine alla diffusione, segnalando per entrambi l’attribuzione a Ignazio42, che si rinviene nell’Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., un Salterio databile al 966/96743. L’attribuzione a Ignazio — cioè Ignazio diacono di Costantinopoli e metropolita di Nicea, vissuto nel IX secolo44 — era considerata come probabile dalla studiosa, soprattutto per le particolarità metriche dei due poemetti, ma non certa, a ragione della limitata testimonianza di un solo manoscritto, all’interno di una vasta tradizione rappresentata da codici di sicura antichità45. È certo, comunque, che, come già detto, la qualità letteraria dell’ultimo epigramma è nettamente supe38 L’indicazione del Pitra — «Ex Vat. 14» — è chiarita poco prima, a p. 407 dello stesso volume, dove al “Vat. 14” (una numerazione interna all’opera del Pitra) corrisponde appunto l’Ott. gr. 398. Sul codice: E. FERON – F. BATTAGLINI, Codices manuscripti Graeci Ottoboniani Bibliothecae Vaticanae descripti, Romae 1893, pp. 209-210. 39 L’attuale segnatura del codice, che Pitra indicava con “III 59”, è appunto Barb. gr. 340: cfr. G. MERCATI, Opere minori, III, Città del Vaticano 1937 (Studi e testi, 78), p. 383, n. 3, p. 456, n. 2, che lo assegna al X secolo. In PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 363 apparato, il codice è indicato invece per una svista come Barb. 372, il famoso Salterio a illustrazioni marginali, già Barb. III 91, dove, f. 247v, è riportato un altro epigramma, edito ugualmente dal PITRA, Analecta Sacra, II, p. 441, che PARPULOV ripubblica a p. 366, n° 9. 40 In questo caso, però, l’errore del Pitra è abbastanza strano. Nell’Ott. gr. 398 i due epigrammi sono trascritti su due colonne, il primo nella colonna di sinistra, il secondo nella colonna di destra (almeno in parte). Al centro, tra le due colonne, l’indicazione λλ , di cui evidentemente il Pitra non ha tenuto conto. Al tempo stesso, la ricerca della simmetria nella presentazione del testo dei due epigrammi, il primo di 5 vv., il secondo di 7 vv., ha indotto l’amanuense a copiare, dopo il verso 5 del primo epigramma, il v. 6 del secondo, ciò che avrebbe potuto indurre in errore il Pitra nel disporre l’ordine dei versi. Forse, ma è solo un’ipotesi, in questo caso il Pitra è stato aiutato dalla disposizione dei versi del secondo epigramma nel Barb. gr. 340. È interessante comunque rilevare che una simile, se non identica, disposizione dei versi nel Sinait. gr. 11 (27), ha determinato l’errata sequenza edita nel catalogo del Beneševiç: cfr. infra, n. 80. 41 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, pp. 106-107. Cfr. PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 361, n° 1. 42 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, p. 107. 43 MARTINI – BASSI, Catalogus, I, p. 136. Il manoscritto, f. 5r, dopo il titolo οι ε τ ν (υ ) ν τ ου, riporta prima i 7 vv. di ο Πνε το τ ε τ λ , poi, contrassegnati da λλ(οι), i 5 vv. di ουε υ . 44 Sulla biografia di Ignazio, cfr. The Correspondence of Ignatios the Deacon, Text, translation and commentary by C. MANGO with the collaboration of ST. EUTHYMIADIS, Washington, D.C. 1997 (Dumbarton Oaks Texts, 11), pp. 3-24. 45 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, pp. 107-108.

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riore a quella dei tre precedenti, anche se di livello non spregevole si può considerare anche il terzo. L’argomento dei 7 versi richiama alla lontana lo stesso episodio biblico del precedente, ma soprattutto deriva dalle espressioni metaforiche dei Salmi, con il richiamo ai τ λ (archi e frecce), che troviamo tante volte nei versi del Salmista, insieme al verbo τε ν , che indica il gesto di tendere l’arco, associato a quello di muovere, percuotere, ιν , le corde della lira. Le armi (arco e frecce) divine dello Spirito avendo impugnato (teso) David con il canto dei salmi (con la lira che accompagna il canto dei salmi), ogni assalto di dèmoni colpisce, ferisce, scaccia e rovescia, mentre ogni mente di fedeli innalza (fa volare) verso Dio, e la solleva dai desideri terreni (che strisciano a terra) verso la vera (nelle azioni) salvezza spirituale.

La traduzione non rende giustizia alla densità metaforica del greco, ma è chiaro che questo epigramma è più ricercato di quelli che lo precedono. Per quanto riguarda la metrica di questi poemetti, essa è quella ben nota del trimetro giambico o dodecasillabo bizantino46. Trattandosi di epigrammi eterogenei, opera certamente di autori diversi, non è il caso di soffermarsi troppo nella ricerca di caratteri comuni. Ciò che si può rilevare è che tutti i componimenti hanno versi di dodici sillabe, con l’accento sulla penultima. Le pause interne, dopo la quinta o dopo la settima sillaba, sono regolari, con una netta prevalenza della pausa dopo la quinta sillaba. È sempre rispettata la legge di Hilberg, che vieta l’accento sulla sillaba che precede la pausa eftemimera: l’unica apparente eccezione, al v. 3 del secondo epigramma, è giustificata dal fatto che per i bizantini le particelle monosillabiche (in questo caso ) erano considerate come enclitiche. Tranne che nel terzo epigramma, dove l’accento prima della pausa pentemimera è sempre sulla quinta sillaba (ma su un totale di tre versi non si possono individuare regole precise di comportamento), l’accento del primo emistichio con pausa pentemimera si può trovare sia sulla quinta sillaba, sia sulla quarta (è il caso più frequente), e tre volte (v. 5 del primo e vv. 4 e 5 del secondo epigramma)47 sulla terza, cioè la terzultima prima della pau46 Rimando ai fondamentali studi di P. MAAS, Der byzantinische Zwölfsilber, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 12 (1903), pp. 278-323, e di I. HILBERG, Ein Accentgesetz der byzantinischen Jambographen, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 7 (1898), pp. 337-365. 47 Il primo caso (v. 5 del primo epigramma: ρ ἐ τιν) risulta, in verità, incerto, per il trattamento disomogeneo delle enclitiche in età bizantina. Infatti almeno due manoscritti (cfr. app.) e l’edizione di PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, hanno τιν accentato.

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sa, un tipo di accentazione sempre più evitata, col tempo, dai giambografi bizantini, e che scomparirà quasi del tutto in età più tarda, con l’evoluzione accentuativa dell’antico trimetro giambico, che finirà per diventare un dodecasillabo con accenti (quasi) fissi sulla quinta e sull’undicesima sillaba. Quanto alle regole prosodiche, è frequente la lunga irrazionale nelle sedi dispari, ma costante è anche il rispetto della prosodia classica, persino nelle sillabe con vocali dicrone ( , ι, υ) e all’interno della parola. Come nel primo epigramma, nella chiusa parossitona dei primi due versi: π λ ι, con breve, ει con υ breve, o, nello stesso secondo verso, lo ι breve di ιλ ν ρ πο . O nel secondo epigramma, v. 1: π υ , con υ lunga, o nell’ultimo verso del quarto: υ ι ν, ancora con υ lunga. Invece, nel primo verso del terzo epigramma, ιν ρ ν presenta la prima sillaba, breve secondo la prosodia classica, in posizione che richiede una lunga, probabilmente perché la parola — ineludibile in quel contesto48 — è considerata come un termine tecnico. Un comportamento così rispettoso delle norme fa sì che, se alla fine del 3° verso del primo epigramma, sia il codice Vaticano sia quello di Gerusalemme presentano un dittongo all’undicesima sillaba, προ ε , con una lunga proibita in quella sede, è necessario correggere con προ , identico nel significato e nella pronuncia49. Da notare ancora una divergenza tra i vari epigrammi nel trattamento della muta + liquida. Al v. 3 del secondo poemetto, in ε ρ ον, muta + liquida non rendono breve la sillaba precedente. In un frammento sinaitico troviamo un più ricercato ε οτον50: lezione dell’autore, o correzione di copista colto? Difficile dirlo, così come è difficile dare una eccessiva importanza alla positio debilis, perché nella metrica bizantina il trattamento di muta + liquida non è uniforme, tanto che si può trovare uno stesso autore che a distanza di pochi versi, o di poche parole, si comporta in maniera differente51. Al v. 4 del quarto epigramma, invece, in τιτρ ει, muta + liquida fanno positio debilis. Anche muta + nasale creano positio debilis al v. 2 del terzo epigramma — ευ ε πνε — mentre al v. 6 del secondo epigramma πνε το , muta + nasale si trova in una sede dispari dove può esserci sia un giambo sia uno spondeo. 48

Cfr. I Regn 16:16.23; 18:10. Soltanto il Laur. Plut. IX, 3, f. 354v, riporta correttamente προ , mentre altri testimoni (cfr. app. crit.) presentano il dittongo nell’undicesima sillaba. 50 19 : cf. supra, n. 28, e infra, n. 68, e PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 365 app. 51 Singolare è l’esempio di libertà nell’uso della positio debilis, tratto da un verso di Giovanni Geometra, e riportato da FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, p. 109, n. 4. 49

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Resta da dire, solo un accenno, dell’epoca di composizione del «poema», o meglio, dei quattro epigrammi. Nel testo non vi è nulla che consenta di risalire a una datazione precisa. Sappiamo che almeno uno degli epigrammi è presente in un manoscritto datato di relativa antichità (X secolo)52, e che altri manoscritti che li riportano sono datati, per le loro caratteristiche paleografiche, al X e persino al IX-X secolo, ma nulla, nemmeno l’ipotetica attribuzione a Ignazio diacono, ci consente di anticipare quella data. Mentre, ad esempio, i due carmi sul Salterio editi da Enrica Follieri53 denunciano, nelle particolarità metriche l’uno54 e nelle scelte linguistiche l’altro55, una data relativamente precoce, quando cioè le regole del dodecasillabo bizantino non sono ancora del tutto fissate, nel nostro caso ciò non avviene, e, d’altronde, l’età dei manoscritti che li tramandano parte dal X secolo, e giunge, per ciò che ci riguarda, coi due Salteri Vat. gr. 752 e Taphou 53, alla metà dell’XI secolo, un’età, cioè, in cui le regole del trimetro giambico bizantino sono ormai standardizzate. Si tratta di prodotti ben confezionati, corretti nella lingua e nel metro, che, anche nel sistema di aggregazione di poesie diverse, rispondono all’uso dei tempi, senza il segno di particolari interventi sugli epigrammi da parte di chi li ha messi insieme, che, contrariamente a quanto si potrebbe sospettare di fronte al risultato di questo «poema-Frankenstein», non aveva intenzione di confondere il lettore, ma si adeguava a una prassi abbastanza diffusa56. Nulla a che vedere, insomma, con la personalizzazione esclusiva di un epigramma come quello premesso al Marc. gr. Z 17, il Salterio di Basilio II, o, per restare nello stesso ambiente, con il raffinato poemetto del Menologio Vat. gr. 1613, commissionato dallo stesso imperatore57. Ma queste sono considerazioni e preferenze di oggi. Per un bizantino, riprodurre o imitare l’opera altrui non è segno di sciatteria o di povertà di idee. Anzi, inserire uno o più prodotti letterari di buona fattura e di collaudato successo, è un segno di attenzione e di rispetto verso la materia trascritta nel codice. Per dare un’idea del modo in cui il Vat. gr. 752 tramanda i versi premessi 52

Cfr. supra, n. 43. Cfr. supra, nn. 15 e 17. 54 FOLLIERI, Un carme giambico, pp. 108-114. 55 EAD., L’ordine dei versi, p. 66 e n. 52. 56 Cfr. supra, n. 9 e passim. 57 Su questi epigrammi e sulla bibliografia relativa, cfr. A. ACCONCIA LONGO, El poema introductorio en dodecasílabos bizantinos, in El «Menologio de Basilio II». Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1613. Libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, a cura di F. D’AIUTO, ed. spagnola I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, Città del Vaticano – Atenas – Madrid 2008 (Colección Scriptorium, 18), pp. 77-90. 53

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al Salterio, ritengo sia sufficiente una riproduzione fotografica del f. 17r-v del manoscritto (fig. 1-2). Ma nel pubblicarne il testo, preferisco dividere l’uno dall’altro i singoli epigrammi, confrontandone le lezioni con quelle degli altri codici che mi è stato possibile, in vario modo, consultare. Durante la stesura del presente articolo, ho consultato direttamente il Vat. gr. 75258, l’ Ott. gr. 39859, il Barb. gr. 34060, il Vat. gr. 186661, il Vat. gr. 184862 e il Pal. gr. 36763, cioè tutti i codici ora conservati alla Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Attraverso microfilm, pure disponibili presso la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ho controllato gli Ambros. gr. + 2464, B 106 sup.65 e H 60 sup.66. Ho potuto controllare il testo dei quattro epigrammi nel codice di Gerusalemme Taphou 53, edito da Papadopoulos-Kerameus67, in una riproduzione fotografica dei ff. 13r-14r, fornita da Barbara Crostini, che ringrazio. La diversa recensione del secondo epigramma contenuta nel Sinait. gr. 19 (sec. X), è tratta dalla descrizione di P. G. Nikolopoulos e dalla tav. 58 del volume68. Quella del terzo epigramma, nell’Oxon. Christ Church 42 (inizio XII sec.), deriva dall’edizione di Irmgard Hutter69. 58

Cfr. supra, n. 1. Cfr. supra, nn. 38 e 40. 60 Cfr. supra, n. 39. Oltre al nostro quarto epigramma, al f. 14r, ο πνε το , il codice ne riporta un altro, ττι προ τ ν, cfr. PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 364, n° 6. 61 Cfr. supra, n. 24. Il codice riporta tre epigrammi dei nostri: al f. 17v il primo, π ντ ον, al f. 71v il quarto, ο πνε το , al f. 76r il secondo, υιτι π υ . 62 Cfr. CANART, Codices, pp. 319-320. Il manoscritto è del XII secolo, ma l’epigramma ο πνε το è aggiunto nel margine inferiore del f. 94r da una mano del XIII-XIV secolo. 63 Cfr. H. STEVENSON, Codices manuscripti Palatini Graeci Bibliothecae Vaticanae, Romae 1885, pp. 229-235. Data il manoscritto agli anni 1317-1320 P. CANART, Un style d’écriture livresque dans les manuscrits chypriotes du XIVe siècle: la chypriote «bouclée», in La Palégraphie grecque et byzantine. Paris 21-25 octobre 1974 (C.N.R.S. Colloque international n° 559), Paris 1977, pp. 303-321, rist. in ID., Études de Paléographie et de Codicologie, I, Città del Vaticano 2008 (Studi e testi, 450), pp. 341-359. Cfr. anche ibid., II (Studi e testi, 451), p. 1328, l’ Index des témoignages écrits. Al f. 139r il codice riporta il nostro secondo epigramma, inc. υιτι π υ . 64 Cfr. supra, n. 23. Contiene al f. 7v il primo epigramma, al f. 8v il quarto, e al f. 193r i primi 3 vv. del secondo epigramma, trascritti con particolare cura, sempre in colonna e in maiuscole. L’ultimo, che chiude il manoscritto, è circondato da una cornice ornata, ed è ripreso da una mano tarda in un foglio di guardia all’inizio del codice. 65 Cfr. supra, n. 43: è questo il bel manoscritto che al f. 5r attribuisce a Ignazio il nostro quarto epigramma, ο πνε το , e il ben noto ουε υ . 66 Cfr. supra, n. 9, dove sono elencati i 7 componimenti presenti nel manoscritto. 67 Cfr. supra, nn. 2 e 4. 68 Cfr. supra, n. 28. 69 Cfr. supra, n. 33. 59

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La consultazione del foglio 1r-v, aggiunto (sec. XVI) al Monac. gr. 25270, è avvenuta tramite internet, così come quella del Laur. Plut. IX, 371. Infine, grazie a Francesco D’Aiuto72, ho potuto confrontare il testo degli epigrammi nei Paris. gr. 1273, Paris. gr. 16474, Paris. gr. 16875 e nel tardo Paris. gr. 2743 (XVI sec.), che riporta un epigramma simile, ma non uguale, al secondo epigramma di questa serie76. E, sempre Francesco D’Aiuto, con la generosa disponibilità che lo distingue, ha controllato per me, presso l’Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (IRHT) del CNRS di Parigi, le riproduzioni del Sinait. gr. 2277, 70 Alla descrizione di I. HARDT, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Regiae Bavaricae. Codices Graecos, III, Monachii 1806, pp. 49-50, che data la parte membranacea del manoscritto al sec. X, si aggiunga ora quella di K. HAJDÚ, Catalogus codicum manu scriptorum Bibliothecae Monacensis, T. 2, Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München Bd. 4: Codices graeci Monacenses 181-265, Wiesbaden 2012, pp. 341-344, dove è datato invece fine sec. XI. I fogli cartacei aggiunti all’inizio e alla fine sono del XVI sec. Al f. 1r sono riportati insieme, come fossero un solo componimento di 12 vv., dopo la rubrica οι ε τ λτ ριον, i due epigrammi ουε υ e περ τ πνε , e al f. 1v, con la precisazione τ οι τεροι, il nostro quarto epigramma ο πνε το . È la stessa sequenza dell’edizione di PARPULOV, Toward a History, pp. 361-362, nni 1-3, che si rinviene anche in altri manoscritti: cfr. nn. 77 e 81. Alla fine del codice, sempre da una mano tarda è trascritto l’epigramma λτι ν ρ ρο , PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 365, n° 7. 71 Cfr. supra, n. 12. 72 A Francesco D’Aiuto devo anche le datazioni e le descrizioni dei manoscritti che seguono. 73 Il codice fu trascritto nel 1419 dal copista Matteo monaco: cfr. RGK 2A, pp. 141-142. Al f. Br-v si legge una serie di 6 componimenti, il primo dei quali, preceduto dal titolo τ (οι), è il carme edito qui al quarto posto, ο πνε το , seguito, con la segnalazione in margine τερ(οι), dal carme υιτι π υ (4 vv.: cfr. nn. 27 e 81). Seguono, separati da indicazioni in margine: ἐ ρ τυνε, edito per la prima volta da PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 394, n° 55, e i già citati ουε υ (p. 361, n° 1), υ ελ οντι (p. 368, n° 13), περ τ πνε (p. 362, n° 2). 74 Salterio della fine dell’XI secolo, dove al f. 5r-v si legge una serie di 4 epigrammi: il primo, senza titolo, è il quarto di questa edizione, ο πνε το ; segue, senza separazione, come fosse una sola poesia, ν ε λ λον τ ττι (= PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 363, n° 4); quindi, dopo il titolo λλ υ , un epigramma di 18 vv., inc. ν τ νευρ τε ν , (pp. 366-367, n° 10); e, a f. 5v, col titolo λλ τερ ρ inc. ο ολο ε λ ου (pp. 367-368, n° 11): il terzo (che riporta il nome dell’amanuense Eutimio monaco) e il quarto epigramma sono tramandati solo da questo manoscritto. 75 Salterio commentato dell’XI-XII secolo, dove al f. 1r si trova il quarto epigramma della nostra serie: il testo è quasi illeggibile, e le poche parole che si distinguono non apportano novità rispetto al resto della tradizione. Ritengo perciò inutile riportarne le lezioni in apparato, quando l’unica lezione degna di nota è alla fine del v. 3, dove, invece di ἐν ντ ν, si legge ν ι ν ν, una lezione presente in molti dei manoscritti consultati. 76 Sono 10 vv., contro i 6 vv. del nostro, inc. ιτι ν π υ λτο τ ν: cfr. supra, n. 28. 77 Della prima metà dell’XI secolo, dove al f. 2v una mano più tarda, forse del XII secolo,

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dell’Athon. Xenophontos 778 e dello Hierosol. S. Sepulcri (Taphou) 45 (XIII o XIV sec.)79. Nel catalogo di Beneševiç sono pubblicati gli epigrammi sul Salterio dai codici Sinait. gr. 11 (27)80 e Sinait. gr. 163381. E, naturalmente, il libro di Parpulov, con l’edizione in appendice di tutti ha aggiunto la sequenza, già nota (cfr. supra, n. 70), dei tre carmi: 1) ουε υ , 2) περ , e, introdotto dalla rubrica λλοι, 3) ο πνε το , cioè il quarto della nostra serie. 78 Forse del XIII secolo. Alla fine del f. 5v è trascritto in maiuscola epigrafica il quarto epigramma di questa edizione, ο πνε το , che qui consta di soli 3 vv.: dopo i primi 2, in fondo alla pagina, il copista ha trascritto (evidentemente per chiudere) un terzo verso inappropriato, ἐ τρ πει π ντ τ ν π ντ ρ , che somiglia al v. 4 dell’epigramma το προ του (PARPULOV, Toward a History, p. 381, n° 30), ο ε π ντ τ ν π ντ ρ . 79 Cfr. PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθ κη, I, pp. 125-126, che assegna il codice all’XI secolo, mentre secondo F. D’Aiuto esso è del XIII o XIV secolo, in scrittura arcaizzante. Tra i carmi trascritti ai ff. 11v-12v, vi si legge (f. 12r) un epigramma di tre versi, che costituisce una variante del secondo epigramma qui edito, non solo per il numero dei versi, ma anche per il diverso incipit: ο ι ν ν π υ λτο τ ν. 80 V. BENEŠEVIÇ, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Graecorum qui in Monasterio Sanctae Catharinae in Monte Sina asservantur, 3 voll., Petropoli 1911-1917, I, pp. 22-23. Il codice è dell’anno 1452, come indica la sottoscrizione metrica del sacerdote Marco Paulopoulos. A p. 22, Beneševiç pubblica i carmi ουε υ e ο πνε το , che tante volte abbiamo trovato appaiati nei manoscritti (cfr. supra, n. 43 e passim), in una disposizione errata, che evidentemente è determinata da un ulteriore esempio di un particolare «ordine dei versi» adottato nel manoscritto, destinato a ingannare gli editori moderni. Infatti nell’edizione, che pubblica senza separazione, come fossero uno solo, i due epigrammi, ai 5 vv. di ουε υ , seguono gli ultimi due versi (6-7) di ο πνε το , che poi continua con i 5 vv. iniziali. Una possibile spiegazione è che nel manoscritto i due carmi siano copiati su due colonne, il primo su quella di sinistra, con i versi disposti in verticale, uno sotto l’altro, e il secondo sulla colonna di destra. Ma, essendo il secondo di 7 vv., i 2 vv. che eccedono la misura del primo sono stati copiati, per risparmiare spazio, su ambedue le colonne: il v. 6 a sinistra e il v. 7 a destra. Se questa ipotetica ricostruzione (non ho infatti visto il codice) corrisponde alla realtà, si può aggiungere un altro schema a quelli ricostruiti a suo tempo da Enrica Follieri (cfr. supra, n. 15) per decrittare testi apparentemente incomprensibili. Indicando con “a” i versi del primo epigramma e con “b” quelli del secondo, lo schema potrebbe essere: 1a 1b 2a 2b 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 6b 7b Ai due epigrammi segue (p. 23 del catalogo) la sottoscrizione metrica del prete Marco Paulopoulos, inc. ιε υ προ τ το υρ ου, che consta di 9 vv., di cui 5 dodecasillabi aprosodici, e 4 maldestri tentativi metrici ibridi (il v. 8 sembra un decapentasillabo) nei quali l’autore ha dovuto racchiudere, faticosamente, il proprio nome, i titoli e le indicazioni cronologiche. 81 BENEŠEVIÇ, Catalogus, III. I, pp. 113-114. Il Sinait. 1633, del XVI secolo, al f. 1r riporta, col titolo οι ε τ λτ ριον, tre carmi, i primi due — ουε υ e περ τ πνε — di seguito, come fossero un solo epigramma e, preceduto dal titolo τ οι τεροι, il carme ο

τ πνε

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i carmi sul Salterio finora noti, è stato una guida preziosa per conoscere la complessa tradizione manoscritta dei versi. Sigla V T A Aa Ab B H L M O P Pa Pb S Sm Va Vb X

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Vat. gr. 752 Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 Ambros. + 24 Ambros. B 106 sup. Ambros. H 60 sup. Barb. gr. 340 Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 45 Laur. Plut. IX, 3 Monac. gr. 252 Ott. gr. 398 Vat. Pal. gr. 367 Paris. gr. 12 Paris. gr. 164 Sinait. gr. 22 Sinait. gr. 19 Vat. gr. 1866 Vat. gr. 1848 Athon. Xenophontos 7

(sec. XI) (sec. XI) (sec. X) (a. 996/997) (sec. XIII) (sec. X in.) (sec. XIII-XIV) (sec. X) (f. add. sec. XVI) (sec. XI) (a. 1317-1320) (a. 1419) (sec. XI ex.) (sec. XI) (sec. X) (sec. XIV) (sec. XII, m. add. XIII-XIV) (sec. XIII)

Bandini = BANDINI, Catalogus, I, p. 390, ex Laur. Plut. IX, 3 Beneševiç I = BENEŠEVIÇ, Catalogus, I, p. 22, ex Sinait. 11 (27) (a. 1452) Beneševiç III = BENEŠEVIÇ, Catalogus, III.1, pp. 113-114, ex Sinait. 1633 (sec. XVI) Hutter = HUTTER, CBM, IV. I, p. 60, ex Oxon. Christ Church gr. 42 (sec. XII) Nikolopoulos = NIKOLOPOULOS, α ε ρ ματα το ι , p. 145, ex Sinait. gr. 19 Papadopoulos-Kerameus = PAPADOPOULOS-KERAMEUS, Ἱεροσολυμιτικὴ Βιβλιοθ κη, I, pp. 131-132, ex cod. Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 (a. 1053/1054) Parpulov = PARPULOV, Toward a History. Pitra = PITRA, Analecta Sacra, II, pp. 440-441, ex Ott. gr. 398 et Barb. gr. 340 De Wald = DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 752, p. XII, ex Vat. gr. 752

πνε

το : è la stessa sequenza e la stessa disposizione dei versi che si rinviene nel Monac. gr. 252 e nel Sinait. 22 (cfr. supra, nn. 70 e 77).

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Epigrammata in Psalterium 1

π ντ ον ἐν λ τ ν ν ν ιλ ν ρ τ τι ου ποτ προ πρ ττε τ ρ ντι ε ἐν ο ρ ἐ τιν ροτ ν τ

π λ ι πο ει τ ν ρ .

Codd.: V, T, L, A, Va Edd.: De Wald, Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Bandini, Parpulov ποτ : ποτ(ου) (sic!) De Wald | προ L Bandini: προ ε V T A Va De Wald 3 Papadopoulos-Kerameus Parpulov 5 ρ ἐ τιν: ρ τιν T Va Papadopoulos-Kerameus | τ ρ :- νT

2

Δ υιτι π υ λτο τ ν, ρου τ ρ ντι ρτ τον λ ο ε ρ ον ριν τ ε τ ν ν νου ιν ε λε τ ν ρ ν το λ που ιν ἐν εε τ του ν λλου ι πνε το ορ ν.

Codd.: V, T, A, Ab, H, P, Pa, Sm, Va Edd.: De Wald, Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Nikolopoulos, Parpulov υ H tit. ε 1 υιτι : ο ι ν ν H 4-6 ν νου ιν – ορ ν: om. A H Va, ο ν νε ιν το ἐ ν (νου ιν) Sm Nikolopoulos, λ ιν λ τ ν τ το ελετ ι Pa 5 το : το Ab 6 λλου ι : -ου ιν T | : Ab

3

ιν ν υ ἐ ελ τ ν ιν ρ ν, τ τ ν ο λ ευ ε πνε υ τρ ον οντε ε λ ι τ του λ ου ἐ ρ ν νο τ ν υ π το εν τ ρ .

Cod.: V, T Edd.: De Wald, Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Hutter, Parpulov 1 ante ιν ν add. λλ V De Wald, λλ T (cfr. supra, p. 166) post v. 4 add. Hutter (vv. 5-6) τ τ ε ρ ντι τ ν λ τ ν / λ ιν π ρ ου, ιουρ τ ν λ ν.

4

ο πνε το τ ε τ λ τε ν υ λ ο ιν τ λ ρ , π ν ντ προ ολ ν ν ι ει ι ει τρ λλει, τιτρ πι τ ν π ν πρ ε ν πτερο τ ν ερπ ν ἐ νι τ ροντ πρ τ ν ἐν ρ οι υ ι ν τ ρ

ν ν πει, ρ ν ν ν.

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Codd.: V, T, A, Aa, Ab, B, M, O, Pa, Pb, S, Va, Vb, X Edd.: De Wald, Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Pitra, Beneševiç I, Beneševiç III, Parpulov ο οι ε τ ν (υ ) ν τ ου Aa οι B τ οι τεροι M Beneševiç III τ (οι) tit. οι ε τ ν λον τ ν λ ν X Pa λλ O λλοι S ante v. 1 refert vv. 6-7 Beneševiç I (cfr. supra, n. 80) 2 λ ο ιν τ λ ρ : λ ο ν τ ν (sic) λ ρ T, λ ο ν τον λ ρ ν Va Papadopoulos-Kerameus, λ ο ιν τ( ν) λ ρ ν Pb 3-7 π ν– τ ρ ν: ἐ τρ πει π ντ τ ν π ντ ρ X 3 ν : τ ν Ab | ν ι ν ν : ἐν ντ ν V T M Pb S Beneševiç I Papadopoulos-Kerameus 4 λλει : λλ ν Aa, λλει Beneševiç I 5 π ν : π ντ ν V T M Beneševiç III Papadopoulos-Kerameus | ρ ν : ρ ν V T Papadopoulos-Kerameus 6 ἐ νι τ : ἐ ι τ (sic) Ab, ἐ πνι τ Parpulov | ροντ ν : ροντ Ab, ροντ ( ) O, ροντ Parpulov

Traduzione 1

Un tempo con la parola creasti l’intero mondo82, e ora lo salvi poiché sei benevolo per natura; con la tua salvifica provvidenza, o Signore, assisti lo scriba e il committente83: in te riposa infatti la salvezza dei mortali.

2

Io sono il libro dei Salmi di David: a chi mi ha scritto arreco eccellente fama84, gioia di letture divine a chi mi possiede85, a coloro che mi studiano animo glorioso, a quelli che mi guardano menti piene di ardore divino, e a chi esegue il canto il dono dello spirito.

3

Col suono melodioso della cetra, David86 sfuggì allo spirito che avvolgeva Saul87: noi, cantando le parole dei Salmi88, insieme calpestiamo le teste dei nemici spirituali.

82

Cfr. Gen 1, 1ss. Alla lettera «chi ha scritto e chi ha comprato», sottinteso «il libro». 84 Si noti il gioco di parole ρου / ρτ τον. 85 Anche qui il termine indica chi ha sostenuto le spese, ha comprato, commissionato il libro. Da notare il chiasmo dei vv. 2-3, mentre parallela è la costruzione dei vv. 4-6. 86 Alla lettera «Muovendo David melodicamente la cetra». 87 Cfr. I Regn 16:16.23; 18:10. Nell’epigramma, si usa il verbo υ τρ , «avvolgere»; nel testo biblico, πν , «soffocare». Lo spirito maligno che soffocava Saul, nel secondo episodio lo spinge a impugnare la lancia contro David, che evita la morte suonando la cetra. 88 Probabilmente l’espressione, difficile da tradurre, si rifà alla definizione di λ come canto che si esegue accompagnando le parole con uno strumento musicale: cfr. G. W. H. LAMPE, A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Oxford 1961, s. v. λ . 83

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4

Tesi gli archi e scoccati i dardi divini dello spirito89 con la lira suonata al canto dei salmi, David, mentre ogni assalto di demoni rovescia, ferisce, mette in fuga, respinge90, ogni anima di fedeli fa volare verso Dio e la solleva dagli affanni terreni91 verso la vera salvezza spirituale92.

89 Nei Salmi è frequente l’espressione τ ον τε νειν, «tendere l’arco» (Ps 7:13; 10:2; 36:14; 57:8), mentre insieme a λο «dardo, freccia», si trovano verbi come λλειν «scagliare». Altrove, però, è testimoniato anche il nesso λ τε νειν, «scoccare dardi». 90 Allusione all’episodio in cui Saul, in preda al demone, cerca di uccidere David, ma viene placato dal suono della cetra dello stesso David (si veda più sopra alla terza strofa). E, insieme, a tutti quei luoghi dei Salmi in cui David invoca l’aiuto superiore di Dio contro i nemici. Ad esempio Ps 43:7: «... non nel mio arco pongo fiducia, né dalla mia spada attendo la salvezza...». 91 ερπ è detto di rettili che strisciano a terra, e, come in questo caso, serve a dare un significato negativo a tutto ciò che appartiene al mondo. 92 Riproduco qui la traduzione libera, più attenta al significato, proposta nell’introduzione: «Le armi (arco e frecce) divine dello Spirito avendo impugnato (teso) David con il canto dei salmi (con la lira che accompagna il canto dei salmi), ogni assalto di dèmoni colpisce, ferisce, scaccia e rovescia, mentre ogni mente di fedeli innalza (fa volare) verso Dio, e la solleva dai desideri terreni (che strisciano a terra) verso la vera salvezza spirituale».

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CODEX VAT. GR. 752: SOME REMARKS ABOUT ITS PICTORIAL PROGRAMME AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT Vat. gr. 752 poses great difficulties to the modern scholar who tries to unlock its secrets. We can be reasonably certain that it was produced shortly before 1059 because the Paschal tables begin with this year.1 However, no colophon informs us where and by whom it was copied and illuminated. Nor is it easy to establish the rationale behind its iconographical programme, because the content of the depicted scenes is highly idiosyncratic, and relation between those scenes and the texts is hardly ever straightforward. The predominant theme appears to be penitence, but the co-authors of David and singers of the Psalter, Heman, Jeduthun and the sons of Kore, are also given a prominent role. In addition, we find numerous scenes where Old Testament figures, such as the spies whom Saul sent after David interact with Christian saints. The intertwining of these three themes suggests that the designers of the manuscript wished to convey a particular message. However, it is not at all obvious what this message might be. Thus, it is not surprising that the manuscript has so far attracted little attention. The only study exclusively dedicated to it is an article by Ioli Kalavrezou, Nicolette Trahoulia and Shalom Sabar, who argue that many scenes contain veiled criticism of the contemporary emperors Constantine IX Monomachos and Isaac I Komnenos, and that the manuscript was commissioned by partisans of patriarch Michael Keroularios and produced at the monastery of Stoudios.2 In this article, I will first offer a critique of this interpretation and then present some suggestions of my own. In their article, Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar offer a bewildering number of possible readings of particular scenes, which they then weave together into a complex argument. Therefore, I will first give a brief summary of their interpretation and only then set out my criticism of it. The three authors start from the observation that the theme of penance is pervasive in the pictorial programme of the Psalter manuscript and that David 1 2

Cf. HUTTER, Theodoros, esp. p. 201. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 179-192.

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in particular is frequently shown as a penitent.3 They then contend that, in Byzantine literature and art, David is often closely associated with the emperor and that for this reason the depictions of David in the Psalter must be understood as a veiled criticism of contemporary rulers.4 In order to make their case, they first compare David’s illicit relations with Bathseba, which are depicted in a series of images, to the affair that Constantine IX (1042-1055) had with his mistress Skleraina.5 They then broaden the scope of their inquiry to include other scenes, which show David as a penitent but which give no hints as to what David’s specific sin might have been.6 The authors argue that in these scenes, too, David represents Constantine IX, and they then make the further claim that such emphasis on penitence cannot be explained solely with the emperor’s loose morals and must therefore relate to other shortcomings, which equally became the subject of contemporary criticism.7 The search for these shortcomings leads them to the events of 1054, when the emperor entertained good relations with the papal legates, in contrast to the uncompromising stance of patriarch Michael Keroularios (1043-1058). At this point of their discussion they introduce another figure, Emperor Isaac I (1057-1059), who was engaged in a power struggle with Keroularios, a situation that resulted in the patriarch’s deposition and exile.8 They argue that if the producers of the manuscript had taken the side of Keroularios against Constantine IX, they would also have taken the patriarch’s side against Isaac I, and that the depictions of David can therefore also be interpreted as criticism of Isaac’s actions. In order to substantiate this hypothesis, the authors discuss a group of illuminations that show Old Testament figures, such as David, the spies that Saul sent out after him, and his co-authors interacting with Christian bishops. They first focus on the figure of Sylvester, who appears eight times in the manuscript, and suggest that Sylvester was chosen in order to extol the priestly office, because in the legendary account of his life he had a dominant position in his dealings with Emperor Constantine.9 In this discussion, the specific theme of Kaiserkritik is missing. The authors find it in two other scenes, which show the saints Amphilochius of Iconium and Arethas of Caesarea. They claim that Amphilochius was selected because of his courageous stance against the heretical Arian emperors and that 3

Ibid., p. 198. Ibid., p. 199. 5 Ibid., pp. 204-205. 6 Ibid., pp. 205-211. 7 Ibid., p. 211. 8 Ibid., pp. 211-212. 9 Ibid., pp. 212-215. 4

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Arethas was chosen because he attacked Leo VI for his immoral and uncanonical fourth marriage.10 Finally, they suggest that the manuscript was produced at Stoudios, whose monks were critical of Constantine’s loose morals and of his conciliatory attitude towards the Latin Church, as well as of Isaac’s treatment of Michael Keroularios.11 The interpretation proposed by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar is problematic. While Byzantine authors and artists often associated David with the emperor, this comparison cannot be taken as proof that each and every depiction of David has such a connotation. In the case of the Bathseba story, the authors can at least point to a parallel with Constantine IX, although one should not forget that when the manuscript was produced the emperor’s misconduct was no longer an issue, because he had died three years before, and his mistress had been dead for more than ten years.12 In many other scenes that show David as a penitent, the authors fail to find such parallels. Nevertheless, they take it for granted that these scenes must also represent Constantine IX. This view is based on no less than two unsubstantiated hypotheses, first that whenever a historian can associate a scene in the life of David with an event in the life of a current or recent emperor, this association must have been intended by the makers of a manuscript, and second, that this association can then be assumed for all other scenes of the same manuscript without the need for further evidence. Undaunted by these methodological problems, the authors even use the absence of other parallels as the basis for a further argument: because David is so often represented as a penitent, the producers of the manuscript cannot only have targeted Constantine’s sexual misdemeanour, but must also have alluded to his conduct during the events of 1054. At this point, an entirely different theme makes its appearance, namely the relationship between Patriarch Michael Keroularios and the successive emperors, Constantine IX and Isaac I. In this context the authors claim that the producers of the manuscript would have been even more critical of Isaac I. As a consequence, the reader must conclude that the previous depictions of David as a penitent reflect criticism not only of Constantine IX, but also of Isaac I. However, such an interpretation is only possible for those scenes that do not specify David’s sin. It cannot apply to the scenes illustrating

10

Ibid., pp. 216-218. Ibid., pp. 212, 219. 12 Cf. P. A. AGAPITOS, Public and Private Death in Psellos: Maria Skleraina and Styliane Psellaina, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 101 (2008), pp. 555-607. 11

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the Bathseba story, because unlike his predecessor, Isaac led an exemplary marriage.13 A similar problem arises when we turn to the second theme, the relationship between emperor and patriarch. While it is true that both Constantine IX and Isaac I were on bad terms with Michael Keroularios, one should not forget that they were so for quite different reasons: Constantine resented the patriarch’s uncompromising stance against the Latin Church, whereas Isaac was engaged in a power struggle with him. This discrepancy is obvious in the discussion of the images of bishops: here the authors claim that some images should be read as criticism of the Latin Church and others as criticism of imperial aggression against patriarchs. The authors maintain that all these different readings were intended by the makers of the manuscript and that they would have been understood as such by contemporary audiences. However, they offer no evidence to prove that the clues provided would have been sufficient to make the right associations and, equally importantly, to exclude possible other readings. The problems inherent in the authors’ approach can be exemplified in two illuminations that accompany Psalm 16. The first scene shows a bishop named Amphilochius whom the authors correctly identify with the fourth-century bishop of Iconium. In order to account for his presence in the manuscript, they argue that he was chosen because he defended Nicene Orthodoxy against the Arian emperors of the day and could therefore serve as a parallel for Keroularios’ opposition to Emperor Constantine’s proLatin policy.14 To lend further support to this reading, the authors then also suggest an interpretation of the figure with whom Amphilochius interacts. This figure is also dressed as a bishop, but unlike Amphilochius, he is beardless. The caption identifies him as a spy. The authors suggest that this second figure might be interpreted as a representative of the Western Church, since the Latin clergy were clean-shaven and papal emissaries to the East could have been regarded as spies by Keroularios and his clique.15 This reading of the scene is highly questionable. While it is true that Amphilochius played a role in the Arian controversy, the same can be said for virtually all saintly bishops of the fourth century. Moreover, as the authors themselves concede, Amphilochius was by no means at the forefront of the fight. If the producers of the manuscript had indeed intended to emphasize conflicts between church and state, one would have expected them to have 13

SKYLITZES CONTINUATUS, Chronographia [ συ εια της ρο ογραφ ας του τση, ed. E. Th. TSOLAKES, Thessalonike 1968, pp. 108-109]. 14 15

ου κυλ -

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 217. Ibid., p. 216.

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chosen Basil of Caesarea or Gregory of Nazianzus, who played much more important roles and were also much better known to later generations. The interpretation of Amphilochius’s interlocutor is even more problematic because beardlessness was not exclusively a marker of the Latin clergy. It was also a characteristic of eunuchs who in Byzantium could become bishops and were then depicted without beards as can be seen from the portrait of Patriarch Ignatius in St Sophia. Even more troubling is the caption. In the manuscript, the figure of the ‘spy’ belongs to a specific context: it represents the men whom Saul sent out in pursuit of David. Accordingly, such figures appear elsewhere in — identical — secular garb, even when they interact anachronistically with Christian saints.16 This means that in the scene under discussion there is a discrepancy between image and text. It could be argued that this discrepancy is intentional and serves to highlight the proposed reading of the figure as a Latin bishop. However, the (perhaps more likely) possibility should be considered that it is a straightforward mistake. Similar methodological issues arise from the authors’ interpretation of the next scene, which shows a bishop named Arethas interacting with two figures identified as Heman and Jeduthun, the co-authors of David. In this case, the authors only consider the figure of the bishop whom they identify as Arethas of Caesarea, a Byzantine churchman of the late ninth and early tenth centuries. They point out that Arethas criticised Emperor Leo VI for having taken a fourth wife and conclude that he could, therefore, serve as another example for Kaiserkritik.17 However, it is highly unlikely that a Byzantine reader would have interpreted the image in this way. Not only would Arethas of Caesarea have been a shadowy figure in the eleventh century; there is also no sign that he was ever recognised as a saint. The only well-known saint of this name was a Late Antique martyr whose Passio was included in the Metaphrastic Menologion, and who was frequently depicted on church walls.18 This Arethas was not a bishop but a layman, though one should not for this reason conclude that the writer of the caption did not have him in mind. As we have seen, this instance is not the only discrepancy between image and caption in the manuscript. Again, we can no longer establish which of the two elements is ‘wrong’. This situation raises fundamental questions about the genesis of the manuscript. Were the captions decided on before the manuscript was illuminated? Do 16

Ps 33, fol. 100v; Ps 31, fol. 94v. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 217-218. 18 Cf. Ch. WALTER, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Aldershot and Burlington 2003, pp. 196-197; and C. HØGEL, Symeon Metaphrastes. Rewriting and Canonization, Copenhagen 2002, p. 182. 17

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they reflect the initial iconographical programme, which the illuminator misunderstood when he added the respective images? Unfortunately, these questions are not at all addressed by the three authors. In their article, the authors not only attempt to decode the messages contained in the manuscript, but they also suggest a place of production: the monastery of Stoudios.19 However, this attribution, too, is not without problems, even if we accept the authors’ interpretation of the iconographical programme. The authors’ case rests on two claims: first, that the Stoudites were critical of Constantine IX’s sexual antics, and second, that they formed a close alliance with Patriarch Michael against Constantine IX and especially against Isaac I. Indeed, the authors see the manuscript as a posthumous tribute to the patriarch’s struggles for supremacy against the secular power and against the church of the West.20 To support the former claim, they point out that the Stoudite monk Nicetas Stethatos publicly upbraided Constantine IX and his mistress Skleraina.21 At first sight, this event appears to be good evidence. However, we cannot simply assume that Nicetas acted as the spokesman of his community. Quite on the contrary, he seems to have been at odds with his abbot, because he had to leave the monastery for a while in the middle of the eleventh century.22 Moreover, his promotion of the cult of Symeon the New Theologian at Symeon’s old monastery shows clearly that he often pursued his own agenda.23 Thus, it seems more likely that his criticism of the emperor was part of a strategy to establish himself as the archetypal ‘holy man’ of his time. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that the Stoudite leadership had good relations with the emperor. After Michael Keroularios struck the name of Theodore the Stoudite from the Synodikon of Orthodoxy in 1045, Abbot Michael Mermentoulos appealed to the emperor, who had this decision overturned.24 This event also casts doubt on the authors’ second contention, that Stoudios was the ‘powerhouse’ of Keroularios. As Irmgard Hutter has already pointed out, the Stoudites were repeatedly at loggerheads with the patriarch. Keroularios tried to suppress the Stoudite custom to let deacons 19

See also, in this volume, the considerations on provenance in the essay by F. D’AIUTO. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 210-219. 21 JOHN SKYLITZES, Synopsis Historiarum [Johannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum, ed. J. THURN, Berlin 1973, p. 434.] 22 NIKETAS STETHATOS, Life of Symeon the New Theologian, ch. 133: Un grand mystique byzantin. Vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien (949-1022) par Nicétas Stéthatos. Text grec inédit, ed. I. HAUSHERR, Rome 1928 (Orientalia Christiana, 12), p. 192. 23 NIKETAS STETHATOS, Life of Symeon, ch. 129, pp. 184-186. 24 JOHN SCYLITZES, Synopsis, pp. 433-435. 20

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wear belts during the liturgy because it clashed with the practice of the Great Church.25 This issue had not been resolved in the mid-1050s and was most likely still festering when the manuscript was produced.26 It is true that Nicetas Stethatos engaged the Roman legate Humbert of Silva Candida in a public debate in 1054, and that Constantine IX forced Stethatos to retract.27 However, there is no sign that Nicetas acted as spokesman of Keroularios or of his own monastery. Indeed, his humiliation suggests that this, too, was a personal initiative without official backing.28 Finally, there is no evidence that the Stoudites changed allegiances during the reign of Isaac I. We know that after his abdication, Isaac lived at Stoudios.29 The sources leave no doubt that he was not imprisoned there but became a regular member of the community. This situation suggests that Isaac and his family had good relations, probably of long standing, with the Stoudites.30 Indeed, these relations continued after Isaac’s death, because his widow Catherine was considered a friend and benefactor of the community.31 Thus, we can conclude that the authors’ interpretation of the manuscript makes it impossible for Stoudios to have been the place of production. Indeed, even if we reject this interpretation, no good evidence shows that the manuscript was actually produced at Stoudios. Irmgard Hutter has shown that there is no similarity between Vat. gr. 752 and the group of illuminated manuscripts securely attributed to Stoudios.32 The review of previous discussion has so far yielded exclusively negative results: the manuscript was not a vehicle of Kaiserkritik, and it cannot be linked to the community of Stoudios. This negative argument raises the question: is it possible to say anything at all about the intentions of those who made this manuscript (or had it made) and the context of its production? In the following, I will make some suggestions. I will first consider the 25

HUTTER, Theodoros, p. 199. PETER OF ANTIOCH, Letter to Michael Keroullarios, 17, in PG 120, cols. 807-809. 27 Cf. M. H. SMITH III, And Taking Bread … Cerularius and the Azyme Controversy of 1054, Paris 1978 (Théologie historique, 47), pp. 136-160. 28 For Nicetas’s role in the religious discourse of his time and his relations with the lay church and with his monastery, cf. D. KRAUSMÜLLER, Establishing Authority in the Constantinopolitan Religious Discourse of the Eleventh Century: Inspiration and Learning in the Writings of the Monk Nicetas Stethatos, in Networks of Learning. Perspectives on Scholars in Byzantine East and Latin West, c. 1000-1200, ed. by S. STECKEL – N. GAUL – M. GRÜNBART, Vienna – Berlin 2014, pp. 107-124. 29 SKYLITZES CONTINUATUS, p. 109. 30 Ibid., p. 110. 31 Ibid., p. 110. 32 HUTTER, Theodoros, p. 201 and n. 65. However, Hutter accepts that there might be a political dimension to the pictorial programme. 26

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anachronistic interactions of Old Testament figures and Christian saints and then offer an interpretation of the figure of Sylvester in which I largely agree with the interpretation of Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar. Before I begin, however, a word of caution is needed. In the previous discussion, we have seen that there can be discrepancies between image and caption: in two consecutive scenes, a bishop can be identified as one of Saul’s spies, and another bishop can be identified as the warrior-saint Arethas. Similar discrepancies appear in two other scenes where two figures depicted as stylites are wrongly identified as the saints Sylvester and Dositheus, who were respectively a bishop and a coenobitic monk.33 Accordingly, we cannot assume that the illuminations in the manuscript are a true reflection of the iconographical programme designed for it. Any attempt to establish the rationale(s) behind this programme must take this additional hurdle into account. The best starting point for a discussion is the striking disregard for a coherent temporal dimension. Old Testament figures interact not only with each other, but also with figures from much later historical periods. Apart from David himself, two more groups of people are singled out for this treatment: the spies whom Saul sent after him when he fled Saul’s court, and the sons of Kore, Heman and Jeduthun, who helped David to compose and perform the Psalms. In several illuminations, these figures appear in their ‘proper’ contexts. In the case of David, we find such wellknown scenes as his fight with Goliath and his dealings with Bathseba and Uriah the Hittite34; the spies are shown to watch David and to apprehend him35; and the sons of Kore, Heman and Jeduthun are represented performing the Psalms together with David.36 However, they also appear in anachronistic scenes: David twice interacts with Sylvester37; the sons of Kore interact once with the translator Aquila, once with Sylvester, and once with Dositheus38; Heman and Jeduthun interact once with Arethas39; and the spies interact once with Amphilochius and once with a stylite, who is, however, identified as Sylvester.40

33

DE WALD, p. 17. Ps 34, fol. 104r-v; Ps 50, fols 162v and 163r. 35 Ps 33, fol. 100r-v; Ps 37, fol. 128r. 36 For a list cf. DE WALD, pp. 48-49. 37 Ps 42, fol. 142v; Ps 44, fol. 148r. 38 Ps 63, fol. 195v; Ps 16, fol. 51r; Ps 93, fol. 297v. 39 Ps 16, fol. 51r; Ps 31, fol. 94v. 40 Ps 16, fol. 50v; Ps 31, fol. 94v. The stylite depicted here could well be Symeon the Stylite because Symeon also appears once more, this time correctly identified, albeit not in an 34

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In order to make sense of this data, we need to answer the following questions: what types of interactions are depicted; at what time and in what context do the figures interact; and are these interactions related to what we know about the figures otherwise. I will start the discussion with the first two illustrations of Psalm 16. The captions41 for these illustrations read ‘St Amphilochius is questioned by a spy’ ( ( ιο ) ιλ ιο( ) ἐρ τ εν(ο ) π το τ ( )π(ου)) and ‘Heman and Iduthun ask St Arethas about David’ ( νε ν ( ) ι ο ἐρ τ ν τ( ν) ιον ρ ν ι τ ν (υ ) ). In the first case, the content of the question is not mentioned, but the reference to David in the immediately following illumination suggests that the spy, too, is asking about David. After all, asking for David’s whereabouts would be in keeping with the task that Saul had given him. As a consequence, Amphilochius would be turned into an actor within the narrative of David’s life. However, such a literal interpretation causes problems. Apart from the fact that it is impossible to find a meaningful explanation for such time travel, it also seems to be at odds with the following scene since there is no indication in the Old Testament that Heman and Jeduthun ever went in search of David. An alternative interpretation would be that Heman and Jeduthun ask about the role of David in the history of salvation: after all, a Christian saint would have been able to confirm the Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah will be a descendent of David. However, we would then need to extend this interpretation to the preceding interaction between Amphilochius and the spy. At first, this relationship seems odd because in the Old Testament the spies and the co-authors of David are quite different figures. However, the two scenes contain no hint that the producers of the manuscript might have taken these differences into account. This hypothesis gains further support through interpretation of two further compositions: the last illumination of Psalm 16, whose caption reads ‘the sons of Kore making confession to St Sylvester’ [ ι ιο το ορ ἐ ορ ν ποιο ε(νοι) ε τ( ν) ιον λ ε τ(ρον)]; and a more elaborate scene next to Psalm 31 with two figures in secular dress interacting with a stylite monk and his disciple, and accompanied by the caption ‘the spies of David have turned from evil to good and go to confession: St Sylvester’ [ ι τ οπ(οι) τ(ο) (υ ) πο τρ ντ(ε ) π τ(ο) ( ο) ε τ ( ) ( ν) ( ) ε ἐ ορ ( ν) περ ενοι ( ιο ) λ ε τ(ρο )]. Here, too, the spies and David’s co-authors engage in analogous interactions. In the anachronistic scene, Ps 128, fol. 398r. Yet another monk, Andrew, is depicted immediately before, Ps 127, fol. 396v. 41 For the diplomatic transcription of these captions I rely on DE WALD.

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case of the spies, this interaction relates to their role in the Old Testament narrative. Their pursuit of the innocent David at the command of the evil king Saul can be regarded as sinful behaviour in need of expiation. However, such a reading is not possible for the co-authors of David since we know of no story that would show them engaging in sinful behaviour. This inconsistency suggests again that in the anachronistic scenes the Old Testament figures are not presented as individuals with different biographies. The absence of a narrative framework draws attention to what the spies and David’s co-authors have in common: they both lived before the coming of Christ. This commonality is emphasised by the fact that they all interact with figures representing the church that Christ founded through his salvific mission, monks and bishops. Such juxtaposition in turn draws attention to a crucial difference between the old and the new covenant, namely, the sacrament of confession, which Christ instituted through his promise to forgive those who confess to the Apostles and to their successors. Thanks to this sacrament, those who disclose their sins and show contrition can be assured of absolution, whereas in the old covenant such assurance was not possible. Thus, one could argue that the author highlights this ‘deficiency’ of the Jewish religion by taking Old Testament figures out of their temporal and spatial context in order to let them reap the benefits of Christ’s mission on earth. So far, we have focused on two groups of Old Testament figures, the spies who pursued David and the men who helped him to compose and perform the Psalter. However, David himself is also shown twice to interact with a Christian saint, in both cases the bishop Sylvester. Indeed, the two scenes are virtually identical. Accompanied by one or more figures, David stands to the left of a bishop who is positioned in front of an altar. The captions read in the first case, ‘David saying to St Sylvester: You have helped me and have hidden me’ (λ ν (υ ) τ ν ιον λ ε τρον τι ἐ ο ε π ρυ ε), and in the second, ‘St Sylvester to David: This one writing about the heart of those who believe in him’ ( ιο( ) λ ε τρο( ) τ( ν) (υ ) . ρ ν ο το πε(ρ ) τ ρ ( ) τ ν πι τευ ντ( ν) ε τ( ν)). Both captions are taken from the commentary of Pseudo-Athanasius, i.e. Hesychius of Jerusalem, De titulis psalmorum.42 The meaning of these quotations is not clear. However, it should be noted that the theme of confession is absent. That theme is not mentioned in the captions, and in the images, David is not presented as a penitent. While he bends his head slightly in the first illumination, he stands bolt upright in the second. That the two figures address one another rather gives the 42

Cf. DE WALD, p. 25.

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impression of a dialogue. They might represent the old and the new covenants, but this possibility is not more than speculation. That David interacts only with Sylvester, but not with the other Christian saints may well be significant. That exclusivity reflects the prominent role that the bishop of Rome plays in the manuscript. As Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar point out, his name appears no less than eight times.43 We have already seen him interact with the sons of Kore in the illumination next to Psalm 16. In the illumination next to Psalm 94, he leads a group of people to a sanctuary.44 Here, too, a link with David’s co-authors is likely because the immediately preceding illumination shows the sons of Kore.45 However, this link is less close than one might suppose, and the caption ‘St Sylvester speaks to the people’ [ ( ιο ) λ ε τρο( ) λ ( ει) πρ ( ) τ (ν) λ ( ν)] puts greater emphasis on Sylvester’s priestly function as an instructor of the Christian flock. This focus on Sylvester’s role as a bishop is even more pronounced in the illuminations next to Psalm 62.46 In the first of these illuminations, he baptises a catechumen, and in the second scene, he administers the eucharist. The two captions ‘St Sylvester enlightening those who sit in the dark’ [ ι(ο ) λ (ε τρο ) τ( ) ν το ἐν τ( ) ( νου )] and ‘and going to the eternal light: St Sylvester’ [( ) περ ( ενοι) ε τ( ) ( )τ (νιον): ( ιο ) λ ε τρο( )] clearly form a continuous text and suggest that communion is given to a group of newly-baptised. As Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar have already pointed out, elsewhere in the manuscript Christ is shown to perform the same acts.47 These parallels explain how the bishop’s role is grounded in the new covenant that was established by Christ. At the same time, the depiction in Psalm 104, which shows Sylvester in front of the Ark of the Covenant, emphasises his role as heir of the Jewish high priests.48 The numerous depictions of Sylvester baptising, celebrating the Eucharist, and hearing confession are without doubt meant to define and to extol the role of bishops. However, this emphasis does not yet explain why the designers of the manuscript would have chosen Sylvester for this purpose and not, for example, Amphilochius, who in the one scene in which he ap43 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 212; one of these, however, refers to a stylite, see above note 38. 44 Ps 94, fol. 298v. 45 Ps 94, fol. 298r. 46 Ps 62, fol. 193r-v. 47 Ps 7, fols 29v and 30r, cf. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 214. 48 Ps 104, fol. 322v.

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pears does not perform priestly functions. Constantinople did not possess churches dedicated to Sylvester, nor are relics ever mentioned. Indeed, no Lives of Sylvester are included in Byzantine menologia, and that absence confirms the complete lack of a cult. A possible interpretation is offered by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar.49 They draw attention to the Donation of Constantine, a forged document from the early sixth century, according to which the emperor relinquished the Western half of the empire to the popes of Rome. The supposed recipient of this forgery was Sylvester. At first sight, this tradition seems to make Sylvester a rather unattractive figure for the Byzantines, who were very wary of Western claims to supremacy. However, the Donation of Constantine also provided a general template for the relationship between church and state, and thus could have been used to elevate the status of the Eastern hierarchy. As I have mentioned earlier, Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar argued more specifically that this agenda was devised by Patriarch Michael Keroularios who made great efforts to enhance his role vis-à-vis the emperors Constantine IX and Isaac I.50 A similar interpretation had already been proposed in an earlier article by Romilly Jenkins and Ernst Kitzinger, who made the case that a processional cross bearing a depiction of Constantine the Great and Sylvester was commissioned by Keroularios in order to express his views of the patriarchal office.51 The date of production of the manuscript, shortly after Keroularios’s fall, is indeed suggestive. However, there is no evidence that the manuscript was designed by supporters of Keroularios. It needs also to be emphasised that this manuscript contains no scenes that could be understood as reflections of a controversy between Keroularios, Constantine IX and Isaac I. According to the interpretation of Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar, the two scenes in which David and Sylvester appear together should reflect the views of the makers of the manuscript about the proper relationship between emperor and patriarch. However, as we have already seen, the topic of sin and penance plays no role in these scenes, and David and Sylvester are depicted as equals engaged in conversation. If the scenes did indeed have a contemporary dimension, the makers of the manuscript would have taken a moderate position that sought to reconcile the imperial and patriarchal points of view. 49

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 214-216. Ibid., p. 215. 51 R. J. H. JENKINS and E. KITZINGER, A Cross of Patriarch Michael Cerularius, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 21 (1967), pp. 236-238. 50

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It is possible that the makers of the manuscript engaged in a wider debate about the role of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, a debate that may have been sparked by more frequent contacts with the Western church. Even in the eleventh century, the relationship between Byzantium and Rome was not always characterised by antagonism. For example, Eastern pilgrims continued to go to Rome in order to venerate the relics of the Apostle Peter.52 Thus, one should not simply assume that Keroularios’s position was representative of all Easterners. The Stoudite monk Nicetas Stethatos is a case in point. While in 1054 he attacked the Western position in his treaties against the azymes and the filioque, he makes no mention of these issues in a confession of faith that he composed towards the end of his life, and furthermore treats the Church of Rome as part of the universal church in his Life of Symeon the New Theologian.53 Thus, it may well be that some groups in eleventh-century Byzantium were still regarding the church as an undivided whole and were therefore particularly receptive to new ideas that had been formulated in the West. Here, one can point to the Smyrna manuscript of the Physiologos where Sylvester is not only depicted twice but where he is also the only bishop identified by name. Unfortunately, the two scenes and the context in which they appear do not give us clear indications why Sylvester was chosen for representation.54 However, a ‘Roman’ dimension is suggested by repeated depictions of the Apostle Peter and by the appearance of the specifically Western theme of the traditio legis.55 Glenn Peers has argued that this part of the iconographical programme dates to the post-Iconoclastic period, but one should not exclude the possibility that it also had significance — and perhaps greater significance than previously — in an eleventh-century context.56 Two essential questions remain: where was the manuscript produced, and who commissioned it? Since I am neither an art historian nor a palae52 Cf. NICOLAS KATASKEPENOS, Life of Cyril of Philea, ch. 20: La vie de saint Cyrille le Philéote, moine byzantin († 1110), ed. É. SARGOLOGOS, Brussels 1964 (Subsidia Hagiographica, 39), pp. 100-104. 53 NIKETAS STETHATOS, Confession of Faith: Nicétas Stéthatos. Opuscules et lettres, ed. J. DARROUZÈS, Paris 1961 (Sources chrétiennes, 81), p. 447, n. 4; see also NIKETAS STETHATOS, Life of Symeon, cc. 52-54, pp. 68-70. 54 G. PEERS, Iconoclasm, Peter and the Use of Nature in the Smyrna Physiologus (Evangelical School B.8), in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 50 (2000), pp. 267-292, esp. pp. 287-288. 55 Ibid., pp. 276-291. 56 Ibid., p. 281. This point has been made also by B. CROSTINI, Moral Preaching and Animal Moralizations: the Physiologos in the Eleventh Century between Stoudios and Montecassino, in εμπλο . Studi in onore di Irmgard Hutter, II (= α μη / Nea Rhome. Rivista di studi bizantinistici, 7, 2010), pp. 155-190.

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ographer, I will restrict myself to a few remarks about the possible identity of the commissioner. Because of the prominence of Sylvester, one could argue that the manuscript was made for a member of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, most likely a metropolitan or the patriarch himself, because it is doubtful whether simple bishops could have afforded such a costly item. However, a monastic context should not be ruled out altogether. As we have seen, the manuscript contains depictions not only of bishops but also of monks, the stylites Symeon and Dositheus, and the enigmatic figure of Andrew. Moreover, not only bishops, but also monks are presented as hearing confession from the spies and from David’s co-authors, and this particular stress on the sacrament suggests that the designers of the manuscript saw no difference between the two groups. In the eleventh century, such a position was no longer universally accepted. Representatives of the lay church rejected the claims of charismatic monks that they had the power to give absolution and insisted that this function was restricted to those who had been ordained by bishops as the successors of the Apostles. The impact of this view can be seen in monastic rules, which more and more often specified that members of the community could only hear confession if they were also priests and if they had obtained a specific permit from the patriarch.57 Thus the equal treatment of bishops and monks might point to a monastic provenance of the manuscript. The codex Vat. gr. 752 poses great difficulties to the modern scholar. Accordingly, most arguments put forward in this article remain in the realm of conjecture. However, it is to be hoped that the different contributions in this volume will shed light on each other and provide a starting point for further more sustained collaboration between historians, art historians and palaeographers.

57

Cf. P. GAUTIER, Le typikon du Christ Sauveur Pantocrator, in Revue des études byzantines 32 (1974), pp. 1-144, esp. p. 65; and S. EUSTRATIADES, υπικ τ ς στα τι ουπ λει ο ς το γ ου μεγαλομάρτυρος άμα τος, in Hellenika 1 (1928), pp. 245-314, esp. p. 284. On the broader topic of the encroachment of the lay church on monasticism, cf. D. KRAUSMÜLLER, Decoding Monastic Ritual: Auto-Installation and the Struggle for the Spiritual Autonomy of Byzantine Monasteries in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 58 (2008), pp. 75-86.

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THE SO-CALLED SCHISM OF 1054 AND ITS IMPACT ON BYZANTINE SOCIETY1 I. Players A basic question in the conflict of 1054 is the impact of the dispute on contemporary society and how this dispute should be interpreted: whether as a controversy between and confined to learned clergymen or as a broader movement that attempted to inform and polarize a secondary audience (besides the primary audience, i.e. the direct addressees) in order to justify their own position. Examining the situation up to the climax of 16 July 1054 we can detect the strategy of the patriarch where he obviously involves others in order to support him through “lateral attacks”. The first “companion” seems to have been the former chartophylax of the Megale Ekklesia in Constantinople, Archbishop Leo of Ohrid. Then the Stoudite monk Nicetas Stethatus took up the dispute with the Latins.2 After the failure of both and lacking support from the emperor, Cerularius adopted a policy of active resistance against the Latin Church. The following subchapters will analyse the role of the main players in the controversy (only this aspect will be taken into account, not a general biography). 1 Abbreviations of often quoted sources: MICHEL = A. MICHEL, Humbert und Cerularius. Quellen und Studien zum Schisma des XI. Jahrhunderts, 2 Teile, Paderborn 1925 (I), 1930 (II) (Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte in Verbindung mit dem Historischen Institut in Rom, herausgegeben von der Görres Gesellschaft, 23). Regestes = Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople. Vol. I: Les actes des patriarches, fasc. II et III: Les regestes de 715 à 1206, par V. GRUMEL, deuxième édition revue et corrigée par J. DARROUZÈS, Paris 1989 (Le patriarcat byzantin, sér. I) (quoted according to the regest entry). Regesten = Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des Oströmischen Reiches, bearbeitet von F. DÖLGER, 2. Teil, zweite, erweiterte und verbesserte Auflage bearbeitet von P. WIRTH, München 21995 (Corpus der griechischen Urkunden des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit, Reihe A: Regesten, Abteilung 1: Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des Oströmischen Reiches). WILL = C. WILL, Acta et Scripta quae de controversiis ecclesiae graecae et latinae saeculo undecimo composita extant, Leipzig and Marburg 1861 (e-version: 21.03.2013). 2 If challenged only by the Latins or by Cerularius as well, remains uncertain, cf. pp. 201202.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 193-225.

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I.1 Patriarch Michael Cerularius As far as the scanty sources3 inform us, Cerularius was born between 1005 and 1010; he and his brother were participating in a plot against Emperor Michael IV when Cerularius himself was holding a court office and both of them were detected and arrested. Michael’s brother then committed suicide and Michael became monk. Under Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus (ruling since 12 June 1042) Cerularius experienced a comeback and was charged with the same office as before, and he then gained an intermediary office between church and government. One month after the death of the Patriarch Alexius Stoudites (20 February 1043) Cerularius was appointed patriarch (25 March 1043) with the support of the same emperor. A rival for that position was the ambitious shadow ruler John Orphanotrophus, who, being a eunuch, could not become emperor, but raised his relatives into that position (Michael IV, V); he had even initiated a revolt against the preceding Patriarch Alexius Stoudites (aimed at his own enthronement), which failed. It was also John who according to John Scylitzes (in the interpolated version of his history)4 had compelled Cerularius to enter a monastery after the conspiracy was detected. Besides this dubious personal background, two aspects have to be taken into account to understand the patriarch’s personality at that time: the position of the patriarch and the recent treatment of the eastern deviants of the orthodox church, the Jacobites and Armenians, who had similar practices to the Latins. Cerularius’s powerful predecessor Alexius Stoudites (1025-1043) was a “Leitfigur” on the throne of the patriarchate of Constantinople in controlling state affairs from a religious point of view as he was deeply involved in the consecration of new emperors as well and thus — after a long period of predecessors at the leading-sting of the emperors — encroached upon secular matters.5 In religious matters Alexius acted as a hard-liner in treating religious deviants: the Jacobites6 and — with support of the emperor who had an3 Studied in detail by Cf. F. TINNEFELD, Michael I. Kerullarios, Patriarch von Konstantinopel (1043-1058). Kritische Überlegungen zu einer Biographie, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 39 (1989), pp. 95-127. 4 Const. Monom., chap. 5: IOANNES SCYLITZES, Synopsis historiarum, ed. by H. THURN, Berlin 1973 (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 5), p. 429, ll. 18-21; illustrated in the Scylitzes Matritensis (Madrid, National Library, Codex Vitr. 26-2, fol. 225r), see V. TSAMAKDA, The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, Leiden 2002, p. 533. 5 Cf. Michael Psellus accusing the patriarch of intervening in secular matters of the emperor (MICHAEL PSELLUS, Scripta minora, vol. I, Orationes et dissertationes, ed. E. KURTZ – F. DREXL, Milan 1936, p. 280, ll. 12-15), by quoting canon 6 of the apostles against the political activity of the patriarch (ibid., p. 288, ll. 5-9). 6 Cf. V. STANKOVIÒ, The Alexios Stoudites’ Patriarchate (1025-1043): a Developmental Stage

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nexed the Armenian empire of Ani in 1045 — the Armenians were forced to amend their faith, i.e. to finally agree to the Chalcedonian formula.7 That mainly the Armenian-Latin question was highly topical, we can deduce also from the second (mid-1053)8 and third (1043/1044?)9 letter of Archbishop Leo of Ohrid on unleavened bread. The forced agreement of the Armenians finally took place in 104810 under Cerularius, and seemed to have bolstered his understanding of being the authority sustaining and preserving the true faith and demanding emendations in case of deviation. An ideological bridge between Armenians and Latins was established through similar liturgical practice, such as the use of unleavened bread. In this way, the Greek Church was already prepared to act against deviants of liturgical practice. To criticize the practice among the Latins in Constantinople was simply to go one step further. This step was taken at the very moment when the patriarch felt overwhelmed by the events in the West (the Argyrus affair, see below) and so he threw down the gauntlet in order to provoke the pope and his representative, Cardinal Humbert. Cerularius was well aware of the power he could yield as patriarch and drew upon the past example of Photius, who had contributed by his example and policy to define the powerful and independent status of the patriarch.11 Cerularius was a consequent keeper of this power directly inherited from Alexius Stoudites. Under such circumstances it is unimaginable that two attacks against the Latins in the run-up to the anathema of 1054 were executed independently and not coordinated beforehand as a pincer movement against the in Patriarchal Power, in Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta 39 (2001/2), pp. 69-87; Kl. P. TODT, Zwischen Kaiser und ökumenischem Patriarchen: Die Rolle der griechisch-orthodoxen Patriarchen von Antiocheia in den politischen und kirchlichen Auseinandersetzungen des 11.13. Jh. in Byzanz, in Zwei Sonnen am Goldenen Horn. Kaiserliche und patriarchale Macht im byzantinischen Mittelalter. Akten der internationalen Tagung vom 3. bis 5. November 2010, ed. by M. GRÜNBART – L. RICKELT – M. M. VUCETIC, Berlin 2011 (Byzantinische Studien und Texte, 3), pp. 157-160 (with further literature on the trial against the Jacobite patriarch John VIII bar ‘A´dûn, who had been excommunicated in 1029); Regestes 838, 839, 840. 7 Cf. A. BAYER, Spaltung der Christenheit. Das sogenannte Morgenländische Schisma von 1054, Köln – Weimar – Vienna 2004 (Beihefte zum Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 43), pp. 6869 with sources. 8 E. BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid (1037-1056). Leben und Werk (mit den Texten seiner bisher unedierten asketischen Schrift und seiner drei Briefe an den Papst), Bamberg 2007, p. 210, ll. 51-52; p. 212, ll. 82-83. 9 Ibid., p. 232, l. 66. 10 Cf. the treatise of NICETAS STETHATUS, ατ ρμε κα ατ περ μ κα μ [Against Armenians and Latins about leavened and unleavened bread], ed. J. HERGENRÖTHER, Monumenta graeca ad Photium eiusque historiam pertinentia, Regensburg 1869, pp. 139-154; this event is reported by Matthew of Edessa (cf. BAYER, Spaltung, pp. 68-69). 11 Third title of the Epanagoge.

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Latin use of unleavened bread in late 1052 or early 1053; on the one hand, Cerularius’s closing of the Latin churches and monasteries in Constantinople12 and on the other hand Archbishop Leo of Ohrid’s first letter13 to the Italian clergymen (up to the pope).14 Although Cerularius later on disclaims any connection with Leo’s letter,15 he evidently pursued a tactic of directly challenging the pope in his function as patriarch from the outside, and, even better, by using his position as an autocephalous archbishop. Very probably, the subtle tactics against the Latins can be ascribed to Cerularius’s sentiment that the emperor was curtailing his power in religious affairs, though, on the contrary, it was he who had a more far-reaching influence (than the emperor) in Christian areas under Slavic or Arabic control as well; for at this time Constantinople practically took the leadership over the oriental patriarchs and urged Rome to accept this status of bipartition (the patriarch of Constantinople should be universalis and act in the same way as the pope in the West).16 As heir of Alexius Stoudites’ ideology of running the patriarchate, Cerularius was aware of the great power of that office and used it against the emperor in order to demonstrate its power and present himself as significant factor in ruling the empire. His involvement — as patriarch — in the revolt against Michael VI and his support of Isaac I Comnenus made clear that ambition. From a note in the Brevis et succincta commemoratio17 of Cardinal Humbert after 21 July 1054 we are informed that Cerularius knew how to mobilize the masses well; and the temper of the populace was an important factor to consider for the survival of an emperor as some examples of the eleventh century demonstrate. Deliberately, Cerularius did not go so far as to blame the emperor for supporting the Latins, but he humiliated him in a diplomatic way: he inserted Constantine’s letter to him in the official semeioma of the synod of about 21 July18 against the Latin legates which justified the patriarch’s rigid conduct against them. Moreover, Cerularius’s counter-anathema against the papal 12

WILL, p. 76, ll. 30-37; 80, l. 36 – p. 81, l. 1; p. 154, ll. 9-11. For this date cf. BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, pp. 26-28. 14 Cf. below, pp. 199-200. 15 WILL, p. 179, l. 27 – p. 180, l. 2. 16 Regestes 828 (under patriarch Eustathius, 1024), Regesten 817 (under Emperor Basil II): report in book 4 of the Historiae of Rudolph Glaber. Cf. the reproach of Pope Leo IX in his letter to Cerularius (WILL, p. 90, ll. 30-34, 21-26); Pope Leo in his letter to Emperor Constantine IX (WILL, p. 88, ll. 15-18); in his reply to the Patriarch Peter of Antioch: “we have heard that some (sc. Cerularius) attempt to reduce the dignity of the church of Antioch” (MICHEL II, p. 464, ll. 5-7). 17 WILL, p. 152, ll. 8-11, 14-15. 18 WILL, pp. 155-168; Regestes 869. 13

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legates is presented as an order of the emperor19 that the patriarch fulfilled in the synod repeating the emperor’s phrase. In this way, he contrived to get exculpated from a papal rebuke as the emperor himself charged the legates with being suborned by the Lombard dux Italiae, Calabriae, Siciliae et Paphlagoniae Argyrus.20 However, between the lines we read an evident critique of the emperor who in turn had to react against Cerularius’s mobilization of the urban populace: he finds convenient scapegoats in the translators of the Latins and in the relatives of Argyrus in Constantinople, but apologized for not penalizing the legates due to their host status. This success — the Latins did not perform any amendment in religious matters and Cerularius could then skillfully exploit the event as a general attack of the Latins against all Greeks — strengthened his position until Isaac I Comnenus did not want to tolerate him any longer,21 arrested him outside the city and removed him from the patriarchate. Significantly he did this not in Constantinople where Cerularius could still count on mass support. After refusing to abdicate, Cerularius was brought to trial in a town at the Hellespont.22 It is remarkable that Cerularius did not single out the filioque,23 Photios’s key topic, but opened a new front with attacks on unleavened bread. This tactic is understandable if we take into consideration that Greeks and Latins — outside the chancelleries with their translators — suffered from a great problem with communication as they did not understand each other’s language.24 This linguistic consideration may explain why the spoken word was not a (primary) charge (against “orthodox” faith). On the

19

WILL, p. 165, l. 35 – p. 167, l. 26. WILL, p. 167, ll. 20-21: “According to the order of the reverent emperor [ ιλευ ε ] that sacrilegious [ ε ] document … was anathematized”. For Argyrus, cf. V. VON FALKENHAUSEN, Untersuchungen über die byzantinische Herrschaft in Süditalien vom 9. bis ins 11. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden 1967 (Schriften zur Geistesgeschichte des östlichen Europas, 1), pp. 58-62. 21 Several provocations are related by Scylitzes Continuatus, ed. E. T. TSOLAKES, συ εια τ ς ρο ογραφ ας το ου κυλ τση, Thessalonica 1968 ( τ ιρε ε ονι ν που ν. ρυ ελετ ν ερ ον ου το ου, 105), p. 104, l. 21 – p. 105, l. 5. 22 After the death of Emperor Isaac I Comnenus Patriarch Constantine III Leichudes introduced an annual commemoration of Cerularius (the new Emperor Constantine X Ducas was married to Cerularius’s niece Eudokia Macrembolitissa!), cf. Regestes 887a (ca. 1060), and TINNEFELD, Michael I. Kerullarios, pp. 122-123. 23 A collection of quotations composed by the legates for the discussion in Constantinople and dedicated to the emperor (rationes de sancti spiritus processione a patre et filio: MICHEL I, pp. 97-111) informs that the filioque was not brought up for discussion until ca. June 1054 when for the first time the legates took up that issue for the following debate. 24 Cf. below, chap. III.1 Communication. 20

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contrary, unleavened bread was clearly visible for whoever participated in the Latin liturgy. I.2 Archbishop Leo of Ohrid The former chartophylax of the patriarchate of Constantinople was appointed archbishop of Ohrid by Patriarch Alexius Stoudites about 1037.25 Little is known about him besides his active involvement in the preparatory phase of the conflict with the Latins in late 1052 or early 1053 when his first letter on that concern was published26 (directed via Bishop John of Trani and Patriarch Dominicus Marango27 of Grado to the Italian bishops and the pope). As this letter points out, Leo was already debating with the Latins, at least with John of Trani, about the differences between Latin and Greek religious practice.28 That treatise (together with Cerularius’s order against the Latin churches and monasteries in Constantinople) provoked Rome’s more aggressive retaliation. Oddly enough, despite continuing to write two additional letters on the same topic, he never got directly involved in the debate in Constantinople, was excluded from further activity and not summoned to come to Constantinople for the discussion with the legates. As fervent defender of the use of leavened bread he would surely have been interested. So he co-initiated the following clash and then disappeared from the scene before the dispute had entered its critical phase. Although his three letters are presented as a step by step introduction (amendment of the addressees presupposed29), the addressed audience slightly changed from one to the next: the second and third letters do not any longer dare to directly contact the pope. Uncertainty remains over whether Leo was informed about the negative result in Rome and why he changed his strategy of fraternization and exclusion. 25

For biographical data see BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, pp. 26-37. WILL, pp. 56-60 (Greek), pp. 61-64 (Latin); BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, pp. 180-192 (with synoptic German translation; commentary on pp. 194-201). 27 G. BIANCHI, Il Patriarca di Grado Domenico Marango tra Roma e l’Oriente, in Studi Veneziani 8 (1966), pp. 19-125, esp. pp. 35-36, and D. CANZIAN in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 69 (2007), s.v. Marango, Domenico (online: 19.11.2013). 28 M. H. SMITH, And Taking Bread … Cerularius and the Azyme Controversy of 1054, Paris 1978, pp. 115-117; the key passage for a longer lasting discussion is in the first letter when explaining the use of Halleluja: “Why do you err so much in this; … will you not stop saying that Peter, Paul, the other apostles, and Christ have given such instructions and that the holy ecumenical synods have certified them and the holy catholic church piously observes it; amend yourself and piously observe it as well” (BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, p. 190, l. 112 – p. 192, l. 118). 29 BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, p. 192, ll. 129-138; p. 218, ll. 154-16. 26

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While the first letter asks the addressee (the archbishop of Trani and — according to some titles in the manuscript transmission — the Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado,30 respectively) to amend himself/themselves and to forward that letter to the “archpriests of the Francs” as well as to the pope,31 despite the vocative “o man of God” in the concluding passage of the letter32 Leo generally uses the second person plural for the verb forms (and pronouns).33 The second letter is addressed to “the friends and servants of God”34 and Leo uses the second person plural for the verb forms (and pronouns) as well. In this letter, bare of any personal introduction, we find a clearer differentiation between the intended audience and “the others” (the Francs and Lombards, who eat unleavened bread35). The third letter starts with a Bible quotation (1 Cor 14:20) for the “brothers” and generally addresses its audience in the second person plural as regards the verb forms (and pronouns36). Furthermore, all three letters use the first person plural whenever Leo emotionally stresses a common Christianity (in the second and the third letter polarizing “we the orthodox Christians” vs. “the others: Jews, Armenians, and Italians”) and attempts to fraternize with his audience (who were still using unleavened bread and observing the fast on the Latin Sabbath).37 Leo includes the addressees in the community of the orthodox (Greeks) as well: we, by God’s grace the perfect ones vs. the Jews, the like-minded Italians, Armenians, Egyptians.38 From this comparison with the Latins it becomes more than clear that the audience must be understood as those clergy in Byzantine-influenced areas of Italy who were using unleavened bread and also observing the Sabbath fast, but who celebrated the liturgy of St Basil or Chrysostom39 and whom Leo regards 30 That both can be said to be the mediators to the pope and the bishops in Southern Italy is clear from the new research of Büttner, who uses as evidence the manuscript tradition of the letter, cf. BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, pp. 42-49. 31 Ibid., p. 180, ll. 5-6. 32 Ibid., p. 184, l. 53. 33 Cf. also the vocative “o men of God”, ibid., p. 182, l. 21. 34 Ibid., p. 218, l. 154. 35 Ibid., p. 208, ll. 39-40; cf. also against the Francs, p. 214, ll. 114-116. 36 One exception is the topical singular form ρ (“look”: p. 254, l. 301). 37 Letter 1: ibid., p. 180, ll. 9-12; p. 182, l. 22, 40; p. 184, l. 49, 58; p. 192, l. 125; letter 2: p. 208, l. 28, 42; p. 212, ll. 75-79 (this passage is significantly referring to the audience addressed: Leo speaks to the ones who celebrate the liturgy of St Basil and St John Chrysostom: “Why do we priests celebrate the holy mass with the prayers of holy Basil and divine Chrysostom … for all holy and divine (i.e. the eastern) fathers followed the instruction and tradition of the holy apostles …”), p. 212, l. 92 – p. 214, l. 94; p. 214, ll. 102-106; p. 216, l. 237; p. 218, l. 152; letter 3: p. 228, ll. 15-16; p. 232, l. 50 – p. 234, l. 85; p. 252, ll. 298-300; p. 256, ll. 337-342. 38 Ibid., p. 232, ll. 63-66. 39 Cf. n. 36.

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as “Byzantines”40 (as distinguished from the “Italians” or “Francs”, i.e. the mere Latin clergy in Roman-influenced areas). However, the Latin addressees of Leo’s first letter realized that it was a tricky manoeuver, more or less initiated by the patriarch himself. In their response they addressed Leo and Cerularius41 as authors of those accusations. The Latins put two and two together and concluded that Leo of Ohrid and Cerularius must have co-operated, just as we assume. If we take into consideration that one contact person for the pope was the abovementioned Argyrus, we are surely not wrong in supposing that Argyrus himself had raised this suspicion against his powerful opponent in Constantinople.42 As discussed above, it is not out of the question to suppose that Leo was mobilised to lead a lateral manoeuver far away from Constantinople and to embark upon an experimental attack against the Latin bishops of Southern Italy for which the archbishop of Ohrid as the signatory could be made responsible. For his part, Leo of Ohrid acts as owner of the true faith who has to instruct the Latins about the heretical influence in their liturgy.43 In particular, the closing phrase of his first letter represents himself as the teacher who advises the contumacious “children” to follow the Greek way. One wonders if Leo was really so simple-minded to believe that that letter would have the intended effect. With that concluding passage he threw down the gauntlet to the Latins and mainly to the pope, who, as the primus among the religious leaders, was personally challenged by an inferior (arch)bishop who not only had accused him, but also demanded a correction of the head as well as of his subordinates. Leo intended to chastise the Latin bishops for following different (and unorthodox) traditions in comparison to the Greeks and the Latins did mobilize, but not in the way he thought they would. Such advice to all bishops in Italy (and the pope) was surely supported by Constantinople when that longer lasting conflict (in Constantinople

40 For this aspect cf. SMITH, Taking Bread, p. 114, but also BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, p. 196, 177, n. 4, for the opposite view. 41 Cf. WILL, p. 91, ll. 34-36. 42 For the religious differences cf. also G. AVVAKUMOV, Die Entstehung des Unionsgedankens. Die lateinische Theologie des Hochmittelalters in der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Ritus der Ostkirche, Berlin 2002 (Veröffentlichungen des Grabmann-Institutes, 47). 43 Cf. BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, p. 192, ll. 129-133: “Read this often, you together with your own people” – ετ το ου λ ο – “and instruct as well as amend yourselves in this way … send it to the archbishops of the sees in Italy”, i.e., in the introductory words of the letter, “to the archpriests of the Francs”, ibid., p. 180, ll. 5-6.

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as well, there: Argyrus vs. Cerularius44) erupted into an open accusation against the Latins and a challenge to the pope. I.3 Nicetas Stethatus and the Stoudite party The intervention of Nicetas Stethatus of the Stoudios monastery about 1053/1054 in his Dialexis45 against western religious practice, addressed to the Latins, “who live with us or outside in our cities”, and after mid April 1054 in his Antidialogus46 — the same text as the Dialexis with a new preface to the papal legates — came quite abruptly, because no contact with Cerularius or Leo of Ohrid is known which would make one expect that support in their struggle against the Latins might come from one of the most prominent monasteries; on the contrary, Cerularius at least twice came into conflict with the monastery of Stoudios.47 As Nicetas writes in the preface of his Antidialogus, he was one among the people contacted by the Latins. Apparently due to his reputation, the Latins had asked him for an explanation of the use of unleavened bread,48 and it appears evident that Cardinal Humbert’s Dialogus,49 a harsh refutation of the first letter of Leo of Ohrid, had been handed over to Nicetas by the (former) abbot Basil of Monte Cassino and Archbishop Nicholas of Bari50 (in a draft version?). On the other hand Nicetas himself felt challenged to base the discussion on the Bible and synodal acts underlining 44

Cf. WILL, p. 175, ll. 8-19 and p. 177, ll. 29-35. WILL, pp. 127-136 (lat. [= antidialogus with differing preface]), MICHEL II, pp. 320-321, 323-342 (gr. with preface); for the relation of the dialexis to the so called antidialogus and the following revisions cf. A. MICHEL, Die vier Schriften des Niketas Stethatus über die Azymen, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 35 (1935), pp. 308-336. 46 WILL, pp. 127-136 (lat.); MICHEL II, pp. 322-342. 47 During Cerularius’s term the Stoudite abbot Michael Mermentulus complained to the emperor about the patriarch having erased the name of the famous Stoudite Theodorus from the holy synodicon (Regestes *885b, between 1044 and 1054), which order then was cancelled by the emperor (Regesten 867a, 5 May 1045); Nicetas himself was apparently involved in a conflict with the patriarch as regards a special custom of Stoudite deacons wearing a belt what the patriarch did not approve of. See Peter of Antioch about the controversy between the patriarch and the Stoudite monks: WILL, p. 200, ll. 10-17, NICÉTAS STÉTHATOS, Opuscules et lettres, ed. J. DARROUZÈS, Paris 1961 (Sources chrétiennes, 81), pp. 486-495, and in his introduction, p. 24. See also the contribution by D. KRAUSMÜLLER in this volume. 48 MICHEL II, p. 322, ll. 17-20. 49 WILL, pp. 93-126. 50 Cf. MICHEL II, pp. 298-299, 299-300. Cf. the description of Basil’s (bad) character in Die Chronik von Montecassino, ed. by H. HOFFMANN, Hannover 1980 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 34), ch. II, 62: p. 286, ll. 13-15, and his connection to Constantinople ch. II, 63: ibid., p. 293, ll. 6-9. The then abbot of Monte Cassino was Basil’s successor, Richer (1038-1055). 45

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the usage of leavened bread and to prepare an “armament” for the Greeks in that debate; his introduction in the preceding Dialexis emphasizes this aspect: “that we are not seen by the Romans bare of reasoning and appropriate vindication”.51 His involvement is to be explained by the eminent reputation of the Stoudios monastery in religious matters, especially at a time when the preceding patriarch had been a Stoudite. It was also the Stoudite Nicetas who reproached the emperor’s concubine Maria Scleraina and dared to articulate in public what was discussed privately.52 In the intervention of this very influential and esteemed monk we can also sense his pride and confidence in the reputation of this monastery and his conviction that he was following in the footsteps of his influential predecessor Theodore Stoudites by denouncing (socio-)religious anomalies, regardless of the position of the accused or of the consequences. However, Nicetas reckoned without his host, the emperor: in the debate with the papal legates on 24 June 1054 he was forced to give up his position and to burn his works; otherwise the legates threatened him with the anathema. He even had to apologize the next day and the legates accepted and addressed him then as “very good friend”.53 As regards his following writing activity (notably his continued attacks against the use of unleavened bread without changing the Greek confession of faith),54 we are assured that that defeat was imposed by the emperor in order to appease the papal legates. Due to the conflict with the Stoudites (and/or other reasons which are not apparent), Cerularius was not interested in intervening on behalf of Nicetas, but left him out in the rain, while he corroborated his point of view with harsh intransigence and new demands for a common discussion. I.4 Patriarch Peter of Antioch Just as Leo of Ohrid, Peter (†1058), too, a native of Antioch,55 was once 51

MICHEL II, p. 320, ll. 7-8. Cf. Scylitzes in the interpolated addition: IOANNES SCYLITZES, Synopsis historiarum, p. 434, ll. 65-71. 53 WILL, p. 151, ll. 1-8. 54 Adversos Armenios (et Latinos), based upon his former treatises (dialexis, antidialogus) and the answer of Patriarch Peter of Antioch to Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado (MICHEL, Die vier Schriften, pp. 324-332), Sylloge, based upon his treatises adversos Armenios, dialexis, antidialogus as well as Patriarch Peter’s (of Antioch) letter to Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado (MICHEL, Die vier Schriften, pp. 327-332), and his profession of faith: DARROUZÈS, Nicétas Stéthatos, pp. 444-462, esp. p. 446, l. 9: “the Holy Spirit eternally going out from God and the Father” [nota bene!]. 55 For his role in the conflict cf. Kl.-P. TODT, Region und griechisch-orthodoxes Patriarchat 52

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a leading official (skeuophylax) of the patriarchate of Constantinople under Alexius Stoudites, before he withdrew and lived as a monk. In 1052 he was appointed patriarch of Antioch and tried his best to act as a representative of his see, even against the claims from Constantinople. When Cerularius did not respect the administrative districts of the two patriarchates in promoting a deacon of Antioch, Peter complained about this violation of canonical law.56 Peter started his patriarchal activity by sending an inthronistica to the pope with an irenic offer of bringing to an end the schismatic situation, where we should remark upon the tolerance and willingness to accept religious differences in the polemical climate of that time (as he himself was a victim of rigorous customs57). However, towards the less powerful eastern Christian neighbours of his patriarchate, the Jacobites and the Armenians, he follows the tough line of Patriarch Alexius Stoudites.58 To understand Peter’s irenic offer one might find an explanation in a different definition of the Christian commonwealth. Born in Antioch and returning as an aged man, Peter may have realized there the need for a united Christianity against the increasingly threatening opponents of Christian faith, the Muslims. In this way, Peter, residing in the margin of the Byzantine empire far away from the capital, facing the religious as well as politically dangerous antagonists and lacking the emperor’s help, believed that inter-Christian differences, as long as they were not truly heretical, should not become a politicum or a reason to fight each other, especially if the “others” could become potential and needful partners outside the Byzantine empire (and not deviants of the Greek tradition within the Byzantine empire as is the case of the Jacobites and Armenians). With this “global dimension” and in a region of active threat he felt obliged to look for compromises and even to admonish Cerularius very diplomatically.59 Far away from the capital and its intrigues we observe, too, some naivety in his suggestion of dimming the escalation and a lack of information: when he had received Cerularius’s letter with the Greek translation of the papal legates’ excommunication, he believed Cerularius’s justification60 and encouraged the patriarch to write to the new pope (= Victor II); God von Antiocheia in mittelbyzantinischer Zeit und im Zeitalter der Kreuzzüge (969-1204), Teil 2: cc. 6-11, Wiesbaden 1998, pp. 668-691; ID., Zwischen, pp. 137-176, esp. pp. 160-162. 56 Cf. Regestes 860-861; TODT, Region, pp. 672-673. 57 Cf. TODT, Region, pp. 669, 684. 58 Cf. SMITH, Taking Bread, pp. 109-111, 156-157; TODT, Region, pp. 674-675. 59 In this regard he even dares to reproach Cerularius for concentrating on the only essential difference, the filioque (WILL, p. 203, ll. 5-23). 60 WILL, p. 175, l. 3 – p. 176, l. 12.

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will give the pope clear insight into the affair and the Latins will stop their controversy; the pope will expose that what is said about the Latins is not true and what was done by a small group was not agreed with him.61 These words reveal a diplomatic critique regarding the atmosphere of communication, yet draw attention on the other hand to a naivety of Peter’s and his failure to understand the much deeper problems. The establishing of new networks among the Latins as well as the Greeks against the opponent parties caused an atmosphere of mutual distrust. Thus Cerularius and patriarch Peter of Antioch sent to each other their letters (which they had both received and actively written in the Latin affair). This exchange was not only aimed at informing each other, but evidently also influenced — with regard to a secondary readership — the textual presentation of events, its wording, and the stressing of particular points: so for example in his letter to Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado Peter defends Cerularius in extenso and explains the latter’s very Christian motivation.62 One gets the impression that Peter wants to protect himself against a possible accusation of co-operation with Rome (as in fact he was blamed for63); his reply to Marango with a detailed explanation of leavened bread supports this impression as that letter was handed over to Cerularius as a secondary reader.64 On the other hand, Peter wanted to impress upon the pope, too, his argumentation and moderate way of reconciliation; therefore he explicitly asked the addressee Marango to hand over his letter to the pope (Marango should be the messenger — and reader — of his inthronistica to Pope Leo IX as well).65 One question automatically arises: did Peter really not understand the Latin text or was it his tactic to give Cerularius no reason for accusing him of fraternization with the Latins? For one wonders how Peter could communicate with the “Franc” who handed over the pope’s letter and ask him to copy that Latin letter to be sent to Constantinople. From other letters of the pope we do not get the impression that Leo IX used such an extravagant Latin that only scholars

61

WILL, p. 201, ll. 9-24. WILL, p. 213, l. 7 – p. 214, l. 25. Marango himself seems to have been aware of the dissemination of letters; in his letter to Patriarch Peter of Antioch he avoids accusing the patriarch personally, but speaks generally about the Constantinopolitan clergy (WILL, p. 207, ll. 2-4). 63 WILL, p. 178, ll. 15-19. 64 The proedrus and dux of Antioch, Romanus Sclerus took the letter to Constantinople (WILL, p. 179, ll. 20-24); cf. W. SEIBT, Die Skleroi. Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie, Vienna 1976 (Byzantina Vindobonensia, 9), pp. 76-85. 65 WILL, p. 228, ll. 10-16. 62

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could understand it. At least a basic insight into the content must also have been possible on the part of this Latin scribe. For Peter of Antioch another aspect is relevant to understanding his efforts to amend real theological differences between Greeks and Latins: notably that custom and tradition cannot rank in this category. He exemplifies this belief with the issue of allowed and forbidden foods, referring to the episode when his spiritual father, the metropolitan Luke of Anazarbus, had protested against Peter’s own election, on the grounds that he had been unfairly exempted from the command to abstain from meat. Peter always advocates moderation in this matter with reference to the Bible and the Church Fathers.66 This background conflict sheds light on the passage on the use of unleavened bread as a later apology of his own moderate position (and practice) against the rigorous clergy, and he asked for the same moderation from the patriarch in the controversy with the Latins. I.5 Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus and his ally Argyrus The attitude of the emperor and his treatment of the papal legates must be understood from the political situation and — once again — from the emperor’s need to have the pope as a western ally against the Normans. Southern Italy belonged for the greater part to the see of the patriarch of Constantinople, but its status was increasingly becoming more contentious and taking centre stage in political discussions,67 especially when the Norman raids forced the Byzantine emperor and the pope to unite for a strategy against the common enemy. Therefore the religious sphere of influence had to be defined anew, whereby the pope expected the restitution of the former area of administration before the Byzantines had separated parts of Southern Italy and put them under their control, including matters of religious practice. Deeply connected with the conflict in southern Italy is the general position of Rome and its primacy: the intervention of western emperors in the elections of popes and the support of German partisans for Saint Peter’s throne led to the suspension of relations between Rome and Constantinople.68 As in the case of the Norman raids, when co-operation with Rome 66

Cf. TODT, Region, pp. 669, 684. Cf. BAYER, Spaltung, pp. 16-62. 68 GRUMEL, Préliminaires, p. 21; for these aspects of crossing spheres of influence cf. also M. STROLL, Popes and Antipopes. The Politics of Eleventh Century Church Reform, Leiden 2012, esp. pp. 9-49; A. PETERS-CUSTOT, Les Grecs de l’Italie méridionale post-byzantine (IXe-XVe siècle): une acculturation en douceur, Rome 2009 (Collection de l’École française de Rome, 420), pp. 85-265. 67

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was necessary, the issue of Rome’s primacy was raised once more. Consolidated by the Cluny movement, Pope Leo IX (together with Cardinal Humbert) did this on the basis of the so-called Donation of Constantine the Great in their answer to the East by declaring Rome as direct successor of Peter, thus of the unaltered faith. As the mother church of Rome decides without fail, but, on the other hand, is willing — at least in the starting phase of the debate — to accept local differences without forced changes,69 it did not regard East and West as being in schism.70 That modus vivendi could have continued if Cerularius had not started his attack against the Latins in Constantinople. Rome did not need to be corrected by Constantinople. Due to recent Norman raids in Southern Italy Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus (1042-1055) was eager to stabilize relations with Rome as he failed to recall his Italian governor (katepano) George Maniaches71 to the capital (1042) as part of his Italian policy. As a consequence, Maniaches became a new, initially successful usurper — a result of intrigues at the court. By replacing him with the native of Bari, Argyrus, though son of Melus of Bari, a former insurgent against the Byzantine Empire, the situation improved. Argyrus, the former rebel against the emperor who then was appointed patrikius and bestes (ca. January 1042) as well as promoted to imperial governor (ca. early 1051), at the same time go-between to the pope, obviously made it clear to the patriarch that he would not observe the Greek rite as demanded by the patriarch,72 and accept the patriarch as his religious head, even though he was administering a part of the Byzantine empire with inhabitants who followed the Greek faith. Evidently Argyrus was backed by the emperor who was reliant on the latter’s co-operation, and as the Latin Argyrus was better accepted in the West (and by the pope). This tactic of the emperor aroused suspicion in Byzantium, especially 69 This concerns unleavened bread as well as the filioque. When Patriarch Peter of Antioch and Pope Leo IX vice versa sent their confessions of faith, Peter naturally omitted the filioque, Leo added it in his reply to Peter without reproaching its omission in Peter’s version; on the contrary, Leo declares Peter’s confession totally orthodox (MICHEL II, p. 468, ll. 1-3). 70 So the answer to Patriarch Peter of Antioch’s questioning on the reason of the conflict between Greeks and Latins (MICHEL II, p. 446, l. 30 – p. 448, l. 11). Pope Leo replies to Peter that for his part he cannot be charged of being schismatic, for the eastern part Peter is asked to stem schismatic tendencies (MICHEL II, p. 464, l. 8 – p. 466, l. 4). However, Humbert’s anathema finally accused all differences from the omitted filioque up to married Greek priests. 71 Cf. V. VON FALKENHAUSEN, La dominazione bizantina nell’Italia meridionale dal IX all’XI secolo, Bari 1978, pp. 95-96. 72 Cf. Cerularius’s accusation in his first letter to Peter of Antioch (WILL, p. 175, ll. 8-19; p. 177, ll. 29-35).

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when such a policy failed to succeed and the attacks of the Normans were not stemmed, which was the situation in 1053. A planned double offensive under Pope Leo IX and Argyrus could have shattered the Norman army, but the pope’s defeat at Civitate (and Argyrus’s preceding setback against the Normans 1052 in Siponto) changed the initial situation; besides, the pope speculated on a support of the western emperor Henry III, which, however, never materialised. In that situation of an arrangement between Rome and Byzantium, Cerularius started his religious offensive against the Latins and foiled the emperor’s strategy. When the divergence then had to be settled through a debate between the patriarch and the papal legates in Constantinople, the emperor tried his utmost to give the legates the impression that he supported them and treated them courteously. He tolerated the omittance of the welcome ceremony of reverence, he forced Nicetas Stethatus to anathematize his works against the Latins — in a very impressive act of burning73 — and he spared the legates even when they attacked traditional Greek practice in their anathema against the patriarch and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid. With that strategy the emperor provoked his own church into opposition as two Constantinopolitan “idols” had been threatened and mistreated, notably the patriarch and the Stoudite monk Nicetas Stethatus. At least temporarily, the emperor could assume control over Nicetas and force him to reject his opposition against the Latin practice.74 That was the success of Constantine’s tactics as the legates could be given the impression that the emperor was on their side.75 In addition, Constantine obviously tried to calm down the legates with an annual grant from the (Byzantine) treasury to Monte Cassino which Humbert should hand over to the abbot on his return to Rome.76 In this context, the question arises whether the emperor made any ef73 MICHEL II, p. 306, concludes this from the preface of his Dialexis (§ 1,1): “Do not refrain to speak, when there is occasion to do good” (Sir 4:23; MICHEL II, p. 320) as allusion to an order of keeping silent (MICHEL II, p. 306). 74 WILL, pp. 150-152. 75 Cf. the emperor’s positive image (in contrast to the patriarch’s) in the Vita Leonis, ch. II, 19: Die Touler Vita Leos IX., ed. H.-G. KRAUSE with D. JASPER – V. LUKAS, Hannover 2007 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi, 70), p. 218, l. 1 – p. 220, l. 10. 76 Regesten 915. Monte Cassino played important role as mediator between the Latin- and Greek-controlled Southern Italian areas throughout this period. For the importance of the monastery in Byzantine politics see G. A. LOUD, Montecassino and Byzantium in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, in ID., Montecassino and Benevento in the Middle Ages. Essays in South Italian Church History, Aldershot – Burlington – Singapore – Sydney 2000 (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 673), art. II, esp. pp. 44-45.

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fort to counteract his conservative clergy and their disapproval of being in a state of “subordination” to the pope. Indeed, there is a chronological coincidence with the advance against the Normans, the presumably planned alliance with the pope (put into effect in 1053), and Peter of Antioch’s contact to Pope Leo IX with his inthronistica — before Cerularius’s and Leo of Ohrid’s attacks! As highlighted above, it’s more than unlikely that the emperor “officially” employed Peter as mediator to Rome, but there might have been a sort of agreement with the emperor who obviously was eager to be on good terms with the pope and who wanted to signal a willingness to come to an agreement in religious matters. He certainly could not reckon with Cerularius, but Peter with his moderate character and his willingness to compromise was the perfect candidate for such a signal to the West — a kind of ice breaker but in the form of a high Greek clergyman (the official phase of contact from Constantinople from both emperor and patriarch then started, after the mission of John of Trani to the capital in 1053).77 Peter himself would thus have come into a very delicate position between emperor and patriarch; because of this position, as already said, in all his letters he avoids any critique of Cerularius and, on the contrary, presents himself as the latter’s loyal spiritual brother. Such a hypothetical latent agreement between Peter and emperor could also explain from another point of view the massive attack by Cerularius, who felt snubbed by the emperor. On the other hand, Peter was then apparently more cautious to give Cerularius the impression of informing him about every contact with the Latins. If such a hypothesis is followed through — i.e. the question who might have suggested such a form of conciliation with the pope — we may suppose as mediator the directly concerned Italian governor Argyrus. The clash of 1054 can then be seen in a new light: Argyrus and the emperor involved Peter in their policy towards the pope and side-lined Cerularius who was apparently not willing to cooperate in a constructive way. Yet, Argyrus may have had every reason to keep Cerularius away from this political mission due to his former conflicts with the patriarch.78 I.6 Michael Psellus, Cerularius’s opponent in Constantinople To highlight the social agencies in Constantinople of 1054 we also have to examine the intellectual circle opposing Cerularius on account of inner77 In the chronicle of the Anonymus Barensis, dated in 1053: “Argiro direxit ipso episcopus Tranense Constantinopoli messatico” (sic): L. MURATORI, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Tomus V, Milan 1724, p. 152 A; cf. also Regestes 864. 78 Cf. on the conflict WILL, p. 175, ll. 8-19; 177, ll. 29-35.

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Greek ideological as well as personal differences, i.e. Michael Psellus and his scholar friends. To complete our understanding of that time this view is the more helpful since Psellus himself and his like-minded friends held important positions in Constantinople. Moreover, Psellus played a leading role in the final charge of Cerularius in 1059 as he composed the bill of indictment.79 More significant is Psellus’s personal attack against the patriarch since in those personalities two absolutely different characters were colliding, albeit also corresponding as regards Greek vs. Latin faith. From Psellus’s so called “Fehdebrief” we get — abstracting from typical polemic rhetoric — an impression of the patriarch’s personality and his attitude towards the scholars and the community of the new university circle (under Constantine IX Monomachus80): Psellus accuses Cerularius of being ignorant of literature and written sources. The patriarch is not willing to broaden his knowledge by reading further texts and trusts only in his limited, complacent and self-confident wisdom,81 as Psellus laments. He emphasizes the differences between him, the learned scholar, and the wouldbe theologian, the patriarch82 and provokes the patriarch by comparing him with the other four patriarchs who in spite of their position are still in contact through the logos.83 From these words it is hardly astonishing that we do not find the patriarch in contact with the scholastic elite except for Peter of Antioch, with whom however contact was limited to diplomatic exchanges and may not be categorized as correspondence among friends; so for example (the exiled?) John Mauropus, metropolitan of Euchaita84 since about 1049/1050,85 who belonged to Psellus’s circle, was not called to the synodal sessions of 1054. It is more than evident that that group around Psellus (John Mauropus, John Xiphilinus, Constantine Leichudes) did not intervene in the dispute between patriarch and pope by representing the Greek position — Psellus is only the messenger of the emperor’s letter to Cerularius as Constantine IX was forced by the patriarch to respond to the anathema of the papal legates.86 To be sure, it would on the one hand not have been accepted by the 79

KURTZ – DREXL, Michaelis Pselli scripta minora, I, pp. 232-328. Cf. Regesten 863 (1045). 81 MICHELE PSELLO, Epistola a Michele Cerulario. Seconda edizione riveduta e ampliata, ed. U. CRISCUOLO, Naples 1990 (Hellenica et Byzantina Neapolitana, 15), p. 23, l. 65. 82 PSELLO, Epistola, p. 23, l. 47 – p. 24, l. 72. 83 Ibid., p. 26, ll. 139-141. 84 Ibid., p. 23, l. 47 – p. 24, l. 72. 85 Regestes 857 (after December 1047, about 1049-1050). 86 At the same time (or shortly before) when Psellus handed over the letter of the emperor to Cerularius (announcing the removal of the bestarches, one of Argyrus’s relatives; cf. 80

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emperor that his higher officials intervened in the fervent debate against the legates; on the other hand Psellus’s circle had no interest, though they did not connive at Latin practice as one of Psellus’s poems (unfortunately not exactly datable) against the Latins underlines.87 These statements significantly complete our image of the patriarch’s personality though it is presented by Psellus who, some years later, under the new Emperor Constantine X Dukas, married Eudocia Macrembolitissa, the patriarch’s niece, and so had to write an encomium in memory of Cerularius.88 I.7 Pope Leo IX and Cardinal Humbert, the western adversaries In the same way as Cerularius was pre-determined by the renewed power and influence of the patriarchate of Constantinople of that time, the pope could enforce his powerful influence in (western) religious matters though under a certain dependency of the western emperor.89 Consequently, a strong patriarch who was not willing to accept the primacy of Rome90 and thereby its infallibility must automatically have come into conflict with the western ideology of Cluny91 and its reformation of spiritual life. Pope Leo IX (Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg, 1002-1054, pope since 1049) as well as Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida (1006-1061) were enthusiastic representatives of this movement, opposing the moral decline and resisting the secular influence in a more spiritual agenda. We are therefore WILL, p. 166, ll. 13-14; Regesten 917a; G. WEISS, Oströmische Beamte im Spiegel der Schriften des Michael Psellos, Munich 1973, pp. 86-87), Psellus himself was promoted to that office and he himself became a victim of the intrigues among the officials shortly after the anathema of the papal legates and the counter-anathema of Cerularius. His retirement from the office and withdrawal to a monastery in Bithynia (mons Olympus) was also related to the augmented power of Cerularius, though a confrontation with the Argyrus clan may be an additional (?), more conspicuous reason. 87 MICHAEL PSELLUS, Poemata, ed. L. G. WESTERINK, Stuttgart – Leipzig 1992, pp. 407415, treating unleavened bread, Judaism, shaving the beard, and Sabbath fast; interesting in this context are his quotations of Augustine and Gregory the Great as authorities for leavened bread (p. 410, ll. 114-118). 88 K. N. SATHAS, εσαι ικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη (Bibliotheca Graeca Medii Aevi), Venice – Paris 1874, pp. 303-387. 89 Cf. his position between eastern and western emperor in STROLL, Popes and Antipopes, pp. 9-49; PETERS-CUSTOT, Les Grecs de l’Italie méridionale, pp. 85-265. 90 Cf. for this aspect M. G. D’AGOSTINO, Il Primato della Sede di Roma in Leone IX (10491054). Studio dei testi latini nella controversia greco-romana nel periodo pregregoriano, Milan 2008. One ought to mention in this context the decision of the Second Council of Reims (1049) which exclusively conceded to the Pope the right to be addressed as universalis ecclesiae primas et apostolicus (universal head of the church and apostolicus). 91 For the Cluniac Reforms cf. Cluny. Beiträge zu Gestalt und Wirkung der cluniazensischen Reform, ed. by H. RICHTER, Darmstadt 1975 (Wege der Forschung, 241).

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confronted with the spirit of Cluny in Pope Leo’s letter to Emperor Constantine of January 1054,92 where he not only insists on Rome’s leading role, but also criticizes the preceding popes (whose election depended on secular influences93). In his struggle against secular power the pope based his rights upon the so-called Donation of Emperor Constantine the Great to Pope Sylvester, a forgery of the West which was — naturally by the papacy — used as authentic document.94 In the dispute of 1054 the legates deduced from this document not only their privileges for their claim to imperial insignia,95 but moreover for the possessions in Italy.96 Quoting the constitution,97 Pope Leo IX emphasized the position of Rome through the following words: “Whoever attempts to evacuate or weaken the authority of the Roman church, pursues the subversion and decline not of this one church, but of whole Christianity”.98 Rome as a foundation of the apostle Peter originates from apostolic times, as cannot be attested for Cerularius’s and Leo of Ohrid’s sees. Therefore the pope needs no teacher from outside.99 Rome was willing to accept differences as long as they were not basically opposed to Christian doctrine, and did not insist on the Roman practice, at least until the escalation, but could not tolerate Cerularius’s direct attacks of 1052/1053 against Latins in Constantinople.100 The conditio sine 92

WILL, pp. 85-89. WILL, p. 87, l. 20 – p. 88, l. 1. For the papacy of this time depending on secular powers of Rome or Constantinople, cf. GRUMEL, Préliminaires; BAYER, Spaltung, pp. 21-62 (with further literature). 94 Cf. a recent study on this document see J. FRIED, Donation of Constantine and Constitutum Constantini. The Misinterpretation of a Fiction and its original Meaning, Berlin 2007 (Millennium-Studien, 3); furthermore for the event of 1054 cf. H.-G. KRAUSE, Das Constitutum Constantini im Schisma von 1054, in Aus Kirche und Reich, Studien zu Theologie, Politik und Recht im Mittelalter, Festschrift für Friedrich Kempf, ed. by H. MORDEK, Sigmaringen 1983, pp. 131-158. 95 Cf. § 14-16, ed. H. FUHRMANN, Das Constitutum Constantini [Konstantinische Schenkung]. Text, Hannover 1968 (Fontes Iuris Germanici Antiqui in usum scholarum ex monumentis Germaniae Historicis separatim editi, 10), pp. 86-93. 96 § 17, ibid., pp. 93-94. 97 From the first answer of Pope Leo IX to Michael Cerularius and Leo of Ohrid (WILL, p. 71, ll. 15-28; p. 72, l. 10 – p. 74, l. 44: thought it was never sent); in Leo’s letter to Constantine IX Monomachus the emperor is reminded of his namesake Emperor Constantine the Great (WILL, p. 88, ll. 13-20, and p. 86, ll. 24-37). 98 Letter to Michael Cerularius (WILL, p. 83, ll. 28-35: never sent). 99 WILL, p. 68, ll. 21-28. 100 In the letter which was never sent to Cerularius, a very harsh critique on the insolence of the Greek clergy, Leo IX is addressing the patriarch as “rebel of the light and truth and flag bearer of the shadow and vanity” – caused by closing all churches of the Latins and by measures against Latin monks and abbots, while inside and outside Rome Greek monasteries and 93

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qua non was the acceptance of the primacy of Rome and the privileges it once had been endowed with by Emperor Constantine the Great. In view of possible co-operation in Italy against the Normans the pope did not conceal his precondition (in the letter to Cerularius): “We cannot have peace with stubborn ones remaining in error”.101 When both parties met in Constantinople — each one with their prejudices and distinct intention —, they did not even attempt to respect each other; both wanted to demonstrate their power, starting from the welcome ceremony102 and ending in the rejection of common sessions or in conditions that the other party did not want to accept. The chemistry between the parties was bad right from the start and worsened as two extravagant personalities regarded the acceptance or rejection of their religious practice and tradition as a personal attack against the background of the smoldering conflict of the religious leadership in Southern Italy. After the conflict with Cerularius had escalated and when the legates tried to overcome the dilemma by ostracising the opponents from the Greek (and Latin) community, they apparently misinterpreted the situation by blaming Cerularius for practices which were deeply rooted in Greek tradition and had no chance to be changed, least of all if strangers postulated them as deviation from the western tradition.103 This was a very crude modus operandi and reflects the insensibility of the legates or the misinformation emanating from their clergymen. The effect was not what they had intended and reinforced the status of the patriarch as a defender of Greek tradition among the populace, a fact that once more certifies that Pope Leo did not choose diplomatically sensitive representatives, though Humbert was the most well-versed in theology. A fact that is evident, too, churches were permitted to keep to their liturgical tradition. WILL, p. 80, l. 24 – p. 81, l. 8; cf. J.-M. SANSTERRE, Les moines grecs et orientaux à Rome aux époques byzantine et carolingienne (milieu du VIe s. – fin du IXe s.), 2 vols, Brussels 1983 (Mémoires de la Classe des Lettres. Collection in-8°. Académie Royale de Belgique 2, 66); cf. also Leo’s letter to Cerularius (which was actually sent) (WILL, p. 91, ll. 27-34) and Leo’s letter to Emperor Constantine IX: n. 50; in this sense Humbert got het-up about the rebaptism of Latins in his Dialogus (WILL, p. 125, l. 44 – p. 126, l. 5); rebaptism and anathema are also charges in the excommunication of the legates (WILL, p. 153, ll. 6-11; p. 154, ll. 10-14). 101 WILL, p. 92, ll. 26-28. 102 WILL, p. 177, ll. 1-21: the Byzantine ceremony is spurned and disrespected! Every Greek reader and listener were made aware of that faux pas of arrogance which is presented as contumeliousness of Byzantine culture and tradition, a very tricky polarization in order to provoke once more the sentiment of alliance among the audience as their very culture is threatened. 103 Among the errors are listed: simony, eunuch clergymen, rebaptism, marriage of priests, omission of the filioque, leavened bread, exclusion from communion of the beardless and tonsured monks.

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from the tone of Humbert’s treatises which do not restrain from insulting the opponent when papal power is questioned. A further mistake on the pope’s part was to believe the (presumably) rhetorical phrases of harmonic co-operation in the letter of Emperor Constantine.104 We are probably not wrong in supposing Michael Psellus as the author of this letter which aroused enthusiasm in Rome: Pope Leo interprets (or at least wished to interpret) the answer as total recognition of Rome and approval of its power and position, with subordination of Southern Italian Christianity, too.105 The confidence in this imperial assistance apparently caused Humbert’s massive attack and pressure on Nicetas Stethatus as well. II. Changing Networks The conflict of 1054 is a very good example for studying networks and analyzing which people became involved and which side sought to win over the other. The initial situation was considerably more difficult for the papal legates in Constantinople who could not rely on local authorities besides the Argyrus family106 (howsoever the latter was engaged in the conflict107). Their Constantinopolitan clientele were Latin priests, abbots, and monks who seem to have not had a great influence. Certainly, as papal legates they expected and claimed the highest respect, especially as in this situation it was Byzantium who was in real need of co-operation with Rome. When Peter signalized cooperation, Rome tried to include him in its anti-schismatic network, an attempt that failed as will be seen in more detail in section III.1. Cerularius was eagerly seeking to present the pope and the emperor as benevolent supporters of his position, thus part of his personal network; therefore no harsh word is said against them. On the contrary they are praised for their correct conduct: in his letter of justification to Peter of Antioch Cerularius skilfully uses this black-and-white-positioning against his main opponents, the legates and Argyrus.108 After the legates had deposed the anathema, Cerularius reacted against that act in his synodal 104

Cf. WILL, p. 85, l. 14- p. 86, l. 19. WILL, p. 85, l. 18 – p. 86, l. 19. 106 Argyrus himself was obviously in Italy during that time and controlled there the letters dispatched from and to Constantinople; cf. Cerularius’s first letter to Peter of Antioch (WILL, p. 174, l. 13 – p. 176, l. 12). 107 Argyrus’s son-in-law ( ρό ), bestarches, as well as the latter’s (or Argyrus’s?) son, bestes, two important officials at the court. 108 WILL, p. 174, ll. 13-18. 105

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semeioma of about 24 July 1054, a masterpiece of polarizing networking by transferring the charges of the legates against Cerularius and Leo of Ohrid to all Greek believers.109 When Cerularius realized that he had been booted out — which was evidently the emperor’s intention and attempt in consequence of Cerularius’s conduct —, he hastened to strengthen his relationship with the eastern patriarchates by contacting his patriarchal colleagues and warning them against false reports of the events in Constantinople. However, due to a general problem with the mailing system, the only patriarch he managed to have contact with was Peter of Antioch. While Peter of Antioch could be contacted through an imperial messenger, all the others depended on getting their letters through Peter, except for the patriarch of Jerusalem whose letter may be handed over directly only if Peter was unable to do so.110 Cerularius had established networks with the imperial court as well; if the information in the Brevis et succincta commemoratio is authentic — as it seems to be —, we are allowed to suppose that the emperor finally took revenge among supporters (“friends and relatives”) of Cerularius by degrading and banishing them from his court.111 That contacts to the court existed is evident from Cerularius’s niece Eudocia Macrembolitissa, who married the nobleman (and following emperor 1059-1067) Constantine X Ducas. We are informed about Cerularius’s contact with the court from his first letter to Peter of Antioch as well: here he intervened for a member of the imperial clergy, the deacon Peter.112 The papal and patriarchal networks included informants too; two Latin informants are mentioned in the preface of Nicetas Stethatus’s Dialexis: the (former) abbot Basil of Monte Cassino and the Archbishop Nicholas of Bari.113 The pope and patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado refer to news they have been informed of through hearsay.114 A further messenger in the conflict was Bishop John of Trani, one of the addressees of Archbishop Leo of Ohrid.115 As Rome had deprived John of his rights, he therefore seemed to be an appropriate companion in disseminating a treatise 109

WILL, p. 157, ll. 22-29; p. 160, ll. 18-24; cf. also Cerularius’s second letter to Peter of Antioch (WILL, p. 187, ll. 1-6). 110 WILL, p. 188, ll. 3-36. 111 WILL, p. 152, ll. 21-22. 112 WILL, p. 173, l. 4 – p. 174, l. 12. 113 Cf. n. 51. 114 Cf. the letter of Pope Leo to Cerularius and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid (WILL, p. 68, ll. 4-10); to Emperor Constantine IX (WILL, p. 88, ll. 9-11: though it was never sent); to Cerularius (WILL, p. 90, ll. 21-26); Marango to Patriarch Peter of Antioch (WILL, p. 207, ll. 1-4). 115 Cf. the analysis in BAYER, Spaltung, pp. 66-68.

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critical towards Rome though John observed Latin practice in a Byzantine administrative district. John should have brought the letter to the attention of the Latin bishops and finally to the pope. He apparently refrained from doing so and delivered the letter to Cardinal Humbert, who after the antiLatin events in Constantinople had every reason to be in a huff as Ohrid and Constantinople, respectively, attempted a sort of proselytism. However, from a remark of the pope we get the impression that John of Trani was in no way a suspect person116 for Rome, as Humbert in his Dialogus praises his steadfastness and notes that he had not yet been corrupted by Leo of Ohrid’s letter. In the same letter, Humbert adds: “Howsoever one may judge him in his work, he would not profit from such a ‘conversion’, but run the risk of losing his rank”.117 This passage — an evident premonition against John — casts some doubt on his loyalty towards Rome. In his first letter to Patriarch Peter of Antioch Cerularius gives further insight into those connections: John of Trani disclosed to Cerularius the whole truth about the falsification of Argyrus and his collaboration with the papal legates against the patriarch.118 In this note it is remarkable that John had already been honoured with the title of syncellus119 — once again a provocation for Rome, but at the same time a means of obliging him to support the patriarch/Byzantine emperor. II.1 The Participants at the Synodal Sessions of July 1054 In the group of partisans of Cerularius and his networkers we also have to include the Byzantine metropolitans who gave their blessing to Cerularius’s counter-anathema. Remarkably, we find the metropolitan of Otranto (Hypatius) and the metropolitan of Durrës/Durazzo120 among the participants of the two sessions of the synodos endemousa in July 1054 anathematizing the papal legates.121 It would be tempting to suppose a mediator/informant function between the Greek and the Italian area as their outstanding geographical positions suggest. It is well documented that the patriarch of Constantinople could influ116

In fact he was removed from office in 1059; cf. BAYER, Spaltung, pp. 123-124. WILL, p. 125, ll. 26-8. 118 WILL, p. 178, ll. 8-14. 119 A honorary title (originally adviser to the patriarch), in the eleventh century a member of the senate, nominated by the emperor; cf. V. GRUMEL, Titulature de métropoles byzantins, I. Les métropoles syncelles, in Revue des études byzantines 3 (1945), pp. 92-114; J. DARROUZÈS, Recherches sur les φφ κια de l’église byzantine, Paris 1970, pp. 18-19. 120 Cf. also the striking elevation of his rank within the hierarchy of metropolises in the session of 1054 in the annex at the end of the article. 121 Cf. the Appendix at the end of the article. 117

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ence the decisions of the synodos endemousa, the legislative body in religious matters, through the composition of its members.122 Those synodal sessions also served for replacing, restituting, or appointing new metropolitans or archbishops and, especially in controversial religious or political affairs, for deciding an issue in accordance with the patriarch who could manipulate such decisions simply by relying on networks of like-minded partisans and calling upon them for a special synodal session. It is precisely this which applies to Cerularius: metropolitans and archbishops are removed, opponents are excluded from decision making sessions and new partisans are appointed in order to enforce his personal interests against Rome and the moderate metropolitans following (or having been forced to follow) an irenic way of compromise. This form of manipulation can be illustrated from two sides: on the one hand the Byzantine unionist George Metochites (ca. 1250-1328) criticizes in book III of his dogmatic history the synodal session(s) of 1054, ca. 21 and 24 July (III 70). Cerularius is said to have suspended the “union” by means of an order of the emperor and a session of less than ten metropolitans123 — an obvious case of an arbitrary act; in other words, he exploited a network of like-minded metropolitans and archbishops far below a quorum such an important synod would require.124 To highlight this intentional selection of synodal members, on the other hand, we can compare the members of seven contemporary synodal sessions that took

122 Cf. J. PREISER-KAPELLER, “Our in the Holy Spirit beloved Brothers and Co-Priests”. A Network Analysis of the Synod and the Episcopacy in the Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the years 1379-1390, in Das Patriarchatsregister von Konstantinopel. Eine zentrale Quelle zur Geschichte und Kirche im späten Byzanz, ed. by Ch. GASTGEBER – E. MITSIOU – J. PREISER-KAPELLER, Vienna 2013, pp. 107-133 (pre-print online: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ byzanz/repository/Preiser_WorkingPapers_Calculating_II.pdf); STANKOVIÒ, Alexios Stoudites, pp. 78-79; Ch. GASTGEBER, Das Patriarchatsregister als Spiegel der Religionspolitik: Registerführung unter dem Palamiten Isidoros I. (1347-1350), in M.-H. BLANCHET – M.-H. CONGOURDEAU – D.-I. MURE‹AN, Le Patriarcat de Constantinople et Byzance « hors-frontières » (XIIIe-XVIe siècles), Paris 2015 (Dossiers byzantins, 15), pp. 101-133. 123 This number is not correct: cf. the following note. 124 J. COZZA-LUZI, Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, X 1, Roma 1905, pp. 354-355; WILL, p. 156, ll. 3-11; p. 168, ll. 12-16; these partisans are the metropolitans: Theophanes of Cyzicus (syncellus), Nicetas of Chalkedon (syncellus), Laurentius of Durrës (Durazzo), Anthimus of Side, Nicholas of Pisinus, Leo of Myrha, Leo of Trapezunt, John of Smyrna, Eusebius of Adrianople, Constantine of Mitylene, Nicholas of Chonai, Hypatius of Otranto; the archbishops: Leo of Karabizye, Gregory of Mesembria, and the officials of the patriarchate; all those were also members of the synodos endemusa of about 24 July; additionally for the session of ca. 21 July are listed separately: the metropolitans Leo of Athens (syncellus), Michael of Syleum (syncellus), Nicholas of Euchaneia (syncellus), Demetrius of Caria; and the archbishops Paul of Lemnos, Leo of Kotradia and Antony of Zikchia.

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place between 1027 (under Cerularius’s predecessor Alexius Stoudites [12 December 1025-20 February 1043]) and 1054.125 These sessions are: 1. November 1027: Regestes 833126: donations to monasteries; 2. January 1028: Regestes 835127: obligations of the clergy, priests, metropolitans, and monasteries; 3. May 1030: Regestes 839128: against the heresy of the Jacobites; 4. April 1038: Regestes 840129: confirmation of the preceding document; 5. 17th April 1038: Regestes 844130: marriage within the seventh degree of relationship; 6. September 1039: Regestes 846131: marriage, heritage; against the Jacobites. The analysis of these synodal members confronts us with a striking fact: for the most part the participants in Cerularius’s synodal sessions of July 1054 were not participants in the last session of 1039 under Alexius Stoudites (from which session the participating members are known). Some of these participants have certainly been ordained by Cerularius himself,132 and he presumably would have appointed “his” candidates, as far as the emperor and the synod could be convinced or manipulated. Only in the case of the metropolitans of Pisinus, Athens, Durrës (Durazzo), and Smyrna, as well as the archbishop of Matarcha was the holder from the time of Alexius Stoudites. Remarkable is also the absence of the hierarchically leading metropolitans one would expect in that basic decision. What we can conclude from this comparison is a more than conspicuous manipulation of the synodal decision with a result that supported Cerularius’s position and measures. Unfortunately, these members are for the most part only names or titles with little or no more information. Yet, showing how Cerularius could justify his activity with a decision of the Holy Synod completes our presentation of his networks and powers of manipulation of the populace. 125

The list is appended at the end of the article. Edited by G. A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, ταγμα τ θε κα ερ κα , vol. 5, Athens 1855, pp. 20-24. 127 Ibid., pp. 25-32. 128 Edited by G. FICKER, Erlasse des Patriarchen von Konstantinopel Alexios Stoudites, Kiel 1911, pp. 8-21. 129 Ibid., pp. 25-27. 130 RHALLES – POTLES, ταγμα, pp. 36-37. 131 FICKER, Erlasse, pp. 28-42. 132 The metropolitan of Karia had been removed from office under Alexius Stoudites (see Regestes 854 and 855). 126

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In the case of the metropolitan of Durrës, in particular, who had evidently been promoted to a higher rank, we might suppose an important role for Cerularius: he is listed as the third participant, although ranked in one of the official hierarchical lists at place 42 (!), and the holder already belonged to the members of the synodos endemousa under Alexius Stoudites (but not at this top rank). We can ascribe to the metropolitan a special function in this conflict but unfortunately we are not able to provide further information corroborating such hypothesis.

Fig. 1: Networks of the main players Michael Cerularius, Pope Leo / Cardinal Humbert, and Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus

III. Communication and Alliance Breakdowns III.1 Communication One problematic aspect of the relationship between Byzantium and the West was the language. They could not communicate directly and were dependent on translators with all the associated dangers of misinterpretation and mistranslation, whether intentional or not. Discussing at cross-purposes and using a vocabulary easy to mistranslate as well as misunderstand (especially in subtle and shifting religious questions) was a significant problem throughout the whole conflict: while

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the patriarch and the emperor could rely on “personal” translators, officials of their chancelleries or persons related to the chancelleries,133 others like Patriarch Peter of Antioch were automatically excluded from direct communication due to lack of translators. All discussions with the papal legates had to be conducted via such translators and the process could easily raise suspicion of intentional alterations, as Cerularius was accused by the papal legates134 of having manipulated the anathema in his ordered translation although the Greek version inserted in the semeioma of the synodal session of about 24 July 1054135 does not show evidence of any alteration.136 This allegation is even more odd as — according to Humbert’s report, his Brevis et succincta commemoratio — after the definitive departure of the papal legates on 21 July the emperor sent messengers to the legates outside the city on the way home in order to get a genuine version from them.137 To be sure, a manipulation evidently initiated by the patriarch can be observed in the letter, originally in Latin, of Pope Leo to Patriarch Peter of Antioch, who in turn, as said above, sent a Latin copy — written by the western messenger — to Cerularius to request a Greek translation in order 133

Cerularius mentions them in his semeioma of the synodal session; cf. the following

note. 134 They were dependent on translators as well, though Humbert uses Greek quotations in his treatises (cf. WILL, p. 100, ll. 2-7; p. 111, l. 18; cf. also p. 118, ll. 22-23; MICHEL I, p. 101, ll. 13-14). As regards the Latin version of Leo of Ohrid’s first letter, the Vita Leonis (II 19) ascribes to Humbert only the order for translation: “the text was translated into Latin by his initiative (eius studio)”: KRAUSE – JASPER – LUKAS, Touler Vita, p. 218, ll. 7-220, l. 2. The Vita (II 22) also reports that Pope Leo IX began to learn Greek (focussing on the Bible) when he had to stay in Benevento (from 23 June 1053 until 12 March 1054; ibid., p. 230, ll. 13-16). 135 WILL, pp. 161-165. 136 One wonders why they did not use Greek for a (written) anathema against Greeks; it was presumably a sign of emphasizing the value of their own language as they were consequently confronted with Greek texts from their opponents. Cerularius and the clergy did not get any information on the actual charges until the translation ordered by himself (WILL, p. 161, ll. 16-24); this is one of the rare passages which name the translators active for the patriarch: the protospatharius Cosmas, thus a court member, the Roman Pyrus and the Spanish monk John. That name-dropping was not sheer chance, but intentionally motivated in order to defend Cerularius against rumours of having falsified the anathema. The use of Latin aroused an evident controversy between Latins and Greeks, as the translation of Alleluja exemplifies; in his dialogus Humbert defends the use of Latin as one of the three holy languages testified in the titulus of the Holy Cross (WILL, p. 123, ll. 5-20). 137 WILL, p. 152, ll. 212-202. Supposing a forgery A. MICHEL, Die Fälschung der römischen Bannbulle durch Kerullarios, in Byzantinisch-Neugriechische Jahrbücher 9 (1932), pp. 293319; ID., Schisma und Kaiserhof im Jahre 1054. Michael Psellos, in 1054-1954. L’Église et les églises, Chevetogne 1954, pp. 421-423. Against this theory I. ŠEVÇENKO, The Civitas Russorum and the Alleged Falsification of the Latin Excommunication Bull by Kerullarios, in Actes du XIIe Congrès international des Études byzantines, Ohrid, vol. II, Beograd 1964, pp. 203-212, and resuming TINNEFELD, Michael I. Kerullarios, pp. 117-118.

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to understand its content.138 The Greek as well the Latin version are preserved and bear witness to the clear intentional manipulation of the text, thus confirming the general suspicion of alteration that was in the air. Allowing for the accusations of falsification from both sides — often repeated also from the Greek side by Cerularius against Argyrus — one will not be surprised if the parties did not refrain from accusing each other in that regard. In such an atmosphere of mutual objections it is understandable, too, why after the discussion between the papal legates and Nicetas Stethatus the emperor ordered an official translation of the works and letters of the legates.139 III.2 Successful and Failed Alliances The conflict between Humbert and Cerularius forced both parties to look for alliances. We have already mentioned that Cerularius could not rely upon the help of the intellectual circle of Psellus. Nicetas Stethatus seems to have intervened not in favour of the patriarch, but in order to highlight the role of the Stoudios monastery and because he was convinced that his overwhelming arguments would put an end to the discussion; as regards Archbishop Leo of Ohrid, we assume a sort of alliance behind the double attack against the Latins. The patriarch, however, knew that the most decisive factor in shaping public opinion was the influence on the populace. To gain control over this, it was necessary to link the Latins to qualities that had incontrovertibly negative connotations in Byzantine society. That is exactly the way Cerularius went about his task in order to forge an alliance with the populace (in the same way as the Latins did within their own readership). Nonetheless, it is worth emphasising here that from the letters and treatises from around 1054 we can see that Greeks and Latins could more or less live together at the same places whilst observing their specific liturgical practices. Differences between the two were recognised, maybe mocked, but generally accepted. When, however, demagogues underlined the differences and forwarded a particular interpretation in order to stigmatize the “others” as heretics, the allegedly religious conflict became an ethnic clash and fell back on ethnic stereotypes against the others. So the patriarch relied on such topics as he was sure his subordinates would accept and charged the “others” and — with regard to the presence of Latins in Constantinople — “foreigners” of deviating from true faith. 138 WILL, p. 204, l. 18-27; the first letter from the West, from Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado to Peter was still written in Greek. 139 WILL, p. 151, l. 8-15.

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Both sides drew from the traditional stereotypes of each other’s ethnos, reverting to them as and when necessary in order to fuel emotions. For the western part, Liutprand of Cremona and Anastasius Bibliothecarius had given a very vivid image of the “others” and contributed to stereotypes by recording an image already deeply rooted in western society: the arrogant and sly Greek.140 From the Greek side, the Latins are symptomatically classified as cocky, barbarian and disloyal (as regards the usurpation of the imperial title and its aftermath).141 A ruler supporting a group deviating from the official line of tradition, maintained and preserved by the patriarch of Constantinople, must consequently have appeared in a bad light, and Emperor Constantine’s policy clearly went in the direction of winning over and involving his former opponent Argyrus for his strategy against the Normans. As already said, Argyrus was suspect in many respects: mainly as a former usurper and, as an Italian, tied to the Roman cult and a user of unleavened bread.142 Constantine surely could not allow any provocation of Latins, but, on the other hand, was unable to totally suppress it — an excellent opportunity for the patriarch to demonstrate his power. The attacks against the Latins by Leo of Ohrid went alongside the closure of the Latin monasteries in Constantinople, which was certainly intended to become the more “visible” signal to the urban populace of resistance to the Latin Church. In this sense Cerularius acted literally, too: some passages of his first letter to Peter of Antioch aim at such cheap propaganda, charging the Latins with their “well known” arrogance143; he emphasizes the differences between both sides by juxtaposing “I and emperor” with “the Latins” and by exploiting an ethnic difference of the “others”. It remains to be seen if Cerularius succeeded with his policy aimed at radicalising the populace. From the caution of Emperor Isaac I Comne140 Cf. H. HUNGER, Graeculus perfidus-Italos itamos: il senso dell’alterità nei rapporti grecoromani ed italo-bizantini, Roma 1987. 141 Cf. also Peter of Antioch excusing their behavior with the lack of education and knowledge of the barbarians (WILL, p. 198, ll. 26-32); the Latins are described as “a swaggering and arrogant nation” (WILL, p. 200, ll. 17-19). 142 Cf. Cerularius in his first letter to Peter of Antioch, charging Argyrus of forging the patriarch’s correspondence with the pope and of using unleavened bread in the capital which caused a conflict with the patriarch who excluded him several times from the holy communion (WILL, p. 177, ll. 29-35). See also the emphasis on Argyrus’ Italian origin: Peter of Antioch to Cerularius (rhetorically highlighted by a hyperbaton: WILL, p. 189, ll. 6-10). Very impressive is Cerularius’ description of the events and the arrival of the papal legates in Constantinople in his counter-anathema: “… men, emerging from the dark (for they are ‘products’ of the western part) … they penetrated into this city like a blizzard, an earthquake, a hailstorm, or to use a more appropriate expression, like a wild animal…” (WILL, p. 157, ll. 7-22). 143 WILL, p. 177, ll. 1-27; p. 183, l. 30 – p. 184, l. 7.

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nus in charging the patriarch in 1059 far away from the capital144 we may conclude that Cerularius was very popular and that he had impressed the populace of Constantinople with actions like the anathemas of 1054. Rome involved as her ally Patriarch Dominicus Marango of Grado (patriarch since ca. 1049/50), who also accompanied Pope Leo to Regensburg to Emperor Henry III in 1052. In April 1053, at the very time when the conflict was beginning, Marango obtained jurisdiction over Venice and Istria and thus over the area of influence of the patriarch of Aquileia. This enlarged see and his close connection to the pope must have become known to the Greeks, a fact which also helps explain why he is one of the two addressees of Leo of Ohrid’s first letter (the second one is Bishop John of Trani) according to the (secondary) title of the manuscript tradition.145 The same Marango appears to have been asked by the pope/Humbert to win over the new patriarch, Peter of Antioch, against Cerularius. This request was not intended to involve the other Greek patriarchs as Rome probably did not expect any support from them; moreover, the contact was established with Antioch only because Peter himself had renewed the relationship with Rome and was looking for a solution to the schismatic situation for the long term. At that moment Rome attempted to use that moderate Greek, albeit a former member of the patriarchal clergy, in order to include him in their network against Cerularius: the strategy was to offer union, to discuss differences and to strengthen the apostolic foundations with Rome being the head of them all. That was explicitly expressed in the pope’s letter to Peter. However, the pope did not answer immediately, Peter had to wait nearly two years, then he got a letter in Latin he could not understand and sent a copy of it to Constantinople where Cerularius was directly informed about Rome’s networking activity among Greek clergymen (especially Leo’s attempt to unite the Petrine foundations, Rome and Antioch,146 and to emphasize the position of Rome as described in the Donation of Constantine the Great147). Whatever may have been the reason for Leo’s delayed answer to Peter, in the meantime Marango had presumably been instructed by Rome to answer. The Latins evidently misinterpreted the contact with Antioch and might have understood it as an offer of alliance or union (against the schismatic patriarch of Constantinople). Confident about that possibility, but nonetheless cautious, Marango made contact. His ability to write in Greek (as one would expect, apparently not to the 144

Cf. above, pp. 196-197. Cf. BÜTTNER, Erzbischof Leon von Ohrid, pp. 194-196. 146 Cf. MICHEL II, p. 460, l. 8 – p. 464, l. 7. 147 Cf. FUHRMANN, Constitutum, § 12 (p. 82, ll. 171-173): Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. 145

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level of a learned Greek148) may have contributed to that decision. In his letter he tries to give the impression of contacting Peter on his personal initiative due to the high reputation of Peter’s name and his patriarchate. The strategy was to win him over by adulation as well as by reference to the common Petrine foundation149 and to induce him to intervene in Constantinople. Two basic flaws characterize this letter: first, Marango used that contact for the recognition of his patriarchate by declaring Grado as an apostolic foundation (Marc and Peter)150; secondly, he asked Peter to intervene in Constantinople and to rebuke the responsible ones for the attacks against the Latin Church.151 With such premisses, the network broke down even before it could be established. In his reply Peter made clear that a sixth patriarch is not justified by canonical sources; he accepts the title “patriarch” as a specific western interpretation which would correspond to nothing more than an etymological adaption and thus in a mere symbolic way for a Greek pater and exarchos, protothronus or proedrus,152 but a real sixth patriarchate could not be accepted. The charge of “the Constantinopolitan clergy” prompts him to defend Cerularius’s campaign153 with a long justification of the use of leavened bread. The correspondence ended with Peter’s reply, and Rome must have realized that the offer had been misjudged. IV. Appendix. The Synodal Members 1027-1054 The notitia episcopatuum ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae 11 (of ca. 1082/ 1084) in the first column indicates the contemporary hierarchy of the metropolitan and archiepiscopal sees.154 The numbers in the session columns give the hierarchic rank of the sees of the participating members; if the holder of a metropolis or archbishopric changed in 1054 (compared to the preceding holder), this is highlighted in bold; the additionally listed synodal members of ca. 21 July are distinguished with two small asterisks before the rank number (**x). Metropolitan sees and archbishoprics whose holders did not participate in a synodal session during the analysed timespan are omitted from the list. 148 Cf. Peter in his biographical passage about his education in Constantinople: MICHEL II, p. 432, ll. 28-33; p. 440, ll. 13-21. 149 WILL, p. 205, l. 10 – p. 206, l. 4; BIANCHI, Marango, p. 99, ll. 7-9; for the interpretation of this passage cf. pp. 106-111. 150 WILL, p. 206, ll. 10-22; BIANCHI, Marango, p. 100, ll. 13-19. 151 WILL, p. 207, 1-33; BIANCHI, Marango, p. 101, l. 25 – p. 102, l. 42. 152 WILL, p. 212, ll. 12-23. 153 WILL, p. 214, ll. 7-25. 154 J. DARROUZÈS, Notitiae episcopatuum ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Texte critique, introduction et notes, Paris 1981, pp. 118-127, text: pp. 342-346.

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Not. 11 Metropolitans 1 Cesarea 2 Ephesus 3 Heraklea 4 Ankyra 5 Cyzicus 7 Nicomedea 8 Nicea 9 Chalkedon 10 Side 11 Sebastea 12 Amasea 13 Melitene 14 Tyana 15 Gangra 16 Thessaloniki 17 Claudiupolis 18 Neocesarea 19 Pisinus 20 Myra 21 Caria 23 Synada 24 Iconium 25 Antioch 26 Syleum 27 Corinth 28 Athens 29 Mokissus 30 Crete 31 Kalauria 32 Patras 33 Trapezus 34 Larissa 36 Philippupolis 39 Philippi 40 Adrianupolis 42 Durrachium 43 Smyrna 45 Amorium 46 Camachus 47 Cotyaeum 48 Hagia Severina

CHRISTIAN GASTGEBER

1 102

1

2 1028

1

2 2 3 4

3 4 5

5 6

6 7

7 8

8 9

3 1030 4 2 5 6 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

4 1038 5 2 6 8 1

5 1038

6 1039

1

1

7 9 11 10 12 18 22 15 21

2 3

1

4

2 4

5 6

7 30

9

10

10 11 12 15

11 12 13 20

13

14 15

14

16 17

7 1054

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25

20 28 13 19

8

5 6 **4

**2

14 3 (!) 17 41 (!) 25 16

**1

9 2 7

26 27 28

29 24

23

3

10

9 3 8

29 18 31

35 26 31

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THE SO-CALLED SCHISM OF 1054 AND ITS IMPACT ON BYZANTINE SOCIETY

Not. 11 49 51 52 53 54 55 56 58 59 60 61 62 64 67 69

1 102 Mitylene Euchaita Amastris Chone Hydrus Keltzene Colonea Serrhes Pompeiupolis Rosia Alania Ainus Euchanea Germania / Germia Apamea

Archbishops 1 Bizye 2 Leontopolis 3 Maronea 4 Arcadiupolis 7 Proconesus 8 Selybria 9 Keus 10 Aprus 11 Rusium 12 Kypsela 16 Xerson 19 Brysis 20 Delcus 21 Carabizye 22 Lemnus 30 Bosporus 31 Cotradia 32 Rhoinoi 33 Carpathus 34 Mesembria 36 Sugdia 39 Pharsala 40 Matarcha / Zichia

16

2 1028

19 21 22

3 1030 3 (!) 30 32

33 34 35

4 1038 37 4 (!) 33

5 1038

4

6 1039

11

7 1054 10

11 12

27 32 39 12 40 34 **3

40155 42156 23

36 37 38

45 43

17

24

42 41

18

25 26

44 43

20 19

46 47 48 44

27 28 39 45

21

13 **5

29 30

**6

49 14

46 31 50 13

**7

155156

155 156

Germia; archbishopric at that time. Archbishopric at that time.

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PART II THE TEXTS

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ERIK VARDEN, OCSO

CUM DAVIDE VERSARI. THE PSALTER AS ACQUIRED SELF-EXPRESSION Among the victims of the pestilence that raged in Constantinople in 741 were a young couple of comfortable standing called Sergios and Euphemia. Their death left three orphaned children, two daughters and a son, to be raised by relatives. On the education of the boy, Plato, all care was lavished, and he could make a precocious career as a civil servant. The girls were trained rather in domestic accomplishments apt to make them attractive to husbands, and unburdened with bookish learning. The one sister, Theoctista, about whom we are well informed, entered the married state without being able to read. She had to teach herself, therefore, and could often be found burning the midnight oil deciphering writing. If we ask why, at the end of a long day, she bothered, the answer is clear: she wanted to learn to read because she wished to recite the Psalter. From that time onwards, her son tells us, ο ἐπ το ιλο τ ε υ , or, in the translation of Jacques Sirmon, ‘nunquam destitit cum Davide versari’1. Charles Diehl was possibly speaking tongue in cheek when he maintained, in his portrait of Theoctista, the valiant mother of Theodore Stoudite, that her biography is broadly representative of women of her class in that age2. What we know of Theoctista makes her appear in most respects untypical! The style of her devotion, though, was certainly traditional, and that is what interests us here, as we ask questions about the significance and status of the Psalter in medieval Byzantium. Long before she could even start thinking about embracing monastic life, while her children were small and she had a large house to run, Theoctista nurtured her devout heart by ‘conversing with David’. What sort of conversation are we talking about? Why was it so important to her? I propose to address these questions with reference to a venerable Patristic authority before considering how our particular Psalter might illumine us.

1 2

THEODORE STOUDITE, Laudatio funebris in matrem suam, n. 3, PG 99, 885. CH. DIEHL, Figures byzantines, 2 vols, Paris 1906, I, 112.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 229-240.

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Theory In Vat. gr. 752, the Letter to Marcellinus3 is copied out between a pictorial cycle of the life of David and another of the life of Christ, both of which precede the Psalter proper. It is appropriate that Athanasius’s epistle should be sandwiched between digests of these two extraordinary destinies, of David and the Son of David, since his disquisition is concerned to show how each presupposes and mysteriously contains the other. Marcellinus had turned to Athanasius for help because he wished to understand the sense, the νο , of each Psalm; he wanted to see how the Psalms were ‘minded’4. Athanasius obliged, not by a series of individual commentaries, but by providing a key to the Psalter as such, a master key fit to open the gate of understanding even when, in its wanderings, the mind happens upon seemingly insuperable obstacles. I am not being irresponsible in using this kind of spatial imagery, for Athanasius fully endorses it. While other books of Scripture, he says, deal separately with specific aspects of revelation, the Book of Psalms is π ρ ει ο τ [τ ν π ντ ν] ἐν τ ρου ελ ε . It is like a garden. With melody it bears all the fruits we can find in other books of the Bible while, by singing, it shows forth things uniquely its own too (ch. 2). To move within the Psalter is to enjoy a panorama that displays every aspect of salvation history at once. The Psalter does not only commemorate these events. It enacts them and makes them present. Thus we do not merely contemplate the fruit of the garden; we do not merely celebrate it in song. We pick it and eat of it as we have need (ch. 30). This is where the Psalter comes into its own and reveals its specificity. The Psalter is ours more than any other book of the Bible. By a special grace it engages — or envelops — the praying subject in such a way that the π ρ ει ο he enters through psalmody seems to him not someone else’s but his own. When reading other inspired books, says Athanasius, we admire the words. We repeat them with awe, conscious of our unworthiness to claim the statements of Moses, say, or the Prophets as our own. With the Psalms it is different. One who reads them with faith reads them as ‘his own words’ (ch. 11). His ‘conversation with David’ is not restricted to listening or recitation. He appropriates David’s words as being about himself. If we want to understand the privileged position of the Psalms in Christian worship, we must follow the reasoning behind this remarkable claim. 3 ATHANASIUS, The Life of Anthony and the Letter to Marcellinus, transl. by R. C. GREGG, Mahwah 1980, pp. 101-129. 4 Ep. Mar. 1, PG 27, 12. Further references will be given in the text, indicating the paragraph of the Letter.

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For it is remarkable, an ιον , that the Psalter puts ‘the movements of each individual soul, the ways in which it changes and the means it needs to correct itself’, into words (ch. 11). It is not just that we read the Psalter; the Psalter also reads us, revealing us to ourselves. We are at once subject and object, yet the exercise does not descend into mere introspection, in as much as we are not on our own in the garden into which we are transported. In this singular space, the constraints of time and space are cancelled. The mystery of salvation is present simultaneously and in totality, casting light on us who enter and soliciting our response. Athanasius uses a suggestive phrase to describe what is going on. Each reader, he says, will find that the Psalter articulates the movements of his own soul, his joys and sorrows, his praise and penitence. The recognition that ensues operates a kind of fellowship with the experience out of which each Psalm arose. And so the Psalter enables us to seize the “image” that informs the words we recite: ν τ ι π λιν ἐ τ τ ε ι τ ν ε όν τ ν λό ν (ch. 10). I need hardly point out that the effort to define the proper relationship between word and image in worship occasioned intense controversy in the Greek Church over many centuries, and that it involved more than just the status of pictures. Quite what is presupposed by the passage from the words of a sacred text to the icon of those words will have been explained in different ways by Athanasius and by a learned clerk in the age of Theoctista. It will have evoked a different response still by the scribe who transcribed the Letter to Marcellinus in our eleventh-century psalter. This much, though, will surely have been conceded by all three: that the iconic potential of the Psalter consists in its ability to make the salvific mystery tangible and accessible. It translates us who read from the realm of discourse to the realm of experience. Words are useful for admonition and instruction. Communion with an image, on the other hand, is apt to confer an experience of participation. It is thus interesting to hear Athanasius say that the Psalter ‘provides the image, somehow, for the course of the life of souls’ (ch. 14). He is speaking in the first place of an image of life as it should be, for the Psalms tell us how we ought to live, speak and pray (ch. 11). But he is also speaking of an image — a sometimes disturbing image — of life as it is. ‘It seems to me’, says Athanasius, ‘that [the words of the Psalms] are like a mirror to the one who prays them, letting him contemplate himself and the movements of his soul in them’ (ch. 12). The occasional violence of the Psalter, so disconcerting to the uninitiated, here reveals its true, most profound significance: the transgressor no less than the keeper of the Law recognises himself in this book, ‘for the Psalms contain the deeds of both’ (ch. 11). Whatever our state of spiritual progress, these texts provide τ ποι

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ρ τ ρε , types and impressions, which correspond to our reality (ch. 12). All of Scripture is inspired (ch. 2). In all of Scripture the Lord is present (ch. 33). About this, the Letter to Marcellinus is quite clear. What distinguishes the Psalter is first of all its density of expression. In restricted space it narrates creation’s history and destiny. It provides a chronicle of Israel; a celebration of the Law; an exploration of the human heart; an anthology of glory. Athanasius maintains that, in it, ‘the whole of human existence, both the dispositions of the soul and the movements of the thoughts, have been measured out and encompassed. There is nothing beyond these to be found among men’ (ch. 30). A second hallmark of the Psalter is the rehearsal of this range of experience in terms of a single destiny. The progressive ‘Davidisation’ of the Psalms, which occurred over centuries, enabled a confluence of perspective whereby the history of salvation could be celebrated in its universal aspect and at the same time applied to a personal biography5. It was an approach that paved the way for the New Testament’s typological use of the Psalter to interpret Christ, drawing on Jesus’s own references and his post-resurrection assertion that the Psalms speak ‘about me’ (Luke 24:44). The apostolic Church followed on in developing its ministry in the light of the Psalms (Acts 1:20). By Athanasius’s day, the Christological dimension of the Psalter was brought out in the liturgy, and this is where a pious matron like Theoctista will, four centuries later, have taken their symbolic charge for granted, certain that liturgical reading enables the corporate search for Christ in the Psalms while also making it possible for us to find ourselves in them, through him. There are, then, three protagonists in the Psalter. There is David, who, as the Everyman of medieval drama, represents the human condition. There is Christ, who, in a veiled way, is presaged by David’s aspirations and prophecies. And there is me, the reader, invited to perform the sublime drama of the Psalter as if it were mine. It follows that a ‘conversation with David’ is no mere parroting of old formulae. It is a performative encounter. The ‘image’ it carries spells and bestows ‘presence’. Application A remarkable thing about Vat. gr. 752 is that it effectively renders the sort of ‘image’ Athanasius was talking about as an absolute, abstract notion into images. With elegant intelligence, it frequently illustrates Athanasius’s principles of exegesis by means of visual commentaries. We are concerned 5

A thesis expounded in J.-L. VESCO, Le Psautier de David, 2 vols, Paris 2006.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 2r: Life of David.

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here with the confluence of subjectivities — David’s, Christ’s and mine — in an image that transcends words. We have seen how difficult it is to articulate this overlap, and so it will be worthwhile to consider how it might be rendered iconographically. Let us begin by recalling how the Letter to Marcellinus is itself tellingly framed. In the sections that precede it (containing Paschal tables, Pseudo-Chrysostom’s Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7r: David and the Ark. πρό ρ and the preface of ‘John and Theodoret’), we find a series of lovely, sometimes playful, scenes from the life of David (fig. 1: fol. 2r). The illustrator’s concern is to position David within the spiritual and historical reality of the Old Testament. Explicit reference is made to Moses, who represents Israel’s patrimony, while the figures of Asaph and Jeduthun remind us that David’s praise and prophecy had, from the outset, an ecclesial dimension: his songs were sung with and for the wider community. In this first section of the psalter, the presence of Christ is only hinted at. Three miniatures on the recto of the first folio, depicting David’s birth, bathing, and presentation, are, as Ernest De Wald notes6, a typological foreshadowing of the nativity of Christ. There is a further prophetic reference in the cross David holds as he accompanies the Ark on its entry into Jerusalem (fig. 2: fol. 7r). It tells us that the songs of David celebrate the promise of redemptive intervention contained in the Old Law. Immediately after Athanasius’s letter, we pass from types and shadows to an explicit proclamation of God’s saving work in Christ. For being badly damaged, the illustrations on fols 17v-18r display the biography of the Saviour in highlights that almost add up to the Dodekaheorton soon to be canonised in Byzantine liturgical art as a catechetical concentrate7. This vision of Christ in his mysteries coincides with the ‘divinest thoughts’ promised 6

DE WALD, p. 3. For an image and commentary on such a type of icon-composite, see Holy Image, Holy Ground: Icons from Sinai, ed. by R. S. NELSON – K. M. COLLINS, Los Angeles 2006, pp. 162165, 170-173. 7

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by the dedicatory poem ‘to those who perceive, as they chant the psalm, the liturgy of the spirit’8. Only such vision will equip us to appreciate the full import of the preface miniature to the psalter proper. Here, at fol. 18v, within the bounds of a single composition, the depth and breadth of the Psalter are displayed. David, king and priest, stands solemnly robed within a ciborium that heralds the church-structure evidenced throughout the manuscript. Immediately above David, within the field of the horseshoe arch, is Christ enthroned, holding the book of the New Law with his left hand and blessing the spectator with his right. The spandrils to the left and right of the Saviour show us how David’s song is oriented towards the culmination of divine philanthropy in the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ’s Pasch entails the end of death’s reign for all humankind, represented by Lazarus. The pair of prophets indicates the modality by which the two levels of agency are linked, while the musicians invite us, as readers, to put our own psalteries, harps and castanets to good use. As we look around to find our own place, though, we should not think ourselves confined to the margins of the picture. The exposition of Athanasius emboldens us to claim the central position in David’s stead, ‘in medio ecclesiae’. There we can own the Psalter’s praise as ours, fortified by Easter faith and with eyes raised to behold the Lord in glory. Our manuscript uses a number of eisegetical devices to read the reader into the text. I shall confine myself to a brief analysis of two such, in the successive illustrations to Pss 11 and 12: two panels that in many ways complement one another. Let us begin with the four-tiered illustration on fol. 42v (fig. 3) that accompanies Ps 11. The illuminator’s choice of subject is informed by the superscription in the LXX Psalter, which classifies the text as being ε τ τ λο , π ρ τ ό . In conformity with the tradition of patristic exegesis, he interprets the reference to an ‘eighth’ not pragmatically, in terms of liturgical rubrics, but anagogically, recognising it as a prophecy of the eighth day, the day of Christ’s judgement. The approach, once adopted, seems corroborated by the subject of the Psalm. It is concerned with the Lord’s ‘scattering deceitful tongues’ as he vindicates other, pure, divine words ‘tried by fire’. The stakes involved are shown in a symmetrical arrangement of four scenes, two drawn from Scripture, two from the liturgy. The uppermost representation of the parousia is instantly recognisable, with Christ riding on the clouds of heaven, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim. The two groups of hierarchs below intercede for the sake of the Church. Uppermost in the second half we see the reward 8 See the text by Acconcia Longo, pp. 176-177. Translation by CH. R. MOREY in DE WALD, p. xii.

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 42v: Psalm 11.

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held out to the just as they are summoned to sweet repose in the bosom of Abraham. Apostles and martyrs greet this beatitude underneath. The cherub at the garden gate, meanwhile, hints at a more ominous presence. He is posted there to exclude those who, on being weighed, have been found wanting and are condemned to remain excluded in perpetual darkness. The believer who adopts this message as a key to the Psalm will be alert to the extreme seriousness of the words he utters: ‘Save me, O Lord!’ The sacred text calls on him, here and now, to take sides either with the ‘lips of deceit’ or with the ‘words purified by fire’. The π ρ ει ο of the Psalter is a testing ground that shows whether he qualifies to enter the π ρ ει ο of Abraham, whether, that is, he will stand to the right or to the left of the flaming sword. The hope for paradise regained is still more emphatically evident in the following illustrations, going with the text of Ps 12 (fols 44r and 45r). The commentators who are our psalter’s chief authorities give due attention to the πο τρο το προ που, the turning away of the Lord’s face, and the πότε with which David begins the Psalm. John Chrysopathos of the stom stresses the pedagogy implicit in dereliction. The spiritual suffering it induces is intended, he says, as a wake-up call for the sinners, spurring them on to repentance. David is the paradigm that should inform every sinner’s response. Have you sinned?, asks Chrysostom. ‘David is your teacher. […] Do not fall asleep in sin but rise; be mindful at once that God has turned his face away from you, that he has forgotten you’. The grief that ensues cannot but cause an amendment of manners and the restoration of hope9. We have here a traditional tropological reading, illustrated by two miniatures (one preceding, the other following the Psalm) that show David prostrate at the feet of Christ. In the first, David lies with eyes downcast before the Lord who sits immobile on his judgement seat; in the second, the penitent king tentatively raises his gaze to look towards Christ, who is now coming walking towards him. The Psalm’s plea for mercy has evidently been heeded. The text, however, has more to offer, and the illustrator shows us what in the composite miniature on fol. 44v (fig. 4). It tells us that David’s prayer concerns more than just his particular, personal sin, for here are Adam and Eve raising suppliant hands to heaven beside the cave in which personified Hades clutches their progeny, the whole human race, in a morbid embrace. The initial ‘How long?’ is thus interpreted in the light of a phrase that occurs later in the Psalm, ποτε πν ε ν τον, ‘lest I fall asleep in death’, and so the fundamental scandal of the human condition, physical death, enters centre stage. The lyrical lament of Adam 9

PG 55, 153.

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44v: Psalm 12.

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barred from paradise, conscious of having forfeited the immortality for which he was called into being, was a genre that entered Greek liturgical poetry in the fifth century. It gained a prominent position in the Church’s celebration of Lent. In the picture before us, this liturgical topos synthetically invokes St Paul’s juxtaposition of the First and the Second Adam. Its implications are worked out in the lower panel. The single representative figure from the cave above is diversified into a community of persons, ‘the dead’, reads the legend, ‘who will rise in Christ’. David’s words, then, are Adam’s. Adam’s words are those of the lump of humankind. And this general utterance is invested with new, eternal potency when spoken in the living communion of the Church. It becomes the particular, original profession of any believer who takes it upon himself, in Christ, to ‘converse with David’. Conclusion The illustrations of Vat. gr. 752 were painted in the century that gave us the mosaic cycles of Daphne and Hosios Loukas, magnificent creations of art and theology that render the mystery of salvation densely present in a new kind of space, pressing the beholder to take in everything at once: Christ on the Cross and Christ in glory; this vale of tears and the glory of heaven. Old Testament patriarchs, New Testament apostles, contemporary monks, and hierarchs of all times stand side by side, flanked by angels, to tell us something about the power of the Church’s liturgy. It enables synchronicity, yes, but really it transcends the category of time. When the Church gathers in prayer, Adam and David, Athanasius and Theoctista pray together with one voice, which is Christ’s voice. I am conscious that I have so far said little that is not blindingly obvious. Our enquiry will not have been time wasted, however, if I have been able to bring home this one, crucial point: that a clerk picking up this manuscript in the eleventh century will scarcely have done so with less reverence than he would have felt on stepping inside the church of Hosios Loukas. He will , a living gatherhave entered the π ρ ει ο of the Psalter as an ἐ λ ing. He will have approached the Psalter as a place of encounter, a sacrament of Christ, and I permit myself to make that point not only as a student of ancient texts but as someone who, like our scribe, is vowed to recite the Psalms again and again every day of his life, with the conviction that it is not a futile enterprise. It is well not to forget this supernatural and (let us risk the word) existential dimension if we wish to understand the response solicited by this remarkable manuscript, which is not only a work of art or a subtle political manifesto or an exercise in exegetical acrobatics, but

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a profession of faith. It is in order to keep that door open that I suggest it might be useful, in the course of this learned exchange, to cast our mind’s eye back, now and again, to Theoctista’s atrium, where this once illiterate Constantinopolitan matron risked her eyesight sitting up late, darning in hand, conversing with David. His transmitted words, she found, gave voice to the otherwise ineffable sentiments of her own heart. They made up her garden of predilection, the garden in which she would live, die, and hope to rise again.

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DAVID AND CHRIST SING THE PSALMS: THE PSALTER AS PROPHECY AND LITURGY An intriguing image in at least three Byzantine Psalters is of David, dressed as a Byzantine Emperor, standing between the female personifications of Wisdom (Sophia) and Prophecy (Prophetia). David holds a text from Ps 71:1: ‘Give the king your justice O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son’. Above his head hovers a dove, symbolising the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through David as he composed the Psalms. To his left Prophetia is pointing to his text, indicating that this psalm is a prophecy in the process of being fulfilled — not in the life of David, but in the (Byzantine) Church, which is the guardian of the just and righteous Kingdom begun by David and completed by Christ. The earliest example of this image is most probably in the tenth-century Paris Psalter, and there are at least two other imitations of it: one was originally in the eleventh-century so-called Sinai Psalter, from Crete, and another dates from the late thirteenth century and is now in the Vatican Library.1 One reason this image is so striking is that a practice in both Jewish and Christian reception history has always been to read the Psalms as both wisdom and prophecy. The Psalms have continuously been seen as prayerful instructions about belief and practice, initially using the wisdom traditions of ancient Israel and later adapted by the Fathers of the early Church. They have similarly been understood as prophecies, like the classical prophets such as Isaiah and Amos, containing mysterious utterances about things to come: in Jewish tradition these concern Israel and the promised Messiah, and in Christian tradition they are applied to Jesus Christ and his Church.2 Indeed, these discussions of the two ways of reading the Psalter 1 The Paris Psalter is now Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. gr. 139, fol. 7v. The image that was removed from the Sinai Psalter (Sinait. gr. 38) is now National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, Petrop. gr. 269, fol. 2r. The image in the Vatican Library is in MS Pal. gr. 381, fol. 2r. For a discussion of these illustrations, see J. LOWDEN, Manuscript Illumination in Byzantium, 1261-1557, in Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557), ed. by H. C. EVANS, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, pp. 259-293, esp. pp. 265-266 and 273-274. 2 See, for example, Eph 5:15-20 (the Psalms used for teaching) and Lk 24:44-45 (the Psalms read as prophecies alongside the classical prophets).

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 241-259.

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as a whole — as instruction and as prophecy — have become particularly prevalent over the last three decades in scholarly circles, in debates about the theological shaping of the Psalter as a whole.3 This paper will focus on the ways in which the Psalms have been understood as prophecy with particular reference to Vat. gr. 752. I shall first illustrate that its concern to read the ancient Psalms of David as prophecies about Jesus Christ makes Vat. gr. 752 a particularly prophetic Psalter. Secondly, in order to place Vat. gr. 752 in a broader context, I shall demonstrate that this mode of reading is part of a continuous stream of tradition in both Jewish and Christian reception. Finally, I shall make some observations about the theological implications of reading Vat. gr. 752 as a prophetic work. Vaticanus graecus 752: a Prophetic Psalter? It is impossible to be certain that a Psalter designed for personal and liturgical monastic use would have reflected the more general political, social and religious climate of its day, although it is usual to assume that most prophetic readings of the Psalms have been influenced to some degree by the wider context of their time. If we accept the date and provenance for Vat. gr. 752, copied before 1059 in Constantinople,4 it is more than likely that the internal revolts and aristocratic rivalry throughout the reign of Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1055) and the ensuing difficulties in securing the continuation of the Macedonian dynasty after his death would have had some effect on the compilers. By 1059, with Byzantine imperial hegemony severely threatened, the emphasis in this Psalter on prophecies concerning the eternal rule of God’s kingdom over transient powers was particularly relevant. The weakening of Byzantine military prowess, and the difficulty of funding its many hostilities, exacerbated by the increasing trading power of Italy, the growing instability in the Balkans, and Turkish incursions with the continual threat of Islamic rule, all required theological assurance that the rule of God surpassed the powers of the nations. The prophetic elements in Vat. gr. 752 might also be seen in the light of contemporary religious concerns. Many of the images illustrate that the kingdom of the Jewish David is only made complete by the kingdom of Jesus Christ: this undoubtedly echoes the tensions in Jewish and Christian relations which were in part the result of the various iconoclastic crises in 3 See S. E. GILLINGHAM, New Wine and Old Wineskins: Three Approaches to Prophecy and Psalmody, in Prophecy and the Prophets in Ancient Israel, ed. by J. DAY, New York and London 2010, pp. 370-390. 4 For a problematization of these data, see now F. D’Aiuto’s paper in this volume.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 1r (detail): Birth of David.

the preceding centuries. Furthermore, the profound theological disagreements, in 1054, between Patriarch Michael Keroularios of Constantinople and Cardinal Humbert, resulting in the excommunication of each side by the other, must have left a mark on a Psalter which so emphasizes the supreme authority of the Byzantine Church as the true inheritor of the promises given in the Psalms by David to Christ. A prophetic worldview becomes a powerful means of ratifying the identity of a community under threat from without and within, and both the images and the catena in this Psalter indicate this clearly. One of the examples of a markedly prophetic slant is found in the first miniature, set alongside the Paschal Tables, on fol. 1r (fig. 1), where David’s birth (unrecorded in the Hebrew Bible) is stylised so that it models the Nativity of Christ, with David’s mother being a type of Mary, Mother

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Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 17v (detail): Nativity.

of Jesus.5 In the first medallion of eight on this folio, David’s mother is lying in bed, dressed in vermillion and blue robes, supported by a woman to her right who stands behind her bed. In the third medallion on the same folio, David’s mother (still in blue and vermillion), is sitting on what seems to be a throne and is handing over her baby to a female attendant to be circumcised (again, an event not recorded in the accounts in Samuel). This scene prefigures the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. That this double connection was intended is evident later on fol. 17v (fig. 2), where the Virgin, aided by two midwives, gives birth to the Christ-Child and in fol. 18r (fig. 3), which depicts the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.6 So, in 5

See DE WALD, p. 3, and now also VARDEN in this volume. On this motif in Byzantine manuscripts, see M. MEYER, Refracting Christian Truths through the Prism of the Biblical Female in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, in Heritage of the Jews in Byzantium. Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, ed. by R. BONFIL – O. IRSHAI – G. G. STROUMSA – R. TALGAM, Jerusalem 2010, pp. 971-1000. Allusions to the Gospel 6

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18r (detail): Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

prefiguring Christ, David’s Psalms are shown as living prophecies pointing to their eventual fulfilment in the life of Christ. Elsewhere, in the miniatures set alongside the catena for each Psalm, David is also depicted as a Prophet. In Ps 4, fol. 23v, for example, David is crowned and holding a scroll, pointing to heaven from whence Jesus Christ is to come. In Ps 5, fol. 25r, David points to a domed church, the embodiment of the Incarnate Christ.7 The prophetic view of David is particularly accounts are found in some twelve Psalms, and in five other Psalms David and Christ are placed together. See DE WALD, p. 47. 7 Another memorable example is Ps 48 on fol. 156v where Christ is whispering into David’s ear, with two prophetic figures, the sons of Korah, in the background, ready to transmit these words to posterity.

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evident in Ps 49 on fol. 159v, where Christ is seated at a table with David and four other prophetic figures, apparently the sons of Korah and Asaph. Furthermore, according to the commentary by Theodoret, which is in the catena below this Psalm, the references to the coming judgement on the wicked in the Psalms are now to be read as referring to the Last Judgement brought in by Christ: the two books on the table in the illustration may well be representations of the Old and New Testaments. So the Psalms of David are seen in this interpretative perspective as Psalms about Christ. Not only the miniatures but also the catena confirm this way of finding Christ ‘hidden’ in the Psalms. At the beginning of the Psalter is a preface to the Psalms by pseudo-Chrysostom (fol. 3r; fig. 4) and a closer look at the image of Moses on that same folio reveals that in the caption even the young Moses is called ‘a prophet’. This image draws from Deut 34:10, where Moses is called the greatest of all prophets: it indicates a note of warning and points to a future meaning of the Psalms, ratified by Moses as well as by David. Whilst the images accompanying both Pss 4 and 49 have correspondences with Theodoret’s commentary on the Psalms, the image accompanying Ps 5 has correspondences with the catena, which, in part, seems to be from Hesychius.8 Between fol. 3r and fol. 16v there are several references to commentaries on the Psalms, including Athanasius’s Letter to Marcellinus (fols 12r-16v), whose main concern was that the Psalms were to be sung and prayed as once hidden prophecies about Jesus Christ and his kingdom, which is his Church.9 History of the Reception of the Psalms as Prophecies Even within the Hebrew Bible the Psalms are read as prophecies; the best example is in the books of Chronicles. In these books, written at least three centuries after the demise of the Davidic monarchy, four Psalms (Pss 104, 89 and 105 in 1 Chronicles 16; and Ps 131 in 2 Chronicles 6:41) are described as being used by David, apparently to illustrate how these ‘older’ Psalms legitimised the role of the Ark and the centrality of Jerusalem. In effect, what these four Psalms actually legitimised for the Chronicler was the centrality of Jerusalem during his own day. These four Psalms are thus read as prophetic texts, dating from David but in the process of fulfilment 8 The words cited by David: ‘The church says these things to God: [I am] the Bride of Christ’ are taken directly from Hesychius. (I am grateful to Barbara Crostini for this observation.) 9 See G. K. PARPULOV, Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium, in The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington, DC 2010), pp. 77-106, at p. 86. See also H. TANAKA, Athanasius as Interpreter of the Psalms: His Letter to Marcellinus, in Pro Ecclesia 21.4 (2012), pp. 422-447.

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 3r: Moses as Prophet.

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at the time of writing. This practice is clear in the Greek translation of the Psalms from around the second century BCE, a work undertaken when Jewish hopes for a cataclysmic redemption were high, thus influencing the future-orientated, eschatological bias in many of the titles to the Psalms.10 The persona of David is heightened by adding Davidic headings to several more Psalms, to show that David was not only the pious hero of the past, but also a symbol of hope in a David-like Messianic figure, who would surely come again.11 This phenomenon is similarly evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, where Psalms were also interpreted as being fulfilled in the light of contemporary events. Column 27 of 11QPsa, which is entitled ‘David’s Compositions’, speaks of how God gave David a wise and discerning spirit through the gift of prophecy: ‘And he wrote 3,600 Psalms… All these he composed through prophecy which was given to him from before the Most High’.12 Many scrolls evince a pesher type of exegesis, a running commentary on one biblical text or on a group of texts, and frequently the Psalms are read in a prophetic light. For example, in 4QFlorilegium (4Q174), Pss 1:1 to 2:1 are used, along with verses from 2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 8, Ezekiel 44 and Daniel 12, to speak about the fulfilment of prophecies concerning the future restoration of the Temple and the coming of one from the line of David, the interpreter of the law.13 It is not surprising that the Jewish Christians who wrote and compiled the New Testament should have taken up this Jewish prophecy/fulfilment interpretation in order to explain how that hoped-for future had now ar10 The frequent term (in the NRSV ‘for the choirmaster’) is translated as ε τ τ λο (‘for perpetuity’ or ‘for fulfilment’), a term which suggests a more future-orientated reading. On Augustine’s use of the Latin translation of this term, see below. Another example is the translation of the musical term (in the NRSV ‘Gittith’, or ‘stringed instrument’) in Pss 80 and 83 as π ρ τ ν λ ν ν (‘for the wine-press’), a term which might denote use as a harvest-Psalm, but also could suggest harvesting on the day of final judgement. 11 The way the translators deal with Ps 1, for example, is further evidence of this. In Ps 1:5, the Hebrew is translated as ο ν τ οντ ι ε ε ἐν ρ ει. The Hebrew suggests the idea of the wicked not ‘standing up’ in the sense of ‘enduring’ the time when justice is meted out; but the use of ν τ ι, an intransitive verb in the future indicative, suggests more the idea of ‘rising’ (from the dead) when judgement comes. (The difference is perhaps easier to understand in German: the sense of the Hebrew is more akin to ‘aufstehen’, and the Greek, to ‘auferstehen’). 12 We may note again here the relationship of David with both wisdom and prophecy: he is wise because he is a prophet, and he is a prophet because he is wise. See A. P. JASSEN, Prophets and Prophecy in the Qumran Community, in Association of Jewish Studies Review 32:2 (2008), pp. 299-334, esp. pp. 328-329. 13 The same prophetic reading is evident in 11QMelchizedek: here Lev 25:9 and 13, Deut 15:2, Is 52:7, 61:1-3 and Dan 9:25 are used along with Pss 7:7-9 and 81:1-2 to describe the redemption that will be heralded by the heavenly Melchizedek.

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rived. The emphasis is not so much on David, the anointed messianic figure who would return to the Temple, but on Jesus Christ, the Messiah who has entered our world. The accounts of Jesus’s Passion are good examples of this. Take, for example, Ps 117, which originally seems to be about a royal figure riding victoriously into Jerusalem on some great festal day ‘in the name of the Lord’: in all four Gospels, this psalm is woven into an account of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.14 Several times in the New Testament ‘David the Psalmist’ becomes ‘David the prophet’ who speaks about Jesus. Matthew, for example, at critical stages in Jesus’s life indicates explicitly and implicitly how the words of the Psalms are being fulfilled. In Matt 3:17 and 17:5, in the accounts of Jesus’s baptism and transfiguration, Ps 2:7, ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you’, is used both times: Jesus is described as a ‘Beloved Son’ in whom God the Father is ‘well-pleased’. Matthew undoubtedly sees Jesus as a new David, fulfilling the words of the Psalms in his own birth and life and death. Pss 68 and 21, which both have titles ‘A psalm of David’ and refer to an innocent but vindicated sufferer, are particularly important here, because they are used in the passion narratives to interpret Jesus’s death as foretold by David.15 This prophetic use of the Psalms continues into the early church. One of the most interesting early examples is Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), born in Palestine but mainly living in Rome. His Dialogue with Trypho also uses Ps 21 as a prediction of Christ’s passion. Referring to Ps 21:16-18, ‘My hands and feet have shriveled… they stare and gloat over me… they divide my clothes among themselves’, Justin contends that ‘David, the king and prophet, who says these words, has not suffered any of these things. But Jesus Christ had his hands stretched out’.16 The subject of this psalm therefore cannot be David: it is Jesus Christ.17 We can trace this prophetic approach throughout Western Christen-

14

See Mk 11:9-10; Mt 21:9, 23:39; Lk 13:35, 19:38; and Jn 12:13. On the prophetic use of the Psalms in Matthew, see M. I. I. MENKEN, The Psalms in Matthew’s Gospel, in The Psalms in the New Testament, ed. by S. MOYISE – M. I. I. MENKEN, London 2004, pp. 61-82, and S. VAN TILBORG, Language, Meaning, Sense and Reference: Matthew’s Passion Narrative and Ps 22, in Hervormde teologiese studies 44 (1988), pp. 883-908. ‘Jesus the new David’ is a theme also found in John’s Gospel, which uses a selection of Psalms in this way, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which focuses especially on Pss 2, 8, 94 and 109. 16 I Apol. 35.6: see http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.i.html (on Dialogue with Trypho). 17 See O. SKARSAUNE, Proof from Prophecy: a Study in Justin Martyr’s Proof Text Tradition. Text-Type, Provenance, Theological Profile, Leiden and Boston 1987 (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, 5). 15

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dom. Examples include Irenaeus bishop of Lyons (c. 130-200),18 Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160-220), Hippolytus of Rome (170-235), and the Psalms commentaries of Hilary of Poitiers (315-367), of Jerome (342-420) and of Augustine (354-430)19. In each case, the voice of David, the once revered model of piety, is subsumed under the voice of Christ. Indeed, for commentators like Augustine, it is ultimately Christ, not David, who sings the Psalms. Even the Greek superscriptions ε τ τ λο (‘for fulfilment’), translated in the Latin text which Augustine used as ‘in finem’, are seen to refer to Jesus Christ, who is the ‘fulfilment’ of all that David wrote and sang.20 Taking Ps 1 as an example, Augustine’s comments in Enarrationes in Psalmos reveal how in the first verse he identifies Christ, not David, as the ‘Blessed Man’, so the voice of the human Christ — ‘Christ the Body’ — speaks the psalm for us and with us. However, the last verse of Ps 1 is read by Augustine as about Christ risen and ascended, standing as our Judge — ‘Christ the Head’ —, working out our salvation. In the first three verses of Ps 2 Augustine identifies the enemies as the persecutors of the human Christ, not David; in verse 6 he sees this is ‘Christ the Head’, announcing Himself as King over Zion (which means his Church), whilst verse 7 speaks of how the only Son of God took upon himself our human nature.21 This so-called ‘prosopological’ approach, seeing first Christ the (incarnate) Body and then Christ the (ascended) Head, is the hermeneutical key with which Augustine unlocks the entire Psalter. And so it is Christ, not David, who sings the Psalms with us and for us. This tradition continues after the fall of Rome, in the various references to the Psalms by Cassiodorus (485-580), Gregory (540-604), Bede (673735), and Alcuin (734-804). It persists in the ‘Glosses’ in Western Psalters, illustrated by those of Gilbert of Poitiers (c. 1080-1154) and Peter Lombard (1100-1160), whose In Psalmos Davidicos Commentarii (Glossae Psalteri) and Laon Gloss are the most pertinent examples. David may well be the 18 Irenaeus uses Pss 109 and 44 in a similar way to Justin, and as well as Ps 21 he reads Pss 67 and 68 to testify to Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension. 19 See S. E. GILLINGHAM, Psalms through the Centuries, vol. 1, Oxford 2008, pp. 24-27 and 35-39. 20 Augustine cites here Rom. 10:4: ‘Finis legis est Christus’, i.e. Christ is the fulfilment, the final point of reference, to all that has been written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. See S. HEBGIN – F. CORRIGAN, St Augustine on the Psalms, vol. 1 (Psalms 1-29), Westminster, MD 1960 (Ancient Christian Writers, 29), p. 10. 21 See HEGBIN – CORRIGAN, St Augustine on the Psalms, pp. 21-29. For an online edition of Augustine’s commentary on the Psalms, see http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf108.html. See also R. WILLIAMS, Augustine and the Psalms, in Interpretation 58 (2004), pp. 17-27, and, on Augustine’s treatment of Psalms 1 and 2, S. E. GILLINGHAM, A Journey of Two Psalms. Psalms 1 and 2 in Jewish and Christian Tradition, Oxford 2013, pp. 59-61.

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author of the Psalms and an exemplar of faith, but his greatest contribution is as the prophet of Christ and his Church.22 Understandably, commentators from the East play the greatest part in Vat. gr. 752. The Alexandrian, Athanasius (296-373), is significant because of the many allusions to and citations of his Letter to Marcellinus in the catena, whose subject matter is how to interpret the Psalms.23 Athanasius sees the ‘skopos’ of all Scripture to be the person and work of Christ, to whom the Psalms bear witness, taking us through the voice of David to the person of Christ, whilst at the same time enabling us to recognize in them our own voice: the Psalms are like a garden, containing everything necessary for our salvation. Athanasius outlines two categories of Psalms: those which echo the movements of the soul, which are the voice of David himself (for example, Pss 3; 10; 11; 50; 53; 55; 56; 141), and those which announce the coming of Christ, and so bear witness to David as a prophet (Pss 2; 21; 23; 44; 46; 68; 71; 86; 87; 109; 137).24 The Psalms commentary of an Antiochene, Theodoret of Cyrrhus (393460), bishop in Syria, is a prominent source in Vat. gr. 752. Theodoret’s prologue illustrates an unusual approach for Christian commentators, for he argues that the Psalms must not be interpreted as a case against the Jews, but rather that they are prayers and prophecies for the whole household of faith, and this includes Jews as well as Christians.25 Theodoret is cautious about viewing every Psalm in the light of Christ’s divinity, also preferring to read many through the prism of his humanity. Hence only Pss 2, 8, 44, 71 and 109 are to be read as prophecies about Jesus as God; others are to be read as prophecies fulfilled in the incarnate and suffering figure of Jesus.26 So the connection between David-as-Prophet and Christas-Fulfiller-of-Prophecy is still evident, but the emphasis is different. Although several citations from the Cappadocian Fathers are also used in some of the catena of Vat. gr. 752 — for example, Basil of Caesarea 22

See GILLINGHAM, Psalms through the Centuries, pp. 56-62 and 87-91. This text was, by a strange sequence of events, included as a preface to the Psalter in the Codex Alexandrinus, and this popularised the work more than might have been expected. 24 Letter to Marcellinus, cc. 2, 10, 11, 12 and 27. For the text of the letter, see http://www. athanasius.com/Psalms/aletterm.htm. See also J. M. AUWERS, L’organisation du psautier chez les Pères grecs, in Le Psautier chez les Pères, ed. by P. MARAVAL, Strasbourg 1994 (Cahiers de Biblia Patristica, 4), pp. 37-54. 25 This may in part explain why Vat. gr. 752 has a less strident anti-Jewish polemic than that which is evident in several earlier Byzantine manuscripts. See K. CORRIGAN, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters, Cambridge 1992, pp. 43-61 (discussing polemic against the Jews). 26 See J. N. GUINOT, L’In Psalmos de Théodoret: une relecture critique du commentaire de Diodore de Tarse, in Le Psautier chez les Pères, ed. MARAVAL, pp. 97-135. 23

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(330-379) and Gregory of Nyssa (335-395) — Antiochene commentators, despite their caution about the Christianising of the Psalms, occur more often. John Chrysostom (347-407), bishop of Constantinople, is frequently cited or alluded to. Although his commentary on Ps 109 has a profound Christological approach, mostly Chrysostom adopts a more pastoral reading of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Psalms: Christ is not only divine, but he is also the one who, being even greater than David, accommodated himself to our human weakness. Another influence in the catena is that of the scholia of Hesychius of Jerusalem. This work, from the early fifth century, is essentially a mystical commentary, showing the mystery of Christian dogma hidden behind the words of David in the Psalms: for example, the ‘tree by the waters’ in Ps 1:3 is seen as a prophecy about the cross of Christ and the ‘voice of God’ in Ps 28:3 is the one heard at Jesus’s baptism. The scholia use several sources, to expand this mystical reading and give authority to it. Although it is difficult to be certain as to how many of the so-called writings of Hesychius originate from the presbyter himself,27 of the three works on the Psalms attributed to him, it is mainly the short scholia (TitPs) that are used in Vat. gr. 752. The use of the work here could be seen as one of the first stages in the formation of a Greek ‘Gloss’.28 The same theme of ‘David as Prophet and Christ as the Fulfilment of the Prophecies’ is evident in the illuminations in early Psalters. The Stuttgart Psalter, dating from about 830, probably from St Germain-des-Prés near Paris, has multi-coloured miniatures for each Psalm.29 In Ps 1, for example, the illustration of verse 3, which reads ‘they [the righteous] are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in due season’ is of a tree, but now drawn as the cross of Christ.30 Ps 2 is also explicitly Christian. The first image of vv. 1-2 uses an interpretation in early Christian com27 On the question of authorship and attribution, see further below the essay by Sever Voicu. 28 Hesychius may well be the same writer referred to frequently by those who compiled the more extensive (Latin) Gloss in the Middle Ages: see Les homélies festales d’Hésychius de Jérusalem, ed. M. AUBINEAU, 2 vols, Brussels 1978-1980 (Subsidia hagiographica, 59), I, pp. xii-lxxvi and II, pp. 601-627. 29 The Psalter is now kept in Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, MS Bibl. F. 23. See http://digital.wlb-stuttgart.de/digitale-sammlungen/seitenansicht/?no_cache=1&tx_ dlf%5Bid%5D=1517&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=7&Seite=&cHash=0dfb44ea09c3f543d75f7ce80c109344. See also the essay by Diane Reilly in this volume. 30 We noted this reading of Ps 1:3 by Hesychius. This tradition goes as far back as Justin Martyr. For a further discussion of prophetic elements in Psalms 1 and 2 in this and the other Psalters noted in this paper, see GILLINGHAM, A Journey of Two Psalms, pp. 163-181, which discusses the visual reception of Pss 1 and 2 between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, and includes colour plates of all the psalters cited.

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mentaries whereby the enemy nations are depicted as Pilate and Herod, representing both Romans and Jews. The second image for Ps 2 depicts Christ after his resurrection (illustrating vv. 6-7 and 8-12), ruling over all those who had betrayed and opposed him. Many of the images tell us more about Christ than David. The Utrecht Psalter, dating somewhere between 820 and 835, was also originally from northern France. The draughtsmen illustrated each psalm with dark-brown pen and ink drawings, verse by verse, sometimes with a literal and pastoral emphasis, sometimes with a more Christological one.31 The artist for Ps 1 used the psalm as a ‘narrative’ about the ‘blessed man’: he is seated and reading at the top left of the illustration, outside a circular tempietto, and an angel stands behind him in order to inspire his prayers. In the top right the ungodly man sits on a ‘chair of pestilence’, surrounded by soldiers and demons. The middle of the illustration is taken up with the tree and the waters, and the wind is personified so that it blows about the wicked as chaff (vv. 3-4); they are propelled downstream, their eventual destiny being the pit in the bottom right (vv. 5-6). Ps 2 has a more obvious prophetic emphasis. The figure in the centre of the image is distinguished by a halo: this is Jesus Christ. He is standing on Mount Zion (v. 6), ruling over a group of people who stand to his right, ready for war. In the top right corner the hand of God is raised in blessing, announcing Christ is God’s ‘Son’ (v. 7). On the left the Gentiles rage whilst the angels laugh at their audacity; and on the right is a tree, with all its Christian overtones of crucifixion, which reminds us of the one through whom God brings about salvation.32 Illuminated Psalters from eastern Christendom sometimes use a prophecy/fulfilment approach with an anti-Jewish emphasis; this is in part the consequence of assumed Jewish support of iconoclasm in the eighth and ninth centuries. One example is the ninth-century Khludov Psalter from Constantinople. In Ps 1, the blessed man in the right hand margin is probably David, studying the law; two wicked men, also apparently studying the law, are to his right; a haloed Christ, close to the words of the Psalm, observes their fates. The rest of the margin depicts the effects of the wind as it blows figures across the surface of the page (and the earth). And those 31 The Psalter is now in Utrecht University Library, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae 1 Nr 32. See The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art. Picturing the Psalms of David, ed. by K. VAN DER HORST – K. W. NOEL – W. C. M. WUSTEFELD, London 1996, pp. 56-57 and 85. See also the essay by Diane Reilly in this volume. 32 The presence of an angel in both Psalms is also found in the images accompanying Pss 1 and 2 in Vat. gr. 752, and the reign of Christ is also depicted in the image of Ps 2 in Vat. gr. 752 (fol. 20r).

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who suffer most, driven into the pit, are no longer armed soldiers, or even peasants: they are three Jews, evidenced by their (tenth-century) attire, which matches that of the figures studying the law in the image at the top of the page.33 Ps 2 is more explicitly Messianic. The image next to v. 7 is of the Nativity, and continues to the bottom of the page, where a stable, with an ox and ass, illustrate that the one pronounced Son of God is the incarnate Christ. But the image goes one stage further: the inscription across the top of the folio reads ‘woe to the sinful nation’, taken from Isaiah 1:4, and is clearly an allusion from this verse to the ox and ass ‘who know the master’s crib’, implying that, as written in Isaiah, the Jewish people are the sinful nation. So the three figures in conversation at the top of the page may well be the prophet Isaiah (with raised hand) speaking to a Jew, who has his hand on his chest as if to indicate disbelief that this prophecy could be applied to him. The two figures at the very bottom also may well suggest another two Jews who (like the rebellious nations in the Psalm) do not know Christ, as Isaiah prophesied. One other example is the Theodore Psalter: it was completed in 1066 by the scribe Theodore for the monastery of Stoudios near Constantinople and so is likely to be a close relation of Vat. gr. 752.34 To the left of Ps 1 is a faded image of Christ and the Virgin Mary facing each other, with their arms creating the letter ‘M’ for ‘Makarios’, referring to the ‘blessed man’. At the bottom of the folio is an image of three figures in debate: this has some associations with the Khludov Psalter, except that the central figure is seated on a throne. To the right of this is another image, of Christ handing a book to a figure who bows before him, who is labelled ‘makarios’: this might well be Abbot Michael of Stoudios. Above and to the right is Christ, with white hair, in a mandorla, with a book on his knee: he is the ideal ‘blessed man’. The next page (fol. 1v) continues the text of Ps 1 and the tree of life dominates the left margin. Under this is the wind, personified as a figure with a cape: it blows some sort of pipe so that, as in the Khudov Psalter, the three figures on the ground are blown away. In the very bottom right three other figures are sitting and two standing, all in some debate. The two standing are dressed as Jews, and are gesturing as if disputing what is being said about the perishing of the ungodly. 33 The Psalter is now kept in the Moscow History Museum (MS Mosq. gr. D. 129). This ‘narrative’ reading of Ps 1 has several affinities with the Utrecht Psalter. See CORRIGAN, Visual Polemics, pp. 8 and 14. 34 The Psalter is now British Library MS Addit. 19.352. For online images of the Theodore Psalter with a brief description and further bibliography, see http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ sacredtexts/theopsalter.html.

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Images for Ps 2 continue on the following page (fol. 2r). In the top right margin are two groups: one of two kings (again presumably Herod and Pilate) addressed by a Jew, who points to the other group of three figures below, who appear to be Annas, Caiaphas and Christ. At the bottom right is another depiction of the Nativity. Mary is on a bed, with Joseph next to her, and two protecting angels are hovering above. The empty manger is bathed in light, and close to it are a donkey and an ox: to the left, the baby Jesus is being bathed by two midwives. Further left is another angel announcing this birth to two shepherds. Ps 2 was especially popular in Orthodox liturgy at Christmas: hence the development of the themes here.35 Jewish readings of the Psalms as prophecies are mainly evident in translations, paraphrases and commentaries. For example, the Targum on the Psalms, dating from about the sixth century, is a paraphrase of the Hebrew into the Aramaic vernacular.36 By looking at the expansions in Targum Psalms, we can see the same interest in prophecy as in the Qumran scrolls and in the Septuagint translation: for example, again using Pss 1 and 2 as examples, references to the ‘assembly of Israel’ and the ‘anointed one’ were applied to the present and the future. For example, in Ps 1:5, the definite article in the Hebrew (‘in the judgement’), is paraphrased in the Aramaic as and so is a reference to a heavenly court: the translation runs ‘the wicked will not be acquitted in the great day of judgement’ (i.e. at the end of time).37 Another example is the Midrash Tehillim, a Jewish commentary on the Psalms probably compiled between the second and sixth centuries CE. Although it is primarily didactic in purpose, with David as the ideal model for prayer, it too has a prophetic interest. It searches frequently for the ‘hidden meaning’ of each Psalm, usually found through the Torah of Moses that confirms the witness of David.38 This approach has parallels with Christian writers who find the hidden meaning by way of reference not to Moses, but ‘Christwards’. 35 See G. P. SCHIEMENZ, The Painted Psalms of Athos, in Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, ed. by A. BRYER – M. CUNNINGHAM, London 1996, pp. 223-236; also J. C. ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, in Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 550-568. 36 On the Targums, see especially D. M. STEC, The Targum of Psalms translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes, Collegeville, MN 2004 (The Aramaic Bible, 16); also E. M. COOK, The Psalms Targum: Introduction to a New Translation, with Sample Texts, in Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translations and Interpretation in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke, ed. P. V. M. FLETCHER, Leiden and Boston 2002 (Studies in the Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture, 2), pp. 186-201, also accessible at http://www.targum.org. 37 See STEC, The Targum of Psalms, p. 29. 38 See W. G. BRAUDE, The Midrash on Psalms, 2 vols, New Haven 1959, I, pp. 3-34 (on Ps 1), and pp. 35-48 (on Ps 2).

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A few Jewish commentators from the eighth century onwards also show an interest in the prophetic aspects of Psalmody. Saadiah Gaon (882-942) actually rejects the Psalms as contemporary prophecies, but for a specific reason. Born in Egypt but as a scholar travelling around the Middle East, he frequently came into contact with Jewish Karaite communities who, in rejecting the legal requirements of the Torah, used the Psalms as their alternative authority. Saadiah read the Psalms primarily as a polemical response to this Jewish sect. Affirming that Psalms were indeed prophecies but that they were given to David, he focuses on their historical setting and their practical teaching, thus excluding the possibility of any immediate and contemporary prophetic appropriation of the Psalms in his generation.39 His commentary, by its negative stance, tells us, by implication, just how much the Karaites viewed the Psalms as prophetic prayers, relevant for all ages, especially their own, when there would be a new Messianic future in Jerusalem where they would play a central role.40 Abraham ibn Ezra (?1089-1164), originally from Spain, was another Psalms commentator opposed to the Karaite heresies which he encountered on his travels throughout Europe. Influenced by Saadiah’s writings, including his Psalms commentary, Abraham also opposed the Karaites’ interpretations of the Psalms. He did this by reading them more grammatically and as inspired religious poems; in this way he claimed that both literary and theological superiority belonged to the monotheistic creativity of orthodox Jews.41 In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the polemical writing about the Psalms as prophecies was not only between Jew and Jew, but also between Jews and Christians. Rabbinical writers such as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040-1105) contributed to these debates. Partly because of his provenance from Troyes, and hence his proximity to the Christian schools of exegesis in northern France, Rashi used much anti-Christian polemic in his commentaries on the Psalms. This is particularly evident in his reading of Ps 2, mainly because of its prominent use in Christian discourse by this time: Rashi explicitly uses it to refute the claims of Christians.42 So the Psalm is about the historical David and historical Israel, and its context is 1 39 See U. SIMON, Four Approaches to the Book of Psalms from Saadiah Gaon to Abraham ibn Ezra, New York 1991, pp. 1-58. 40 Although little has been written on this issue to date, it would be interesting to see how far the prophetic reading of the Psalms by the Karaites had any influence on Christian prophetic interpretations in the Byzantine Psalters. 41 Abraham ibn Ezra’s commentary was used to accompany the illustrations in the Parma Psalter, as will be seen below. 42 See M. I. GRUBER, Rashi’s Commentary on Psalms, Leiden and Boston 2004, pp. 127135, and, on Ps 2, pp. 177-182.

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Samuel 5:17-25, when the Philistines heard that David has been made king over all Israel, and they came up to attack him.43 Hence Ps 2:6 is about the anointing of David as king by Nathan the prophet. Only verse 7 is not only about David: here Rashi too reads the verse as about a coming Messiah chosen by Israel and for Israel. So even Rashi supplements a historical reading with a prophetic emphasis as well. The Psalms were occasionally illustrated as prophecies in Jewish manuscripts. Although few such Psalters exist, mainly because of the ban on making graven images, the late thirteenth-century Parma Psalter is an exception, and is interesting for the way it uses part of the Psalms commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra, following the same practice as the catena in Vat. gr. 752. Its use of various motifs in its iconography (such as snakes, devouring beasts, depictions of David, the Jews and Jerusalem) would suggest that it was partly influenced by the Greek manuscript tradition.44 The first word of each Psalm is illuminated (there being no capital letters in the Hebrew script, historiated initials are less common), and, as in early Byzantine Psalters, the margins are frequently decorated. Given the place of the Jews in Italian society at this time, living with the consequences of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, with forced conversions and burning of Jewish books, the production of such a lavish manuscript marked an act of defiance against its patron’s Christian persecutors. Ps 137 is a good example of a prophetic type of illustration: we see two figures, weeping, and compelled to draw the waters from the river that would eventually, according to a tradition in Midrash Tehillim, poison them. Willow leaves frame the text, upon which are hung the lyres. The words of the Psalmist David, prophesying the future sufferings of the exiles, have been fulfilled — now, in the present generation.

43 See M. SIGNER, King/Messiah: Rashi’s Exegesis of Ps 2, in Prooftexts 3 (1983), pp. 273284, especially pp. 274-275; see also GRUBER, Rashi’s Commentary, p. 177. The fact that nowhere in the Psalms is this setting explicitly indicated, and nowhere in 2 Samuel 5 is there any evidence of the Philistines doing battle with David, does not seem to create a problem for Rashi here. 44 The manuscript (Ms. Parm. 1870 olim De Rossi 510) is kept in the Palatina Library, Parma, Italy: see Hebrew Manuscripts on the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma. Catalogue with Palaeographical and Codicological Descriptions by Malachi Beit-Arié, ed. by B. RICHLER, Jerusalem 2001, cat. no. 371, pp. 75-76. Some images can be seen online at www.facsimileeditions.com. For a discussion of the Greek influence in the iconography, see T. T. METZGER, A History and Analysis of the Manuscript, in The Companion Volume to the Facsimile Edition of the Parma Psalter, ed. by M. BEIT-ARIÉ – T. T. METZGER – E. SILVER, London 1996, pp. 29148, at pp. 105-106.

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Vaticanus graecus 752 in its Cultural Context Thus Vat. gr. 752 belongs to a large family of both Jewish and Christian interpretations which, in different ways, understands the Psalms not only as liturgical songs and prayers, but also as prophetic texts. The family is even larger than might be imagined, although some of the relatives hardly recognise each other, and others indeed constantly squabble over their inheritance. Yet just like its family relations, the catena and illustrations in Vat. gr. 752 are concerned with the ‘hidden meanings’ found in these ancient texts, affirming with Jewish family members the authority of David as both composer of the Psalms and bearer of these meanings. Like Christian members of the family, it also affirms that what David once sung is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And like other Christian family members in the East, its readings have been influenced by contemporary theological and political controversies. So, once more using Pss 1 and 2 as key examples, we see the centrality of David as composer and key participant. In fol. 19r, there is a three-sided headpiece to Ps 1: David is clearly present, and, unusually for this psalm, so too is the archangel Michael, ‘prince of the people of Israel’, who (very like the presence of an angel behind the ‘blessed man’ in the Utrecht Psalter) affirms David as the ‘blessed man’ who keeps the Law. And in fol. 20r (fig. 5), the miniature above the catena to Ps 2 shows David again: here is he receiving blessings from one who is seated above him on a throne, as in vv. 6-7 of the Psalm. Nevertheless, several clues suggest these words are also seen as prophecies pointing to Christ. If we look more closely at the image accompanying Ps 1, we see not only David and Michael, but also the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. So the ideal model of piety is no longer only David, but also Jesus Christ. He, even more than David, is that ‘blessed man’. Furthermore, if we look in more detail at the image for Ps 2, we see that the figure on the throne is not in fact Yahweh Elohim, but Jesus Christ, whose hand is raised to bless David as he bows before his throne.45 This image is not about the Davidic kings and earthly nations, but about Christ and the Day of Judgement; the archangel Michael — with all the Byzantine connotations of his being the angelic defender in battle — is sponsor for David before Christ, who is now the means of salvation. Finally, these images help us to understand a little about the theological and political controversies in eleventh-century Byzantium. In Ps 1, we realise that, through Christ, the Church receives not the Jewish Torah, but 45 The motifs of the heavenly throne and of the hand raised in blessing are again reminscent of the Utrecht and related Psalters.

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Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20r (detail): David receiving blessings.

a new (Christian) Canon of Faith to guard it in times of persecution. The Byzantine Church thus incarnates, as it were, ‘the Blessed Man’, who is obedient in faith and will not keep company with infidels. In the image for Ps 2, we realise that this depiction of the Kingly rule of Christ shows a Kingdom whose dominion is in heaven, as well as on earth: there will come a day when that Kingdom will break in to reveal its authority over all human thrones and powers.46 The images, alongside the catena to these two Psalms that use the works of Hesychius and Theodoret, demonstrate that images and words together illustrate and teach how these two Psalms, placed at the entrance to the Psalter, announce the key themes to be found in the songs and prayers that follow them. They invite the church to sing Psalms whose authority is from antiquity, for they are songs once sung by David; they challenge the church to ponder the once-hidden mysteries of Jesus Christ; and they serve to protect those in eastern Christendom who, in singing these Psalms, resolve to stay firm in the faith of their fathers. 46 The motif of Christ as Pantokrator — King over all the nations, with David at his feet — is one repeated several times in this Psalter: see DE WALD, p. 48.

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THE CATENA OF VAT. GR. 752 (WITH AN APPENDIX ON GIOVANNI MERCATI’S UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON THE MS) The following pages survey the main insights that have been reached in modern research on the contents and origins of the catena on the Psalms that is transmitted in MS Vat. gr. 752 (fols 19r-447v).1 In this regard, two topics are of key importance: the identification of the patristic and biblical sources that have been extracted and compiled in the catena; and the position that Vat. gr. 752, made in the 1050s, occupies within the manuscript tradition of the catena.2 On neither subject do the authors of the two major studies that have appeared on this catena agree. As will become clear, both Adrian Schenker (1975) and Gilles Dorival (1995)3 more or less identified the same set of patristic texts of which excerpts can be found in the catena, but each of them drew different conclusions as to the precise sources from which the compiler had excerpted them. In a similar vein, both scholars hold pretty well the same views on the relation between Vat. gr. 752 and the other key manuscript witness of the catena, Canon. gr. 62 from the Bodleian Library, but disagree over the nexus between Vat. gr. 752 and the archetype of the catena. In mentioning these studies, it is useful to recall the respective aims of the two scholars. Schenker’s study of the catena of Vat. gr. 752 was carried out in view of a correct appreciation of the Hexaplaric fragments it transmits (i.e., readings of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Quinta and the Sexta):4 the edition and interpretation of these fragments were his main goal. Dorival’s interest, on the other hand, lay in the catena as a 1 Only textual materials, no pictorial ones are treated in this article. Attention is moreover limited to the catena on the Psalms: that on the Odes that follows (fols 450r-491v) is left aside, as are the texts that precede the exegesis of the Psalter (fols 1r-17v). The commentary section of the catena on the Psalms ends with the exegesis of Ps 150 (fol. 447v) and does not cover Ps 151: fols 448r-449r only contain the biblical text (with images). 2 MS Vat. gr. 752 is not the only manuscript witness of the catena (see below). 3 The book by Dorival was published in 1995 but the thesis of which it is a later redaction was defended in 1984. Further bibliographic references are given below (see nn. 41 and 45). 4 Basic information on these Greek Bible versions can be found in N. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS,

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 261-300.

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whole, as he sought to identify its position within the overall tradition of the catenae on the Psalter. These different approaches also characterize earlier studies in which Vat. gr. 752 features: scholars like Robert Devreesse were interested in the relations of the catena of this manuscript with other catenae on the Psalms, whereas Giovanni Mercati limited his study to its Hexaplaric readings.5 In consideration of the focal points of the present volume, this article looks into the catena as a whole. This approach is also appropriate in view of the fact that many questions regarding this topic are still open, whereas the Hexaplaric readings of the catena have already been critically edited and adequately studied in Schenker’s monograph. For an appreciation of of Vat. gr. 752 as a source of source of Hexaplaric readings, it suffices, therefore, to recall briefly its basic characteristics as a witness to the Greek biblical versions, as will done in the final section of the present article. It is preceded by a somewhat more extensive survey of the sources of the catena, its textual tradition and its place in the corpus of catenae on the Psalter. First, it is necessary to mention how the type of catena to which Vat. gr. 752 witnesses was identified in 1902, the chronological starting point for our survey.6 1. Identification of catena type XXII and its manuscript witnesses In 1902, Georg Karo and Hans Lietzmann published their Catenarum graecarum catalogus, in which they classified in a systematic fashion the different catenae on the Old and New Testament and listed the known manuscripts of each catena.7 On the basis of soundings they carried out for Pss 22 and 115, they distinguished 26 catena types on the Psalms as well as several codices uarii, which they arranged indifferently as a 27th type. 1.1 Two manuscript witnesses MS Vat. gr. 752 was mentioned by Karo and Lietzmann as a witness of the catena they labeled as type XXII.8 For this catena, they identified a second witness in Canon. gr. 62, a manuscript that has been dated to the twelfth century9 and is therefore somewhat younger than Vat. gr. 752. The Septuagint in Context. Introduction to the Greek Versions of the Bible, transl. W. G. E. WATSON, Leiden – Boston – Köln 2000, pp. 109-160 and in other introductions to the Septuagint. 5 References and discussion are offered below. 6 H. O. Coxe’s catalogue description was published earlier (see n. 9), but does not contain information that is very pertinent to our approach. 7 KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 20-66 (section on the Psalms). 8 Ibid., pp. 58-59. 9 See the description in H. O. COXE, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae

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According to their regular procedure, Karo and Lietzmann opened their description of the catena with a list of the patristic authors to whom they found attributions in the manuscripts. As is often the case with such lists, it does not offer a representative image of the catena’s contents: the important role of Hesychius of Jerusalem, for example, does not come to the fore from the limited number of attributions to this author that are mentioned by Karo and Lietzmann.10 This method creates a distorted (and even incorrect) image, but it would be not entirely fair to hold this against them given the pioneering character of their work. One can only indirectly infer that the manuscript from which they took this information was Vat. gr. 752, rather than Canon. gr. 62. Although they failed to mention the shelfmark explicitly, this information can be deduced from their description of the “prologi” and of the catena section of Ps 115: in both these sections, the evidence from Vat. gr. 752, which matches the information given by Karo and Lietzmann, differs from that of Canon. gr. 62.11 This difference was not remarked upon by Karo and Lietzmann, who offered no comment at all upon the relation between these witnesses of catena type XXII. 1.2 Searching for further witnesses 1.2.1 MS Scorialensis

.1.2

Since Karo and Lietzmann’s identification of catena type XXII and its two witnesses, secondary literature has linked two other manuscripts to this catena. Shortly after 1902, Michael Faulhaber identified in Scorialensis .1.2 (gr. 422) (XI-XII cent.),12 a manuscript that was not mentioned in Bodleianae pars tertia codices Graecos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Oxonii 1854 [reprinted as the last part of the corrected edition of his 1853 Bodleian Library. Quarto Catalogues. I. Greek Manuscripts, Oxford 1969], cols 68-69. Further description is offered by Irmgard Hutter in the publications mentioned in n. 64. 10 This anomaly needs to be understood in view of the fact that Hesychius tends to be cited in first position after the lemma, with this regular treatment not requiring the repetition of his name each time. This technique (which can also be observed in other catenae) shows clearly from Dorival’s description of the catena (see n. 45). 11 (1) MS Canon. gr. 62 lacks any introductory texts and only opens (fol. 1r) in medias res with the final lines of the fragment on Ps 6:10a (des. τε το λοιπο πό τ τε π’ ἐ ο ) taken from the Hesychius Jagiò (CPG 6553). The first lemma that is cited is Ps 6:10b-11a (contrarily to the description offered in the catalogue mentioned in n. 9). (2) From Ps 103:10 onwards, Canon. gr. 62 offers a catena that differs from that of Vat. gr. 752 (see below). The opening and closing words of the different exegetical fragments on Ps 115 listed by Karo and Lietzmann match the catena of Vat. gr. 752 (fols 360r-361v), against that of Canon. gr. 62 (fols 164r-165v) — and not the other way around, as described by Schenker, on p. 9 of the study mentioned at n. 41. 12 See the catalogue description: G. DE ANDRÉS, Catálogo de los Códices Griegos de la Real

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the 1902 catalogue, a catena on the Psalms that, although not fully matching any of the types listed by Karo and Lietzmann, is close to that in Canon. gr. 62.13 In later publications, this link was sometimes repeated, but for a long time it was never fully investigated:14 remarks were limited to the observation that in a particular section, both Scorial. .1.2 and Canon. gr. 62 consist almost exclusively of the Hesychius Antonelli (CPG 6552) and of the commentary by Theodoret of Cyrrhus (CPG 6202).15 It was only in 1995 that Dorival published an analysis of the catena of Scorial. .1.2 and commented, if briefly, on the precise relation between these manuscripts.16 His study showed that the catena of Scorial. .1.2 juxtaposes two sources, the first of them being a catena (a “chaîne-scholies”, according to Dorival’s terminology) in which the Hesychius Antonelli is completed with fragments from Theodoret’s commentary and a few other ones of other provenance. The second source is not uniform throughout the entire catena: it changes at a certain point between Pss 79 and 91.17 In the part that precedes this change, it consists of the commentary of Peter of Laodicea (CPG C 38),18 which is completed with excerpts from Theodoret’s commentary and (occasionally) of other provenance. After the change, the second source consists nearly exclusively of excerpts from Theodoret, whose commentary is cited almost in full for this section. In other words, from the as yet not precisely identified point between Pss 79 and 91 onwards, Scorial. .1.2 offers a combination of two texts (and almost no Biblioteca de El Escorial, III: Códices 421-649, Madrid 1967, pp. 2-4. 13 M. FAULHABER, Die Katenenhandschriften der spanischen Bibliotheken, in Biblische Zeitschrift 1 (1903), pp. 151-159, 246-255 and 351-371, here pp. 356-357. 14 See e.g. G. DORIVAL, L’apport des chaînes exégétiques grecques à une réédition des Hexaples d’Origène (à propos du Psaume 118), in Revue d’histoire des textes 4 (1974), pp. 45-74, here p. 55, n. 2 (but see our n. 16), or G. MERCATI, Osservazioni a proemi del Salterio di Origene, Ippolito, Eusebio, Cirillo Alessandrino e altri, con fragmenti inediti, Città del Vaticano 1948 (Studi e testi, 142), p. 162. In his unpublished notes on Vat. gr. 752 (see Appendix), Mercati mentioned Scorial. .1.2 several times, but did not enter into it in detail, seeing it lacks the Hexaplaric readings that can be found in catena type XXII and which were his main point of interest. He limited himself to the observation (articulated several times, e.g. in section II.11[ ]) that Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62, on the one hand, and Scorial. .1.2, on the other, are very close to one another, but that the link remained to be investigated further. 15 Observe that in the CPG (C 10a[12] and C 35[2]), MSS Scorial. .1.2 and Canon. gr. 62 are described as two witnesses of the same catena. 16 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 3-54. On the mise-en-page of Scorial. .1.2, see also ibid., I, pp. 91-93. 17 The precise point where the source changes is not identified by Dorival, as it falls in a section in between two Psalms for which he carried out soundings: ibid., IV, pp. 50-51. On the delineation of his research corpus, see his vol. I, pp. X-XI. 18 On this commentary, see G. DORIVAL, La postérité littéraire des chaînes exégétiques grecques, in Revue des études byzantines 43 (1985), pp. 209-226, here pp. 216-218.

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other sources): the Hesychius Antonelli and Theodoret’s commentary. In this regard, it indeed resembles the structure of one particular section of Canon. gr. 62 very closely: from Ps 103:10 onwards, the Oxford manuscript offers a catena consisting of the same two sources.19 Nevertheless, Dorival argued that neither is a copy of the other, that the set-up of each catena differs, and that therefore the catena of which Scorial. .1.2 is the only known copy20 be unrelated to the particular section of Canon. gr. 62.21 In sum, Scorial. .1.2 cannot be regarded as a witness to catena type XXII, but as a different type of catena. 1.2.2 MS Athous, Scetae S. Annae 7 While Dorival exposed Scorial. .1.2 as being different from catena type XXII, he was also the first to name another manuscript as a possible further witness of the latter catena: Athous, Scetae S. Annae 7 (XVI cent.). From the brief catalogue description by Spyridon Lambros, which only tells us that the manuscript contains a ρ νε on the Psalms,22 Marcel Richard was able to deduce that the codex contains a catena on the Psalms and an incomplete catena on the Odes, but he did not manage to offer further identification.23 Although Dorival, too, based all his information on the same catalogue description, he was nonetheless able to make some further observations and to identify the sequence of the first three excerpts of the catena (cited by Lambros) with the beginning of catena type XXII.24 On the basis of this observation, he formulated the hypothesis that S. Annae 7 be a third witness of this catena, although he admitted that such a claim

19 See below for a description of this section of Canon. gr. 62. For that part of the Psalter, the contents of Canon. gr. 62 differ from those of Vat. gr. 752, as will also be shown below. 20 Dorival dates the original confection of the catena in question to the second half of the tenth or to the early eleventh century, thus considering the Escorial manuscript a copy of a lost exemplar rather than the archetype of this catena type. I have reason to believe that MS Giessensis, Bibl. Univ. 668 (B. G. (3) 54) is a copy of Scorial. .1.2, executed by Andreas Darmarius in 1574 at the Escorial. 21 See, besides the pages referred to in n. 16, also Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 11-12. On the difference with Vat. gr. 752, see above n. 19. 22 S. P. LAMBROS, ατ λογος τ τα ς βιβλιοθήκαις το γ ου ρους λλη ικ κ κ . Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts on Mount Athos, 2 vols, Cambridge 1895-1900, I, pp. 1112. 23 M. RICHARD, Quelques manuscrits peu connus des chaînes exégétiques et des commentaires grecs sur le psautier, in Bulletin d’information de l’Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes 3 (1954), pp. 87-106 [repr. in his Opera minora, III, Turnhout – Leuven 1977, n° 69], here p. 92 (manuscript 14). 24 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 55.

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needs verification through research on the codex itself or a reproduction. Unfortunately, no such study has been carried out since.25 Nevertheless, it is possible to draw attention to another catalogue of the manuscripts of the skete of St Anne that has appeared after Lambros’s, but which was not taken into consideration by Dorival.26 This catalogue mentions that an undated edition of the catena from the St Anne manuscript was published in Athens, but unfortunately it has not proven possible to track it down.27 It also informs us that in the manuscript, the actual ρ νε is preceded by three folios of introduction. The precise nature of this introduction is not identified: it includes Athanasius of Alexandria’s Letter to Marcellinus (CPG 2097) but since this is said to only start on the second of those three folios, it is likely that it does not exhaust the contents of the introduction — nor do two folios appear sufficient to accommodate the full letter, not even in the shortened version of Vat. gr. 752. The newer catalogue description — more extensive than the previous one — also informs us that the title cited by Lambros ( ν ου ρ ιεπι όπου λε ν ρε ρ νε προτρεπτι τ ν λ ν)28 is that which precedes Athanasius’s letter (fol. 2r) and not 25

I too have failed to gain access to S. Annae 7 or to a reproduction of any kind. See also

n. 27. 26

GERASIMOS MONACHOS MIKRAGIANNANITIS, ατ λογος ειρογρ φ

κης το υριακο τ ς κατ τ γι υμο ρος το εομήτορος ης, in πετηρ ς ταιρε ας Βυ α τι

θ

κ κ τ ς βιβλιοθήἹερ ς κα εγαλ μου κήτης τ ς γ ας που 29 (1959), pp. 87-192; 30 (1960-

1961), pp. 453-560. The catalogue was completed in 1934 (see p. 87, n. 1) but published more than twenty years later. The description of MS 7 can be found on pp. 142-143. 27 The catalogue description specifies that the publication date is absent from the cover, but does identify the publishing house, i.e.: A[ν νυ ο ] [ οτι ] [τ ιρε ] “ λλ νι , which was directed by the philologist I. Chatzïoannou and which published books in the 1920s. In view of Mikragiannanitis’s explicit mention of the absence of any indication of date, the edition of S. Annae 7 is unlikely to be identifiable as the book αλτήριο το προφήτου

κα βασιλ ς αυε μετ τ α κα τ ς ρμη ε ας π ς ε στι ολογε σθαι τ αλτήριο λ τ ιαυτ προσετ θη ρμη ε α το γ οις πατρ ς μ θα ασ ου το εγ λου ε ς τὴ Β βλο τ αλμ μετ τ ς πρ ς αρκελλ ο πιστολ ς κα ρμη ευτικὴ παρ φρασις ε ς τὴ α λλη ικὴ ι λεκτο σ τα ς ιαφορα ς το βρα κο κειμ ου π το τ β ομήκο τα ρμη ευτ π CH. I. PAPAÏOANNOU, ν ν ι , τ ν ἐ οτι ν τ τ τ ν« λλ. », explic-

itly dated on the title page to 1931. Despite the failure so far of identifying the edition of S. Annae 7, the unearthing of the 1931 publication appears not without importance: the “explanation on how the Psalter needs to be recited” that is edited there is in fact plainly the text of the Hesychius Antonelli. To my knowledge, this edition has never been mentioned in secondary literature on the transmission of this text. I am indebted to Dr. Zisis Melissakis (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens), who generously supplied the information regarding Chatzïoannou’s publishing house and drew my attention to the edition by Papaïoannou. For his generous help in all these matters, I am very grateful. 28 LAMBROS, ατ λογος, I, p. 11.

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that of the ρ νε itself. This allows for the conclusion that this ρ νε itself is anonymous.29 These additional factors do not weaken the possibility that the S. Annae 7 witnesses to catena type XXII. But even if this were the case, one should keep in mind that the codex is not only a much more recent witness than either Vat. gr. 752 or Canon. gr. 62, but also an incomplete one: in his description, Lambros mentioned that several passages are missing.30 He believed these lacunae to result from the incapacity of the copyist to decipher the corresponding parts of his source manuscript.31 MS S. Annae 7 could only be of value if its text, while being close enough to that of both known manuscripts of catena type XXII to be regarded as an actual third witness, would differ from Vat. gr. 752 to such an extent that one could have reason to assume that it represents a second branch in the transmission of the catena — this, however, appears not very likely (compare the conclusion below on the catena’s origins). But such considerations are of course hypothetical and of little value without a direct study of S. Annae 7. 2. Research on catena type XXII32 2.1 R. Devreesse (1928, 1950) The scholar who wishes to quickly gather an impression of the main contents of Vat. gr. 752 and of the type of catena it contains, will not find him/herself helped in this by the Karo-Lietzmann catalogue: in their identification of this catena type, they did not comment explicitly upon the dating, origins or contents of this compilation. S/he might therefore probably want to access a different source in order to gain this kind of information, the most obvious choice being the catalogue description of Vat. gr. 752 offered by R. Devreesse (1950), one of the protagonists in twentieth-century research on catenae.33 This description explicitly comments upon the structure of the catena of 29

Although also Mikragiannanitis himself presented it as being by Athanasius (p. 141: ου το ε λου τ ν λ ν ρ νε ). In all likelihood, such an attribution cannot be found in the manuscript. 30 LAMBROS, ατ λογος, I, p. 12. It should also be pointed out that S. Annae 7, although not damaged at the beginning — at least, according to Lambros —, appears to lack the texts that precede the catena in Vat. gr. 752. 31 Let us point out, in this regard, that both Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 lack a few sections of the catena (at least in their current state), but that they are quite legible. 32 In this section, the contribution offered by Mercati to the study of Vat. gr. 752 is not included in the chronological overview of our main text, since he did not focus on the catena as such, but only on its Hexaplaric readings (see Appendix). 33 DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani graeci, pp. 266-268.

ν

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Vat. gr. 752: Devreesse is quite firm in stating that the original catena is one in which the Hesychius Antonelli and Theodoret’s commentary occupied the primary position, and that the authors to whom other fragments were attributed in the manuscript (and most of whom had been mentioned by Karo and Lietzmann), had only been added later on.34 Devreesse had already expressed this view earlier, in his landmark survey of Greek catenae.35 In that study, the characterization of the catena of Vat. gr. 752 can be found at the very beginning of the section on the catenae to the Psalter, in the very first paragraph of the overview in which Devreesse attempted “to reconstruct the stages of the catena tradition of the Psalms”.36 He ascribed the Hesychius-Theodoret catena, which he identified as the core of the compilation found in Vat. gr. 752, to the earliest stage of this tradition, to wit: catenae that simply alternate the exegesis of two authors. He believed such catenae to be contemporary to the SyroHexapla (early seventh century). Although he did not state this explicitly, it is clear that Devreesse differentiated between the original catena of type XXII, which he thought of as an ancient nucleus with a two-fold structure, and the version of it found in Vat. gr. 752, where fragments had been added in a more recent redaction. In presenting the catena in such a way, Devreesse subscribed to a view that tended to dominate the catena research at that time, envisaging a linear chronological evolution from ‘easy’ catenae (excerpting only two sources) to ‘difficult’ ones (containing excerpts from more source texts).37 In the beginning of the twentieth century, for example, M. Faulhaber had already considered “the Hesychius-Theodoret catena on the Psalms” among the earliest catenae tout court.38 Although Faulhaber did not identify this 34

Ibid., p. 267: “Catenae fundamentum efficiunt excerpta anonyma ex Theodoreti et Hesychii commentariis sumpta […]; posterius addita sunt fragmenta uaria auctoribus diuersis tributa”. 35 R. DEVREESSE, Chaînes exégétiques grecques, in Supplément au Dictionnaire de la Bible 1 (1928), cols 1084-1233, here col. 1116: “Dans d’autres manuscrits, le Vat. gr. 752, par exemple, Hésychius se trouve associé à Théodoret dans l’exégèse du psautier ; d’autres auteurs viennent, il est vrai, apporter de temps à autre leur témoignage, mais nous pensons qu’il n’en était pas ainsi dans l’original; celui-ci a dû se trouver, par l’addition de nouveaux noms, transformé de chaîne à deux noms, en chaîne à témoins multiples”. 36 Ibid., cols 1115-1116: “[…] tenter […], sans trop de témérité, de reconstruire les étapes de ces compilations sur le psautier”. 37 For a more recent, opposite view, see G. DORIVAL, Des commentaires de l’Écriture aux chaînes, in Le monde grec ancien et la Bible, ed. C. MONDÉSERT, Paris 1984 (Bible de tous les temps, 1), pp. 360-386, here pp. 367-368, and ID., Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 32-96 and III, pp. 240-242. 38 M. FAULHABER, Katenen und Katenenforschung, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 18 (1909), pp. 383-395, here p. 385: “Der älteste Typus [von Katenen] ist der einfachste und nur aus zwei

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catena more precisely, without any doubt he was thinking of the catena of Scorial. .1.2, which he had earlier described in similar terms,39 and indirectly perhaps also of Canon. gr. 62, which he had linked to the Spanish manuscript.40 2.2 A. Schenker (1975) and G. Dorival (1995) Inspired by G. Mercati’s interest in Vat. gr. 752 as a source of Hexaplaric readings, A. Schenker turned to catena type XXII and studied it to a level of detail that is much higher than that of Devreesse’s research,41 and in doing so reached very different conclusions. Of interest is also the fact that Schenker did not limit his analysis to Vat. gr. 752 but included Canon. gr. 62, too, and investigated how these witnesses relate to one another. What catches the eye in his presentation is the lack of uniformity of catena type XXII. To begin with, Schenker identified Ps 103:10 as a breaking point in the catena: up to this verse, Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 offer the same catena, whereas from Ps 103:10 onwards, they each present a different compilation. Secondly, and more strikingly, Schenker broke down the section in which both manuscripts run parallel (that is, Pss 1-103:9) into no less than six different subsections, according to the contents he identified in the catena.42 For each of these six subsections, he identified a different set of sources that had been excerpted into the catena. The Hesychius Anoder drei Väterkommentaren gebildet, wie […] die Hesychios-Theodoret-Katene zum Psalter”. 39 ID., Die Katenenhandschriften, p. 356: “Die eigentliche Ps[almen]-Katene [der Hs. Escorialensis . I. 2] ist in der Anlage eine der einfachsten, also wohl eine der ältesten PsKatenen, ein Seitenstück zu der nur aus Hesychius und Theodoret gebildeten Kette zu den kleinen Propheten”. 40 See above. It should be mentioned that Faulhaber did not name Vat. gr. 752 as a witness to this Hesychius-Theodoret catena. (To my knowledge, he never gave a description or characterization of this catena.) As will be seen below, it is indeed more correct to describe Canon. gr. 62 as a ‘two author catena’ than Vat. gr. 752. 41 SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 9-34. Although Schenker’s main goal lay not in studying the catena itself but in editing and discussing the Hexaplaric readings that are offered in a specific section of the catena, he nonetheless included a detailed examination of the contents (and sources) of the compilation. 42 Cf. also Mercati’s unpublished notes (see Appendix), e.g. in section II.11( ): Mercati had already observed that several sections can be distinguished in the catena. Not only did he single out the section covering Pss 77-82 (i.e., 77:36-82:16: see below), by stating that it differed from the rest of the catena in terms of content, but he also mentioned (see the front side of the file entitled “Exc. hex. […]” in section I of his notes) that in the section on Pss 101-103 (i.e., 101:1-103:9), attributions are far more frequent than in the other sections of the catena. He did not, however, comment explicitly upon the divergence between Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 from Ps 103:10 onwards.

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tonelli, so Schenker, is present as the main source in most but not all of the sections. Schenker’s analysis formed the basis for the entry on the catena type XXII in the overview of catena types in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum (1980).43 It was also taken up by E. Mühlenberg (1978), who did not treat type XXII in detail and limited himself to making one minor correction with regard to Schenker’s identification of the sources.44 Of at least as much importance as Schenker’s research is the analysis by G. Dorival, published in 1995 in the fourth part of his monumental study on the catenae of the Psalter.45 On the basis of a sounding of nineteen Psalms, he provided a detailed analysis of catena type XXII. He agreed with Schenker’s delineation of the different sections within the catena46 and accepted his identification of Ps 103:10 as the point at which Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 part their ways.47 Nevertheless, Dorival did not always agree with Schenker’s conclusions: especially with regard to the identification of sources accessed in the various subsections of the catena, Dorival reached different conclusions. For example, he believed the Hesychius Antonelli never to have been abandoned as a source, although admitting that from Ps 101 onwards, its presence is much more limited. In addition, his research on the traditions of catenae on the Psalms in general allowed him to identify the position of catena type XXII within this corpus seen as a whole. Dorival identified the basic model on which type XXII is built as a Palestinian edition of the Psalms — which he tentatively dated to the sixth century — in two columns, with one column containing the biblical text and the other one the Hesychius Antonelli.48 In this regard, this fundamental source can be compared to the type of “chaînes-scholies” that he discussed in the structural explanation of the formation and transmission of catenae.49

43

CPG, IV: n° C 35. E. MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare aus der Katenenüberlieferung, III: Untersuchungen zu den Psalmenkatenen, Berlin – New York 1978 (Patristische Texte und Studien, 19), pp. 34-35. See also the analyses of Pss 37 and 87 on pp. 89-92 and 108-111 respectively. 45 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 54-113. 46 In reality, the fact that Dorival based his research on a selection of Psalms did not allow him to confirm nor deny Schenker’s subdivision of the catena (based on a study of the catena in full), but he decided to trust it. See ibid., IV, p. 110. 47 Ibid., IV, p. 90. For the identification of this rupture, Dorival had to trust Schenker’s view, since Ps 103 does not belong to the selection of Psalms retained for the analysis. See ibid., IV, p. 102 (and compare our previous note). 48 Ibid., IV, pp. 104-105. 49 Ibid., II, pp. 43-63. See also the essay by Maria-Antonietta Barbàra in this volume. 44

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2.3 Structure, contents and sources of catena type XXII Apart from the obvious differences in lay-out and the consequences those have (with Canon. gr. 62 offering a Breitkatene, in which author attributions are even fewer in number than in the particular two-column setup of Vat. gr. 752),50 both witnesses of catena type XXII differ from each other in an even more crucial respect: from Ps 103:10 onwards, Canon. gr. 62 transmits an entirely different catena.51 2.3.1 The catena of Vat. gr. 752 For the greater part, the catena of Vat. gr. 752 exhibits a two-fold structure, but not exactly the one mentioned by Devreesse. For almost two thirds of the Psalter, the catena combines the Hesychius Antonelli with another catena, type XVII,52 which is itself a compilation of mainly (but not exclusively) two commentaries on the Psalms, one by Theodoret and one by John Chrysostom (CPG 4413).53 This is the case for the following sections that were delineated by Schenker: Pss 39:4c-77:35; 82:17-100; and 104:10-150.54 Fragments that are taken from catena type XVII include excerpts belonging to Theodoret as well as to other authors. In exhibiting this two-fold structure, Vat. gr. 752 presents the Hesychius Antonelli as the primary source, always cited in first position. The fragments that are taken from type XVII tend to be cited (preceded by λλ or λλο ) in second position, in order to supplement the Hesychius Antonelli.55 50 A detailed study of the lay-out of the catena of Vat. gr. 752 can be found in DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 75-79. Also Mercati commented upon the mise-en-page of the manuscript (in section II.11[ ] of the unpublished notes: see Appendix). 51 Much of what is written in the sections that follow summarizes the insights that have been reached by Schenker and Dorival, in the studies mentioned in nn. 41 and 45. References are not repeated. 52 In this regard, one can understand why in the past catena type XXII has been described as a ‘satellite’ of type XVII, as did M.-J. RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques du Psautier (IIIe-Ve siècles), I: Les travaux des Pères grecs et latins sur le Psautier. Recherches et bilan, Roma 1982 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 219), p. 203 (see also p. 279). 53 This catena is believed by Dorival to have been produced around the year 700: see Chaînes sur les Psaumes, III, pp. 24-103. See also KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 48-52 and MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, pp. 32-33 and 85-86. Other descriptions of this catena are mentioned in CPG C 30. 54 Dorival’s analysis ties in with that of Schenker, although he did identify a few fragments that were not taken from either of both sources. They are only few in number and constitute an enlargement of the type XVII catena. 55 Occasional breaches against this structure do occur (and have been pointed out by Dorival). On the variation between λλο and λλ , see DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 98 and pp. 75 and 111-113 of Francesco D’Aiuto’s contribution to the present volume (cf. also n. 75 below).

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This combination of the Hesychius Antonelli and catena type XVII is not present from the beginning of the Psalter but is only introduced later on. No consensus exists with regard to the contents of the opening part of the catena: it is beyond doubt that also in the section covering Pss 1-39:4b, the Hesychius Antonelli is cited as the primary source, but no satisfying identification has been offered of the source(s) that is/are quoted in second position. Schenker believed this source to be a choice collection of passages from Theodoret’s commentary,56 thus amounting to a two-fold structure together with the Hesychius Antonelli. From Ps 32:14 onwards, these two sources were described by Schenker as being gradually supplemented by excerpts from catena type XVII, until the choice collection of Theodoret disappeared (Ps 39:4c) to the benefit of catena type XVII.57 Dorival’s analysis of this opening section, however, shows that Schenker’s account is not entirely complete: for Pss 1 and 11, Dorival convincingly identified the Hesychius Jagiò (CPG 6553) as the source used overall second in line after the Hesychius Antonelli. Only third in importance does Theodoret follow, with or without fragments of various origin. All of this shows that at least the very first section of the catena is in need of further analysis.58 Consensus is also lacking with regard to the identity of the source that complements the Hesychius Antonelli in the section of the catena that covers Pss 77:36-82:16.59 In this part, catena type XVII is abandoned as a source: excerpts from the Hesychius Antonelli are now followed by Hexaplaric readings, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by anonymous 56 He identified this source as a selection that was made earlier and that was available not only to the compiler of catena type XXII but also to those of other catenae (including type XVII). Mühlenberg (Psalmenkommentare, III, p. 10), however, believed Theodoret’s original commentary to be the source that was used for this opening section of catena type XXII. 57 In other words, Schenker described the part of the catena covering Pss 32:14-39:4b as a transitional one, in which catena type XVII was introduced gradually. His analysis now is slightly modified by Francesco D’Aiuto’s detailed palaeographical analysis of the codex, but the thesis of a gradual change still stands: see below. 58 The number and nature of the source(s) that accompany the Hesychius Antonelli are subject to discussion: whereas up to Ps 32:13 included, Schenker identified only one such source (i.e., Theodoret), Dorival identified no less than four of them: one that consisted of Theodoret and the Hesychius Jagiò; one that combines these sources with other fragments; one that is solely Theodoret’s commentary; and one in which Theodoret is combined with other sources. No Psalms from the section Pss 32:14-39:4b were analyzed by Dorival. 59 Schenker believed this source to have already been introduced gradually in the preceding section, because Hexaplaric readings (which constitute a vital component of the collection of materials that supplement the Hesychius Antonelli in the section under discussion) are already offered for Ps 77:30. The presence of those readings for that biblical verse is also mentioned continuously by Mercati in his unpublished notes (see Appendix).

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excerpts mainly from the commentary by Eusebius of Caesarea (CPG 3467) and also (to a lesser degree) from that of Theodoret and others. According to Schenker (who paid particular attention to this section, which contains the Hexaplaric readings he was interested in), the compiler of catena type XXII did not himself combine those exegetical fragments with the Hexaplaric readings, but already found them together in a single catena, which Schenker did not identify but which he thought to have been compiled rather late and to depend on the original commentaries of Eusebius and Theodoret and a Hexaplaric source which still had a columnar lay-out similar to the one the original Hexapla had. Dorival, however, pointing out that no other evidence for such a catena is known to exist, did not accept the postulation of a catena as an intermediary step between the Hexaplaric and exegetical fragments, on the one hand, and Vat. gr. 752, on the other.60 Also in the section that covers Pss 101-104:9 a two-fold structure has been identified, in which the Hesychius Antonelli is cited as the primary source. It is accompanied by a broad variety of exegetical fragments (taken from commentaries by Didymus, Eusebius, Athanasius, Cyril, Theodoret, etc.). Schenker thought these fragments to be taken from catena type III, a heterogeneous and multi-layered compilation, whereas Dorival believed them to have been gleaned from a daughter catena of type III.61 Within 60 Dorival did not indicate precisely, however, how he did see the materials on Pss 77:3682:16 having ended up in the catena. Quite surprisingly, neither did Mercati reach a clear conclusion as to the source of the Hexaplaric readings that can be found in this section, leaving open even the possibility that they did not belong to the original catena (but were instead inserted in a stage of the textual transmission between the archetype and the confection of Vat. gr. 752: see section II.11[ ] of the unpublished notes in the Appendix). See below, however, on the possibility of the Vatican manuscript itself actually being the archetype. 61 On catena type III (the most famous witness of which is the illuminated Paris. gr. 139), see KARO – LIETZMANN, p. 27; M. RICHARD, Les premières chaînes sur le Psautier, in Bulletin d’information de l’Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes 5 (1956), pp. 87-98 (reprinted in his Opera minora, III, n° 70), here pp. 93-98; MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, pp. 2325 and 60-63 (further references can be found in CPG C 16). This catena is a very complex document, in which different layers can be identified and which itself depends on several previous compilations, among which figures the so-called Palestinian catena, a collection that is generally considered to be one of the most ancient catenae on the Psalms and a highly valuable source for the retrieval of patristic fragments, but which in its original form has not been transmitted completely. As a collection, the Palestinian catena has been edited partially: La chaîne palestinienne sur le Psaume 118 (Origène, Eusèbe, Didyme, Apollinaire, Athanase, Théodoret). Introduction, texte grec critique, traduction et notes par M. HARL avec la collaboration de G. DORIVAL, 2 vols, Paris 1972 (Sources chrétiennes, 189-190) and La catena palestinese sui Salmi graduali. Introduzione, edizione critica, traduzione, note di commento e indici a cura di C. CURTI (†), Catania 2003 (Saggi e testi classici, cristiani e medievali, 18). In what follows, I summarize Dorival’s analysis of the contents and layers of catena type III. It witnesses to an ancient catena that depends directly on the Palestinian catena and is likely to have been created in the second half of the sixth century in Palestine (see Chaînes sur les Psaumes,

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this section, Schenker distinguished the fragments on Pss 101-104:1b from those on Ps 104:1c-9, believing that in the first of those two parts, the Hesychius Antonelli disappeared, and that it was re-introduced in the second. This is incorrect: Hesychius remains present in the section on Pss 101104:1b as well.62 In this regard, the Hesychius Antonelli remains present throughout the entire catena, although — as mentioned by Dorival — from Ps 101 until the end of the Psalms, far fewer of its excerpts can be found that in the sections up to Ps 100. 2.3.2 The catena of Canon. gr. 62 The catena of Canon. gr. 62 is almost identical to that of Vat. gr. 752 up to Ps 103:9 (although it tends to contain less author attributions and occasional lacunae). From that point onwards, however, the catenae that are transmitted in these manuscripts differ from one another, as was first observed by Schenker. In the section on Pss 103:10-150, Canon. gr. 62 offers the Hesychius Antonelli as the primary source. Preceded by λλ or λλο , the commentary by Theodoret is cited as the secondary source. 2.3.3 Summary Consensus has it that both in the section where they differ significantly from one another (Pss 103:10-150) and in that where they offer the same text (Pss 1-103:9), it is Vat. gr. 752 and not Canon. gr. 62 that is closest to the original catena type XXII.63 I, pp. 232-299: “deuxième chaîne palestinienne”, which corresponds more or less to Richard’s “chaîne monophysite”). This catena is combined in catena type III with a re-written form of the Palestinian catena: this combination is attested elsewhere as well but cannot be dated precisely (ibid., I, pp. 301-324: “troisième chaîne palestinienne”). The latter compilation is fused for some Psalms in catena type III with the exegesis of Athanasius of Alexandria (CPG 2140): it is not clear when or where this combination was produced (ibid., II, pp. 350-354). In its turn, this last source combination has been supplemented in some sections of catena type III with excerpts from the commentary by Theodore of Mopsuestia (CPG 3833): it is possible that this was done between the eighth and tenth centuries (ibid., IV, pp. 174-179). 62 This is shown by Dorival for Ps 101. Pss 102-103 do not belong to his selection of analyzed Psalms, but for them, too, fragments of the Hesychius Antonelli can be found (e.g. ι το π ου το υ ο το τλ. in the comment on Ps 102:6 on fol. 313v of Vat. gr. 752: compare with PG 27, 1085C). 63 Such a conclusion was already reached by Mercati in his unpublished notes (see below: sections II.11[ ] and III.1): while there is enough agreement between Canon. gr. 62 and Vat. gr. 752 to conclude that both manuscripts are very close to one another, the absence and erroneous character of certain attributions of Hexaplaric readings as well their different position in Canon. gr. 62 led him to consider Vat. gr. 752 as the preferable witness. He did not identify, however, the exact relation between both witnesses.

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In the first section, up to Ps 103:9 included, the Oxford manuscript is thought by both Schenker and Irmgard Hutter to be a direct copy of the Vatican codex.64 Both Schenker and Dorival reached the conclusion that in the section that starts with Ps 103:10, the copyist of Canon. gr. 62 abandoned his antigraphon to the benefit of a combination of sources he himself accessed directly: the Hesychius Antonelli and the commentary of Theodoret. This source combination, chosen deliberately after that of the opening section of the catena (?), is explained by both Schenker and Dorival as an attempt to reduce complexity.65 In conclusion, one can be sure that from Ps 103:10 onwards, Canon. gr. 62 does not represent the original catena type XXII but is a secondary compilation that was made by the copyist himself. The original catena type XXII is thus better represented by Vat. gr. 752. When characterizing this catena in its entirety, one is tempted to agree to a certain extent with Devreesse’s view (outlined above): one indeed observes the preference for a two-fold structure. However, this two-fold structure is not only of a different kind than Devreesse surmised (the combination Hesychius-Theodoret as such can be found only in a small section of the catena), but also much more complex. First: although one can identify the Hesychius Antonelli as the primary source that remains constant for the entire catena, one does observe that in the final, third part its presence is considerably reduced. Secondly: the source that accompanies the Hesychius Antonelli is not consistent and changes several times.66 For most of 64 See SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 27-28; I. HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 29 (1980), pp. 331-354, here p. 341; and EAD., Corpus der byzantinischen Miniaturhandschriften, III.1: Oxford, Bodleian Library III. Textband, Stuttgart 1982, p. 134. Dorival did not comment explicitly upon the precise relationship between these manuscripts, nor did Mercati in his unpublished study (see the previous note). 65 Although it is true that in this section where Canon. gr. 62 departs from Vat. gr. 752 the source combination of the former manuscript remains consistent, one has the impression that both Schenker and Dorival slightly exaggerated the reduction in complexity that follows from this departure. After all, in Vat. gr. 752, the combination of sources remains the same for almost the entire section: in the catena on Pss 104:10-150, one finds the combination of the Hesychius Antonelli and catena type XVII that is in fact the most characteristic one of the catena. Only in the section 103:10-104:9 does Vat. gr. 752 feature a different combination. 66 It needs to be emphasized that the reasons for the changes of sources are unexplained as are those for the position of those changes: they do not match any of the known divisions of the Psalter nor do they entirely match the shifts in hands that have been delineated in Vat. gr. 752 (on which, see below). Could they have been caused by the possibly defective nature of one of the compiler’s source manuscripts? Even if one suggests that a compiler, intending to deliver a product that from an exegetical point of view was unique, deliberately shifted between various sources (compare below and with pp. 102-119 of Francesco D’Aiuto’s article in the present volume), it is not clear why those shifts occur where they do.

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the Psalter, this secondary source is a catena (whether catena type XVII or another one). This inescapably forces upon us the impression that the original catena type XXII, although exhibiting a two-fold structure, cannot have been compiled as early as Devreesse had thought. Without communicating any general opinions on the catena traditions of the Psalms, Schenker nevertheless managed in his analysis of the catena to conclude convincingly on the basis of the catena sources that were used in catena type XXII that it is a rather more recent compilation.67 Later, Dorival was able to add further evidence to this hypothesis.68 Indeed, in depending amongst other sources on (a daughter compilation of) catena type III, the original catena type XXII could not have been created before the tenth century. From this it is clear how close in time the creation of the catena and the confection of Vat. gr. 752 — the oldest witness — are to one another. The question remains, then, whether the scribe of that manuscript is also identifiable as the compiler of catena type XXII, or whether he copied a now lost archetype, which cannot have been much older. Schenker’s and Dorival’s thinking on this matter is not the same: whereas the former scholar believed Vat. gr. 752 to be the archetype of catena type XXII, the latter suggested it be a faithful copy of a lost source, which would anyhow be datable between the second half of the tenth and the first half of the eleventh century.69 Dorival’s sole argument against identifying Vat. gr. 752 as the original for catena type XXII is the absence of certain fragments of the Hesychius Antonelli and the erroneous attribution of certain other fragments, which he explained as errors made by the scribe of Vat. gr. 752 when copying his model.70 This argument is not entirely convincing: the omission of certain fragments from the Hesychius Antonelli in Vat. gr. 752 does not 67 Schenker did not comment explicitly upon the date of confection of the catenae that were used as sources in type XXII. (1) He did not articulate any views on the dating of catena type XVII. (2) For type III, he probably relied upon the dating proposed by Richard, who assigned it to the tenth century (Les premières chaînes, p. 98). (3) For the catena the existence of which he put forward in his explanation of the provenance of the section on Pss 77:3682:16 of catena type XXII (and which is in fact not attested as such), Schenker did not offer a precise dating but believed it to be a young compilation. 68 For Dorival’s dating of catena types XVII and III, see nn. 53 and 61. 69 Mercati too believed Vat. gr. 752 not to be the archetype of the catena, but to depend from an unknown archetype. He put forward this hypothesis quite aphoristically (in section II.6[ ] of the notes discussed in the Appendix below; a similar thought can be found in section II.11[ ]), arguing on the basis of linguistic phenomena in Vat. gr. 752 (regarding which he was rather brief) and the incorrect transmission of the sigla ( , etc.) of some of the Hexaplaric readings (some of which were also mentioned by SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 52-54). 70 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 77.

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need to have occurred between a supposed archetype of the catena and its Vatican copy, but could as well have come about between the model of the catena (which is identified by Dorival himself as a Palestinian edition of the Psalms, see n. 48) and Vat. gr. 752 (as the archetype).71 In other words, the errors referred to by Dorival can as easily have occurred in the process of compiling a document (certainly one that draws on other compilations, as is the case with Vat. gr. 752) as while copying it from an archetype. Schenker for his part based his opinion that Vat. gr. 752 is the catena’s archetype upon his observation that in the section on Pss 32:14-39:4b (fols 98v-135r), the gradual insertion of fragments from catena type XVII corresponds to a change in the script: according to him, the same hand that wrote the other contents of that section used a somewhat different and smaller script for these fragments.72 Although Schenker’s overall paleographical analysis of Vat. gr. 752 and of the particular section mentioned by him is not entirely correct, it is certainly true that a correlation exists between the different hands that wrote the exegetical parts of the Vatican catena and the varying choice of sources, as Francesco D’Aiuto proves in the present volume.73 His analysis shows that the section on Pss 26:9-32:15a[!] (fols 84r-98v) reflects a transition between the first and the second of two hands that together copied the exegetical part of the entire Psalms catena.74 In that transitional section, the first hand copied the excerpts from the Hesychius Antonelli (the primary source), which were supplemented by the second hand with exegetical fragments from the secondary source (mainly Theodoret: see above). At the bottom of fol. 98v (Ps 32:15a), the second hand took over completely, introducing gradually from that point onwards a different secondary source:75 this is the change referred to somewhat im71 In addition, it can be pointed out that the faulty attributions that are adduced by Dorival as further evidence for his hypothesis on the origins of the catena can be found in the section on Pss 77:36-82:16: if Schenker’s views on the origins of the fragments in question are correct (i.e., the compiler of the type XXII catena found them in another catena), the errors in attribution might have occurred from the excerption of that catena into Vat. gr. 752. 72 SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 11-14. 73 See pp. 63-85 and 102-119. The comment on Schenker’s research is taken from pp. 112-113, n. 117. I am grateful and deeply indebted to Francesco D’Aiuto for having allowed me insight into his text before publication. 74 Within the commentary section of Vat. gr. 752, two different hands are identified by D’Aiuto (see the references in the previous note), the first of which copied all of the exegetical fragments on Pss 1:1-26:8a (= fols 19r-83v) and on Ps 148:2a-8b (= fol. 444r-v). The second hand is responsible for the entire exegetical sections on Pss 32:16-148:1 (fols 99r-443v) and Pss 148:9a-150:6b (fols 445r-447v). A similar analysis was earlier communicated to me by Georgi Parpulov, whom I wish to thank wholeheartedly. 75 In the transitional section of fols 84r-98v, the second hand’s influence was felt not so

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precisely by Schenker. All of this shows that the choice of sources in some way answers to the paleographical characteristics of Vat. gr. 752.76 Together with the reservations articulated above with regard to Dorival’s hypothesis, these palaeographical observations welcome the conclusion that the creation of catena type XXII coincides with the confection of codex Vat. gr. 752 and that no earlier archetype ever existed: the exegetical compilation was created ad hoc when the different hands put together the text of this manuscript.77 3. Value of catena type XXII With such conclusions having been reached with regard to the contents and sources of catena type XXII, it appears useful at this point to survey briefly what use that catena (and especially Vat. gr. 752)78 has been put to in previous research on the Greek versions of the Psalter and on the transmission of patristic exegesis of that book. 3.1 Catena type XXII as a witness to excerpts from patristic commentaries on the Psalms The above survey of sources upon which catena type XXII relies implies that in terms of the recovery of the original text of the commentaries of which it contains excerpts (and let us leave the Hesychius Antonelli aside for the moment), its value is rather low: seeing that many of those excerpts are known to have been taken from other compilations (some of which not very much older than the catena itself), catena type XXII is not very valuable as a witness. Such judgment can indeed be found in secondary literature that builds upon the analyses by Schenker and Dorival.79 Neither was catena type XXII used very intensively in earlier research much through a change in secondary source, but through the use of λλο to introduce it (in contrast to λλ , which was used by the first hand in the section up to fol. 83v included). 76 It should not be left unmentioned, however, that none of the other changes in the choice of sources are accompanied by any change in handwriting: compare n. 66. 77 The conclusion that is reached here (against Dorival) is also that of D’Aiuto. Earlier, critical research on the images of Vat. gr. 752 and their relation to the text had also brought Hutter to identify the manuscript with the archetype of the catena: see her publications mentioned in n. 64. (Further research on the miniatures and initials is carried out by D’Aiuto on pp. 120-139 of his article in the present volume.) 78 MS Canon. gr. 62 has received only little attention in research prior to the analyses by Schenker (n. 41) and Dorival (n. 45). 79 E.g., G. DORIVAL, Nouveaux fragments grecs de Sévère d’Antioche, in τ ρο . Hommage à Maurits Geerard pour célébrer l’achèvement de la Clavis Patrum Graecorum, [ed. J. NORET], Wetteren 1984, I, pp. 101-121, here p. 106.

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(carried out when the compilation’s rather limited value was not yet known), for the simple reason that — apart from the Hesychius Antonelli, Theodoret and (in lesser degree) Chrysostom — the amount of text of any particular commentary that is offered in the catena is quite limited.80 Nonetheless, this did not prevent it (especially Vat. gr. 752) from being used occasionally as a witness for the edition of patristic fragments on the Psalms81 or as a source for pointing out the presence of such fragments.82 Since in those days catena type XXII was still believed to have been compiled directly on the basis of the Hesychius Antonelli and the commentary by Theodoret (as illustrated by the above-mentioned characterization offered by Devreesse), it does not surprise that in secondary literature Vat. gr. 752 was more than once mentioned as a witness to those commentaries.83 Especially in relation to the Hesychius Antonelli, Vat. gr. 752 tended to be adduced as a valuable witness, certainly after Mercati had listed it among the catenae that contain almost the complete text of that commentary.84 80

E.g., L. MARIÈS, Le commentaire de Diodore de Tarse sur les Psaumes. Examen sommaire et classement provisoire des éléments de la tradition manuscrite, in Revue de l’Orient chrétien 24 (1924), pp. 58-189, here pp. 89-90. 81 E.g., G. MERCATI, Il frammento Maffeiano di Nestorio e la catena dei Salmi d’onde fu tratto, Città del Vaticano 1950 (Studi e testi, 154), p. 36 (Vat. gr. 752 used as a witness for the edition of a fragment attributed to a certain Job or Jobius); or ID., Alla ricerca dei nomi degli “altri” traduttori nelle omilie sui Salmi di S. Giovanni Crisostomo e variazioni su alcune catene del Salterio, Città del Vaticano 1952 (Studi e testi, 158), pp. 228-231 (Vat. gr. 752 used as a witness for the edition of some fragments from Arethas). 82 E.g., MERCATI, Alla ricerca, pp. 124-128 (Vat. gr. 752 used as a source for the retrieval of a fragment from Olympiodorus [= CPG 7460], actually taken from the type XVII catena by the compiler of the type XXII catena) or R. DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs grecs des Psaumes, Città del Vaticano 1970 (Studi e testi, 264), pp. 326-327 (Vat. gr. 752 used as a source for the retrieval of two excerpts from Severus of Antioch [= CPG 7080(2)], also taken in fact from the type XVII catena; compare n. 79). 83 Devreesse himself, for example, mentioned Vat. gr. 752 in his presentation of the textual tradition of both those texts: see his Chaînes exégétiques, cols 1135 and 1136 respectively. In addition to its role as a witness to the Hesychius Antonelli and Theodoret, Vat. gr. 752 has also been studied in its function as a source of excerpts from the commentary of Chrysostom, notably by MERCATI, Alla ricerca, pp. 47-135. The presence of those excerpts needs to be understood against the background of the role of catena type XVII (in which Chrysostom occupies a primary position) as a source that is used in catena type XXII. 84 G. MERCATI, Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica, Roma 1901 (Studi e testi, 5), pp. 145-179 (= chapter on Il commentario d’Esichio Gerosolimitano sui Salmi), here p. 174, n. 2. In research on the transmission of Theodoret’s commentary, Vat. gr. 752 was mentioned less often (but see the previous note), both because it was widely known that the direct tradition of that text is abundant and because in nearly all catenae that commentary plays a very important role: see e.g. A. RAHLFS, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, Berlin 1914 (Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, 2), pp. 405-406. This made

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One observes, however, that diverging characterizations have been given of Vat. gr. 752 as a witness to the Hesychius Antonelli. Upon his initial identification, Mercati himself stated that that commentary cannot be found in its pure form in Vat. gr. 752, but that it is supplemented by and mixed with the Hesychius Jagiò.85 Devreesse in turn, having stated initially that the Hesychius Antonelli and the Hesychius Jagiò are intertwined with one another,86 later wrote (incorrectly) that only the Hesychius Antonelli can be found in catena type XXII.87 In fact, the more recent analysis by Dorival showed that the Hesychius Jagiò in fact (only) plays a role of note in the opening part of the catena.88 In the presently available editions of the Hesychius Antonelli, the evidence of catena type XXII has not been included.89 Should it be used for the testimony of Vat. gr. 752 far less pertinent (which the later analyses by Schenker and Dorival indeed confirmed). 85 See his review of V. JAGIÒ, Ein unedierter griechischer Psalmenkommentar, in Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 52 (1904), pp. 1-95, published in Theologische Revue 4 (1905), pp. 368-372 [reprinted in his Opere minori, II: (1897-1906), Città del Vaticano 1937 (Studi e testi, 77), pp. 454-460], here p. 371 [= p. 458]. It should be mentioned that in the decades following that review, Mercati’s thinking on the Hesychius Antonelli evolved drastically, and that Vat. gr. 752 played an important part in this shift in perspective. The attribution to Ephrem in the Vatican manuscript of a fragment on Ps 93:23 that can equally be found in the Hesychius Antonelli (PG 27, 1056C [stichoi 36-37]) was one of two elements that brought Mercati to question Hesychius of Jerusalem’s authorship of the Hesychius Antonelli (to the identification of which he had contributed significantly with his publication mentioned in the previous note) and to propose Ephrem as its author. See G. MERCATI, Sull’autore del «De titulis Psalmorum » stampato fra le opere di S. Atanasio, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10 (1944), pp. 7-22 [reprinted in his Opere minori, IV: (1937-1957), Città del Vaticano 1984 (Studi e testi, 296), pp. 133-147], here pp. 8-9 [= pp. 134-135]. This hypothesis has met with criticism (see e.g. DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 315) and is not generally accepted today: see also the article by S. Voicu below. Whereas Mercati had repeated that view in his Osservazioni a proemi (see p. 26, n. 1), he did not mention it explicitly anymore in his Alla ricerca (see e.g. p. 151, n. 1 or p. 203, n. 2). In his unpublished notes on Vat. gr. 752 (see Appendix), he tended to limit his references to the author of the Hesychius Antonelli to “Ps.-Athanasius”. See for example section II.11( ): “il commento edito dall’Antonelli sotto il nome di S. Atanasio”. 86 R. DEVREESSE, La chaîne sur les Psaumes de Daniele Barbaro, in Revue biblique 33 (1924), pp. 65-81 and 498-521, here pp. 501-502 and ID., Chaînes exégétiques, cols 1135-1136. 87 DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 248, n. 35. 88 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 57-60. 89 The standard edition is that by N. ANTONELLI: ο ἐν οι Π τρ ν ν ου ρ ιεπι όπου λε ν ρε ρμη ε α τ αλμ ερ πιγραφ ς αλμ . SANCTI PATRIS NOSTRI ATHANASII ARCHIEPISCOPI ALEXANDRIAE nterpretatio Psalmorum sive De titulis Psalmorum, Romae 1746 (repr. PG 27, 649-1344). The manuscript source upon which this edition rests was identified by Mercati (Note, p. 147, n. 2) as BAV, Barb. gr. 348 (III.67). The manuscript that was discovered only later by Antonelli and the evidence of which he appended to his edition (reprinted as notes at the bottom of the page in the PG edition) was identified by Mercati (and also one year earlier by M. Faulhaber: HESYCHII HIEROSOLYMITANI Interpretatio

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the preparation of a critical edition of this text?90 None of the scholars who explicitly named Vat. gr. 752 as a witness to the Hesychius Antonelli provided very concrete advice in this regard. In view of what is known of the transmission of the Hesychius Antonelli and of the sources of catena type XXII, the question should not be answered affirmatively, at least not before further research on the commentary’s direct (!) and indirect transmission is carried out.91 Moreover, it should be kept in mind that, although the Hesychius Antonelli remains at all times the catena’s primary source, it is not cited in its complete form (see above): this obviously reduces the value of catena type XXII as a source for the Hesychius Antonelli. 3.2 Catena type XXII as a witness to the biblical text of the Psalms 3.2.1 The Septuagint text The precise character of the biblical text of Vat. gr. 752 has never been identified.92 Related to this observation is of course the fact that neither this manuscript nor Canon. gr. 62 have been included in the critical edition of the Greek Psalter that was published by Alfred Rahlfs in 1931.93 In view of the origins of catena type XXII as discussed above, two posIsaiae prophetae. Nunc primum in lucem edita, prolegomenis, commentario critico, indice adaucta a M. FAULHABER, Friburgi Brisgoviae 1900, p. XX) as BAV, Pal. gr. 44. Neither manuscript is a catena nor does any of them offer an author identification (against RONDEAU, Les commentaires, I, p. 140). Another printed edition of the complete Hesychius Antonelli is mentioned above (n. 27). The section on Ps 125:4 of the commentary was edited by MERCATI, Note, pp. 149-152 on the basis of a few Vatican manuscripts (among which Vat. gr. 752 does not figure). 90 The desirableness of such an edition should not be doubted, despite remarks such as those by RONDEAU, Les commentaires, I, p. 142. 91 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 103, mentioned some improvements to the text of the Hesychius Antonelli that catena type XXII offers vis-à-vis the edition mentioned in n. 89, but these should not be mistaken for a proof that a new edition of the Hesychius Antonelli cannot be made without inclusion of the evidence from catena type XXII: no research has proven that the passages in question cannot also be found in other (older) catenae or even in witnesses of the Hesychius Antonelli’s direct tradition that have not yet been studied. 92 Schenker mentioned in passing that it is a Lucianic text (on which, see n. 96), but did not offer any proof or argument: “es handelt sich um einen lukianischen Psalter” (SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 55; emphasis his). He also stated (pp. 55-56) that the biblical text of Vat. gr. 752 differs from the one that was the reference text for the Hexaplaric readings that are transmitted in catena type XXII (Pss 77:36-82:16). This information is to be expected and tells us little about the nature of the Septuagint text of Vat. gr. 752. 93 Psalmi cum Odis. Edidit A. RAHLFS, Göttingen 1931 (Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum, 10) [repr. 1979]. As far as the evidence of minuscule manuscripts is concerned, Rahlfs did not carry out new collations, but relied on an earlier edition (see his pp. 5 and 61-62), to wit: Vetus Testamentum Graecum cum variis lectionibus. Editionem a R. HOLMES inchoatam continuavit J. PARSONS, Oxonii

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sibilities appear to emerge with regard to the form of the biblical text of Vat. gr. 752: either it is an eleventh-century text transmitted in a catena, or it is a fifth- or sixth-century (Palestinian) text.94 Unfortunately, current knowledge of the history of the Psalter text makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish one from the other. In his edition of the Psalms, as well as in his earlier landmark study of that text,95 Rahlfs did not succeed in seeing through the dominant influence of the Byzantine vulgar text of the Psalms (to which the biblical text of an eleventh-century catena would undoubtedly witness), which prevented him from identifying the text from which the vulgar one had arisen around the sixth century, i.e.: the Lucianic recension of the Psalms, which was shaped and used in Syria from the fourth century onwards96 (and which thus would likely have been used by Hesychius himself or in a Palestinian edition of his commentary).97 Although realizing that these text types are not identical, Rahlfs saw no other solution than to identify them in his edition: the siglum L in the apparatus denotes both the Lucianic text from Late Antiquity and the vulgar text of the Byzantine Church.98 1823, III (no page numbers). Not a single manuscript of catena type XXII was consulted for that edition. 94 With regard to the latter alternative, see n. 48. 95 A. RAHLFS, Septuaginta-Studien, II: Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters. Nebst einem Anhang: Griechische Psalterfragmente aus Oberägypten nach Abschriften von W. E. CRUM, Göttingen 1907 [repr. 1965]. 96 For a general introduction to the Lucianic text, see N. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS, Some Reflections on the Antiochian Text of the Septuagint, in Studien zur Septuaginta – Robert Hanhart zu Ehren. Aus Anlaß seines 65. Geburtstages, ed. D. FRAENKEL – U. QUAST – J. W. WEVERS, Göttingen 1990 (Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, 20; Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Dritte Folge, 190), pp. 219-229. 97 This is at least the conclusion to which Rahlfs came, albeit through a not entirely satisfying treatment of the evidence relating to Hesychius’s exegesis. Ignoring his most extensive commentary on the Psalms (CPG 6554) as well as the Hesychius Jagiò, he only consulted (one manuscript of) the Hesychius Antonelli. In his 1907 study (Der Text, pp. 21 and 55), he did so through Holmes and Parsons’s collations of Pal. gr. 44 (on which, see n. 89). He did not, however, comment on the character of Hesychius’s text, treating Pal. gr. 44 as a common Septuagint manuscript. In his 1931 edition (see Psalmi, p. 20), Rahlfs used the same codex as his only way of access to Hesychius’s exegesis, but this time he consulted it directly, not through the edition of Holmes and Parsons. Analysis of this manuscript allowed him to conclude that, despite its author’s Palestinian provenance, the commentary does not witness to a Hexaplaric text but to a Lucianic one (ibid., pp. 67-68). At the same time, however, he admitted that his limited analysis did not enable him to find out to what extent the text of Pal. gr. 44 actually reflects Hesychius’s biblical text (ibid., p. 67, n. 1). 98 For this, Rahlfs was severely criticized by scholars such as (in chronological order) P. L. HEDLEY, The Göttingen Investigation and Edition of the Septuagint, in Harvard Theological Review 26 (1933), pp. 57-72; L. J. PERKINS, The So-Called “L” Text of Psalms 72-82, in Bul-

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This situation makes it impossible at this point to provide further identification of the biblical text of Vat. gr. 752. 3.2.2 Other biblical versions In one particular section (i.e. on Pss 77:36-82:16),99 catena type XXII provides many readings from other Greek Bible versions (i.e., other than the standard Septuagint text), namely from those of Aquila ( ), Symmachus ( ) and Theodotion ( ). These readings were not taken directly from those Jewish versions themselves, but — in one way or the other (see below) — from the multi-columned edition of the Old Testament prepared by Origen that is called the Hexapla (CPG 1500). This is clearly shown by the presence in the catena of readings taken from versions commonly called Quinta (ε ) and Sexta ( ) after their position in the Hexapla (i.e., the ‘fifth’ and the ‘sixth’ Greek columns): these versions are known only through the Hexapla.100 The Hexaplaric readings cited in catena type XXII (both in Vat. gr. 752 and in Canon. gr. 62) were not known to Frederick Field, who published the standard edition of Hexaplaric readings of the Psalms in 1875.101 It was only a few decades later that their presence was duly recognized: this was the merit of Mercati, who underlined the importance of catena type XXII as a Hexaplaric source, and who planned to edit and analyze the readings it contains.102 This annotated edition by the hand of Mercati was unfortunately never finished and did not appear in print, but his plans did lead Schenker to prepare such an edition, which was published 1975.103 The unpublished handwritten notes Mercati redacted in preparation letin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies 11 (1978), pp. 44-63; and A. PIETERSMA, The Present State of the Critical Text of the Greek Psalter, in Der SeptuagintaPsalter und seine Tochterübersetzungen. Symposium in Göttingen 1997, ed. A. AEJMELAEUS – U. QUAST, Göttingen 2000 (Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, 24; Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, 230), pp. 12-32. None of these scholars, however, were in turn able to improve upon Rahlfs’s work. 99 On Ps 77:30, see above (n. 59). 100 See e.g. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS, The Septuagint, pp. 155-160. 101 ORIGENIS Hexaplorum quae supersunt; sive Veterum Interpretum Graecorum in totum Vetus Testamentum fragmenta. Post Flaminium Nobilium, Drusium, et Montefalconium, adhibita etiam versione Syro-Hexaplari, concinnavit, emendavit, et multis partibus auxit F. FIELD, 2 vols, Oxonii 1875 [repr. Hildesheim 1964], II, pp. 83-305 and Auctarium, pp. 11-22. 102 See the references given in nn. 112 and 113. 103 See the reference in n. 41. It is precisely his interest in the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII that brought Schenker to study the compilation as a whole and to offer the analysis that has been mentioned several times throughout the previous pages. For Mercati’s role in the development of Schenker’s attention for Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62, see pp. vii and 6 of Schenker’s edition.

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for his edition are preserved in the Vatican Library: a summary of their content is provided as an appendix to the present article.104 The question that is most interesting with regard to the role of catena type XXII as a transmitter of Hexaplaric readings is that of the source from which it took those readings. The importance of this topic needs to be understood in view of the fact that still many questions remain unanswered with regard to the Christian reception of the Hexapla, an issue that requires further study.105 Although unfortunately both Mercati’s and Schenker’s treatment of this question is rather brief, it does seem that the transfer of readings from a Hexaplaric source (i.e., a partial copy of the synopsis, an abbreviated edition etc.)106 into a catena compilation (i.e., catena type XXII itself, or a catena it used as a source) took place rather late. The precise nature of that transfer and of those sources, however, remains unknown.107

104 Having been offered the opportunity to consult the notes in situ 7-11 January 2013, I express my sincere gratitude to the staff of the Vatican library and to Dr. Paolo Vian in particular. He not only granted me permission to consult the notes but also pointed me into the right direction as to where to look in Mercati’s Nachlass (see n. 127) and also generously shared his description of the dossier in question (see n. 108). 105 See the observations formulated by R. CEULEMANS, Greek Christian Access to ‘the Three’, 250-600 CE, in Greek Scripture and the Rabbis, ed. T. M. LAW – A. SALVESEN, Leuven – Paris – Walpole 2012 (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology, 66), pp. 165-191, here pp. 165-167. 106 Interestingly, both Mercati and Schenker (Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, pp. 5354) suggested that this document still might have had a columnar order, just like the original Hexapla. Mercati (see fols [1v]-[2r] of section I.5 of the notes described in the Appendix below) believed this Hexaplaric source to consist of the following columns: the secunda/ / /ο / /ε / (after having rejected his own earlier suggestion, namely that the ε column would have preceded that of , cf. also n. 151). From comparison with evidence offered by other sources (such as Eusebius of Caesarea), he deduced that this Hexaplaric source was one of high quality. (On the secunda, see n. 155.) 107 Schenker believed the compiler of catena type XXII not to have taken the Hexaplaric readings directly from the Hexaplaric source in question (whichever it may have been), but from a catena (not much older than type XXII) that was available to him but does not exist today (see above). Mercati at one point even raised the suggestion that the Hexaplaric readings were inserted only after completion of the archetype of catena type XXII (see n. 69).

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APPENDIX GIOVANNI MERCATI’S NOTES ON VAT. GR. 752: SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF BAV, CARTE MERCATI 8 It is the aim of these pages to offer an introduction, if brief and superficial, to Giovanni Mercati’s research on Vat. gr. 752, in the form of a general outline of the contents of Contenitore 8 of the Carte Mercati, a collection which is held in the manuscript department of the Vatican Library and contains a part of Mercati’s legacy.108 The eighth box of this collection has been described by P. Vian as one of those whose contents pertain to the palimpsest Mediol., Ambr. O 39 sup. and more specifically to its Hexaplaric readings, which have been edited and studied by Mercati.109 Indeed, nearly all of the documents in Carte Mercati 8 relate to the Hexapla,110 but their precise nature is quite diverse, and not all of them pertain to the Ambrosian palimpsest, as was already observed by Vian:111 some of them deal with catena type XXII (especially with its Vatican witness) and with the Hexaplaric readings it transmits (i.e., in the section on Pss 77:36-82:16). It is precisely those contents that are the focus of the present appendix. The importance of Vat. gr. 752 as a source of Hexaplaric readings was recognized by G. Mercati, and he used or at least mentioned those readings on several occasions,112 while indicating at times that he was planning to publish them.113 More information on these editorial plans was offered by him in the preface and introduction to his facsimile edition (published posthumously) of the Hexaplaric readings of the above-mentioned Ambr. 108 A catalogue of this collection is being prepared by Dr. Paolo Vian (Vatican Library), who elsewhere has presented it in a general way: see P. VIAN, Carte del card. Giovanni Mercati, in Guida ai Fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca Vaticana, I: Dipartimento Manoscritti, ed. F. D’AIUTO – P. VIAN, Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 466), pp. 438-440 and ID., Carteggi del Card. Giovanni Mercati, I: 1889-1936. Introduzione, inventario e indici, Città del Vaticano 2003 (Studi e testi, 413; Cataloghi sommari e inventari dei fondi manoscritti, 7), p. xi, n. 37. 109 VIAN, Carte, p. 439. References to Mercati’s edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of this palimpsest are given below (nn. 114 and 118). 110 Illustrative is the mention of the word “Esapla”, written in capital letters on a small piece of paper that is the very first item in the box and indicates the nature of its general contents. 111 See n. 108. 112 E.g. MERCATI, Alla ricerca, pp. 79, n. 2 and 107, nn. 1-2; ID., Frammenti di Aquila o di Simmaco?, in Revue biblique 8 (1911), pp. 266-272 [reprinted in his Opere minori, III: (19071916), Città del Vaticano 1937 (Studi e testi, 78), pp. 296-303], here p. 267 [= p. 298]. 113 E.g. MERCATI, Osservazioni a proemi, p. 162. See also the following note.

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O 39 sup.:114 he described that the edition of the Milan palimpsest was designed to be accompanied by one of the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII115 and of those of yet another catena on the Psalms, BAV, Ott. gr. 398116 — in fact, the evidence from some other manuscripts was also planned to be included, as the description below specifies. More concrete information on this editorial project was offered by G. Castellino in a note which precedes the posthumous edition of Ambr. O 39 sup.:117 the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings in the Milan palimpsest,118 which Mercati characterized as ‘direct tradition’ (i.e., of the Psalms as they were included in the Hexapla), make out the first of what was conceived by Mercati to be three parts of Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae, the second and third part having been planned to contain respectively an edition of the Hexaplaric readings transmitted in Vat. gr. 752, Ott. gr. 398 and some other manuscripts (part 2, treating the ‘indirect tradition’), and a volume of indices (part 3). These other parts never appeared in print,119 but the Hexaplaric 114 See Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae cura et studio I. MERCATI (†) editae, I: Codex rescriptus Bybliothecae Ambrosianae O 39 Sup. phototypice expressus et transcriptus, Città del Vaticano 1958 (Codices ex ecclesiasticis Italiae bybliothecis delecti phototypice expressi, 8), pp. [IX] and XXI. Mercati had first announced his discovery of the Hexaplaric readings in the Milan palimpsest in the article D’un palimpsesto Ambrosiano contenente i Salmi esapli e di un’antica versione Latina del commentario perduto di Teodoro di Mopsuestia al Salterio, in Atti del Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino 31 (1896), pp. 655-676 [reprinted in his Opere minori, I: (1891-1897), Città del Vaticano 1937 (Studi e testi, 76), pp. 318-338]. In this manuscript, the Hexaplaric readings are inserted into a catena on the Psalms, which after Mercati was studied by amongst others MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, pp. 25-26 and DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 132. See also CPG C 18(2). 115 More than in the publications mentioned in nn. 112 and 113 (in which Mercati more or less limited his observations to Vat. gr. 752), Canon. gr. 62 was now included in the publishing plans. 116 The catena of Ott. gr. 398 was labeled type IV by KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 28-29. For more recent analyses of the catena (= CPG C 16), see DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 262-297, and MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, pp. 25 and 63-64. In a section on Pss 24-32, the compilation contains many readings of , , , ε and which makes it an important Hexaplaric witness. This fact was known before Mercati (as those readings had been already edited by Holmes – Parsons and by Field, cf. nn. 93 and 101), but he nonetheless mentioned it on several later occasions (e.g. D’un palimpsesto, p. 662 [= p. 324] and Alla ricerca, p. 107, n. 1). See also below, n. 119. 117 MERCATI, Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae, Codex, I, p. [X]. 118 For the edition: see n. 114. The notes have appeared as Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae cura et studio I. MERCATI (†) editae, I: «Osservazioni». Commento critico al testo dei frammenti esaplari, Città del Vaticano 1965 (Codices ex ecclesiasticis Italiae bybliothecis delecti phototypice expressi, 8). 119 It should be mentioned, though, that in Mercati’s examination of the Milan palimpsest (published in the volume referred to in the previous note), the evidence from Vat. gr. 752 is mentioned several times. Even more attention was paid to the readings from Ott. gr. 398,

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readings of catena type XXII and of Ott. gr. 398 have later been edited and studied by A. Schenker.120 The third part has never been published at all.121 Moving on to Mercati’s study of Vat. gr. 752 and catena type XXII, it is useful to point out that his publications show that his interest in this catena was limited to its role as a transmitter of Hexaplaric readings. He did adduce its evidence in his search for fragments from the commentaries on the Psalms by John Chrysostom and other authors122 and he in fact was the one who identified it as a witness to the almost complete text of the Hesychius Antonelli,123 but such research,124 in which Vat. gr. 752 was often reduced to a mention in a footnote or in a critical apparatus, was not his main interest. His reasons for turning so often to Vat. gr. 752 were undoubtedly the Hexaplaric readings it transmits. This very picture also emerges from the unpublished notes that are outlined below: Mercati did not elaborate on the questions that are treated in the main part of the present article (such as those of the origins of catena type XXII, its sources etc.), but only focused on the Hexaplaric content.125 Although Mercati himself was not able to publish his edition of the which — unlike that from catena type XXII — partly cover the same Psalms as the Milan palimpsest does (see also pp. XXI-XXII of the edition mentioned at n. 114). 120 See n. 41 and A. SCHENKER, Psalmen in den Hexapla. Erste kritische und vollständige Ausgabe der hexaplarischen Fragmente auf dem Rande der Handschrift Ottobonianus graecus 398 zu den Ps 24-32, Città del Vaticano 1982 (Studi e testi, 295). In the latter edition (pp. 2325), just as in that of the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII, Schenker explicitly positioned himself as following in Mercati’s footsteps (compare above, n. 103). 121 Detailed indices to the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII and Ott. gr. 398 are provided by Schenker in the volumes mentioned in the previous note. A complete index to Ambr. O 39 sup., however, has never been published. Partial ones can be found, but none of them deals exclusively with that manuscript and none of them covers all of its evidence: E. HATCH (†) – H. A. REDPATH assisted by other scholars, A Concordance to the Septuagint and the Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament (Including the Apocryphal Books), III: Supplement, Oxford 1906 [various reprints], pp. 199-216; J. REIDER (†) – N. TURNER, An Index to Aquila. Greek-Hebrew, Hebrew-Greek, Latin-Hebrew, With the Syriac and Armenian Evidence, Leiden 1966 (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 12); J. R. BUSTO SAIZ, La traducción de Símaco en el libro de los Salmos, Madrid 1978 (Textos y Estudios “Cardenal Cisneros”, 22), pp. 457-756. 122 See above, nn. 81-83. 123 See above, n. 84. In view of what will be said below, it is worthwhile to recall that the Hesychius Antonelli was not a text that was of primary concern to Mercati: he was more interested in Hesychius’s Commentarius magnus on the Psalms, which he once planned to edit critically (see DEVREESSE, La chaîne, p. 505, n. 1). 124 Another example that deserves being mentioned as it stands in relation to catena type XXII is Mercati’s treatment of Scorial. .1.2, a manuscript which often tended to be connected (also by Mercati himself: see our n. 14) to catena type XXII, published in his Osservazioni a proemi, pp. 156-162. 125 I.e., the Hexaplaric readings that are offered in the section of the catena on Pss 77:36-

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Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII in the second part of his Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae, he did prepare this edition in the form of a dossier of handwritten notes (mentioned by Castellino):126 it is precisely this dossier, which also includes the evidence from Ott. gr. 398 and some other manuscripts, that can be found in the Carte Mercati 8.127 It shows that the redaction of that “Parte II” was very much advanced in terms of content,128 but that it was in need of extensive revision. Nevertheless, it does give one a highly interesting picture of how the second part, as it was envisaged by Mercati, would have looked like, with the evidence from catena type XXII being accompanied by that from Ott. gr. 398 and a few other manuscripts which offer textual fragments that are of pertinence to the Hexapla’s indirect tradition (i.e., Mediol., Ambr. B 106 sup; Vat. gr. 1747; and to a certain extent also BAV, Barb. gr. 549 (V.45), although it does not relate to the Psalms). This information can be deduced from the second of three main sections that can be distinguished within the dossier (see below).129 With regard to Vat. gr. 752, especially the first two sections of the Carte Mercati 8 are of relevance. The first of them deals with the Hexaplaric readings of this manuscript in themselves and can be identified as Mercati’s preparatory notes, a first draft of what was designed to be the part on those readings of the above-mentioned Parte II volume, and which can be found in the second section of the Carte Mercati 8.130 In that section (which is also mentioned in our previous paragraph), the revised and expanded notes on the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII are combined with those on Ott. gr. 398 and the other above-mentioned manuscripts.131 When one 82:16. Throughout his notes (see below), Mercati often included verse 30 of Ps 77 into this section: compare with our n. 59. 126 See n. 117. In the editorial note that precedes MERCATI, Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae, «Osservazioni», I (see p. VIII), Castellino mentioned that Mercati’s manuscript dossier was left unfinished and unrevised. The outline below confirms this description. 127 I owe the identification of this box as the one that contains the notes on Vat. gr. 752 to P. Vian (cf. nn. 104 and 108). 128 This does not show from the description of the dossier offered by Schenker (see n. 135). 129 There is also a fourth such section, but it does not relate to the “Parte II” of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae. 130 In a comparable fashion, preparatory notes on Canon. gr. 62 can be found in the third section. In the second (and final) version, the evidence of both witnesses of catena type XXII is included. 131 From the general set-up of the dossier and from the outline given by Mercati in document II.2 (see below), one can deduce that the Parte II of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae was supposed to consist of four main sections, the first of which would treat the evidence from MS Ambr. B 106 sup. (pertaining to the title of the Psalter), the second that from Vat. gr. 1747 (Ps 1:1-2), the third that from Ott. gr. 398 (Pss 24-32), and the fourth that from catena type

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compares it with the first sections, it becomes clear that the notes that are outlined below are the fruit of research that spans a long period of time,132 and that within that research an evolution can be identified: the evidence from Canon. gr. 62, for example, was only added at a later stage (see sections I.6, II.7 and III.1). What follows is a concise outline of the notes in Carte Mercati 8 that deal in one way or the other with Vat. gr. 752.133 The description limits itself to indicating the general contours of the notes, and does not aim to reproduce their exact contents.134 Moreover, comments on the connection between different sections of notes or on their chronology are kept to a strict minimum. In other words, the description has many limitations, and does not replace the forthcoming catalogue description by Vian of the Carte Mercati collection (cf. n. 108). Nevertheless, it should improve upon the only other published overview of the dossier in question, from the hand of Schenker, who only mentions parts of the first and third sections, while ignoring the most pertinent second section.135 The description below elaborates on the summary kindly communicated by Vian (see n. 104), from which I copied the general outline. Since the contents of the Carte Mercati 8 are unbound, the order in which the items are described and identifications such as those of the recto/verso sides of folia are relative and only reflect the contents of the dossier at the time of XXII (Pss 77:30.36-82:16). This structure explains the numbering that is cited by Mercati in the titles of sections II.3-4, II.8-11 and III of the Carte Mercati 8 (see below). 132 Already in 1914 did Rahlfs (Verzeichnis, p. 255) mention Mercati’s preparations for a critical edition of the Hexaplaric readings of Vat. gr. 752. A reference in Mercati’s dossier itself (in section II.11, see below) to precise page numbers of the monograph Alla ricerca he had published in 1952 (see the reference in n. 81) shows that some of the notes were redacted after that date. From the very precise nature of the references to “Parte I”, which one can find dispersed throughout the notes, one can deduce that his edition of and notes on the Ambr. O 39 sup. had already reached a quasi-definitive form at the time of redaction of the notes that are discussed here. 133 As said above, not all of the contents of Contenitore 8 pertain to Vat. gr. 752. A fuller description is being prepared by Vian (see n. 108). 134 Some information of such kind is brought to the fore in the course of the main section of the present article. 135 In his Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2, Schenker mentioned that upon completion of his own study of catena type XXII, he went through the “Nachlaß Mercati” and that he consulted the notes that pertain to the said catena: undoubtedly, this refers to the Carte Mercati 8. Schenker’s brief description of the material, however, shows that he overlooked most of the notes on Vat. gr. 752, including the most important and most advanced section (i.e., section II): in fact, Mercati’s work on this manuscript was much more advanced than Schenker’s description gives to show. In his edition of the Hexaplaric readings of Ott. gr. 398, Schenker did not again refer to Mercati’s unpublished notes, although he did mention the Cardinal’s intention to edit those readings (see n. 120).

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consultation.136 Unless indicated otherwise, all the notes that are described are from the hand of Mercati and are written in Italian.137 The numbering that is used is my own convention and is only imposed upon the dossier for ease of cross-reference. I. A dossier on catena type XXII.138 As said before, it can be identified as a collection of preliminary notes and a rough draft of a part of the dossier that follows (see section II). It consists of several items that are held together in a single file (= a large envelope opened at two sides), bearing the title “Vg. 752 / 77 rest[itutus] / copie, prove, fotografie”. This envelope only contains a bifolium (= a large envelope opened at three sides), which again is used as a file. On the back, one reads “Fragm. hexapl. in / e cod. Vat. gr. 752”.139 The front features the title “Exc. hex. / Vatic. gr. 752 (e Canonic. 62) / 77-82”, followed by a brief remark on the sigla of the Hexaplaric versions and of the patristic excerpts in the catena of Vat. gr. 752. This file contains the following items: I.1 A smaller, empty envelope. On the back Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 are mentioned. I.2 A folium (no page numbers) written only on the recto.140 It contains notes on the contents of fols 1r-19r of Vat. gr. 752, including partial transcriptions and identification of fragments, observations on their mise-enpage, references to secondary literature (such as that by Karo and Lietzmann and by Rahlfs mentioned in our nn. 8 and 132) etc. I.3 Two smaller folia (no page numbers): of each of them only the recto is written. The content of both pages is very similar, the second page being a revised version of the first one, which is a rough draft. The text offers an explanation of the system that is used for the transcription of the Hexaplaric readings of Vat. gr. 752 (see below, section I.6), in particular with regard to the course of action that is taken when faced with consecutive readings of the same Bible version that belong together but are presented separately in the manuscript. 136

See n. 104. I use italics to identify transcriptions. All underscoring and deletion in the citations is Mercati’s. I do not always indicate line breaks and do not mention whether notes are written in ink or in pencil. 138 It is preceded by some unbound bifolia which contain notes that disparately treat individual Hexaplaric readings on a selection of Psalms (33-43, 49-87, 89-132 and 134-143) and which do not pertain to Vat. gr. 752 or Canon. gr. 62. 139 Followed by two brief remarks that do not pertain to Vat. gr. 752. 140 This is the first page of the “Beobachtungen zur Handschrift Vaticanus gr. 752 und zu einzelnen ihrer Folien im allgemeinen” mentioned by SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2, in what he called a first series of notes. 137

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I.4 A bifolium (no page numbers), which is blank except for fol. [2r],141 which contains the citation of some Hexaplaric readings of Pss 109, 118 and 127 that are offered in the catena of Vat. gr. 752 but outside of the section that contains most of such readings (i.e., Pss 77:36-82:16).142 I.5 A bifolium (no page numbers), which is completely written. The text on fol. [1r] continues on fol. [2v].143 Topics that are treated (each of them in a very succinct way) are: the miniatures of Vat. gr. 752; the page disposition of the catena; the patristic authors to whom excerpts are attributed in the catena; the citation (sometimes accompanied by a reference to editions — such as that of n. 101 — or other manuscripts, such as Paris. Coisl. 48) of a few Hexaplaric readings (on Pss 115; 118; 235; etc.) that are quoted in some patristic fragments in the catena (outside of the section of the catena that contains most of such readings, i.e.: Pss 77:36-82:16).144 Fols [1v]-[2r] form a unit of their own and only treat the ‘Hexaplaric section’ of Vat. gr. 752 (i.e., Pss 77:36-82:16).145 Topics that are treated include: the position in the manuscript of the sigla of the Hexaplaric readings (and how these were dealt with by Mercati in his transcription and edition); the columnar order he believed the source of the readings to have had; the quality of the readings; the nature of the Septuagint text in the manuscript (and how it was dealt with by him). These folios in other words combine general observations on the Hexaplaric section of Vat. gr. 752 with an elucidation of their treatment by Mercati in his transcription and edition of the readings (see the following three sections, especially I.8).146 MS Canon. gr. 62 is not mentioned. I.6 A collection (unbound) of folia and bifolia. Of each folium — whether a separate one or part of a bifolium —, only the recto is written: 141 This is the second page of the “Beobachtungen zur Handschrift Vaticanus gr. 752 und zu einzelnen ihrer Folien im allgemeinen” mentioned by Schenker (ibid., p. 6, n. 2) in what he called a first series of notes. 142 Mercati used the evidence of Vat. gr. 752 for a similar goal in his book Alla ricerca, pp. 47-146 (passim). 143 These are the third and fourth page of the “Beobachtungen zur Handschrift Vaticanus gr. 752 und zu einzelnen ihrer Folien im allgemeinen” mentioned by Schenker (Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2) in what he called a first series of notes. 144 Compare with section I.4 and our n. 142. 145 These two pages are the “Beobachtungen […] zu den Fragmenten im besonderen” mentioned by Schenker (Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2) in what he called a first series of notes. 146 In explaining his methods, Mercati more than once referred to his work on the “Ambros.” or the “palinsesto ambros.”, i.e., his edition of Ambr. O 39 sup, with indication of particular pages of his manuscript of “parte I”, which would eventually be published posthumously (see the references in nn. 114 and 118).

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this adds up to a total of 11 numbered pages.147 They contain a complete transcription of the Hexaplaric readings of Pss 77:30.36-82:16 as they are found in Vat. gr. 752. For each (group of) readings, Mercati also counted the exegetical excerpts that follow in the catena. Occasionally, brief comments are inserted (e.g. comparison with the evidence published by Field, see n. 101) but they are few in number and very short. At a later stage (i.e., after the completion of sections I.7 [= edition] and I.8 [= reconstruction]), Mercati collated in this document (with red pencil) the evidence from Canon. gr. 62 against the transcription of Vat. gr. 752 (compare below: section II.7). I.7 Three bifolia (unbound): all eight pages of the first two bifolia are written; the third bifolium is blank except for the recto and verso of the first folium. This adds up to a total of 10 unnumbered pages.148 This section, as well as the following one (I.8), follow chronologically after the previous one, and they also witness to a progress from transcription (cf. I.6) towards edition (i.e.: of the Hexaplaric readings of Vat. gr. 752; the evidence from Canon. gr. 62 is not included). Notes are far more numerous, detailed and less sloppy than those in section I.6. Precise identifications (with references to the relevant PG editions) are offered for the patristic fragments (mostly of the Hesychius Antonelli and Eusebius of Caesarea) that follow the Hexaplaric readings in the catena. This edition is a preliminary one: Mercati did not complete it, having abandoned its redaction for the benefit of the completion of section II. This explains why it is unfinished: only the readings from Pss 77:30-66 and 80:8-16 are included. I.8 Four unbound quires that each consist of a different number of bifolia. Of each bifolium, only the inside pages (i.e., fols [1v]-[2r]) are written: this adds up to a total of 40 (unnumbered) pages.149 These quires, which certainly postdate section I.6, contain a reconstruction of the synoptical form (i.e., in columns) of the Hexaplaric readings of Pss 80:8-16 (quire 1); 81:1-8 (quire 2); 82:1-16 (quire 3); 77:30.36-66 (quire 4).150 Only the evidence from Vat. gr. 752 is included, not that from Canon. gr. 62. With blue 147 These are the pages that Schenker (Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2) characterized as “eine vollständige […] Abschrift der Fragmente” in what he called a second series of notes. 148 These are the pages that Schenker (ibid., p. 6, n. 2) characterized as “eine teilweise Abschrift der Fragmente” in what he called a second series of notes. 149 These are what Schenker (ibid., p. 6, n. 2) characterized as an “Abschrift der Fragmente in Kolumnenform” in what he called a third series of notes. 150 The order in which the quires can be found is not the chronological one in which they were redacted: the quire on 77:30.36-66 was written first. No quire(s) on Pss 78-79 can be found. Either they are lost, or these Psalms were not treated by Mercati, who did not complete the reconstruction offered in this section (see below).

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pencil, the number of the respective Psalm is written in the upper margin of the first page of each quire (except for quire 4), sometimes accompanied by the abbreviation “rest[itutus]”. Inasmuch as he deemed possible, Mercati combined the Hexaplaric readings in order to have them form longer units, arranging them in columns in order to reconstruct the synoptical form he believed the Hexaplaric source of Vat. gr. 752 to have had.151 Information on the methodology behind this reconstruction is offered in the notes on fols [1v]-[2r] of section I.5. In the quire treating Ps 77:30.36-66, rather detailed notes can be found in which other manuscript and patristic witnesses (the evidence from which was taken mainly from the edition mentioned in n. 101) are listed for the Hexaplaric readings in question. To a certain extent, these notes (written in Latin) also functioned as a critical apparatus to the reconstructed Hexaplaric columns: the evidence from Vat. gr. 752, although being the starting point for the reconstruction, was occasionally ignored to the advantage of other witnesses. From the fact that other quires lack such detailed notes and are in general less complete than the folia on Ps 77:30.36-66, one can deduce that Mercati did not continue the detailed redaction after having completed the quire on that Psalm. It appears that, as was also the case for section I.7, Mercati abandoned the redaction of these notes to the benefit of his completion of section II. II. A huge dossier on the Hexapla that is held together by a piece of cardboard that is used as a file and on which the title “Esapl. Parte II (Trad. indiretta)” is written. This entire file is nothing else than the unpublished, most advanced draft (and preparatory notes) of the edition Mercati planned to publish as the part on the indirect tradition (= part 2) of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae (see above).152 This dossier clearly shows of which parts this edition was designed to consist, one of them being devoted to the Hexaplaric evidence of catena type XXII. This section II consists of different dossiers: II.1 A few scattered and sloppy notes with among them a small piece of paper (unnumbered) that only contains what appears to have been the title of part 2 of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae: “Parte II / Frammenti di tradizione indiretta”. 151 I.e., sec./ / /ο / /ε / . On the outer bifolium of the fourth quire (i.e., on Ps 77:30.3639), Mercati put the column of ε before that of ’, but he immediately abandoned this sequence from the second bifolium (i.e. Ps 77:40) onwards. This corresponds to the change of mind articulated on fols [1v]-[2r] of section I.5 (compare our n. 106). 152 References to “Parte I” (= the edition of Ambr. O 39 sup. [see nn. 114 and 118], which represents the direct tradition of the Psalms as they were found in the Hexapla) are manifold in this dossier. Cf. our n. 146.

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II.2 Two folia of which the rectos are written (no page numbers). These pages contain draft versions of what appears to should have become the general foreword to part 2 of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae. II.3 Some photos of fol. 7r-v of Ambr. B 106 sup., accompanied by four large folia of which the rectos are written and numbered 1-4. These pages contain (a) an edition of the Hexaplaric content of the manuscript pages in question153 and (b) a commentary on this text. The commentary (a running text with footnotes) is in an advanced stage of redaction. The entire document is entitled “I. Il titolo di un Salterio Esaplo, dal codice Ambrosiano B 106 sup.”.154 II.4 A photo of fol. IIv of Vat. gr. 1747, accompanied by five folia of uneven size of which the rectos are written (no page numbers). These pages contain (a) an edition of the Hexaplaric content of the manuscript page in question155 and (b) a commentary on this text. The commentary (a running text with footnotes) is in a less advanced stage of redaction than that of section II.3. The document is entitled “II. Salmi I,1-21 e CXI(CXII),1: l’ebraico in lettere greche con la versione dei LXX, dal Vat gr. 1747”.156 II.5 An abridged version, written in Latin on six numbered pages (= three folia of which both sides are written), of the editions and commentaries of sections II.3 and II.4. It is accompanied by some earlier drafts of the notes on Vat. gr. 1747.

153 This manuscript is a catena on the Psalms, which was labeled type XIV by KARO – LIETZMANN (pp. 42-43). For further discussion on the catena (= CPG C 27), see MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, p. 31 (and pp. 77-78 and 103-104) and DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 440-492. On the basis of this codex (and another one), Mercati edited the prologue to Hesychius of Jerusalem’s longest of three commentaries on the Psalms: see his Note, pp. 152-168. Its importance as a Hexaplaric witness lies in its preservation of some materials that are independent from the catena (and are therefore not preserved in its other manuscript witnesses), i.e.: different versions of the title of the book of Psalms that are arranged in columns, as they are believed to have been present in the Hexapla, as well as some comments that appear to have been taken from the prolegomena to the Hexapla. This evidence had already been discussed by Mercati in his article D’un palimpsesto, pp. 663-666 [= pp. 325-328] and in his Note, pp. 32-34 (chapter on D’alcuni frammenti esaplari sulla Va e VIa edizione greca della Bibbia, pp. 28-46). 154 On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131. 155 This manuscript witnesses to the same catena on the Psalms as the one mentioned in n. 153. One of the flyleaves that precede the catena contains next to the Greek text of Ps 1:1-2 a transliteration of the Hebrew text in Greek characters, which brings to mind the second column of the Hexapla (i.e., the so-called secunda): see G. MERCATI, Nuove note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica, Città del Vaticano 1941 (Studi e testi, 95), p. 157. In the volume mentioned in n. 118, Mercati had already explored the evidence (passim). For a brief introduction to the secunda, see FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS, The Septuagint, pp. 215-220. 156 On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131.

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II.6 Several items (held together with a paperclip), among which one finds:157 ( ) a page on the verso of which158 notes can be found on various catenae on the Psalms that contain Hexaplaric readings and which Mercati investigated in the course of time, such as “Ambr[osianus]” (i.e., Ambr. O 39 sup.), “264” (i.e., Ott. gr. 398),159 and “Vat 752 + Canon 62”.160 Frequent mention is also made of John Chrysostom, and more specifically of the attributions of Hexaplaric readings cited by him in his exegesis of the Psalter.161 Scattered amongst the notes on the Hexaplaric data, Mercati jotted down remarks to remind himself of inclusions or updates to be made in his manuscript of the edition of “P[arte] I” and “P[arte] II” (i.e., of his edition of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae), with regard to the link between Ambr. O 39 sup. and the other codices in question. Most of the remarks on Vat. gr. 752 (some of which also mention Canon. gr. 62) pertain to the presence/ absence of the sigla of the Hexaplaric readings that can be found in the catena.162 ( ) A bifolium (= a large envelope opened at three sides), which is used as a file (no page numbers). It is blank, except for fols [1r] and [2v], which contain a bulleted list entitled “Introd. Parte ultima”, which gathers some reminders of Mercati to himself on how to structure the publication (i.e., of the second part of his edition of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae) and on how to redact the indices. No relevant information on Vat. gr. 752 is given. ( ) A bifolium (= a folium which is folded up), which is the only item that can be found in the file described in II.6( ) and which lacks page numbers. On fols [1r] and [2v], it contains a bulleted list (no title), which gathers some reminders of Mercati to himself on how he had proceeded in a 157 The description of this section is not comprehensive: only contents that are of interest to the topic at hand are mentioned. I also add that in between sections II.5 and II.6, a collection of some notes can be found, which appear to have been jotted down rather hastily and which either are of less importance or are in keeping with the contents of the previous sections. 158 The recto contains notes (not belonging to this dossier) on the Septuagint and Hexaplaric versions. 159 The number “264” refers to the siglum assigned to Ott. gr. 398 in HOLMES – PARSONS, Vetus Testamentum, III (no page numbers) and which was adopted by Rahlfs in his standard catalogue of Septuagint manuscripts (see the reference in n. 84). Also in other publications (e.g. those mentioned in nn. 14 and 81), Mercati tended to use the siglum 264 to refer to Ott. gr. 398. 160 Other manuscripts that are included are Vat. gr. 754 and Veron. CXVIII (olim 108). 161 Such observations fit in with the topic treated more extensively by Mercati in his Alla ricerca, in which Vat. gr. 752 is mentioned several times (see our nn. 83 and 142). 162 Occasionally, parallels are drawn with the evidence of Chrysostom that Mercati investigated in the publication mentioned in n. 83.

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previous publication (i.e., the first part of his edition of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae, see nn. 114 and 118) with regard to the use of capitals, the lay-out in different columns etc. No relevant information on Vat. gr. 752 is given. II.7 A folium (once the back of an envelope), of which only the recto is written (no page number). It is entitled “Vg. 752 / Ps. 77” and contains references to secondary literature (especially on the catena of Vat. gr. 752 and its illustrations)163; reminders of Mercati to himself on how to structure his publication of the Hexaplaric readings of catena type XXII; and a note that explains that the evidence from Canon. gr. 62 is collated against that from Vat. gr. 752 in section I.6 (see there). II.8 A small dossier that contains amongst other items two photos of Barb. gr. 549, which are accompanied by a series of shorter notes in which a [i.e., this] Barberini manuscript and Vat. gr. 1747 are mentioned briefly.164 These items are kept together in a small envelope, which is used as a file and carries the title “Tavole da aggiungere / alla II parte / o all’introd. dove si parla degli Esapli / accorciati sopprimendo colonne di versioni”. This small envelope itself is the only content of a bigger envelope, which is entitled “tit. ps. et 1,1-2”.165 II.9 A file with many notes on Ott. gr. 398 as well as a photo of fol. 49v of this manuscript. In the middle of the collection of notes, one comes across the title “III. Ai Salmi XXIV-XXXII i certe lezioni dei nuovi traduttori dall’Ottoboniano gr. 398, Holmesiano 264”.166 The notes are in an advanced stage of redaction and are intended for publication (i.e., in the second part of the Psalterii Hexapla reliquiae). II.10 The file of section II.9 is followed by several other ones, the con163 These references include the publications by Rahlfs and Mariès mentioned in our nn. 132 and 80 and other ones, such as DE WALD. 164 The inclusion of the evidence from Barb. gr. 549, which is not a Psalter manuscript but offers a catena and patristic commentaries on the Dodekapropheton and parts of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, can be explained by its importance as a Hexaplaric witness: the photos that are included in the dossier are of fol. 17v (containing different versions Hos 11:1 in a columnar set-up that corresponds to that of the Hexapla) and of fol. 94v (containing a marginal note that cites a transcription of the Hebrew text of Mal 2:13 in Greek characters). In this regard, it relates to the testimony of Ambr. B 106 sup and Vat. gr. 1747 (see sections II.3 and II.4). Elsewhere, too, Mercati had already explored the Hexaplaric evidence from Barb. gr. 549, for example in his D’un palimpsesto, pp. 658-659 and 660-661 [= pp. 321 and 323]. See also MERCATI, Frammenti di Aquila, p. 269, n. 4 [= p. 300, n. 1]; and ID., Nuove note, p. 157. Also in his Psalterii Hexapli Reliquiae, «Osservazioni», I, he had included the evidence (see p. XIII). 165 At a later moment, this title was underlined (with pencil) and supplemented with the note “II.1” in the upper left corner of the envelope. This numbering appears incorrect: see our n. 131. 166 On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131.

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tents of which also pertain to Ott. gr. 398: each of these files (on Ps 26; on Pss 27-28; on Ps 29; on Pss 29-30; on Ps 31; and on Ps 32) contains ca. 10-15 pages of notes on the Hexaplaric readings of the respective Psalms that can be found in Ott. gr. 398. The cover page of the first file features the title “Parte II.3”.167 Being in an advanced stage of redaction (running text with footnotes, precise references to secondary literature etc.), these notes are intended for publication (i.e., in the second part of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae). In that regard, they closely resemble those on Vat. gr. 752 of the following section. II.11 A huge dossier on the Hexaplaric readings in the catena of Vat. gr. 752. It consists of different items that are not kept in a single file but just follow one after the other, the first item being preceded by a flyleaf (once the back of an envelope), which carries the title “Vat. gr. -752- / Ps. 77 – Ps. 82 / Parte II. / IV”.168 This dossier clearly builds upon and replaces that on Vat. gr. 752 described in section I. It consists of the following items: ( ) Two very long folia (each of which consists of several folia that are glued together one under the other): of both of them, the recto is written (no page numbers). Together, both pages form a running text (with a few footnotes), which is entitled “IV. Salm. LXXVII,30 – LXXXII: Varianti dei nuovi traduttori dal Vat. gr. 752”.169 The text opens with some brief notes on Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62, some references to relevant secondary literature170 and mention (with reference to the samples listed by Karo and Lietzmann)171 of the important role of the Hesychius Antonelli in the catena. These remarks on the catena in general and its manuscript witnesses are followed by others on the specific section on Pss 77:30.36-82:16. These notes include some observations on the position of the Hexaplaric readings in that section, and (somewhat more extensively) some examples of and comments on the differences between Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62 in this regard. Mention is also made of Scorial. .1.2. This text is in an advanced stage of redaction and is clearly intended to be published (i.e., in the second part of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae) as an introduction to the edition that follows, which is presented as a copy of the Hexaplaric readings of Pss 77:30-82 in Vat. gr. 752, with the evidence of Canon. gr. 62 having been used where the Vatican manuscript is too abbreviated. 167

On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131. The latter number means as much as “Parte II.4”, which is written in the margin: compare with our n. 131. 169 On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131. 170 To a large extent, these references overlap with those given in section II.7 (see our n. 163). 171 Compare with the opening pages of the present article (and n. 8). 168

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( ) A folium (once the front of a large envelope) that is used as a flyleaf for the items that follow. The verso is blank, but the recto features the title “Vat. gr. 752 / Ps. 77”. What follows are 41 folia of different size; of each of them, the recto is written. These pages, numbered 1-41, contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of Ps 77:30.36-66 in catena type XXII (accessed through both Vat. gr. 752 and Canon. gr. 62). The comments (which form a running text) pertain only to the Hexaplaric readings, and not to the catena itself (i.e., its patristic excerpts, its structure etc.).172 These pages are in a very advanced stage of redaction, containing precise references to secondary literature, very extensive footnotes etc. Without any doubt, they represent a further step towards publication than the dossier I.6-8. In fact, they appear to be the final version, ready to be published in the second part of the edition of the Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae and equal in level of detail to the notes that can be found in the volume mentioned at n. 118. ( ) A bifolium (i.e., a large envelope opened at three sides; no page numbers), which carries the title “ 78” on fol. [1r] as well as on fol. [1v]. Inside the bifolium (used as a file) there are 19 folia of different size; of each of them, the recto is written. These pages, numbered 1-17 (with p. 7 being followed by 7bis and with two pages having the number 12), contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of Ps 78:1-13 in catena type XXII. They fit the description given for the contents of section II.11( ). ( ) An envelope opened at one side and used as a file. Onto the top edge of the front side, a small piece of paper is stapled, which carries the title “Parte II) – IV fr. Salmi 77-82 / dal Vat. 752”. This envelope contains: — A bifolium (i.e., an envelope opened at three sides; no page numbers), which is used as a file. On fols [1v] and [2r] respectively, the titles “752 Ps 79” and “752 S. 79” are written. The bifolium contains 12 pages of notes (numbered 1-11), i.e.: the rectos of 11 folia and the verso of the seventh folium (numbered 7bis). They contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of Ps 79:5-20 in the type XXII catena. They fit the description given for the contents of section II.11( ). — A bifolium (i.e., an envelope opened at three sides; no page numbers), which is used as a file. On fol. [1v] as well as on fol. [2r], the title “752 80” is written. The bifolium contains 11 folia of different size; of each of them, the recto is written. These pages (numbered 1-10, with p. 7 being followed by p. 7bis) contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of 172 When

a patristic fragment is in fact identified or when the link between such a fragment and the Hexaplaric readings is commented upon, this is always done in function of the discussion of those readings.

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Ps 80:8-16 in the type XXII catena. They fit the description given for the contents of section II.11( ). — An envelope opened at one side and used as a file. The front bears the title “Vg. 752 81”, the back “752 S. 81”. The envelope contains 11 folia of different size; of each of them, the recto is written. These pages (numbered 1-11) contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of Ps 81:1-8 in catena type XXII. They fit the description given for the contents of section II.11( ). — A bifolium (i.e., an envelope opened at three sides; no page numbers), which is used as a file. On fols [1v] and [2r] respectively, the titles “752 82” and “752 S. 82” are written. The bifolium contains 21 folia of different size; of each of them, the recto is written. These pages (numbered 1-18, with p. 14 being followed by 14bis, 143 and 14 [sic]) contain the edition of and notes on the Hexaplaric readings of Ps 82:2-16 in catena type XXII. They fit the description given for the contents of section II.11( ). III. The huge dossier on “Esapl. Parte II (Trad. indiretta)”, consisting of our sections I-II, is followed by some documents most of which are not directly related to Vat. gr. 752: they include amongst others an envelope containing photos of Ambr. F 126 sup. (fols 304r-305v)173 and of a manuscript that is not identified but which is Scorial. .1.2 (fols 2r, 3r, 2v and 3v). In between these items, an envelope can be found, which is opened at one side and used as a file. Onto the upper left corner of the front side a small piece of paper is glued, which carries the note “Fotogr. del Canoniciano 62 ff. / (Cat. XXII KL.) col Vg. 752 / s. XII inc. Rahlfs Verz. p. 171 n° Sig. 1122”.174 Under the piece of paper, written on the envelope itself, the note 173 This manuscript contains a catena on Pss 83:4-150 (type XI, according to KARO – LIETZMANN, p. 38 = CPG C 24), which constitutes an important means of access to the ancient and valuable so-called Palestinian catena (cf. n. 61): see e.g. MÜHLENBERG, Psalmenkommentare, III, p. 29 (and pp. 205-284) and DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 125-163. The manuscript was already recognized as an important witness by Mercati himself: see the second section (L’ultima parte perduta del Commentario di Eusebio Cesariense ai Salmi) of his Alcune note di letteratura patristica, in Rendiconti del R. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, ser. II 31 (1898), pp. 1033-1052 and 1191-1229 [reprinted in his Opere minori, II, pp. 55-107], here pp. 1036-1045 [= pp. 58-66]. The focus on Eusebius of Caesarea’s commentary on the Gradual Psalms that was exhibited by Mercati in the latter publication was later continued by C. Curti: see his edition mentioned in n. 61 and articles such as Il valore dei codici Ambrosiano F 126 sup. e Patmos 215 per la riconstruzione della catena palestinese sui Salmi, in Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 10 (1974), pp. 92-111 [reprinted in his Eusebiana, I. Commentarii in Psalmos, Catania 1987 (Saggi e testi classici, cristiani e medievali, 1), pp. 93-116]. 174 The number “1122” is the siglum assigned to Canon. gr. 62 by RAHLFS, Verzeichnis, p. 171.

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continues: “mutilo: comincia Ps. 6,10; manc. 47,10-58,8[,] 118,1-6 / 134,17 / per i fr. del p. II(IV)”.175 The envelope contains two items (held together with a paperclip), which both relate to Canon. gr. 62: III.1 A collection of notes, written in a cursive hand on two small pieces of paper (no page numbers): of the first of them both sides are written, of the second only the recto. These notes are preparations for what is said on Canon. gr. 62 in section II.11( ). They contain references to secondary literature,176 brief codicological observations, some remarks on the provenance of Canon. gr. 62, on errors in this manuscript and on differences with Vat. gr. 752 etc.177 III.2 A set of photographs (b/w) of fols 81v-94r of Canon. gr. 62. IV. What follows is a collection of typewritten texts and some sloppy notes on various manuscripts: none of those relate to Vat. gr. 752 or catena type XXII. The typewritten texts include a letter (four numbered pages; sent 18 April 1941) in which the anonymous author (= Mercati) elucidates how his (then still forthcoming) edition of Ambr. O 39 sup (see n. 114) would look like; and a text entitled “Die neu aufgefundenen hebräischen Handschriften und ihre Bedeutung für die Bibelwissenschaft von Paul Kahle. ‘Franz Delitzsch Vorlesungen’”. The contents of the latter document and the stress that is put in the letter on the column of the Milan palimpsest that corresponds to the secunda of the Hexapla, invite the assumption that the addressee of the letter (who is not mentioned), was Paul Kahle.178

175

On the number mentioned in the title, see our n. 131. These references include those mentioned in our nn. 8 (Karo – Lietzmann), 9 (Coxe) and 132 (Rahlfs). 177 By lack of alternatives, one is tempted to identify the “Beobachtungen […] zu Canonicianus gr. 62” mentioned by SCHENKER (Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, p. 6, n. 2) as part of what he called a first series of notes, with the pages of this section III.1. It should be pointed out, however, that Schenker mentions four pages of notes. 178 Kahle mentioned the secunda in several publications, notably with respect to his study of the pronunciation of Hebrew in the pre-Masoretic period: see the overview of his insights and publications offered by G. JANSSENS, Studies in Hebrew Historical Linguistics Based on Origen’s Secunda, Gent – Leuven 1982 (Orientalia Gandensia, 9), pp. 13-20 as well as P. KAHLE, The Greek Bible Manuscripts used by Origen, in Journal of Biblical Literature 79 (1960), pp. 111-118. For the views of Mercati, who obviously was aware of Kahle’s insights, see G. MERCATI, Il problema della colonna II dell’Esaplo, in Biblica 28 (1947), pp. 1-30 and 173-215 [repr. in his Opere minori, IV, pp. 223-293] and ID., Psalterii Hexapli Reliquiae, «Osservazioni», I, passim. 176

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HOW MANY AUTHORS? HESYCHIUS ON THE PSALMS* This paper was initially intended as an updated overview of the entries devoted to Hesychius in the Clauis Patrum Graecorum and its Supplementum,1 peppered with comments upon his role as a source for the history of the Jerusalem liturgy.2 It would have been something of a useful but uneventful exposé, perhaps even a little bit boring, since very few recent publications have any bearing on the critical aspects of Hesychius’s oeuvre.3 However, in the course of the undertaking, the project evolved in two more exciting directions: 1) a fresh assessment of the evidence supplied by an important palimpsest manuscript now kept in Messina containing the Long Commentary on Psalms or Commentarius magnus (= CM),4 attributed * I am grateful to Barbara Crostini for her unfaltering support. I am also grateful to the Ars edendi for a grant that made my mission to Messina possible. My research there is in many ways indebted to Maria Teresa Rodriquez and the staff of the Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria. My largely solitary stay in Messina was relieved by the kindness of Daniela Gionta and Giuseppe Ucciardello, who, with their knowledge of the city, were also instrumental in negotiating a B&B near the library. Thanks are due also to (now bishop) Rosario Gisana for an unforgettable trip to Modica. Last, but not least, I recall with gratitude that Reinhart Ceulemans spared me a blunder, by pointing to Jacques Noret’s last article, which I had missed, and that Paolo Vian has shown me Cardinal Mercati’s notes on the Messina palimpsest, currently kept in the Vatican Library. 1 CPG 6550-6596. 2 For instance, Ch. RENOUX, L’église de Sion dans les Homélies sur Job d’Hésychius de Jérusalem, in Revue des études arméniennes 18 (1984), pp. 135-146. 3 Besides ERIKSSON, Scholia, mention should be made here of A. CATALDI PALAU, Un nuovo manoscritto del «Grande commento» ai Salmi di Esichio di Gerusalemme, Oxford Auct. T. II. 3, in EAD., Studies in Greek manuscripts. I-II, Spoleto 2008 (Testi, studi, strumenti, 24), pp. 157-181 [a reprint of an article already published in 1998], and NORET, Un folio. There is also an unfulfilled promise. See L. VIANÈS, Les Gloses sur Ézéchiel d’Hésychius de Jérusalem dans le Laurentianus Pluteus XI 4, in Revue des études augustiniennes 41 (1995), pp. 315-325. 4 The biblical commentaries are usually quoted according to chapter and verse; the biblical book is added for SchMP as needed. The list of abbreviations follows the volume’s standard with the following additions: FAULHABER, Hesychii: M. FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani interpretatio Isaiae prophetae, Freiburg i. Br. 1906. MS 29-MS 30: Messina, Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria, Fondo San Salvatore, Messan. gr. 29-30. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 301-327.

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to Hesychius (CPG 6554); 2) an attempt at sorting out the authenticity problems surrounding some exegetical writings attributed to Hesychius, in particular the three commentaries on the Psalms, and also their connections with the Glosses on Isaiah and on the Minor Prophets.

Part I The Messina Palimpsest The research on this manuscript has a rather long and complicated history which is worth outlining here. The Brussels-Messina Connection A Greek manuscript was acquired in 1967 by the Royal Library of Belgium.5 The history of the whereabouts of what is now Bruxellensis IV.459 is only partly known, but has some fascinating features. It emerged from darkness in 1870, when it was auctioned by none other than Sotheby’s, without any indication about its provenance.6 The purchaser was Sir Thomas Phillipps, the owner of the largest private known collection of manuscripts, wherein it received the number (Phillipps) 22 406.7 Soon after Sir Thomas’s death in 1872, the dispersal of his collection SchIs: Interpretatio Isaiae (ed. M. FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani interpretatio Isaiae prophetae, Freiburg i. Br. 1906; CPG 6559). NORET, Un folio: J. NORET, Un folio du «Grand commentaire d’Hésychius de Jérusalem sur les psaumes» conservé à Bruxelles, in Sacris Erudiri 49 (2010), pp. 243-248. NORET, Fragments palimpsestes: J. NORET, Fragments palimpsestes d’un commentaire inconnu du psaume 146, in Texte und Textkritik. Eine Aufsatzsammlung, in Zusammenarbeit mit J. IRMSCHER, F. PASCHKE und K. TREU herausgegeben von J. DUMMER, Berlin 1987 (Texte und Untersuchungen, 133), pp. 457-468. NORET, Le palimpseste grec Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy., IV. 459: J. NORET, Le palimpseste grec Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy., IV. 459, in Analecta Bollandiana 95 (1977), pp. 101-117. SchMP: Interpretatio in prophetas minores (ed. ERIKSSON, Scholia). 5 A short description of the manuscript is available in M. WITTEK, Quinze années d’acquisitions, de la pose de la première pierre à l’inauguration officielle de la Bibliothèque, Bruxelles 1969, pp. 30-33; see also M. WITTEK, Les manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier: Vingt années d’acquisitions (1954-1973), in Le monde grec: pensée, littérature, histoire, documents. Hommages à Claire Préaux, édités par J. BINGEN – G. CAMBIER – G. NACHTERGAEL, Bruxelles 1978 (Université libre de Bruxelles. Faculté de philosophie et lettres, 62), pp. 245253, here p. 247. 6 See A. N. L. MUNBY, The Formation of the Phillipps Library from 1841 to 1872, Cambridge 1956 (Phillipps studies, 4), p. 209. 7 See A. N. L. MUNBY, The Phillipps Manuscripts. Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca D. Thomae Phillipps, BT. impressum Typis Medio-Montanis 1837-1871, [S.l.] 2001, p. 417.

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began. By the end of World War II in 1945 most of the manuscripts had been sold to public libraries and private collectors.8 The Bruxellensis was acquired in 1946 with the remains of the Phillipps collection by Lionel and Philip Robinson, who were at the same time antiquarians and manuscript collectors. Sometime between 1963 and 1965, when it was still part of their collection (or shop?), the manuscript was partially described by the late Father Michel Aubineau for the first volume of the Codices Chrysostomici Graeci.9 Father Aubineau was only interested in the content attributed to John Chrysostom and, for some reason, omitted any mention of the fact — vital for our purposes — that the Bruxellensis comprised 120 palimpsested folia (out of a total of 156), later shown to have been taken from at least nine different Greek manuscripts and a Latin document. When the manuscript was already in the Royal Library of Belgium, the upper script and all of the Greek lower writings were analysed in detail in a series of articles published between 1972 and 1977 by Jacques Noret, who was interested primarily in their hagiographical content.10 Noret managed to identify almost all of the lower texts,11 showing, unexpectedly, that among them there were two additional items attributed to John Chrysostom that had not been noticed by Father Aubineau. Already in 1972 Noret connected the Brussels manuscript with Messina, as expressed in his very characteristic cautious wording: «un palimpseste composé, très probablement, à Messine».12 Later, in 1977, when he had verified that the main scribe of the upper writing was indeed the famous Daniel, monk of San Salvatore,13 this note of caution disappeared: «il est désormais sûr que c’est à Messine, au début du XIVe s., que le ms. actuel a été confectionné».14 8 See A. N. L. MUNBY, The Dispersal of the Phillipps Library, Cambridge 1960 (Phillipps studies, 5). 9 See M. AUBINEAU, Codices Chrysostomici Graeci. I: Codices Britanniae et Hiberniae, Paris 1968 (Documents, études et répertoires, 13), p. XIII. See also pp. 35-36, n° 39, for the description of the manuscript. 10 See NORET, Le palimpseste grec Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy., IV. 459. Previously the same author had described some of the lower writings of the manuscript: for instance, J. NORET, Fragments hagiographiques grecs dans le palimpseste Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy. IV. 459, in Analecta Bollandiana 90 (1972), p. 106; ID., Nouveaux fragments hagiographiques dans un palimpseste grec de Bruxelles, in Analecta Bollandiana 90 (1972), p. 390; ID., Fragments palimpsestes en onciales d’un ménologie de novembre, in Analecta Bollandiana 92 (1974), p. 386. 11 About folia 2 and 31, with still unknown content, see NORET, Le palimpseste grec Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy., IV. 459, p. 111. 12 See NORET, Fragments hagiographiques grecs… (see above, n. 10). 13 See M. B. FOTI, Daniele scriba del SS. Salvatore in lingua phari: un epigono dei traslitteratori, in Codices Manuscripti 9 (1983), pp. 128-132. 14 See NORET, Le palimpseste grec Bruxelles, Bibl. Roy., IV. 459 (see above, n. 10), p. 102.

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Decisive evidence that the manuscript in Brussels originated from Messina, more precisely in the monastery of San Salvatore, was produced by the late Maria Bianca Foti and has a story of its own. In 1974 she published an article showing that several folia of manuscript San Salvatore 6 had been detached from their original context to be used as flyleaves or to make restorations in at least eight manuscripts stored in the same library.15 Since the article by Professor Foti was published earlier than Noret’s 1977 article on the Bruxellensis, she could not possibly have reckoned among these fragments the two flyleaves, namely its folia A and 153, which had also been taken from San Salvatore 6. She repaired this gap in a further article published in 1978.16 Among the palimpsest folia of the Brussels manuscript there is a fragment belonging to an unknown commentary on Ps 146, written on one original folio subsequently cut to make two folia as reused in the later manuscript. Noret decided to publish the contents of the fragment. But his article, which in 1972 had already been handed in to the redaction of Texte und Untersuchungen as his contribution to the Festschrift for Marcel Richard, finally appeared only in 1987,17 due to the economic restrictions in what was then Eastern Germany. Given the absence of a comparable published text, Noret made no formal identification of the contents of this folio. However, it should be noted that in his edition of the fragment on Ps 146 he quotes at least four parallels with other commentaries on Psalms attributed to Hesychius either from the De titulis Psalmorum published by Antonelli18 or the Commentarius breuis published by Jagiò.19 The relevance of these comparisons should not be overestimated, since, in some cases, Hesychius’s exegesis overlaps with that of other Greek Fathers, but these parallels may be taken as hints that there might be some significant connection between the Brussels folio and Hesychius. Noret’s transcription accounts for 47 lines, but there is a gap between the two fragments. Judging from internal criteria, the gap is

15

M. B. FOTI, Contributi alla ricostruzione del codice grec 6 del fondo del Ss. Salvatore della Biblioteca Universitaria di Messina, in Atti della Accademia Peloritana, classe di Lettere, Filosofia e Belle Arti 51 (1973-74), pp. 249-259. 16 M. B. FOTI, Aggiunte alla ricostruzione del cod. gr. 6 del Fondo del SS. Salvatore della Biblioteca Universitaria di Messina, in Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti. Classe di Lettere, Filosofia e Belle Arti 54 (1978), pp. 173-177. 17 See NORET, Fragments palimpsestes (see above, n. 10). 18 TitPs = PG, 27, 649-1344. 19 CB.

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a small one, probably just a couple of lines, since there is almost perfect continuity in the biblical verses commented upon.20 In his 1987 article, Noret also supplied some precious codicological data about the two Brussels fragments, namely that they are the remains of one enormous folio that measured at least 435 × 295 mm. They were written in two columns with two different varieties of uncial script: whereas a slightly inclined uncial was used for the commentary, the biblical verses were indented on both sides and copied in an upright majuscule. Noret was perfectly aware of the difficulty of dating uncial scripts, but he surmised that the manuscript had been written in the eighth-ninth century, resorting to accepted cautious assumptions concerning majuscule writings. In another article, published in 2010, Jacques Noret took a decisive step, supplying satisfactory evidence that the lower writing of the Brussels fragment once belonged to a manuscript which had been reused to produce the so-called Menologium of Daniel, copied in 1308 in the famous monastery of San Salvatore in lingua phari in Messina.21 The manuscript has hardly travelled after its completion, since it is kept in the Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria di Messina, where it is now divided into two volumes: San Salvatore 30 and 29, numbered in reverse order with respect to of the actual sequence of their contents. A sizeable bibliography on these two Messina volumes was collected by Maria Teresa Rodriquez, but most of it has to do with the upper script, because of its hagiographical contents and its famous scribe.22 Enter Mercati A very important article devoted to the commentaries on the Psalter attributed to Hesychius was published by Giovanni Mercati in 1901,23 reporting inter alia that he had spent several months analyzing the Messina palimpsest and transcribing parts of it.24 His notes fill a rather large folder, currently stored in one of the 126 boxes of Carte Mercati, kept in the Vatican Library. However, their inventory is still in progress, and they have not been consulted for this paper.25 20

This is in agreement with the standard length of a column of the palimpsest (49 lines). See NORET, Un folio. 22 See M. T. RODRIQUEZ, Bibliografia dei manoscritti greci del Fondo del SS. Salvatore di Messina, Roma 2002 (Testi e studi bizantino-neoellenici, 12), pp. 30-40. 23 MERCATI, Il commentario. Mercati could compare only TitPs and CM, since CB was published in 1917. 24 «Ho verificato negli ultimi mesi dello scorso anno (1899) il contenuto di tutto l’enorme palinsesto (…) ne ho copiato qua e là più fogli» (MERCATI, Il commentario, p. 171). 25 See F. D’AIUTO – P. VIAN, Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Bi21

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Mercati’s remarks are as usual very important, but, as it also often happens, not fully satisfactory. For all intents and purposes, two of them are particularly disquieting, and shall be discussed later in this paper: 1) some verses of Ps 103 are commented twice in the palimpsest;26 2) some passages contained in the palimpsest are attributed to other authors in the Catena on the Psalms published by Cordier.27 A few years later, in 1907, Augusto Mancini published a systematic catalogue of the San Salvatore manuscripts, on the eve of the terrible tsunami that almost destroyed the entire city in 1908. The entries devoted to codices 30 and 29 supply precious information about the contents of individual folia, including transcriptions of several short passages of the palimpsested text.28 Further bibliography on the lower writing includes an overview of the Commentarius magnus by Robert Devreesse in 1970, with a detailed list of the remains then known on the exegesis of each individual Psalm.29 However, Devreesse voiced some skepticism about the accuracy of Mancini’s identifications and raised the hypothesis that Hesychius’s text finished with Ps 118. Thereby he questioned the authenticity of the last part of the Commentarius magnus as transmitted by the palimpsest. Paradoxically, this limitation was immediately undermined by Devreesse himself, stating that he had come across a catena fragment on Ps 145 attributed to Hesychius.30 Concerning the bibliography, little more is worth mentioning before blioteca vaticana. I: Dipartimento manoscritti; II: Dipartimento stampati – Dipartimento del Gabinetto numismatico – Uffici della Prefettura – Archivio – Addenda, elenchi e prospetti, indici, Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 466-467), I, pp. 438-440. See also, in this volume, the paper by Reinhart Ceulemans, pp. 285-300. 26 «Ai fogli 103 e 42 del cod. 29 si commenta Ps. 1033-25; ai ff. 236-237 del cod. 30 si commentano i vv. 4-17 dello stesso salmo» (MERCATI, Il commentario, p. 171, n. 2). 27 See B. CORDERIUS, Expositio patrum graecorum in Psalmos… ex vetustissimis Sac. Caes. Maiestatis & Sereniss. Bavariae ducis mss. codicibus εκ τοις concinnata; in paraphrasin, commentarium & catenam digesta; latinitate donata, & annotationibus illustrata. I. Primam Psalmorum quinquagenam continet; II. Secundam Psalmorum quinquagenam continet; III. Tertiam Psalmorum quinquagenam una cum canticis S. Scripturae continet, Antverpiae: ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1643-1646. 28 A. MANCINI, Codices graeci Monasterii Messanensis S. Salvatoris, Messina 1907, pp. 4554 (cod. 30) and 54-67 (cod. 29). See also M. T. RODRIQUEZ, Catalogo dei manoscritti datati del Fondo del SS. Salvatore, Palermo 1999 (Sicilia/Biblioteche, 50), pp. 57-68. 29 See DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, pp. 250-261. Devreesse, who died in 1978, added that most of his preparatory notes are kept in the Vatican Library (ibid., p. VII). This is confirmed by a short reference in D’AIUTO – VIAN, Guida ai fondi, I, p. 414. 30 See DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 261.

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Noret’s note of 2010, save an article by Maria Teresa Rodriquez about the palimpsests of Messina, published in 2008.31 Nevertheless, one should not fail to mention the unpublished dissertation by Robert Mennes, who, in 1971, compiled an extensive survey of the manuscript tradition of the commentaries on the Psalms circulated under Hesychius’s name,32 even if his remarks on the Messina palimpsest are rather sketchy. Last but not least, Devreesse’s list of the remains of the Commentarius magnus — which displays many gaps, some of them quite large — was dramatically supplemented in an article by Annaclara Cataldi Palau, announcing that the first half of the text, commenting Pss 1-76,33 was transmitted almost entirely in manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. T. II. 3.34 Messina Mission The previous considerations indicate that it was high time to come to grips with the actual palimpsest at Messina. This study was facilitated by a grant from Ars edendi that allowed me to make a preliminary survey of the manuscript at the Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria during the second half of September 2013. Despite being acquainted beforehand with the codicological features of San Salvatore 30-29, seeing and handling the volumes is an unforgettable experience. With its imposing size, currently of 420 × 334 mm (but its original height was at least of 455 mm), the Menologium is one of the largest Greek manuscripts in existence.35 For the sake of comparison, it 31 M. T. RODRIQUEZ, I palinsesti di Messina: indagine preliminare, in Libri palinsesti greci: conservazione, restauro digitale, studio. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Villa Mondragone – Monte Porzio Catone – Università di Roma «Tor Vergata» – Biblioteca del Monumento Nazionale di Grottaferrata, 21-24 aprile 2004, a cura di S. LUCÀ. Indici a cura di A. A. ALETTA – M. T. RODRIQUEZ, Roma 2008, pp. 201-213, here p. 210. 32 MENNES, Inventaris. 33 Incidentally, combined with NORET, Un folio, this discovery disavows Devreesse’s hypothesis that the Commentarius magnus finished somewhere before Ps 150. Indeed, as it has already been noted by Mercati, the most natural division of the Psalms (and their commentaries) into two halves is 1-76 for the first volume (around 1228 verses) and 77-150 for the second volume (around 1299 verses); see G. MERCATI, Alla ricerca dei nomi degli «altri» traduttori nelle omilie sui Salmi di S. Giovanni Crisostomo e variazioni su alcune catene del Salterio, Città del Vaticano 1952 (Studi e testi, 158), p. 150. Therefore Bodl. Auct. T. II. 3 must have had — at some point of its transmission history — a companion volume containing the commentary on Pss 77-150. Such second volume is the remote source of manuscript Roe 13. In this case CM was used to fill the last gaps in Chrysostom’s commentary on the Psalms, precisely on Pss 77-107 and, perhaps, Ps 118. 34 See CATALDI PALAU, Un nuovo manoscritto (see above, n. 3); EAD., A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts from the Meerman Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 2011, pp. 197-204. 35 See F. M. BISCHOFF – M. MANIACI, Pergamentgrösse – Handschriftenformate – Lagenkon-

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may be recalled that Vatican Library, Ott. gr. 14, clearly a deluxe copy because of its classical «bouletée» writing, its titles and illuminated initials, measures only 380 × 245 mm, having been trimmed apparently only in the lateral margins,36 or that the famous Codex Sinaiticus (London, BL, Add. MS 43 725), that was intended as a presentation copy,37 as it is clear from its very large margins, measures only 380 × 340 mm. To Noret’s description of the script, namely that the commentary is written in a slightly inclined uncial, alternating with shorter lines where the biblical verses are centred in an upright majuscule, indented by 20 mm on both sides and surrounded by «inverted commas», it should be added that the «titles» and the often barely readable marginal numbers of the Psalms are written in a reddish ink,38 and that the last line of the commentary of each Psalm was completed or followed by a serpentine with dots, which now is often almost invisible. Even if no other traces of decoration have emerged, the layout of the palimpsest is very elaborate. The two columns occupy a width of mm 119 + (29) + 119, totalling a written surface of 350 × 267 mm. Each column was planned so as to contain 49 written lines, but occasional deviations have been noted. Once Noret’s opinion about the transcription date has been dismissed as noncommittal, there are two alternatives: Mancini places the copy in the sixth-eighth century, whereas Rodriquez inclines towards the ninth-tenth century in Southern Italy. Believe it or not, after so many studies it is not clear exactly how many palimpsested folia were and are actually preserved by the Menologium. Mercati gives a total of 194 folia, but Mancini reckons 110 folia in MS struktion. Anmerkungen zur Methodik und zu Ergebnissen der jüngeren kodikologischen Forschung, in Scrittura e Civiltà 19 (1995), pp. 277-319, here p. 316, where only Vat. gr. 11531154, with 510 × 385 mm, is larger than MS 30-29. 36 See M. L. AGATI, La minuscola «bouletée». I-II, Città del Vaticano 1992 (Littera Antiqua, 9, 1-2), pp. 41-49. 37 Pace T. C. SKEAT, The Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus and Constantine, in The Journal of Theological Studies 50 (1999), pp. 583-625. 38 This feature reminds somehow the manuscript of the Psalter commented upon by De Titulis Psalmorum, where the initial verse of each Psalm is described as written ι τ ινν ρε «in vermilion», and also Vat. gr. 347 (s. XI), used by Falhauber, where the initial verses of each chapter of Isaiah are written in red (FAULHABER, Hesychii, p. VII). Some variety of bright red was customary in Byzantine manuscripts at least until the mid-tenth century, according to L. PERRIA, Paleographica. I: In margine alla tradizione manoscritta dello Pseudo Dionigi l’Areopagita; II: Minuscole librarie fra IX e X secolo, in Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici n.s. 37 (2000), pp. 43-72, here p. 47. About Vat. gr. 752 using red titles see G. DORIVAL, Les chaînes exégétiques grecques sur les psaumes: contribution a l’étude d’une forme littéraire. I-IV, Louvain 1986-95 (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 43-46), here IV, p. 104. See also, in this volume, the paper by Francesco D’Aiuto, pp. 43-156.

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30 and 83 folia in MS 29, which add up to 193 folia; in my notes I have recorded 86 bifolia (= 172 folia) plus 19 individual folia, totalling 191 surviving folia.39 There is method in the way the older manuscript was reused. The Menologium is made up systematically of quaternions following Gregory’s Law, where the bifolia A-A´ and C-C´ are of new parchment, whereas bifolia B-B´ and D-D´ usually belong to the ancient Commentary, intermingled with occasional re-used parchment from documents written in minuscule. This situation holds for quires 1 to 50. In MS 29, from quire 51 onwards, no more folia from the Commentary have been identified. Therefore, at least a sizeable portion of the ancient manuscript was still available in early fourteenth-century Messina, where it was reused systematically for the Menologium and at least for another manuscript, namely the Brussels folio. Of course, that raises the question whether other folia from the Commentary might have survived elsewhere. It is known that many manuscripts from Messina have landed in distant places like the Vatican Library, El Escorial (how many perished in the fire of 1671?), London, Milan, Oxford and Leipzig. Since there has been no systematic research on their dispersal, undertaking such a quest might be a tricky venture, with no results for our purpose, but certainly there is an interesting page about the circulation of manuscripts in modern times which remains to be written.40 The systematic destruction of the original manuscript at the beginning of the fourteenth century is confirmed by the contents of the palimpsest itself, since the distribution of the surviving folia is skewed, as if the first part of the Commentary — for whatever reason — were already gone. Only 20 folia survive from the first 1,000 verses (which account for almost 40 per cent of the Psalter, namely Pss 1-65). Therefore, allowing for a few unidentified folia, around 165 folia remain from the commentary on the 39 It is hardly believable that both Mercati and Mancini may have confused any of the Greek documents reused for the Menologium — which are all in minuscule — with the remnants of the commentary on the Psalms. An alternative hypothesis is at hand, however unpleasant it may be: some folia might have been removed rather recently, perhaps during a restoration process. In fact, the first quire of MS 30 now has only five folia and an unusual structure, since fols 1 and 5 are united so as to form an artificial bifolium; but whereas fol. 1 is of new parchment, fol. 5 is palimpsest. This situation never obtains elsewhere in the manuscript(s). Anyway, this hypothesis requires further verification, since it has an obvious flaw: it implies that the numbering of folia in MS 30 is either rather recent or has been heavily tampered with. 40 M. B. FOTI, Il monastero del S.mo Salvatore in lingua phari. Proposte scrittorie e coscienza culturale, Messina 1989, pp. 71-88, might be a starting point for such research. See also M. T. RODRIQUEZ, I manoscritti greci della Biblioteca Regionale di Messina: tipologie e dispersioni, in Federico e la Sicilia: dalla alla corona. Arti figurative e arti suntuarie, ed. by M. ANDALORO, Palermo 1995, pp. 341-344.

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final 1,500 verses. The proportion is dramatically uneven: in the initial part one folio has survived for every 50 verses, whereas in the final part there is a folio per 9 verses. In fact no folia commenting Pss 1-26 have been identified;41 one bifolium on Ps 27; then scattered remnants from 3 or 4 quires for Pss 30-37; Pss 38-63 are totally missing. From Ps 67 there is an average of 25 folia (100 columns) per 250 verses, and more than half of the folia explaining Pss 77-99 were identified. By implication, it may definitely be assumed that the last part of the Commentary has survived if not entirely, at least with comparatively few gaps. Where was the Commentary copied? Before seeing the manuscript itself, I had surmised that it might have been copied in Palestine and even that, despite the sequence problems first signalled by Mercati, it might have been the «original» itself, brought to Italy by some distant disciples of Hesychius, probably at the time of the Persian invasion of 614.42 I am still convinced that such a manuscript was indeed imported from Palestine, but it is not the Messina palimpsest, rather its model. Why? Because, even if the palimpsest is a carefully planned artefact, the parchment is of very poor quality and has apparently several defects that were not repaired. Since bad parchment is a well known feature of Greek manuscripts produced in Southern Italy, there is some reason to affirm that the manuscript was manufactured there, even if its unusually large size is rather disconcerting. It should be added that the Commentary actually circulated in Southern Italy;43 therefore it may have been copied there, as affirmed by Maria Teresa Rodriquez. Nevertheless, her thesis will have to be tested against other uncial manuscripts more certainly produced in Southern Italy (or their remains).44

41

But according to MERCATI, p. 171, n. 171 at least a folio concerns the commentary on

Ps 25. 42

There is some evidence that, at least concerning liturgical practices, there was some influence from Palestine upon Italo-Greek practices, which would bypass any intermediation from the Constantinopolitan area. See A. JACOB, Deux formules d’immixtion syro-palestiniennes et leur utilisation dans le rite byzantin de l’Italie méridionale, in Vetera christianorum 13 (1976), pp. 29-64; ID., La prière pour les troupeaux de l’Euchologe Barberini: quelques remarques sur le texte et son histoire, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 77 (2011), pp. 471-486. Therefore, a priori, the importation of a Palestinian manuscript into Southern Italy is not an impossible event. 43 According to CATALDI PALAU, A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts (see above, n. 34), pp. 197-204, here p. 201, Bodl. Auct. T. II. 3 was produced in the Salento region. 44 Happily, at least in the patristic domain, some artefacts with secure South-Italian provenance have been identified. See, for instance, the homiliary Scorial. .III.20 and also the homiletic fragments hidden in Vat. gr. 2061A, which were identified in S. VOICU, L’omeliario palinsesto del Vatic. gr. 2061A, in Revue d’histoire des textes 12-13 (1982-83), pp. 139-148.

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Back to Mercati Of course, if the original manuscript was already in poor condition and had some gaps, these imperfect parts might have been filled with some extraneous texts, and such type of gap-filling appears as a plausible explanation at least of the first accident noted by Mercati, namely, that Psalm 103 is apparently commented twice in the palimpsest. Although any explanation should ultimately wait until a more precise assessment of the contents of the palimpsest becomes possible, the following has been substantially confirmed in loco, partly thanks to the commentary on Psalm 102 edited by Mennes: MS 29, fol. 47 + 42 (A-A´): 47r (bottom of col. A) matches Mennes, p. 376, ll. 1920 (end of the exegesis on 102:1); fol. 47v (bottom of col. B) matches Mennes, p. 380, 113 (on 102:7). The lemma to 103:26 has been read on fol. 42v (bottom of col. B), but at the bottom of fol. 42r (col. A) there is an explanation of 103:18 that coincides with a catena fragment, first published by Cordier (reprinted in PG, 93, 1288 B-C). MS 29, fol. 100 + 103 (B-B´): the lemma to 102:10 has been read on fol. 100r, col. A, bottom (= Mennes, p. 381, 145-146), whereas Mercati affirms that fol. 103r begins with the explanation of 103:3. MS 30, fol. 236 + 237 (D-D´): fol. 236r-v contains the lemmas to 103:6 and 103:10; fol. 237 ends with the quotation of Jer 8:7, probably used to explain Ps 103:17.45 MS 30, fol. 242r (C´), col. A continues the quotation of Jer 8:7; the lemma to 103:23 has been identified on top of fol. 242v, col. A, but the lemma to 103:3 appears at the bottom of col. B.

If the original manuscript followed Gregory’s Law, the less problematic reconstruction supposes that the seven folia belonged to the same quire of the original manuscript, as follows: 45

According to the lexica ἐρ

ι

(Jer 8:7) are synonymous. See ν (I. A. H. TITTMANN, Ioannis Zonarae Lexicon, ex tribus codicibus manuscriptis nunc primum edidit, obseruationibus illustrauit et indicibus instruxit…, Lipsiae: sumptibus Siegfr. Lebr. Crusii, 1808, col. 863, 3); ἐρ ι ν (K. LATTE, Hesychii Alexandrini Lexikon. I, Hauniae 1953, p. 260, n° 7667). However, this equivalence is very rare in the patristic commentaries, since besides two passages by Olympiodorus, taken from an unidentified source (see Commentarii in Ieremiam: PG, 93, 645 A; Commentarii in Iob: U. HAGEDORN – D. HAGEDORN, Olympiodor, Diakon von Alexandria, Kommentar zu Hiob, Berlin 1984 (Patristische Texte und Studien, 24), p. 349), it has been found only in a fragment from John Chrysostom’s (authentic) commentary on Ps 103, which is lost in direct tradition. See A.-M. MALINGREY, Fragments du commentaire de Jean Chrysostome sur les psaumes 103 à 106, in Texte und Textkritik. Eine Aufsatzsammlung, in Zusammenarbeit mit J. IRMSCHER, F. PASCHKE und K. TREU herausgegeben von J. DUMMER, Berlin 1987 (Texte und Untersuchungen, 133), pp. 351-378, here p. 357.

ρ

σ α

τ ο ρα

γ

τ

(Ps 103:17) and

καιρ

α τ ς τ ν ἐρ

ι νλ

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A) MS 29, fol. 47 (Pss 101:?-102:7); B) MS 29, fol. 100 (with 102:10); C) not identified or missing (it would have contained the end of 102); D) MS 30, fol. 236 (with 103:6 and 103:10); D´) MS 30, fol. 237 (ending with 103:17); C´) MS 30, fol. 242 (continuing 103:17, with 103:21 and 103:23, but finishing with 103:3); B´) MS 29, fol. 103 (continuing 103:3, according to Mercati); A´) MS 29, fol. 42 (with 103:18 and 103:26).

This arrangement implies that there is only one major accident on MS 30, fol. 242. Alternative reconstructions result in an even more complicated picture. On the other hand, Mercati’s second remark about the relation to Cordier’s catena could not be confirmed (but lack of time may have been a hindering factor). Rather the opposite: in MS 29 and MS 30 a total of 39 folia have been identified which contain fragments on Pss 77-99, printed in PG, 55 under John Chrysostom’s name. This is little more than half of the 60~65 folia required for this part of the Commentary, and no sizeable discontinuity or interpolation could be detected. In fact, Mercati’s rather obvious assumption that Cordier faithfully published the text of the catena from one unidentified manuscript might simply be mistaken. According to Louis Mariès, Cordier resorted to a variety of manuscripts, adding from his own wit some attributions, that in some cases may have been unfounded.46 All this means that a systematic review of the way Cordier dealt with the manuscripts he used is required before a definitive assessment can be made about the actual contents of the palimpsest. Be that as it may, with all its many mysteries, the Messina palimpsest is called to take pride of place in any future edition of the Commentarius magnus, even if its (presumptive) direct link with the original were shown to be a false assumption. 46

L. MARIÈS, Le commentaire de Diodore de Tarse sur les Psaumes. Examen sommaire et classement provisoire des éléments de la tradition manuscrite, in Revue de l’Orient chrétien 24 (1924), pp. 58-189. See pp. 181-186: Appendice III. Note sur les manuscrits utilisés par Cordier pour la compilation de son Expositio in Psalmos. It may be wondered whether the same eclectic compositional technique was applied by Daniele Barbaro to his Latin translation of a catena on Psalms that, according to Devreesse, has not been identified in any Greek manuscript; see R. DEVREESSE, La chaîne des Psaumes de Daniele Barbaro, in Revue Biblique 33 (1924), pp. 65-81; 498-521, here p. 66, about Daniele BARBARO, Aurea in quinquaginta Dauidicos Psalmos doctorum graecorum catena…, Venetijs: apud Georgium de Caballis, 1569.

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Incidentally, one of the purposes of the Messina mission was to establish whether it was advisable to take high-resolution, perhaps ultra-violet pictures of the whole palimpsest. An estimate from a local photographer and the very fact that the scribe of the Menologium used the original rulings, thus superposing his writing almost exactly upon the faint remains of the primitive text, should be a warning that such an operation might not be cost effective. However, a definitive assessment could only be made when a reference transcription — be it provisional — of the Commentarius magnus, based on all of the direct tradition and perhaps selected catena fragments will be available.47 Part II Problems of Authenticity We are now arriving to the last, and probably thorniest part of this paper. The Clauis Patrum Graecorum registers about 50 entries under Hesychius’s name, giving the impression that they are related to something of a minor corpus, since most of them refer to individual homilies. But the sheer size of the exegetical works is rather impressive. For instance, the Commentary on Leviticus, which is almost totally lost in Greek, survives in a Latin version that occupies around 400 columns of PG, 93.48 Again, the part of the Commentarius magnus published with some gaps under John Chrysostom’s name — which comprises Pss 77-99, equivalent more or less to a sixth of the Psalter — occupies 70 full columns of Migne’s volume 55; the unpublished part transmitted by the manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Roe 13, occupies more than 30 tightly written folia. By this token, according to a cautious estimate, a comprehensive transcription of the whole corpus attributed to Hesychius would require the equivalent of about three or four very large volumes, the CM being probably the longest patristic writing of its kind that is still almost unpublished. CPG shows a rather optimistic picture, namely that most texts transmitted under Hesychius’s name have a good chance of having been composed 47 New digital techniques are emerging, and they may strike a new balance: better images from palimpsests at a lower cost. See IR [I. RABIN], Instrumental Analysis in Manuscript Studies, in Comparative Oriental manuscript studies. An introduction, ed. by A. BAUSI … [et al.], Hamburg 2014, pp. 27-30; FA [F. ALBRECHT], Methods in palimpsest research, ibid., pp. 31-33. 48 In addition, a comparison between the surviving Greek fragment and its Latin counterpart suggests that the Commentary may have been somehow abbreviated. See A. WENGER, Hésychius de Jérusalem. Le fragment grec du commentaire «In Leuiticum», in Revue des études augustiniennes 2 (1956), pp. 464-470. See also, in this volume, the papers by Stefano Tampellini, pp. 413-428, and Tomás Fernández, pp. 429-434.

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by one author. In particular, it lists the three commentaries on the Psalms as belonging to one and the same Hesychius, following thus the French line, headed by Robert Devreesse49 and Marie-Joseph Rondeau.50 However, occasional qualms about this solution have been vented, be it almost sottovoce, by Eriksson concerning CB,51 and by Mercati himself as an afterthought when he discovered that TitPs was also circulated under the name of Ephrem.52 It should be noted that when the three commentaries are compared, they offer almost constantly diverging explanations, whatever the significance of the coincidences indicated by Noret and Faulhaber.53 The thesis of the attribution of the three commentaries to one author has some far-reaching implications that have never been duly pondered. It is usually conceded that the three commentaries resort to different exegetical strategies, but these have been accounted for as adaptations to diverse audiences/readerships. However, if «Hesychius» was capable of displaying consistently and without deviations different wordings and exegetical approaches in each commentary, he must have been an incomparable genius, leaving well behind Origen and any other known ancient exegete. Now, the perusal of some recent editions of texts attributed to the Hesychian corpus reveals a rather disconcerting fact: the connections which have been proposed so far among the various texts transmitted under his name are few, and moreover appear, all in all, unconvincing or irrelevant. This remark does not imply that such connections do not exist, but rather points to an omission, namely that the compactness of the Hesychian corpus has never been adequately tested. Therefore, the final sections of this paper are probably the first systematic attempt at applying a factual philological approach to the authorship problems concerning the exegetical writings circulated under the label «Hesychius».

49

DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, pp. 250-261. See M.-J. RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques sur le Psautier (IIIe-Ve siècles). I-II, Roma 1982-85 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 219-220), I, pp. 137-143. 51 See ERIKSSON, Scholia, p. 72, n. 268, reporting that scepticism had been voiced earlier by Kl. JÜSSEN, Die dogmatischen Anschauungen des Hesychius von Jerusalem. I-II, Münster i. W. 1931-1934, I, pp. 27-31. 52 G. MERCATI, Sull’autore del «De titulis Psalmorum» stampato fra le opere di S. Atanasio, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10 (1944), pp. 7-22 [= ID., Opera minora. VI (1937-1957), Città del Vaticano 1984 (Studi e testi, 296), pp. 133-147]. However, Mercati’s discovery, rather than being a clue towards disclosing the authorship of CB, is an additional complication, since it confirms that other attributions were actually competing with that to Hesychius in the catena transmission. 53 See NORET, Fragments palimpsestes, and FAULHABER, Hesychii, pp. IX-XX. 50

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Testing the Three Commentaries on the Psalms However, before indulging in some authenticity tests, it is necessary to expose a tacit assumption which is not without problems, namely, that the published forms of the three commentaries are substantially pure and reliable texts — save for occasional accidents in their manuscript transmission — which have not been contaminated with each other. Unfortunately, this assumption is unfounded at least concerning the relation between CB and TitPs, since the exegesis of Ps 44 published by Faulhaber from Venice, Marcian. gr. I, 38 repeatedly mixes phrases and ideas from both commentaries,54 as can be shown by a short example:

ιλε ο p. XVII).

ιλε ου τελε τ το ου νιο ιλε ου (TitPs 44:7). ιλε ντο ἐπ τ ν λευτο ρ νο τουτ τιν ι ο ο το ρι το υρ ου τ υρ ν ερε λ ει ον τ ρ τε υνεν π ν τ ν τ ιν (CB 44:7). ιλε ου τ λευτο τ υρ ν ερε λ ει ον (Faulhaber,

Another obstacle is that comparisons should avoid texts which have mandatory explanations, such as the «Messianic» psalms (or verses), where a Christological interpretation is prompted and cautioned by the New Testament.55 Finally, it should be remembered that allegorical interpretation allows for variation, since it may indeed provide several exegeses of the same biblical verse.56 Three Exegeses of Ps 82:7-11a Of course, finding suitable texts is hampered by the fact that most of CM is still unpublished. However, a prima facie unproblematic sample is Ps 82:7-11a, which is part of a prayer for the destruction of Israel’s enemies, with no explicit theological content. The verses draw from various historical Old Testament books a list of surrounding nations, asking that 54 See also the remark by MERCATI, Il commentario, p. 170, n. 2, about the admixture of exegeses transmitted by Barb. III, 59 (now Barb. gr. 340), which quotes TitPs and, perhaps, CM. 55 Concerning the exegesis of the Messianic Ps 44 there is an instructive overview by E. GRÜNBECK, Christologische Schriftargumentation und Bildersprache. Zum Konflikt zwischen Metapherninterpretation und dogmatischen Schriftbeweistraditionen in der patristischen Auslegung des 44. (45.) Psalms, Leiden 1994 (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 26), although regrettably the author does not even mention the Commentaries attributed to Hesychius. 56 This phenomenon is already well known in Origen.

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they be destroyed as in old times. Whatever the obvious advantages of this somehow neutral section for comparative purposes, it should be noted that we do not have a comprehensive picture of the patristic exegesis on Ps 82, since the surviving commentaries are few: those by Eusebius of Cesarea and Theodoret, plus two homilies by Jerome and the three commentaries attributed to Hesychius. Therefore the conclusions of this section should be deemed provisional. What follows is my own tentative translation of the Septuagint — as it was understood by the Greek Fathers — and the three commentaries:57 [LXX] 7 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Agarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek and the Strangers with the inhabitants of Tyre. 9 Indeed Asshur also has joined them, they became a bulwark for the sons of Lot. Diapsalma. 10 Do to them as you did to Midian and to Sisera and to Jabin at the river Kishon; 11 they were destroyed at En-dor … 8

[CM] 7 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Agarenes, and Ammon and Amalek. All these are Abraham’s offspring. Therefore they were relatives of Israel. Indeed, Ishmaelites had as their ancestor Ishmael who was a son of Abraham. Instead, Agarenes were not from Abraham, but from Agar. She was united for some time to Abraham at Sarah’s instigation, but later Sarah became jealous of her and had her sent away with Ishmael. Then (Agar) joined someone else and gave to her descendants the name of Agarenes. Likewise Amalek was an offspring from Esau; Moab and Ammon were sons of Lot from his daughters, born after the burning of Sodom. Gebal had borders with them, but perhaps it was very near to them. That is why it is mentioned between them. Which was therefore the purpose of the discourse in this place? Or, why did it show that they were relatives? So that you know that those from home are among the enemies, as Christ says, that is to say, the relatives hold the first place (cf. Mk 6:4). That is why the prophet placed the Strangers in the last place. That is why he added: 8b-9a the Strangers with the inhabitants of Tyre. Indeed Asshur also has joined them. Not with the inhabitants of Tyre, but with Moab and Ammon and the others, who were neighbours of the Jewish people, as we have shown. In fact they did not go spontaneously to war against them, but pushed by their relatives. That is why he added: 9b They became a bulwark for the sons of Lot, moving to help them. Therefore, guard yourself from the inner enemies. Indeed, these provide weapons also to 8a Gebal

57 The text of the three commentaries is in poor shape. The edition of the CM, which is transmitted by the unique manuscript already used by Montfaucon and reprinted in PG from his edition, can be improved by resorting to the catenae. But consistent improvements can be expected concerning CB — suffice a comparison between the transcription of the commentary on Ps 44 published by FAULHABER, Hesychii, pp. XVI-XIX and the text supplied by Jagiò — and TitPs, which is filled with misprints and where the apparatus indicates continuously better and longer variants which were probably original. The translations are based on an ad hoc eclectic choice of readings.

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those from the outside. And do not trust the kindred, since they often change to hostility. Pay attention also to the curse he added to them, putting first a 9c diapsalma, since the discourse became a prayer. 10-11a Do to them as you did to Midian and to Sisera and to Jabin at the river Kishon; they were destroyed at En-dor. It is not without a reason that he chose these from among all, but because the war against them happened in a marvellous way. Indeed, without weapons Gideon wiped out and destroyed Midian — who was covering the earth with his multitude with three hundred men — using neither swords nor shields nor helmets, nor any of the other tools for warriors, but resorting only to lamps and trumpets of horn (cf. Judges 7:16-22). Having terrified Sisera the then chief of the nation of Jabin who was fighting with nine hundred waggons of iron, God made him escape, committing him to the wife of Heber the Kenite, who killed him by piercing his jaw with a peg (cf. Judges 4:17-21). He prays that the enemies he listed before should fall as these by the hand of God. He has mentioned the river Kishon and En-dor because there was the meeting point of the war against Sisera (cf. Judges 4:4-7) (PG, 55, 733-734).58 [CB] 6b-7 He says about the uncircumcised nations that they made a mutual agreement against Israel to exterminate it, but they failed. Idumaia [i.e. Edom] means «failing» (ἐ λε που ). Nor they obeyed the faith. Ishmaelites means «those who obey» ( π ο οντε ). 8a Moabites and Agarenes agreed with the king of Gebal and Ammon and Amalek against the nation of the Jews. 8b Strangers means «falling» (π πτοντε ). These fell under the oppression of the idols, namely the Strangers. Tyre means «oppression» ( υνο ). 9a Indeed he was present with delight at the destruction of the Jews too. Asshur means «delighted» (ε υ ν). 9b Confining the nation of Hebrews, the sons of Lot plundered them. Lot means «confining» (ἐ ε λει νο ). 9c Diapsalma: elevation of 10a the prophecy. So that — he says — as those waged war to one another and Sisera was killed when he felt secure, likewise those who deny God shall be destroyed too. Sisera is the devil. 10b That one escaped to the river thinking that he would live, but was killed there. Jabin is Judas, the one who delivered the Lord in the river of Cedars (cf. Jn 18:1). 11a In a shameful place. En-dor means «ugliness» ( πρ πει ). [TitPs] 7a The failing devils (ἐ λε ποντε ) and the Jews who listen to them (ε ο οντε ). 7b-8a And those who make proselytes for sin. Gebal means «old schism» ( π λ ι ν). Ammon means «child of my nation» (υ λ ο ἐ λε π ν). And both apply to the ου). Amalek means «failing people» (λ Jews. 8b The Jews with the devils who dwell (with them). Strangers means «falling because of a potion» (π πτοντε ποτ τι). Tyre means «oppression» ( υνο ), which is sin. 9a Asshur means «ambush» ( νε ρον), which is said of Judas. 9b They became helpers of the children of the devil. Lot means «confined» ( πο ε λει νο ), which is the devil. 10 Act against them as against injustice and the devil. Sisera means «lifting apostasy» ( ρ ν πο τ ν). Jabin 58 However, the interpretation of verse 9 is taken from the catena fragment published in PG, 93, 1260 C-D (reprinted from Cordier), which has an obviously superior text.

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means «dried up shame» ( ν ρ ινο ν ). Kishon means «hardness» ( λ ρ τ ). Likewise the Jews were a dried shame in their hardness. 11a The mind of their generation was destroyed. En-dor means «eye of the generation» ( λ ενε ). (PG, 27, 1004 C, partly from the apparatus).

CM speaks from a literalist perspective, resorting to a purely historical rationale for the choice of the nations which are listed in the Psalm, and tries to explain why some names are singled out in verses 10-11a, but never draws any «theological» implications. It is not surprising that the nearest in kin to this approach are the commentaries on Psalms by Eusebius and Theodoret.59 CM does not depend on any of them, but everything suggests that it has at least a link with the literalist exegetical tradition. This connection might have been very strong especially with the Antiochene tenets, considering that — as mentioned above — CM shares a rare exegesis on Ps 103:17 with John Chrysostom, another distinguished representative of the Antiochene tradition. CB pays some attention to history, and occasionally underlines the typological value of some characters (Sisera as the devil; Jabin as Judas), but it has no clear connections either with other patristic writings or to any known exegetical system (and that definitely raises a problem).60 TitPs completely disregards any connection with biblical history, since all the proper names are explained as allegories that apply to the shortcomings of the Jews. This approach — including an explicit insistence on the usefulness of etymologies as exegetical tools61 — has a notable parallel in two Latin homilies on the same Psalm that were published under Jerome’s name.62 According to Vittorio Peri, the attribution to Jerome is misleading, 59

See PG, 23, 992-1001 for Eusebius and PG, 80, 1533-36 for Theodoret. Random searches have been conducted on several expressions that are rather frequent in CB. They constantly confirm its stylistical uniqueness. For instance, the sequence υρι ν ρ πο (see 2:2, 15:11, etc.), which incidentally never appears in TitPs, is used 27 times in its four declined masculine singular forms in CB. This is more than a quarter of the 103 instances recorded — with some duplication — in TLG as of August 2015. No other patristic writing shows a comparable concentration of the phrase except the Pseudo-Athanasian Sermo maior de fide wrongly ascribed also to Marcellus of Ancyra (see CPG 2803), that resorts to it eleven times. But no further similarities have been observed between the two writings. The uniqueness of CB is confirmed also by its peculiar usage of οπε τρι , which will be discussed later in this paper. 61 See ἐ λε ποντε ονε ο ε ο οντε τ ν ου οι ο το ρ λο τ ν νο τ ν ρ νε (TitPs 82:7a). 62 See G. MORIN, S. Hieronymi presbyteri Tractatus siue Homiliae in Psalmos, in Marci Euangelium aliaque uaria argumenta, ed. altera, Turnholti 1958 (Corpus Christianorum. Series latina, 78), pp. 91-93; see also pp. 385-389. This homily underlines that etymologies of proper names are an apposite means to extract a «spiritual» meaning from the biblical text: «… in singulis sermonibus magna sunt sacramenta, et necessitate conpellimur in uerbis he60

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since these and other Latin homilies on the Psalms actually were delivered by Origen and were translated by Jerome himself into Latin from the original Greek — now lost — even if with some amount of adaptation.63 However, Peri’s thesis is not tenable, since the Latin homilies were delivered by Jerome and clearly bear the marks of his style. This is in accordance with the fact that Jerome draws customarily his exegesis from Origen. The inescapable implication of this fact is that, since TitPs and Jerome coincide in their exegesis, there is no doubt that, at least in this case, TitPs also depends from Origen.64 The link with Origen obviously strengthens the connections already known to exist between TitPs and Palestine.65 Since TitPs and CM consistently mirror two diverging exegetical traditions, linked respectively to Origen and Antioch, it would be wise to assume that they were written by different authors. In addition, more disquieting differences between the three commentaries emerge from a close examination of the terminology they use. We shall concentrate first on the meaning and the function of the word ι λ (the Hebrew selah), and then on the «etymologies» provided by the commentaries to explain proper names.66 Meanings of ιά αλμα The word ι λ could be a good tool to highlight the differences between the three commentaries, since it appears seventy-two times in

braicis et plenis mysteriis diutius inmorari (…) Nisi enim sic interpretemur ut diximus, quid prodest ecclesiis Xpisti legere tabernacula Idumaeorum, et Ismahelitae, et cetera nomina?» (ibid., p. 93; see also ibid., p. 386, 42-43: «Singula nomina habent singula sacramenta: quot enim uerba, tot mysteria»). 63 See V. PERI, Omelie origeniane sui Salmi. Contributo all’identificazione del testo latino, Città del Vaticano 1980 (Studi e testi, 289). For an updated status quaestionis, see G. COPPA, Origene – Gerolamo, 74 omelie sul Libro dei salmi. Introduzione, traduzione e note…, Milano 1993 (Letture cristiane del primo millennio, 15), pp. 13-32. 64 Unexpectedly, this enhances enormously the relevance of a critical edition of TitPs as a tool for recovering Origen’s exegesis on the Psalms, which is largely lost in its original language. A new avenue towards a more precise assessment of the importance and scope of TitPs will emerge from a comparison with Origen’s homilies on the Psalms that have turned up in a Greek manuscript in Munich. See now Origenes, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien: eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, herausgegeben von L. PERRONE, in Zusammenarbeit mit M. MOLIN PRADEL, E. PRINZIVALLI und A. CACCIARI, Berlin – München – Boston 2015 (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte. Neue Folge, 19; Origenes Werke, 13). 65 See DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 245. 66 Both topics deserve a thorough investigation of the patristic tradition, and probably are worth a doctoral dissertation. Here we should content ourselves with selected examples.

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the Psalms according to the Septuagint.67 Even if the primary meaning of diapsalma is etymologically obvious, «interruption, interval, pause», the word has elicited diverging interpretations in the patristic tradition. In TitPs, ι λ is defined only once, when it appears for the first time in the Psalter (Ps 3:3), with an unusually long and articulate exposition: ι λ ρ νε ετ ι ε «The (word) diapsalma means always». The explanation of the word continues: λε

ν ο ν τ ον ε τ ι νει τ λε ενον τ ν π το τ ου τι το το ενον ἐν τ τ ἐ τ ν ε ε τε ν ἐ τιν λ ει τ ο ε τε λον

«About the verse to which it refers, it means that what the verse says is forever, be it good or bad».

TitPs also immediately adds an alternative explanation: νον λλει λ ειν

το το λλ ε λ προ

ν ε τ ιτ που ο

ι λ περ ο

λε εν

νει τι περ το λλου το ι λ το

«Not only this, but when diapsalma is placed in a verse, it means that the psalm is going to speak of another person and not the one it spoke of until the diapsalma».

In short, according to TitPs 3:3, diapsalma affirms the perennial validity of what follows or marks a change of the person referred to. By contrast, CB defines ι λ at least forty-four times, but never affirms that the word should be equated with «always». Rather, the formulas it proposes are prompted mostly by exegetical concerns — even if often their precise meaning remains to be ascertained — and resort to a clearly «technical» language, as shown by the following exhaustive list: [CB] change or transfer of the prophecy (ἐν λλ τ προ τε : 19:4; 67:14; ετ ολ τ προ τε : 48:14; 65:4; 65:15; 88:46; 139:4; ετ ορ τ προ τε : 33:11; 43:9; cf. 81:2; ετ ε ι τ προ τε : 49:6; 88:5; 88:38); change or transfer of the discourse (ἐν λλ το λ ου: 31:7; ετ ολ το λ ου: 54:8; 61:9; 65:7; 76:4; Hab 3:3; cf. 76:10; 87:8; ετ ε ι το λ ου: 53:5; ετ ορ το λ ου: 79:8; ι τολ το λ ου: 86:6); division of the discourse ( ι ρε ι το λ ου: 51:5; ι τ ι το λ ου: 60:5); division of the prophecy ( ι τ ι τ προ τε : 76:16); elevation of the spirit ( νο το πνε το : 51:7; 61:5; 66:5; 67:20; 82:9; 83:5); elevation of the discourse ( νο το λ ου: 46:5; 54:20; 84:3); change of the prophecy from the Passion to the Resurrection 67 Most of the occurences of ι λ are concentrated in the first part of the Psalter, until Ps 93:15, with only three instances in Ps 139 and one in Ps 142. The word is also used in the Odes, the Psalms of Salomon and Habakkuk, but only one instance is explained by CB in Hab 3:3.

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( ετ ολ τ προ τε π το π ου ε τ ν ν τ ιν: 7:6); change of the prophecy to the Resurrection ( ετ ολ τ προ τε ε τ ν ν τ ιν: 3:5); change of the prophecy to exhortation ( ετ ολ τ προ τε ε π ρ νε ιν: 4:5); movement of the discourse to another idea (προτροπ το λ ου ε τερον : 38:6); change of the prophecy about the human being (ἐν λλ τ ν προ τε περ το ν ρ που: 38:12); elevation of the spirit and change of the prophecy ( νο το πνε το ετ ολ τ προ τε : 45:4); elevation of the discourse to another prophecy ( νο το λ ου ἐπ τ ρ ν προ τε ν: 93:15).

Also the published section of CM, on Pss 77-99, systematically considers ι λ , and its explanations reveal «literary» concerns about the appropriateness of the insertion of the word. However it avoids the technical terminology familiar to CB. In 83:5 it implies the equivalence between ι λ and «always» which appears in TitPs 3:3: [CM] ο τοι ι λ το τ οι λ ἐπ εν ο πλ ο τ ν λλ ν πρ τιν ιρ ν τ ν προ τε ν ν π τ λ τερον λ ἐπ εν ἐπει ἐπει τ το ρι το ε ε πρ πον (80:8); ι τ ν ρ ν νπερ το τ ν ιν ε υν ουλ ν ετ ε (81:2); τ ν ει ἐπ εν ι λ προ ε ἐπει τ ν λ ον ε προ ευ ν ετ τ εν (82:9); ι λ τ ν προ τε ν ε ολ ε ἐπει περ τ ν ν ε ι νε ἐπ ε ν πεποι τ ν ι λε ενο ο τ ν λ ον ετ τ εν ε το ε το το ν ε ον τ ἐ ντιλ ε εο προ οπ πρ ἐ ε νου ν λ νοντ (83:5; followed by an application to Peter the apostle); ι λ ε π λιν ολο προ εν ἐν ι ο τ προ ευ ν τ τ πολλ ι προ ε τ ι λ ἐπει πρ τ ν π ρ ε τ ν τ ρ ν τ ν ν ρ π ν ν τε νοντ (83:9); ι τ ελ πρ ειτ ι ο τ ν το προ του το λ ου ν π ντο λλ ἐπει ε λ λ ν π ρ εν ἐ ενο τε ε τ πρ τ τ ν πο λ ε ν ε ο τ ν νο ν ρι ε τ ρ νε τ περ το τ ν ε ρ ρ ει ι π ι (84:3); < ι λ >ο τ ν ἐπ εν λλ ἐπει πρ τ ν ἐ λ ντ νἐ ν ν τ ν λ ον ετ τ εν ο τ ο ε ον πο τ πρ πον τ το εο ν ν λ προ τ ἐπ εν ἐπει τ το εο προ τ π ρ ε (86:3); ι πρ πον ἐν λλ τ π λιν τ ο ε ον ε ε ο ι τ ν ι ν ἐ ο ε ου λ το ε ρ νοι ρ τ ρο ουλ ενο ρ ιν (86:6); ι πρ ειτ ι ἐπει τ ν τ τ ν τ ον ι τ ν προ εν ἐπι ν ε τ ν ν τον νυν τ ν λ ον ε τ το τ ν ν τερ τ ν προ ο ν τ ν τ υρ ν λ ον τ πνε ἐπ εν ἐπει τ ν λ ον ε τ το ν εν (87:8); ι λ το νυν προ τ ν προ του ετ τ ε πρ πον (88:5); ι ἐπ ε λι τ ἐπει ἐ προ που το εο τ ρι το ν ν π ρ ενο λ τ ν τ ν ν τ ο ε νε ρει πρ τ ν ε ν ι λε ιν (88:38); ι προ τε ν ν ιε το ἐπει τ ν ου ν τ λιπ ν τ πρ πον λ ν ν π ρ τ ν ρ π τ το λ προ εν ντευ ιν (88:46); ι ο π λιν ἐντ ιν ἐπει τ ν προ τε ν πρ τ ν λ ν ι τ ν ου ν λ το του ριν προ εν ἐπει τ ν οιν ν λ ον ε ετ λε (88:49); ι

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ο ε ον ετ τ

ε πρ

πον (93:15).

The stylistic differences in wording and phrasing between CM and CB are patent: CB resorts to short formulae that contrast markedly with the elaborate syntactical explanations of CM. In addition, whereas the glosses given by CB emphasize repeatedly the discontinuities in the text, differentiating the meaning of each break, CM cares about the appropriateness of each insertion of ι λ by giving details about their context. The two perspectives are visibly different, even if their exegetical aim is similar. A Passion for «Etymologies» Explanations of proper names are a common feature of patristic biblical commentaries, especially in the case of Old Testament books. The primary aim of these «etymologies» is to introduce characters according to a nomen-omen logic, which is often warranted by the biblical texts themselves.68 Besides many explanations that are linguistically true, namely translations of Hebrew names, arbitrary interpretations are also often provided. CM uses this device sparingly. Indeed, no instance appears in the exegesis of Ps 82:7-11a. Instead, both TitPs and CB give a substantial number of such explanations for the same passage, respectively thirteen69 and seven. However, in only four cases the two commentaries retain more or less the same interpretations: 1) ου ἐ λε που : CB 82:7; 107:10; 107:11; cf. TitPs 82:7 and 107:10, where the etymology is implicit.

π ο οντε : CB 82:7; cf. TitPs 82:7 (ε ο οντε ). 3) ρο υνο (SchMP Am 64: ERIKSSON, p. 140): CB 44:13; 82:8; TitPs 82:8; 86:4. – 2) υ ι : CB 86:4; TitPs 44:13.70 2)

λ

68 One may just recall the exegesis of Jesus’ name «God saves», which is implied by Mt 1:21 («since he will save his people»). A large amount of true or false etymologies are collected in the book, by now somehow outdated, by F. WUTZ, Onomastica sacra: Untersuchungen zum Liber interpretationis nominum Hebraicorum des hl. Hieronymus. I: Quellen und System der Onomastika; II: Texte und Register, Leipzig 1914-1915 (Texte und Untersuchungen, 41, 1-2). Even if most of the etymologies used in the three Commentaries are recorded by Wutz, for the sake of brevity we must refrain from quoting him. 69 There is some reason to surmise that there is a gap in the published text of TitPs. According to the Latin homilies of Origen-Jerome the lonely allusion in 82:7b-8a to proselytes should refer to the Agarenes. However, TitPs gives no explicit interpretation for this name, nor for Moab. 70 Concerning the exegesis of Ps 44:13, it is clear from the context of both TitPs and CB that the choice of the etymology is intentional and not the product of some scribal mistake.

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4)

τ = 1) ἐ ε λει

νο : CB 82:9. – 2) πο ε λει

323

νο : TitPs 82:9.

TitPs has six interpretations which are not found in CB, neither in the commentary to Ps 82:7-11a nor elsewhere, namely: 1) λ 3) ε λ 5) ι ν ι 82:10.

λ

ἐ λε π ν: TitPs 82:9; 2) ν υ λ ο ου: TitPs 82:8; π λ ι ν: TitPs 82:8; 4) ν ν : TitPs 82:10; ν λ ρ τ : TitPs 82:10; 6) ι ρ ρ ν πο τ ν: TitPs

In three cases, the divergences between CB and TitPs are substantial and cannot be reconciled. Compare: ο ρ ε υ ν (CB 82:9) vs. νε ρον (TitPs 82:9); εν ρ πρ πει (CB 82:11) vs. λ ενε (TitPs 82:11). Definitely more significant is the case of λλ υλοι π πτοντε (CB 55:1; 82:8; 86:4; 107:1071) vs. π πτοντε ποτ τι (TitPs 55:1; 82:8; 107:10), where each commentary repeats consistently its own interpretation. There is a simple explanation for shared interpretations: they were traditional. On the other hand, since the etymologies are not conditioned by the context — Ps 82:7-11a being almost a bare list of names — the differences between CB and TitPs should more appropriately be taken as evidence that two different authors are at work. Too Many Names for Zion The difference between CB and TitPs may be further illustrated with the interpretations of the name of Zion. TitPs gives no less than five different explanations of ι ν:72 1) οπευτ ριον (9:15; 50:20; 125:1; 131:13 = ×4);73 2) τ πο που ν (2:6; 19:3; 109:2; 136:3; 145:10; 147:1; 149:2 = ×7);74 3) ι (64:2; 68:36; 98:2; 101:17; 134:21 = ×5); 4) ἐντολ (77:68; 124:1; 128:5; 136:1 = ×4); 5) ε το (101:14; 101:17 = ×2).

The three interpretations which can be found in the CB never coincide with those of TitPs: The text of CB 86:4 is odd, since υ ι is applied both to Tyre and to Babylon, the latter being more usual (see also TitPs 86:4, 136:1, 136:8 and CM 86:4). 71 The variant π το ενοι in CB 59:10 stems likely from a scribal mistake. 72 They are also recorded by MERCATI, Il commentario, p. 152, n. 1. 73 This is the traditional etymology of Zion and also the only one which has so far been detected in CM (77:68; 83:8). 74 This is not strictly an etymology, but rather an explanatory statement. However, TitPs uses it remarkably often.

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1) οπε τρι (47:3; 64:2; 77:68; 96:8 = ×4)75; 2) ρτο (2:6); 3) ο ο (9:15).

ρτου

Whereas etymologies 2 and 3, which appear only once each, are unexpected, and may hide textual problems, the word οπε τρι is particularly intriguing. According to the dictionaries76 and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae it is exclusive of CB. It probably derives from an adaptation of the standard etymological explanation οπευτ ριον to the feminine gender of ι ν in Greek. Since CB uses it consistently, never resorting to the more common form οπευτ ριον, there is a major linguistic difference between CB and TitPs (and, so far, also between CB and CM). The Garden-Watcher’s Vantage Point The considerable differences among the three commentaries on the Psalms raise an additional question: is it possible to ascertain whether the Scholia on the Minor Prophets, the Commentary on Leviticus and the Scholia on Isaiah stand in connection with any of the Commentaries on Psalms? What follows is a modest experiment,77 which perforce leaves aside the Commentary on Leviticus, since the word π ρο υλ ιον does not appear in Lv. The Greek word π ρο υλ ιον «crop-watcher’s vantage point»78 appears five times in the Septuagint: Ps 78:1 ( λθοσα θ η ε ς τὴ κληρο ομ α σου μ α α τ α τ γι σου θε το ερουσαλημ ε ς π ροφυλάκιο ), Micah 1:6 and 3:12, and Isaiah 1:8 and 23:20. Interpretations attributed to Hesychius are available for all these verses, 75

The explanation

οπε ου

found in CB 47:12 is probably the result of a scribal mis-

take. 76

Stephani Thesaurus; Ch. DUCANGE, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis, Lugduni 1688; A Patristic Greek Lexikon, ed. G. W. H. LAMPE, Oxford 1961. 77 The limitations of this sample should be emphasized, since apparently both SchIs and SchMP show occasional coincidences with CB, which should be further explored. 78 Liddell-Scott defines π ρο υλ ιον as «hut of a garden watcher». The entry in the Patristic Greek Lexikon is very similar: «crop-watcher’s hut». Both oversimplify a rather complicated situation, since the word emphasises the watching action, but does not describe the place from which it is performed. In the patristic texts it may be defined as a hut (as in CB), but it is often associated to a tent (in turn, a frequent code for Zion) or even to a (watch-) tower. The latter is akin to a raised platform on which a child, hidden behind a curtain of branches, begins to shout when a thief approaches. Both ancient and quite recent depictions of this structure are supplied in a short article where the Greek word is not even mentioned. See A. STUIBER, Die Wachhütte im Weingarten, in Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 2 (1959), pp. 86-89.

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except Is 1:8. Their comparison is instructive, since they show again very different exegetical approaches. ν ρ ν ντ ν ρ ν εντο ε ἐρ ιν (TitPs 78:1). τ ρ ρ ν ε ν ι τ ν λ ν υλ ου ν π ρ (CB 78:1). πει τ πνε το ν ου τ ν προ τ ν λ ντε ν ν τ λιπον < το > υλ ττειν τ ν π ρ ν το ρ το ο το ν ο ἐ ν ρ π ν λλ ἐ το εο ουλο νου π ρ το ἐ ρο τ πο ε ει τ π τε τ ετ ρ ε ι π ρ τ ρ ν ν τ ν τρο ν λλ πρ ιρον ον ε τ προ ρευτ ι (CM 78:1). κλι ε κα σεισθήσεται ς π ροφυλάκιο γ ς μεθ κα κραιπαλ κα πεσε ται κα ο μὴ ηται αστ αι Πρ ιρ ρ τ π ρο υλ ι (SchIs 24:20: Faulhaber, p. 73

).

κα θήσομαι αμάρεια ε ς π ροφυλάκιο γρο κα ε ς φυτε α μπελ ος κα κατα σπάσ ε ς άος το ς λ θους α τ ς κα τ θεμ λια α τ ς ποκαλ πει ιλ ν τ ρ το ν ου περ π ρ ν πρ ιρον λ ερ ν υλ ττου ιν (SchMP

Mi 1:6: Eriksson, p. 154, n° 10).

ι το το ι μ ς ι ς γρ ς ροτριαθήσεται κα ερουσαλημ ς π ροφυλάκιο σται κα τ ρος το ο κου ς λσος ρυμο Π υ ν ρτ π ρ ρ ον τ π ρο υλ ιον περ ερου λ π υ ν τ πολιτε το ρ το

(SchMP Mi 3:12: Eriksson, p. 157, n° 81).

CB, TitPs and SchMP Mi 3:12 share references to the notion of desolation (ἐρ ιν ρ ν ρ ον), but this coincidence should not be overestimated, since it echoes the standard synoptic terminology about the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.79 It is more important to notice that their explanations are intrinsically different: whereas TitPs disregards any historical application and centers around the heart which is deserted, CB refers to Jerusalem that is plundered and SchMP Mi 3:12 affirms the uselessness of the city once there are no more fruits to be watched. Instead CM and the glosses to Micah and Isaiah have a central element in common: they equate the letter of the law ( ρ ) to a fruit.80 In addition CM, Is 24:20 and SchMP Mi 1:6 state that this fruit is a contingent

79 See ετ ι ν ο ο ν ρ ο (Mt 23:38); τ λυ τ ἐρ ε (Mt 24:15; Mk 13:14); ἐρ ι τ (Lk 21:20). 80 For the sake of completeness: whereas the association of π ρο υλ ιον with πρό ιρο is rather frequent — see Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentarius in Isaiam 1, 13, ed. J. ZIEGLER, Eusebius Werke. IX. Der Jesajakommentar, Berlin 1975 (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller), p. 7, 17-20, Pseudo-Basil of Caesarea, Enarratio in prophetam Isaiam 1, 21, 5 (PG, 30, 153 C), Theodoret, Commentaria in Isaiam 7, 315, J.-N. GUINOT, Théodoret de Cyr, Commentaire sur Isaïe. II. Sections 4-13, Paris 1982 (Sources chrétiennes, 295), p. 194 — no other author seems to associate it explicitly to ρ .

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(πρ ιρο ) food, and not a very good ( ν ) or even a damaging one ( λ ερ ). In sum, there is positive evidence of a connection between CM and at least some scholia of Sch Is and SchMP. On the other hand TitPs and CB go once more their separate ways. Conclusion and Future Avenues of Research Even if the above considerations are only occasional remarks, perforce based on limited evidence, nonetheless they suffice to show all the complexity of the authenticity problems surrounding the exegetical works that have been circulated under Hesychius’s name. Given the differences that have been observed, it seems unavoidable to conclude that the safest course is to posit that each work attributed to Hesychius should be treated independently on its own merits, since there are no less than three authors hidden under this name.81 Where do we go from here? Some crucial steps may bring about a clearer picture: a) an attempt to recover Mercati’s papers on the Messina palimpsest MSS 29-30, first in view of assessing their usefulness for further research, but also to explain the discrepancies concerning the number of palimpsest folia contained in the Menologium; b) a diplomatic edition of the CM exegesis on Ps 103 according to MS Bodleian Roe 13, if necessary supplemented with the catena fragments already published in PG, 93, would help fixing the riddle of the above-mentioned discontinuity; c) further editions from selected sections of both Roe 13 and Auct. T. II. 3 may be helpful to more accurately identify the contents of MS 29-MS 30; d) a systematic assessment of the rapidly evolving area of digital imaging, where subtractive techniques are said to be cheaper and conducive to a more satisfactory investigation of the palimpsest than the «traditional» ultra-violet pictures; e) an exhaustive inventory of the contents of Cordier’s catena thanks to an analysis of the manuscripts he used would give a clearer picture of the origin and scope of the incongruencies noted by Mercati. In 81

With the data currently available no hypothesis may be discarded: 1. Hesychius being a rather common personal (perhaps prevailingly monastic) name in Greek, the various authors were homonymous; 2. Hesychius of Jerusalem being a famous author, his authentic corpus was augmented with spuria, rehearsing a situation rather common in the patristic age; 3. Some combination of hypotheses 1 and 2.

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addition, it has been seen that there is some reason to believe that the catena fragments derived from CM may have preserved, at least in some cases, a better text than Bodleian Roe 13. In the long-term this may also favour a more precise assessment of the text of the Messina palimpsest; f) pace Devreesse,82 the published text of TitPs is preposterous. A critical edition is required to further explore its connections with Palestine and Origen. Even a small sample of catena quotations from Vat. gr. 752 definitely shows that Antonelli’s edition has frequent gaps and inferior readings;83 g) even if the published text of CB is substantially reliable, it may be expected that a critical edition will take care of the numerous variants recorded by Jagiò without further explanation; h) last but not least, the main desideratum remains a comprehensive inventory of the catena extracts on the Psalms attributed to Hesychius, building systematically upon the list compiled by Mennes, as a preliminary step towards a comprehensive edition of the Hesychian corpus. In sum, since the project will require the collaboration of several scholars as well as adequate funding, it amounts to a gigantic venture …

82

See DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 245. The electronic edition of the catena of Vat. gr. 752 is thus a first step in recovering this text. A critical edition of TitPs is planned for Corpus Christianorum by Barbara Crostini. 83

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HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM’S PROLOGUE TO THE PSALMS REVISITED IN THE LIGHT OF VAT. GR. 752 AND ITS ILLUSTRATIVE PROGRAMME* It is not surprising to find, in the course of this volume, multiple mentions of Cardinal Giovanni Mercati (1866-1959),1 not only because of his seminal work on Vatican manuscripts, including Vat. gr. 752, but also for his interest in the author here considered, Hesychius of Jerusalem (d. ca. 430). The scope of this article is thus both commemorative and innovative. Taking Mercati’s edition of Hesychius’s Prologue as a starting point, and expanding it with the collation of three additional manuscripts, it celebrates Mercati’s extraordinary skills as editor while attempting to offer a more complete text than that available to him. In an article in this same series, Studi e testi, published in 1901,2 Mercati offered, after a learned introduction, the editio princeps of Hesychius’s Prologue to the Psalter based on two tenth-century manuscripts, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D.4.1, fols 16r-24r (O), and Milan, Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fols 12r-15r (A).3 The comprehensive list of manuscripts of Hesychius compiled by Mennes4 lists seven additional witnesses to this text, three of which are used for the present edition. The collation of these addi* Mariachiara Fincati is responsible for the description and collation of two manuscripts, which she examined in situ: Milan, Ambros. B 106 sup. (A) and Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS CXIX (V) (pp. pp. 338-347). Thanks are due to Fr Joseph Munitiz SJ, Mariachiara Fincati, Marianne Wifstrand-Schiebe, Reinhart Ceulemans, the Ars edendi group at Stockholm University and the Patristic Seminar at the Newman Institute, Uppsala, for reading and commenting the text. All remaining faults are entirely my own. 1 S. BERTELLI, Un grande erudito: il Cardinal Mercati, in Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 20 (1958), pp. 195-199; complete bibliography in: A. CAMPANA, Bibliografia degli scritti del Cardinale Giovanni Mercati (1890-1956), Città del Vaticano 1957. 2 MERCATI, Il Commentario, pp. 145-179. 3 The edition is on pp. 155-168, the lines numbered anew for every page of differing length. Below the Greek text, the biblical apparatus identifying the quotations is placed, followed by the critical apparatus. On some pages we also find extensive commentary notes in the form of alphabetical footnotes. Reference to the folios of O and A are made in the external margin without, however, mention of the exact word where the page is turned. Mercati’s page numbers are indicated in the left margin of the present edition. 4 MENNES, Inventaris, passim (see below); the text of the dissertation is also available in pdf from the Ghent Library website. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 329-382.

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tional witnesses throws an interesting light on Mercati’s work as editor, not only confirming his celebrated akribeia, but also offering new manuscript attestations for some of his conjectures. It is unfortunate for our purposes that the Prologue has not been assigned its own distinctive number in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum, where it features as item number 1 under the heading for Hesychius’s Commentarius magnus (CPG 6554). This association was probably based on the opinion expressed by Devreesse, who, despite acknowledging Mercati’s analysis of its “nombreux renvois à Antonelli” (i.e. TitPs), was resolutely in favour of its constituting a part of the Commentarius magnus instead: “C’est à lui, sans doute, que convient la Préface αλα ας το εο προφήτης, bien que divers passages s’y accordent aux deux autres [commentaires]”.5 However, this conclusion finds no support in the manuscripts of either text: the Prologue, written as an ordinary prefatory text for Psalters with catena, as it seems;6 the Commentarius magnus, extant without any demonstrable preface.7 One could even go as far as suggesting that the Prologue was itself put together (by a later compiler?) from the scholia of Hesychius Antonelli on the titles, collecting their individual interpretations into an overall rationale concerning the authorship of the psalms. One would certainly wish, therefore, that in a future re-edition of the Clavis this work could obtain its own separate number. 5

DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 250. All four Psalters containing this text among the introductory material have a catena, though of different types: the Moscow ms has KARO – LIETZMANN type XVIII; the Escorial has no specific KARO-LIETZMANN type, but its catena is close to Oxford, Canon. gr. 62 (in turn a partial copy of Vat. gr. 752) which is type XXII, with a similar focus on TitPs (see the description by Ceulemans, pp. 263-264); the Milan ms has a primary but mixed Constantinopolitan catena including Hesychius Jagiò, while the Oxford ms is KARO-LIETZMANN type I. 7 The newly discovered eleventh/twelfth-century witness, Bodleian Auct. T. 2.3, is acephalus: A. CATALDI PALAU, Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts from the Meerman Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 2012, pp. 197-204, gives the beginning of the original ms carrying Hesychius’s text at fol. 6r. She describes four lines of illegible writing followed by a title and the incipit of the commentary to Psalm 2. In fact, a fifth line after the initial four displays a few more words and continues with an ‘s-shaped’ divider. The title that follows, centered, has been overwritten by a later hand, and may in fact not accurately represent the original title. It is likely that the illegible lines, perhaps purposefully erased, were the end of the commentary to Psalm 1, and that a later owner, finding himself before a manuscript without beginning, has artificially created a ‘first page’ by altering the layout and emphasizing the title. It is not possible to say from the microfilm whether this hand is the same that wrote the fourteenth-century addition in the leaves inserted before fol. 6, supplying the beginning of Euthymios Zygabenos’s Commentary on the Psalms. See also: A. CATALDI PALAU, Un nuovo manoscritto del “Grande Commento” ai Salmi di Esichio di Gerusalemme, Oxford, Auct. T.II.3, in Ὀπ ρα. Studi in onore di mgr Paul Canart per il LXX compleanno. Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata 52 (1998), pp. 161-183, at p. 171, repr. in EAD., Studies in Greek Manuscripts, 2 vols, Spoleto 2008, pp. 157-182. 6

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Mercati declared succintly: “il proemio ci dà la chiave del commentario”,8 by which he intended that this text is closely related to the glosses of Hesychius Antonelli (CPG 6552), the parallels to which we find extensively documented in his annotations. Because of this close relation, the Prologue, despite not being included among the prefatory texts in Vat. gr. 752,9 can provide an interpretative key to the glosses contained in this manuscript. This interrelation is especially true concerning the glosses on the titles, which are extensively used and especially highlighted in Vat. gr. 752, where they are placed in the biblical column as an uninterrupted continuation to the psalm titles, written in the same distinctive script and ink (gold or red) as if themselves part of the canonical text.10 Thus we may expect this introduction to help us bring into focus the characters mentioned in the psalm titles, who were also depicted in this Psalter and who are still in need of a satisfactory explanation, such as the sons of Kore. To this end, the new edition here is accompanied by a parallel English translation. Structure and contents of the Prologue The text of the Prologue, extending to just over 250 lines in this edition, argues for the exclusive authorship of David over the individual psalms and the Psalter as a whole. It can be subdivided into three main parts, capped by an introductory and a conclusive section. Part I (ll. 1-76) presents a first explanation of the topic; part II (ll. 76-178) bears the main bulk of the allegorical interpretation offered for each personal name mentioned in the titles of the psalms, beginning with David. Part III (ll. 179-254) extends David’s authorship to all psalms that do not bear a name in the titles, and ends with a recapitulation of the liturgical function of the psalms and further pointers to their interpretation, promising a more extended version of the prologue’s argument. This statement hints to the author’s conception of the piece not as a Prologue to the Psalter, but as a Prologue to his commentary on the Psalter, in whichever form (scholia or more extended catechetical pieces). This structure can be presented in schematic form thus: Introduction (ll. 3-37) ll. 3-21: Malachy announces the coming of Christ as the Sun of Justice,

8

MERCATI, Il commentario d’Esichio, p. 154. For the full list, see D’AIUTO, p. 103 at n. 106 10 On the possible evaluations of this emphasis, see B. CROSTINI, Editing a Greek Catena from a Single Illuminated Manuscript (Vat. gr. 752), in The Arts of Editing Medieval Greek and Latin: a Casebook, ed. by E. GÖRANSSON – G. IVERSEN – ARS EDENDI, Toronto 2016, pp. 54-71. 9

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whose role is to illumine the world and the hidden meaning of Scriptures; ll. 22-37: exhortation to welcome Christ and to offer Him “intelligent worship” through the words of the psalms. Part I (ll. 38-60) ll. 38-52: introduction to the topic by its antithesis: according to the Hebrew text, the authors of the psalms are mentioned in the psalm titles; there were thus many other authors besides David; ll. 53-60: first general refutation based on the opponents’ quotation of 1 Chronicles 15: if David is the leader, how can he not also be the sole author? ll. 61-76: the second general argument is that the psalms by authors such as Moses and Solomon should be, like their odes, also found in other biblical books; but the fact that they are nowhere else mentioned in Scripture invalidates their attribution. Part II (ll. 76-178) ll. 76-78: here the argument turns to the spiritual/allegorical interpretation of the names in the titles as a way out of their function as authormarkers; ll. 79-110: interpretations of the name of David: ll. 79-81: there are 3 different interpretations of David: a) set at naught b) enough by his hand c) beloved ll. 82-89: a) is explained further as a, i) helpless like a baby; and a, ii) sinners who need God’s help to repent; ll. 90-105: c) is explained further as i) the people of God and ii) the saints ll. 106-110: psalm for David has a Christological interpretation that includes b) and c) ll. 111-134: interpretations of the sons of Kore: ll. 111-127: identity of other persons as taking charge of cult and psalm singing; ll. 128-134: 3 meanings for sons of Kore: a) pure in heart b) helpless (as sinner needing God’s help) c) disputational: longest further explanation through the example

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of Kore and his anti-hierarchical rebellion ll. 135-145: interpretation of Asaph as: a) the one who gathers b) the synagogue ll. 146-161: interpretation of the seed of God ll. 162-170: interpretation of Solomon as ‘the most peaceful’ is Christological ll. 171-178: interpretation of Moses as ‘lifted up from water’ prefigures Baptism Part III (ll. 179-254) The case of the psalm titles without an attribution is slightly different, as allegorical interpretation does not work in the absence of a name. This section argues that all these psalms are also by David by finding biblical quotations where some psalm verses are attributed to David’s ipsissima verba. ll. 179-213: unattributed psalms: ll. 179-187: Ps 2 is quoted in Acts 4:24, therefore it is by David; ll. 188-203: Ps 1 is also by David as he was the first among the singers (cf. 1 Chron 16:4-7); ll. 203-210: Ps 94 is also spoken by David as the Letter to the Hebrews attests; ll. 211-220: anonymous psalms are also by David as St Stephen witnesses; ll. 221-234: the Hallel collection is also by David as he sang Hallelujah! Conclusion (ll. 235-254) ll. 235-249: the other named characters are only singers and teachers, and through the words of David they instruct the people of God to obedience, just as it now happens in church; ll. 250-254: I will explain other things about the psalms in a longer discussion later (possibly pointing to his scholia to each psalm verse). The question of interpretation is the byword of this Prologue, which essentially points to different ways of reading the Scriptures and dealing with phrases that may or may not have an obvious or reasonable literal interpretation. Thus, from the outset, the quotation from Malachy 3:20 is given a Christological interpretation concerning the prophecy of the rising of the Sun of Justice: the process of illumination begun with Christ’s Incarnation includes not only a moral, but also a cognitive aspect in that

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obscurities and hidden meanings in the words of the Bible can be made clear by reference to Him. Further, throughout the short treatise, interpretation of passages from the Book of Chronicles is set as a standard in support of the main thesis, namely, that David can only be understood as the sole author of the psalms in view of his primary role in organizing worship. Although primacy is made, in a logical leap, to equate authorship, the argument is also based on the understanding of the subordinate role of the other characters mentioned in the titles as liturgical performers of David’s words. In the conclusion to the treatise, the Levites’/Koraites’ role is extended to that of all teachers who address the people of God in the words of David, their leader and prophet. The interpretation of psalm titles according to Hebrew exegesis is said to yield the false conclusion that the psalms were written by a plurality of authors. Nevertheless, the spiritual or allegorical interpretations of the names that are supposed to turn us away from this false assumption are given according to Hebrew etymologies.11 Thus it is the Hebrew scholarship reflected by Hesychius that provides the key for interpreting the names themselves in a variety of ways, including the Christological key which is recurrently, but not exclusively, used here. Mennes’s List of Manuscripts of the Prologue In his list of works by Hesychius, Mennes uses the abbreviation ‘E’ to indicate the Prologue. Besides the two manuscripts used by Mercati in his 1901 edition, Mennes mentions the following codices as containing the Prologue:12 — Scorial. .1.2, 11-12th c., fols 3v-7r13 — Cantabr. Ff III 6, 17th c., fols 1r-2r14 — Mosq. gr. 194 (= Vladimir 48), 11th c., fols unspecified15 — Mosq. gr. 358 (= Vladimir 47), 11th c., fols 40r-43r16

11 A more detailed comparison with the Onomastica by Jerome and those published by Wutz would be appropriate. It should find place in a more detailed commentary on the text, to be published as a separate article. 12 MENNES, Inventaris, I, p. 8 and n. 22, gives an overview of this list; each manuscript is then described in the course of his thesis with an individual entry based on catalogue descriptions and published literature. 13 Ibid., I, p. 24 no. 41. 14 Ibid., I, p. 22 no. 37. 15 Ibid., I, p. 34 no. 74. 16 Ibid., I, p. 35 no. 77.

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— Barb. gr. 455, a. 1276, fols 3r-7r17 — Ott. gr. 398, 11th-12th c., fols 16-2318 — Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS. CXIX, 9th-10th c., fol. 1v19 This article will include a new collation from mss Scorial. .1.2 (E)20 and Mosq. gr. 358 (S),21 as well as the early Verona fragment in majuscule script (V). The Psalter with catena from the Library at El Escorial was briefly mentioned by Devreesse in connection with the text of Hesychius’s Prologue22 and is now considered a key witness to Hesychius in the catena tradition,23 deserving further detailed study. As for the codex in Moscow, although the poor quality of the reproductions causes doubts concerning some readings, it has revealed itself an intelligent and valuable witness to the text, as we shall see below in greater detail. The other witnesses in Mennes’s list were excluded from the present edition for various reasons: two manuscripts, namely Ott. gr. 398 and Mosq. gr. 194, appear not to contain this text at all, while two others, Cantabr. Ff III 6 and Barb. gr. 455, have a derivative and a problematic version respectively. Despite repeated inspection of fols 16-23, specified by Mennes as containing the Prologue in Ott. gr. 398, only the following texts, already recorded in the catalogue,24 can be securely listed as being present (transcribed here with diplomatic spelling): — fols 16r, l. 5-20r, l. 13 (new divider): 17

Ibid., I, p. 65 no. 160. Ibid., I, p. 67 no. 165. 19 Ibid., I, p. 75 no. 186. 20 G. DE ANDRÉS, Catálogo de los Códices Griegos de la Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, III: Códices 421-649, Madrid 1967, pp. 2-4. See also the article by Reinhart Ceulemans in this volume. I am grateful to Dr Ceulemans for information and discussion about this ms, and I owe to him the reproductions from the archive of the Göttingen Septuaginta-Unternehmen. 21 Arch. VLADIMIR, Систематическое описание рукописей Московской Синодальной (Пат­ риаршей) библиотеки. Част I: Рукописи греческие [A systematic description of the manuscripts of the Synodal (Patriarchal) Library in Moscow. Part 1: Greek manuscripts], Moscow 1894, pp. 45-48. I am extremely grateful to Marie Cronier, of the IRHT Section grecque, Paris, for sending me scanned microfilms of the relevant folios of this otherwise unreachable manuscript in record time, and also to Timothy Janz for providing scans of the Catalogue. 22 DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 250, n. 48. 23 See in this respect the remarks by R. Ceulemans in this volume. 24 The description in the catalogue, E. FERON & F. BATTAGLINI, Codices manuscripti graeci Ottoboniani bibliothecae Vaticanae descripti, Rome 1893, pp. 209-210, identifies the first acephalus text as the Letter to Marcellinus: fol. 1r-v: ad Marc. ch. 5-8, PG27, 13D3-17C6, but fails to recognize its continuation at fols 2r-12r, l. 12, as ad Marc. ch. 11 end, PG 27, 24B11end, which it designates as “Tractatus acephalus in psalmos, qui explicit fol. 12 verbis λ λ ντε ν ρε ιοι . 18

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π ν ε τ ι το ε λτ ριον. inc.: ν ν ο εν π το ε ι τ ν ι des.: ν τ ἐ ρ ν ν τ . tit. (in red):

(ρου

λ )

υν τι τ

— fols 20r, l. 14-27r, l. 8 (divider and title in brown with red initial for text): tit.: πό ν ρι νου ε το λ ο . inc.: ἐπι ε ρ νοι λ ο π ρ τ ν λ ν ν τρε des.: τ ν ε ιν τ ν πλου τ ρ ι νο ε ρ

ν ν.

— fols 27r, l. 8-27v, l. 10 (brown divider and title/initial all brown):

που ἐ το πο ν τι ο ε (λ ι) ρ τ ν ἐ τ ν τ τ πεπρ ( ν ) ε τ ν ι πρ ντι πρ τ τ λει inc.: Π ν το υ ρ ν des.: λο ν π ρ ο τ ν ιλ(ε ν). tit.:

υ

The text of the Psalter with catena begins at fol. 39r.25 This manuscript is of varying quality with respect to its mise-en-page and neatness. It also displays a later restoration at fols 78-92.26 Similarly, the presence of the text is doubtful in Mosq. gr. 194 (= Vladimir 48): it is not mentioned in the catalogue entry, which is admittedly very summary, and, although Mennes appears to think that this manuscript is a copy of the other manuscript from the Moscow Synodal Library where the text does occur,27 in fact the similarities are more striking with Ott. gr. 398, down to the identical inscription on the cross that decorates the page with verses on the Psalter.28 Further comparison between these manuscripts is therefore desirable.29 The manuscript at Cambridge University Library, Ff. III. 6, is a seventeenth-century copy of the Oxford manuscript O, and can therefore be set aside without discussion.30 Although the text of the Prologue is followed 25

DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, p. 263; the catena in question is KARO – LIETZIV. manuscript has also been studied from the point of view of its Hexaplaric readings: Psalmen in den Hexapla: erste kritische und vollständige Ausgabe der hexaplarischen Fragmente auf dem Rande der Handschrift Ottobonianus Graecus 398 zu den Ps 24-32, ed. A. SCHENKER, Città del Vaticano 1982 (Studi e testi, 295), cf. p. 24. 27 Mennes appears to suggest this in the footnote (p. 8, n. 22): “en diens copie 194?” I thank Reinhart Ceulemans for clarifying this to me. 28 See in this volume the article by ACCONCIA LONGO, pp. 167-168 and n. 38. 29 On the relation between these mss according to the contents of their catena (but without specific reference to the prefatory materials), see DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 264-265. According to Dorival, the prefatory materials are contained at fols 1r-7v. 30 A Catalogue of the Library of the University of Cambridge, 5 vols (Cambridge, 1856), 2:413-414 [consulted online: https://archive.org/details/catalogueofmanus01cambuoft]. MANN type 26 The

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there by a selection of Hesychius’s Commentarius magnus under Chrysostom’s name, accompanied by a partial Latin translation, this juxtaposition is evidently not to be considered significant. The Catalogue does not specify what the model for this second text was, though it is likely to be another manuscript at the Bodleian, a hypothesis in need of verification. Finally, Barb. gr. 455 is a well-known Southern Italian manuscript signed and dated 1276.31 Here the text of the Prologue is embedded in a composite text providing a “catena proemiorum psalmorum” on fols 2r-11v: tit.: ρι ολο περ τ ν ἐπι ρ τ ν λ inc.: ρ ε ν ι

τ

ρ

εε

ν τ ν λ ν. ν πο ει ο τ τ ιν τ τ ν πεντι ο τ ν ν ε....32

λ τ

ν

ρ

The text of Hesychius follows without a separation, beginning on fol. 3r, l. 23 and ending on fol. 7r, l. 13. As Mercati remarked that this manuscript is not a descendant of either the Oxford or the Milan mss on which he had published his edition, it would be interesting to study this recension. However, because it is both highly idiosyncratic and scarcely legible even de visu — the reused parchment makes the writing even of the scriptio superior appear blurred — this witness too will be set aside for now.33 Description of Manuscripts The manuscripts included in this edition are described in this section, starting from the most ancient, the Verona fragment. Mariachiara Fincati examined this leaf and the Milan manuscript in person, contributing firsthand descriptions of these witnesses. Barbara Crostini once examined the Oxford codex, a precious Reserve manuscript not often made available, 31

MENNES, Inventaris, p. 65 no. 160; A. TURYN, Codices graeci Vaticani saeculis XIII e[t] XIV scripti annorumque notis instructi, Città del Vaticano 1964, pp. 53-56, tab. 32 (fol. 114v), 168a (subscription, fol. 145r); RGK, vol. 3, no. 68, A: p. 47; B: p. 30; C: taf. 36 (fol. 145r subscription by Basilios Sikelos). Although the first quire containing the Prologue is in a different hand, the style and dating suggest the same region and time as that of the main part of the codex. 32 This composite text was described by G. MERCATI, Osservazioni a proemi del Salterio di Origene, Ippolito, Eusebio, Cirillo Alessandrino e altri: con frammenti inediti, Città del Vaticano 1948 (Studi e testi, 142), pp. 145-148, and two parts of it were edited in the same volume. The first section, edited by Mercati at pp. 149-152, is not attributed to any author. 33 S. VOICU – J. NORET, Le palimpseste italo-grec du Vatic. Barberinianus Gr. 455, in Analecta Bollandiana 89 (1971), pp. 323-342, at p. 342: “Les folios 2-11 sont aussi palimpsestes, mais pratiquement rien n’a pu être déchiffré du texte sus-jacent. Seules demeurent encore lisibles des initiales rouge foncé qui, par leur fréquence, font penser qu’il s’agissait, par ex., de canons liturgiques”. Hesychius does not figure among the texts (mainly homiletic and hagiographical) deciphered in the other palimpsest folios of this manuscript.

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and the Escorial ms, though at stages well prior to the project of this article. The Moscow ms was only available through catalogue descriptions and reproductions. Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS CXIX (109) The manuscript consists of a single, rather thick parchment sheet measuring 144 × 85 mm and written on both sides.34 The sheet is preserved in a parchment binding, within a paper binion, and it is tied to the case by two thin threads; the recto of the folio appearing to the reader contains the beginning of Cyril’s Commentary to the Psalter (CPG 5202), introduced by a large decorated pyle, while on the verso Hesychius’s prologue ends. A. Mai mistakenly considered such sequence to be correct,35 and published the end of Hesychius’s prologue as if it were the conclusion of the (thus very brief) prologue by Cyril; only after Vaccari’s identification of the alleged verso as belonging to Hesychius’s prologue,36 it became clear that the sheet had been wrongly tied to its case, the original recto being the hair side containing the last lines of Hesychius’s Prologue to the Psalter, while Cyril’s Commentary occupies the original verso. Cyril’s commentary is introduced by a title ( υρ λλου ρ ιεπι όπου λε ν ρε ε το λ ο ) written in red in a larger upright majuscule (3.5 × 2.5 mm); the initial ι in the text is decorated the same way as the large pyle in red, blue, green, and yellow.37 The text is written full page with ruling type 00C1 LEROY-SAUTEL impressed on the hair side. The writing is an oblique majuscule usually on the ruled lines; its module is 2.5 × 2 mm; accents and angular breathings, as well as punctuation, are by the same hand. The ink is pale-brown. The writing area is 95 × 70 mm as far as Hesychius’s text is concerned; it is a little smaller for Cyril’s text (80 × 70 mm), since the large pyle (30 mm high) occupies the first lines of the verso. Hesychius’s text occupies 23 lines, 12 of them being written full-line, the last 11 gradually reducing in length in order for the text to dovetail into a triangular shape. A π at the begin34 S. MARCHI, I manoscritti della Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona. Catalogo descrittivo redatto da don Antonio Spagnolo, Verona 1996, pp. 210-211. Photographic reproductions of this sheet can be found in Biblioteca Capitolare. Verona, ed. by A. PIAZZI, Fiesole 1994, pp. 70-71 (tavv. XXIX-XXX); see also Splendori di Bisanzio. Testimonianze e riflessi d’arte e cultura bizantina nelle Chiese d’Italia, Milan 1990, pp. 216-217. 35 A. MAI, Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, Rome 1843-1854, III, tab. II and p. 143. 36 A. VACCARI, I titoli dei salmi nella scuola antiochena, in Biblica 9 (1928), pp. 78-88, esp. p. 82 n. 1. 37 The edition of the whole of Cyril’s Prologue can be found in G. MERCATI, Il proemio inedito di San Cirillo Alessandrino al suo commento al Salterio, in ID., Osservazioni a proemi del Salterio, pp. 129-144, esp. pp. 140-144.

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Fig. 1 – Veron. MS CXIX recto (Hesychius). Courtesy of the Biblioteca Capitolare, Verona.

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ning of line 9 (λοιπ ν) is written in ekthesis with a larger module (7 × 3 mm). The spaces at the sides of the descending triangle were filled by two symmetrical phytomorphic ornaments in blue, red, and yellow, while an S-shape decoration is found directly below its vertex (see fig. 1).38 Traditional abbreviations are employed for nomina sacra ( υ , ριο ); a kind of apostrophon appears at the end of the name , probably in order to mark the end of such an unusual name.39 Iota in long diphthongs is never written. The sheet must have been part of a precious Psalter, likely from Southern Italy,40 dating back to the late ninth/early tenth century.41 Mercati initially suspected the Verona fragment to belong to the Turin Psalter, MS B VII 30, a ninth/tenth-century majuscule manuscript containing the Psalms and a catena commentary and lacking the initial folios (1-20), but he quickly abandoned such hypothesis.42 The fragment preserves ll. 246-254 in this edition and presents four variants with respect to the text edited by Mercati (cf. apparatus criticus below, p. 376). Milan, Ambros. B 106 sup. (gr. 127) This manuscript43 contains an edition of the Psalms and Odes with a catena commentary,44 beginning at fol. 24r. The previous 23 folios include introductory texts and apparatuses as follows: on fols 2r-4v, Eusebius’s Argumenta psalmorum, starting from the incipit of Psalm 22 ( ), the initial 38 I. HUTTER mentions this type of decoration in La Bible du Patrice Léon: Codex Reginensis Graecus 1: commentaire codicologique, paléographique, philologique et artistique, ed. by P. CANART, Città del Vaticano 2011 (Studi e testi, 463), pp. 195-272 (“The Decoration”), esp. p. 257, n. 252. 39 Cf. the description of a similar phenomenon in O, below. 40 MARCO D’AGOSTINO in Splendori di Bisanzio, 216-217, and Biblioteca Capitolare, p. 70. 41 The dating depends on both the writing, provided with original breathings and accents, and the type of decoration. 42 G. MERCATI, Il proemio inedito, p. 131, n. 4; S. PARENTI, Nota sul Salterio-Horologion del IX secolo Torino, Biblioteca Universitaria B.VII.30, in Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata s. III vol. 4 (2007), 275-287, dates the Turin Psalter to the early ninth century (p. 276) and endorses the hypothesis that the fragment Verona CIX (119) is a membrum disiectum of it (p. 277). I had the opportunity of visiting the library in Turin and to inspect the remains of this codex, which was burnt in a fire in 1904. Despite it too being written in an inclined Alexandrine majuscule, it does not seem to come from the same production: the parchment is thinner than in the Verona leaf, and the ink of the writing is often visible through to the verso. Therefore, I would not necessarily relinquish Mercati’s conclusions. 43 AE. MARTINI – D. BASSI, Catalogus codicum Graecorum Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, Hildesheim – New York 1978 (facs. repr. of edition Milan, Hoepli, 1906), pp. 136-138. 44 On the catena, see DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, III, pp. 440-442, 444-492.

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bifolio being now lost; on fols 4v-5r, the π ε ι τ ν ι ν by the same author, ending with the mention of the dawn hymn ( νο ιν ); fol. 5r, two poetic compositions mentioned as οι ε τ ν (υ ) ν τ ου, consisting of 7 and 5 verses respectively;45 fols 5v-7r contain twelve cycli paschales per page, written in carmine within circular frames by the tenthcentury scribe; the last two roundels on fol. 7r had been left empty but were filled with Paschal data in pale-brown ink around the years 1223-1224;46 the twelve roundels on fol. 7v remained empty. Fols 8r-23v attest excerpts of various ecclesiastical works,47 among which select passages from the Prologue to the Psalms by Hesychius of Jerusalem, the focus of this article, whose text is to be found at fols 12r-15r (see fig. 2). The codex consists of 256 parchment sheets, plus two paper flyleaves at the beginning and one at the end; after the two initial paper sheets, a half bifolium in thick parchment carries on its hair-side recto the name of the oldest known owner, Ambrosius Cavopenna,48 and the content of the book (Psalmi cum Cathena); a note on the verso testifies that the codex belonged to the books of J(oannes) V(icentius) Pinelli. The parchment sheets, 240 × 178 mm, are bound together in 33 fascicles, although the first quire was not originally computed as part of the codex: the first signature, , actually appears on the lower left-hand margin of fol. 8r. All fascicles are quaternions, except for the first one, nowadays a ternion since the first bifolio dropped at some stage, with textual loss,49 and the last one, which is a quinion.50 All quaternions have quire signatures in the lower left-hand margin of the both recto of the first sheet and of the last verso. 45

They belong to epigram XII in J. B. PITRA, Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata, vol. II, Tusculum 1884, pp. 440-441, the first of them matching lines 6-12 PITRA, the second (tagged as λλο ) matching lines 1-5 PITRA. See also the article by Augusta ACCONCIA LONGO in this volume for the context of these verses and their attribution, p. 168 and n. 43. 46 According to G. MERCATI, D’un palimpsesto Ambrosiano contenente i Salmi esapli, in Atti della regia accademia delle Scienze di Torino XXXI (1896), pp. 663-667, repr. in ID., Opere minori, I, Città del Vaticano 1937 (Studi e testi, 76), pp. 325-329, esp. p. 326. This folio can be seen in K. LAKE – S. LAKE, Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts to the Year 1200, 3, Boston 1935: MS 125, pl. 212. 47 Complete list in MARTINI-BASSI, Catalogus, pp. 136-137. 48 Though not mentioned elsewhere, Ambrosius could have belonged to the family of the rulers of Aegina who put the island under Venetian protection in 1425: see F. THIRIET, Régestes des délibérations du Sénat de Venise concernant la Romanie, 3 vols, Paris 1958-1961, 3: pp. 87, 229, and J.R. MELVILLE-JONES, Venice and Thessalonica 1423-1430: the Venetian Documents, Padua 2002 (Archivio del Litorale Adriatico, 7), pp. XII, 25, 99. 49 Thus Eusebius’s list of psalm incipits begins with the number 22 (see above). 50 There are actually two further exceptions that are, however, only apparent: fols 208213 constitute a ternio, while fols 214-223 constitute a quinio. This is due to a misplacement of the sheets, whose correct sequence is the following: fols 214, 208-213, 223 constitute quaternio (27), fols 215-222 constitute quaternio (28).

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Fig. 2 – Milan, Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 12r. By permission of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

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Fols 8r-23v are written full page, each page containing 23 lines in a written area of 155 × 100 mm (ruling type P2 64D1); 51 the upper, the lower and the external margins are 35 mm wide, the inner 23 mm wide. The writing module is regular, measuring ca. 2-3 mm both in height and width. The main text, comprising the Psalter with catena commentary at fols 24r-256v, has a different mise-en-page: the biblical text occupies an area of 120 × 80 mm, usually for 17 lines of text;52 the commentary is located around the text according to the ruling type LAKE I, 21a53 (see fig. 3). The writing of the biblical text has a larger module than the one of the commentary (2 × 1.5 mm the former, 1.2 × 1 mm the latter). The ink is pale-brown, except for Paschal cycles, titles, capitals, incipits, note numbers54 and (abbreviated) names of the authors mentioned in the commentary: these are written in carmine. The writing is a minuscule of the ‘Ephrem’ type, oblique, usually pendent from the ruled lines.55 Iota is nearly always adscriptum. Breathings are angular. The scribe at times employs a curious delta resembling a Latin semi-uncial “d”, for example on the last line of fols 10v and 17r, line 22 of fol. 18v, line 7 of fol. 19r; such a type of delta seems to occur in titles only, written in majuscule, and its presence is limited to the initial part of the codex.56 Corrections of omissions in the text are added by the scribal hand in the margins (e.g. fol. 13r, line 18). The same hand also wrote comments about the text copied. 51 J. LEROY – J.-H. SAUTEL, Répertoire de réglures dans les manuscrits grecs sur parchemin: base de donnés, Turnhout 1995; this combination is not contemplated in the examples given in the book. Sometimes only 5 vertical lines rather than the original 6 appear, due to the trimming of the sheets during the restoration. 52 There are exceptions: fol. 32r shows 19 lines, while fol. 223r/v only 9. 53 LAKE, 3, pl. 211 (fol. 184r). Following the LEROY – SAUTEL system, the ruling type can be classified as P2 64D1 (the same as the introductory pages) or even P2 74D1; the catena text lies between the second and the third vertical lines (excluding the justification lines) of the external margin. 54 Both in the text and in the commentary. 55 It can be compared with the coeval writing of MS Ambros. B 119 sup.: see C. M. MAZZUCCHI, Dagli anni di Basilio Parakimomenos [cod. Ambr. B 119 sup.], in Aevum 52 (1978), pp. 267-316, tav. 1. Further details about the relation minuscule/majuscule in this script can be found in E. FOLLIERI, La reintroduzione di lettere semionciali nei più antichi manoscritti greci in minuscola, in Bullettino dell’archivio paleografico italiano, series III, 1 (1962), pp. 15-36, esp. p. 20, and C. M. MAZZUCCHI, Minuscole greche corsive e librarie, in Aegyptus 57 (1977), pp. 166-189: 184; ID., Leggere i classici durante la catastrofe, in Aevum 68 (1994), pp. 164-218, esp. pp. 171-172; and ID., Venetus A e Ambr. B 114 sup. Due codici del medesimo copista e la loro storia, in Aevum 86 (2012), pp. 417-456, esp. p. 420. 56 These “Latin” deltas appear in other tenth-century manuscripts: see MAZZUCCHI, Leggere, p. 167, with reference to ID., Alcune vicende di Cassio Dione in età bizantina, in Aevum 53 (1979), pp. 94-139, esp. pp. 126-127, and L. PERRIA, Un nuovo codice di Efrem: l’Urb. gr. 130, in Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 24-25 (1977-1979), pp. 33-114, esp. pp. 60-61.

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Fig. 3 – Milan, Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 113r. By permission of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

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For example, at the beginning of Hesychius’s Prologue, the scribe wrote a ο το τ τ ιον τ ν Π λ(ου) ρ ετ ι note in the outer margin: ε ν57 (cf. fig. 2). This appreciation reveals that the scribe was learned in matters exegetical, unless the note was copied in turn from a model. The scribe tried to place the appropriate commentary alongside the biblical text being referred to, but he sometimes failed to achieve a perfect synchronization. For example, Psalm 6 begins on fol. 28r, while its commentary begins in the middle of fol. 28v, preceded by the tag ρ ( ) and by a signe de renvoi in the shape of a downward arrow placed above a T,58 both written in carmine. Nomina sacra ( υ , εό , ρ λ, ο ρ νό , πνε , π τ ρ, ν ρ πο , ο , ερου λ ) are usually shortened according to the typical usage; abbreviations and brachygraphic marks are quite rare in the main text (see, e.g., π with a superscript ε for περ in fol. 13r, line 16), whereas they are more frequent in the commentary, as well as in the argumenta at the beginning of the book. Brachygraphy is largely employed by the twelfth-century additional scholia at fols 6v-7v, about which more below. The spelling of Moses’s name varies throughout the text of Hesychius’s commentary: fol. in the genitive at line 16 but the 14r carries the shorter spelling υ , in the nominative at line 23. longer one, Neither decorated bands nor miniatures are present, except for fine decorated lines (in pale-brown ink) separating different works (e.g. fols 12r, 15v, 16r, 17r, etc.). However, the initials of many psalms are adorned with spirals, small additional strokes, triangles, leaves, the ink being always carmine (see fig. 4). The codex has been dated to the years 966-967 on the basis of the Paschal tables, though these actually belong to the unnumbered fascicle placed before the Psalter; the writing, however, confirms that a single hand is at work throughout the whole book, thus demonstrating that the first fascicle was part of the same production. This identity of hand is clinched by the observation that the copyist occasionally suspends his more usual oblique style of writing in the main text and employs an upright script which precisely matches that appearing in Paschal cycles, for example at fols 79v-80r. A later, twelfth-century hand wrote some scholia, especially in the initial folios (fols 6v-7v),59 but also in the margins of fols 18v, 78r, and 99v; these scholia did not escape the attention of Mercati, who published them 57

“And this one starts mocking the writings of Eusebios son of Pamphylos”. See MER-

CATI, Il commentario d’Esichio, pp. 145-179, esp. p. 154. 58 The same mark appears on fol. 28r, above the last

59

letter of in the title of Ps 6. It can be seen in LAKE – LAKE, Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts, pl. 212: fol. 7r.

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Fig. 4 – Milan, Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 195v. By permission of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

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in a note in 1896.60 According to his analysis, these notes attest that the twelfth-century owner of the ms could consult a copy of Origen’s Hexapla of the Psalms, and wrote at fol. 7v an observation concerning the title of the Book of Psalms as it probably appeared in his antigraphon (Greek transcription of the Hebrew and fourfold translation).61 Some water drops damaged the writing of Psalm 21 around verse 23 (fol. 49v); the damaged letters were retraced in black ink by a later hesitating hand. Otherwise the text of the manuscript is well preserved. Further water and ringworm damage is limited to the lower external margin of many sheets. A modern restoration was carried out at the monastery of Grottaferrata in 1953. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D.4.1 A full-page portrait of David62 on blue background on the verso of fol. 15 faces the beginning of the Prologue attributed to Hesychius as contained in this Psalter manuscript now in the Special Reserve at the Bodleian Library. It is the only figural illustration, described, together with the geometrical decoration of the Easter tables and a headpiece, in the precious modern catalogues redacted by Irmgard Hutter.63 There is no need to fully repeat her detailed description here: let us note that this is a hefty manuscript of average size, measuring 232 × 170 mm and numbering 321 folios. To the images published in Hutter’s Corpus, the ‘Ornamentleiste’ acting as headpiece to Hesychius’s Prologue may be added here (fol. 16r: see fig. 5). The elongated squarish minuscule with prominent oblique strokes and occasional ‘boules’-type apices64 is typical of the tenth century, a date confirmed 60

MERCATI, D’un palimpsesto, pp. 326-329. Ibid., pp. 326-327: τ ον, (ἐ)ν το π ρι νου (ἐ) τε ει νοι (π)λο ο τ ε ρο( )εν ἐ ο εν (ἐ)πι ε ρ ι τ ν ( λον) τ ν λ ν ρ ( τ ) ε ρ. περ ἐ τ λο ντ το λ ν ειτο ἐ ρ πτο ελλ . ο τ ἐτ τ το ρ τ ν 61

λε ο ν ν

ε ρ λο λο λο λο ελλι λ ν λ ν λ ο λ ν τουτ τιν τι ο ἐ ελλ ν ντε τ ρ ελλ , π ντε ο τ ρ νε ( ντο) ..... ον, λο λ ν, ο τε το (υ ) ο τε τ (υ ) . (Mercati places lost letters in round brackets.) 62

There is an image of the David page in colour on the Bodleian website: http://bodley30. bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/s/5i4s1k. 63 CBM, I: no. 18, pp. 27-28, abb. 105 (fol. 24v), 106 (fol. 25v), 107 (fol. 13v) and 108 (fol. 15v: David), with bibliography. Of the older literature, M. FAULHABER, Ein wertvolle Oxforder HS. aus der Mappe einer Studienreise, in Theological Quarterly 83 (1901), pp. 218-232, is still worth remembering. 64 This ms is included in M. L. AGATI, La minuscola bouletée, 2 vols, Città del Vaticano 1992, pp. 32-33 and tav. 15. Agati specifies the ruling system as LEROY – SAUTEL P2 00D1.

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by the Paschal tables giving the year 951. These tables are disposed in six interlocking circles (inviting comparison with the Paschal tables in Vat. gr. 752), whose frames are tinted with green (fol. 34v). Many elements particularly in the ornament suggest a Southern Italian provenance, endorsed in most of the literature.65 Other provincial areas, such as Palestine, or the area of Trebizond in Weitzmann’s view,66 could also be put forward. The focus of an article dedicated by Ihor Shevchenko to this manuscript stresses the close link between the poetic composition found in acrostichs at fol. 36v and the pictorial realities that may have inspired such verses,67 bringing out subtle echoes between ekphrasis in word and art.68 Similarly, looking at the David portrait in the context of the text of the Prologue, we may note that the inscriptions surrounding it echo Hesychius’s words. While the inscription in the scroll, identified by Hutter, is a quotation from Ps 44:7 ( ρόνο ου ε ε τ ν ν το νο ), the top and bottom inscriptions deserve further scrutiny. The top inscription describes David as singer of the Psalter, a commonplace that usually accompanies figural representations of a singing David, armed with musical instrument (the harp or psaltery): υ προ τ ελ ντ λτ ριον. Here, the monolithic standing figure hardly represents a singer; rather, it is the figure of David as prophet and king that is emphasized by his holding a scroll with the text — a psalm — proclaiming God’s eternal stability and reign as well as by his royal attire. Rather, the image points forward to the description of David as leader and prophet developed in the Prologue according to the Book of Chronicles. The bottom inscription can be identified as a quotation from Acts 13:22, ρον υ τ ν το ε ν ρ τ τ ν ρ ν ου, ποι ει π ντ τ ελ τ ου. The first part of the quotation “I found David son of Jesse a man according to my heart” is in fact also quoted in Hesychius’s Prologue, 65 AGATI, La minuscola, p. 33, provides a summary of the previous literature, limiting herself to the non-committal view that “Carattere e colori dell’ornamentazione hanno sapore provinciale”. 66 K. WEITZMANN, Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols, Vienna 1996, I: p. 63 and Abb. 405-406. 67 I. SHEVCHENKO, Captions to a David Cycle in the Tenth-Century Oxford Auct. D.4.1, in Polypleuros Nous. Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag, ed. by C. SCHOLZ – G. MAKRIS, Munich 2000 (Byzantinisches Archiv, 19), pp. 324-341. As the title implies, Shevchenko considers each distich in its function as caption to an image representing David’s life and deeds, such as those found in illuminated Psalter cycles (as also in Vat. gr. 752). 68 This topic has received further elaboration in recent scholarship. See for ex. L. JAMES – R. WEBB, “To understand ultimate things and enter secret places”: Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium, in Art History 14 (1991), pp. 1-17; R. WEBB, Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice, Farnham 2009.

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Fig. 5 – Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D.4.1, fol. 16r. By permission.

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where it is expanded to mean that the expression of David’s heart was the poetic worship of the Psalter, which is in accordance to God’s own mind (see below, text ll. 34-35). Clearly this image of David and the inscriptions accompanying it were specifically constructed around the text of Hesychius’s Prologue, to capture and convey its essential message of David as sole author of the psalms. This correspondence is all the more notable as a similar phenomenon occurs in Vat. gr. 752, where Hesychius’s exegetical phrases are used as image captions for the illustrations that accompany the beginning of each psalm. Thus the relationship between the image and the text is deliberate, and carefully constructed. Although the parallel may not be pushed to extremes, I am not aware of other authors being used in this way, or indeed of any manuscripts similarly transforming their own texts into captions. One may also note that the colophon69 written by the scribe Anthimos at fol. 35r (an unusual place for such a declaration of “accomplishment”) not only follows, but is also thematically linked to some more jambic verses in praise of David as the ecclesiastical Orpheus.70 The Oxford manuscript has the orthographic peculiarity of adding apostrophe-like marks at the end of some words, such as biblical names71 , , ει λ , ε ιρ , ε λ, υ , , ι ο ) and (e.g. short particles (e.g. ρ περ , περ , τιπερ , ο , ἐ ).72 The disjunctive particle is consistently written without the accent: . The scribe uses iota adscript, though not absolutely regularly. Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, Scorial.

.1.2

The information about this manuscript comes mainly from the catalogue entry by De Andrés,73 together with other secondary literature concerning Psalter catenae. This is also an imposing codex measuring 356 × 268 mm and consisting of a total of 530 folios of parchment, written in a neat, Perlschrift-based minuscule that pinpoints its dating to the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. The catalogue describes the writing as pendant from the line and inclined to the right, with rectangular breathings, written in reddish-brown ink. It employs a large number of 69

Transcribed in CBM V, p. 27 and also in PARPULOV, Toward a History, no. 4, p. 363. The verses are transcribed in PARPULOV, Toward a History, no. 18, pp. 371-372 + no. 6, p. 364 (from two other mss); see also PITRA, Analecta sacra, pp. 371-372. Thanks are due to Augusta Acconcia Longo for help with these references. 71 See also above, MS V. 72 SHEVCHENKO, Captions, also remarks on this peculiarity at p. 331, n. 1. 73 DE ANDRÉS, Catálogo. See above, n. 21. 70

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standard abbreviations for word-endings. A gold background was applied to polychrome initials at fols 1r, 11r, and 13v, while the remaining initials, dividers and lemmata were written in gold, with the exception of the title of fol. 134r, which is simply red. The codicological structure consists of 67 regular quaternions, the 62nd mutilus of the last 3 sheets. Original quire signatures are written at the gutter end of the lower margin both of the first and of the last folio of each quire. The ruling has been studied as a particular type of catenae impagination on two columns by Dorival,74 but the mise-en-page of the prefatory texts is full-page, with 30 ll/p. Fol. 269v is blank. The manuscript belonged to the Giustiniani family, ultimately owned by Angelo Giustiniani (15201596), a Franciscan friar born on Chios who became bishop of Geneva in 1568. His name is written on the third flyleaf. The main psalm text with catena is found on fols 13v-490v and comprises 150 psalms with commentaries drawn from the most part from Hesychius, Theodoret and Peter of Laodicea. The presence of Hesychius makes this manuscript of special interest to this project, as Ceulemans points out in his essay in this volume.75 It is therefore relevant that this manuscript is also a witness to Hesychius’s Prologue, written at fols 3v-7r among a number of other short psalm introductions extending to fol. 13v. After the Odes, also accompanied by commentary (fols 491r-529v), the last folio contains prayers and the Easter computus. Mosq. gr. 358 (Vladimir 47; M.345) This eleventh-century Psalter came to Moscow from the Athonite monastery of Iviron, where it had the signature 9.76 Vladimir’s catalogue information is limited: this is a parchment codex numbering 403 folios. It measures 250 × 200 mm and is mutilus at either end. The Psalter catena it carries is Karo-Lietzman type XVIII,77 and it is found at fols 45-377, although a list enumerating 35 names of psalm commentators is also found at fol. 37r, which includes Hesychius of Jerusalem.78 Hesychius’s Prologue is found at fols 40r-43r, among a number of other prefaces occupying the initial 44 folios. A comprehensive study of the cycle 74 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, 91-93 and IV, 3-54. Here, as in Vat. gr. 752, TitPs glosses are found in the biblical column. 75 See esp. pp. 263-265 76 VLADIMIR, pp. 45-48; MENNES, Inventaris, pp. 35-36, no. 77. 77 DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 298-325. 78 The ms is mentioned also by L. MARIÈS, Études préliminaires à l’édition de Diodore de Tarse sur les Psaumes, Paris 1933, p. 88 (n. 32); MERCATI, Osservazioni a proemi del Salterio, pp. 57 n. 2, 130, 133, 161.

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of prefaces and of the epigrams remains a desideratum. Although some readings remain uncertain due to the poor quality of the reproduction, this scribe offers a passage that fills a lacuna intuited by Mercati (see below).

The Edition Relation between the manuscripts While Mercati’s text was primarily based on O (A offering a shorter text), the present edition considers S as its lead manuscript, especially where S and E are in accordance with each other and provide good readings. From a study of the collation, S emerges as the least idiosyncratic manuscript in the tradition, while E has a longer list of variants, including many omissions, which set it apart from the earlier manuscripts as well as from S. Thus, if E were copied from S (and it is probably not so), its scribe has, sometimes intelligently, and according to a precise, probably monastic, agenda, more heavily reworked its model. Equally, we can hypothesize that both S and E go back to an earlier ancestor, which I would argue is prior to O. Agreements with Mercati’s conjectures The agreements between SE and Mercati’s conjectured readings are given in the edition as positive apparatus, to remark the coincidence between the editor’s mind and the additional manuscript witnessess. The variant offered by SE at l. 18 resolves the textual crux highlighted by Mercati; the variant at l. 158 also offers a good alternative to the transmitted text. More importantly, Mercati had signaled the logical absence of a passage explaining the third meaning of the name David: the missing text hypothesized is found in the new manuscripts here collated. It is given according to E at ll. 121-123 in the present edition, while the longer version in S is transcribed in the apparatus. E has been chosen as providing at least part of the original portion that Mercati denounced as lacking, given that the readings of the longer passage in S are not entirely secure. At l. 233, Mercati’s conjecture is also confirmed in the reading of E. Biblical Quotations A separate apparatus in the second position below the Greek text identifies quotations from the Bible. All Old Testament references are given to the Septuagint. The quotations have been compared with their Scriptural sources:

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LXX = Septuaginta, ed. A. RAHLFS, Stuttgart 1979. NTG = Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. NESTLE-ALAND, Stuttgart 198826.

In addition, the Bible de la Septante translation has been consulted for Malachy, and the Antiochene text for the book of Chronicles.79 Where variants are attested in the source, these are reported beside the biblical reference in the biblical apparatus, with source variants indicated according to the manuscript sigla of the respective editions. Where variants also occur in the manuscripts of the Prologue, these are found in the apparatus criticus and cross-referenced to the biblical apparatus in brackets. 1. Departures from LXX text In the first quotation in the Prologue from Malachy 3:20, SE have a nonattested variant for ‘wings’: ‘deeds’ (l. 5). The similarity in the two words in the Greek may be behind a simple exchange; another possibility is that a different interpretation is given to the healing in question: with the word ‘deeds’ its practical physicality is emphasized, perhaps picking up on Hesychius’s interpretation of such healing as referring to the miracles of Christ. Because of this possibility, I have accepted this variant in the text (admittedly with a margin of risk). In the long quotation from 1 Chron 16:4-7 (ll. 191-198), the spelling of the many names mentioned at times differ completely from the LXX text or its variants, most remarkably that of the last man, Ozias in our text, but Ilel in the LXX. However, some variants are closer to the Antiochene text, in particular that of mss 19 and 108 according to the edition by N. Fernández Marcos and J. R. Busto Saiz. Furthermore, biblical quotations are sometimes paraphrased, to the extent that it is not always possible to pinpoint their source. 2. Agreements with LXX text In the following cases, SE and LXX agree in a reading against the other manuscripts of the Prologue: l. 123 l. 191 l. 192

ἐ ν (+ LXX, Lev 13:40)] ν om. υ (+ LXX, 1 Chron 16:4) ἐ τ ν (+ LXX, 1 Chron 16:4)] τ ν

In one case, S has the same (correct according to LSJ) spelling for cythara as LXX, which could have happened by haplography with respect

79

For detailed references, see the notes to the translation.

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to the double nu of the other mss; the double nu, on the other hand, reflects more closely the Hebrew term, kinnor: l. 195

ιν ρ ι (+ LXX)] ινν ρ ι

At Ps 118:141, E follows the LXX contra the other manuscripts: l. 97 The reading

ρτ ρι ] ι ι τ (LXX) ρτ ρι is not attested as variant.

Punctuation The modern ideal of being faithful to the punctuation in the manuscripts80 is beset, as in this case, by the variation in the manuscripts themselves. Further, it is in practice very difficult to grasp the subtleties of placement in the four levels of pauses used (lower, middle and upper dot, comma) from case to case, and thus to reproduce their variation faithfully. When the size of a high dot is enlarged and is followed by a wider-thannormal space in S, this arrangement, usually unanimously attested in the manuscripts though with different conventions, corresponds to a full stop in the edition or to a change in paragraph. I had initially compiled a log describing the absence of punctuation in the manuscript witnesses stored in a separate ‘Notes’ apparatus, from which it was notable that E and S converge in a number of cases in choice of punctuation also. However, I have not retained this apparatus as the variations were too numerous and did not appear helpful to the establishment of a readable text. In general, I consider high points and commas as effectively equivalent pauses. While grave accents can be found before punctuation, I have ‘regularized’ this all to acute because of the disparate occurrences of this phenomenon among witnesses.

80 This question constitutes the focus of several articles in the volume From Manuscripts to Book: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Textual Criticism and Editorial Practice for Byzantine Texts (Vienna, 10-11 December 2009) = Vom Codex zur Edition: Akten des internationalen Arbeitstreffens zu Fragen der Textkritik und Editionspraxis byzantinischer Texte (Vienna, 10.-11. Dezember 2009), ed. by A. GIANNOULI – E. SCHIFFER, Vienna 2011.

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List of Manuscripts and their Sigla A:

Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Ambros. B 106 sup., 10th c., fols 12r-15r

O:

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D.4.1, 10th c., fols 16r-24r

S:

Moscow, Historical Library, Mosq. gr. 358 (= Vladimir 47), 11th c., fols 40r-43r

E:

El Escorial, Scorial. .1.2, 11th-12th c., fols 3v-7r

V:

Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS CXIX (109), 9th-10th c., fol. 1v

Mer.:

Mercati’s edition (see n. 2)

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υ ου πρε υτ ρου ερο ολ ν ἐπ ρ τορ ε τ λτ ριον

5

10

15

20

p. 155

λ το εο προ τ ι προ ορευ ε ελο ε νυτ ι ε ελι λπι ι ρ ενο λ ν πρ ατελε μ το ς φοβουμ οις τ ομα α το λιος ικαιοσ ης κα ασις τα ς πρ εσι α το προ λλ ν ν προ ν ν τ ν το εο ονο εν υ ν ρ ι ἐπ τ ο ἐν τ ρου τιν ο λλ ἐν τ υτο ι τ υτο τ λ πειν τ π ντ περ ε εν ο το τ λιο ἐν τ υτο ο ρ ι ι τ υτο ο τ υ ειν τ π ντ τ τ ε ον π ο ριο ν ε ἐπ τ τ ου πεπλ ρ ε τ ν ο ου ν ν π ν λό ο ν ν ονευ ε προ τ λιο τ ν ικαιοσ ης προ νε ν εν ν τειλεν ο ν ν τ λ υ εν το τ ι νο λ ο τ ε ρυ ν λ ντ τ ν ε ν ρ ν λό ι τ το τ ι τ ο ενοι ν ε ντ ρ υ ελ ο ντε ε π εν πρ τόν τ ηλα κα τ κρ φια τ ς σοφ ας σου ήλ σ ς μοι ο ο το α ος λλ τ ς ποκεκρυμμ ης πρ τ α ἐν τ π τρ νερ ε ἐπ ἐ τ ν τ ν ερ ν ο όνον ν ει λλ ἐν ε ει προ που τ τρόπον ν ο πι τε οντε ε τόν υρ ν ι πλ ρο ορ ν ι τ λ ο ρτυρ τ ν τ ν ε ν ν πρό τε το π ου το ετ τ ν ν τ ιν

O: fols 16r-24r; A: fols 12r, l. 15-15r; S: fols 40r-43r; E: fols 3v-7r; V: 1r; Mer.: pp. 155-168 [OASEMer. 1 ερο ολ

ν] A]

13 το ] O: f. 16v

4 ατελε ... 5 α το ] Mal 3:20 α το ] ου LXX πρ εσι ] πτ ρυ ιν O LXX Ps 50:8 16 το ... 17 α ] 1 Cor 2:6-7

15 τ ... 16 μοι ]

2 ἐπ ρ τορ om. S | ἐπ ρ … λτ ριον om. A | τ λτ ριον] τ ν λτ ρ S 4 SE] τ ν OMer. 5 πρ ε ιν SE] πτ ρυ ιν OMer. (cf. LXX) 6 ονο εν ] ονο εν ι O ονο εν S 7 υτο SE] το OMer. | υτο ] το E 8 τ λ πειν τ SE] τ λ πειν ριτο τ OMer. | ε εν ο το ] ε εν E | τ ] ἐ τ O 10 τ ] τ E 12 προ νε ν εν ] προ νε ν ε OMer. 14 τ ι] τ ιS 17-18 ἐπ ἐ τ ν] ἐπ τ νO 18 ε ει προ που SE] ε ι προ π O num προ που (cfr. Luc. 9:29)? num potius ἐν ει ε πρ.? Mer. app. 19 τρόπον ] πρό πον SE | πι τε οντε ] πι τε ντε S 20 τ ν] τ ν O | πρό τε] προτ O

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Prologue of the investigation into the Psalter by Hesychios presbyter of Jerusalem.

5

10

15

20

The prophet of God, Malachy, who is rightly called ‘angel’, shows forth with his evangelical trumpet and proclaims to us: “A sun of justice will rise for you who fear his name, and healing [will be] in its deeds”. He is foretelling to us and predicting that the only son of God will be seen on earth, not in the substance of something else, but in his own; and through his own [substance] he illumines everything. In the same way the perceived sun is seen in its own substance, and through its own substance it brightens up everything. In this way also the divine radiance, our Lord Jesus, having been seen on earth, has filled with eternal light the entire world. Thus with reason the prophet here mentioned [i.e. Malachy] foretold Him as sun of justice, because He rose up so that we might see more clearly with the eyes of the mind even the hidden and invisible meanings that are in the divine scriptures, being guided by the light of his rays, so that we too might sing with the blessed David and say to him: “You have revealed to me the invisible and hidden things of your wisdom; but the wisdom not of this age, but that which was revealed before all ages in the Father”. But [this wisdom] will be made manifest in the last days, not only cognitively, but also in the form of a person appropriately, so that those who believe in Him would gain a surer certainty through the true witness of those who saw Him, both before His Passion and after the Resurrection. 3 angel] i.e. messenger; Mal’akh means angel in Hebrew, so it is debated whether Malachy can really be taken as a proper name for the author of this biblical book: see La Bible d’Alexandrie: Malachie, transl. L. VIANÈS, Paris 2011, p. 27. 4 trumpet] Hesychius provides an interpretation of the trumpet in Ps 80:4; cf. J. MCKINNON, Musical Instruments in Medieval Psalm Commentaries and Psalters, consulted at http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9104: “the trumpet signifies the Gospel itself. This identification of the trumpet with the Gospel and the preaching constitutes the nucleus of most subsequent allegories based on the trumpet”. | to us] πρ + accusative would normally taken as indicating the interlocutor; by accepting this reading, the text fits into a pattern of homiletic address to a (monastic?) audience, as the appellative ‘o brethren’ below (l. 39) also appears to confirm. The problem may have arisen in the reworking of the biblical quotation (see next note). | A ... 5 deeds] Mal 4:2 = LXX, Mal 3:20; the biblical quotation is spoken directly from God in the first person (my Name), but is changed here into the third person. On this passage, see S. LAUBER, “Euch aber wird aufgehen die Sonne der Gerechtigkeit”. (vgl. Ml 3,20). Eine Exegese von Mal 3, 13-21, Arbeiten zu Text und Sprache in Alten Testament 78, Sankt Ottilien 2006. 5 healing... deeds] cf. the note by VIANÈS, p. 162: “Selon Hésychius de Jérusalem, il s’agit des guérisons miraculeuses que le Christ a opérées quand il s’est incarné”. This interpretation could explain the variant “deeds” for “wings” of S and E, although so far this reading is unattested in the tradition of the LXX. 19 in2 ... 20 person] Mercati’s conjecture of a genitive instead of the dative offered by O was confirmed in the reading of SE (cf. apparatus). The formula has the ring of the Creed, cf. Cyril of Alexandria, μολογ α π στε ς τ λειο ν ἐν εότ τι τ λειο τ ἐν ν ρ πότ τι ἐν ν προ π νοο ενο [http://www. symbole.gr/chrtoms/dogma/1166-fides14].

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25

30

35

40

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ε νο ο ν υτ ν ἐπι ν τ ό λ λιος ικαιοσ ης τ ν ν ν τ ν υτο ἐπι ν ριν εν ι τ ε τ ν νε ι ν τον πλο τον τ ν υρ ν τ ν ε τ ν λο ν το ε ελπι ρ ε ι ελ ο τι τ ν υτο π τ ρ ν πο λ τ ν τ ενν ου το π τ ν πρ τ ν ν ρ ει ν λ νο νἐ λ ι τ ν το ριν ε τ ετ ι όν ι το ρε ν ου ι ουλο νοι π ε πλ ρ ποτ σας α τ μικρ το τ τ πιστευ τ ε ς μ ποτήριο υ ρο ο κ πολ σει τ μισθ ι ρρο ντε ε ο ο εν ετ ο ν ι νἐ τ το ριτο τ ν ἐ ι όρ ν λ ν πολυτελ ν πλ ντ τε υντε ντ τ νον λ το υ ν π τ ι λο ι τε νοερ ἐπι ο ου ε νυτ ι ι τ π του ν πε πο ν ε νολο ν τ ν λ ν ε πότ π ρ εν ἐπ ι το π το ρτυρ ντο ερ ποντο το περ ο ε ρο αυ τ το εσσα ρα κατ τὴ καρ α μου ἐπ λ ε ρ περ ο ε ρ ρ ενο τ υ ἐ ρε το ι το τ ν ε ν το ο ολον τὴ λογικὴ λατρε α μ Πρ τον ο ν τ ι ε ρ ό ε τ ν πρ ν υ ρ ν το ἐ ε ν ν προλό ου ἐ ενοι ἐπι ιρι τερ ετ τ τ ιο ε ο εν ν τ ριτι το υρ ου ν ο τε ρ ιον ο ι τ ἐ ε ν ν προο ιον π ρ ρ ε ν τι ρ ο εν ρι ε πολλ ρ νοι τ τ ρ ι ν ε ον εν ε το το ι ε ιο ι πολλ ν ι όρ ν προτ νεν ιτ ν λον τ ν λ ν ο όνον το υ ἐ τ ν ἐπι ρ ν τ ν ἐπι ει ν ν το λ ο ν ρ νειν ε ν ντ ι λ οντε το ν ε ν ι το υ το τ ν υ ν ορ λλου το τ ν το ρ λ του το τ ρου ολο ντο ν τιν ἐ τ ν υ λλου νεπι ρ ου τ ρου ν ν ου τιν λλ λο Προ ν το το ἐ τ ν Π ρ λειπο ν ν νελό ενοι τι τ υλ το ευ τ ρ ν ρ ν λε ενο υ τ ν υ ν 27 ετ f. 17v

ι όν ι] : f. 17r | το ] E: f. 4r

33 … 34 μισθ ] cf. Mt 10:42 12:1 ν] ν NTG

39 ἐπι

ιρι τερ ] S: f. 40v

34 ε ρο … 35 μου ] Acts 13:22

41 τι ] [A |

τ ] :

42 τὴ … μ

] Rom

p. 156

p. 157

εν] εν O ε E 24 τ ν υρ ν] τ ν υρ ν E 25 ελ ο ] ελ ο E 26 ενν ου ] εν ου S | λ νο ] λινο O 27 ἐ λ ι] ἐ λ ου ι O | ετ ι όν ι] ετ ι ν ι S | ου ι] ου ιν S 30 ν] ν S (fortasse) | το ] το O | τ ν] τ ν OS 31 πλ ντ τε] πλ ντ τε S 32 λο ι ] λο ι ι O, ι adscr. eras. | νοερ ] νοερ ι O, ι adscr. eras. | ε νυτ ι] νυτ ι, S | ι fortasse om. S | π του SE] π τ OMer 34 ρτυρ ντο ] ρτυρι ντο O 36-37 ο ολο ν] ό ο vix legitur in S 38 ρ ό ε ] ρ ε OS | υ ρ ν] υ ρ νO 39 ἐ ενοι ] ἐ ενοι O | ἐπι ιρι τερ ] ἐπ τ ιρι τερ SE | ιο ε ο εν] ιο ε εν O 41 τι ] τι ν O 44 ε ν ντ ι] ε νειντ ι O 45 τ ν] το O 46 το τ ρου ] τ ρου OMer. | τιν ] τιν O 23

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Thus he revealed himself to the world, as truly a sun of justice, and now also to us, he revealed his own grace. By it he showed us the way to the inscrutable richness of the treasures of knowledge of his thoughts. For I am hopeful, o brothers, that having revealed to us his own Father, he will also make known to us the eternal sources of his deeds, so that our vats may overflow with his grace, [in order] to give a share to those who have need and desire it, so that [the saying] “Whoever has given a fresh drink to one of these little ones who believe in me will not be without his reward” may be made fully true about us. Therefore let us take courage and be well pleased to share with you from his grace the crown forged and weaved from different costly gemstones, I mean that of David, which [crown] all rational and intelligent creation manifestly wears through unceasing hymnody that is sent up to God. The Lord of all introduced it [i.e. the hymnody] upon earth through his servant who had been witnessed by Him, about whom He said: “I found David the man of Jesse according to my heart”. For in truth He used David just as his own heart; he uttered through him his divine praise, [that is] our intelligent worship. First then we will begin the narrative with the writers before us and, having touched upon their prologue, we will go through what is more important after these, with the grace of our Lord. For I do not think right to omit their proem. For to some it seemed right by using much precision to put the Hebrew in the centre, and in this respect affirm that the book of Psalms is (composed) by many different prophets, and not by David alone. Since they say that they were able to examine [this issue] from the inscriptions that are placed above the psalms, that some are by David, others by the sons of Kore, others by Asaph, and by Ethan the Israelite, the following others are by Solomon, but one of them is by Moses, yet others are unattributed while different ones are anonymous, and some [have] Hallelujah. And they confirmed this also by adding a quotation from the Book of Chronicles, that David chose four men of the tribe of Levi, Asaph son of

38 our vats] this word has special resonance in the Psalter, as it is used in the titles; e.g. at Psalm 83, Hesychius interprets vats as a metaphor for the church. 54 intelligent worship] cf. D. GALADZA, ‘Logike latreia (Romans 12:1) as a Definition of Liturgy’, in Logos: a Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 52 (2011), 109-24.

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ορ ν ι ο τ εν ἐν πιον το ι το ἐν ι όροι ρ νοι μ σος στατο α τ ς αυ ς ρ ρ τ κρατ π ε ρας τ αλτήριο τ προε πον ι ντό τινε τ ν υ ρ ν ν τι ι τ ν λτ ρ ν ε ρ οντ ι ἐ ε εν τ τ π ἐ ε ν ν ἐ ο ντ ἐ το ρ ο εν ν λε ενοι π ρ ντ τ ἐ ο νοντ ι ο ρ ε ποι ενοι τ ν το τ ν ι ιν ε ρ το ε ρ ι μ σος αυ στατο α τ κρατ π ε ρας τ αλτήριο π ο το υ ἐ τν λο τ ν λ ν ε ν ν ρ ε ι τ νε τ λτ ριον τ π ἐ ε ν ν λε ό εν ο τι τ ρ ν ἐ ε ν ν ε ρ ετ ι λλ ἐ ε νοι το του ρ οντε ο τινε ετε ουν τ τ ι τ ν ἐ νο εν ο ι ρε ι τ ν περ τ ν λ ν ε ρ ν ο ε λοο εν οι ο ε ν ρ προε πον το ν ε ν ι το υ το τ ν υ ν ορ το λλον το ρ λ του τιν το ολο ντο ν το υ ρ νο ν ο ι πρ π ντ ν τ ν το υ τετ ι ἐν τ λ τ ν λ ν ἐ ε ι το τον ε τ ἐ ε νου λου περ το ν πρό ειτ ι ἐν ό ἐν ρι ο λλ ἐν ευτερονο ο ἐν τ λ τ ν λ ν ο πρ π ντ ν λλ ετ το ολο ντο πρ υ το π τρ το ε ρ νο ε το υ ἐ τν λ ό τ τ ν ἐ ε ν ν ι νοι ν τ ν ο τ ἐ ε ν ν τι το το ἐρ περ τ ν το ολο ντο λ ν τι ε λ ν το ολο ντο ελλον ἐ ε ι ἐν ιλε ι Π ρ λειπο ν ι τ το το ελλον ν λο ι ἐν τ τ λοι περ ε ρ τ ι περ το τι ν τ α πε τακισ λιαι λ ν το ο ο ἐ ν όνευ εν ε ρ λλ ἐρε ο τι τ ἐπι ρ τ ν λ ν

56 το

τ ν] O: f. 18r (το

τ ν)

60 ἐ

νο

εν ] A] E: f. 4v

71 ολο

p. 158

ντο ] O: f. 18v

56-57 μ σος … αλτήριο ] cf. 1 Chron 15; 25 74 α πε τακισ λιαι ] 3 Kingdoms 4:28 (= 1 Kingdoms 4:28, cf. 1 Kingdoms 5:12), ed. BROOKE-MCLEAN (repr. Cambridge, 2009), also available at https://archive.org/stream/p1oldtestamentin02broouoft#page/220/mode/lup

τ om. O | ρ όντ ν] ρ ον τ ν O 53 προε πον] προε πον S | υ ρ ν] υ ρ νO 54 ἐ ε εν ] ε εν O 56 ρ ε ποι ενοι] ρ ει ποι ενοι OS ρ ( ) ποι ενοι E | το τ ν] τοι τ( ν) E 56 ε ρ ι] ε ρ ι(ν) O | ο ] E 57 ε ρ ] ε ρ O | ο om. A 61-62 ο ε λο ο SE] ο ε λο O ο ε λό Mer. 63 ] το E | λλον] λλοι O λλ(ου ) E 64 ολο ντο ] ολό ντο O postquem λλου ν add. OMer. 65 ρ ν] ρ ν O | πρ π ντ ν] προπ ντ ν O 67 ν] νS 68 πρ π ντ ν ] προπ ντ ν O 69 ολο ντο ] ολό ντο O | πρ ] προ O 71 ολο ντο ] ολό ντο O 72 ολο ντο ] ολό ντο O 73 ελλον] ε ελλον O ελλε E | ν λο ι] λο ι νE 74 ν τ vix legitur in S | λ ν] λ ( ν) S 75 λλ ἐρε ο τι ] λλ ἐρε οι τ , O

51

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Kore, Heman, Ethan and Jeduthun, and he made them stand before the sanctuary with different instruments: in the midst of them stood David himself; and he was the leader of the leaders of the songs and mastered the psaltery in his hands. As we said before, some of the writers narrated these things: that what they have published is also found inscribed in any one of the psalters, because they have really gathered and explained such things from the Hebrew. But to me it seems that they have not interpreted such a narrative correctly. For if as they have said, in the midst of them stood David himself; and mastered the psaltery in his hands, how is it possible that the book of psalms is not just by David? But if they were to say that he was writing down in the psalter what was said by those others, then no longer could he be found [to be] their leader, but rather they would be his leaders, those who handed over to him what was uttered by them. Equally, also the distinction [of authors] that is proposed concerning the psalms does not seem to me to be reasonable. For they said that — as I said above — some are by David, while others are by the sons of Kore, and others by Asaph; another is by Ethan the Israelite, and some by Solomon, and one by Moses. Then I think it would have been necessary that the psalm by Moses be placed before all (the others) in the book of Psalms, or that it be inserted in his own books, like his Odes: one is found in Exodus, one in Numbers, another in Deuteronomy, but not in the book of Psalms. And it is not placed before all, but after that of Solomon and before David speaking about his father. There is one psalm by Moses, according to the understanding of those who explain things in this way. And again I also say this about the psalms of Solomon, that if they were really by Solomon, they should be inserted in Kingdoms, or Chronicles, or for this reason they should be made manifest to us in these same books (by him). Just as it is said about him, that he had five thousand odes. But divine scripture did not mention his psalm anywhere. But one might still say to me that the inscriptions to the psalms spell this out clearly.

70 Solomon] After Solomon, ms O adds a reference to ‘others by Heman’. The name Heman, however, although mentioned in the initial list and in the Paralipomena quotations, is not among those included in Hesychius’ text with an allegorical interpretation. For this reason, I follow the omission of SE. 74 Exodus] Ex 15:1-19 is Ode 1. | Numbers] perhaps a reference to Num 21:27-30. 75 Deuteronomy] Deut 32:1-43 is Ode 2. 77 psalm] Ps 89 (90). 82 he... odes] there are variants in the numbers recorded: see The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, ed. J. H. Charlesworth, 2 vols, Peabody, Mass. 1983, 2nd edn 2011, I, p. 945.

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το το λ ειν λλ ο π ντ τ πρό π ν π ρι τ ι τ ν νοτ ν τ ν λ ν ἐπι ρ λλ τ ν ρ νε ν τ ν ν ιν τ ν ερ ν ν λ ει τοιο τόν ἐ τιν ει ἐπι ρ αλμ ς τ αυ π λιν το αυ ποτε ν ουθε ημ ος ρ νε ετ ι το υ ποτ κα ς ειρ π λιν ρ νε ετ ι μ ος τι τε ρ νε ετ ι το το π θησα πεποθημ ος ο τος γαπητ ς τ ι π ι ρ νε ι πετ ι τ το υ νο τ τ ο ν π ντ ἐ τ ν λλ ορο εν τε ρ ει ἐπι ρ αλμ ς τ αυ λ λ ει ε λ ν ἐπι τρ οντ π ο πον ρ τότε τ το υ ιν οεν ουθε ημ ος ρ πτ ι ρ ς φθαλμο παι σκης ε ς ε ρας τ ς κυρ ας α τ ς ο τ ς ο φθαλμο μ πρ ς κ ριο τ θε μ ς ο ο κτειρ σαι μ ς τι π πολ πλήσθημε ου ε σε ς π πλε ο πλήσθη υ ὴ μ ου σας π τας το ς ποστατο τας π τ ικαι μ τ σου τι ικο τ θ μημα α τ ἐν τ ρ λ ει ο ου ε ο τ ς με ου ε θήσο ται ο ν προε πον ἐ ν τ το αυ νο ἐπι ε ενον τ λ λ ει ε ρτ ότ τιν ἐπι τρ οντ νει το το ἐπι ρ τι λ ο το ε ρ τ ι ε το ἐ ου εν νου τ πρότερον ι τ ρτ τ ν ετ τ τ ἐπι τρ οντ ε λ ει λ ε τιν ι ιοπρ ο ντ ν τ ι ο τ ρ νε ε ι τ το αυ νο προε πον ἐ ου εν νοι ρ ε ιν π το ό ου ο το εο ν ρ ποι ιν προ τ ε τερ ς ε μι γ κα ου ε μ ος τ μαρτ ρι σου ο κ πελαθ μη ο ε περ ι ν λ ει ν τ ι ρ νε ε ι τ το υ νο το το π θησα τουτ τιν τ ν λ όν ου τ ν ἐ λε τόν τ τ ερ νον ἐν ε ελ γαπήσας το ς ους ε ς τ λος γ πησε α το ς τ ρ ρ νε ε ι τ το υ νο ε το ι ου ν τ ι το πεποθημ ου τουτ τιν λ το εο το πεπο νου λλ 83 ει] S: f. 41r O: f. 19v

86

λ ο ] O: f. 19r (

λ οι)

95

] E: f. 5r

100

π

p. 159

p. 160

]

ς … μ ] Ps 122:2-4a 88 ου σας … 89 α τ ] Ps 118:118 89 ο … ου ε θήσο ται] cf. 1 Kingdoms 2:30 and Ps 34:26; cf. also Is 53:3 and Cant 8:1 96 ε τερ ς … 97 πελαθ μη ] Ps 118:141 ρτ ρι ] ι ι τ E = LXX 100 γαπήσας … α το ς ] 85-86

Jn 13:4 76 π ντ ] π ντ(ε ) E 77 λλ ] λλ E 78 λ ει SE] λ OMer. | λ om. E 78 τ ... 79 υ ] το υ π λιν τ υ E| abbrev. in marg. O 79 ποτε] ποτ OE | τ Mer. cong. in app. crit. | το 2 om. E cf. Mer. in app. crit. 82 τ ι ] τ E |π ι ]π ι O | ρ νε ι ] τ ρ νε ι E 84 το om. E 84-85 ιν ο εν] ιν ο εν ρ νε ε ι E 87 πολ ἐπλ εν] πολυ ἐπλε εν O | ἐπλ ] ἐπλε O ν] ν E 89 ε] ε E 90 τ ] το O 92 ἐ ου εν νου ] ἐ ου εν ( νου ) E 93 τ τ ]τ τ ( )E 94 ε τιν ] ε τιν O 95 π ] π E 96 νε τερό ε ι] νε τερο ε O 97 ρτ ρι ] ι ι τ E (cf. LXX) ρτ ρι ου] ρτ ρι ου O 99 τουτ τιν] το τ τιν O 100 ε ελ ] ε ελ οι E 101 υ ] ι ου OE 102 ] τ S | τουτ τιν] το τ τιν O τουτ τιν πεπο νου om. S

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But certainly the inscriptions to the psalms do not present to us the authors by their names, but rather the interpretation and the power of what is said. What it says is of this sort. The inscription says “psalm for David”, and again, “of David”. And at times [the name] of David is interpreted as “one who is set at naught”, but at other times as “enough by his hand”. Again it is interpreted “alone”, and there are times when it is interpreted “I desired this” and “one who is desired” and “he who is loved”. The name of David is in keeping with all these interpretations. Thus, all these are allegorical. For when the title has, “psalm for David”, and the psalm speaks about a people who turns back from an evil road, then we know that the name of David [means] “one who is set at naught”. For it is written, as a maid’s eyes to her mistress’s hands, so our eyes towards the Lord our God, until he will take pity on us. [...] Because we were filled with contempt, our soul was filled to the brim. You despised all who stood aloof from your statutes, because their reasoning is unjust. And in another [passage] he says: Those who have despised me will be despised. As I have said before, if the name of David is inserted in the psalm, and the psalm sings about those who have sinned and are turning back, the title indicates this, that this psalm is said to those who were despised earlier because of their sins, but after these they are turning back. But if the psalm speaks about those who are practising justice, it is possible for the name of David to be interpreted also in this way, as I said before. For the men of God are despised by the world, as the prophet says: I am young and despised, but I have not forgotten your signs. But equally if the psalm sings concerning the just, it is possible to interpret the name of David as “for this one I longed”, that is, my chosen people. As the Gospel says: having loved his friends, he loved them to the end. And it is also possible that the name of David is interpreted differently in relation to the just, I mean, “of the beloved one”, that is, the people of God the beloved. Or there is also another way to interpret when we say “of

85 But] This is the turning-point of the argument: from refutation of the literal/historical interpretation of the titles to the proposal for metaphorical interpretation. | authors] I translate here πρό π in the sense of ‘auctores’, acting persons with respect to the text. 92 The ... interpretations] I follow the paragraph division in O, unlike Mercati. 100 Those ... despised2] there is no verbatim quotation for this last phrase and no reference is given by Mercati. 110-111 my chosen people] cf. 1 Pet 2:9. 111 having... 112 end] Mercati has a long note indicating parallels with Hesychius’s glosses to Ps 10 and 100; he maintains that the quotation from John is expected, and it is picked up in the passage below.

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τ ν ρ νε ν το αυ ἐ ν ε π εν λ ετ ι ρ ρ νε ε ι πεπο θημ ος το το λ πτ ον ε τ ν λ ν τ ν ν πεπο νο ρ ἐ τιν π υρ ου τε λ ει ἐπι ρ αλμ ς τ αυ ει λ περ το υ ο το εο ο εν τιπερ ρ νε ετ ι τ το υ νο κα ς ειρ ρ πτ ι ρ περ το ριος κραται ς κα υ ατ ς ο ἐπ το π το ο τος στι υ ς μου γαπητ ς τ τ νερ τ οι τ τ λο ἐπιρ ν τ το αυ νο ἐπ ειτ ι που τ ορ ἐ τιν ἐπι ρ τ ἐπι ρ ι όρ λο ν ν ρ ἐ τ ν υ ν ορ λτ ο ε ρ ο εν ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι ρ πτ ι ρ α στησα ο ευ ται π τ υ α θ κα κ τ υ ορ το α ε υρ τ θε σραὴλ φ μεγ λ ε ς ος ν ο νο λτ ο νο ντε τ ριο λ γοις αυ τ τ ερ νον ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι τι ο ευ ται ργ οις υρ ου ς ποιήσατο αυ βασιλε ς το ομολογε σθαι α τ ο υρ ου τι ε ς τ α α τ λεος α το μ οις αυ ι ειρ ς α τ ν ο ν ο ορ νο ο λτ ο ν το ευ τ ι ν ο ν ει τ ν ἐπι ρ ντ υ ορ λο λ ό περ τ ν ρ ντ ν ρ νερ ιτ ν λ όν περ τ ν ο τ ν περ τ ν ντιλο ι ν τ ν ρ νο το ορ ρ νε ετ ι λ ρό λ ρ ρ τ ν νό ον ρό ἐ τιν ρ πτ ι ἐν τ ευ τι τι ι μα ήσ κεφαλὴ α το φαλακρ ς στι καθαρ ς στι Π λιν ἐν Προ τ ι ε ρ ο εν τ ν ε ν ν τι ι τόποι ρ ι ό ενον

111 που] [A f. 20r 118 123

112-113 Π ρ λειπο ν ι ] A] ν] [A 122 ἐ τιν ] A]

… στι ] Lev 13:40

114 ε ] S: f. 41v

117

p. 161

ιλε ] O:

ν] SE = LXX

103 τ ν ε π εν om. E το υ ] το νό τι το υ S ρ νε ε ι 110 λ πτ ον om. E 104 λ πτ ον] λ πτ ον O ρ ἐ τιν] ρ ἐ τ ν O 108 ο 110 ἐπ ειτ ι SE cf. 2 Mer. app. (p. 159, n. d) π το ] ε λ ει λ περ το υ ο το εο ε ]τ ι λ ο το ο ] ει τ ν ἐπι ρ ν λ ει λ τ ε τ ν υ ν το εο ο

ν τ ι τ το εο νο τ ρ ρ νε ε ι ε τ ν υ ν το εο ρ νε ετ ι γαπητ ς τ τ ε ρ νον π το εο πρ τ ν υ ν το S 109 λο ] λο 2 om. E ἐπι ρ ρ ] ἐπι ρ λ ο S 111 ἐ τιν ἐπι ρ ] τ ιO ρ om. S 111-112 λο ] λο S λο ἐπι ρ E 112 ε ρ ο εν] ε ρ O 113 ρ πτ ι ρ om. E ευ τ ι] ευ τ ι O 118 ο 2 om. E 119 λο ] 120 τ ν ρ ν] τ ι ρ ι O ε ρ ι] ε ρ ιO ε ρ ι λ όν om. E 122 OASE] τ τ ν A (marg.) Mer. 123 ν SE (cf. LXX)] νO τινι] τιν O OSE ρό 124 Π λιν] ρό( ) ἐ τ ν π λιν S 124 ε ρ ο εν] ε εν O

ρ ο τος

S ἐπι-

ἐπιεν

λο OS ρ τ ν ρ

]

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David”: for it is said that it is to be interpreted also as “beloved”, and this should be understood of the people of the saints, for it is beloved by the Lord. But when the title says “psalm for David”, and the psalm concerns the son of God, we know then why the name of David is interpreted “enough by his hand”: because it is written about him: The Lord is strong and powerful. Similarly about “the beloved”, “This is my son the beloved”. And so I have said what the inscription means, wherever the name “of David” is inscribed. And whenever the superscription is of the sons of Kore, this superscription also can designate different things. For there were psalm-singers among the sons of Kore, as we find in Chronicles. For it is written: “And the Levites stood up from the children of Kaath and from the sons of Kore, to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high”. Then there were the psalmsingers praising the Lord in the words of David, according to what it is said in Chronicles, that The Levites with instruments of music of the Lord, which King David had made in order to sing praises before the Lord, because his mercy is forever, in the hymns of David through their hands. And there were the Korenoi, the psalm-singers together with the Levites. Therefore, when the psalm has the inscription, of the sons of Kore, it designates: either that the psalm is said concerning the pure in heart; or concerning the helpless; or concerning disputational persons. For the name of Kore is interpreted ‘bald head’, and one who is bald and keeps the law is pure, as it is written in Leviticus: “Now if anyone’s head becomes bald, he is bald-headed; he is clean”. And again in the Prophets we find in some passages that God is angry

121 Similarly … 123 inscribed] This passage is only attested in the S and E. It supplies the omission already suspected by Mercati (p. 159 n. d): “dubito che qui nel proemio sia scomparsa la spiegazione ο το π τό περ ἐ τ π ρ τ ε ποτ ό ενο τ ό Ps 54: cfr. anche 51, dove è congiunta coll’altra ἐπι τρ ν. In 5. 16. 20. 40 ο τ π. è applicato a N. S. Gesù Cristo”. The passage is longer in S than in E, where it was probably abbreviated. Nevertheless, the reading of E is offered in the text here, and S in apparatus: the scarse legibility of S means we can only offer an uncertain reading of this ms. 125 the psalm-singers] cf. S. GILLINGHAM, “The Levitical Singers and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter”, in The Composition of the Book of Psalms, ed. E. ZENGER, Leuven 2010, 91-124. 133 Korenoi] i.e. the sons of Kore. 138 Comparison with Hesychios’ commentary on Leviticus on this passage, as extant in Latin, has not yielded any significant parallel.

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πρ τ ν ρ λ λ οντ κα σται π π σα κεφαλὴ φαλ κρ μα νε π ντ ρ οντι το λ ο ν νει ο τ ν λ ι π τ ντ ν ο ει ν τι τ ορ ντιλο ονεν ν ο περ τ ν υ ν ορ τ ν λλόντ ν ν περ τ ν ρ ν τ ν ρ ν λ ει λ ό περ τ ν ἐ τ ντ ν τ π το εο περ τ ν ντιλε όν τ ν τ το εο ε ελ περ ν πό τολο λ ει α α το ς τι τ τιλογ το ορ π λο το ἐν τ ρ τ λεγο το ς π το α λου λεγομ οις π ροι ι τ τιλογ ας γε ρει π ς κακ ς περ ν το ἐπι ρ το τ υ ορ ο τ λόν οι π ρε τ εν ετ το υ ο ορ ν το ε ν ι λ ο τιν ν υρον το το τ νο τ ν ε νυτ ι ρ ἐπι ρ τ ν λ ν ν ἐ τ τ το νο ο ει αλμ ς το σ φ ν τι ε ποι τι π το ε ν τ ι λ ό λλ περι ει τ ἐπι ρ το αλμ ς τ σ φ το το τ νο ρ νευό ενον π τ ρ ο ε τ ν λλ ν τ λοιπ λο τ νο ριν ο τ ἐπ ειτ ι τ λ ρ νε ετ ι ρ συλλ γ συ γ συ αγ γή ν ο ν ἐπι ρ πτ ι τ λ περ το εο λ ει λ το υλλ οντο π ντ ἐν τ ν ν ἐν τ λλοντι νι το νε τ ρ ν το ε ρ ιν ε το ἐπι τρ οντ υν ο νου ἐ ἐ ν ν ου ν ε όν ν τ ν υν ν

131

το ] O: f. 20v

133 το ] E: f. 5v

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ετ τρ τ ορτ νε π ν ο π τ ν ε ρ νον ν ι ἐπ π ν ν ον ἐπ π ν ε λ ν λ ρ ο ι τ ν π ν ο π το το ετ το ρ ν ν ; Is 15:2: λυπε ε ἐ υτο πολε τ ι ρ ν ο ν ἐ ε ν ε ε λ ειν ἐπ υτ τι ο λολ ετε ἐπ π ε λ λ ρ π ντε ρ ονε τ τετ νοι; Ez 7:18: περι οντ ι ου λ ει το ο ἐπ π ν πρ πον ν ἐπ το ἐπ π ν ε λ ν λ ρ . 131 α … 132 π λο το ] Jude 1:11 132 τ λεγο … 133 λεγομ οις ] Acts 13:45 133 τιλογ ας … κακ ς] Prov 17:11 143 cf. 125 κα … φαλ κρ μα] cf. Am 8:10:

Num 16:1

λ ρ ] λ ρο O νε ] νε O 126 τ ν] τ ν O λ ι] λο ι τ ν] π om. SE 128 ] S τι SE] OMer. | ντιλο ] ντιλο ι Mer. cf. ll. 209, 211 129 τ ν λλόντ ν SE] τ ν λ ν OA τ ν λτ ν Mer. τ ν ρ ν] τ ρ S 131 το ] το E 133 ἐ ε ρει] ἐ ερε E 134 λόν οι] λόν οι OS 136 τ … τ ν om. E τ ν OMer.] τ ι A τ S 137 τι ] τ O τι om. O 138 λ ό om. O περι ει το om. O το 2 om. E 139 λλ ν ] λλ νι O 140 … 141 ] λ ετ( ι) E λο ] λο S ο τ om. AS ἐπ ειτ ι] ἐπι ε τ ι O 141 υλλ ν] υνλ ν O ν ] ν O ἐπι ρ πτ ι] ἐπι ρ S 142 ἐν … 143 νι SE] ἐν τ ν ν νι ἐν τ λλοντι OAMer. 143 ] O ε 3 O] om. ASE 144 om. AE 125 S π

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with Israel and he says: “And there shall be baldness upon every head, just as [there shall be] shame and reproach upon every leader of the people, whenever I will remove from them my help”. And it is clear that Kore himself was involved in disputation. Thus where the psalm title does not speak about the sons of Kore, the psalm-singers, as I said, it is speaking either about the pure in heart, or about those who are outside the protection of God, or about those who dispute the Gospel of God, about whom the apostle says, “Woe to them, because they perished in the disputation of Kore” and in another passage, “They disputed against the words of Paul”, and the author of Proverbs said: “All evil sparks forth disputations”. And so I have proven to you what the inscription “of the sons of Kore” means. After the sons of Kore, they said also that some psalms are by Asaph, but even their name seems powerless. For the titles of the psalms, where the name of Asaph is (found), do not have “psalm of Asaph”, so that one could say that the psalm was authored by him, but rather each title concerning him has “psalm for Asaph”. And this name, translated from Hebrew to Greek, as also (we have translated) the rest, makes clear for what reason it is placed above the psalm in this way. For Asaph is interpreted as “the one who gathers”, and “the one who brings together” or “the synagogue”. Whenever then it is written as title to the psalm, either the psalm speaks about God, who gathers everyone, both in the present time and in the future: some to salvation, and others to judgment; or (the psalm speaks) about those who convert and gather together from the pagans and the Jews towards the one synagogue.

153 powerless] this powerlessness can be taken in two ways: a) the fact that as before the adversaries only read the name superficially as indicating authorship, without seeing its hidden meaning; b) the fact that the adversary’s argument is here too powerless, i.e. without foundation in attributing authorship, when one considers the hidden meanings of the name. In this second case, the translation could be: “even this name can be shown to be of no support to them”. 164 synagogue] i.e. the Church.

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ετ τ ν ν εν ι λ ν το ρ λ του ρ ο ν όνο ν ρ λ τ υ ο υ ο ορ ολο ν ο περι ει λ ου ι τ ρ ι ν τιπερ το λ ο ερ ιν τι το ρ λ τ ι π ρ ου ιν πειτ ρ εε όνο ε ν τ ι ρ λ τ ἐν π ι τ υλ ο ο ι ε ρλ τ ν ενε λο ν τ ν ε υλ ν ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι πολλο ε ρ ει τ νό τι το τ λ ντ π ντε λον τι ρ λ τ ι π ρ οντε ο ν ἐ τιν τοι τ ἐπι ρ το λ ο ἐπ τ ν ρ νε ν π λιν το νό το λ εν τ ο ν ει ἐπι ρ συ σε ς θ μ τ σραηλ τ τουτ τιν τ υν ε τ ν ντ ν λ ν τ ι νο τ ν σπ ρμα εο ντ ν λ ό ἐ τιν ν τ ἐπ ρ το το ἐπ ειτ ι τ τ τ πε ρ ντι το οι τ ν υτο ριν θ μ ρ ρ νε ετ ι ηλ ς σραηλ της ρ νε ετ ι σπορ θεο τ τ ο ν λ πτ ον ε τ ν υ ν το εο ι το το ιν ο εν τ ν λ ν ε τ νε ρ νον ε το ου το το λο τ ι νο ἐ π ρ νου τ ν ε ν ριν το ετ το τον ε ρ ι το ολο ντο ε ν ι λ ο ο ο περ ἐν ο ε ι τ ν λ ν το ε ρ ο εν ερο νου προε πον ο τε ἐν ιλε ι ο τε ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι ο τε ει νου λλ ἐν τ ρ τόπ τ λου τ ν λ ν ἐν τ ρ οτ ρου λ ον τ περ το υ ο το εο ολο ν ρ ρ νε ετ ι ε ρ νι τ το περ ἐ τν ο ριο ν τ ιν ε ρ ν π ρ ν εν τ τ ν ο ε ριτι ε ρ τ ι ν ν ο ν τ το ολο ντο νο ἐπ ειτ ι τ λ ν ντιρρ τ π ι ε ει περ το υ ο το εο λ ειν τ ν λ όν

] O: f. 21r | ] A] 149 ] [A | π ρ ου ιν] A] 148 f. 42r 163 λ ν] O: f. 21v 164 Π ρ λειπο ν ι ] A] 167 π ρ ν ] A]

p. 163

153 ] [A | ] S: 166 ολο ν] [A

146 ν transp. E post ρ λ του om. E 147 ρ ο ν SE] ρ ο ν A ρ ο ν OMer. | ο om. O 148 λ ου ι] λ ου ιν OMer. | τιπερ] τι περ SE | ε ρ ιν ] ε ρ ι E 149-150 ρ ε] ρ O 150 ε ν τ ι SE] ε ν τ ι OMer. | π ι ]π ι S 151 λ ] λ O 152 λον τι] λονότι E 153 π ρ οντε ] π ρ (ον) E | ρ νε ν] ἐρ ν ν O 155 τουτ τιν] το τ τιν O | ι νο ] ι .. O 156 ... ἐπ ειτ ι om. E | ἐπ ειτ ι ] ἐπι ειτ ι O 157 πε ρ ντι] πε ροντι A | το οι om. O 158 πορ EMer. ] ni malis πόρο Mer. app. πορ O πορ AS | λ πτ ον] λ πτ ον O | om. O 159 ... ε ρ νον om. E 160 τ ι νο ] τ ν ι νοι ν E | ε ν] ε ν S 162 το τον] το το O | ε ρ ι] ε ρ ιν O | λ ο ο ] ο λ ο O | ο περ ... 163 ο ε ι ] ο ε O 163 ἐν om. S | ο ε ι ] ο ε ι S ο ε Oο ι E | ερο νου ] ἐρρ νου O | προε πον om. E 166-167 περ ἐ τ ν] π ρ ἐ τιν S 167 2 om. O εν ... 176 λ όν om. A 169 ν ντιρρ τ ] ν τ ρρ τ O ν ντ ρ τ S

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And after Asaph, they said that there is also a psalm by Ethan the Israelite. But really, was Ethan the only Israelite? Or not also David and the sons of Kore and Asaph and Solomon and Moses, whom the Hebrew text, as they say, includes, because they have spoken the psalms. It is clear that they too are Israelites. Then really, could there have been only one Ethan the “Israelite” among all the tribes? I do not think so! For if you take the genealogy of the twelve tribes in Chronicles, you will find that many people were called by this name, and that all are clearly Israelites. So what is such a title to the psalm? Again, let us go back to the interpretation of the name. This is how the title goes: [psalm] “of instruction for Ethan the Israelite”, which means either that the psalm where this inscription is placed is made of the instruction of the lofty saints who are by their understanding the “seed” of God; or [it means] for the highest, he who plants in the saints his own grace; for Ethan means “highest” and Israelite means “seed of God”. So we must understand these things either about the son of God, by which we know that the psalm was spoken to in relation to him, or about his saints who are lofty in understanding, and were sown with his divine grace. And after this, they have also said that two psalms are by Solomon. But we find neither of these mentioned in any book of his, as I said before, neither in Kingdoms, not in Chronicles, nor are they placed together, but rather one in one place of the book of psalms, the other in another, and clearly they both speak about the son of God. For Solomon means “the most peaceful”, and this is applied to Jesus our Lord, who is peace by his very nature. Whence he has given us this (peace) as a gift by his own grace. Then where the name of Solomon stands in the psalm title, it teaches us indisputably that the psalm is speaking about the son of God.

174 of … Israelite] cf. Hesychios’ explanation to the title of Ps 88, as found in Vat. gr. 752:

υν ε ντ ρ λ τ το τ τιν τ ριτο το περι νε ρ ρι το π ρ ν ρ νε ετ ι π ρ ντο εο . 177 cf. Ps 88:5, 30, 37

λο το π ρ ντο ἐρ νε ετ ι λό 187 cf. Jn 20:21

εο ρ

λ λ του

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ρ ι το εν ιτ νπ ἐνό ι ν προ ε ότε τ ρ τι τ ἐπι ρ ο τ υν ει λλον ο ρι τ τ ἐπι ρ ο ρ ει προ ευ το υ ν ρ που το εο λλ προσευ ὴ τ σ θρ π το θεο τουτ τιν τ ἐπι ρ τ ν ρ π το εο ρ ό ου ἐ τι τ προ οντι τ το εο πτ τι ρ ρ νε ετ ι α ρεσις ατος περ ἐ τ ν τ τ ν πτι ον ν τ το εο πτι ν ρετ ι ρ ἐ τ ν ε ν ν τ ν το τ ρ ου το ν τιν ἐ τ ν λ ν νεπι ρ ου ε ν ι ι τ ο τ ἐπι ε ρ ι ἐ το του το του ε ν ι το υ λλ ε ιότερο ν ε λει π ρ ειν Π τρο πό τολο ο ν τ π ντε λ οντε ἐν τ Πρ ε ιν θε ς ποιήσας τ ο ρα κα τὴ γ κα τὴ θ λασσα κα π τα τ α το ς το πατρ ς μ ι π ε ματος γ ου στ ματος αυ παι ς σου ε π α τ φρ α α θ η κα λαο μελ τησα κε παρ στησα ο βασιλε ς τ ς γ ς κα ο ρ ο τες συ ή θησα π τ α τ κατ το κυρ ου κα κατ το ριστο α το ι το το ἐ λ ντ ν υ ερ ν ι το τον τ ν λ ν τ ν ν τ ν νεπι ρ ν ν τ ν τρόπον λον τι τ ν πρ το τ ε ρ εν λ τ ν πρ τον λ όν τ ρ ἐ τ ν νεπι ρ ν ο ε εν ι ρ τ πρ το υ λτ ο τ τ εν ε ρ ει ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι τι ρ πτ ι α τα ε κατ πρ σ πο τ ς κιβ το τ ς ιαθήκης κυρ ου κ τ ευ τ λειτουργο τας κα αφ ο τας ομολογε σθαι κα 171 188

ρ ι] [A 172 ρι ] E: f. 6r 179 ο τ ] ν] [A 189 ε ν ι] A] 192 ν νο ντ ] S: f. 42v

: f. 22r

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] A]

α ρεσις ατος ] cf. Ex 2:10: ἐπ νό εν τ νο το υ ν λ ου το το τ ν νειλό ν. 182 ... 186 α το ] Acts 4:24-26, Ps 145:6; Ps 2:1-2 θε ς] om. NTG sicut mss 𝔓74 ℵ A B 2495 pc vg bo, sed cf. app. D E 𝔐 gig p sy sa mae; Irlat Lcf ν τ ] ν τ NTG 191 α ... 198 α το ] 1 Chron 16:4-7 τα ε ] τ ε E LXX τα ε om. SE LXX, habet

176

O sicut LXX Ant. (El texto antioqueno de la biblia griega, III: 1-2 Crónicas, ed. N. Fernández 192 κ Marcos & J. R. Busto Saiz, Madrid 1996, pp. 43-44) τ ς om. E LXX et LXX Ant. τ SE (cf. LXX) ἐ om. OMer. λειτουργο τας ... ομολογε σθαι] λειτουρ ο ντ ν νο ντ ἐ ο ολο ε ι LXX λειτουρ ο ντ ν νο ντ το ἐ ο ολο ε ι LXX Ant. ] A ἐνό ι ν ] ἐνό ν O προ ε ότε SMer.] προ ε ι ότε O προε ότε A προ ευ ότε E 173 υ ] A 174 ] ε E τουτ τιν 175 εο 1 om. O 181 προ οντι ASE] προ τρ οντι OMer. 176 ν ρε ι ] νε ρε ι E 179 τιν ] τιν O τ ] οι legitur fortasse in S 180 ] O 182 Πρ ε ιν ] πρ ε ι E 183 λ ν] add. inter ll. in A 184 ε π ν ] ε π ν OS εν ] ιν O 185 ιλε ] ιλε S 187 νεπι ρ ν om. A 188 τρόπον τι] τρόπον λονότι A λον om. E πρ ] προ O ε ρ εν ] ε ρ ε E 189 ρ ἐ om. ASE ε ν ι] ἐ π ντ ο ν τ υ ε ρ εν τ ν SE E 204 ε ρ ντ ι om. A 190 om. E 191 τ εν] τ ε E, post τ εν add. υ OMer. τ 2 om. E (cf. LXX) 192 ἐ τ ν SE (cf. LXX)] ἐ om. OMer. 171

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And they have said also that Moses is the author of Psalm 89, as they believed, having paid attention to the letter of the title and not to its spirit; or rather not even in a precise way to the title itself. For it does not say “prayer of Moses man of God”, but “prayer for Moses man of God”. This means that the title is applicable to each man who is of God, that is who clings to the baptism of God. For Moses means “taking up out of water”, which is what the baptism of God is for each of those who are baptized. For he was lifted up out of the divine streams of the water of salvation. And they also said that some of the psalms are unattributed, because it is so written in the titles, and that because of this reason, not even these are by David. But the apostle Peter and all those with him ought to be for us a surer foundation, when they say in the Acts of the Apostles, “You are the God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that it contains”, you spoke through the holy spirit from the mouth of David our father your servant: what did the pagans despise and what empty things were the people caring for? The kings of the earth stood side by side and the rulers gathered because of this against God and his anointed one”; and through this they showed that David had spoken this psalm, one of the unattributed ones. In the same way, it is clear that (David) himself also spoke the one before this, I mean the first psalm. For this also seems to be among the unattributed psalms. For if David established himself as the first those who sang to the harp, as you will find in Chronicles where it is written: And David appointed before the ark of God’s testament the Levites to give

211 cf. the quotation from Ps 2:1-2, which must be the one primarily referenced.

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α ε υρ τ θε σραήλ σ φ γο με ος κα ε τερος α το α αρ ας κα ειήλ κα εμιραμ θ κα αήλ κα ατθαθ ας κα λι β κα Βα α ας κα β ε ι κα Ὀ ας ργ οις κα βλαις κα κι ραις κα σ φ κυμβ λοις αφ κα Βα α ας κα ε ὴλ ο ερε ς τα ς σ λπιγ ι ι πα τ ς πιο τ ς κιβ το τ ς ιαθήκης το θεο τ μ ρ κε τ τε τα ε αυ ρ το α ε τ ριο ειρ σ φ κα τ ελφ α το ο νε τό ἐ τιν τ τον τ ν λτ ν λον τι ο τιν τερο ρ ενο τ ν πρ τον λ όν ε υ ρ ν π ντ ν το τ ν ε ο ν ρ τ ν νεπι ρ ν τ λου τ ν λ ν ε νυτ ι π το υ ερ ν λ πρ το ε τερο τ ν λ ν ο τινε πρ τοι λ οντ ι π ρ το ε ν ι τ ν νεπι ρ ν ἐ ν ο λοιπο τ ν νεπι ρ ν π το υ ε ρ ντ ι περ Ϛ νεπ ρ ο ν ρ πτ ι το υ ἐ τιν ν ε τ ν πό τολον ε ρ ει λ οντ πρ ρ ου τι ρ μ ρα κα αυ λ γ μετ τοσο το ρ ο καθ ς προε ρηται σήμερο τ ςφ ς α το κο σητε μὴ σκληρ ητε τ ς καρ ας μ ς τ παραπικρασμ τ λ υ ἐ λ εν το τον νεπ ρ ον το υ εν ι ο τ ρου τινό ο ν ο λοιπο τ ν νεπιρ ν το τυ νου ιν

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1]

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193 υρ ... θε ] LXX Ant. ριον τ ν ε ν LXX (no variants) ε τερος LXX Ant. ευτερε ν LXX txt, cf. app. L† (with other variants also) α το ] LXX Ant. τ LXX (no variants) 194 κα 1 ... κα 5] LXX Ant. om. LXX ειήλ ] Ant. LXX ι λ LXX ε ιρ ] ε ειρ LXX Ant. λ OEMer. cf. LXX Ant. mss 19 & 108] λ S ι λ LXX txt ι λ LXX Ant. ν ] ν E LXX Ant. mss 19 & 108 ατθαθ ας S LXX Ant.] ε OAMer. τ ( ) E ττ ι LXX 195 β ε ι SE] ε ι ν OAMer. ε ο LXX ε LXX Ant. Ὀ ας ] LXX Ant. ι λ LXX (no variant) κα 2 ... 2] ἐν om. LXX (ἐν ν λ ι A; ιν ρ ι BS†) ἐν ν λ ι ιν ρ ι LXX Ant. 196 ε ὴλ] λE ι λ LXX Ant. ι λ LXX σ λπιγ ι ] LXX λπι ι E LXX Ant. 197 πιο ] LXX Ant. ἐν ντ ον LXX το εο . ν punct. in LXX txt τα ε ] LXX τ ε E LXX Ant. 206 τι ... 208 παραπικρασμ ] Heb 4:7, 3:7-8 τι ρ ] π λιν τιν ρ ει NTG μ ρα ] ρ ν ερον NTG κα ] om. NTG; Ps 94 (95):8

λ OEMer.] λS τ S] ε OMer. τ ( )E ν ] ν E ε ι ν SE] ε ι ν OMer. ιν ρ ι S (LXX)] ινν ρ ι OEMer. 196 ν ] ν ( ) E ε λ] λE λπι ιν] λπι ι E ι π ντ ] ι π ντ O 197 τ 2 om. S] το E τ εν] τ ε E 198 ἐν ρ om. E ρ ] ρ O 199 λον τι] λονότι E 200 ε ] ε O ρ ν] ρ νE 201 ρ ] ρ S τ ν] τ] ν O π SE] om. OMer. 202 πρ το ε τερο ] SE 203 ἐ 204 ε ρ ντ ι ] ἐ π ντ ο ν τ υε ε ρ εν τόν A om. E λοιπο Mer.] το OS 204 περ] ο ( ν) E Ϛ ] ἐνενι ο τ τ τ ρτο S 205 ν λ οντ ] ( ) ( ) πό( τολο ) E 206 τιν 207 προε ρ τ ι om. E ρ ν] ρ ν O 201 ο τε ] ο τ ι OS 202 λ ρ ν τε] λ ρ ν τ ι O ἐ λ εν] ἐ λ ε AE 208-209 νεπ ρ ον om. E 209 ο ] ο O O ο ν] O ο ν O ο ν 210 τυ νου ιν om. E 194 195

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service and to sing, to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel. Asaph was the leader and in second place after him Zacharias and Jeiel and Semiramoth and Jael and Matthathias and Eliab and Banaias and Abdedidon and Hozias, on the organs and the psalteries and the cytharas, and Asaph was sounding the cymbals and the priests Banaias and Jezil were playing the trumpets constantly before the ark of the covenant of God on that day. Then David at first established of the worship of the Lord at the hand of Asaph and of his brothers. Therefore, if he is the one who has ordered each of the psalm singers, it is clear that it is not anyone else who begun (the psalter with) the first psalm, if not David who is the initiator of all these. And if the beginning of the unattributed psalms and of the book of psalms appears spoken by David, I mean the first and the second psalms, which were the first to be said to be unattributed by them, then by necessity also the rest of the unattributed psalms are said (to be) by David. For example, psalm 94 is marked unattributed, but it really is by David, since there you will find the apostle saying to the Hebrews: [God] set a certain day, and a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today if you listen to his voice, harden not your hearts as at the rebellion”; and clearly, he showed that this unattributed psalm also is by David and by no other author. Therefore, also the rest of the unattributed psalms happen to be by him.

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περ τ ν ν ν ν ε ρ ει τιπερ το το υ ε ιν ν ρ τ ν λε ο ν ν ν ν ν λ τ ν ρλ ἐν ν λ ν το εο πρ το ρτυ τ νο ο τ πρ το ρ οντ τ νλ ν τ ν ου νλ ν περ υ τι ε ρε ρι πιο το θεο ακ β τ ο ν υ ε νυτ ι λ ν ἐν τ λ ε σ π ο το ς φθαλμο ς μου κα το ς βλεφ ροις μου υσταγμ κα παυσι το ς κροτ φοις μου ςο ε ρ τ πο τ υρ σκή μα τ θε ακ β ο ν ο ε ρ το λ ο ἐ προ που τ ρου λελ ι λλ πι τ ρτυ τ νο π ι ε ν τ ν τ ν λ ν ε ν ι το υ ο ε τ ν ολο ο ντ π ι ε οντ ε ρε ν σκή μα τ ε ακ β Περ τ ν ἐ όντ ν ἐπι ρ ν τ λλ λο π ε ρ ντ ι π το υ ἐρ ρ πτ ι ρ ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι τι περ τ ν υ ε πεν τε τ ν ι τ ν το εο ν ερεν ν το ερε ιν τ λ τ λλη λο α περ τ ν νεπι ρ ν ν ν ν το το λο ιν ἐπι ρ τι ο ε νο ν νου ἐ τ ν λ ό ν ἐ τ ν νεπ ρ ο τ ρ ον ι ετ ι ο τιν π ρ ρ οι ι τ ν τ ότ τ τ ν τ πι τ περ τ ν ν ν ν τ νο ἐ όντ ν ε τ ν ἐπιρ ν το το λον ε τ ν ριον ε ρ ιτ ν λ ν ολι τ π ντ ν ο ε ι τ ν λ όν το ο ν τρόπο τ ν ν ἐπι ρ ε ι νεπι ρ ν νε ρ νπ ρ ρ οι περ τ ν λε ο ν ν ν ν ν περ τ ν ἐ όντ ν λλ λο το το ν πο ε νυτ ι ι το λλ λο τι ε νον ε ρι τ ν ε ρ τ ι ἐ ε νο λ ό πό τιν ν ρ τ νπ ρ ε ντ ν ν π το εο ρ νε ετ ι τ τ λλ λο α ος κα μ ος τ θε

212 ν ] E: f. 6v

214

] A]

223 το ] O: f. 23v

214 ε ρε ... ακ β ] Acts 7:46 | το ... ακ β ] εο NTG 215 ε ... 217 ακ β] Ps 131:4-5 221 λλ λο ] cf. 1 Chron 16:1ff.

τ

p. 166

227 ἐ όντ ν] S: f. 43r

το ε ρε ν

220 ε ρε ν …

ν

τ ο . ] Ps 131:5 (cf. above)

OAS] Mer. app., fortasse ο λλ( ) E | ε ιν ] ε ν OE 212 λε ο ν ν om. O | λ ν] λ ν O 213 πρ το ρτυ ] πρ τ ρτυ O πρ τό ρτυ S 214 υ ] το υ OAMer. | ε ρε] ε ρεν OS 215 ] ό O 217 τ ε ] το εο O | ο ε ] ο ε SE 219 ] OAMer. | το SE] om. OMer. 222 υ ] (εο) E 223 τε] τι E ν ερεν] ν ερε E | ερε ιν] ερε ι E 224 ν ν ν om. E 225 ν νου ] νου νό S ἐ τ ν] τιν O 226 τιν] ἐ τι S | τ ν transp. E post 227 πι τ 227 πι τ ] πι τε O περ ] περ E τ νο ] τ ν ν(ο τ ν) E 228 το το om. E om. E ολι ] ολι S 229 ο ] π ρ π ντ( ν) (ο ) add. E 229-230 ν ἐπι ρ ε ι om. E 230 ] E 231 περ SE] περ OMer. | λλ λο ] λ λο ι S 232 ε ρι τ ν] ε ρι τε ν OS 232233 πό τιν ν] πο τιν ν O 233 π ρ ε ντ ν SEMer. app.] π ρ ε ντ OAMer. τ

211

om. E

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Equally you will find also about the anonymous psalms that indeed David is their author. For, the first martyr of God, Stephen, had one of the anonymous ones in mind, I mean number 131: so he said to the leaders and to the people of the Jews, speaking about David, that he found grace in the sight of the God of Jacob, because David himself is shown as saying in this psalm: I will not give sleep to my eyes, and drowsiness to my eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for God, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. If then the beginning of the psalm seems to be said by another person, nevertheless, the martyr Stephen is trustworthy when he teaches us that this psalm is by David, when he by his very voice witnesses and teaches to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Concerning the psalms that have the title “Hallelujah”, I will tell you how these are said by David. For it is written in Chronicles that David spoke about them, when he took up the ark of God with the priests and the people: Hallelujah! So concerning the unattributed and anonymous psalms, the inscriptions show this: that a psalm does not refer to the name of one people when it is unattributed, or when the deed about which it speaks is not found concerning the Hebrews because of the effrontery of their disbelief. But as for the case concerning the anonymous ones, when the name is not in the titles, this shows that the psalm is said to the Lord and that such a psalm is sung universally by all together. Then this is the manner by which some are labelled unattributed, either not written in the Hebrew script, or concerning those which are anonymous. Concerning those that have Hallelujah, this is shown to you through the Hallelujah, that that psalm is said as a hymn of praise and a thanksgiving, for those gifts granted to us by God. Hallelujah itself means: Glory and praise to God!

242 martyr] the original meaning of this word in Greek, i.e. witness, is clearly that most relevant to this context.

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ο τ νπ ν ι ιν ἐποι ε περ τ ν ι ιρ ε ν τ ν ε λον τ ν ἐν τ προλό ντε ἐνό ι ν ρ ο π ε τ ν ρ ν ε ν ι το π ντ το υ πο ει τ ι ι όρ το ε ν ι το π ντ το υ εν τ το περ τ ν τ τ εν ε τ λλειν π ντ ι ερ το τ π ρ το ἐ ν ντ ἐν τ λ τ ν λ ν Προ τ ι ο ν ε ρ ντ ι ο περ τ ν τ τ ερ νον ἐν Π ρ λειπο ν ι κα σ φ κα μ κα ιθο μ τ προφητ το βασιλ ς ο π το τ ν ρ νο ε ι το τ ν λ ν ε ρετ ε ν ι λλ λτ ο ι λου τ τ ντ π υρ ου ι υ το ιλ ο τ ρ ε ρ ει το λτ ο ν ν τ πον οντ τ ν περ το το υ ο ορ το ευ τ τι περ τ περ το υ ἐ ν ντ ἐν ἐ λ υρ ου τ τ λλου ιν ε π ο ν το λ ο ν ντ ι ο περ τ ν προ τ ι ε νυ ι ρ ο ι λοι τ τ ντε π το υ ε το λ ο ε τ νε ν τ ν ριον ἐ ο ολο ε ι τ τ τ νο τ ν ε ρ ντ ι περ τ ν λοιπ ν τ ν ε ρι ο ν νε τ ι λ το ελο λ ν ου τινο τ ρου ν ν του λ ο τ το υρ ου ριτι ο ενο υ ι ό ενο τ ε νου υν ει λ π λιν περ τ ν τ ν προλε ντ ν ἐν το πλ τ τερον τ ν λό ον ι ο ι τ το υρ ου ριτι

238

] O: f. 24r

246 ἐν] V

241 κα 1… βασιλ ς ] 2 Chron 35:15 προφητ ] ο προ τ ι LXX

250 περ ] [A

ιθο μ]

ι

251 ] E: f. 7r, ll. 1-3 254

ν LXX,

ι ο

ριτι] A]

Vpl.: cf. 1 Chron 16:38 τ

235 τ ν] τ E 236 ἐνό ι ν] ἐνό νO 237 ε ν ι 238 υ ] το υ εν ι π ντ E 238 τ ν] το OMer. 239 τ ] τ ν S π ρ το ] π ρ το SE 240 ε ρ νον SE] ε ρ νον περ τ ν OMer. 242 ρ ] ρ O 243 λτ ο ] λτο ο O 244 ο τ 246 λ ο om. E 245 περ 2] π ρ S 246 ἐν] ἐν ἐν S π ο ν] π νO ν ντ ι] νοντ ι V 247 ε νυ ι] ει ν ι 250 ν om. E ε ρ ντ ι SE] ε ρ τ ι OAVMer. 251 τ SE] τ ει O τ οι AMer. λ ν ου] λ ν ου OS λι ν ου VE τινο ] τιν E 252 υρ ου] ρι το O ριτι] ρ τι 254 υ ρ ου] ρι το E ριτι] ρ τι

το

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Look, we have presented the whole exposition concerning the distinctions, and we have talked about the most evident of them in this prologue. For the children of the Hebrews thought that not all the psalms were by David. But it has been demonstrated in a variety of ways that they are all by David himself. Whence also he established that those around Asaph should sing them, having divided them all and what should be proclaimed by them in the book of psalms. Those around Asaph are called prophets according to what is said in Chronicles: and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the prophets of the king. Yet equally, one ought not to think because of these (words) that they are inventors of the psalms, but rather singers of psalms and teachers appointed by the Lord through David the king. For thus you will discover that these psalm singers even now have the same type as that concerning Asaph, and for the sons of Kore and the Levites, because the things proclaimed about David in the church of the Lord, they sing these for the obedience of the people. But those around Asaph can be shown to be prophets and also initiators and teachers, since they were placed by David before the peoples to praise the Lord and to give witness to Him. So I have explained these things, but about the rest of what can be discovered, if one were to come across a diapsalma or an obelos or an asterisk or the mention of something else, led by the grace of the Lord and collaborating with his power — I will speak again in what follows concerning those psalms I have mentioned above and I will expound them in a broader discourse by the grace of the Lord.

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Concluding Remarks – Reading the Prologue with Vat. gr. 752: an Added Visual Perspective Although, as we have said earlier, the text of Hesychius’s Prologue is not contained among the prefatory texts of Vat. gr. 752, the illustrations found in this manuscript demonstrate that its message of David’s single authorship is indeed that espoused by this production. This allegiance is evident, above all, in the full-page miniature at fol. 18v, which, read with the text of the Prologue in mind, yields a somewhat different interpretation to the one proposed by De Wald. In this miniature, the resurrected Christ — as the two resurrection narratives depicted on either sides of Him emphasize — is enthroned and shines in its golden background, recalling the metaphor of the Sun of Justice proposed in the opening quotation from Malachy. Below, the standing David performs at once his role as prophet, priest and singer, framed in the ciborium and centered among the other prophets and performers of the psalms. The fading and flaking of the background has erased the captions to the figures surrounding David, making them difficult to read. Among the performers, the one to the right of David is holding a trumpet, an attribute which, in the light of Hesychius’s Prologue, points to Malachy announcing with his trumpet’s evangelical call the coming of Christ, here visualized in the instrument being raised up and aimed at the enthroned Christ. The long-robed prophet on the left (from the beholder’s viewpoint), holding a book, formerly identified as Asaph, could well be Moses, whose silhouette looks a bit shaggy like John the Baptist’s, and whose role of foreshadowing Christ through baptism is underlined in the Prologue. The prophet on the right, on the other hand, may be Solomon, whose name signifying ‘Peace’ stands as another strong pointer to Christ’s virtue of being the quintessential peacemaker. This interpretation leaves us with only three musicians, animating the performance of the psalter with their instruments and singing out the words of David in the Psalter.81 Another striking correspondence between the text of the Prologue and the preface texts and miniatures in Vat. gr. 752 is the reference to 1 Chron 15 and 25, both popular quotations in introductory texts to the Psalter. Besides Eusebius, whose text is offered by Mercati as a parallel to ll. 80 ff. of Hesychius’s Prologue, the text of Iosepos knows as the Method (CPG 6202) also refers to this passage verbatim. This text is copied at fols 5r-8v of the Vatican Psalter, where it is illustrated with high-quality images of David rendering service to the ark and arranging the performance of the four groups of singers around it (see fol. 7v: fig. 6). The intertextual borrowings 81

On the role of music in this Psalter, see the essay by Maja KOMINKO in this volume.

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Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7v (detail).

between these short texts, often adapted ad hoc to the specific manuscript in question, shortened or lengthened according to the need, clearly need to be explored further before conclusions can be drawn. Here again the ideology of Hesychius’s Prologue finds support in the interpretation of the episodes from the Old Testament. The tally between the Davidic authorship expressed in the Prologue and the imagery of Vat. gr. 752 could not have been taken for granted, when one considers the opposite stance that its twin-product, the Psalter Jerusalem, Hagiou Taphou 53, chose to highlight through its imagery.82 It is 82 For these images, see the article by S. DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psaumes dans le Psautier de Jérusalem, cod. Taphou 53: Rôle des tituli, in Byzantine East, Latin West. Art-His-

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in fact beyond doubt that the representations of Asaph, the sons of Kore and the other singers next to the psalm titles appear in this manuscript as author portraits, depicted according to the evangelists’ typology of divinely inspired writers. In the Jerusalem manuscript, David neither appears fullpage nor is he designated in any specific role. One wonders whether these two editions of the Psalter differed in this fundamental respect because of their being destined to a different readership, an individual or community that upheld one view, and another the opposite view concerning the authorship of the psalms. Or, alternatively, whether they just expressed two successive moments in the debate and reflected such development in their production. Was their stance in such a debate aligning their ideology to a position shared by another group, whether Christian or non-Christian? Despite their formal similarities, this theme strongly differentiates the two manuscripts and constitutes another ground for comparison between these psalters that certainly deserves further exploration. In this perspective, one ought to keep the Jewish background to this debate in mind as a possible motive for defining this topic further some centuries after Hesychius’s time. Only just after our psalters’ production, Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167), writing a commentary on the Psalter in Christian Spain, put this question as marking his first enquiry: “Is the entire book by David?”83 As ever, the question pivots on the interpretation of the inscriptions, or titles, to the individual psalms, and has to reckon with the added complication of the existence of unattributed psalms. According to those who uphold David’s exclusive authorship, the added mention of other names in the titles is that of the performers to whom David entrusted his compositions. This issue is thus regarded as much more than a literary question asked for its own sake. Rather, it marks the weight of prophetic power that, as a consequence of this determination of authorship, the Book of Psalms is deemed to have. The Jewish viewpoint on this is, as often, varied and open to different interpretations, some ringing with rational doubting, such as the statement, “As for the psalms without a name [in the heading], we do not know who wrote them”,84 others stretching the imagination for specific identifications of characters or authors, as in the following argumentation: All of the Psalms written without an explicit ascription of authorship — torical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, ed. D. MOURIKI et al., Princeton 1995, pp. 347354; and now D’AIUTO in this volume. 83 U. SIMON, Four Approaches to the Book of Psalms. From Saadiah Gaon to Abraham Ibn Ezra, New York 1991, pp. 312 (English) and 313 (Hebrew). For the regular musical interpretation of this image, see below Kominko, p. 480 and fig. 10. 84 Ibid., ll. 58-59, pp. 314-315.

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like the first two — are by David. But some of the Sages said that “A prayer of Moses, the man of God” (Ps 90 Heb.) was written by Moses when he erected the tabernacle, and that all of the psalms that come after that prayer, which do not have an explicit ascription, are by the seventy members of the Sanhedrin.85

In the second version of the introduction to his commentary, Ibn Ezra reviews once more the different approaches to this question, concluding with the following powerful, but nevertheless ambiguous, remark: “I tend to agree with the Sages [...] that this entire book is divinely inspired”.86 There is also evidence from the Latin West that determining David’s role and that of his singers is part of the function of an illustrated Psalter book. One example stands out from a particular Psalter manuscript illustrating, like Vat. gr. 752, not the biblical text but a commentary on the psalms. At fol. IIv of Paris, BnF, lat. 2508,87 a full-page miniature representing an enthroned Christ in the top register and David surrounded by his musicians in the lower register provides a good parallel for the miniature prefacing the Psalter in Vat. gr. 752, not only visually — here the typology established by the axis Christ-David is not as markedly exploited — but ideologically in terms of the authorship and performance of the Psalter. In this Latin manuscript, the liturgical aspect of the psalms performance is equally emphasized by the presence of the ark and, either sides of it, by two priest-like figures swinging thuribles towards it. It is remarkable that this manuscript provides marginal illustrations not directly to the psalm text, but rather to Odo of Asti’s commentary on the psalms, just like the images of Vat. gr. 752 stand in, and are primarily concerned with, the catena commentary. Such a comparison suggests a worthwhile avenue of research in the field of cross-fertilization between East and West through psalter illustration and commentary.88 Hesychius’s Prologue comes down firmly on one side of this debate, namely, that affirming the sole authorship of David.89 It does so by abandoning the literal interpretation of the psalm titles, and offering a meta85

Ibid., ll. 45-48, pp. 312-313. Ibid., ll. 35-36, pp. 332-333. 87 Walter CAHN, Illustrated Psalter Commentaries, in Psalms in Community. Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions, ed. by H. W. ATTRIDGE – M. E. FASSLER, Leiden – Boston 2004, pp. 241-264, at pp. 251-252 and fig. 13.5. The folio can also be seen online in colour from the Gallica portal. 88 See specifically H. TOUBERT, Contribution à l’iconographie des Psautiers. Le Commentaire des Psaumes d’Odon d’Asti, illustré à l’Abbaye de Farfa, in Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen-Âge, Temps modernes 88.2 (1976), pp. 581-619, and more in general the article by Suzy Dufrenne cited at p. 29 n. 14 of the Introduction. 89 For a good recapitulation on psalm attributions and David’s role as author, see J.-M. AUWERS, Le David des Psaumes et les Psaumes de David, in Figures de David à travers la Bible, 86

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phorical one. This process of interpretation, as Jean-Marie Auwers writes, and Hesychius implicitly acknowledges, had already started in the transition from the Hebrew to the Greek text, where the Septuagint titles attribute to David the historical allusions contained in the psalms. Interestingly, however, Auwers claims that the figure of David that emerges from this process is not one of forbidding monarch or daunting ecclesial organizer, but one of a humbler sinner in whom every Israelite could identify, and through whose words s/he could become able to pray.90 The active interest of Vat. gr. 752 in these other “authors” as performers goes some way towards supporting Susan Gilligham’s view of the Levites’ role as more than mere executors of David’s melodic poetry; though not authors, their roles as teachers is emphasized in the text and in the imagery of Vat. gr. 752.91 In contrast to the wider range of possibilities opened up by his metaphorical interpretations, Hesychius’s starkly dogmatic approach confirms David centre-stage as the basis for any further Christological interpretation of the Psalms. Thus we have to reckon with Hesychius’s different and at times contrasting views on the interpretation of the names contained in the titles. It remains to be seen how much of these metaphorical indications are reflected in the roles that the miniatures of Vat. gr. 752 develop for these additional characters, besides the figure of an authoritative, but at the same time human and repentant, David.

ed. by L. DEROUSSEAUX – J. VERMEYLEN, Paris 1999 (Lectio Divina, 177), pp. 187-224, esp. pp. 209-213. 90 J.-M. AUWERS, La composition littéraire du psautier. Un état de la question, Paris 2000, pp. 150-151. 91 S. GILLINGHAM, The Levitical Singers and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, in The Composition of the Book of Psalms, ed. by E. ZENGER, Leuven 2010 (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 238), pp. 91-123, at p. 120.

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MARIA ANTONIETTA BARBÀRA

NOTE SULLA TECNICA REDAZIONALE DEI COMMENTI SCOLIASTICI DI ESICHIO DI GERUSALEMME Nella storia dell’esegesi patristica Esichio di Gerusalemme è il più significativo rappresentante del genere scoliastico, avendo composto commenti sotto forma di Scoli sui Salmi, sui Cantici dell’Antico e del Nuovo Testamento, sui libri profetici1. Tra i generi letterari, gli Scoli, note su passi sparsi e difficili delle Scritture, sono opposti ai Commentari e alle Omelie che si caratterizzano per la loro ampiezza e per la nozione di acolutia, cioè sequenzialità del ragionamento e dell’esposto; mentre nei Commentari ogni versetto si collega per il senso con il versetto precedente e l’insieme dei versetti ha un significato globale in accordo con il significato particolare delle unità di senso, invece il genere degli Scoli esclude la prolissità. Un aspetto della tecnica redazionale dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio riguarda il problema della loro struttura compositiva e della loro impaginazione: in passato si è discusso se essi comportassero un’impaginazione su due colonne — nella colonna di sinistra il testo biblico, in quella di destra gli scoli —, oppure un’impaginazione marginale, con il testo biblico trascritto al centro della pagina e invece gli scoli trascritti minutiore manu nei margini. Il problema si pone sulla base delle catene esegetiche, un’innovazione tradizionalmente attribuita a Procopio di Gaza, consistente nella compilazione di interventi esplicativi a un passo biblico, estratti da fonti diverse, raccolti separatamente dal testo commentato, o riportati in 1

Tra i commenti ai libri profetici quello su Isaia fu edito da M. FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani Interpretatio Isaiae Prophetae, nunc primum in lucem edita, prolegomenis, commentario critico, indice adaucta, Friburgi Brisgoviae 1900. Riguardo agli Scoli su Osea, cf. ibid., p. IX s.; per gli Scoli su Abdia 1 e Zaccaria 14,20 s., cf. ID., Die Propheten-Katenen nach römischen Handschriften, Freiburg in B. 1899, pp. 21-26 e 32 s.; su Giona 2:3-10 e su Abacuc 3:1-19, cf. V. JAGIÒ, Supplementum Psalterii Bononiensis. Incerti auctoris explanatio graeca, Vindobonae 1917, pp. 308 ss. e 312 s. (301-320: glosse sui cantici dell’Antico e del Nuovo Testamento); su Giona, cf. Y.-M. DUVAL, Le livre de Jonas dans la littérature chrétienne grecque et latine. Sources et influence du Commentaire sur Jonas de saint Jérôme, Paris 1973, pp. 629645; su Gioele, cf. M. STARK, Hesychius von Jerusalem. Scholien zum Propheten Joel, in Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 37 (1994), pp. 37-44. Su Ezechiele, cf. L. VIANÈS, Les “Gloses” sur Ezéchiel d’Hésychius de Jérusalem dans le Laurentianus Pluteus XI.4, in Revue des études augustiniennes 41 (1995), pp. 315-323. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 383-413.

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margine ad esso. Le catene, oltre che la tradizione diretta, sono testimoni dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio sui Salmi; e nella tradizione catenaria, come è noto, la messa in pagina di una catena può essere continua, ossia alternante, oppure marginale, ai lati del testo commentato, «inquadrante». Nella catena con disposizione continua il testo biblico e il relativo commento sono copiati senza interruzione: il testo è incorporato nel commento copiato a piena pagina; ogni versetto o gruppo di versetti è seguito da uno o più estratti con alternanza più o meno regolare. Nella catena inquadrante gli estratti sono collocati in una zona della pagina indipendente da quella del testo biblico, possono circondare il testo su due lati (la zona superiore e la zona inferiore) del foglio, o su tre lati (anche la zona esterna), e sono riferiti al testo mediante lettere, cifre oppure segni convenzionali. Nei manoscritti catenari pervenuti gli Scoli si presentano disposti a piena pagina, oppure spesso sono collocati su due o tre margini esterni della pagina. Quest’ultima disposizione richiedeva un’accurata preparazione della pagina per adattare testo biblico e commento, esigeva la lineazione della zona di rigatura, ossia della superficie limitata da un quadrilatero di linee tracciate, idonee ad accogliere e guidare la scrittura, fino al risultato della messa in pagina; e implicava di assicurare il collegamento del commento con il testo mediante un sistema di corrispondenza2. Nel tentativo di precisare il modo in cui Esichio procedeva nel suo lavoro, bisognerà valutare la discrepanza cronologica tra l’autore, vissuto nella prima metà del V secolo, e i primi manoscritti testimoni della sua attività che ci sono pervenuti. Il problema richiama l’annoso dibattito sulla nascita della scoliografia, cioè la questione relativa sia alla prassi redazionale dei commenti sotto forma di Scoli, qual è documentata, sia ai modelli per2

Cf. J.-H. SAUTEL, Essai de terminologie de la mise en page des manuscrits à commentaire, in Gazette du livre médiéval 35 (1999), pp. 17-31; il Répertoire de réglures des manuscrits grecs sur parchemin. Base de données établie par J.-H. Sautel à l’aide du fichier Leroy et des catalogues récents, Turnhout 1995. Un ampio esame dei procedimenti di collegamento dell’esegesi al testo è tracciato da M. MANIACI, “La serva padrona”. Interazioni fra testo e glossa sulla pagina del manoscritto, in Talking to the Text: Marginalia from Papyri to Print. Proceedings of a Conference held at Erice, 26 September – 3 October 1998, a cura di V. FERA – G. FERRAÙ – S. RIZZO, as the 12th Course of International School for the Study of Written Records, Messina 2002, Università degli Studi di Messina. Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi Umanistici, I, pp. 3-35, e Stratégies de juxtaposition du texte et du commentaire dans quelques manuscrits d’Homère, in Le commentaire entre tradition et innovation. Actes du Colloque international de l’Institut des traditions textuelles (Paris et Villejuif, 22-25 septembre 1999), a cura di M.-O. GOULET-CAZÉ, Paris 2000 (Bibliothèque d’histoire de la philosophie, N.S.), pp. 65-78. Sulla pratica bizantina dei segni “di rinvio” che collegano gli scoli al testo, cf. B. ATSALOS, Les signes de renvoi dans les mss Grecs, in Paleografia e codicologia greca. Atti del II Colloquio internazionale, Berlino – Wolfenbüttel, 17-21 ott. 1983, a cura di D. HARLFINGER – G. PRATO, Alessandria 1991, I, pp. 211-231.

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duti dei manoscritti medievali conservati, testimoni di esegesi scoliastica. All’inizio il dibattito coinvolse la tradizione esegetica relativa a opere letterarie greche profane3; nel corso del tempo, la letteratura comprendente Commentari e Scoli è stata sottoposta a molteplici indagini, su tipologie editoriali dei commentari su papiro4, sul passaggio dai Commentari come volumina autonomi agli Scoli marginali e ai corpora scoliografici, con ipotesi spesso divergenti circa tempi e modi del passaggio5. Si è visto che le circostanze dei singoli corpora scoliografici richiedono indagini non generalizzate, ma sulla base delle specifiche tradizioni testuali. Per la storia dell’esegesi e delle sue forme nell’ambito delle Scritture, aspetti rilevanti sono emersi dalle nostre conoscenze sui principali centri culturali di età tardoantica, ad esempio, Gaza, dove la prassi di annotare spiegazioni al testo biblico si sviluppò almeno dal VI secolo. E ci si è chiesto a partire da quale epoca, in quale contesto storico e culturale e con quale disposizione nella pagina, la composizione del commento scoliastico ai libri biblici, che è peculiare dell’esegesi esichiana, abbia assunto le caratteristiche di un apparato esegetico marginale, qual è riscontrabile negli scoli dei manoscritti medievali6. 3 Gli studiosi accordarono o meno un forte valore indiziario a testimoni manoscritti di età tardoantica forniti di copiosi marginalia esegetici. Cf. J. W. WHITE, The Scholia on the Aves of Aristophanes, Boston-London 1914, pp. LXIV-LXV (congettura un archetipo delle commedie di Aristofane del IV o V secolo corredato di scoli); di contro G. ZUNTZ, An Inquiry into the Transmission of the Plays of Euripides, Cambridge 1965, pp. 272-275 e Die Aristophanes-Scholien der Papyri, Berlin 1975 (prima ediz. in Byzantion 13 [1938], pp. 631-690 e 14 [1939], pp. 545-614), rileva l’assenza, almeno per le commedie aristofanee, di prove dell’esistenza di tale archetipo; Zuntz individua il modello della scoliografia di età bizantina nelle catene bibliche palestinesi, riscontrabili fin dal VI secolo. 4 Cf., ad es., G. MESSERI SAVORELLI – R. PINTAUDI, I lettori dei papiri: dal commento autonomo agli scolii, in Talking to the Text, pp. 37-57. 5 Argomenti di Zuntz sono stati messi in discussione: cf. almeno N. G. WILSON, A Chapter in the History of Scholia, in Classical Quarterly n.s. 17 (1967), pp. 244-256; ID., Scoliasti e commentatori, in Studi Classici e Orientali 33 (1983), pp. 83-112; J. LUNDON, λια: una questione non marginale, in Discentibus obvius. Omaggio degli allievi a Domenico Magnino, a cura di G. MAZZOLI, Como 1997, pp. 73-86; due contributi di K. MCNAMEE: Missing Links in the Development of Scholia, in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 36 (1995), pp. 399-414, e Another Chapter in the History of Scholia, in Classical Quarterly n.s. 48,1 (1998), pp. 269-288; F. PONTANI, Sguardi su Ulisse. La tradizione esegetica greca all’Odissea, Roma 2005, pp. 96-100. 6 Elementi di riflessione emergono anche nell’ambito del diritto e della filosofia: nel centro culturale di Berito noto per i suoi studi giuridici fino all’età giustinianea (cf. MCNAMEE, Another Chapter); nella scuola neoplatonica di Atene, nel sec. V le annotazioni, όλι , che Proclo apponeva ai margini di un esemplare del commentario di Siriano ai carmi orfici sarebbero un precedente immediato della compilazione scoliastica, o piuttosto esemplificano la tipologia di fonti documentate dai manoscritti medievali testimoni di esegesi scoliastica: cf. Marino, Vita Procli, ed. J. F. BOISSONADE, Amsterdam 1966, p. 27, per l’uso di apporre note ai margini dei commentari, π ρ ρ ντο το ετ ποι τ ν πο ν τ ν, e A. PORRO,

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In questa sede l’analisi della tecnica redazionale dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio è incentrata sui due commenti ai Salmi, documentati in tradizione diretta e da più catene esegetiche. L’uno fu edito dal cardinale Nicola Antonelli sotto il nome di Atanasio di Alessandria, ma la paternità esichiana degli scoli è stata dimostrata da Giovanni Mercati e da Robert Devreesse, ed è comunemente ammessa; è costituito da una raccolta di scoli, molto brevi, per lo più nella forma di glosse marginali, spesso costituite di poche parole che illustrano ora questa ora quella espressione, ora parafrasano un versetto, e ha di mira l’esegesi del salterio secondo una prospettiva ascetico-mistica7. L’altro commento fu edito dal grande filologo Vatroslav Jagiò senza nome d’autore, ma la paternità esichiana è documentata dalla tradizione manoscritta; si presenta come una via di mezzo tra il commento continuato e il commento scoliastico che è costituito da brevi glosse, ciascuna delle quali spiega ciascun versetto per se stesso senza un rapporto con i versetti precedenti e seguenti; la prospettiva esegetica è orientata verso la vita di Cristo8. L’analisi dei commenti ai Salmi potrebbe valere anche per le interpretazioni esichiane di altri libri della Scrittura, come gli Scoli ai Profeti minori, pervenuti in tradizione catenaria; le catene sui Salmi costituiscono una base privilegiata per studiare la storia delle catene in generale e delle catene costituite da scoli in particolare: le più antiche catene a scoli sui Salmi sono tra le prime catene che furono confezionate e non esistono catene più recenti delle più recenti catene sui Salmi9. Manoscritti in maiuscola alessandrina di contenuto profano. Aspetti grafici, codicologici, filologici, in Scrittura e Civiltà 9 (1985), pp. 169-215: a pp. 213 s. Sulla formazione dei corpora scoliastici ai Padri della Chiesa cf. J. NIMMO SMITH, The Early Scholia on the Sermons of Gregory of Nazianzus, Turnhout – Leuven 2000 (Studia Nazianzenica, I, CCSG 41, Corpus Nazianzenum, 8), pp. 69-146. 7 L’edizione di N. ANTONELLI, Sancti P. N. Athanasii arch. Alexandriae interpretatio Psalmorum, sive de titulis psalmorum, Romae 1746, è riprodotta nel t. III delle opere di Atanasio, Padova 1777, in PG 27, 649-1344 (nella prefazione, coll. 591-648, sono esposti gli argomenti dell’Antonelli a difesa dell’attribuzione ad Atanasio). Si veda inoltre l’edizione curata dai Padri Benedettini della congregazione di S. Mauro, in PG 27, coll. 55-546 (e col. 51 s., VIII, con elenco e descrizione dei codici su cui essa si fonda). Riguardo alla paternità esichiana degli scoli, cf. MERCATI, Il Commentario, p. 168; DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, pp. 244 s.; CPG 6552. 8 Riguardo al commento edito da Jagiò (Supplementum Psalterii Bononiensis…), CPG 6553 (è definito commentario “breve”). L’identificazione del commento scoliastico di Esichio con il commento trasmesso dal manoscritto bolognese, dove è intercalato tra i versetti è difesa da Devreesse, p. 247; cf. le Note di Mercati, pp. 176 s.; S. LEANZA, Uno scoliaste del V secolo: Esichio di Gerusalemme, in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 8.2 (1991), pp. 519-533: 524 (dubbi sulla paternità esichiana). I commenti Antonelli e Jagiò spiegano il salterio secondo prospettive differenti dal Commentario ai Salmi (riguardo a quest’ultimo, cf. CPG 6554). Si veda anche il contributo di S. Voicu in questo volume, pp. 301-328. 9 G. DORIVAL, La postérité littéraire des chaînes exégétiques grecques, in Revue des études byzantines 43 (1985), pp. 209-226: a p. 210.

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Utilizzo qui un contributo inedito di Gilles Dorival sulla tradizione manoscritta degli Scoli di Esichio sui Salmi, di cui lo studioso gentilmente mi ha messo a parte10. Tutti i manoscritti sono importanti testimoni dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio, del loro procedere su passi biblici di difficile comprensione, mediante interpretazioni sempre discontinue e concise. Ma, per esemplificare l’impaginazione verisimilmente utilizzata da Esichio, limito l’analisi ad alcuni manoscritti che mi sembrano più significativi; prima ne prenderò in considerazione la rigatura e la messa in pagina, poi tenterò di vedere quale tecnica redazionale e disposizione degli scoli Esichio poté adottare. Fra i testimoni della tradizione catenaria ha rilievo il manoscritto della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 752, copiato a Costantinopoli nel secolo XI: trasmette una catena con configurazione mista, palestinese e insieme costantinopolitana, il cui punto di partenza è un salterio glossato da scoli palestinesi; questo documenta gli Scoli di Esichio Antonelli quasi integralmente sui salmi da 1 a 100, invece a scelta a partire dal salmo 101, e attesta gli Scoli di Esichio Jagiò in abbondanza sui salmi 1 e 1111. Secondo Gilles Dorival, la catena, impaginata su due colonne, riproduce la disposizione degli Scoli apparsi verso il III secolo in Palestina, degli Scoli di Esichio, che erano su due colonne, una delle quali era riservata ai versetti e l’altra alle glosse esplicative12. Infatti, nella catena del Vat. gr. 752 gli Scoli palestinesi, di Esichio Antonelli, di cui il salterio è provvisto, costituiscono la fonte fondamentale; poi secondo uno schema più complesso, dato dal modello costantinopolitano delle catene, si aggiunse un’altra fonte, che era citata con valore fondamentale, e che si fuse insieme con la precedente. Lo studio delle fonti suggerisce che il Vat. gr. 752 sia tra i tipi catenari semplici, che si pongono alla nascita delle catene e che rispettano l’impaginazione originale delle fonti utilizzate. L’impaginazione su due colonne è documentata anche da altri manoscritti catenari, che quasi tutti hanno per fonte 10

G. Dorival, e-mail del 14-02-2012, pp. 1-11, della quale ringrazio. Cf. Dorival, e-mail, pp. 8 e 10; e DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, IV, pp. 56-113, con analisi dettagliata della catena figlia trasmessa dal Vat. gr. 752 (terminus ante quem è la seconda metà del sec. XI) e con datazione del codice al sec. XI proposta da R. DEVREESSE; tra l’altro, RAHLFS, Verzeichnis, p. 255, Sigel 1173, che data il codice all’anno 1075 ca.; la dissertazione inedita di MENNES, Inventaris, p. 59, num. 144; CPG IV, C 35 (1), che data il codice all’anno 1000. La catena è del tipo XXII: cf. KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 20-66: a p. 58 s. 12 Cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, II, pp. 235 s. La composizione della catena era stata analizzata da SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke, soprattutto pp. 10-34; I. HUTTER, Oxforder Marginalien, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 29 (1980), pp. 331-354, in particolare pp. 331-343 riguardo ai manoscritti Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. gr. 62, sec. XII, e Vat. gr. 752. 11

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fondamentale raccolte di Scoli, delle quali riproducono la disposizione; e la fonte è arricchita con l’aggiunta di frammenti di diversa origine. Altri tipi semplici sono individuati nelle catene di due manoscritti, sulla base della loro fonte fondamentale, gli Scoli, e del loro modello, gli Scoli palestinesi: la catena del Parigino Coislin. 360, secolo XI, e la catena del manoscritto torinese Taurin. gr. B.VII.30 della Biblioteca Nazionale, scritto in onciale, dei secoli VIII-inizio IX, distrutto nell’incendio del 26 gennaio 1904. L’una documenta la tradizione diretta di Esichio Antonelli sui salmi da 13 a 150 e di Esichio Jagiò sui salmi da 1 a 12, con disposizione a due colonne; l’altra, di origine palestinese, testimone di Scoli di Esichio Antonelli, era disposta sui tre margini esterni del foglio intorno al testo biblico ma con note anche all’interno del foglio13. Tipo 12

AAba 11

linee AA

(11) ba

Fig. 1 – Rigatura verticale del Vat. gr. 752.

Tra i tipi di rigatura dei manoscritti catenari studiati da Gilles Dorival, il Vat. gr. 752 rappresenta il tipo 12, definito AA(11)ba (cf. fig. 1)14. Le lettere maiuscole definiscono il tipo di colonna che è alla base della rigatura: A = prima e seconda colonna nelle quali le linee verticali di giustificazione sono doppie. Le lettere minuscole indicano le linee verticali supplementari: b = due linee, accostate tra loro; a = una linea. Dunque, il numero delle linee verticali del tipo è undici. Il numero 11, costituito da due cifre uguali, serve a precisare il rapporto, che è uguale — di 1 a 1 —, 13 I tipi catenari semplici dei manoscritti Vat. gr. 752, Taurin. gr. B.VII.30 (Pasini, gr. 342) e Coislin. 360 sono designati da G. Dorival MsSs: sono modello-scoli e fonte-scoli (“sourcescholies”); cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 86 s. Riguardo al manoscritto Coislin. 360, cf. ibid., pp. 81, 85, e II, pp. 82 ss. (oltre che MENNES, Inventaris, p. 51, num. 120). Riguardo al manoscritto Taurin. gr. B.VII.30, che probabilmente non dava tutti gli Scoli di Esichio ma soltanto una scelta tra questi, cf. ibid., II, pp. 126-141 (139 ss., con datazione e origine); il Torinese era testimone della catena perduta (XXVI), descritta da G. MERCATI, Alla ricerca dei nomi degli «altri» traduttori nelle omelie sui Salmi di S. Giovanni Crisostomo e variazioni su alcune catene del Salterio, Città del Vaticano 1952 (Studi e testi, 158), pp. 176-198 (cf. p. 197 riguardo alla probabile provenienza della catena dalla Palestina). Il Pasini dà un facsimile del Salmo 77, con scolii esichiani: cf. Jos. PASINUS – ANT. RIVAUTELLA – FR. BERTA, Codices manuscripti Bibliothecae Regii Taurinensis Athenaei t. I, Taurini 1749, pp. 67-487: p. 470; MERCATI, Note di letteratura, p. 174, n. 2. 14 Cf. fig. 1: DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 65 e 68 con descrizione.

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Tipo 20

AAA

389

6 linee

Fig. 2 – Rigatura verticale del Coislin. 360 e Vat. gr. 1747.

tra la larghezza della prima colonna riservata ai versetti e la larghezza della seconda colonna riservata alla catena. La catena nel Vat. gr. 752 è disposta a due colonne ugualmente larghe, come è nei manoscritti testimoni di tradizione diretta su due colonne, dove queste sono simmetriche e, dal punto di vista della rigatura, interscambiabili; invece nei manoscritti catenari le due colonne raramente hanno larghezza uguale, perché non contengono il medesimo tipo di testo. Le linee di giustificazione della prima colonna sono uguali alle linee di giustificazione della seconda colonna, invece nelle catene spesso le linee di giustificazione della prima colonna differiscono dalle linee di giustificazione della seconda colonna. Nel manoscritto Vat. gr. 752 il margine mediano si presenta come linee verticali doppie; invece nei manoscritti catenari esso è spesso delimitato da linee verticali triple15. La trasformazione delle colonne AA è rappresentata dalla definizione AAA che è comune a due catene che hanno impaginazioni differenti tra loro: è della catena del manoscritto Coislin. 360, che ha per fonte fondamentale gli Scoli esichiani e la cui catena è disposta a due colonne, ed è anche della catena del manoscritto Vat. gr. 1747, secoli X-XI, che utilizza gli Scoli di Esichio Jagiò fra i testi fondamentali e ha disposizione marginale: la lettera maiuscola seguita da un esponente significa che A e AA hanno una linea di giustificazione doppia in comune, cioè AA rappresenta la seconda colonna giustificata a sinistra dalla linea doppia della colonna A e, a destra, da una linea doppia (cf. fig. 2)16. Dunque, lo studio delle rigature dei manoscrit15 Le linee verticali di giustificazione costituiscono i limiti entro i quali possono essere disposti i blocchi di testo e di commento. Le linee verticali delimitanti il margine mediano sono doppie oltre che nel Vat. gr. 752, anche in due manoscritti testimoni di catene marginali: il Vat. gr. 753, sec. XI, la cui catena mista costantinopolitana trasmette occasionalmente scoli di Esichio Antonelli e di Esichio Jagiò, e il Veneto Marcian. gr. 17, sec. X: cf. ibid., p. 57 s. Riguardo al Vat. gr. 753, tipo 4 di rigatura, AAa, il cui numero di linee verticali è nove, cf. ibid., pp. 64 e 74 con schema e descrizione. Riguardo alla catena, secondaria, del manoscritto Marcian. gr. 17 (Salterio di Basilio), cf. ibid., pp. 27 ss. (le fonti), p. 74 (la rigatura, marginale, con descrizione), e pp. 247 s. Cf. E. MIONI – M. FORMENTIN, I codici greci in minuscola dei secc. IX e X della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Padova 1975, pp. 59-60 e Tav. 47 (scripturae specimen); I. FURLAN, Codici greci illustrati della Biblioteca Marciana, Milano 1978, pp. 46-48, Tavv. 35-37 (Basilii II imperatoris imagines). 16 Cf. fig. 2: schema di rigatura dei manoscritti Parigi, Coislin. 360 e Vat. gr. 1747;

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= linea scritta A B C

11 17

2 linee scritte

17

11/12

19 linee tracciate 211 37 linee scritte

D E F

3 linee scritte

20 24 35 7

65

6

27

6

65

6 14 6 30 9

Fig. 3 – Mise-en-page (1), Vat. gr. 752.

ti catenari sui Salmi dimostra che elementi di rigatura sono comuni alla catena su due colonne e alla catena marginale; rispetto alla rigatura delle catene con disposizione a due colonne, la rigatura marginale aggiunge elementi di rigatura suoi propri: la rigatura marginale trae origine dalla rigatura delle catene su due colonne. L’impaginazione del Vat. gr. 752, su due colonne, con l’uso di inchiostri di vario colore, corrisponde spesso alla rigatura; anche le miniature, collocate quasi sempre nella colonna della catena, rispettano la rigatura fig. 3.indd 2

13-Jun-16 8:41:52 PM

DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 66, riguardo ai due manoscritti, tipo 20 di rigatura. Cf. ibid., p. 68, con descrizione della rigatura del manoscritto Coislin. 360, dove la zona riservata alla catena è minore in rapporto alla zona riservata al testo biblico; e p. 74, riguardo al manoscritto Vat. gr. 1747, ibid., III, 1992, pp. 442-492: a p. 483; tra l’altro cf. RAHLFS, Verzeichnis, pp. 265 s., Sigel 271; MENNES, Inventaris, pp. 63 s., num. 155; CPG IV, C 27.

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 23v: Psalm 4.

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Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 54r: Psalm 17.

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A B C

37 linee scritte

D

1/2/3 linee scritte

E F

Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, Mise-en-page (2).

(cf. figg. 3-5)17; ma talvolta la catena deborda nella colonna del testo biblico (cf. fig. 6-9)18. Anche se raramente, la sua disposizione riproduce perfino il modello della catena marginale19, e per legare tra loro il testo commentato e gli Scoli sono usati segni di rinvio: questo sistema non è necessario nella catena disposta a due colonne; è invece consueto nella classe di catena marginale, inquadrante, dove il testo biblico e gli estratti esegetici si presentano in blocchi indipendenti, gli estratti sono collocati intorno al testo, ed è necessario chiarire quale estratto commenta tale pericope biblica. La

fig. 6.indd 3

17 Cf. fig. 3: impaginazione del Vat. gr. 752 (60% dei casi); DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 76. Nel Vat. gr. 752 i versetti sono copiati su 19 linee, quante sono le linee di 8:44:56 PM 13-Jun-16 rigatura; la catena è disposta su 37 linee, che sono quasi il doppio delle 19 linee di rigatura (da C a D), e anche su 2 linee supplementari (tra B e C) e su tre linee supplementari (tra D e E). Cf. anche le figg. 4 e 5: Vat. gr. 752, rispettivamente f. 23v e f. 54r, con miniature. 18 Cf. fig. 6: impaginazione del Vat. gr. 752 (nel 40% dei casi la catena è scritta sulla larghezza delle due colonne); ibid., p. 77. Cf. anche le figg. 7 e 8: Vat. gr. 752, rispettivamente f. 20v e f. 21r. Cf. anche la fig. 9: Vat. gr. 752, f. 67v 19 Cf. ibid., pp. 78 s.

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Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20v: Psalm 2.

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Fig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 21r: Psalm 2.

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Fig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 67v: Psalm 20.

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divergenza dell’impaginazione dalla rigatura si riscontra non soltanto nel Vat. gr. 752, ma anche in altri manoscritti catenari più antichi: per esempio, nel codex Zacynthius, scritto in onciale, la cui datazione, posta persino al secolo VI, sembra essere la metà o la fine del secolo VIII, la rigatura è marginale; e pure la disposizione è marginale, su tre lati del foglio che sono il superiore, l’inferiore e l’esterno, ma talvolta è su due lati o perfino a due colonne20. Per esemplificare come le catene costituite da scoli rispettassero l’impaginazione originale delle fonti utilizzate, può valere anche lo studio delle fonti e della rigatura del manoscritto Vat. gr. 754, inizio del secolo X, il testimone poziore della catena atanasio-evagriana, un tipo complesso di catena antica, con disposizione marginale, qual è la catena mista palestinese, che, diversamente dalle catene palestinesi costituite da frammenti di Commentari e di Omelie, introduce in quella forma letteraria originaria Scoli di autori palestinesi. Trasmette, oltre agli Scoli esichiani — rari di Esichio Antonelli, tredici di Esichio Jagiò —, numerosi Scoli di Evagrio Pontico, Scoli di Atanasio (o uno pseudo-Atanasio), e frammenti di Teodoreto di Cirro e di Gregorio di Nissa: gli Scoli del cosiddetto Atanasio e quelli di Evagrio, insieme al Commmentario di Teodoreto, sono le fonti fondamentali21. Poiché la fonte principale è costituita dagli Scoli, si può supporre che la disposizione marginale provenga dalla disposizione a due colonne. La catena dal salmo 101 al salmo 150 ha tra le sue fonti la riscrittura della prima catena palestinese, e certi frammenti sono preceduti da formule di transizione (ad esempio, λλ , “e altrimenti”) che comunemente separano due frammenti nelle catene a piena pagina, dove il testo biblico e il relativo commento non si presentano in blocchi separati, ma c’è alternanza fra l’uno e l’altro su tutto il foglio senza interruzione: probabilmente il modello del Vat. gr. 754 era una catena a piena pagina. Il Vat. gr. 754 mostra l’influenza del 20 Il Codex Zacynthius (Cambridge University Library, MS 213 = Gregory-Aland 040), nei fogli palinsesti testimone di una catena su Luca, edito da J. H. Greenlee nel 1957, è stato datato a partire dal sec. VII, o dal VI: datazione proposta da W. H. P. HATCH, A Redating of two Important Uncial Manuscripts of the Gospels. Codex Zacynthius and Codex Cyprius, in Quantalacumque. Studies Presented to Kirsopp Lake, London 1937, pp. 333-338, e seguita da K. ALAND (et alii), Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, Berlin – New York 19942 (Arbeiten zur neutestamentliches Textforschung, 1). Ma il codice è stato anche datato verso l’anno 800: cf. ZUNTZ, Die Aristophanes-Scholien, pp. 88-107. 21 M.-J. RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques du Psautier (IIIe-Ve siècles), I. Les travaux des Pères grecs et latins sur le Psautier. Recherches et bilan, Roma 1982 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 219), p. 290, Pl. 2. Incontra difficoltà l’attribuzione degli Scoli ad Atanasio, per la quale cf. G. M. VIAN, Testi inediti dal Commento ai Salmi di Atanasio, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, Roma 1978 (Studia Ephemeridis “Augustinianum”, 14), p. 11. Gli Scoli del cosiddetto Atanasio e di Evagrio sono anonimi, numerati rispettivamente in maiuscola e in minuscola.

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modello degli Scoli palestinesi, da cui le 40 catene costituite da scoli nacquero, im8 linee paginate all’origine 40 su due colonne ma pervenute spesso se- 18 condo la disposizione marginale oppure a piena pagina22. 110 15 linee La rigatura si presenta con otto linee verticali che determinano tre colonne: la prima colonna, co22 stituita dalle prime due linee verticali, è la più stretta; la se- 71 14 linee conda colonna è giustificata da due doppie linee verticali; la terza colonna, di lar- 50 ghezza intermedia, ha linee di giustifi31 66 77 7 21 45 45 cazione semplici. Il Fig. 10 – Rigatura, Vat. gr. 754. testo biblico è scritto nella seconda colonna sulle 15 linee tracciate al centro, e le lettere iniziali sono tracciate nella doppia linea di sinistra, le lettere finali nella doppia linea di destra. Le glosse sono scritte sulle 8 linee tracciate in alto, sulla colonna di destra, che è priva di linee tracciate, e sulle 14 linee tracciate in basso. Ci sono glosse scritte nella colonna di sinistra, sulle 15 linee di rigatura centrali: questa prima colonna di scrittura è supplementare, ricorda la disposizione a due colonne; il copista del Vat. gr. 754 si è riservato uno spazio per poter trascrivere là le glosse che sovrabbondano al testo biblico; fig. 10.indd 3 il copista potrebbe aver seguito, modificandolo, il modello che documentava la disposizione a due colonne e la disposizione marginale ben distinte in maniera da collocare due fonti, che sono lezioni esaplari e glosse lessicali,

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22 Cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 88, riguardo alla catena del Vat. gr. 754 costituita da commentari e scoli, definita Ms Sc + Ss. La catena trasmessa dal manoscritto Vat. gr. 754 è nella forma del tipo XIX. Cf. RAHLFS, Verzeichnis, p. 256, Sigel 1175; MENNES, Inventaris, p. 60, num. 145; CPG IV, C 32.

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in parti del foglio differenti rispetto ai commenti (cf. fig. 10)23. Lo studio delle rigature dei manoscritti catenari sui Salmi mostra l’equivalenza tra l’impaginazione su due colonne e l’impaginazione a piena pagina; una medesima 33 linee 33 linee catena può essere disposta a piena pagina, cioè su una sola colonna, oppure a due colonne24. L’equivalenza è documentata anche da due catene testimoni degli Scoli di Esichio: la catena mista costantinopolitana del manoscritto di Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barocci 223, seconda metà del secolo XVI, con rigatura a due colonne, ma con disposizione a piena 50 pagina, dimostra che la rigatura non sempre determina < 32 l’impaginazione (cf. fig. 11)25; il manoscritto Vat. gr. 2057, Fig. 11 – Rigatura del manoscritto di Oxford, Bodlefine del secolo X, la cui cateian Library, Barocci 223. na secondaria trasmette Scoli, sia pure scarsi, di Esichio Antonelli, ha due rigature, differenti, probabilmente preparate nel medesimo atelier, delle quali alla prima, con linee piene, corrisponde la scrittura a piena pagina, alla seconda, a due colonne, corrisponde la scrittura su due colonne (cf. fig. 12)26. Tra le forme della 26

fig. 11.indd 4

23 Cf. fig. 10: rigatura del Vat. gr. 754; DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, II, pp. 237-243, in particolare p. 240; e I, pp. 65 e 74 con schema e descrizione della rigatura. 24-Mar-16 11:41:33 PM 24 Ibid., I, p. 44, è richiamato il principio di codificazione delle rigature seguito da Julien Leroy, che diede il medesimo indice verticale a tipi che si differenziano solo perché uno è a piena pagina e l’altro è su due colonne. 25 Cf. fig. 11: rigatura dell’Oxoniense Bodleian Library, Barocci 223; ibid., p. 43, e III, pp. 327 s.; RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques du Psautier, p. 217. Il manoscritto (tipo catenario X) attesta una ventina di Scoli di Esichio Antonelli e la tradizione diretta di Esichio Jagiò: cf. Dorival, e-mail, pp. 8 e 10. 26 Cf. fig. 12: rigatura del Vat. gr. 2057; DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, p. 45 s.; la prima rigatura è ai ff. 1-156 e dal fol. 267 alla fine; la seconda rigatura è nei fascicoli interme-

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24 5/6 12

32-35 linee

37-40 linee

37-40 linee

26 6/7

180/190

6 14 6

26

5

10

12

90

5 11

5

Fig. 12 – Rigatura, Vat. gr. 2057.

catena atanasio-evagriana è il manoscritto Parigino Coislin. 10, secolo X, con disposizione a piena pagina27. L’impaginazione dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio di Gerusalemme fig. 12.indd 6

Fonte utile per discutere il problema dell’impaginazione dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio è il titolo del Prologo a tutta la sua opera esegetica sui Profeti, perché ci informa sul modo in cui l’autore procedeva nel suo lavoro. L’inscriptio del Prologo è: “Divisione in stichi dei dodici Profeti e di Isaia e di Daniele, che ha ai lati (ἐν π ρ ε ι) le interpretazioni dei passi più difficili”. Il titolo, che suona alquanto insolito, indica che il testo biblico era stato diviso in brevi unità da Esichio stesso, in modo diverso dall’attuale divisione dei Settanta, e che “ai lati” del testo stavano gli scoli esplicativi dei passi difficili. E nel Prologo Esichio scrive: “ho aggiunto (προ , 24-Mar-16 11:43:07 PM fig. 12.indd 7

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di, ai ff. 157-266. Cf. anche MERCATI, Alla ricerca dei nomi, p. 152, n. 1. Riguardo alla catena (tipo II), cf. MENNES, Inventaris, p. 64, num. 156: è datato al sec. XI; CPG IV, C 15. Il manoscritto attesta Scoli Antonelli sotto il nome di Efrem; ed anche il Vat. gr. 752, fol. 297, attribuisce a Efrem uno Scolio Antonelli: la divergenza nell’identificazione dell’autore fu segnalata dal MERCATI, Sull’autore del De titulis Psalmorum stampato fra le opere di S. Atanasio, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10 (1944), pp. 11-14; ma il nome Efrem sembra essere un errore (cf. DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, p. 315); l’insieme degli scoli è di Esichio, pur non escludendo la rielaborazione di alcune glosse da parte di un certo Efrem: cf. Dorival, e-mail, p. 6. 27 RONDEAU, Les commentaires patristiques du Psautier, p. 291, Pl. 3 (fol. 24r).

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cioè, al testo biblico) una concisa spiegazione dei luoghi difficili oppure oscuri o anche ambigui, apponendola agli stichi del testo (π ρ ε τ ν το τ οι ), sì che contemporaneamente alla lettura se ne acquisisca la comprensione”28. Per designare le sue glosse Esichio non adopera la parola όλιον ma i vocaboli ρ νε e ἐ ι ; e come ρ νε sono qualificati i suoi brevissimi Scoli sui Salmi (Esichio Antonelli), nella nota che si legge alla fine del manoscritto della Biblioteca Vaticana, Reg. gr. 40, secolo XIII29; ma è chiaro che le sue interpretazioni dei profeti appartengono al genere letterario degli Scoli, brevi e discontinui, la cui regola escludeva la prolissità30. Soprattutto i vocaboli π ρ τι ν ι e π ρ ε ι di Esichio sono rilevanti, perché verisimilmente egli nel commento scoliastico ai Salmi, del quale il Vat. gr. 752 è testimone importante, utilizzava proprio il metodo che egli espone nel Prologo al suo commento del corpus dei Profeti; c’è affinità, infatti, tra i suoi Scoli sui Salmi e i suoi Scoli sui Profeti minori e su Isaia, entrambi costituiti da glosse paragonabili per la loro brevità e discontinuità di spiegazione31. Gilles Dorival vede prevista nelle parole di Esichio un’impaginazione su due colonne, nella quale l’insieme delle spiegazioni, trascritte nella parte destra del foglio, è disposto a lato dell’insieme degli stichi, collocati nella parte sinistra del foglio, e ciascuno scolio è scritto all’altezza del testo che 28

Cf. PG 93, col. 1339, l’inscriptio υ ου πρε υτ ρου ερο ολ ν τι ρ ν τ ν ι ου νι λ, ον ἐν π ρ ε ι τ τ ν υ ερε τ ρ ν ρ νε , e col. 1341A, dal Prologo προ ντο ον ν τ ν τ ν πόρ ν τυ ν ν λ ι λ νἐ ιν, π ρ ε τ ν το τ οι , τε τ ν ν ει ἐπιλ ιτ ν ε . Riguardo al Prologo ascritto ad Esichio, cf. CPG 6556. 29 Cf. infra. 30 La parola ρ νε , “interpretazione”, è fra le spiegazioni della parola scoli fornite da Suda (1804.5), nel sec. X. In ambito cristiano, όλι compose Origene (cf. infra); la parola scoli figura come il titolo di raccolte esegetiche dei secoli IV e V, esplicative di punti dottrinali (“Scoli sulla morte” di Giovanni Crisostomo, “Scoli sull’Incarnazione” di Cirillo di Gerusalemme: cf. la Biblioteca di Fozio, ed. R. HENRY, I, Parigi 1959, 25.5b.23 e 169.116b.31). Riguardo alla concisione peculiare del genere scoliastico, cf. Evagrio, Scolio 317 su Prov 25:26 (oltre ai nomi che la Scrittura applica all’anima ce ne sono altri, che non è possibile ora proporre perché il genere degli Scoli non ammette la prolissità, ο υν τ ν ν ν π ρ ι ι τ ε ο τ ν ολ ν πολυλο ν ἐπι ε ό ενον); Scolio su Ps 88:9 (se si vuole spiegare questo versetto, che avvia a una contemplazione molto profonda, si contravviene alle regole degli Scoli, το τ ν ολ ν νόν ); Scolio su Eccl 5:17 s. (non è possibile enumerare altri nomi dati dallo Spirito santo alla scienza, perché non lo permette la regola degli Scoli, το τ ν ολ ν νόνο ): cf. ÉVAGRE LE PONTIQUE, Scholies aux Proverbes, ed. P. GÉHIN, Parigi 1987 (Sources chrétiennes, 340), pp. 13 e 408. 31 L’affinità degli Scoli Antonelli, che costituiscono una parafrasi esplicativa, con gli Scoli sui Profeti è tra le prove forti dell’attribuzione degli Scoli Antonelli ad Esichio: cf. FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani Interpretatio Isaiae Prophetae, p. XVI. La concisione caratterizza anche le glosse di Esichio su Ezechiele affini con le glosse su Isaia: cf. VIANÈS, Les “Gloses” sur Ezéchiel, p. 319.

προ

τ ν

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esso commenta, sulla medesima linea dello stico corrispondente. Porta a favore della sua tesi tre argomenti: 1) l’uso del verbo π ρ τι ν ι + dativo significa “mettere a fianco” (del testo di base); 2) Esichio nel Prologo non fa riferimento a un sistema di segni di rinvio, che avrebbe stabilito una relazione univoca tra ogni scolio e un punto preciso del testo, e che è indispensabile per una sicura identificazione delle interpretazioni con impaginazione marginale; 3) l’inizio del genere degli Scoli si pone in Palestina al tempo di Origene, che compose Scoli sui Salmi, documentati dalle catene, e poté utilizzare l’impaginazione su due colonne, che era caratteristica degli Scoli alla Scrittura e che le catene costituite da scoli riprodussero. Il lavoro dell’Alessandrino si diffuse anche fuori della Palestina e fu continuato alla fine del IV secolo in Egitto da Evagrio Pontico, da Atanasio (o uno pseudo-Atanasio), quindi da Esichio stesso nella prima metà del V secolo32. Ed è pur vero che l’impaginazione delle catene costituite da scoli su due colonne è attestata raramente, sui Salmi solo in tre o quattro catene dei secoli XI-XII, mentre più spesso le catene a scoli si presentano secondo la disposizione marginale oppure a piena pagina, ma ciò è perché prima del 750 l’impaginazione marginale o a piena pagina sostituì probabilmente quella a due colonne: le catene a scoli, nate in Palestina nel VI secolo, si diffusero, nella seconda tappa della storia delle catene che si svolse a Costantinopoli fin dagli anni 650-700; e il modello della catena a scoli passò alla disposizione a piena pagina, quando fu confezionata con l’aiuto di frammenti desunti da Commentari; a partire dagli anni 750-800, le catene a scoli furono confezionate in tutto l’impero d’Oriente33. 32 Che Origene abbia praticato il genere degli Scoli, non è ammesso da tutti gli studiosi: cf. É. JUNOD, Que savons-nous des «Scholies» ( ) d’Origène?, in Origeniana sexta. Origène et la Bible. Actes du Colloquium Origenianum Sextum Chantilly, 30 août-3 septembre 1993, a cura di G. DORIVAL – A. LE BOULLUEC, Leuven 1995 (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 118), pp. 133-149; C. MARKSCHIES, Scholien bei Origenes und in der zeitgenössishen wissenschaftlichen Kommentierung, in Origeniana decima. Origen as Writer. Papers of the 10th International Origen Congress, University School of Philosophy and Education “Ignatianum”, Kraków, Poland, 31 August – 4 September 2009, a cura di S. KACZMAREK – H. PIETRAS – A. DZIADOWIEC, Leuven – Paris – Walpole, MA 2011 (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 244), pp. 147-167. Ma la definizione ρι νου όλι sui salmi è attestata dal manoscritto Vindob. theol. gr. 8, sec. XI, e può avere il significato letterario-tecnico di “Scoli composti da Origene”: cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 82 s., e II, 3; e Origen in the Catenae on Psalms, XII Convegno del Gruppo Italiano di Ricerca su Origene e la Tradizione Alessandrina. I commenti di Origene ai Salmi: contributi critici e prospettive di edizione, Bologna, 10-11 febbraio 2012; F. X. RISCH, Die Scholien des Origenes zu den Psalmen. Bemerkungen zur zweiten Randkatene im Codex Vindobonensis theol. gr. 8, ibid. (in corso di stampa). Gli scambi culturali anticamente esistevano, sono documentati dalla diffusione del genere letterario dei Commentari, diffuso in Palestina — Origene, Eusebio —, ma anche in Egitto — Didimo, in Siria — Teodoro di Mopsuestia, Teodoreto. 33 Il primo momento delle catene a scoli è rappresentato da due catene compilate in una

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Invece, secondo Sandro Leanza, Esichio nel Prologo al suo commento scoliastico ai Profeti si riferisce a un’impaginazione marginale, cioè collocò le sue hermeneiai “ai lati” (ἐν π ρ ε ι) del testo biblico, l’esegesi a lato degli stichi (π ρ ε τ ν το τ οι ), intorno al testo trascritto al centro del foglio34. Sandro Leanza escludeva la tesi che la caratteristica distintiva degli Scoli alla Scrittura fosse l’impaginazione su due colonne: il commento scoliastico ai libri biblici composto da Origene era autonomo, trascritto a piena pagina, secondo l’uso del commento scoliastico «d’autore» in età classica, poi ripreso per i commentari dai Padri, che adoperarono sia per gli hypomnemata sia per i commenti scoliastici soltanto la disposizione a piena pagina; Esichio innovò l’impaginazione disponendo in margine al testo dei Profeti le sue hermeneiai, in ragione della loro finalità liturgica, piuttosto che esegetica, in maniera tale che contemporaneamente alla lettura ( τ ν ν ει) se ne acquisisse la comprensione (ἐπιλ ιτ ν ε ). Ed è marginale l’impaginazione della catena di Filoteo a due autori rappresentata dal manoscritto Vaticano Ott. gr. 452, secolo XI, ff. 1-62, uno dei testimoni Vaticani qualificati come i poziori e i più antichi della tradizione del commento scoliastico di Esichio ai Profeti minori, per esteso e integrale, accompagnato dal più ampio Commentario di Teodoreto di Cirro. Invece il manoscritto anch’esso Vaticano, Chig. R.VIII.54, secolo X, ff. 1-84, l’altro importante testimone della stessa catena sui Profeti minori, documenta una differente disposizione delle interpretazioni dei due autori, che non si alternano e non appaiono concatenate: il commento di Esichio

1 – Testo biblico 2 – Eschio 3 – Teodoreto 1 – Testo biblico 2 – Eschio 3 – Teodoreto

3 2 1

Codice aperto 2 1 sin. = f.Codice v.; destra = f. r.3 aperto

1

1

2 3

2 3

sin. = f. v.; destra = f. r.

Fig. 13 – Mise-en-page, Chig. R.VIII.54, ff. 1-84. data alta e con disposizione a piena pagina: l’una trasmessa dal manoscritto Athos, Panteleimon 33, sec. X, l’altra dal manoscritto Grottaferrata, Crypt. A VI, sec. X o XI; entrambe documentano gli Scoli di Esichio Antonelli, che sul salmo 11 sono completati con le glosse di Esichio Jagiò: cf DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, II, pp. 2, 7 s., 235 s. 34 Cf. LEANZA, Uno scoliaste del V secolo, pp. 529-532; e L’esegesi biblica cristiana antica: Scolii e Catene, in Esegesi, parafrasi e compilazione in età tardoantica. Atti del Terzo Convegno dell’Associazione di Studi Tardoantichi (Pisa, 7-9 ottobre 1993), a cura di C. MORESCHINI, Napoli 1995, pp. 209-227: pp. 219-225.

fig. 14.indd 3

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e il testo biblico sono disposti a due colonne; il testo è scritto nella colonna verso il margine interno del foglio, l’altra colonna contiene gli Scoli esichiani, l’insieme è circondato dal Commentario di Teodoreto disposto su due o tre margini esterni di ogni foglio35. Infine, Sandro Leanza esprimeva perplessità riguardo alla ricostruzione della storia delle catene sui Salmi operata da Gilles Dorival, in particolare dell’evoluzione delle catene costituite da scoli, nate dai commenti scoliastici, disposte a due colonne e trasmesse da pochi manoscritti di datazione alquanto bassa36. È noto che il verbo π ρ τι ν ι, comunemente inteso “scrivere in margine”, può significare propriamente “riportare”, “citare”, senza riferimento alla localizzazione in margine al testo o altrove37. A mio avviso, il plurale ἐν π ρ ε ι non indica obbligatoriamente la disposizione degli Scoli nei margini superiore e inferiore; potrebbe significare l’accostamento delle glosse, sia di uguale scrittura sia in carattere minore, linea per linea, parallelamente alla colonna del testo biblico, nel lato interno del verso e nel lato esterno del recto di ogni foglio (π ρ = «a lato»). In effetti, la testimonianza dei commentari cristiani trasmessi dai papiri di Tura favorisce l’ipotesi che i commentari patristici fossero disposti a piena pagina; ma poco sappiamo sui commentari cristiani nei secoli III-V. Nel sec. V, quando Esichio operava, per accogliere testi cristiani era già adottato il libro in forma di codice; e la collocazione del testo al centro di ciascuna pagina e delimitato da quattro netti margini potrebbe aver agevolato l’uso di apporre note esegetiche intorno al testo. Gli hypomnemata, nei secoli VI ex.-VII in., erano disposti a piena pagina, con il testo biblico spesso citato integralmente38. E sulla base di studi recenti si è indotti a 35 Cf. fig. 13: impaginazione del manoscritto Città del Vaticano, Chig. R.VIII.54, ff. 1-84; FAULHABER, Die Propheten-Katenen, pp. 1-39, in particolare p. 37. La catena a due autori è di Filoteo, tipo I secondo la catalogazione di KARO – LIETZMANN (cf. pp. 99 ss.; CPG IV, C 55). 36 Cf. LEANZA, L’esegesi biblica cristiana, pp. 225 ss. 37 Riguardo al significato di verbi quali π ρ τ ε ι (“essere riportato”, oltre che “essere scritto in margine”) e π ρ ε ι, utilizzati in sottoscrizioni tardoantiche trasmesse da manoscritti di età mediobizantina, a proposito di commenti scoliastici, cf. G. CAVALLO, La storia dei testi antichi a Bisanzio. Qualche riflessione, in Les problèmes posés par l’édition critique des textes anciens et médiévaux, a cura di J. HAMESSE, Louvain-la-Neuve 1992, pp. 95-111: 98-104; anche W. G. RUTHERFORD, A Chapter in the History of Annotation, being Scholia Aristophanica III, London 1905, p. 22, n. 23; LUNDON, λια: una questione non marginale, in Discentibus obvius, p. 76. 38 Nei secoli II-III d.C. i commentari a testi letterari dell’antichità greca trasmessi su papiro (hypomnemata materialmente separati dall’edizione critica del testo commentato), si presentano con lemmi scelti: cf. M. DEL FABBRO, Il commentario nella tradizione papiracea, in Studia Papyrologica 18 (1979), pp. 69-132: pp. 70-81. Nei papiri letterari greci trovati in Egitto, le note esegetiche sono disposte a lato del testo, tra le colonne oppure nei margini supe-

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ritenere che la riduzione degli hypomnemata (prima rotoli, poi codici) a corpora scoliografici sia da riferire alla tarda antichità a partire dalla fine del secolo IV39. Ma è ovvio che questa possibilità dell’origine tardoantica della tecnica scoliografica è sostenibile appellandosi alla categoria della “verosimiglianza”, spesso utilizzata in materia; impegnativo rimane, infatti, determinarne la storicità: proiettare indietro nel tempo la nascita delle edizioni con scoli allestite a Costantinopoli nella prima rinascenza bizantina richiede di individuare contesti materiali e culturali, corroborati da analoghe istanze di recupero della civiltà letteraria antica. Riguardo al momento della nascita degli scoli medievali, è ragionevole che il passaggio dei commentari da libri a parte in margine al testo in uno stesso manoscritto sia stato un «fenomeno complesso, probabilmente di lunga durata»40, segnato da varie tappe e alla cui maturazione concorse l’attività delle scuole tardoantiche, tra le quali fu Gaza. La precisazione di Esichio riguardo alla funzione dei suoi Scoli, di rendere contemporanea la lettura ( ν ν ι ) e la comprensione ( ν ι ) del testo profetico, vorrebbe giustificare una collocazione marginale degli scoli abnorme rispetto alla tradizione letteraria precedente; ma può anche riferirsi all’impaginazione dei suoi Scoli ai Profeti minori, la cui lunghezza si presenta variabile ma in media è da due a quindici parole: l’impaginazione si può supporre su due colonne parallele, la più semplice che poteva mettere a confronto il testo e la breve spiegazione (secondo il significato di π ρ τ ι τιν τινι, ovvero confrontare). Esichio anche nei suoi commenti riore o inferiore, con disposizione differente da quella documentata dai manoscritti bizantini (secoli X-XV) provvisti di scoli intorno al testo; le prime attestazioni materiali del commentario marginale sono fornite anche dai resti di un codex di Callimaco, il P. Oxy. 2258 databile a circa il 500, con note esplicative nei margini, che documenta l’esistenza di testi provvisti di scoli all’epoca di Giustiniano; annotazioni organiche e lunghe corredano gli ampi margini di codici papiracei di grande formato, secoli V-VI, trovati in Egitto. 39 La tradizione esegetica dei papiri ricopre un ruolo rilevante presso i sostenitori dell’origine tardoantica della scoliografia e presso quanti la negano, ai fini delle rispettive tesi. Cf. almeno H. MAEHLER, L’évolution matérielle de l’hypomnema jusqu’à la basse époque. Le cas du POXY.856 (Aristophane) et PWürzburg I (Euripide), in Le commentaire, pp. 29-36; MESSERI SAVORELLI – PINTAUDI, I lettori dei papiri; e supra, n. 5. La tradizione papiracea documenta il persistere su codice, tra il sec. V e il VII, dello hypomnema continuo separato dal testo oggetto di commento; nel frattempo il commentario si prestò alla stratificazione esegetica (qual è documentata, ad es., dal neoplatonico Marino riguardo a Proclo: cf. supra, n. 6) e venne organizzato da più mani, probabilmente non più sulla base del modello originario ma in modo nuovo nella pagina. 40 Cf. G. CAVALLO, Conservazione e perdita dei testi greci: fattori materiali, sociali, culturali, in Società romana e impero tardoantico, IV. Tradizione dei classici. Trasformazioni della cultura, a cura di A. GIARDINA, Roma – Bari 1986, pp. 83-172, 246-271: p. 99 (rist., ID., Dalla parte del libro. Storie di trasmissione dei classici, Urbino 2002, pp. 49-175). Riguardo all’uso delle categorie della “verosimiglianza” o della “ragionevolezza”, cf. WHITE, The Scholia, p. LXV.

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scoliastici ai Salmi era preoccupato di darne spiegazione concisa, affinché i monaci del suo cenobio nel salmeggiare seguissero facilmente col pensiero il vero senso delle parole41. La struttura semplice della catena a due autori sui Profeti minori, con l’impaginazione su colonne, rappresentata dal manoscritto Chig. R.VIII.54, era datata da Michael Faulhaber all’origine dalla tradizione catenaria, nell’arco di tempo che va da una data non molto posteriore al 458 alla prima metà del VI secolo42. Il manoscritto Chig. R.VIII.54, prodotto a Costantinopoli intorno agli anni 940 o 950, nei ff. 1-84, secondo Sandro Leanza, non trasmette una vera catena, bensì documenta la tradizione concomitante ma separata dei due commenti patristici43. Il manoscritto Ott. gr. 452, ff. 1-62, ha in comune con il Chigiano la materia prima, ma diversi sono la complessità del progetto ordinatore come anche l’impegno di lavorazione: nell’Ottoboniano gli estratti sono collegati con il testo, suddiviso in commata, mediante segni o numeri greci; e il blocco del testo biblico, disposto nel margine interno del foglio è circondato su due o tre lati dal blocco costituito dagli estratti esegetici; ma in effetti si succedono prima gli estratti di Teodoreto e poi gli Scoli di Esichio, e appare che nemmeno questa impaginazione debba essere descritta come una catena44. Secondo Gilles Dorival, la disposizione dell’esegesi di Esichio sui Profeti minori nel Chig. R.VIII.54 annuncia le poche vere catene a due autori, nelle quali i due autori che si alternano sono citati integralmente; l’edizione sinottica che il manoscritto documenta è un’innovazione frutto del ritorno alle opere dei Padri, che si effettuò nei secoli IX-X e sussistette nei due secoli successivi45. In effetti proprio a questa data si può attribuire il Prologo 41 Analoga cura dichiara Diodoro di Tarso nella Prefazione al suo Commento ai Salmi: A. VACCARI, I titoli dei salmi nella scuola antiochena, in Biblica 9 (1928), pp. 78-88: p. 83. 42 Cf. FAULHABER, Die Propheten-Katenen, p. 2 s. e n. 2, e p. 38. 43 La datazione del Chig. R.VIII.54 è indicata da J. LOWDEN, Illuminated Prophet Books: A Study of Byzantine Manuscripts of the Major and Minor Prophets, London 1988, pp. 9-14, 109 ss. Inoltre, cf. LEANZA, Uno scoliaste del V secolo, p. 528. 44 Riguardo ai segni di rinvio tra testo e commento nella catena dell’Ott. gr. 452, cf. FAULHABER, Die Propheten-Katenen, p. 2. Riguardo alla successione degli estratti, cf. la dissertazione ERIKSSON, Scholia, pp. 38 e 260, Pl. 2. Nel manoscritto Vat. gr. 347, sec. XI, testimone dei Profeti minori con i relativi Scoli di Esichio, la disposizione è marginale. Il manoscritto documenta anche l’interpretazione scoliastica di Esichio a Isaia, con il testo biblico collocato su due colonne, mentre le glosse sono aggiunte nei margini esterno e inferiore della pagina, in caratteri minori; il testo e il commento non sono consonanti, ma derivano da due fonti differenti: cf. FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani Interpretatio Isaiae Prophetae, con specimen del f. 65v, e p. XXVI; lo studioso intendeva che le interpretazioni fossero state scritte “ai lati” («ad latus») del testo biblico (cf. p. XII). 45 Cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, I, pp. 32-42, e III, pp. 240 ss.: non risulta che le vere catene a due autori siano servite come fonti a catene secondarie.

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della catena di Filoteo all’insieme dei Profeti minori: a questa data rinvia la possibile identificazione di Filoteo, autore del Prologo e compilatore della catena, con il monaco della Madre di Dio del Roveto ardente46. Nonostante il calo della produzione libraria a Costantinopoli nei “secoli bui”, VII-VIII, insieme alla diminuzione della vita urbana in tutto l’impero d’Oriente ridotto, a causa delle invasioni slava e araba, alla capitale e all’Asia Minore47, la letteratura religiosa tuttavia deve essere stata abbondante, poiché era indispensabile ai monasteri e alle chiese, e a coloro che erano interessati alle controversie teologiche, dalla polemica monotelita a quella delle immagini; le catene certamente continuarono ad essere confezionate. Ma i manoscritti di questo periodo pervenuti sono pochissimi, anche a causa del passaggio dalla scrittura maiuscola alla minuscola libraria tra la fine del secolo VIII e l’inizio del IX: la traslitterazione condannò, nello spazio di qualche generazione, le opere che non erano copiate secondo il nuovo sistema; quasi tutti i manoscritti catenari pervenuti sono quindi posteriori alla traslitterazione. Essi datano a partire dal IX secolo e la maggior parte documentano, in rapporto al testo biblico, essenzialmente la disposizione di catena a piena pagina oppure di catena marginale. La riduzione del modulo delle lettere in minuscole, oltre che l’uso di un sistema sofisticato di abbreviazioni di cui la maiuscola era priva, consentì di economizzare in spazio e soddisfare meglio l’esigenza di trasferire in margine al testo un’estesa quantità di commento; favorì, insieme con un processo di abbreviazione drastica di uno hypomnema, effettuato in più tappe, lo sviluppo degli scoli medievali48. Nei secoli IX-XI, l’impaginazione marginale delle catene fu opportuna per la complessità che esse ebbero in quest’epoca, come risulta dallo studio delle fonti: il metodo a cui rispondono gli estratti dei manoscritti è determinare un ventaglio di modelli esegetici ritenuti autorevoli per qualità ed esaustività e, attraverso la loro comparazione, scegliere, estrarre e compilare spiegazioni diverse al singolo versetto biblico; questo metodo serve a un articolato progetto editoriale, ha di mira la realizzazione di una summa 46 Cf. M. A. BARBÀRA, Il prologo della catena di Filoteo sui Profeti minori, in Motivi e forme della poesia cristiana antica tra Scrittura e Tradizione classica. XXXVI Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiana, Roma, 3-5 maggio 2007, Roma 2008, pp. 831-834. 47 Cf. P. CANART, Città e cultura nell’impero bizantino (324-1453), in La città e la parola scritta, a cura di C. BERTELLI, Milano 1997, pp. 85-116, ora in ID., Études de Paléographie et de codicologie, reproduites avec la collaboration de M. L. AGATI et M. D’AGOSTINO, Città del Vaticano 2008 (Studi e testi, 450), II, pp. 1103-1134; M. SIMONETTI, Introduzione, in Patrologia V. Dal Concilio di Calcedonia (451) a Giovanni Damasceno († 750). I Padri orientali, a cura di A. DI BERARDINO, Genova 2000, pp. 1-21. 48 Un testimone importante sarebbe il Codex Zacynthius, la cui datazione è però controversa: cf. supra, p. 388.

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esegetica tale da approvare e proporsi l’accumulo, nei margini della pagina, di più estratti esegetici sullo stesso passo biblico. Dunque, le catene furono arricchite con l’aiuto di nuove fonti; in seguito furono abbreviate o riscritte per essere fuse con altre fonti nuove; talvolta due catene furono combinate, e nelle catene complesse furono introdotte fonti indipendenti. La disposizione marginale della catena sul salterio nel manoscritto Taurin. gr. B.VII.30 potrebbe suggerire che l’impaginazione della prima catena palestinese, e già la disposizione dei commenti scoliastici adottata da Esichio, siano state marginali; ma rimane il problema dello scarto di circa tre secoli tra la nascita delle catene e i più antichi rari manoscritti membranacei che le attestano49. L’assenza di riferimento da parte di Esichio, nel Prologo al suo commento scoliastico ai Profeti, a un sistema di segni di rinvio che nell’impaginazione marginale avrebbe assicurato il collegamento tra il testo biblico e gli Scoli potrebbe anche suggerire l’ipotesi che il commento fosse intessuto nel testo. In effetti, gli scoli, soprattutto se brevi e comprensibili già nel prolungamento della frase biblica, possono presentarsi tra le linee del testo commentato, come glosse interlineari. L’ipotesi è stimolata dalla sottoscrizione del manoscritto Reg. gr. 40, la cui catena sul salterio costituita da scoli è un buon testimone dell’Esichio Antonelli50. Nel f. 344r è spiegata la disposizione dell’esegesi del beato Esichio (το ρ ου υ ου), ossia degli Scoli di Esichio Antonelli, inserita nei singoli stichi del salterio quasi a formare un testo continuo: intorno al testo, collocato al centro dei fogli ( ον < ν> τ ν τ τ ν ε τ ι το ), c’è una catena. nfatti, a cerchio nei larghi margini esterni sono state disposte più diffusamente le esegesi di altri diversi interpreti ( ρ εν ἐο < >ε π οι ἐτ ν πλ τυτ ρ τ ρ ν ρ νευτ ν ι όρ ει ) (figg. 14-15). L’impaginazione degli Scoli è tale da agevolare la comprensione del testo a uno che voglia salmodiare un salmo, affinché trovi prontamente anche 49 Riguardo al manoscritto Taurin. gr. B.VII.30 cf. supra. I testimoni più antichi, sec. IX ex.-X, della prima catena palestinese, costituita da commentario, documentano la rigatura a due colonne; i testimoni più recenti, sec. XII ex. e XIII, si presentano con disposizione a piena pagina. 50 La catena del manoscritto Reg. gr. 40 documenta molto scarsamente gli Scoli di Esichio Jagiò. È l’unico rappresentante del tipo IX secondo la catalogazione di KARO – LIETZMANN (p. 35: è datato al sec. XIV). Potrebbe essere nata prima degli anni 700-750 (nell’arco di tempo tra queste date e il sec. XIII, poté passare alla disposizione a piena pagina documentata dal Reg. gr. 40), come anche le catene dei manoscritti Athos, Panteleimon 33, Crypt. A VI e Coislin. gr. 360: cf. DORIVAL, Chaînes sur les Psaumes, II, 44-57; supra, nn. 16 e 33. Riguardo al manoscritto Reginense, cf. MERCATI, Alla ricerca dei nomi, pp. 198-209: Sulla catena del Vatic. Reg. gr. 40 (K.-L. IX); tra l’altro, RAHLFS, Verzeichnis, p. 246, Sigel 273 (sec. XIV); MENNES, Inventaris, p. 69, num. 171; CPG IV, C 22.

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Fig. 14 – Reg. gr. 40, fol. 344r.

Fig. 15 – Reg. gr. 40, fol. 24v-25r.

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la relativa interpretazione del divino Esichio posta in sinossi, ν πότε ν ουλ τι λλ ν λ όν, ν ε ρ ει ἐ το ου τ ν το του ἐν υνό ει τε ε ν ρ νε ν το ε ου < υ> ου. Invece chi voglia ricercare una forma più ampia di interpretazione la trovi sui margini, ἐν το ετ π οι< >51. Dunque, nel manoscritto Reg. gr. 40, nella parte centrale del foglio è collocato il testo biblico, insieme al commento di Esichio Antonelli, e la sua disposizione è più affine alle catene a piena pagina che alle catene marginali, nelle quali il testo biblico da solo occupa la zona centrale del foglio. La scrittura degli Scoli inseriti nel salterio potrebbe essere stata praticata anche da Esichio, in ragione dell’estrema brevità degli Scoli e della loro stretta unione, spesso sintattica, con i singoli stichi dei Salmi; essa favoriva uno sguardo complessivo del testo e del commento, una lettura ἐν υνό ει. Tuttavia questa disposizione degli Scoli, più che ad un uso privato, comodo all’esegeta, è idonea a leggere il contenuto del manoscritto Reginense: è un espediente del redattore per evitare ai lettori confusione tra le glosse di Esichio e la catena marginale a più autori. La disposizione degli Scoli nel lato destro del foglio, in corrispondenza del testo biblico trascritto nel lato sinistro è un sistema poco economico; ma esso doveva essere ancora in uso quando Esichio compose gli Scoli editi dall’Antonelli, ed era monaco, verisimilmente prima del 41252. Questa impaginazione, come quella marginale, presentava il vantaggio che testo e commento occupano parti differenti del foglio, ed era possibile utilizzarli indipendentemente. Ma la disposizione marginale richiese agli scribi un’educazione grafica, un’abilità non comune nell’organizzare e distinguere nella stessa pagina il testo e il commento, poiché le differenze di scrittura, grande/piccola per testo e commento, e di dimensione dei fogli da un manoscritto all’altro rendevano difficoltosa una copia in fac-simile; occorreva regolare testo e commento sul foglio con mirate tattiche di impaginazione, adottare tipi di rigatura che permettessero di associare la quantità di testo e la lunghezza del commento su ogni pagina. Dunque, il sistema di numeri o di segni di rinvio, più o meno complicato, che avrebbe designato il commento scoliastico di Esichio, poteva facilmente indurre il copista incolto a errori di riferimento dei brevissimi Scoli, non concatenati come le perle attorno a una collana ma sciolti in corrispondenza dei lemmi; l’impaginazione marginale fu adatta a trasmettere commenti più abbondanti di quelli scoliastici. 51

Cf. MERCATI, Il commentario, p. 146. Cf. Dorival e-mail, pp. 6 s. Esichio fu ordinato prete dal vescovo di Gerusalemme, probabilmente da Giovanni II, eletto vescovo nell’anno 386 o 387 e morto nel 417: cf. R. AUBERT, Jérusalem, in Dictionnaire d’histoire et géographie ecclésiastiques 27 (2000), coll. 1120-1124: 1121 s. 52

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Fig. 16 – Pal. gr. 44, fol. 73r.

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Mi sembra, dunque, ragionevole l’ipotesi di Gilles Dorival, che le catene costituite dagli scoli sui Salmi e disposte a due colonne inizialmente abbiano riprodotto l’impaginazione della loro fonte fondamentale, cioè “degli Scoli cristiani”, che si presentavano disposti a due colonne e in cui ogni scolio era scritto all’altezza del testo che esso commentava, su un’altra colonna. È pur vero che sarebbe azzardato estendere gli argomenti esposti a favore della tesi a tutti gli scoli patristici: gli argomenti, convincenti riguardo agli Scoli di Esichio nonchè alle catene sui Salmi, appaiono talvolta inidonei a chiarire i criteri di scelta dell’impaginazione utilizzati in differenti catene53. Tuttavia è verosimile che gli Scoli di Origene abbiano avuto disposizione laterale, a fianco del testo54. Quanto ad Evagrio, l’analisi della tradizione medievale dei suoi Scoli prima della loro integrazione nelle catene suggerisce che essi erano accompagnati soltanto da lemmi biblici scelti, senza un testo biblico, sicché il lettore doveva ricorrere all’edizione del testo per avere una visione globale55. Per quanto riguarda Esichio, nel manoscritto della Biblioteca Vaticana, Pal. gr. 44, anno 897, testimone della tradizione diretta di Esichio Antonelli, il commento è disposto a piena pagina; il testo biblico diviso in brevi unità è incorporato nel relativo commento copiato a piena pagina (cf. fig. 16)56: non si può escludere che questa 53 La disposizione inquadrante con cifre di rinvio è la messa in pagina originale della catena sui Profeti maggiori, tradizionalmente attribuita a Giovanni Drungario, datata agli anni tra il 538 e il 700: cf. L. VIANÈS, Aspects de la mise en page dans les manuscrits de chaînes sur Ézéchiel, in Le commentaire, pp. 79-87: 83 s.; inoltre, M. AUSSEDAT, Les deux types de chaînes exégétiques sur le livre de Jérémie: une mise en page adaptée au contenu?, in The Legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: Three Hundred Years of Studies on Greek Handwriting: Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium of Greek Palaeography (Madrid – Salamanca, 15-20 september 2008), a cura di A. BRAVO GARCIA – I. PÉREZ MARTÍN, Turnhout 2010, pp. 427-436 e 865-867 (Pl.): p. 432. 54 L’uso delle colonne di scrittura da parte di Origene è documentato dagli Exapla, la sua edizione biblica provvista di annotazioni: l’Alessandrino collocò su una colonna il testo ebraico, e in corrispondenza a questo accostò parola per parola sulle altre colonne la trascrizione in lettere greche e le antiche traduzioni; dopo aver letto e distinto bene le parole anche minime, che trovava negli esemplari in scrittura continua senza divisioni, dovette disporle una per una nelle corte linee delle colonne. 55 Cf. ÉVAGRE LE PONTIQUE, Scholies, p. 74. 56 Cf. fig. 16: manoscritto Pal. gr. 44, f. 73r; Codices graeci Bibliothecae Vaticanae selecti temporum locorumque ordine digesti commentariis et transcriptionibus instructi, a cura di H. FOLLIERI, Apud Bibliothecam Vaticanam 1969, pp. 27 s. e Tab. 17 (la Tavola contiene il Salmo 50, 15-20 e le sezioni del commento allo stesso Salmo: PG 27, 853B-C). Il Pal. gr. 44 fu utilizzato dall’Antonelli mediante un’Appendix per riparare alle deficienze testuali del commento appena edito sulla base del Barb. gr. 348 (III. 67), sec. XVII. Anche il Vat. gr. 2302, palinsesto dei secoli VII e VIII, è testimone della tradizione diretta del commento di Esichio Antonelli, copiato a piena pagina. Riguardo al Vat. gr. 2302 e al Pal. gr. 44, cf. il Verzeichnis di RAHLFS, rispettivamente p. 275 e p. 242; MENNES, Inventaris, rispettivamente p. 64, num. 157, e pp. 67 s., num. 166. Riguardo alla datazione del Vaticano, cf. MERCATI, Note di letteratura

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impaginazione non sia l’originaria, e che prima la disposizione degli Scoli fosse marginale; ma nel genere scoliastico vige un criterio di economia e di selettività dell’esegesi, rispondente a una finalità individuale — per Esichio, di agevolare i suoi confratelli nella salmodia, oppure ad uso liturgico —, che non richiede di spiegare tutto ed evita la ridondanza; dunque gli Scoli di Esichio, spesso con valore di glosse, per la loro brevità, si possono supporre collocati in buon ordine, linea per linea in una colonna di fianco al testo dei Salmi, già anticamente suddiviso per stichi, o al testo dei Profeti minori; è verosimile che ciascuno degli scoli fosse scritto all’altezza del testo che esso commentava, e corrispondesse linea per linea a ciascuna unità del testo biblico. Questa ipotesi si fonda principalmente sullo studio delle fonti e delle rigature delle catene sul salterio. Lo studio delle fonti consiste nel tentativo di riconoscere quanti e quali siano stati i commenti preferiti dai catenisti e posti alla base delle compilazioni; e nel confrontare la catena con i commenti noti e abbastanza sicuri e con altri manoscritti catenari della stessa ampiezza e con serie di scoli comuni, al fine di riconoscere il grado dell’esattezza con cui i commenti furono riportati dagli originali57. L’analisi delle rigature dimostra l’interscambiabilità delle impaginazioni su due colonne e a piena pagina; e documenta l’evoluzione della messa in pagina e il passaggio dal tipo originario di impaginazione degli Scoli su due colonne alla disposizione marginale.

biblica, pp. 174 s. («sec. VII/VIII ?»). Il Palatino è datato da FAULHABER, Hesychii Hierosolymitani Interpretatio Isaiae Prophetae, p. XX, al sec. «VIIII (X?)». 57 Lo studio delle fonti delle catene sui Salmi mette a frutto le ricerche avviate da R. DEVREESSE, Chaînes exégétiques grecques, in Dictionnaire de la Bible. Supplément I, a cura di L. PIROT, Parigi 1928, cols. 1084-1233, e Les anciens commentateurs, e da MERCATI, Alla ricerca dei nomi, pp. 147-161, pagine preziose per quanto riguarda i criteri metodologici.

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STEFANO TAMPELLINI

IL COMMENTARIUS IN LEVITICUM DI ESICHIO DI GERUSALEMME. ANNOTAZIONI INTRODUTTIVE SU ALCUNI ASPETTI E PROBLEMI RIGUARDANTI IL TESTO* Il testo e la sua attribuzione L’opera di Esichio, entrato fra i santi della Chiesa greca, sembra essere scomparsa in parte considerevole nell’oriente di lingua greca, riemergendo nell’ambito di tradizioni che riportano testi legati a uno specifico genere letterario, come quello omiletico, e all’interno di tradizioni linguistiche e culturali diverse, come risulta dal caso del Commentarius in Leviticum; riguardo a esso, sorprende inoltre un poco constatare come un’opera di tale portata non sembri avere lasciato traccia nella tradizione catenaria, così preziosa nel restituire attestazioni di altre opere di Esichio1, venendo così da pensare che essa non fosse più conosciuta in oriente dalla prima metà del VI secolo2. Il Commentarius in Leviticum, volendo usare il titolo presente nella Patrologia Graeca e ripreso da A. Vaccari in un articolo “pionieristico”3, rappresenta il maggiore segno lasciato da Esichio nell’occidente di lingua latina, essendo pervenuto nella sua interezza in una traduzione latina al* Desidero ringraziare vivamente la dr.sa B. Crostini per avermi inizialmente invitato a intervenire al convegno tenutosi a Roma nel giugno 2012 e successivamente offerto la possibilità di riprendere lo studio di Esichio per una pubblicazione, per il testo della quale ho attinto parzialmente, rivedendolo, al Capitolo I della mia dissertazione di dottorato: Introduzione allo studio del Commentarius in Leviticum di Esichio di Gerusalemme, Bologna 1998. Ringrazio infine la dr.sa Crostini per i suggerimenti datimi in fase di revisione. 1 Particolarmente per l’opera esegetica sui Salmi e sui Profeti. Sui Salmi Esichio sembra avere composto tre opere, in forma di scolii o di commentari più o meno sviluppati, che sono ora oggetto di un rinnovato interesse nell’ambito del progetto di studio portato avanti da B. Crostini: si veda l’articolo di S. Voicu in questo volume. Agli studi sull’opera sui profeti si è aggiunta la recente edizione: ERIKSSON, Scholia. 2 Cf. S. LEANZA, L’esegesi del Levitico nella tradizione catenaria, in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 13.1 (1996), pp. 211-227; KARO – LIETZMANN, pp. 2-17. 3 A. VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, in Scritti di erudizione e filologia, I, Filologia biblica e patristica, Roma 1952, pp. 165-206 (= Bessarione 22 (1918), pp. 8-46); cf. anche la recensione di V. SEMPELS, Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 17 (1921), pp. 383-385, e, dello stesso VACCARI: Notulae patristicae, 5. Hesychii presbyteri Hierosolymorum in Leviticum libri VII, in Gregorianum 42 (1961), pp. 731-733. A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 415-430.

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tomedievale che ha fatto in passato dubitare dell’attribuzione all’autore gerosolimitano, come vorrei spiegare meglio nel seguito4. Prescindendo da quello che sarebbe il luogo d’origine dell’opera, comunque riconducibile all’ambiente palestinese dell’autore, e dalle problematiche circostanze della sua composizione, che si cerca di rintracciare nel contesto delle controversie teologiche della prima metà del V secolo e particolarmente nell’ambito di una forte polemica antigiudaica5, sembra opportuno presentare alcuni dati riguardanti lo studio del testo finora compiuto, accennando poi alla storia della tradizione e dell’edizione del Commentarius, che appare, forse insieme al lavoro sui Salmi, come il più consistente sforzo esegetico dell’autore e che risulta poi essere stato oggetto di uno specifico interesse nell’occidente medievale6. Impostosi a partire dall’epoca carolingia come il maggior commentario al Levitico, insieme alle omelie origeniane, tracce di una sua conoscenza si riscontrano nelle età successive, come affermato nella Bibliotheca Graeca di Fabricius, dove l’opera in Leviticum è presentata al terzo posto nell’elenco delle opere di Esichio, con alcune essenziali informazioni sul testo: il commentario è dedicato a un altrimenti ignoto “diacono Eutichiano”7, in concordanza con la dedica presente nel testo 4 Il testo è stampato in PG 93 (1865), coll. 787-1180; spetta a Vaccari averlo attribuito a Esichio (si veda alla nota precedente) in base a un insieme di argomenti, su cui vorrei ritornare nel seguito, e l’attribuzione è stata poi confermata dalla pubblicazione di un frammento dell’originale greco a opera di A. Wenger (citato alla n. 16). 5 Forse da comprendersi, alla luce della lettura fatta del Commentarius in Lev., come polemica contro atteggiamenti giudaizzanti all’interno, o comunque nell’ambiente, della Chiesa di Palestina. In questo ambiente potrebbe essere nata l’esigenza dell’elaborazione di un impegnato e dettagliato commentario al Levitico, intrapreso da Esichio, figura autorevole, secondo le fonti, di “maestro” presso quella Chiesa. Per il contesto storico si veda L. PERRONE, La Chiesa di Palestina e le controversie cristologiche. Dal concilio di Efeso (431) al secondo concilio di Costantinopoli (553), Brescia 1980 (particolarmente pp. 64-79); inoltre S. TAMPELLINI, Aspetti di polemica antigiudaica nell’opera di Esichio di Gerusalemme (con particolare attenzione al Commentario al Levitico), in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 16.2 (1999), pp. 353358. 6 Cf. per una prima informazione: K. S. FRANK, Hesychios. I., in Lexikon des Mittelalters, 4, München – Zürich 1989, col. 2196. Accenni al Fortleben medievale dell’opera di Esichio anche nella testimonianza di Fabricius citata alla nota successiva. 7 Cf. Ioannis Alberti Fabricii Bibliotheca Graeca … editio quarta … curante Gottlieb Christoforo Harles, 7, Hamburgi apud Carolum Ernestum Bohn 1801, pp. 548-550, particolarmente p. 548 (riportato anche nella Notitia introduttiva a Esichio in PG 93): Libri VII explanationum allegoricarum in Leviticum ad diaconum Eutychianum latine quidem tantum exstant, laudati pridem Amalario, Rabano, Strabo, aliisque, et editi Basil. 1527 …: sed videntur utique scriptoris esse Graeci, Hesychii nempe, ut titulus habet, Hierosolymitani presbyteri, versi latine ab interprete, nescio quo, Hesychius enim Salonitanus ut is fuerit, nihil est necesse, qui verba S. Scripturae ex Hieronymi versione ascripsit. Per riferimenti che testimoniano l’interesse per l’opera, cf. p. 550: Confer Richardum Simonem in censura Bibliothecae divinae Hieronymianae. Gallice edita pag. 35 seq., 40 seq. et in Epistolis criticis, pag. 69 seq., et tom. IV Bibl. criticae,

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di PG8; è utilizzato da autori carolingi; sono menzionate la prima edizione cinquecentesca e le successive; sono avanzate considerazioni riguardanti il problema della traduzione latina e più propriamente dell’identità del traduttore. In un più recente passato si è posta una sorta di “questione esichiana”. Forse anche la veste linguistica latina, e particolarmente la presenza del testo biblico citato secondo la Vulgata, del Commentarius in Leviticum, dalla tradizione attribuito unanimemente a Esichio, presbitero di Gerusalemme, ha spinto a interrogarsi sulla veridicità di tale attribuzione; già Fabricius, comunque, pensava che l’opera fosse di autore greco e che il testo biblico secondo la Vulgata fosse stato inserito nella fase della traduzione/rielaborazione in latino9. A. Vaccari, riprendendo le fila della questione10, ha dimostrato in modo persuasivo che il testo è effettivamente da attribuirsi a uno scrittore di lingua greca, appunto Esichio di Gerusalemme, come ha poi confermato la scoperta e pubblicazione di un frammento dell’originale. Vaccari vuole contrastare l’opinione, diffusa fino agli inizi del secolo scorso anche presso studiosi autorevoli, secondo cui, come sopra accennato, il testo non può essere opera di Esichio di Gerusalemme, perché commenta la Vulgata; fra gli studiosi menzionati come sostenitori della non autenticità del testo figurano G. Loeschcke e M. Faulhaber, importante studioso dell’opera di Esichio sui profeti11. Vaccari sostiene invece l’aupag. 55; Salmasium De transsubstantiatione, pag. 57; Edm. Albertinum De Eucaristia, pag. 847; Labbeum, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, tom. I, pag. 633 seq. et Antonium Arnaldum in scripto Gallico: Tradition de l’Eglise touchant l’Eucharistie, tom. IV de la Perpetuité de la foi, pag. 21 seq. Combefis, Bibliotheca concionatoria, tom. I, p. 17 (= PG 93, 785-786): Longam disputationem texit R. P. Labbe de Isicio, quem Hesychium malit, occasione librorum in Leviticum, qui illius nomine praenotantur. 8 PG 93, col. 787: Venerabili diacono Eutychiano peccator Christi servus Isychius, presbyter, in Christo salutem; è ignota la figura di Eutichiano, a meno che non si possa pensare di intendere Eutychianus non come nome proprio, ma nel senso di “seguace di Eutiche”, il che riporterebbe a considerare il problema delle presunte tendenze monofisite di Esichio (che emergerebbero da alcune fonti ma non sarebbero confermate da una più attenta lettura delle fonti stesse; è illuminante al riguardo: A. GRILLMEIER, Eine Flucht des Eutyches nach Jerusalem?, in Romanitas-Christianitas. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Literatur der römischen Kaiserzeit. Johannes Straub zum 70. Geburtstag am 18. Oktober 1982 gewidmet, ed. by G. WIRTH, Berlin – New York 1982, pp. 645-653). È comunque improbabile che, all’inizio della sua opera, Esichio si rivolga a un personaggio non nominato esplicitamente, quando la formulazione del testo prevede precise corrispondenze: Venerabili – peccator (con antitesi tra dedicatario e autore), diacono – Christi servus, presbyter, Eutychiano – Isychius. 9 Cf. supra, n. 6. 10 VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’. 11 Ibid., pp. 165-166; afferma in particolare Loeschcke nella voce dedicata a Esichio in Pauly-Wissowa RE 8 (1913), coll. 1328-1330: “Der einzig erhaltene lateinische Text macht nicht den Eindruck einer Übersetzung aus dem griechischen; er legt die Vulgata als Transla-

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tenticità del commentario12, fondando la propria dimostrazione su alcuni argomenti (1. Il Commentarius commenta i LXX e ignora la Vulgata; 2. È tradotto dal greco; 3. Colore locale e personale; 4. Confronto con gli altri scritti di Esichio; 5. Il testo biblico) tra cui particolarmente significativa per l’attribuzione a Esichio appare la dimostrazione iniziale, attraverso numerosi esempi, del fatto che il testo biblico presupposto dall’interpretazione è quello dei LXX13. Molteplici indizi rivelano, sulla scia di quanto dimostrato da Vaccari, che il processo di integrazione della Vulgata in un tio nostra (1032 D) zugrunde und vergleicht mit ihr in weitestem Umfang die LXX; man würde den Autor am liebsten im Kreise der Hieronymischen Mönche Palästinas suchen”; ma si potrebbe notare che l’accennato tentativo di confronto Vulgata-LXX può essere appunto collegato a una fase di traduzione e/o rielaborazione in latino, laddove ci si rendeva conto che la citazione della Vulgata non si accordava con un’interpretazione basata sui LXX, come dimostrato da Vaccari. 12 “Quel commento porta in se stesso tanti e tali caratteri d’autenticità, che non solo egregiamente conferma l’attestazione dei codici latini, ma potrebbe servire di pietra di paragone a saggiare l’autenticità di altri scritti dalla tradizione greca attribuiti ad un Esichio”: VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, p. 165. 13 Alcuni dei numerosi esempi addotti (ibid., pp. 170-171): “798A (Lev 1:8): la parola concisiones traduce il ι οτο τ dei LXX, che è parola decisiva per la spiegazione (dualismo di anima e corpo e ricordo di Gen 15:10-17 ove nei LXX occorre la medesima parola: Volg. membra quae caesa sunt non suggerisce né una cosa né l’altra) … 910C (Lev 11:16-19): gli animali immondi vengono misticamente spiegati coi nomi e nell’ordine dei LXX, ben diversi dalla Volgata … 920D (Lev 11:44) dicendo “non duplicaret in nobis sanctificationem nisi eius essemus participes et consortes” l’autore ha sott’occhio evidentemente ι ε ε ιοι ε ε, non il nudo Sancti eritis (Volg.). Muovendomi secondo lo stesso criterio di Vaccari (ibid., 168: “Ognuno può facilmente da sé moltiplicare” gli esempi addotti), credo di potere proporre altri esempi, come: PG 93, col. 837C, dove una citazione del profeta Gioele (2:13-14: Convertimini ad Dominum Deum vestrum, quia benignus et misericors est, patiens et multum misericors, et praestabilis super malitia. Quis scit si convertatur et ignoscat, et relinquat post se benedictionem?) viene ripresa con le parole: Et quomodo dubitatur de misericorde et patiente, et multae miserationis, si convertatur et p a e n i t e a t …? Prescindendo dall’interpretazione del testo si nota che paeniteat sembra meglio corrispondere al testo biblico secondo i LXX ( ετ νο ει) che secondo la Vulgata (ignoscat). Ancora: col. 872A, dove l’idea di partecipazione (participatio, col. 871D) sembra male accordarsi alla citazione del Sal 44:8 secondo la Vulgata: unxit te Deus Deus tuus oleo laetitiae prae consortibus (cf. LXX ετό ου ) tuis; anche perché il discorso continua: Sed qui sunt ejus participes? Nos utique de quibus dictum est: Participes enim Christi facti sumus (Eb 3:14, dove participes = το οι). Sembra allora di dovere presupporre il testo biblico dei LXX, con la parola ετό ου , ripresa da το οι nella successiva citazione neotestamentaria. Infine coll. 911C-912D, dove il testo biblico di Lev 11:20-22 riguarda gli animali puri, caratterizzati dalla capacità di elevarsi, saltando, sopra la terra e interpretati come gli uomini che, pur intrattenendo rapporti con i peccatori, sanno però elevarsi al di sopra del peccato; in appoggio a tale interpretazione viene citato il profeta Naum 3:16-17 (secondo la Vulgata, con alcune varianti): Bruchus expansus est et avolavit: custodes tui quasi locustae locustarum, quae confidunt in sepibus, in die frigoris; ma subito dopo viene citato lo stesso testo secondo i LXX: Vel sicut Septuaginta, Emicuit sicut attacus commistus tibi, sicut locusta quae transcendit m a t e r i a m , in die frigoris. Senza esaminare qui il problema della diversità del testo della Vulgata da quello dei LXX è comunque su questo

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testo esegetico basato sui LXX ha rappresentato un problema nel momento della traduzione e rielaborazione; questo fenomeno sembra essersi verificato anche per le Omelie su Giobbe, pervenuteci in traduzione armena14. Le argomentazioni di Vaccari sono state accettate da coloro che in seguito sono ritornati sulla questione e, soprattutto, sono state confermate dalla scoperta del frammento greco15. Osservazioni sulla traduzione latina a confronto con il frammento greco Tuttavia la possibilità di rintracciarne un originale greco è stata offerta dalla pubblicazione, a opera di A. Wenger, di un frammento corrispondente a Lev 14:4-7 (PG 93, coll. 952B-953A)16. Per riesaminarlo, ho utilizzato il commento di Wenger, muovendomi in due direzioni: tentare di ottenere informazioni (1) sulla tecnica di traduzione, almeno per quanto la limitata estensione del frammento lo permette, e (2) da un punto di vista dottrinale. Propongo in questa prospettiva alcuni passi riportati secondo la numerazione in sette paragrafi in cui è diviso il testo del frammento: (PG 93, 952C-D, riportato in Wenger, p. 467, paragrafo 3.) De passeribus ergo quos diximus esse Christum, hunc praecepit immolari vel occidi, id est id quod erat passibile et quod poterat occidi, et occidi in vase fictili, super che è basata l’interpretazione: Ex quibus cernis quia, etsi peccatoribus commisceamur … transiliamus m a t e r i a m , spinosam videlicet peccatorum exacerbationem. 14 Cf. Homélies sur Job. Version arménienne. I: Homélies I-XI. II: Homélies XII-XXIV. Edition, introduction et notes par C. RENOUX. Traduction par C. MERCIER – C. RENOUX (Patrologia Orientalis, 42), Turnhout 1983, p. 43: “Dans plusieurs cas en effet, le commentaire d’Hésychius ne répond pas au texte biblique, mais paraît avoir été élaboré à partir d’un autre texte qui n’est pas non plus celui du lemme initial ouvrant l’homélie”. 15 Cf. per es. SEMPELS cit. alla n. 3; O. BARDENHEWER, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, 4, Freiburg im Breisgau 1924, p. 259: “Die wiederholten Berufungen auf die Vulgata, welche die Annahme lateinischer Herkunft herauszufordern schienen, erweisen sich als spätere Eintragungen, während der ursprüngliche Text sich nur mit der Septuaginta, und zwar mit der lucianischen Septuaginta-Rezension, befasst hat” (parole che introducono tra l’altro il problema, meritevole di adeguato approfondimento, del testo biblico utilizzato). Vaccari è ritornato brevemente sui problemi posti dal Commentarius in una nota (cit. alla stessa n. 3) in cui si trovano tra l’altro alcune interessanti osservazioni sull’autore della traduzione. 16 A. WENGER, Hésychius de Jérusalem. Notes sur les discours inédits et sur le texte grec du Commentaire in Leviticum, in Revue d’études augustiniennes 2 (1956), pp. 457-470 (a pp. 464470: Le fragment grec du commentaire ). Il frammento si trova nel codice: Strasbourg, B. N. 1906 (gr. 12) a. 1296; i ff. 1-212 di questo codice costituiscono il florilegium Coislinianum sec. alphabeti litteras dispositum (recensio tertia): si veda in questo volume la nota di T. FERNÁNDEZ. Cf. anche MENNES, Inventaris, p. 3; Mennes suggerisce anche un possibile successivo sviluppo della ricerca: Inquirendum est an alii codices huius typi florilegii illud fragmentum ex Hesychii commentario in Leviticum contineant. Wenger (p. 464, n. 39) dà notizia di avere trovato anche un testimone più antico di questo florilegio: Paris. gr. 924, X s. Il frammento di Esichio si trova nei ff. 150-151.

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[aquas] viventes. (4.) In nobis (enim), id est pro nobis, siquidem sumus vas fictile de luto videlicet facti … (la lezione super viventes della PG, che omette aquas e che non interpunge dopo viventes ma dopo facti, viene corretta a partire dai codici P e P 17; viene così ripristinata la menzione delle “acque vive” con riferimento al battesimo, come evidenziato nel seguito del testo). (Strasbourg ms. gr. 12, in Wenger, p. 467) ν ρνι ν το νυν περ εν εν ι ε ν ν ρ πον, τ ν ἐν ἐπιτρ πει ειν, περ ν π τ ν υε ι, ε ι ε ε ον τρ ινον ἐ τι ντι. (4.) ν ενον ρ, τουτ τιν π ρ ν ο περ εν ε ον τρ ινον ἐ π λο τ ρτινον....

Notiamo, da un punto di vista dottrinale, che l’indicazione esplicita della divinità e umanità viene riportata, nella traduzione, alla generica menzione di Cristo, con possibile attenuazione del pensiero18; notiamo inoltre, da un punto di vista formale, la doppia resa immolari vel occidi per ε ι, introdotta forse per armonizzare il verbo presente nella Vulgata di Lev 14:5 con quello presente nella traduzione come equivalente del greco19. Per l’interpretazione Esichio ha forse avuto presente la suggestione neotestamentaria di Paolo, 2 Cor 4:7: Habemus autem thesaurum istum in vasis fictilibus (… τρ νοι ε ε ιν)20; il concetto paolino viene rafforzato da quello dell’umanità come “fango”, a esprimere un’accentuata visione 17

Ibid., p. 468; cf. anche il testo greco riportato successivamente. Ibid. 19 Tale doppia resa può ritrovarsi in altri punti del testo del Commentarius in Lev.; per es. coll. 789B e 813B: sacrificium pacificorum, seu salutare, con riferimento a Lev 3:1 (Vulg. hostia pacificorum = TM; LXX υ τ ρ ου. E anche nel passo di col. 813B bisogna notare che Esichio commenta i LXX, non la Vulgata: Alter sacrificium pacificorum sive salutare [scil. offeret], qui desiderat salutem …); col. 984C, con citazione di Lev 16:2: in nube, inquit, apparebo super oraculum sive propitiatorium (oraculum di Vulg. rappresenta una variazione della resa propitiatorium per una parola ebraica presente due volte nel versetto e derivante da una radice che ha il significato di “coprire”, significato che può ritrovarsi nella formulazione geronimiana … propitiatorio, quo tegitur arca; propitiatorium appare resa più tradizionalmente corrispondente a λ τ ριον dei LXX, cf. anche Eb 9:5 e Rom 3:25, al quale fa probabilmente riferimento Esichio nell’interpretazione cristologica (col. 984C): Haec arca ergo est propitiatorium, quia in carne sua Christus nobis propitiationem praestitit. In altri passi la doppia resa sembra indicare incertezza, se non di comprensione, quanto meno di traduzione di una parola dell’originale; per es. col. 850A: de Deo loqui sive theologiam exercere, forse in corrispondenza di εολο , attestato quattro volte nelle Omelie festali (cf. M. AUBINEAU, Index verborum Homiliarum Festalium Hesychii Hierosolymitani, Hildesheim – Zürich – New York 1983); sopra ancora, in forma leggermente diversa, la stessa doppia resa: de divinitate loqui sive theologiam exercere. Inoltre capitulum sive summa per ε λ ιον (es. riportato in VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, p. 180). 20 Osservando che la parte successiva del versetto paolino citato (ut sublimitas sit virtutis Dei, et non ex nobis) è citata nella praefatio auctoris (PG 93, col. 788). 18

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della debolezza umana, cui si contrappone la forza salvifica del battesimo, tema collegato a quello della passione di Cristo, come evidenziato nel successivo paragrafo 4. (5.) Sed vivens passer … in sanguine etiam hic occisi passeris et aqua tinguitur (tingitur PG), id est in gratia baptismatis, quia non in hominis passione, sed Dei et hominis passione baptizamur. λλ ρτ ν ρν ιον … ἐν τ τι τ το ντο ρνι ου τ τι πτ ετ ι, τουτ τιν ἐν τ το πτ το ριτι, ἐπει περ ο ε ν ρ που π ο , εο ε ν ρ πον πτ ε ι.

Nel latino la radicalità del greco, che parla di passione “di Dio”, risulta attenuata21; il greco potrebbe spiegarsi come espressione di posizione contrapposta a quelle, testimoniate polemicamente dallo stesso Esichio, che introducevano differenziazioni nella visione del Figlio, distinguendo il figlio di Maria, che subì la passione, dal figlio di Dio, che non la subì. D’altra parte l’impassibilità della divinità è esplicitamente affermata nel seguito del testo (6.), insieme alla sua inseparabilità dalla carne sofferente: Deinde post hoc vivens passer in agrum ut avolet dimittitur. Ergo impassibilis divinitas et inseparabilis a carne quae passa est. τ ετ το το τ ν ρν ιον ε τ π ιον ετ ι. ο ν π εότ ε ρι το τ ρ ν τ πεπον υ ἐτ νεν.

Wenger osserva che in latino il secondo membro della frase (et inseparabilis) è ancora una volta fortemente attenuato rispetto al greco (ε ρι το )22. Unde, ut separabilis, in sanguine baptizatur, ut impassibilis viva in agrum avolet, ad latitudinem videlicet contemplationis emittitur. ι το το ρι το ν ἐν τ τι πτετ ι, π ,ε τ πλ το λ τ ε ρ , ε τ π ιον ετ ι.

Il latino è qui meno chiaro, poiché ut separabilis corrisponde, sia pure erroneamente, ad ρι το , mentre il successivo ut sembra introdurre una proposizione finale (come all’inizio del paragrafo), perdendosi così la correlazione presente in greco fra gli aspetti della inseparabilità dalla carne e della impassibilità, corrispondenti alla divinità di Cristo. Wenger osserva come le alterazioni testuali del latino rispetto al greco si incontrino nei pas21 WENGER, Hésychius, p. 469, afferma peraltro che il greco e il latino rappresentano due testi entrambi validi, e non sappiamo quale dei due sia la recensione originale. 22 Ibid.

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si che contengono formule dogmatiche, forse per accordare le formule a coloritura monofisitica di quest’ultimo con la cristologia delle due nature, divenuta comune dopo Calcedonia nel mondo latino23. Il problema dell’autore della traduzione Possiamo allora ritenere la traduzione latina in certa misura rielaborata rispetto all’originale greco24. La storia del testo, come anche può essere il caso delle Omelie su Giobbe, solo per citare un’altra opera di Esichio pervenutaci in traduzione (armena) e che presenta analogie di struttura con il Commentarius in Leviticum25, ha previsto dunque un momento della traduzione, che deve essere stata fatta nell’arco di tempo che va dal 450 circa alla seconda metà del VII secolo26, in cui si colloca il più antico frammento del testo latino di cui siamo a conoscenza; rimangono comunque ancora piuttosto oscure le “coordinate spazio-temporali” in cui situarla, le motivazioni e la figura stessa del traduttore. A questo riguardo, mentre alcuni studiosi trascurano il problema, in altri si trova solo un rapido accenno a “un certo Girolamo, sec. VI”, ma risulta difficile risalire alla fonte di questa informazione né un’indagine prosopografica aiuta a identificare un Girolamo del VI secolo27; il nome di Girolamo, inteso però come autore della Vulgata e associato dubitativamente a quello di Esichio di Salona, si trova nel testo 23 Ibid., p. 470, dove si osserva anche che tale affermazione non possa estendersi all’insieme dell’opera “sur la foi d’une collation très fragmentaire”. D’altra parte viene da pensare che il testo latino meriti di essere studiato di per se stesso, nei suoi caratteri linguistici, che sembrano documentare un latino stilisticamente non accurato e non sempre chiaro nei suoi elementi logico-sintattici; già Wenger aveva affermato che “la dégradation de la version latine par rapport au texte grec, aussi bien pour la pensée que pour la grammaire, est-elle évidente dans le passage que nous avons étudié” (ibid., con riferimento forse al par. 3, riportato sopra). Nella prospettiva di una “degradazione” grammaticale vorrei ancora notare il caso di erronee concordanze di genere, per es. in 916D (vas… fictile, qui totus terrenus est); d’altra parte la versione latina lascia trasparire qualcosa dell’elaborazione retorica che doveva essere dell’originale (ed è ben documentata nelle Omelie festali, ed. Aubineau), per es. nelle praefationes che precedono cinque dei sette libri in cui è diviso il Comm. in Lev. Nella prospettiva di tale studi occorrerebbe anche un lavoro di edizione del testo. 24 Cf. anche K. JÜSSEN, Hesychios v. Jerusalem, in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 5, pp. 308-309, Freiburg 1960: “Ein lat. leicht überarbeiteter Kommentar zu Lv”. Dello stesso autore in precedenza: Die dogmatischen Anschauungen des Hesychius von Jerusalem, Münster 1931-1934 (Münsterische Beiträge zur Theologie, 17.20). 25 Rilevate da VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, p. 189. Tali analogie implicano una riconsiderazione del genere, viste le possibili caratteristiche del testo riconducibili all’omiletica. 26 Ma l’attenzione si concentra sui secoli VI e VII, con interrogativi che si pongono riguardo all’area geografica e all’identità del traduttore. 27 Cf. e.g. B. ALTANER, Patrologie, Freiburg i. Br. 1951, 290: “Ein Kommentar zu Lev in der lateinischen Übersetzung eines gewissen Hieronymus (6. Jh.)”; J. KIRCHMEYER, Hésychius de

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citato di Fabricius28. Il problema rimane aperto e bisognoso di ulteriori studi. Quello che sembra di potere dire con certezza è che la traduzione è anche una rielaborazione, che ha comportato tra l’altro l’impegno dell’inserimento del testo biblico della Vulgata e la sua armonizzazione con un discorso esegetico basato sui LXX; sarebbero state compiute queste operazioni nello stesso tempo e dalla stessa mano29? Appunti per la storia della tradizione e dell’edizione (nell’ipotesi di una nuova edizione) Se dunque alcuni problemi si pongono con riguardo alla traduzione, che può avere comportato alterazioni per fraintendimenti del traduttore o sue deliberate modifiche dell’originale (con interrogativi ulteriori riguardanti la sua cultura e competenza), altri riguardano la storia della tradizione e dell’edizione, che può avere comportato ulteriori allontanamenti dall’originale per l’uso di testimoni mediocri30, come sembra evidenziare lo stato del testo in PG, derivante, come quello delle altre edizioni, dalla editio princeps di J. Sichard (1527)31. L’assenza di un’edizione critica, che sarebbe da tempo nelle intenzioni di chi scrive, è evidenziata da più di uno studioso e particolarmente da M. Aubineau, già editore delle Omelie festali (1978)32, mentre Wenger, nella conclusione dell’articolo di pubblicazione del frammento greco, si era mostrato al riguardo più dubbioso33. Credo Jerusalem, in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 7 (1969), coll. 399-408: “… le traducteur, un certain Jérôme (6e siècle)”. 28 Cf. n. 6. Verrebbe da pensare che Fabricius prenda le distanze da una posizione che poteva essere rappresentata al suo tempo e che avrebbe visto in Esichio di Salona (forse anche in rapporto all’omonimia assonante Hesychius Hierosolymitanus – Hesychius Salonitanus) il traduttore o rielaboratore o il vero autore del Comm. in Lev.; cf. e.g. P. SABATIER, Bibliorum Sacrorum Latinae versiones antiquae, 1, 1743, lxx; 219. 29 Al riguardo Vaccari ha modificato nella notula del 1961 l’opinione proposta nell’articolo del 1918=1952. 30 Cf. e.g. KIRCHMEYER, Hésychius de Jerusalem, particolarmente p. 400. 31 Per un primo orientamento sulla situazione testuale del Commentarius, cf. CPG 6550; per l’edizione di Sichard: J. SICHARDUS, Isychii Presbyteri Hierosolymorum in Leviticum libri septem, Basilea 1527. 32 Cf. in particolare, M. AUBINEAU: “Hesychius redivivus”. Un prédicateur hiérosolymitain de la première moitié du Ve siècle, in Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 28 (1981), pp. 253-270 [conferenza tenuta il 6 febbraio 1981 alla Facoltà di teologia dell’Università di Friburgo], repr. in ID., Chrysostome, Sévèrien, Proclus, Hésychius et alii. Patristique et hagiographie grecques. Inventaires de manuscrits, textes inédits, traductions, études, London Variorum Reprints 1988, p. 269. 33 WENGER, Hésychius, p. 470: “Après avoir retrouvé ce court fragment du grec, on ne regrettera que plus vivement la perte de l’oeuvre originale dans son ensemble. Il est vrai, une édition critique de la version latine permettrait déjà d’éliminer un grand nombre d’erreurs.

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personalmente che l’esigenza di un’edizione anche della sola traduzione latina mantenga una sua validità: anche senza considerare che altre opere note in traduzione latina sono interessate da un lavoro di edizione, mi sembra che valgano per il Commentarius in Leviticum ulteriori considerazioni storiche, legate alla particolare circolazione e diffusione dell’opera nel medioevo europeo di lingua e cultura latina, in cui il testo sembra acquistare come una nuova vita e importanza, forse non immaginata dal suo autore. Rimangono poi a mio parere valide le considerazioni riguardanti la possibilità di disporre di un testo migliorato: anche il solo confronto, di cui vorrei fornire in seguito una campionatura molto iniziale, tra la editio princeps e il testo di PG sembra mostrare la peggiore qualità di quest’ultima. a. I manoscritti Vorrei soffermarmi sul problema della tradizione manoscritta, per arrivare a identificare inizialmente una documentazione da cui partire per un nuovo studio del testo di Esichio. In questa prospettiva, se possiamo osservare che in una nota di Harles, editore di Fabricius, sono indicati due codici contenenti materiali sul Levitico34, un articolo di L. Santifaller sembra rappresentare un importante punto di riferimento35. L’articolo è dedicato allo studio del frammento onciale di Altenburg, databile alla prima metà dell’VIII secolo, che sembra essere il più antico testimone esistente del Commentarius. L’autore, partendo da una presentazione36 e da un esame paleografico del frammento per arrivare a delineare la complessiva tradizione del testo, elenca fra l’altro alcuni riferimenti “geografici” in antichi cataloghi che ne documentano la presenza: 1. Corbie, da cui proviene uno dei manoscritti tuttora esistenti (cf. infra) e di cui fu abate, negli anni

Mais il est peu probable que personne tente jamais une entreprise, condamnée d’avance à n’apporter que des demi-résultats”. 34 Cf., dell’edizione indicata alla n. 6, p. 550, n. d., dove è detto che i libri di commento al Levitico exstant in cod. MMLXVIII Cantabr. Collegii S. Trinitatis, et in cod. MMMMMMMCMLIII bibl. Jacobaeae, con rinvio a Catalogi librorum Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae in unum collecti cum Indice alphabetico, Oxoniae 1697. A questo catalogo Harles fa riferimento anche in una precedente nota (p. 549, n. c.), rispetto ad altre opere di Esichio sui libri sapienziali. 35 L. SANTIFALLER, Das Altenburger Unzialfragment des Levitikuskommentars von Hesychius aus der ersten Hälfte des 8. Jahrhunderts, in Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 60 (1943), pp. 241-266. Cf. inoltre A. SIEGMUND, Die Überlieferung der griechischen christlichen Literatur in der lateinischen Kirche bis zum zwölften Jahrhundert, München – Pasing 1949, pp. 87-88; Siegmund fa riferimento a P. LEHMANN, Johannes Sichardus und die von ihm benutzten Bibliotheken und Handschriften, München 1911, QU IV, 1. 36 SANTIFALLER, Das Altenburger Unzialfragment, pp. 255-257.

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842-847, Radberto Pascasio, uno degli utilizzatori del Commentarius37; 2. Fulda, in riferimento all’opera di Rabano Mauro; 3. Lorsch; 4. Certosa di Salvatorberg, presso Erfurt; Santifaller osserva che non si è accertato se questo manoscritto esista ancora38. 5. Strasburgo; è il secondo manoscritto utilizzato da Sichard per la sua prima edizione. Vorrei presentare ora, a partire principalmente dall’articolo di Santifaller, un elenco ordinato cronologicamente della documentazione manoscritta esistente (almeno per quanto mi è stato possibile al momento accertare)39. 1. Di questo codice in onciale, dunque, datato al secolo VII/VIII, sopravvivono 5 fogli40: un bifolium mutilo ad Altenburg + due fogli mutili a San Pietroburgo + la metà di un foglio a Monaco: a) Altenburg, Thüringisches Staatsarchiv, Miscell. Z 89; b) San Pietroburgo, Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences, fragm. 1/625 + San Pietroburgo, Public Library S. N. c) München, Staatsbibliothek, Clm 29402 [olim Clm 29162c]. 1a. Il frammento di Altenburg, datato alla prima metà dell’VIII secolo, è analizzato paleograficamente e pubblicato da Santifaller41 (= PG 93, coll. 1135A-B, 1135D-1136A, 1138A-1139A). 1b. I frammenti di San Pietroburgo, presso l’Istituto di Storia e presso la Biblioteca Pubblica, corrispondono rispettivamente a PG 93, coll. 1177C-1178C e 847A-848A; il frammento dell’Istituto di Storia appartiene a una collezione di frammenti formata dal prof. N. P. Likhachev (morto nel 1935)42. 1c. München, Staatsbibliothek, Clm 29162c, poi classificato con la nuova segnatura Clm 2940243; della scoperta di questo frammento, attribuito a Rabano Mauro e poi rivendicato a Esichio, si dà notizia in Zeitschrift für 37

Sembra che Radberto abbia avuto a disposizione due manoscritti di Esichio, di cui uno intitolato Isitius super leuiticum: cf. PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, De corpore et sanguine domini. Epistola ad Fredugardum, ed. B. PAULUS, Turnhout 1969 (CC.CM 16), p. IX, n. 2. 38 SANTIFALLER, Das Altenburger Unzialfragment, p. 256. 39 Ibid., pp. 257-258, dove i manoscritti sono indicati secondo l’ordine alfabetico dei luoghi di presenza. 40 Per una descrizione del codice cf. E. A. LOWE, Codices Latini Antiquiores (CLA), no. 1024: VIII, p. 2 e XI, p. 4. 41 SANTIFALLER, Das Altenburger Unzialfragment: il testo del frammento alle pp. 259-266. 42 Per l’indicazione di un facsimile del frammento della Public Library, cf. LOWE, CLA, no. 1024: XI, p. 30. 43 Katalog der lateinischen Fragmente der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München. Band 2 (Clm 29315-29520). Beschrieben von H. HAUKE, Wiesbaden 2001, p. 386 (Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Monacensis, T. IV, pars 12, 2).

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Kirchengeschichte 43 (1924), p. 46844. Questi frammenti superstiti provengono dunque da uno stesso codice, che sarebbe stato scritto in Italia, a giudicare dalla scrittura45. 2. London, British Library, Harleianus 3032. Inizio del IX secolo, da Arnstein, prima Lorsch; non si tratterebbe del codice utilizzato da Sichard ma di un secondo esemplare presumibilmente posseduto dalla biblioteca mentre il manoscritto usato da Sichard è forse quello menzionato nel catalogo di Lorsch46. 3. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS 768. IX secolo, forse da Beauvais. 4. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 2312; 165 fogli di pergamena. Fine del IX secolo, da Fleury. 5. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 11995. XI secolo, da Corbie. 6. Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, n. 212 (Clairvaux 42); 214 fogli di pergamena. XII secolo, forse da Clairvaux. 7. Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS 52; 143 fogli di pergamena. XII secolo; sembra corrispondere al codice indicato, con altra numerazione, da Harles47. 8. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. XVII, 16. XII secolo48. 44 Cf. anche SIEGMUND, Die Überlieferung der griechischen christlichen Literatur, p. 88, n. 1. Siegmund fa inoltre riferimento a un lavoro di SANTIFALLER: “Von L. Santifaller ist eine Studie darüber vorbereitet; er fand ein weiteres Fragment dazu in Breslau (in welcher Bibliothek?)”. Non sappiamo, per mancanza di ulteriori riferimenti bibliografici, di che cosa si tratti. Del frammento di Monaco Lowe presenta uno specimen di otto linee (CLA, VIII, no. 1024). 45 Cf. LOWE, CLA, VIII, p. 2, no. 1024. Ricordiamo che italiano sembra a VACCARI, Notulae patristicae, p. 732, n. 7, anche il traduttore latino del Commentarius: “Italus fuisse videtur, quia Psalmorum textus, quos Hesychius perquam frequenter adducit, latine afferuntur constanter in ea forma quae propria est Psalterii Romani”. 46 Cf. supra, n. 35 47 Cf. supra, n. 34. 48 Ho personalmente consultato questo codice catenario e ho notato che: 1. Manca la dedica a Eutichiano. 2. Comincia con brevi spezzoni di testi, anche di Esichio, che circondano il testo biblico, riportato nella pagina in una colonna centrale mentre in colonne laterali si trovano commenti di Esichio e di altri autori; il codice contiene dunque materiale esichiano mescolato ad altri materiali sul Levitico di diversi autori antichi e altomedievali. Si può notare che il nome di Esichio ricorre frequentemente all’inizio del codice, ma diminuisce nel seguito; l’ultimo testo esplicitamente attribuito a Esichio è a commento delle parole: Uir de quo egreditur semen (Lev 15:16). 3. Oltre che dai nomi degli esegeti, le note marginali possono essere introdotte da indicazioni di natura ermeneutica, per es.: TROPOLOGICE/moraliter. Il primo testo di Esichio citato è: Pre omnibus necesse est interpretationem legis ad anagogem trahi et spiritualem intelligentiam in littera perscruptari. Hoc enim non contradicit legi sed eam defendit. Cf. PG 93, col. 790B-C: Illud prae omnibus sermo eos qui haec lecturi sunt contestatur,

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9. Cheltenham, Phill. 426. XII-XIII secolo, da Altencampen. 10. London, British Library, Reg. 2 F. II. XIII secolo49. 11. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS 24433 (= Hamilton 3). XV secolo, da una biblioteca tedesca. Da questo elenco sembra di potere ricavare poche osservazioni parziali: 1. il cod. Harleianus 3032 (n. 2 del presente elenco) potrebbe essere, anche se non quello usato da Sichard, simile a esso, prestandosi a un confronto con l’editio princeps di Sichard (su cui è basata l’edizione della PG); 2. i codici di Parigi (nn. 4 e 5 dell’elenco) rappresenterebbero una famiglia che si differenzia da quella su cui è basata l’edizione50. b. Le edizioni L’edizione della PG (vol. 93, coll. 787-1180) è dunque basata sull’editio princeps di Sichard, da cui bisogna partire per una rassegna delle edizioni: 1. J. SICHARDUS, Isichii Presbyteri Hierosolymorum in Leviticum libri septem, Basilea 152751. La prefazione di Sichard è rivolta ornatissimo viro domino Mathiae a Saraecastro, officiali Treverensi, qualificato come unus … omnium quos nouerim in omni veterum scripto longe diligentissimus; vi è poi l’indicazione degli exemplaria usati per l’edizione, quorum unum nobis LAVRISSA, uetus quidem illud, sed portentose corruptum suppeditauit. Alterum beneficio clarissimi uiri Vuerinheri Vuolflini ex biblioteca Argentoratensi nacti sumus, tam arrosum, tam mutilum, ut plane non fuerit nobis usui futurum, nisi quaedam farsi(ss)emus ex codice Laurissano. Secondo queste quod necesse sit interpretationem ad anagogen trahi, et auditum ab humilibus ad sublimiora transferri, spiritalemque intelligentiam in littera perscrutari. Neque enim hoc contradicit legi, sed immo magis defendit et confirmat legem: quia nec contra eam sed potius resistentibus pro ea pugnare suscepimus. A questi brevi accenni di confronto il testo di Plut. XVII 16 appare abbreviato rispetto a quello, più elaborato, di PG, ma non mostrerebbe notevoli differenze di significato. 49 Nota SANTIFALLER, Das Altenburger Unzialfragment, p. 257, n. 6: “Dürfte wohl mit der in Catalogi librorum Angliae et Hiberniae 2, 1697 S. 241 verzeichneten Handschrift identisch sein; es heißt dort: Librorum manuscriptorum in aedibus Jacobaeis Catalogus … n. 7953. Aedes Jacobaeae bedeutet den alten Königspalast in London, St James’ Palace; die Bibliothek von St James’ Palast ist … in die Bibliothek des Britischen Museums übergegangen”; con questo codice potrebbe dunque identificarsi il secondo dei due codici menzionati da Harles (cf. supra, n. 38). 50 Cf. WENGER, Hésychius, p. 466. 51 Johann Sichard (Sichardus), morto nel 1552 a Tübingen, preparò, lavorando a Basilea negli anni 1526-1530, l’edizione di più di venti volumi, dedicati alla letteratura latina e al diritto; cf. “Johann Sichard”, in Contemporaries of Erasmus, 3 voll., Toronto 1985-1987, III: p. 247.

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notizie, Sichard si è servito di due codici, di Lorsch e di Strasburgo52, dei quali l’uno molto corrotto, l’altro molto lacunoso, che è stato necessario integrare con il primo. Se dunque l’editio princeps “dà un testo poco soddisfacente per la corruzione dei manoscritti donde proviene, è netta però da molti errori di stampa, introdottisi nelle altre”; mi pare che questa affermazione di A. Vaccari53 possa essere confermata dal confronto editio princeps — PG, di cui presento alcuni specimina, a partire da un iniziale sondaggio:54 PG 93, col. 789D: Sed et nimis sancit convenientia, s c i t a quo ejus intelligi possit intentio, et ad quem finem respiciant ejus statuta sentiri. Editio princeps: … si sit …

Mi pare che, leggendo, secondo l’editio princeps, si sit in luogo di scit, si possa comprendere più chiaramente il testo, che sarebbe così tradotto: il legislatore “sancisce norme che ben si accordano tra loro, se visi a colui dal quale possa essere intesa la sua intenzione e compreso a quale fine mirino i suoi statuti”55. PG 93, col. 791D: Quod non diligens Deus sacrificia, e a q u a e d e s a c r i f i c i i s Judaeis praeceperit, demonstrat Isaias dicens … Editio princeps: … ea quae sunt de sacrificiis …

Con l’editio princeps il testo si comprende forse meglio; d’altra parte PG sembra meglio presupporre un originale greco (pensando che ricalchi un greco come per es. τ περ con genitivo o accusativo). In entrambi i casi non cambierebbe una possibile traduzione: “Che Dio, non amando i sacrifici, abbia dato ai giudei i precetti che riguardano i sacrifici, lo dimostra Isaia dicendo …”. PG 93, col. 795C: Quod nos hostiam dicimus, Graece dicitur κ ρπ μα, q u o d specialiter intelligibile holocaustum significatur … Editio princeps: quo.

Sembra preferibile leggere secondo l’editio princeps, dove si ha un abla52 Corrisponderebbero ad alcune delle indicazioni riportate nei cataloghi menzionati in precedenza. 53 VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, p. 166. 54 Per il quale ho utilizzato una copia dell’editio princeps presente presso la Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna. 55 Per la coordinazione fra i verbi intelligo e sentio all’infinito presente passivo, cf. per es. Origene, in Lev. Hom. 6, 5 (Sources chrétiennes, 286, p. 288).

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tivo di mezzo (che sembra anche lectio difficilior) che restituirebbe un testo sintatticamente più nitido: “Ciò che noi diciamo hostia (vittima sacrificale), in greco è detto ρπ (offerta come frutto dell’attività umana ma anche frutto di purificazione per l’uomo56), con cui specialmente è indicato un intelligibile olocausto …”. Tale confronto appena iniziale potrebbe continuare, nell’ipotesi già avallata da precedenti studi che il testo dell’editio princeps sia preferibile a quello della PG. 2. J. LE GROS, Isychii, presbyteri hierosolymitani, In Leviticum commentaria … emendata et annotationibus aucta … edidit J. Le Gros, N. Chesnau, Paris 1581. Si trova qui il titolo, che allude al genere letterario, di commentaria, ripreso al singolare commentarius nella PG e nell’articolo citato di Vaccari, mentre Fabricius menziona l’opera come Libri VII explanationum allegoricarum in Leviticum57. 3. Le Bibliothecae Patrum; in particolare, il testo della PG deriverebbe da Bibliotheca Vet. Patrum Lugdun., tom. XII, p. 52 (secondo il riferimento iniziale presente nella stessa PG)58. 4. Hesychii Hierosolymitani presbyteri … opera omnia; accurante et denuo recognoscente J.-P. Migne (PG 93), 1865; il testo del Commentarius in Leviticum è stampato, preceduto da una notitia sull’autore, alle coll. 787-1180. Il testo, pur comprensibile nell’insieme, richiederebbe delle correzioni su singoli particolari (come mostra forse anche il precedente accenno di confronto con la sola editio princeps); Vaccari elenca una serie di emendamenti, suggeritigli fra l’altro dal confronto con Rabano Mauro (PL 108)59. Non sempre esatti anche i riferimenti biblici in calce; è per esempio notevole che la citazione in col. 818D, Qui habitare facit unanimes in domo, non corrisponde a Ps 102:9, ma a Ps 67:7 secondo i LXX60. 56

Cf. La Bibbia dei LXX — 1. Il Pentateuco, a cura di L. MORTARI, Roma 1999, p. 401; in tale senso sembra andare anche l’interpretazione di Esichio nel seguito del passo citato nel testo: … quia omne mandatum fructificat …. 57 Per VACCARI e FABRICIUS, cf. nn. 3 e 7. Nell’opera stessa si trova una sorta di autoriferimento in termini di Levitica interpretatio (PG 93, col. 1021D). 58 WENGER, Hésychius, p. 466, fa inoltre riferimento alla Magna Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Colonia 1618, che non offrirebbe alcuna variante rispetto a PG. 59 VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, pp. 166-168. 60 Come già in VACCARI, Esichio di Gerusalemme e il suo ‘Commentarius in Leviticum’, p. 185. Con riferimento al testo greco ε τοι ει ονοτρόπου ... mi sembra notevole anche la lezione unanimes, aderente a ονοτρόπου rispetto a Vulg. iuxta LXX: unius moris. Per altre correzioni all’apparato delle citazioni, cf. inoltre col. 906C: non 1 ma 2 Pt 2:21-22; col. 1071A-B: non Lc 1:32 ma 35.

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Conclusioni Esprimendo alcune osservazioni riassuntive, i soli tentativi di migliorare il testo di PG consistono di emendamenti proposti da Vaccari, anche tenendo presente la editio princeps e le citazioni di Rabano Mauro61, e da Wenger, attraverso l’uso dei due codici di Parigi, premesse a un lavoro di edizione critica di cui si avverte la necessità.

61

VACCARI, Notulae patristicae, p. 732, n. 8, propone come esempio un’altra correzione basata sul confronto fra l’edizione di PG e il più antico e frammentario codice del Commentarius.

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TOMÁS FERNÁNDEZ

THE GREEK FRAGMENT OF THE COMMENTARY ON LEVITICUS BY HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM In an article published in 1956, Antoine Wenger identified a Greek fragment of the Commentary on Leviticus by Hesychius of Jerusalem and provided an edition of it.1 He collated only one manuscript, Argentoratensis, Bibliothecae Nationalis et Universitatis gr. 12,2 although he was aware of the existence of another witness, Parisinus gr. 924.3 Six years later, both E and C, together with a dozen further manuscripts, were proven by M. Richard to belong to an anthology he called Florilegium Coislinianum (FC),4 which has recently received intense editorial attention: its books , , , and are already published,5 whereas A is forthcoming.6 It is unfortunate that Wenger did not collate C; this would have spared his edition a number of mistakes. I will tackle three of them. The most significant appears in paragraph 5, lines 7-9. Wenger has ἐπει περ ο ε ν ρ που π ο , εο ε ν ρ πον πτ ε ι (Lat. translation quia non in hominis passione, sed Dei et hominis passione baptizamur). Wenger explained laboriously the divergences between the Greek and the Latin text: 1 A. WENGER, Hésychius de Jérusalem. Notes sur les discours inédits et sur le texte grec du commentaire “In Leviticum”, in Revue des études augustiniennes 2 (1956), pp. 457-470; edition of the fragment on pp. 466-467. 2 S. XIII; fragment in fols 150v-151r; siglum E in this contribution. 3 S. X; fragment in fols 284-285; siglum C in this contribution. See WENGER, Hésychius, p. 464, n. 39. 4 M. RICHARD, Florilèges spirituels grecs, in Dictionnaire de spiritualité, fasc. 33-34, Paris 1962, cols. 475-512. 5 I. DE VOS et al., L’art de compiler à Byzance: la lettre du Florilège Coislin, in Byzantion 78 (2008), pp. 159-223; I. DE VOS et al., La lettre B du Florilège Coislin: editio princeps, in Byzantion 80 (2010), pp. 72-120; R. CEULEMANS et al., La continuation de l’exploration du Florilegium Coislinianum: la lettre Èta, in Byzantion 81 (2011), pp. 74-126; R. CEULEMANS et al., Sur le mensonge, l’âme de l’homme et les faux prophètes: la lettre du Florilège Coislin, in Byzantion 83 (2013), pp. 49-82; R. CEULEMANS et al., Questions sur les deux arbres du paradis: la lettre du Florilège Coislin, in Byzantion 84 (2014), 49-79. See the first contribution for an extensive bibliography. 6 My edition of Book A will be published in CCSG.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 431-433.

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L’explication qui suit comporte une différence sensible dans le texte grec et dans la version latine. […] En grec: “Puisque ce n’est pas au nom de la passion d’un homme, mais au nom de la passion d’un Dieu, qu’il faut que l’homme soit baptisé”. Cette formule a évidemment quelque relent monophysite. Mais cette nuance fait pour ainsi dire couleur locale dans le cas d’Hésychius qui était précisement monophysite. En vertu de la communication des idiomes, la formule est d’ailleurs recevable. Le latin présente un sens attenué qui ne prête le flanc à aucune difficulté: “Ce n’est pas en la passion d’un homme, mais dans la passion d’un Dieu-et-homme que nous sommes baptisés”.

Yet this subtle distinction between a monophysite original and a toned down translation is untenable. In fact, C has the correct reading: εο ε ν ρ που πτ ε ι. The Latin translation is simply faithful to its Greek exemplar. A further witness of the FC, Milan, Ambrosianus Q 74 sup.,7 has εο ε ν ρ που πτ ε ι. This demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that the genitive ν ρ που (preceded or not by ), not 8 the accusative ν ρ πον, was the reading of the archetype of the FC. In two further points, CD tersely solve textual problems. In par. 6, 6-9, E (and Wenger) have π , [i.e. ε τ ] ε τ πλ το λ τ ε ρ , ε τ πε ον9 ετ ι. CD provide π ,ε τ πε ον — ε τ πλ το λ τ ε ρ — ετ ι, which also coincides with the Latin, ut impassibilis viva in agrum avolet, ad latitudinem videlicet contemplationis emittitur. Wenger had doubtlessly felt some oddness in the formulation of E, where λ (videlicet in the Latin translation) appears before the clause it paraphrases, namely, ε τ πε ον; his translation of the Greek follows the word order of the Latin, which coincides with the reading of CD: “elle est lâchée dans les champs, à savoir vers la latitude de la contemplation”. The last problematic formulation concerns the seventh paragraph of Wenger’s edition. Wenger concedes it is difficult but, he adds, “il ne semble pas […] que le texte soit corrompu”.10 He renders a very curious phrase, π τ ρ το του [i.e. το λο ι ο ] ε ρε τ ι ιν ε (par. 7, 2-3), as “C’est en effet par le mouvement de notre raison qu’elle [i.e. la divinité] est 7

S. X; fragment on fol. 97; siglum D in this contribution. At this point of the FC, the only extant witness of the so-called “long recension” is C and its apographs. In this state of affairs, coincidence of CD against E conclusively proves that any given lesson belongs to the archetype. See a stemma of the FC in CEULEMANS et al., Sur le mensonge, p. 59. The subarchetype of DE and other witnesses of the “short recension” of the FC might have omitted the before ν ρ που which, in turn, might have caused the corruption in E. 9 π ιον (sic) Wenger. 10 WENGER, Hésychius, p. 469. 8

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contempleé”.11 However, it is surely incorrect that a verb other than ο ι stands between a preposition and its complement.12 CD have π τ ρ το του ε ρ ρ τε τ ι, which offers a more convincing sense and word order and which, furthermore, coincides with a translation that Wenger had to leave unexplained: Sub hujus enim contemplatione tenetur. Wenger’s article was hugely influential. It proved conclusively that the Commentarius in Leviticum was originally written in Greek. It furnished the student of Hesychius with an editio princeps of the Greek fragment, supplied with a useful commentary. These brief critical remarks on Wenger’s edition, which marginally improve it, are no more than a modest homage to his prominent contribution.

11

Ibid., p. 470. H. W. SMYTH, Greek Grammar, Harvard 1956 [1920], § 1663. For the word order where π is concerned, see E. SCHWYZER, Griechische Grammatik, II, München 1988 [1950] (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, 2.1.2), pp. 522-533. 12

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PART III THE IMAGES

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GLENN PEERS

PROCESS AND MEANING: PENITENCE, PRAYER AND PEDAGOGY IN VAT. GR. 752 This essay is non-prescriptive and attempts at this early stage of research to make clear some of the methodological possibilities in the study of this difficult manuscript. My position is a moderate one: not to overdetermine our interpretation of the manuscript, but to allow for multiple points of view to be simultaneously valid. I have no analytic key that will unlock all the meanings of the images in the manuscript, though I do offer some explanations of the peculiar conjunctions of image and text in this essay. In my opinion, no such key was made nor even desired, and we should not expect one. This essay attempts to read the manuscript on its own terms, as much as possible, and so references to other manuscripts are withheld. In that sense, this essay takes a position antithetical to the strongly conclusive argument already offered in Dumbarton Oaks Papers some twenty years ago.1 That article represents an important move forward from the presentational volume by De Wald forty years previous, but it also belongs to a particular moment in the study of Byzantine manuscripts when description, however astute, no longer sufficed, and when iconographical analysis defined method for explaining these medieval monuments. That 1993 article strongly isolated meaning in a number of motifs present throughout the manuscript, but often discussed without full context, and without an explanation of how use and understanding of the book actually aided and determined motifs’ meanings. By insisting on ideological content, which largely concentrates on church-state relations, the authors forced a particular reading of the manuscript that resorted to a totalizing message of sins of rulers and of the righteousness of church and bishops. This essay proposes examining the manuscript for open understandings and holistic approaches instead. Indeed, no final answer will be provided. The manuscript this essay discusses was and is still in a constant state of becoming; it is always about to signify. The makers and users of this manuscript were no less uncertain about the meanings of their illuminations, 1

Pace KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 437-465.

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though they had more knowledge to get closer than we can, naturally. The process of understanding this manuscript was always contingent on the spiritual and worldly wisdom of the person encountering it, and that constantly provisional quality is necessary for nearing the almost-promised salvation at the heart of the Psalms. That provisional quality teaches, and pedagogy is a core issue of the manuscript. Now, that openness does not close off careful reading and interpretative work in arguing for a context and meaning for the manuscript. Rather than accepting an exclusive political reading for the Psalter, I want to argue for a very different audience: a monastic milieu in which a major concern was the salvation of the community and effacement of leader, not untypical of monasteries in the eleventh century.2 A Church Father, Hesychius of Jerusalem, played an unusually strong role in the formulation of commentary and also images in the manuscript, and his presence here is not just explicable through his criticism of rulers at the Last Judgment.3 Hesychius’s presence is multi-faceted, and some paths of interpretation will be signalled here, if not followed to conclusion. One aspect of Hesychius’s commentaries that outweighs the rest is the emphasis on teaching, and commentary passages and illustrations both reveal ways in which pedagogy is a necessary and valued component in monastic striving for salvation in common. Moreover, that striving sanctions a monastic community, according to text and image here, in its credentials for leading the chosen people of God to paradise. Repentance, teaching and prayer represent the surest routes for one and one’s coenobitic co-strivers to reach salvation. This essay, then, takes a divergent stand, both methodological and interpretative, from the authors of the Dumbarton Oaks Papers study. It argues for a book of sacred writings, venerable commentary, sophisticated visual realizations of argument and admonition that leads its audience together to a state closer to redemption, in preparation for the end of days. Determining Roles of Hesychius The most important figure for understanding these processes of emergent knowledge is the great exegete of the fifth century, Hesychius of Jerusalem. We have a great deal of work ahead of us to unpack all his commentaries in this manuscript, but every sampling reveals the key role he played for the creators of this new catena collection. This collection was 2 See the remarks in R. H. JORDAN – R. MORRIS, The Hypotyposis of the Monastery of the Theotokos Evergetis, Constantinople (11th-12th Centuries). Introduction, Translation and Commentary, Farnham 2012, pp. 24-26. 3 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 205-212.

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a highly intellectual and controlled activity that was not beyond the scope of a single individual, but that compiler must have been, if working alone, a very accomplished reader of catena. He also had strong commitment to a certain kind of reading of the Psalms that was not satisfied with existing options, and the development of his own system is still evident in the way the catena unfolds, as Adrian Schenker established nearly forty years ago.4 By the time the creator of this new chain arrived around the halfway point, he was fully in command, testing some different options and introducing new readings, and here, according to Schenker, the innovatory quality of his catena manifests itself. The emergent qualities of the manuscript’s meaning were an integral part of its making. The strong attraction that the illustrator/designer had to figures like Aquila and Symmachus, unmistakably honored with their haloed representations, must have been connected to the catena-designer’s own selfaware role as new commentator (for example, fol. 187r, Ps 59: fig. 1). In that sense, too, the place of Hesychius and of his method should not be underestimated. Like the men who worked on this manuscript in the late 1050s, we should look to Hesychius above all for our cues. In the first place, Hesychius gives us methodological openness, in the same way that multivalent and contingent analysis shows us the richness of the Psalms and their histories. The prologue to the Psalter shows how this engagement can work, when Hesychius described the superscription ‘those of Kore’ as having the potential to mean a variety of things; and he also passed into an etymological description of Kore as meaning ‘bald head’ and indicating their disputatious manner.5 Kore is an alluring, ambivalent figure, and he is also a paradigm of argumentativeness. But argument for the sake of argument is not the point here. Rather, finding the truth in tradition demands careful, sensitive and knowledgeable engagement with the word of God. Reliance on Hesychius accounts for the negligible presence of liturgical concerns in the manuscript, another feature distinguishing Vat. gr. 752 from contemporary manuscripts.6 Contemporary manuscripts, especially Psalters, were designed for liturgical use, and most were without catena. Moreover, the images in Vat. gr. 752 are unusual in their avoidance of Christology and typology, and in their insistence on illustrating and commenting on catena.7 4

SCHENKER, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke. MERCATI, Il commentario, pp. 145-179. This etymological interest is typical of Hesychius’s enterprise; see DEVREESSE, Les anciens commentateurs, pp. 244-245. 6 See N. DENYSENKO, The Hypapante Feast in Fourth- to Eighth-Century Jerusalem, in Studia liturgica 37.1 (2007), pp. 73-97. 7 G. K. PARPULOV, Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium, in The Old Testament in 5

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The designer’s principal concern was his monastic community and its pastoral care. Other factors may have played an important role in the selection of Hesychius as the foundational father for this manuscript, such as his reputation as an intellectual commentator, his connection with Jerusalem and its eleventh-century gravitational pull, or even the suspicion of his not-entirely-Chalcedonian outlook. However we explain the importance of Hesychius in this new catena collection, we must recognize other core concerns in his reading of the Psalms: the emphasis on the recognition of sin, repentance and forgiveness, as Cornelia Horn has recently made clear.8 No single feature of Hesychius’s project can explain all aspects of Vat. gr. 752, but with further study, I expect that his position will provide a guiding principle to open productive readings of images that present otherwise obscure or overly precise positions. Ps 59: Translation as Deliverance

Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 187r : Psalm 59 (detail).

Ps 59 is a challenging paradigm for how we might approach the mutual work of word and image in Vat. gr. 752 (figs 1-2).9 Hesychius plays the role of privileged commentator throughout the Psalter, and his commentary on the title of each psalm is normally placed in the column reserved for the biblical text itself. The text of the commentary begins on the inside column of fol. 186v, before the psalm starts on fol. 187r and continues to fol. 189r without another illustrative break after the facing images of fols 186v-187r. The three images on these facing pages are

Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington, DC 2010, pp. 77-106, and KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 197. 8 C. B. HORN, Preaching and Practicing Repentance: Hesychius of Jerusalem’s Influence on Ascetic Movements in Byzantine Palestine, in Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient: Festschrift für Stephen Gero zum 65. Geburtstag, Leuven – Paris – Walpole, MA 2011, pp. 535-552. 9 DE WALD, pp. 24-25.

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striking in themselves for the amount of dramatic detail and for their (apparently) incongruent juxtaposition. On the lefthand side of the opening, in the outside column, two scenes of destruction and carnage are shown. The upper image, labeled Syria, is a three-tiered composition with four figures, apparently trapped in a burning building, which is presumably a palace. In the lower image, labeled Mesopotamia, a river runs diagonally between two richly decorated buildings, upon which stand two groups of lamenting men and women. Affecting elements are a corpse borne along the stream and two men kneeling at the very bottom of the scene. The psalm itself is a prayer for the help of God in vanquishing his people’s enemies, and the images freely interpret the events to which the psalm refers, the campaigns in the Second Book of Kings 8 and 10. The image opposite, however, demonFig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 186v: Psalm 59 (detail). strated very different concerns in visual interpretation, for here the translators of the Septuagint, Aquila and Symmachus (left- and right-hand sides of the image, respectively), are shown in discourse with each other. Each is richly dressed and standing before build-

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ings within which sit sumptuous-looking, backless chairs. The two also have haloes, which intensify their prestige and sanctity, and this element is a strong accent for these very seldom-represented figures. Before turning to the commentaries, which do help explain these three images, visual resonances among them encourage connections that the narratives themselves do not make perfectly clear. The gold field in the right-hand image stresses its non-narrative aspect, in the way it calls attention to the speech act of the scene as opposed to the war vignettes opposite. Red highlights on the right lead the eye back to the flow of flame in the upper left-hand corner image, and the fire there is emphasized even to the point of stretching the two-dimensionality of the frame. The rivers are most striking, perhaps, because they are not called for in any of the texts, psalm, commentaries or inscriptions, and they echo strongly from one side of the gutter to the other. On the left-hand side, the river washes the body of the fallen and the blood streams with it. That detail is an emotionally charged aspect of a sorrowful event. The river on the right-hand side is apparently arbitrary, because no literal or figurative reading of the texts provides a clue to its significance. The comparison, however, serves to show how the illustrator was also making exegesis between images difficult to connect in an overt way. One might say, the cleansed river on the right-hand side is the pure, holy stream, in comparison to the polluted stream washing God’s people’s enemies on the left-hand side. The connection is evocative, like so much visual commentary; it attracts contemplation, analysis, and it does not close itself off with final conclusions. The diagonal stream is not common, and that visual echo might extend to other kinds of intervention, like the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae, which was sometimes included in Psalters at Ps 93 (fig. 3). This kind of visual comparison is an art historian’s fallacy, maybe, beFig. 3 – Barb. gr. 372, fol. 160v: Psalm 93.

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cause the comparison I make was not necessarily performed the same way by an eleventh-century monk — writing that makes me see how unlikely it is, in fact. But one has to model certain kinds of looking and association, and the comparison is not impossible either, just not subject to any real control. The meaning of deliverance, for the Archangel came to rescue the care-taker of his church, the monk Archippus, from a flood started by some jealous Hellenes, is possibly relevant in both images, in negative and positive ways. God’s people are delivered under David, and the river bears proof; and His word is preserved and revealed by the work of the two biblical scholars on the right-hand side. The Chonae scene is not necessary for this connection, but its healing source as a famous pilgrimage site could provide an amplifying resonance for the manuscript’s examiner. Like other art historians and historians who have examined eleventhcentury manuscripts, I am also wary of genealogies and lost prototypes, so I want consciously to underplay in this essay visual comparisons with other Psalters and illustrated manuscripts. The particular object of study here demands so much attention exclusively for itself. But just two examples reveal the degree of inventiveness at play in this illustrative cycle of Ps 59. In both later and earlier examples, the scenes are reductive versions of the destruction of the Syrians, and David is an active participant in both these instances, the Hamilton Psalter (Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, MS 78.A.9, fol. 123v, ca. 1300) and the Bristol Psalter (British Library, London, Addit. 40731, fol. 95r, ca. 1000). The visual intensity and complexity of Vat. gr. 752 are strongly evident when placed side by side with these images. For a full interpretation of the images here, however, Hesychius and Theodoret of Cyrrhus (ca. 393-ca. 457) are key. The space between the images on fol. 186v notes, in an excerpt from Theodoret, the foretelling of the sin that would lead to captivity, and David “… also foretold the return from it happening through divine grace, and saw the necessity of writing up both good news and bad [...]”.10 The catena at the beginning of the entry for Ps 59 is taken up by Hesychius, who ruminates on sin and judgment, aging and death, but he mentioned, too, the vanity of Syria and the questioning by Mesopotamia (the last a little unclear). The images on fol. 186v are not direct illustrations of their exegesis — how could they match this rather abstract reading? — but rather are interpretative assertions of the psalm in their own right. They match the tone and meaning of Hesychius’s and Theodoret’s writing, but they increase the intensity of the reading of the psalm through their dramatic and affective rendering of suffering and death. 10

I owe this translation to Barbara Crostini.

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The illustration of the translators, Aquila and Symmachus, draws on the exegesis of Theodoret, and it has, in any case, a strikingly different focus from the scenes of warfare opposite. Both Eusebius and Theodoret often mentioned variant readings of words and phrases in the Psalms, in their efforts to realize a true understanding of the word of God. Eusebius and Theodoret here cited different readings for the Psalm, and they referred to both Aquila and Symmachus as authorities on the variations.11 And yet the latter was chosen as the basis for the inscription for the image on fol. 187r. The compiler of the catena often went to Theodoret as a source, if Hesychius did not supply the necessary exegetical basis. The inscription for the image picks up a specific translation by Aquila for verse 3, in which Theodoret stated “you gave us wine of compunction to drink” should read “you gave us wine of stupor”, in other words, disasters filled our souls with pain. De Wald noted that the inscription is a close echo of a scholion on the other side of the folio. In the lower section of text in the right-hand margin of fol. 187r, the anger of Aquila and Symmachus is noted in a phrase that recalled Eusebius on this verse; but it is also about a phrase from Theodoret on the same verse about the anger turning to pity. The agents of these emotions are apparently the two translators, but in the psalm text, the real agent is God himself. The ambiguity of reference in the text lends an increased importance to the translators, who are not presented as humble wordsmiths, but really as prophetic presences themselves, figures who can interpret the will and intent of God through his scripture, and can therefore deliver judgment on the adherence by his people to it. The gestures of the two figures in the illustration are likewise ambivalent with regard to delivery of judgment. They could connote discussion and debate between the two, but neither figure is directing his attention to the holder of the book. The debate appears to be frozen at the moment of discussion of the metaphor of wine as compunction or stupor. The internal debate takes precedence in the image over the ultimate process and end of God’s displeasure. If only the words are right, the image implies, deliverance is at hand. Teaching and Deliverance Pedagogy is a strong theme in the manuscript, and the illustrations model the many ways knowledge can be acquired. Presumably, these models validate similar processes and methods advocated by at least some are11

PG 80, col. 1317B; THEODORET OF CYR, Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 1. Psalms 1-72, transl. by R. C. HILL, Washington, D.C. 2000 (The Fathers of the Church, 101), p. 345; Eusebius, PG 23, col. 560B; DE WALD, pp. 24-25.

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as within its monastic context, if that indeed was its context. Divine inspiration is not, naturally, abjured, and fol. 156v shows Christ whispering into the ear of David, behind whom two of the sons of Kore stand in anticipation (fig. 4). Here is the line of teaching, from God to his poets to his people.12 On fol. 241v, the illustration shows the writer of the psalm, the prophet Asaph, discoursing on Ps 77:5-6 (fig. 5), and he is speaking to three men an abridgement of Theodoret on verse 5, “The prophet Asaph says, ‘He calls law and testimony and commandment and judgments and ordinances’”.13 Paul is another model of pedagogy in scenes of conversion and preaching (fol. 33r: fig. 6). Perhaps the most charming scene of teaching is fol. 139v (Ps 41),14 where two sons of Kore are shown teaching Holy Scripture

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 156v: Psalm 48 (detail).

Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 241v: Psalm 77 (detail).

12 Ps 48, which opens, “Hear this, all ye people, give ear”. Theodoret wrote, “It is clear to practically everyone that the prophets offered teaching to Jews only, but here the inspired word urges the whole world to give attention” (PG 80, col. 1217; HILL, Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 1, p. 281). Hesychius stated that to give ear is “to receive with your ears the things I tell you” (PG 27, col. 837.2). See DE WALD, p. 21. 13 PG 80, col. 1485A; THEODORET OF CYR, Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 2. Psalms 73150, transl. by R. C. HILL, Washington, D.C. 2001 (The Fathers of the Church, 102), p. 30, translated as “He calls testimony the tabernacle fixed in the wilderness, holding as it did he tables of the testimony. In fact, he calls Law, as we said before, the commandments, testimonies, judgments and ordinances”. See DE WALD, p. 28. 14 DE WALD, pp. 19-20.

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Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 33r: Psalm 8 (detail).

Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 139v: Psalm 41 (detail).

to the people, here three small figures seated on the ground below, one with a book and all with the extended hands of speech acts (fig. 7). Another small figure stands above in an indeterminate structure on the right-hand side of the illumination. The figures seem to occupy an interior space, perhaps indicated by doors at the bottom of that indeterminate structure, and if that space is a classroom, it is a lively seminar. Negative exemplars of teaching and learning are also constructed through interplay of image, caption and commentary. On fol. 262v, two sons of Kore approach with hands extended toward a slender, closed building; they appear to be young men without beards (fig. 8). Their inscription provides a description of a rather opaque scene, “May the thought of the believers perish among them: the sons of Kore appeal to Christ concerning the evil spirits of education”. The inscription and image appear to present a harmful example of learning and understanding, where the sons address the building, as a surrogate for Christ, in seeking resolution to judgment over proper and improper learning. The inscription recalls the accompanying commentary of Hesychius for verses 5 and 11 from Ps 82, but it does not simply imi-

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tate it.15 In that commentary, no mention of education is made, and the daimons, or evil spirits, speak against the holy saints; in other words, Hesychius provided a more literal reaction to those verses of the Psalm. In this sense, this rather reduced scene takes on a meanFig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 262v: Psalm 85 (detail). ing of its own, independent of the commentary and psalm text, but not completely unrelated. The image and inscription form provide another level of commentary, both on the psalm and Hesychius, and moreover, turn that level toward a concern that traverses the manuscript’s program of image and text: proper transmission and full learning of the teachings of God. Translation, Judgment and Discourse Education, benign and malign, is a thread that runs throughout the manuscript’s images and commentary. A natural corollary is an insistence on the authority of the translators extending to the writers of the Psalms, obviously David, but also other poets, like Asaph and the sons of Kore. For example, on fol. 261r, Christ addresses Asaph and Kore (Ps 81:2: fig. 9).16 The inscription is a paraphrase of Theodoret, “... since God is truly a judge, whereas human beings are entrusted with the task of judging, those commissioned with this task were believed [to be] gods for the reason that they imitate God in this”.17 The inscription to the image reads more simply and directly than that piece of commentary, “Christ says to Asaph and Kore, ‘It is pleasing to man to lead and judge believers’”. Evidently, the status of the two men is elevated by God himself, though some ambiguity exists in the 15

PG 27, cols. 1001 and 1004; DE WALD, pp. 28-29. DE WALD, p. 28. 17 PG 80, col. 1528C; Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 2, transl. HILL, p. 56; and Hesychius on v. 2, PG 27, col. 1000. 16

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statement of Christ concerning the nature of men, gods and judges. Theodoret states in his commentary that the Good Judge will pull back all men to proper judgments in the end. Likewise, on fol. 267v, two sons of Kore approach Christ and speak to him, as an extra plea supplementing verse 4 of Ps 84, “You put a stop to all your wrath; you turned away from your hot anger” (fig. 10). The sons Fig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 261r: Psalm 81 (detail) of Kore address Christ in the words of Hesychius, “Have mercy on all your peoples”.18 Numerous examples demonstrate that the writers and translators of sacred text were given abilities to mediate on behalf of the chosen people, to ask for mercy, fair judgments and God’s favour. The theme of discourse among figures runs throughout the manuscript, and process of acquiring sound knowledge appears not to be so much God-given — though the Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 267v: Psalm 84 (detail). Psalms themselves are clearly so — as given by God through careful study, vigorous learning, and informed analysis. The translators’ professorial hairsplitting, as exemplified at Ps 59:3 by etymological analysis of Hebrew performed by Eusebius and Theodoret, becomes 18

PG 27, col. 1012; DE WALD, p. 29.

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in this rendering a necessary element in understanding God and his anger — the meaning of the wine in that passage really mattered. The stakes of that learning are strongly evident in that opening of fols 186v-187r, where God’s wrath and human suffering is compared to anger of the translators, Aquila and Symmachus, whose wise and careful rendering of God’s word — aided by the philological researches of Eusebius and Theodoret — also allows them to deliver judgment and forgiveness (figs 1-2). This role of teachers and commentators in the performance of correct understanding of scripture is very striking, and it may well parallel particular work done by monastic elders and abbots in delivering proper and seemly knowledge for their communities’ salvation. David’s Penitence and Forgiveness Like in all Psalters, David is a flawed, but a divinely appointed model and guide for humanity.19 For example, on fol. 72v (Ps 21), David is a young, beardless man leaving a building, and he opens both hands to a paradisiacal landscape on the right-hand side (fig. 11). I would like to think that the stream running through this scene was intended to recall the other streams already discussed; in any case, the intentionality is not always an issue that needs fixing, because the result is surely another visual echo through these illustrations that evokes the valences of the diagonal rivers of fols 186v-187r (figs 1-2). The inscription likewise establishes comparisons in the way it forms a parallel between the roles of David as poet and, through his poems, as a blessed leader of humanity, and of Christ Fig. 11 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 72v: Psalm 21 (detail). 19 D. KRUEGER, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium, Philadelphia 2014, pp. 17-23, for example.

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the shepherd of all humanity, to the promised land on the righthand side. David also acts out the role of divinely chosen leader in many of the scenes in the Psalter, as he does in so many monuments of the Middle Ages. Of course, he is a capacious character, encompassing nearly all types of hero in a vivid, tragic and redemptive narrative arc. For example, here in Vat. gr. 752, the encounter between the young underdog and the giant Philistine is related in two scenes at fol. 104r (Ps 34:1, fig. 12). De Wald states that the scenes are chosen as an interpretative gloss on the psalm and Hesychius’s commentary Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104r: Psalm 34 (detail). on the title, which explicitly mentioned David as shepherd and victor over Goliath. The commentary also stresses the justice of the victory of the righteous who have faith in the cross.20 The battle scene has a long history in medieval art, but far less common indeed are scenes illustrating Ps 58 at fols 182v-183r (figs 13-14).21 The title of Ps 58 reads in part, “When Saul sent and watched his house to put him to death”. The two scenes on fols 182v-183r show episodes from 1 Kings 19, that — as noted by De Wald — come from Eusebius, who discussed these scenes in 1 Kings that immediately came before 20 21

PG 27, cols 773C-734A. Preceding the equally unusual scenes already discussed at fols 186v-187v; see figs 1-2.

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and after that part of the story referred to in the title. This psalm represents then the turning point in the relationship of Saul and David. The first scene shows David soothing the deeply disturbed king with his harp, while in the second, Michal aids David in escaping the plot to assassinate him. Both are lively depictions, especially the escape scene where Michal helps David shimmy to safety, while the guards sleep on against a richly-textured diaperpatterned wall. The space is not clear, nor should we expect it to be, but the exclusion of David from that luscious interior-space underlines quite dramatically the losses and ostracism that came from Saul’s mad persecution. Noteworthy, I believe, is the positive role played by women in David’s life, and this aspect of the illustrative program deserves some careful thought. Another example of this, well one could say at least not negative, role is fol. 176r (Ps 55) in which David’s two wives are shown in a similar position to Michal in the escape illustration just discussed (fig. 15).

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Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 182v: Psalm 58 (detail).

Fig. 14 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r: Psalm 58 (detail).

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Now, the sins of David were endlessly fascinating to medieval Christians (are, for that matter for us, too), and they implicated not only the high and mighty — emperors and kings and nobility were always compared to that great Hebrew king — but also every Christian, whatever station, vocation or proximity to perfection. His sinful nature, of course, found its fullest expression in his desire for the married Bathsheba, whom he spied bathing and straightaway set out to take from her husband, the innocent Uriah. Ps 50 is the penitential Psalm, and here the story of desire, murder and punishment is told and, in some Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r: Psalm 55 (detail). essential way, that process of sin and deliverance enacted through reading or singing the poem. In any case, in Vat. gr. 752, fols 162v-163r are the opening across which the story is told with pictures and text (figs 16-17). The illustrative cycle begins with the bath, in which Bathsheba is in her tub and flanked Fig. 16 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v: Psalm 50 (detail). by two attendants, the right-hand woman pouring water over her mistress’s head. The dispatch of Uriah to certain death is opposite, with David’s role underlined, and the felling of the husband below. The next folio shows the outcome of Da-

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vid’s shameful act, but the previous folio with an illustration, fol. 159v, reveals the closeness of David to Christ, which is a special theme throughout the manuscript (fig. 18).22 In this illustration of Ps 49, Christ is “teaching the prophets seated with him”, who include Asaph, given Fig. 17 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163r: Psalm 50 (detail). credit as author of this Psalm, along with three sons of Kore, and David, who sits beside Christ and is the only other figure with a halo. This image by no means shows David in a demeaning position, nor does it reveal anything so much as his unique position in the revelation of Christ’s plan for humanity’s salvation. This accent, one might call it, is worth Fig. 18 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 159v: Psalm 49 (detail). bearing in mind as a preliminary to the most famous of the Psalms. Indeed, the shamefulness of the bath of Bathsheba is not clear in the following image; the catena stresses the relation of this bath to baptism, and the illustration bears a strong resemblance to other scenes of baptism in the manuscript, like fol. 193r (Ps 62, fig. 19). Irony is certainly one register in which visual exegesis operates (though normally overlooked in our analyses), but a typological reading of baptism here can also add weight to an understanding not only of the pre-ordained nature of the sighting of the woman by David, but also of the inevitable forgiveness accorded to him. Theodoret in the catena spoke of the Last Judgment and 22 PG 80, cols 1128-1129; Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 1, transl. HILL, p. 288; DE WALD, p. 21 [with incorrect reference].

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salvation here, and salvation is strongly present in these prophets’ attendance on Christ’s teaching at the table. The scene of Christ with his prophets, David the elect among them, on fol. 159v, prepares the way for this reading of final judgment in favour of even the most sin-laden believer (fig. 18). In short, David is not a negative exemplar of Fig. 19 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 193r: Psalm 62 (detail). imperial excess, as was argued by Kalavrezou and colleagues. He is a paradigm for repentance and forgiveness at every level of human activity. Fols 163v-164r are crucial in the unfolding of this interpretation of the contemporary (or perhaps eternal) relevance of Ps 50 for the human condition (figs 20-21). On the verso of the opening, David appears twice, once seated to the left and then kneeling before the prophet Nathan on the righthand side.23 The inscription addresses David enthroned and in Nathan’s voice tells him to repent his sin with Bathsheba or beware of God’s wrath. The wrath is personi-

Fig. 20 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163v: Psalm 50 (detail). 23

Fig. 21 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 164r: Psalm 50 (detail).

DE WALD, p. 22.

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fied in the half-figure of the Archangel Michael, the strong right hand of God, who hovers above the seated David. De Wald mentions a lance in the Archangel’s hand, as a replacement for the sword the angel normally wields in anticipation of the king’s possible stubbornness, but here the object in his right hand appears too short to be a lance, and a sceptre, an extremely common attribute of the Archangel, is a more likely identification. In that case, Fig. 22 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20r: Psalm 2 (detail). a stress is being placed on the benign forgiveness of the Lord, who relents before true remorse. On fol. 20r (Ps 2), in fact, Michael acts as a sponsor of David before the seated Lord, surely a statement of a settling of accounts in favour of sincere repentance (fig. 22).24 That remorse is not easily arrived at or effaced, however, as the image across the opening makes clear. The relationship of text and image is particularly dynamic here, because the inscription for the marginal image on fol. 164r is a repeat of verse 5, which ran across the gutter from fols 163v to 164r, “my sin is ever before me” (fig. 21).25 In the image, positioned between psalm and catena columns, a standing figure of David gathers into the folds of his garment two smaller figures, children of Bathsheba, and the prophet and father gestures with his right hand at the psalm column to his right. The decision to repeat the verse and to bridge that inscription across the facing pages gives this image set, a climax to this mini-cycle for Ps 50, particular emphasis. Further thought had gone into the presentation of this climactic image, because underdrawing shows the original idea for the figure of David was quite different. Visible now because of flaking, the original figure of David was frontal and smaller, with only one child, a little Solomon. The sin of David appears like a state almost constantly about to be absolved in this presentation of his actions and their consequences. That always-almost state was not necessarily a critique of any single imperial figure, a man from Hebrew history or from Byzantine society of the eleventh century, nor was it an indication of sins only possible for powerful men. 24 25

DE WALD, p. 8. DE WALD, p. 22.

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Fig. 23 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 54r: Psalm 17 (detail).

Fig. 24 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 217r: Psalm 69 (detail).

Fols 54r (Ps 17) and 217r (Ps 69) both show Saul and David as emperors in familiar gear, and each hold the venerable (and here abbreviated) Trisagion standard of angels and blessed leaders (figs 23-24). The history of the two is clear on respective villainy and heroism, but each is given aspects of glory as leaders of God’s people, however flawed their leadership was. If Vat. gr. 752 were a ‘mirror of princes’, it is a very allusive, generalized reflection, and indeed the lessons are not easy to apprehend nor master. Rather, a salutary cycle of sin, repentance and remission is a recurrent theme of the manuscript’s illustration and catena that was initiated by the opening poem in the book. Indeed, the moral complexity of David was a concern of Byzantine Christians far more than his abilities as a king, which were never in serious doubt. His sexual incontinence and consequent lack of judgment were the main characteristics of his role as model, though never separated from the counter-balancing strength of his repentance and the humbling nature of its public expression.26 David can as easily have been directed as model to monastics as emperors, one can argue. Fol. 54r (Ps 17) shows, for example, David hiding in a cave, a motif that appears in many illustrations in the manuscript (fig. 23).27 The cave clearly signifies the monastic vocation at one point, at least, even if at others the cave’s meaning is not self-evident. On fol. 178v (Ps 56), David is shown in the bottom right-hand corner in prayer in a cave (fig. 25); the inscription reads, “David withdrawing from the world and 26 D. KRUEGER, The Old Testament and Monasticism, in The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington, DC 2010, pp. 199-222, p. 204. 27 For instance, fols 54r, 131v, 178v, 355r (4 yellow barbarians), 425v (David), 484r.

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Fig. 25 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 178v: Psalm 56 (detail).

praying”. Hesychius described David’s flight from Saul’s persecution in terms of anyone fleeing from the world and withdrawing to Fig. 26 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44v: Psalm 12 (detail). a monastic life of solitude.28 The meaning of the caved figure on fol. 44v (Ps 12) is not perfectly clear (fig. 26). De Wald calls him a kind of everyman, but at least he seems to be an unredeemed figure, since he is wearing the same robe as the upright figures in the lower register, who are, by all appearances, as happy at the day of resurrection as Adam and Eve before God above.29 The end of time is frequently called to mind for penitent reader(s), such as fols 27v28r (Ps 6) and fol. 42v (Ps 11) (figs 2729). And Judgment not less, like on fol. 104v, where David speaks the words of Hesychius before Christ “Because you are just, you are my judge” (fig. 30).30 And the wisdom of David’s (or Hesychius’s) admission is revealed on fol. 44r (Ps 12:2), at which Christ shows Fig. 27 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 27v: Psalm 6 and says his blessing and forgiveness of (detail). 28 On meanings of caves, see N. P. SHEVCHENKO, The Hermit as Stranger in the Desert, in Strangers to Themselves: The Byzantine Outsider, ed. by D. C. SMYTHE, Aldershot 2000, pp. 75-86. 29 DE WALD, pp. 11-12. 30 PG 27, col. 773D; DE WALD, p. 18.

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Fig. 28 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 28r: Psalm 6 (detail).

Fig. 30 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104v: Psalm 34 (detail).

Fig. 31 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44r: Psalm 12 (detail).

Fig. 29 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 42v: Psalm 11 (detail).

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the abject David (fig. 31).31 In each of these cases, humility leading to penitence ending in remission of sins constitutes the chain of salvation. Not only David, but other figures from Hebrew sacred history also express their sorrow before the Lord. The sons of Kore approach a church with tears and with the words of Hesychius on their lips once more (fol. 298r – Ps 94:1-2, fig. 32).32 The penitential approach of Hesychius is expressed strongly throughout the manuscript and by many of the figures, known and unknown. On the page opposite, a son of Kore addresses a stylite called Dositheos, fol. 297v (Ps 93:21, fig. 33).33 As Hesychius, the otherwise unknown Dositheos Stylite addresses the son about the dangers of demons and malignant beings attempting to turn the soul from proper veneration.34 Likewise, on fol. 298r (Ps 94:2), Sylvester speaks Hesychius on verse 5, “Just as the apostle himself said about the greatness of God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave Fig. 32 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 298r: Psalm 94 (detail, right-hand column). himself for us” (fig. 32).35 He leads the people toward the church on the right-hand side, but he stands on a lower groundline, and he approaches alone, hunched and abject toward the building ahead.36 31

DE WALD, p. 11. PG 27, col. 1057C; DE WALD, p. 31. 33 DE WALD, p. 31. 34 PG 27, col. 412CD. 35 PG 27, col. 1057C. 36 Fol. 65v, Ps 20, David takes place of Hezekiah in Theodoret as penitent; fol. 87r, Ps 28, David as penitent Hezekiah; fol. 68r, Ps 21, image an exegesis on catena dealing with Christ as dawn that illuminates; fol. 88v, David speaks Theodoret who is describing Hezekiah; fol. 128r, Ps 37:4, David speaks to Theodoret, with spy leading him to church as penitent. 32

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Fig. 33 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 297v: Psalm 93 (detail).

Critique of Imperial Ideology? Sylvester, Peter and 1054 The presence of Sylvester is highly unusual in Byzantine iconography, and it has been noted before and given ideological content.37 But one can certainly make a case that the visual connotations of Sylvester are determined on a basic level by the attitude and action of the saint, as much as his inclusion in this manuscript’s altogether strange collection of holy figures. Fol. 298r shows the bishop and saint as chief penitent and petitioner (fig. 32), while he accepts confession and penitence on other folios, like on fol. 51r, where the sons of Kore approach the bishop celebrating with censer and book, with witFig. 34 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r: Psalm 16 nessing icon of Virgin and Child above (detail, right-hand column). (Ps 16, fig. 34).38 Neither text connected with Sylvester nor image of him lends weight to an interpretation of the bishop as other than chief representative of his community of believers 37 For example, G. PEERS, Iconoclasm, Peter and the Use of Nature in the Smyrna Physiologus (Evangelical School B.8), in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 50 (2000), pp. 267-292. 38 DE WALD, pp. 13-14.

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seeking forgiveness through proper forms of address and receipt. The import of the scene above, with Arethas fielding questions from Heman and Jeduthun, two of David’s singers and co-authors of the Psalms, is difficult to know still. The two Psalmists are questioning the seated, clearly superior figure on behalf of David here, but the full meaning of the pairing of Fig. 35 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 148r: Psalm 44 (detail). these scenes is elusive. But again on fol. 148r (Ps 44:2), David with three followers comes to Sylvester (fig. 35); according to the inscription, Sylvester is the figure speaking, and he addresses David with a passage from Hesychius’s commentary on Ps 44:1, “my tongue is the pen of the ready writer”.39 Not that one should expect overt statements of ideological positions in manuscripts, ones that are clear and self-evident to us at least, and such statements in opposition to or arguing with Fig. 36 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 41r: Psalm 10 (detail). other positions circulating in that culture are notoriously difficult to identify with real precision. Like David as a paradigm for an emperor, Sylvester as paradigm for bishop is both obvious and banal, perhaps to the degree that that reading was simply overlooked. Peter, too, is a potential episcopal model with strong ties to one see and through that to primacy on earth.40 So the embrace of Christ and Peter before a ciborium and watching apostles, including Paul, could be read 39

PG 27, col. 825; DE WALD, p. 20. See K. MAXWELL, Between Constantinople and Rome: Paris Gr. 54 and the Union of Churches, Aldershot 2014, on representation of Peter and unionist politics in the later thirteenth century. Peter appears seven times in this uncompleted, bilingual gospel book; he is shown five times, as Maxwell points out, with some degree of negativity, such as scenes of his denial and remorse. The ambivalence of the saint is a difficult aspect of her argument: was he chosen as a pro-papal model or simply as a flawed exemplar of the saintly past? And the degree to which the interpretation inflects understanding of the manuscript’s meanings and contemporary audience is therefore unclear. 40

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as a statement of the Lord’s special regard for his rock in Rome (fol. 41r – Ps 10:2, fig. 36).41 One might expect something of that ideological reading to be picked up in the inscription, but it reads “for the demons do not cease shooting arrows invisibly at humanity”. Perhaps this statement is an oblique reference to pre-eminence of bishop over worldly authority, often embodied in this formulation as the emperor, but proving that assertion takes special pleading to make it so. Not that ideology can ever be absent. But it is not perfectly transparent to us now. I would like to suggest some possibilities for context, just the same, that I believe are more suggestive for plausible readings of the manuscript than have been offered so far. In the first place, the events of 1054 appear to have little explanatory power for these images. Not that the events did not continue to resonate, but their real resonance arrives later in the century, when those tensions became convenient for antagonisms to latch onto. The traces of that argument over respective powers, Rome and Constantinople, patriarch and emperor, can appear even incidental under certain light. Examining closely some clues does reveal context, and I would suggest Kurt Weitzmann’s explanation of Vat. gr. 752’s connection with Isaac Comnenus might have some value still.42 The year 1059 saw his abdication and the popular ratification of the patriarch Constantine III Leichoudes, and these figures’ involvement with events around the making of the manuscript could well have had a direct impact on this program of images and texts. Penance and forgiveness is easily imagined as a concern of an emperor with such a fall and retirement to Stoudios. A generalized ‘mirror of princes’ works perfectly well for the adversities and transgressions of such a figure. And the public intellectual and churchman, Constantine III Leichoudes, even in his short reign, set an agenda that resonates in the manuscript, for example penitence and orthodox behaviour stressed in the acts associated with that patriarch.43 Negative models are also provided in the illustrations that work to emphasize the laudatory qualities of figures like those pious scholars of the 41

DE WALD, pp. 10-11. K. WEITZMANN, An Imperial Lectionary in the Monastery of Dionysiu on Mount Athos: Its Origins and its Wanderings, in ID., Byzantine Liturgical Psalters and Gospels, London 1980, pp. 247-248. And see S. KUJUMDÀIEVA, Asomen to kyrio: The Miniature Depicting the Song of Moses in Manuscript Vat. gr. 752, in Music in Art 26.1-2 (2001), pp. 92-106, at p. 102, who also connects the manuscript to Constantine X Doukas. Counter-arguments in J. COTSONIS, On Some Illustrations in the Lectionary, Athos, Dionysiou 587, in Byzantion 59 (1989), pp. 5-19. 43 Les regestes des actes du Patriarcat de Constantinople, ed. by V. GRUMEL – V. LAURENT – J. DARROUZÈS, 2 vols in 8 pts, Paris 1932-1979, I.3, pp. 17-19, nos 887-890. 42

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past, Symmachus and Aquila, as well as Constantine and Isaac perhaps. In appearance, the negative exemplars are difficult to differentiate. On fol. 230v, the illustration to Ps 73:2 shows three men approaching a closed building; each extends his hands, which are covered by their cloaks (fig. 37). To this point, nothing distinguishes the quality of their actions, but the inscription makes clear that we are seeing three heretics, “The heretics are saying, ‘Right from the beginning you were called Fig. 37 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 230v: Psalm 73 (detail). our God, and we were styled your people’”. The three men then are completing Theodoret’s thoughts on verse 2 of the Psalm, which run, “Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago”. But the first verse asks why God rejected his own sheep. Theodoret turned his interpretation to the “ineffable goodness of the Lord”, who foretold the disobedience of his people and tried to turn them from their evil.44 The illustration reveals the difficulty of showing evil and good intent; the men appear pious and act appropriately, and the irony of speaking Theodoret’s generous and forgiving words demands a certain level of interpretative skill to discern the double, and ultimately positive, meaning here. At fol. 236v, the illustrator substituted the sons of Kore for Asaph, who is normally given credit for Ps 75 (fig. 38). The inscription states that the psalm is directed at the Syrians.45 On verse Fig. 38 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 236v: Psalm 75 (detail). 44

PG 80, col. 1456A; Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 2, transl. HILL, pp. 10-11; DE WALD,

p. 27. 45

PG 80, col. 1473A; Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 2, transl. HILL, p. 22; DE WALD,

p. 27.

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3, Theodoret again spoke of the power of the Lord and the punishment visited by him on his people’s enemies, but once again he stressed a positive reading, which comes from the previous verse, “And his place was in peace, and his place of settlement was in Sion. There he crushed the power of the bows, shield and sword and war”. In the illumination, two sons of Kore approach from the left-hand side and address three soldiers, two of whom with shields, while a small figure looks ready to turn and run. The sons of Kore speak directly to the Syrians here, “The sons of Kore are saying to the Syrians, ‘at the destruction of the multitude, the survivors took to their heels, becoming messengers of the divine power; this was the reason they were not exterminated along with the others. The city enjoyed peace on that account, and everyone formed the impression that God in real fact was placed to dwell in Sion’”. In bold is the portion inscribed within the image, while the rest is Theodoret’s commentary that completes the selection in the manuscript itself. The text makes clear that the running boy in the bottom right-hand corner is an about-to-be messenger of the Lord, while the sons of Kore, and not Asaph, are the deliverers here of the message of peace. That last reading demands taking the exclusive meaning of the commentary, the one provided here, over the full text. And unlike fol. 186v above (fig. 2), this page does not show destruction, but the sparing of lives and the peace of the Lord. The Syrians are frequent characters in these illuminations, and their king appears in a very unusual scene on fol. 269v that illustrates part of Ps 85:2 (fig. 39). The inscription reads, “King David says to the Assyrians, ‘as God saved me your servant, so I hope that you save me’”.46 Again, Theodoret wrote on the title that David had brought his prayer to Jerusalem, foretold the attack of the Assyrians, as well as the hope of Hezekiah, and here David approaches Christ as a mediator between the Lord and the king of Assyrians. In the inscription, David speaks Hesychius on verse 2.47 The inscription implies that another speech act is taking place, that David and the king are speaking, but the ilFig. 39 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 269v: Psalm 85 (detail). lustration shows the intervention, 46

PG 80, col. 1553B; Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. 2, transl. HILL, p. 72; DE WALD,

p. 29. 47

PG 27, col. 1013.

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one presumes, after David has promised the same salvation that he and his people had already received. Also noteworthy is the object of this Psalm, that is, to ask for God’s help, and for David to prophesy, among other things, the attacks by these same Assyrians.48 In this instance, I would raise the possibility of connecting these images with Constantine’s persecution of the non-Chalcedonian churches, Syrian and Armenian.49 The remarkable role the Assyrians play is one feature needing explanation here, and the role of antagonism to God’s people permits Assyrians also to be forgiven and connected to God’s salvation of humanity. Despite Constantine’s persecution, which included the burning of books, the manuscript can be interpreted as providing a basis for ecumenical outreach through recognition of sin and proper forms of forgiveness. Any anti-Latin content has yet to be proven. And the connection with Isaac, Constantine III and Constantine X still needs to be specified; that connection could, in my opinion, go either way, for or against, while remaining within their intellectual and devotional orbits. Conclusion Such concerns beg consideration over how we are to try to give context to this monument. Is a program of this scale explicable by a single context, in fact? Would the context be more easily apparent to the original or subsequent audiences? How successful was the communication of the ideas here? Maybe it was experimental to the degree that it was not much more efficient in communicating for them than it is for us. I would like to think the kind of work we are doing in this volume is similar to operations performed by the medieval audiences for the manuscript, its first audience and subsequent ones. We are struggling for meaning, we are examining carefully, thinking hard, always coming up short. For us, that is an intellectual shortfall; we don’t have a salvific investment in the manuscript. For those other audiences, the engagement had much higher stakes, and it demanded of them similar processes with different, more life-and-death goals. But the provisional quality of the engagement and solution to the manuscript’s meaning(s) was necessary. Like David, our sins are always before us, and we have no guarantee that the recognition of them and our attempts at absolving them are ever successful; not until the final moments of time, that is, and yet the manuscript reveals strategies and resolutions that are favorable before God. Process — ethical, doctrinal, liturgical, textual — is all we have. 48 49

Fol. 48v (end of Ps 14), DE WALD, p. 13. Les regestes des actes du Patriarcat de Constantinople, p. 889, nos. 891-892.

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MAKE MUSIC WITH UNDERSTANDING: MUSIC, MUSICIANS AND CHORISTERS IN THE MINIATURES OF VAT. GR. 752 As poetic texts, Psalms lend themselves to more creative interpretation and illustration than narrative books of the Bible. Byzantine miniaturists often explored that potential and were skilful at devising illustrative programmes that re-cast Psalms into a vivid commentary on their contemporary times. The most famous example of such visual interpretation are the Byzantine Psalters with marginal illustrations, but scholars have also seen similar current political commentary underlying the miniatures of Vat. gr. 752.1 In what follows, I do not offer arguments against such interpretations but rather suggest another, parallel or supplementary reading for at least some of the images that, like Psalms themselves, are open to more than one interpretation.2 That images in Vat. gr. 752 were designed as a commentary is clear from their placement within the column of catenae rather than the column of text. Such location is striking, particularly when we bear in mind that in other near contemporary biblical codices that contain both illustrations and catenae, for example the Byzantine illustrated Octateuchs, miniatures are mostly placed within the columns of text, not within the commentary.3 In Vat. gr. 752, the link between the miniatures and the catenae is further emphasized through the fact that in most cases the inscriptions in the miniatures derive from the catenae.4 Far from simply illustrating the 1 The way in which iconophiles exploited this freedom to express their own ideological position on the marginal illustration of Psalms, first discussed by J. J. TIKKANEN, Die Psalterillustration im Mittelalter, Helsingfors, 1895-1900, 78ff, was explored at length by K. CORRIGAN, Visual Polemics in Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters, Cambridge 1992 See also F. DE’ MAFFEI, Il Salterio Khludov e l’iconoclastia, in Bisanzio e l’ideologia delle immagini, ed. by C. BARSANTI – A. GUIGLIA – A. IACOBINI – A. PARIBENI – M. DELLA VALLE, Naples 2011, pp. 191-228. For the interpretation of Vat. gr. 752 see KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor. 2 The polyvalence of the miniatures in Psalters with marginal illustrations and their liturgical significance has been emphasized by M. EVANGELATOU, Liturgy and the Illustration of the Ninth-Century Marginal Psalters, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2009), pp. 59-116. 3 J. LOWDEN, The Octateuchs: a Study in Byzantine Manuscript Illustration, University Park 1992, pp. 23-45. 4 DE WALD, pp. XII-XIV, KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 197.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 467-491.

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commentary, the images take cues from the catenae to provide a visual interpretation of Psalms to which they are attached.5 Placed at the end of the preface in Vat. gr. 752, the dedicatory poem indicates the importance of images and the book itself makes the following statement: I, the Davidic book of Odes having been created, bring most excellent fame to the writer, God-written grace to the owner, a glorified heart to those who understand and to those who perceive most divine thoughts while singing the Psalm, the celebration of the spirit. But David melodiously stirring his lyre made the demon torturing Saul escape.6

The poem refers not only to words and image, but also to music and to its significance in the context of Psalms. It is this last aspect, the music and the musicians of David as represented in the miniatures of Vat. gr. 752 that I would like to consider here.7 References to singing and music making are scattered through Psalms.8 Many Psalms contain ι αλμα, a musical pause or interlude,9 which must 5 The unusual character of the miniature cycle of this manuscript is often stressed by scholars. See, for example, J. LOWDEN, Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters, in The Art Bulletin 70.2 (1988), pp. 242-260, esp. p. 247. 6 Translation after DE WALD, p. XII cited in KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor. See also in this volume the article by ACCONCIA LONGO, pp. 176-177. 7 It is important to clarify that the manuscript Vat. gr. 752 did not serve for musical rendition of Psalms, public or private. Although Psalms were a significant element of communal worship, very few of the medieval Psalters now preserved appear to have been read in church. Most of the preserved Byzantine codices were copied for personal use. In the case of Vat. gr. 752, the presence of the extensive catena suggests that this Psalter was created for reading aimed at comprehending the theological meaning of the Psalms rather than for the purpose of devotional recitation. Naturally, these two functions are not mutually exclusive. For an in-depth discussion see G. K. PARPULOV, Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium, in The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington, DC 2010, pp. 77-106, p. 82; and PARPULOV, Toward a History, Appendix B.I for Byzantine Psalters used in liturgy. Conversely, for liturgy and music as represented in Byzantine Psalters, see A. CUTLER, Liturgical Strata in the Marginal Psalters, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 34/35 (1980/1981), pp. 17-30; EVANGELATOU, Liturgy and the Illustration. 8 Pss 12:4; 20:14; 21:22; 26:6; 32:3; 56:8-10; 58:17-18; 65:1-4; 67:5; 67:33; 70:8; 88:2; 95:1-2; 97:1; 97:4-6; 100:1-2; 103:33; 104:2; 107:2-4; 136:3; 137:5; 143:9; 149:1-3, and Ps 150, which describes praising God through instrumental music. Ps 151:2 mentions harp playing and references to musical instruments appear in 15 Psalms – harp: Pss 32:2; 48:5; 56:9; 80:3; 107:3; 149:3; 150:3; 151:2; ten-stringed harp 91:4; 143:9; lyre: 32:2; 42:4; 56:9; 70:22; 80:3; 91:4; 97:5; 107:3; 146:7; 150:3; trumpet: 46:6; 80:4; 150:3; metal trumpets 97:6; horn trumpet 97:6; drum 80:3; 149:3; 150:3; cymbals 150:5. See also J. BRAUN, Biblical Instruments, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by S. SADIE, London 2001, vol. 3, pp. 524-535. 9 ι λ appears in 42 Psalms: 2; 3; 4; 7; 9; 19; 20; 23; 31; 33; 38; 43; 45; 46; 48; 49; 51; 53; 54; 56; 58; 59; 60; 61; 65; 66; 67; 74; 75; 76; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84; 86; 87; 88; 93; 139; 142.

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have suggested to the Byzantine faithful that Psalms were originally intended to be sung with musical accompaniment. This set of references leads to a heuristically useful conundrum, as the Byzantine attitude to music is far from straightforward. The Church Fathers, especially those of early centuries, were vociferously against musical activities.10 Instrumental music in particular was harshly condemned, and Church disapproval was strengthened by strict ecclesiastical legislation: in the fourth century, aulos and kithara players were denied baptism unless they renounced their trade and a cantor who learned to play kithara was punished by excommunication.11 The persistent ecclesial condemnation of music into later periods suggests that Byzantines never took heed of these admonitions and continued to participate in musical activities.12 Byzantine authors’ negative attitude to music was nevertheless selective: the instruments of state ceremonial were not attacked,13 and Psalmody was often seen as an antidote for harmful elements of non-Christian musical culture.14 Still, some monastic fathers disapproved even of Psalm singing,15 and where music was allowed, regulations were in place to ensure that it was suitable for church and that it remained subservient to prayer.16 For all their reserva10 For an extensive discussion of sources, see J. MCKINNON, Music in Early Christian Literature, Cambridge 1987; F. DE’ MAFFEI, Gli strumenti musicali a Bisanzio, in Da Bisanzio a San Marco. Musica e Liturgia, ed. by G. CATTIN, Venice 1997, pp. 61-110, esp. 86-88. 11 JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Homiliae in Psalmos, PG 55, col. 389; Constitutiones Apostolorum 8,2,9; EPIPHANIOS OF SALAMIS, Panarium, PG 42, col. 832A. 12 According to text On Confession attributed to Patriarch of Constantinople John IV Nesteutes (582-595), but most likely written only at the end of the tenth century, a confessor should ask the penitent “about dancing and singing (…) about flutes and every type of musical instruments”, quoted after G. GALAVARIS, Musical Images in Byzantine Art, in Lithostrôton: Studien zur byzantinischen Kunst und Geschichte: Festschrift für Marcell Restle, Stuttgart 2000, pp. 79-91, p. 86; DE’ MAFFEI, Gli strumenti musicali, pp. 62-63. 13 Maffei, Gli strumenti musicali, p. 69; CONSTANTIN VII PORPHYROGÉNÈTE, Le livre des cérémonies, ed. and trans. A. VOGT, Paris 1935, vol. 1:29-45, 56; vol. 2:3-15, 24-25, 29-30, 7073, 88-93, 103-4, 121- 36, 149-59, 167-69, 173, and 179-80. 14 MCKINNON, Music in Early Christian Literature, pp. 18-27; J. RAASTED, Byzantine Liturgical Music and Its Meaning for the Byzantine Worshipper, in Church and People in Byzantium, ed. by R. MORRIS, Birmingham 1986, pp. 53-54. John Chrysostom contrasted the “satanic songs” of the theater with the “spiritual Psalms” of Christian gatherings, which summoned the Holy Spirit. See JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, In Matthaeum Homiliae 32.8, PG 57, col. 388. 15 PARPULOV, Psalters and Personal Piety, p. 84. On musical performance of the Psalms in the Byzantine liturgy: C. TROELSGÅRD, Psalm: III. Byzantine Psalmody, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. SADIE, 2nd edn, 29 vols, New York 2000-2001, 20: pp. 463-466. 16 Canon 75 of the Council in Trullo (692) states: “We will that those whose office it is to sing in the churches do not use undisciplined vociferations, nor force nature to shouting, nor adopt any of those modes which are incongruous and unsuitable for the church: but that they offer the Psalmody to God, who is the observer of secrets, with great attention and compunc-

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tions, Church Fathers were clearly aware of the potency of music. Indeed the roots of distinctly Constantinopolitan psalmodic forms can be traced to the archiepiscopacy of John Chrysostom, the most vociferous critic of secular music, who countered Arian musical propaganda with psalmodic processions featuring doctrinally orthodox refrains.17 Basil of Caesarea writes that in Psalms, the Holy Spirit mingled teaching with melody, so that “by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard we might receive without perceiving the benefit of the words, just as wise physicians who, when giving the fastidious rather bitter drugs to drink, frequently smear cup with honey”.18 Likewise, John Chrysostom speaks of the providential work of the Holy Spirit in “mixing melody with prophecy” in the Psalms “nothing so arouses the soul, gives it wing, sets it free from the earth, releases it from the prison of the body, teaches it to love wisdom, as concordant melody and sacred song composed in rhythm”.19 In the eleventh century, Gregory Pakourianos describes singing of Psalms as effective in summoning heavenly help,20 and several foundation documents comment on the power of Psalm singing to keep the mind focused on spiritual matters and away from more dangerous thoughts.21 According to a belief that Byzantines inherited from ancient science and philosophy, music possessed ethical properties related to the mathematical tion”. Trans. in H. R. PERCEVAL, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, ed. by E. P. SCHAFF – H. WACE, vol. 14: The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Peabody, Mass. 1994, p. 398. Professional singers were barred at least from some monasteries, for example at the convent of Lips, “chanters (psaltai) who are called kalliphonoi” were not to attend feasts; R. DUBOWCHIK, Singing with the Angels: Foundation Documents as Evidence for Musical Life in Monasteries of the Byzantine Empire, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 56 (2002), pp. 277-296, esp. pp. 288-289. 17 MCKINNON, Music in Early Christian Literature, pp. 101-104; ALEXANDER LINGAS, Music, in The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, ed. by E. JEFFREYS – J. F. HALDON – R. CORMACK, Oxford 2008, pp. 915-938, esp. p. 918. 18 BASIL, Homiliae in Psalmos, PG 29, col. 212 B; B. DALEY, Finding the Right Key: the Aims and Strategies of Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms, in Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions, ed. by H. W. ATTRIDGE – M. E. FASSLER, Leiden 2004, pp. 189-205, esp. 196-199. See also J. DYER, The Singing of Psalms in the Early Medieval Office, in Speculum 64 (1989), pp. 535-578, esp. pp. 535-539. 19 JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Homiliae in Psalmos, PG 55, col. 157; DALEY, Finding the Right Key, p. 196. 20 DUBOWCHIK, Singing with the Angels, p. 282. 21 DUBOWCHIK, Singing with the Angels, p. 282, and B. SCHARTAU, On Collecting ‘Testimonia’ of Byzantine Musical Practice, in Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Âge grec et latin 57 (1988), pp. 159-66. Throughout the Byzantine period positive musical metaphors are sprinkled throughout the writings of the Church Fathers: MCKINNON, Music in Early Christian Literature, pp. 6-7, 25-53; M. LEIWO – R. PEKKA PENNANEN, Byzantine Secular Music – Fact or Fiction?, in Byzantium and the North, Acta Byzantina Fennica 7 (1995-1996), pp. 37-51; A. CARILE, Le cerimonie musicali alla corte bizantina, in Da Bisanzio a San Marco, pp. 43-60.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 2r.

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proportions that governed tunings, and that underpinned the harmony of the microcosm of the individual human being as well as the macrocosm of astronomy.22 Gregory of Nyssa in his treatise On the Titles of Psalms elaborates this point comparing the “music” produced by the order of the whole cosmos with the inner harmony of the well-ordered human person “the philosophy that comes through melody”.23 An anonymous work entitled The Symbolic Garden, tentatively dated to the eleventh century, likens the virtues of Christian souls to plants growing in an ideal garden of the spirit, which, when moved by breeze, that is by divine inspiration, produce a melodious sound.24 The beneficial potential of music is pictured already at the very beginning of Vat. gr. 752. An image on fol. 2r (fig. 1), shows David playing a small harp identified by an inscription as a κι ρα, and making demon that troubled Saul flee, an event described in 1 Kings 16:23, and referred to in the dedicatory poem.25 The demonic possession in Saul’s story was often interpreted as depression and vice-versa, a depression was often seen as a form of a demonic possession, although the latter interpretation was sometimes contested.26 Moreover, of all the scriptural books, the Psalter was considered the most powerful weapon against demons.27 Byzantine 22 GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 86. A number of anonymous epigrams of the twelfth century attest to connection between modes of Byzantine music and virtues. E. MOUTSOPOULOS, Modal “Ethos” in Byzantine Music. Ethical Tradition and Aesthetical Problematic, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 32/7 (1982), 3-6. C. TROELSGÅRD, Ancient Musical Theory in Byzantine Environments, in Cahiers de l’Institute du Moyen-Âge grec et latin 56 (1988), pp. 228-238. THOMAS J. MATHIENSEN, Aristides Quintilianus and the “Harmonics” of Manuel Bryennius: a Study in Byzantine Music Theory, in Journal of Music Theory 27.1 (Spring, 1983), pp. 31-47; G. ILNITCHI, Musica Mundana, Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and Ptolemaic Astronomy, in Early Music History 21 (2002), pp. 37-74. 23 GREGORY OF NYSSA, In Inscriptiones Psalmorum 1,3,1; DALEY, Finding the Right Key, p. 202. 24 The author finishes the description by mentioning David who harmonizes “every musical symphony”. See M. H. THOMSON, The Symbolic Garden: Reflections Drawn from a Garden of Virtues. A XIIth Century Greek Manuscript, North York, Ont. 1989, pp. 36-37 and 97-99; GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 86. 25 David is accompanied by an inscription υ ελ ν τ ν ιν ρ ν. 26 For late-antique interpretations of acedia as the “noonday demon” of Ps 90:6, see N. H. BAYNES, St Antony and the Demons, in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 40 (Dec., 1954), pp. 7-10, esp. p. 8; A. SOLOMON, The Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression, London 2001, pp. 45-56. On the other hand John Chrysostom distinguishes between demonic possession and ‘endogenous’ depression (athymia): JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Ad Stagirium a daemone vexatum, II, 1, PG 47, cols 447-448. 27 JOHN MOSCHOS, Pratum Spirituale, PG 87, col. 3020. In his account of the famed monk’s physical and spiritual struggles, Athanasius described how Antony so perfected the use of the Psalter that the demons wailed and cried out as though severely weakened whenever he would chant Psalms. Athanasius, Vita Antonii, ed. G. J. M. BARTELINK (Sources chrétiennes,

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belief in the power of music to restore harmony of the soul and mind is illustrated by the story of Justinian II who, in the last years of his life, had music played constantly to him, to calm his madness.28 The music of Psalms in the original context of their singing by the choirs of David and in the context of Christian worship is very much the focus of three commentaries that follow the Paschal tables in Vat. gr. 752 and precede the Psalter itself.29 The first, often attributed to John Chrysostom, but in reality a passage of the Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes, and the third, an excerpt from Athanasius’s Letter to Marcellinus, appear very often in prefatory material in Byzantine Psalters.30 Sandwiched between them is a text identified by its title as an explanatory preface to Psalms of Josephus and Theodoret (μ θο ος σήπου κα θεο ρήτου).31 Attributed by scholars to Theodoret of Cyrrhus, it is a compilation of several texts, including passages from Athanasius’s Letter.32 Whilst they differ in focus, all three prefaces consider the significance of music, and the first two texts discuss at some length the story and the function of the musicians of David. In the preface by Kosmas, we read that David, who followed as a leader of Israel after Moses, Joshua, Judges and Saul, was the sole author of the hundred and fifty Psalms, which he chanted with his choirs, to the accompaniment of different instruments. David played kithara (κιθ ρα), an instrument also played by one of his choirs, whilst other choirs played cymbals (κ μβαλα), flutes (α λο ), tambourins 400), 39.6, p. 242. P. R. KOLBET, Athanasius, the Psalms, and the Reformation of the Self, in The Harvard Theological Review 99.1 (2006), pp. 85-101, esp. p. 99; However, Athanasius also warns that those who change the words of Psalms do not benefit from the divine presence in them, and “expose themselves to being mocked by demons” (ATHANASIUS, Epistola ad Marcellinum 33, PG 27, col. 45a). 28 IOHANNIS EPHESINI, Historiae ecclesiasticae pars tertia, ed. F. W. BROOKS, Corpus scriptorum Christianorum orientalium, ser. 3, 3 (no. 105) Paris 1935 text and ser. 3, 3 Leuven, 1936 (no. 106) versio, pp. 67-69. 29 See also D’AIUTO, p. 103 n. 106 in this volume. 30 Attribution to Pseudo-Chrysostom, see DE WALD, p. XI. Correct identification, see R. DEVREESSE, Codices Vaticani Graeci, vol. 3, Codices 604-866, Città del Vaticano 1950, p. 266. In reality, this is excerpt from Book V:116 of the Christian Topography, see KOSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, Topographie Chrétienne, ed. and trans. by Wanda Wolska-Conus, 2 vols, Paris 1970 (Sources chrétiennes, 159), 2: pp. 174-182. For the list of Byzantine Psalters quoting Book V of the Christian Topography see WOLSKA-CONUS in Topographie Chrétienne, 1: pp. 112115, CPG 2097. The other preface, ATHANASIUS, Epistola ad Marcellinum, PG 27, in ATHANASIUS, The Life of Antony and The Letter to Marcellinus, trans. by R. C. GREGG, New York 1980, pp. 101-129. For the list of the psalter manuscripts quoting Athanasius’s Epistle see R. SINKEWICZ, Manuscript Listings for the Authors of the Patristic and Byzantine Periods, Toronto 1992, microform DTMPTR001: I18-K18. 31 Fols 5r-11v. 32 θο ος εο ρήτου, PG 84, cols 20-32.

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(τ μπα α), trumpets (σ λπιγγες) and psalteries ( αλτήρια). One choir consisted of singers called βουκαλιοι.33 We also read that David sang and danced before the Ark, for which he was reproached by his wife Michal, an event depicted in the miniature in Vat. gr. 752 (fig. 2).34 Kosmas explains that diapsalma, which occurs in some Psalms, is a pause during which singing of the Psalm changed from one choir to another. After clarifying that these were the choirs of minor prophets, that is, those who attached themselves to prophets and who were also called the sons of the prophets, he lists the following choirs: that of Asaph, Jeduthun, the sons of Kore, Aithan the Israelite, and Moses the man of God, Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4v (detail, upper). each playing different instruments.35 The text lists only five names, but six choirs appear in the illustration of the Christian Topography, which shows David enthroned between the choirs, represented in a curious form of circles, with radially placed figures (fig. 3).36 In addition to the five choirs listed in the text, a second choir of the sons of Kore is represented. One of the choirs mentioned in the titles of Psalms, the choir of Haiman, is left out from Kosmas’s text and from the illustration.37 In Vat. gr. 752, several representations of David and his musicians ac33

Christian Topography, V:116, ed. WOLSKA-CONUS, Topographie Chrétienne, pp. 174-175. Fol. 4v; Christian Topography, V:118, ed. WOLSKA-CONUS, Topographie Chrétienne, pp. 176-177; II Sam 6:21. 35 Christian Topography V:117, ed. WOLSKA-CONUS, Topographie Chrétienne, pp. 174-177. 36 The miniature is preserved only in the ninth-century Vat. gr. 699, fol. 63v; the two eleventh-century codices, Sin. gr. 1186 and Laur. Plut. IX.28 present a lacuna at this point. See M. KOMINKO, The World of Kosmas. Illustrated Byzantine Codices of Christian Topography, Cambridge 2013, pp. 157-161. 37 The choir of Haiman the Israelite is mentioned in the title of Ps 87. See below for the discussion of the choirs designated in the Psalm titles. 34

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 699, fol. 63v.

company the quotation from Kosmas’s work. After the first miniature, which shows Moses writing the Law and illustrates the Mosaic succession of David discussed in the text, a larger illustration on the same page shows David, flanked by two dancers in long-sleeved robes and by two groups of men (fig. 4). The group to the left is led by a musician who holds a small percussion instrument. The image is oddly-shaped, and the gold-covered rectangle sprouting from the upper left-hand corner of this composition was either left unfinished or, more likely, was used to cover an alreadybegun representation that needed to be altered or be left out altogether.38 38 Fol. 3r. Not the only such case in the manuscript, for the repainting in the miniature on fol. 164 see KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 203-204. This

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 3r (detail, middle).

Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4r (detail).

Below, on the same page, a narrow representation in-between the columns of the text shows Asaph and Jeduthum, represented as old men, wearing long flowing robes and standing behind an architectural structure, which has been tentatively identified as the ark of the covenant.39 Kosmas’s text does not give a basis for a separate representation of these two musicians, and the situation becomes even more curious when we look at the next miniature, on fol. 4r (fig. 5). It shows Asaph, identified as a prophet and writing at a pulpit: one might indeed suspect him of writing his portion of Psalter, much against Kosmas’s insistence that

space contains a caption that De Wald has partially read, DE WALD, p. 4, but it is highly unlikely that this awkward space was made for the caption in the first place. 39 DE WALD, p. 4.

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Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 5r (detail).

David was the sole author of the Psalms. Finally, the last miniature accompanying this text, on fol. 5r, represents David enthroned, playing the viol in a circle of musicians (fig. 6).40 Seven of them hold instruments, while the eighth appears to be dancing. The inscriptions that originally identified the figures are now illegible, and — even more so because the paint has flaked in places — the specific musical instruments are difficult to identify. This miniature concludes the quotation from the Christian Topography and serves as a headpiece to the second prologue.

Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7r (detail).

40 The illustration seems to be paired with one on the facing page, fol. 4v, which shows David enthroned between two groups of men. The commentary concludes with a phrase introducing representation “of David sitting among his choirs to the left and to the right” ( ι ρ ο εν ο ν τ ντ ν υ ε ό ενον το ορο προ εν το ε ι ρι τερ ), which refers in the Christian Topography to the miniature showing the six choirs, already described above.

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In the second text, the music and the choirs of David are discussed in the context of the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem — an event represented in the miniature (fig. 7).41 Unlike Kosmas, this text identifies only four outstanding singers that David chose from among the Levites: Asaph, Haiman, Aithan and Jeduthun. Together with two hundred and eighty-eight men, they praise the Lord with songs and instruments, kinuras, flutes (?), tambourines, cymbals, psalteries and horns ( ργ οις ρμοσμ οις κα α ς, κα κι ραις, κα α λαις κα τυμπ οις κα κυ β λοις κα αλτηρ , κα κερατ ).42 The text explains that diapsalma, a pause that could indicate a change of the singer, in the case of Psalms was also made so that David could understand and transmit the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.43 Finally, the text discusses the various interpretations of Psalms in diverse biblical versions: Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion. The preface is accompanied by several illustrations, but only four pertain to David’s music and musicians. At the top of fol. 7v, a narrow miniature placed between the two columns of the text shows Asaph setting crowns on the heads of two royal persons, for which representation this preface provides no basis.44 Below, a larger miniature shows David and the choirs singing and dancing before the Ark in the sanctuary (fig. 8). The choirs are separated into four groups, in agreement with the accompanying text. Finally, two miniatures on the facing page, fol. 8r, show David among the prophets45 and David dancing Fig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7v (detail, lower). 41 42 43

Fol. 7r.

θο ος εο θο ος εο

ρήτου, PG 84, col. 23. ρήτου, PG 84, cols 27-30. This motif appears also in Gregory of Nyssa’s

commentary to the titles of the Psalms, GREGORY OF NYSSA, In Inscriptiones Psalmorum 5,109,14. 44 The inscription in the miniature reads only: προ τ . 45 Inscription is not very legible, but it has been tentatively reconstructed as: (υ )

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(fig. 9). In both images, he is holding a psaltery, an instrument mentioned in the accompanying text and different from the bowed instrument he holds in preceding illustration.46 The third part of the preface, an excerpt from the Letter of Athanasios to Marcellinus, focuses on unique character of Psalms that are not only historical and refer to the stories described in other biblical books, but also prophetic, predicting things to come. The Psalms can also be expression of personal devotion.47 The music is not a mere embellishment, but a positive factor. In a passage, omitted in the abbreviated version of Vat. gr. 752, filled with philosophical and musical terminology, Athanasius assumes that the Psalms will in fact be sung “with melodies and strains” (μετ μ λους κα ς) that he believes to be an expression of the har-

ετ

479

Fig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 8r (detail).

( ) ( τ) ρ ν προ τ ν: DE WALD, p. 6. Byzantine Church Fathers often described David as playing diverse instruments. For example, Gregory of Nazianzus, refers to the power of David’s kinura and describes his lyre as overcoming the Evil Spirit with its enchantment (katepadousa): Gregory of Nazianzus, Funebris oratio in laudem Basilii Magni Caesareae in Cappadocia episcopi, ed. F. BOULENGER, Paris 1908, 73.2.7 p. 216 (πρ τ ιλε τ ιν ρ ν ι , πον ρο πνε το τεπ ου ). See also J. C. FRANKLIN, Sweet Psalmist of Israel: the Kinnôr and Royal Ideology in the United Monarchy, in Strings and Threads. A Celebration of the Work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, ed. by W. HEIMPEL – G. FRANZ-SZABO, Winona Lake 2011, pp. 99-114, esp. pp. 7-9 argues that kinur was of particular prophetic importance. 47 ATHANASIUS, Epistola ad Marcellinum, PG 27, cols 12-46. 46

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Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18v (detail).

mony of soul and body.48 Although this passage does not appear in the codex, it seems likely that the abbreviated text alluded to the known contents of the letter as a whole. The prefatory material concludes with illustrations of the life of Christ. On a following page, fol. 18v, a miniature serving as a frontispiece to the Psalter itself shows David among the leaders of his choirs (fig. 10). Only three are identified by inscriptions: Asaph and Haiman, holding books, and Jeduthun playing the trumpet. The man standing behind Asaph and holding a spear, and the two musicians below, a flutist and a harpist, are not identified by inscriptions, but the fact that they are six altogether suggests that each of them stands for one of the choirs. An architectural arch frames the scene, with Christ enthroned in the center, the Maries at the tomb on the left-hand side and the Resurrection of Lazarus on the right.49 48 ATHANASIUS, Epistola ad Marcellinum, PG 27, col. 41; KOLBET, Athanasius, the Psalms, pp. 89, 95 and 98-100; DALEY, Finding the Right Key, pp. 199-200. 49 DE WALD, pp. 7-8.

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Fig. 11 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449v: Psalm 151.

The leaders of the choirs of David appear not only in the prefatory pages and on the opening miniature of the Psalter, but also in one that concludes the Psalter and serves as the illustration to the Canticles that follow (fig. 11). Placed between the end of the Psalms (fol. 449r) and the beginning of Odes (fol. 450r), the image illustrates the first Ode, the canticle of Moses (Ex 15:1-20), but also refers back to the list of instruments in Ps 150 and, through the musicians of David, to Psalms generally. It shows the Israelite women dancing in a circle, their figures displayed radially, in the

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way reminiscent of representation of the choirs of David in the miniature of the Christian Topography mentioned above.50 The presence of Miriam and her dancers, described in Exodus directly after the Ode of Moses (Ex 15:20), is further justified by the title of the canticle, as it appears on fol. 450r ὴ μ σε ς κα μαρ ας τ ς ελφ ς α το τ . The words that Miriam speaks according to Exodus, σ με τ κυρ , are repeated regularly between each part of the inscription from Ode, quoting verses 2, 3, 4 and 5, a repetition that gives the effect of an antiphon.51 The circle encloses eight musicians, accompanied by a paraphrase from the preface by Kosmas as prophets, playing diverse instruments, dancing and singing to glorify God (ο τοι ο ορο τ π υτ προφητ ε σ ιαφ ροις ργ οις ο τες κα λλο τες κα ρ ο με οι ε ς α θεο ).52 The figure with a drum accompanied by an inscription ο ιο το κορ ; the figure with a flute as ; the figure with a bowed instrument (a viol or a rebec) as ιθο μ and the musician holding a larger harp is accompanied by an inscription θ μ το σραηλ του. The figure with cymbals is εμ , that is, the leader of the choir omitted in Kosmas’ discussion (Haiman). The two figures, one with a tuba, the other with a small harp are identified as ο ο ρ οι.53 Finally, the musician holding what may possibly be a drum is identified as βουκ λιος, a term also deriving from the passage of the Christian Topography. The number of eight musicians coincides with the number of eight figures included in each of the six choirs in the miniature in the Christian Topography, but it is difficult to say if this is incidental. An inscription at the top of the miniature in Vat. gr. 752 identifies these figures as ο οκτ οι ο μελ τες μετ το αυ , referring to the eight modes of Byzantine church 50 The fourteen dancing women have been interpreted as symbolizing the fourteen Odes. T. STEPPAN, Tanzdarstellungen der mittel und spätbyzantinischen Kunst, in Cahiers archéologiques 45 (1997), pp. 141-168; S. KUJUMDÀIEVA, Asomen to kyrio: The Miniature Depicting the Song of Moses in Manuscript Vat. gr. 752, in Music in Art 26.1-2 (2001), pp. 92-106. 51 DE WALD, p. 41. 52 KOSMAS INDIKOPLEUSTES, Christian Topography, V:116, ed. WOLSKA-CONUS, Topographie Chrétienne, pp. 174-175. 53 In identifying these instruments I follow DE WALD, p. 41 and KUJUMDÀIEVA, Asomen, p. 94. GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 80 identifies Jeduthun’s instrument as a rebec rather than viol, without however providing any justification. The rebec is a narrow boat-shaped instrument that belongs to an earlier family of bowed instruments than a viol, but to the same family as the rabab and lura. See M. REMNANT, Musical Instruments and Illustrated History; from Antiquity to the Present, Portland 1989, p. 48; I. WOODFIELD, The Early History of the Viol, Cambridge 1984, pp. 9-14. Strictly speaking, this instrument probably should not be identified as a viol, considering that viol, even in a sense of a proto-viol, is a later medieval development. Nevertheless, until the issues of Byzantine musical instruments terminology are clarified, it may be better to use the term customarily employed by scholars, simply to avoid any confusion.

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music.54 As has been often observed, this miniature is unique in bringing together the musical ceremony of the Old Testament and of the Byzantine church.55 Importantly, however, it also brings together David, his musicians and the music of Psalms, and Moses, and it emphasizes the continuity among them, discussed already in the preface by Kosmas at the beginning of the Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 23v: Psalm 4 (detail). codex. Musicians and dancers are represented in the prefatory material and in the miniature concluding Psalms in Vat. gr. 752, but surprisingly instruments, singing and music making is almost completely absent in miniatures to Psalms themselves. Only on one occasion, in a miniature accompanying Ps 4, do we find two musicians flanking David, one of whom plays a transverse flute, the other a bowed instrument (f. 12).56 This Psalm, attributed in its title to David, makes a brief reference to singing, and it is also one of the Psalms with diapsalma, but it does not mention any musical instruments, making the choice of such iconography rather unclear. Otherwise, instruments are depicted in illustrations to Ps 136 (fol. 417r), which refers to the Israelite’s lament in Babylon. As it is often the case in Byzantine Psalters, a miniature accompanying this Psalm shows the Israelites on the bank of the river with their instruments, here harps, hanging from the trees.57 54 O. STRUNK, The Antiphons of the Octoechos, in Journal of the American Musicological Society 13 (1960), pp. 50-67, repr. in ID., Essays on Music in the Byzantine World, New York 1977, pp. 165-190, especially p. 174; DE WALD, p. 41; see also K. MEYER, The Eight Gregorian Modes on the Cluny Capitals, in Art Bulletin 34 (June 1952), pp. 75-94, esp. p. 87. See also N. MALIARAS, Die Musikinstrumente im byzantinischen Heer vom 6. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert: eine Vorstellung der Quellen, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 51 (2001), pp. 73104; J. PLEMMENOS, Ta mousika organa sten ekklesiastike umnografia, in Polyfonia 7 (2005), pp. 31-53. 55 DE WALD, p. 42. For an interpretation of this miniature as representing a fusion between ecclesiastical and courtly, secular ceremony see T. SEEBASS, Musikdarstellung und Psalterillustrationen in dem frühen Mittelalter, Bern 1973, pp. 64-72; KUJUMDÀIEVA, Asomen, pp. 95-105. See also N. MALIARAS, Mousika organa sto Byzantio: Problemata kai prota apotelesmata mias ereunas, in Polyfonia 1 (2002), pp. 5-28. 56 The inscription derives from the accompanying catena, more specifically from the commentary of Theodoret on verse 4 of this Psalm. 57 GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 82; DE WALD, p. 37.

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Very little information about Byzantine sacred music can be deduced from iconography. Unlike the medieval Latin West, Byzantium had no tradition of the depciting angels playing instruments,58 and although music is often represented in Byzantine Psalters, confusion often remains over what instruments are shown. In several miniatures, inscriptions identifying instruments do not correspond to those that are represented,59 a discrepancy that suggests a lack of clarity in terminology.60 The instruments represented in Vat. gr. 752, with the exception of the kinura that David plays to Saul in the miniature at the beginning of the codex, are not identified by inscriptions. However, the instruments David plays in the miniatures accompanying the preface of Kosmas differ from those he is depicted with in the illustrations to the preface attributed to Theodoret. In illustrations to Kosmas’s preface, David is depicted with a bowed string instrument, variously identified as rebec or viol.61 In the second preface, he is shown with a string instrument, a psaltery, an identification corroborated by the fact that this instrument is mentioned in the accompanying text.62 In Psalter frontispieces, even when he is surrounded by musicians, Da58

Although Psalms and Odes provide the most frequent context of musical representations, music making is also often depicted in context of biblical feasts, which frequently provide occasion to show unusual instruments. See for example Pharaoh’s feast in Vienna Genesis, fol. 34r, where a female musician plays a double flute: B. ZIMMERMANN, Die Wiener Genesis im Rahmen der antiken Buchmalerei: Ikonographie, Darstellung, Illustrationsverfahren und Aussageintention, Wiesbaden 2003, pp. 76-82. In the eleventh-century codex at St Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai, cod. gr. 3, fol. 23, a portable organ accompanies the symposium of Job’s family. On the organ in Byzantium see also N. MALIARAS, Die orgel im byzantinischen Hofzeremoniell des 9 und 10 Jahrhunderts. Eine Quellenuntersuchung, Munich 1991 (Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia, 33), esp. pp. 56-64. For unusual representations of monkeys playing diverse musical instruments in a twelfth-century manuscript of Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Cod. Sin. gr. 339, see GALAVARIS, Musical Images, pp. 85-86. For representation of instruments in manuscripts see J. BRAUN, Musical Instruments in Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts, in Early Music 8.3 (1983), pp. 312-327. For a general historical discussion, see also DE’ MAFFEI, Gli strumenti musicali, pp. 65-84; R. PEJOVIÒ, Scenes with Musical Instruments in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art, in New Sound 25 (2004), online at http://www.newsound. org.rs/pdf/en/ns25/2Pejovic.pdf, and N. MORAN, Singers in Late Byzantine and Slavonic Painting, Leiden 1986, for a thorough discussion of late Byzantine iconography of church singers. 59 For example in codex Athos Lavra B26m, fol. 209v, David is depicted playing a bowed instrument, a rebec or viol, whilst the inscription refers to kithara, see GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 80, n. 9. 60 H. STEGER, Philologia Musica. Sprachzeichen, Bild und Sache im literarisch-musikalischen Leben des Mittelalters: Lyra, Harfe, Rotte und Fidel, Munich 1961, esp. pp. 73-98. 61 GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 81. 62 DE WALD, p. 6. Whether this may suggest different sources of these illustrations is difficult to tell, as Byzantine sources acknowledged the fact that David played diverse instruments, see above note 45.

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vid is often represented without an instrument.63 When he is given one, it is most often a lyre or a kithara,64 as in frontispieces of Psalter Paris. gr. 139 or in the Theodore Psalter, where he is represented as shepherd,65 or in Khludov Psalter, where he is surrounded by the musicians.66 Nevertheless, a bowed instrument, similar to that in Vat. gr. 752 appears in David’s hand increasingly often in later manuscripts,67 where the psaltery also appears.68 Moreover, both the bowed instrument and Psaltery appear in other scenes in Psalters, for example in the scene of David’s triumphal return to Jerusalem after his battle with Goliath,69 or in the illustrations to the canticle of Moses.70 The leaders of the choirs only occasionally appear in Byzantine Psalter illustrations, and when they do, they are represented as musicians.71 For example, in the Khludov Psalter and in the Pantokrator Psalter, at the beginning of Ps 38, “For Jeduthun, An Ode by David”, we see Jeduthun holding a tambourine,72 and Ps 77, “A Psalm of Instruction for Asaph”, is accompanied by an image of Asaph blowing a horn.73 In Vat. gr. 752, the music of Psalms and the leaders of the musical choirs of David are discussed 63

See for example the frontispiece to Bristol Psalter, London, British Library Addit. 40731, fol. 7v, where David, holding a book, is surrounded by four musicians. 64 The kithara is mentioned in Byzantine texts and it is distinguished from the lyre, a distinction that was made in antiquity: GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 80. For discussion of archaeological remains of lyres, see M. L. WEST, Singing with Homer and the Modes of Early Greek Music, in The Journal of Hellenic Studies 101 (1981), pp. 113-129, esp. p. 116. 65 David is shown with a kithara, as in the Paris Psalter, fol. 1v, and in the Theodore Psalter, cod. London, BL Addit. 19.352, fol. 28r, Ps. 16. 66 Khludov Psalter, fol. 1v. Within decorated architectural frame with half figures of musicians, one holding drum, one blowing trumpet, in spandrels, David crowned, seated on bench, playing harp, flanked by two musicians with cymbals and lute. 67 This instrument appears in David’s hands in later psalters, for example in cod. Paris. Suppl. gr. 1335, late twelfth century, showing David with two musicians, David plays a viol, one musician plays the triangular psaltery and the other strikes a kithara. See also A. CUTLER, The Aristocratic Psalters in Byzantium, Paris 1984, pp. 73-74. 68 It has also been argued that, where several musicians are represented, their instruments are based on those described in Ps 150:2-5 rather than reflect the real instruments used in Byzantium. GALAVARIS, Musical Images, p. 82. While at this stage of research it seems impossible to prove or disprove this hypothesis, a good reason to doubt it is that there are fewer than eight instruments represented there. 69 In the Theodore Psalter, fol. 191r, three women are represented playing a tambourine, viol and a psaltery. 70 In the Barberini Psalter, Vat. gr. 372, fol. 249r, Miriam playing timbrels is flanked by four women playing trumpet, drums, cymbals and viol. 71 Vat. gr. 1927, fols 170v, 178v, 202v; London, BL Addit. 19.352, fol. 109r. 72 Khludov Psalter, fol. 67v; Pantokrator Psalter, fol. 2r. 73 Khludov Psalter, fol. 81v; Pantokrator Psalter, fol. 102r; CORRIGAN, Visual Polemics, p. 17.

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at length in the prefaces. Curiously, however, with the exception of the frontispiece to Psalms and the frontispiece to Canticles, the leaders of the choirs are never represented as musicians, though they do very frequently appear in Psalm illustrations. To summarize briefly the issues of the names of the choirs in Psalm titles: the titles of the Septuagint attribute seventy-three of the Psalms to David, twelve to Asaph,74 ten to the sons of Kore,75 two to Solomon, one to Haiman, one to Aithan, and one to Moses the man of God, making 100 in all.76 Jeduthun is mentioned in three Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 234v: Psalm 73 (detail). titles but not as author: two of these Psalms are said to be of David, the other of Asaph.77 Though Asaph appears most frequently in Psalm titles, in Vat. gr. 752 the sons of Kore are by far most often represented.78 Nevertheless, the rationale behind their presence in miniatures is not entirely clear: they appear in illustrations to several Psalms not attributed to them, but at the same time do not appear in miniatures of some Psalms that are. We should also note that, though in the miniatures they are often made to speak with the words 74

Pss 49; 72-82. Pss 41; 43-48; 83; 84; 86; 87. 76 Solomon: Pss 72 and 127; Haiman: Ps 87; Aithan: Ps 88; Moses: Ps 89. 77 Pss 38, 61, 76. The names of the choirs in Psalm titles differ slightly from those provided in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles 15:16; 16:4-42; 25:1; 2 Chronicles 29:30; 35:15. 78 For the Psalms of Asaph and Kore as constituting homogenous groups within the Psalter, see M. J. BUSS, The Psalms of Asaph and Kore, in Journal of Biblical Literature 82.4 (1963), pp. 382-392. In what follows, I will only consider these illustrations where they are identified by an inscription, but one should keep in mind that there are many other illustrations in which the young men accompanying David are sometimes identified as the sons of Kore because the iconography of the types is the same. For this see DE WALD, pp. 48-49. 75

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of the commentary from the catenae, in none of the cases does the commentary justify their presence. On occasion the sons of Kore are both mentioned in the Psalm title and represented in illustrations. In Ps 41, entitled “Regarding completion. Regarding understanding. To the sons of Kore”, the accompanying illustration shows the sons of Kore teaching the Holy Fig. 14 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 50v: Psalm 15 (detail). Scripture to the people, that is presumably helping the faithful understand the text of the Psalms.79 Several other Psalms that mention the sons of Kore in the title are accompanied by miniatures showing sons of Kore and David approach a church,80 or Christ himself.81 Though anachronistic, these miniatures may be taken simply to indicate the fulfillment of the prophetic messages of Psalms in Christ and his Church. Asaph appears in several similar illustrations to Psalms that mention him in the title.82 A curious image accompanies Ps 73, where three men addressing a figure who holds a book and stands at the entrance to a small chapel (fig. 13) are identified as sons of Asaph speaking the word of condemnation against heretics.83 In case of several Psalms the singers are mentioned in the title, but do not appear in the illustrations.84 More often, however, they appear even though the text does not mention them.85 79

Fol. 139v. Ps 43, miniature on fol. 144r. 81 Ps 48, fol. 156v and Ps 87, fol. 273r. 82 On fol. 241v, Ps 77. In two other Psalms, Pss 78 and 81 (fols 252v and 261r), Asaph stands before the enthroned Christ. In the latter Psalm, he is accompanied by the sons of Kore. 83 Fol. 234v. The words inscribed in the miniature are from Hesychius’s commentary to the last verse of Ps 73, see PG 27, col. 956. The sons of Asaph are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 25:2 and 2 Chronicles 35:15. 84 The titles of Pss 44, 46, 47, 83 and 86 mention the sons of Kore; Pss 38 and 76 mention Jeduthun; Pss 49, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80 mention Asaph; Ps 88 mentions Ethan and Ps 89 mentions Moses the man of God, but none of them appears in the miniatures accompanying these Psalms in Vat. gr. 752. 85 In Pss 9 (fol. 34v) and 97 (fol. 305v), they are depicted in front of the enthroned Christ. In illustrations to Pss 94 (fol. 298r), 101 (fol. 308v), 103 (fol. 317r) and 124 (fol. 392r), they 80

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Many of these miniatures, showing the sons of Kore with David or Christ, are fairly schematic and repetitive, but several illustrations are more complex. Ps 16, entitled “A prayer. Pertaining to David” is accompanied by three illustrations, which clearly are conceived as a series. They illustrate a meeting of St Amphilochius of Iconium with a man identified as a “spy”, who questions him according to the inscription (fig. 14).86 In the second illustration on the facing page, St Arethas, sitting in front of ciborium and holding a book in his lap, is addressed by Haiman and Jeduthun, who are questioning St Arethas on David’s account, again according to the inscription (fig. 15).87 Finally, in the third miniature, the sons of Kore approach St Sylvester to whom they are making their confessions according to the inscription.88 The presence of St Amphilochius, a staunch anti-Arian, could perhaps have been inspired by the fact that Ps 16 has often been interpreted as refutation of heretics.89 The ration-

Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r: Psalm 16 (detail, right-hand column).

are praying in front of or approaching a chapel. In addition to these typological or prophetic representations, in two cases the sons of Kore are represented in quasi-historical scenes: in illustration to Ps 25 (fol. 80r), where they converse with David, who, according to the inscription, tells them the story of Saul’s pursuit and of God’s help. According to the title, this is a Psalm “pertaining to David”, but the text does not make a reference to Saul’s pursuit. Neither does it make any reference to music or the choirs or David. The sons of Kore also appear in illustration to Ps 144 (fol. 434v), identified in the title as David’s hymn of praise. The miniature shows the sons of Kore standing behind a structure, which probably should be identified as the Ark of the Covenant. 86 Fol. 50v, the inscription reads: ιο ιλό ιο ἐρ τ ενο π το τ όπου. 87 Fol. 51r. 88 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 212-215. 89 Theodoret of Cyrus specifically identifies it as refutation of Arius, Eunomius and Apollinarius; see THEODORET OF CYRRHUS, Interpretatio in Psalmos, PG 80, col. 1982.

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ale behind the appearance of other figures is more difficult to explain. These representations, in particular the depiction of St Sylvester, have been in the past interpreted as part of the reading of the illustrations of Vat. gr. 752 in context of Keroularios’s struggle with Latins and his defiance toward Constantine IX Monomachos.90 Whilst this interpretation is certainly not without merit, it still does not explain why three of the David’s singFig. 16 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 195v: Psalm 63 (detail). ers appear in this miniature. Several other cases are equally puzzling: a miniature to Ps 93 shows St Dositheos, depicted as a stylite, addressing one of the sons of Kore from the top of his pillar.91 St Dositheos, who was not a stylite, is known only from a brief Vita attached to the Instructions of Dorotheos of Gaza (505-565), a text aimed at demonstrating how quickly Dorotheos could lead novices entrusted to him to sanctity.92 Another intriguing illustration, accompanying Ps 63, shows the sons of Kore in dispute with Aquila (fig. 16), one of 90 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 215-218. For the appearance of numerous saints in the miniatures of the middle Byzantine Psalters, see L. MARIÈS, L’irruption des saints dans l’illustration des psautiers byzantins, in Analecta Bollandiana 68 (1950), pp. 153-162, at p. 161; J. COTSONIS, The Virgin and Justinian on Seals of the “Ekklesiekdikoi” of Hagia Sophia, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 56 (2002), pp. 41-55, esp. p. 52. 91 Fol. 297v. The words of St Dositheos are taken from Hesychius’s commentary on verse 21, which indicates the danger posed by evil forces to the souls of the just: TitPs, PG 27, col. 412. 92 Dositheos, the favourite young page of a powerful general, converted to monastic life during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He decided to enter the monastery of Abba Seridos, close to Gaza, became a disciple of Dorotheos, lived for several years in perfect submission to his spiritual father and then died of tuberculosis. Upon his death, to the surprise of the monks, a local spiritual authority pronounced Dositheos a saint: see JENNIFER L. HEVELONE-HARPER, Disciples of the Desert. Monks, Laity and Spiritual Authority in Sixth-Century Gaza, Baltimore 2005, pp. 68-72. Dositheos is quoted in the eighth Epistle of Theodore Stoudites as an example of obedience leading to holiness. Theodore Stoudites also invokes him in the same vein in three of his catecheses. There is also another Dositheos, an eleventh-century saint, founder of the Monastery of Holy Trinity in Chilokomon in Pontus, whose life was compiled by John Mauropous: see S. PASCHALIDIS, Hagiography in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography. V.I. Periods and Places, ed. by S. EFTHYMIADIS, Farnham 2011, pp. 143-172, esp. p. 153.

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the biblical translators mentioned in the second preface in Vat. gr. 752.93 Finally, in several illustrations, the sons of Kore substitute for the choirs to whom the Psalms are assigned.94 An underlying principle behind such frequent appearance of the sons of Kore seems to have so far eluded scholars. De Wald, in frustration, suggested that the illustrator simply developed “a special fondness” for these characters.95 Their presence is particularly difficult to understand, as there is no evidence to suggest that these biblical figures have any significant role in Byzantine biblical exegesis. In the light of their absence from Byzantine commentaries, it seems that we may look for the justification of their presence in the Bible itself. In an interpretation posed as an aside, Kalavrezou, Trahoulia and Sabar suggest that the frequent appearance of the sons of Kore has to be seen in light of their role as the first schismatics, as interpreted by St Cyprian.96 I think, however, that there is some confusion here, for the biblical figures of schismatics and rebels are not the sons of Kore, but rather Kore himself. The story of Kore the Levite and of his rebellion is narrated in Numbers 16. Kore was a cousin of Moses, whom he resented for giving the headship of the clan to a lesser relative, Elizaphan (Num 3:30) Together with Dathan and Abiram, he led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Dathan and Abiram perished with their tents and households when the earth opened and swallowed them up. “And they went down alive into Sheol” (Num 16:3033), an event mentioned in the Epistle of Jude, “Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Kore’s rebellion” (1:1). Kore’s possessions and serving93 Fol. 195v: λ ι λ ετ( ι) ε(τ ) το υ ο το ορ . Aquila appears in a few other miniatures in the manuscript, first in the preface, where it is explained that he was a Greek who converted to Christianity, but then converted to Judaism and who in the time of Hadrian translated the Bible into Greek. He is also depicted in the illustrations of Ps 59. The illustrations of this Psalm show David’s conquest of Syria (fol. 186v as related in 2 Kings 7 and 10), followed by a miniature (fol. 187r) that shows Aquila and Symmachus, each nimbed and standing in front of a throne with a stream running diagonally across the space between them. Though the commentators on the Psalms, and generally commentators of the Old Testament, were fond of giving and comparing different readings, it is not entirely clear why these two translators accompany this specific Psalm. See also Peers, pp. 440-441 and fig. 1. 94 Ps 61 mentions Jeduthun, but in the miniature at fol. 191r the sons of Kore appear instead, conversing with Christ enthroned before an altar; Pss 72, 75 and 82 are assigned to Asaph, but their miniatures show the sons of Kore instead. Perhaps the most interesting and enigmatic case is that of Ps 75, which is entitled “For the end, among the Hymns, a Psalm for Asaph; a Song for the Assyrian” and where a miniature shows the sons of Kore addressing a group of soldiers identified as Assyrians. 95 DE WALD, pp. 48-49. 96 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 218 n. 113.

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men were swallowed up and Kore too perished, but unlike the children of Dathan and Abiram, the three sons of Kore did not die (Num 26:11).97 The extensive genealogies in the Chronicles, as well as the fact that many Psalms associated with the sons of Kore contain the ideas pertaining to salvation from death and Sheol,98 may have reinforced their identification with the descendant of Kore, the Levite, in which case their representation, exemplifying God’s grace and salvation may have been easier to justify. However attractive, this hypothesis is not unproblematic: as far as I know, we do not have any Byzantine texts making such connections, and the biblical genealogies are complex and not easy to understand, and it is not clear how transparent and obvious they were to Byzantine audiences.99 Still, we do find in the Chronicles the list of the seven successive generations from the sons of Kore, to the prophet Samuel and his son Joel, along with the passages linking them to the singers of the Temple.100 It is also striking that not only the sons of Kore, but also Asaph (or other sons of Asaph) are designated as descendants of the sons of Kore from the Book of Numbers.101 The reasons for the appearance of the sons of Kore in miniatures of specific Psalms, in rather peculiar compositions, still requires much more in-depth research. Tentatively, however, we could suggest that one of their roles in this manuscript is to emphasize the universal significance of Psalms, a motif already stressed in the prefatory material. The sons of Kore provide a link back to the time of Exodus, through a connection with their miraculously saved ancestors, as well as by appearing in the miniatures illustrating the Mosaic praise of God. In scenes of church worship or church history, their presence may serve to emphasize the enduring mercy of God that was behind their salvation. Possibly, along with David they are the archetypical “those who understand and (…) who perceive most divine thoughts while singing the Psalm” to whom the manuscript is addressed at the beginning.102 97

The three sons of Kore, Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph, are also mentioned in Exodus

6:24. 98 D. C. MITCHELL, God Will Redeem My Soul from Sheol: the Psalms of the Sons of Kore, in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 30.3 (2006), pp. 365-384. 99 For Christian interpretation of Kore’s rebellion and the story of his sons see: J. T. GREENE – M. CASPI, The Interpretation of Kore’s Rebellion in Three Religious Traditions – Jewish, Christian, Muslim: A Study in Comparative Reception History, New York 2006, pp. 178198. 100 Exodus 6:24; Numbers 26:28; 1 Chronicles 6:31-38; 6:22-33; 9:19-31; 1 Chronicles 12:6; 1 Chronicles 26:19; 2 Chronicles 20:19; 1 Kings 1:1,20; 8:2. 101 1 Chronicles 16:22. 102 Translation after DE WALD, p. XII.

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THE LIMITS OF VISUAL POLEMICISM IN VAT. GR. 752 In his essay on visual knowledge and Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, John Lowden contrasts two books, the closely related Theodore and Barberini Psalters, also known as the Stoudite Psalters since both were produced in the same scriptorium in Constantinople’s Stoudios monastery.1 The Theodore Psalter was custom-created for the abbot of the Stoudios monastery in 1066, whereas the Barberini Psalter’s audience was imperial, having been produced, in all likelihood, for a junior emperor. Accordingly, each book includes a visual allusion to its patronage, a portrait of the figure for whom it was made or by whom it was commissioned. The abbot’s book portrays the protopresbyter himself on fol. 192r receiving his staff (fig. 1), whereas the imperial book represents the imperial family on fol. 5r as a stilled icon of hieratic majesty (fig. 2).2 For Lowden, the point of this comparison relates to artistic agency — it shows that each book’s artist, rather than slavishly copying models, could customize the visual content for particular patrons and circumstances. This Psalter comparison is invoked here in order to raise the question of the location of meaning: does it lie primarily with a manuscript’s creator, commissioner, or user? Such a question concerns the nature of patronage more broadly and the scope of art historical practice. Art history’s disciplinary tools often aim at determining the original patron of a work and its moment of creation, with the result of privileging its original context over its reception, both immediate and long term. I open with this broad question, which will remain open ended, so as to bring into sharper focus some of the interpretive issues raised by Vat. gr. 752, the celebrated book to which the present collection of essays is dedicated. With its ca. 500 folios containing over 200 1 J. LOWDEN, The Transmission of ‘Visual Knowledge’ in Byzantium Through Illuminated Manuscripts: Approaches and Conjectures, in Literacy, Education and Manuscript Transmission in Byzantium and Beyond, ed. by C. HOLMES – J. WARING, Leiden 2001, pp. 59-80, at pp. 70-71. 2 On the Theodore Psalter, London, BL Addit. 19352, see BARBER, Theodore Psalter; on the Barberini Psalter, BAV, Barb. gr. 372, see ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter. See also J. ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, in Art Bulletin 70.4 (1988), pp. 550-568.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 493-516.

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Fig. 1 – Theodore Psalter, BL Add. 19352, fol. 192r.

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Fig. 2 – Barberini Psalter, Barb. gr. 372, fol. 5r.

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miniatures, this deluxe Psalter is exceptional in its surfeit of visual material and its potential for text-image polemicism.3 Unlike most illustrated Byzantine manuscripts, moreover, the codex can be localized chronologically with a great degree of certainty: it is dated by its paschal tables to 1059. Byzantine art historians rarely encounter such precision; often our analytic tools allow us to narrow the chronological parameters to merely a century or an imperial reign. But despite this precision (the ‘when’ of the manuscript if you will), most other aspects of the manuscript remain debatable: first, who commissioned such a deluxe illuminated manuscript, and second, what was the specific audience for which it was intended? The contrast between the clarity of the manuscript’s ‘when’ versus the ambiguity surrounding its ‘who’ and ‘why’ motivates much of the scholarly interest in the manuscript. The most recent attempt to resolve some of the ambiguity surrounding the commissioning of the book came in 1993 and scholars have remained largely silent since then. In their analysis of Vat. gr. 752, Ioli Kalavrezou, Nicolette Trahoulia, and Shalom Sabar read the manuscript’s elaborate visual program as a veiled imperial critique by associating it with the conflict between Patriarch Michael Keroularios (d. 1058) and emperor Isaac Komnenos (d. 1059).4 This interpretation stems from the basic fact that, like most medieval manuscripts, the miniatures of the Psalter do not present straightforward or purely narrative illustrations of the text they accompany. The actors of the pictorial drama diverge both from the psalms and commentary and from other Psalter imagery. The insistent incongruities of the imagery had already been noted by Ernest De Wald in what remains the standard edition of the manuscript’s illustrations from 1942,5 but was given much more interpretative weight by the authors of the 1993 study. When the text cannot explain the images adequately, these scholars insist, the source for the illumination should be sought elsewhere, in this case in the fraught historical context surrounding the production of the manuscript. Accordingly, those images that (apparently) make less sense in terms of the Psalter and commentary narrative are explained by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia, and Sabar as a carefully conceived double narrative that, 3

On Vat. gr. 752, see the catalogue entry by I. KALAVREZOU, in The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, ed. by H. C. EVANS – W. D. WIXOM, New York 1997, pp. 206-207 (cat. no. 142). On “aristocratic” Psalters, see A. CUTLER, The Aristocratic Psalters in Byzantium, Paris 1984, and J. LOWDEN, Observations on Illustrated Psalters, in Art Bulletin 70.2 (1988), pp. 242-260. On extant Psalters more broadly, see PARPULOV, Toward a History. 4 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor. 5 DE WALD.

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to the informed reader or viewer, essentially constitutes a condemnation of Constantine IX and Isaac Komnenos with regard to larger church-state politics in the wake of the schism.6 They certainly propose a plausible reading, one that could be pushed further, especially as the catena becomes better understood. But even with a clear understanding of the precise date of the manuscript’s production, the relationship between the manuscript’s imagery and its context merits further investigation. How the miniatures refract the circumstances of their commission requires scholarly caution and raises a number of fundamental methodological questions. Why make the visual polemic subtly legible to only a particular viewer? In other words, why make the politics a veiled subtext rather than overt? Moreover, if a message is veiled, how can we, as modern interpreters, gain clear sight of its polemic? Elena Boeck’s recent reading of the Madrid Skylitzes is relevant in this regard as a point of comparison. Boeck takes the overtly political imagery of the illuminated Skylitzes in the Escorial as an indication of its production outside the Byzantine sphere.7 Thus the manuscript’s designers in Norman Sicily opted to include regicide — “the ideologically sensitive subject of imperial murder” — at the expense of such usual and expected themes as imperial munificence, a choice that presumably would not have been made in the heart of Byzantium.8 Such politically charged imagery, according to her astute reading, indicates a non-Byzantine cultural context. We know, however, that Vat. gr. 752 was made in the heart of Byzantium, the imperial capital of Constantinople.9 But, again, unlike the Theodore and Barberini Psalters, Vat. gr. 752 remains open to speculation with regard to the individuals involved in its production and reception (again, the manuscript’s ‘who’). The dedicatory poem on fol. 17 provides no proper names for the book’s scribe and possessor.10 Without this knowledge, how should we read the possible polemicism? This is the question that motivates the present essay. In order to test the limits of the manuscript’s visual polemicism, the following pages attend to two aspects of the manuscript’s 6

On this point, see Dirk Krausmüller’s contribution to this volume. On the Madrid Skylitzes (National Library of Spain, Matritensis graecus Vitr. 26-2), see A. GRABAR – M. MANOUSSACAS, L’illustration du manuscrit de Skylitzès de la Bibliothèque nationale de Madrid, Venice 1979, and more recently VASILIKI TSAMAKDA, The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, Leiden 2002. 8 E. N. BOECK, The Politics of Visualizing an Imperial Demise: Transforming a Byzantine Chronicle into a Sicilian Visual Narrative, in Word & Image 25/3 (2009), pp. 243-257, at p. 244. 9 Although likely the product of a Constantinopolitan atelier, its attribution to the Stoudios Monastery in particular is debatable. See HUTTER, Theodoros, and D’Aiuto in this volume. 10 See in this volume the essay by ACCONCIA LONGO. 7

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visual program that have drawn much scholarly attention: the representation of specific characters appearing out of step with the expectations of the text, and the visual marking by dress of certain scenes so as to bridge the distance between the biblical past and contemporary Constantinople. The first part of the essay focuses on the manuscript’s depiction of the sons of Kore, who often appear in unexpected narrative situations at unpredictable moments. A close examination of the visual representation of the sons of Kore will serve to test their presumed subversive nature and narrative function within a political critique in Vat. gr. 752. The second part then deals with the contemporization through dress of certain scenes and their link to the eleventh-century Constantinopolitan court. By qualifying ‘courtly’ sartorial aspects of the visual program of the manuscript, this section attends to the contemporaneity of the images and their resonance for polemicism. The goal for these two case studies is to test two assumptions about Vat. gr. 752 that have been central to arguments about its political critique, that is, the subversive allusions to schismaticism, and to contemporary court culture and trigamy. These are the political motivations ascribed to the manuscript by the authors of the 1993 study and maintained by most subsequent scholarship. I. People out of Place: the Sons of Kore One of the particularities of the Vatican Psalter, as noted in the 1993 article, is the “unprecedented prominence” of the sons of Kore along with the unusual figures of Sylvester, Amphilochios, and Arethas.11 The latter three figures are understood by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia, and Sabar as meaningful because of their relevance for ecclesiastical politics of the time — in other words, their presence would resonate historically in the wake of the schism.12 But the sons of Kore are not so easily or definitively explained, and it remains to be determined whether they should be understood politically. To be clear, their presence in the Psalter makes sense given their association with certain psalms, and indeed the sons of Kore are named in many of the psalm titles. The issue, instead, relates to the frequency of their appearance. These figures recur throughout the manuscript, almost 30 times. The frequency of their appearance was not lost on De Wald. On fol. 308v, which corresponds to Ps 101 (fig. 3), the sons of Kore are not mentioned in the psalm title but are explicitly named in the miniature. Here De Wald 11

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 197. Ibid., p. 217. It should be noted, however, that Peter and Paul, more standard figures in apostolic debates, also appear in the manuscript. Peter and Paul appear on fols 41r, 42v, 46r, 47v, 272r, 292v, 408r. 12

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attributes their presence solely “to the illustrator’s fondness for these characters”.13 Taking my cue from this slightly offhand remark, in what follows I survey the different contexts for the representation of the sons of Kore. In what narrative contexts do they appear most frequently and what are they doing in those scenes? If they are out of place and time with the Psalter narrative, can they offer clues to the manuscript’s political context? Throughout Vat. gr. 752, the sons of Kore appear in nearly 30 individual scenes.14 They are included in the illustrations accompanying the psalms associated with them, that is Pss 41-49 and 84-87 (minus 86). In these instances, they are generally named both in the title of the psalm and in the miniature, as on fol. 139v for Ps 41, where they are shown teaching, as the inscription makes clear.15 Sometimes, as in fol. 144r for Ps 43 (fig. 4), they are not labeled in the miniature but their identity is understood

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 308v: Psalm 101 (detail)

Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 144r: Psalm 43 (detail).

13

DE WALD, p. 32. The sons of Kore are included in the miniatures on the following folios: 34v (Ps 9), 51r (Ps 16), 80r (Ps 25), 139v (Ps 41), ?142v (Ps 42), ?144r (Ps 43), 151r (Ps 45), 156v (Ps 48), ?159v (Ps 49), 191r (Ps 61), 195v (Ps 63), 210r (Ps 67), 226v (Ps 72), 236v (Ps 75), 261r (Ps 81), 262v (Ps 82), 267v (Ps 84), 273r (Ps 87), 274r (Ps 87), 297v (Ps 93), 298r (Ps 94), ?305v (Ps 98), 308v (Ps 101), 317r (Ps 103), ?328v (Ps 105), 362r (Ps 117), 392r (Ps 124), 393v (Ps 125), ?434v (Ps 144). These identifications, both hesitant and more confident, are based in some instances on inscriptions, association with accompanying psalms, or by implication alone. 15 The title reads τ τ λο ε νε ιν το υ ο όρε; the inscription reads ι ιο το ορ ι οντε τ ν ε ν ρ ν τ ν λ όν. On fol. 139v, see DE WALD, pp. 19-20. 14

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by implication because they are named in the psalm title.16 Many scenes that include the sons of Kore follow this pattern, where their representation is expected given the context of the psalm the miniature accompanies. But these instances represent a minority: only nine miniatures that include representations of the sons of Kore can be explained by the psalms they visually accompany (again, where they Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 191r: Psalm 61 (detail). are named or implied in the psalm title). In most instances, on the contrary, the figures identified by inscription as the sons of Kore appear within miniatures that are not associated with their psalms. The majority of the images of the sons of Kore, in other words, cannot be explained by their inscription or Psalms. Take, for example, fol. 191r for Ps 61 (fig. 5), where the two figures in dialogue with Christ are labeled ‘sons of Kore’ even though the title of the associated psalm specifies Jedethun, not the sons of Kore, as singer/composer.17 On fol. 236v for Ps 75, the sons of Kore are shown addressing Assyrian soldiers instead of Asaph who is specified in the psalm title.18 The presence of the sons of Kore in such miniatures constitutes a type of inconsistency or anachronism, since they appear out of step with the main plot and timing of the psalm narrative. Given that the majority of the images of the sons of Kore do not correspond to the psalm text they accompany, De Wald might have been right about the illustrator’s fondness for these characters, and the authors of the 1993 article too were onto something regarding the “unprecedented appearance” of these figures. What we do with this information, however, remains an issue of methodology. Rather than fondness for these characters, Kalavrezou, Trahoulia, and Sabar read their appearance as part of the manuscript’s veiled political critique. The repeated representations of the sons of Kore, they insist, should be read “in light of their role as the 16 In other words, while not named in the inscription within the frame of the miniature, the psalm title reads τ τ λο το υ ο όρε ε νε ιν λ ό . On fol. 144r (Ps 43), see DE WALD, p. 20. 17 On fol. 191r (Ps 61), see DE WALD, p. 25. 18 On fol. 236v (Ps 75), see DE WALD, p. 27.

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first schismatics, as interpreted by St Cyprian”.19 The unusual presence of the sons of Kore is thus presented as evidence for their larger reading of this manuscript as a polemic in the wake of the schism. And yet a closer inspection of the individual scenes representing the sons of Kore fails to reveal any sort of pejorative dimension to their representation. If understood as schisFig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 159v: Psalm 48 (detail). matic, the sons of Kore are not visually censured or cast in a negative light, certainly not in pictorial terms easily legible to the modern viewer. On the contrary, as we shall see presently, the visual program of the manuscript privileges the sons of Kore by picturing them repeatedly in positive narrative contexts. The contexts for the representations of the sons of Kore are communal and didactic primarily. Appearing throughout the manuscript as David’s companions, as part of his entourage, they are pictured alongside him at the Chalke-like gate as on fol. 144r (fig. 4) and in sacred ambo spaces as on fol. 151r. A number of times they appear sharing a table with David, as on fols 80r and 226v, and also with Christ as on fol. 159v (fig. 6). In terms of didactic contexts, they appear in a plethora of scenes of discourse, such as on fol. 195v, and in a number of scenes teaching, as on fol. 139v, fol. 274r, and fol. 308v (fig. 3). The manuscript also repeatedly pictures the sons of Kore praying, as on fols 308v and 317r, or otherwise acting piously before sacred spaces, as on fol. 298r. In these instances, they appear without David. In others, Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 393v: Psalm 125 (detail). 19

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 218 n. 13.

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they are shown in the presence of Christ, being addressed by him, as on fol. 261r for Ps 81, conversing with him, as on fol. 393v for Ps 125 (fig. 7), being praised by him, as on fol. 362r for Ps 117, or being blessed by him, as on fol. 34v for Ps 9. In these diverse contexts, the sons of Kore are cast in a positive light; the scenes do not suggest censure in any overt manner.20 The sons of Kore are consistently shown acting piously in the presence of sacred sites and people or pictured as close companions of David or Christ. Given this extremely broad but altogether positive range of contexts for the sons of Kore, it remains difficult to read them as evidence of political critique.21 Again, their visual context does not seem to identify them as schismatic. This ambiguity leads us back to the key question governing political interpretations of the manuscript: if the polemic is veiled, how do we get a clear view of it? To my eyes, if the more transgressive message of this aspect of the manuscript’s visual program is veiled, it is a thick veil indeed. II. Contemporary Dress: Sartorial Courtliness Like most of the figures depicted in Vat. gr. 752, the sons of Kore are consistently dressed in what is generally described as ‘courtly’ dress. They appear in kaftans of red and blue (or red and purple) with luxurious gold hems, necklines, and sleeve adornments (and in one instance a gold sash and in another a gold circlet). There is nothing specific about this attire: one may consider it generically courtly in that it alludes in the most general sense to the sartorial luxury associated with the imperial court, but it lacks any specific gesture towards a particular station. In other words, though luxurious in appearance, the exact same attire marks other figures throughout this and other contemporary Constantinopolitan manuscripts. By contrast, at least one aspect of dress should be considered courtly 20 Even in the enigmatic image of the sons of Kore confessing to St Sylvester in the presence of the icon of the Virgin and Child on fol. 51r for Ps 16, they are still shown in a pious context, i.e., liturgical. This scene is pivotal to the analysis of KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 216. Note too that DE WALD, p. 13, stresses the temporal disconnect of this scene: “there is such evident anachronism between the saints and the people whom they are addressing”. 21 Given their prominence in the manuscript and range of narrative contexts for their representation, the Sons of Kore could perhaps be seen as stand-ins or surrogate representatives of the monastic community that produced the book. After all, they are most often represented in communal contexts praying and teaching. Such a hypothesis would require a more sustained investigation than is possible at present, and indeed part of the goal of this interdisciplinary collection of essays is to lay the foundation for more detailed studies. But the question is tentatively raised so as to suggest the possibility of alternative explanations for the depiction of the Sons of Kore.

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Fig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449v: Canticle of Moses.

in a more particular sense, and marks certain figures and scenes visually as contemporary. The sartorial item in question is the distinctive fan-like headdress that appears in a number of scenes throughout the book. Most notably, it is featured in the sumptuous full-page miniature of Miriam and the Daughters of Israel on fol. 449v, the illustration for the Canticle of Moses (fig. 8), a scene that constitutes a counterpart or pendant to the earlier full-page image of David dressed as Byzantine Emperor on fol. 8v. Both are full-page celebratory images filled with allusions to music and each gestures visually to the imperial court.

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On fol. 449v, the dancing Israelite women, with Miriam only distinguishable by her inscription, form an uninterrupted circle with locked arms. Their kaftans, drawn by a sash and fringed with gold at the neck and hemline, exhibit silk patterns customary in the Middle Byzantine period. The long pointed sleeves are accentuated, as well as the elaborate headdresses, which fan out evenly on each side and are adorned by bands of gold forming both stripes and zigzags.22 A preview of this dress appears on the preceding page, fol. 449r (fig. 9), where David, holding Goliath’s head, is met by a daughter of Israel who is dressed in the same attire as her sisters on the following page. This same aspect of courtly dress appears much earlier in the manuscript as well. We enFig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449r: Psalm 151 (detail). counter it in the scene of Bathsheba on fol. 162v for Ps 50, where it is worn by the two women attending to her bath (fig. 10). Although much of the paint has flaked, the contours of the headdress discernably and dramatically fan out to the sides, as they also do in the image of the dancing daughters of Israel. This scene is significant as it inaugurates the unusual sequence of Uriah’s demise (on fol. 163r), the sons of David’s adultery 22

The distinctive long pointed sleeves become a common feature of scenes of the dance of the Israelite women in other manuscripts, on which see TH. STEPPAN, Tanzdarstellungen der mittel- und spätbyzantinischen Kunst, in Cahiers Archéologiques 45 (1997), pp. 141-168. A survey of the scene in other Psalters reveals the norm to be long sleeves and bare head for the ladies of this dance. According to Maria Parani, the eleventh century saw an innovation in sleeve design: the wide wrists begin with Vat. gr. 752 and Paris. gr. 74 (on this Stoudite manuscript see n. 35 below) and continue into the twelfth century with Vat. gr. 1851 (on this manuscript see n. 32 below). See M. PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images: Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11th-15th centuries), Leiden – Boston 2003, pp. 73-74.

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(fol. 164r), and his repentance — a sequence accompanying the “penitential” Ps 50, whose politically charged nature has been the focus of scholarly scrutiny.23 As the narrative continues, the distinctive courtly headdress is also worn by David’s wives in a Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v: Psalm 50 (detail). series of formally related images. On fol. 176r, the miniature for Ps 55 pictures David with his two wives on a balcony in the upper right-hand corner, and the figures are distinguished by the distinctive striped fan hat (fig. 11).24 A few scenes later, the headdress appears again on fols 182v to 183r, accompanying Ps 58 (figs 12-13).25 In the scene of David with his harp before the infirm Saul, figures look down from the balcony above, including two women on the right-hand side who wear the distinctive headdress. Moreover, Micah is depicted in this fan-like hat as she helps David escape via a rope from the upper balcony on the right. Micah is also shown in this headdress in the upper miniature on fol. 4v where she looks down from a balcony on David with companions dancing before the sanctuary of God.26 This distinctive headdress apFig. 11 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r: Psalm 55 (detail). 23

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 201-205. DE WALD, p. 23. David had fled with his two wives from Saul and was welcomed by Achish, king of the Philistines. 25 DE WALD, pp. 23-24. 26 DE WALD, pp. 4-5. De Wald points out that Micah despised David for this exhibition 24

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Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 182v: Psalm 58 (detail).

Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r: Psalm 58 (detail).

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pears one last time, in the image on fol. 186v accompanying Ps 59, worn by the woman in the upper story of the balcony, as the palace is burned and the women attempt to escape.27 The dress of the female figures in the Vatican Psalter, especially on the dance of Miriam and the Daughters of Israel, is generally understood as a gesture towards contemporary Constantinopolitan court culture.28 After testing the veracity of this assumption, the discussion that follows will consider if and how this aspect of dress might provide an avenue for weighing the broader implications of visual contemporaneity in the manuscript. As opposed to the generic courtliness of the dress of the sons of Kore and other figures represented in Vat. gr. 752, the Daughters of Israel and David’s wives are sartorially marked by specific references to court life. Given that station in Constantinopolitan court was visually prescribed with precision, I believe we should take stock of this specificity, keeping in mind the methodological problems associated with assessing the contemporaneity of court dress, a rich topic addressed in the work of Maria Parani and Jennifer Ball.29 Strong visual parallels for the distinctive headdress of the Vatican Psalter exist, some close and some exact. Compelling comparative evidence is found in Byzantine imagery of contemporary figures — that is, in portraiture. Most relevant in this regard is the image of Irene Gabras being led by the Virgin in a page excised from a Sinai Gospel Book now in St Petersburg (fig. 14).30 It dates to ca. 1067 and so is close in date to the Vatican Psalaccording to 2 Kings 4:16, and 1 Chronicles 15:29. In the lower miniature on this page, David is shown enthroned as a Byzantine emperor. 27 DE WALD, p. 24. 28 According to Ioli Kalavrezou’s entry in the Glory of Byzantium exhibition catalogue, p. 207, the attire is a feature “of Constantinopolitan life in the eleventh century”. 29 See PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images and J. BALL, Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Dress in Eighth- to Twelfth-Century Painting, New York 2005. To be clear, my aim is not to link the visual representations of dress to texts in an attempt to identify the specific aspects of dress with precision. Scholars such as M. EMMANUEL, Hairstyles and Headdresses of Empresses, Princesses, and Ladies of the Aristocracy in Byzantium, in ελτ ο της ριστια ικ ς ρ αιολογικ ς ταιρε ας 17 (1993-1994), pp. 113-120, have (to my mind unsuccessfully) attempted to relate the fan shaped headdresses to the “toupha” (this methodology will be elaborated further below with reference to the representation of Irene Gabras in the St Petersburg manuscript). My aim, by contrast, is to compare the headdress across similar registers — i.e., within the visual realm. 30 The page is one of three folia in St Petersburg Public Library, MS gr. 291, fol. IIIr, which were once part of the Sinai tetraevangelion, Sinait. gr. 172. Irene was the wife of Theodore Gabras, governor of the eastern themes of Chaldea and Colonea. The degree of veracity ascribed to the visual material is difficult to determine. EMMANUEL, Hairstyles and Headdresses, p. 118, considers Irene’s headdress realistically rendered, further claiming that it was too heavy for Irene to bow to the Virgin, then links it to the propoloma worn by the patrikia

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Fig. 14 – St Petersburg Public Library, MS. Gr. 291, fol. IIIr.

ter. The miniature represents the wife of Theodore Gabras, member of the provincial aristocracy of Trebizond who is represented on the facing page, wearing a hat that bears striking similarities to the Vatican Psalter headgear. While it does not fan out as much as the Psalter hats — it is almost trapezoidal in shape — it does angle out away from the head and prominently bears a diagonal stripe along its front.31 In addition to portraits of contemporary aristocratic figures, close comparison is also found in Vat. gr. 1851, a codex that by no means preserves straightforward portraits but that does evoke the courtly splendors of the twelfth-century Constantinopolitan court for a young foreign princess be-

zoste, which, according to the Middle Byzantine Book of Ceremonies, was too heavy for its wearer to bow while wearing. M. MEYER, Did the Daughters of Israel Come Out Dancing and Singing to Meet … David? A Biblical Image in Christian-Imperial Attire, in Byzantion 73.2 (2003), pp. 467-487, similarly links the headdresses of Vat. gr. 752 to this textual passage. On this image, see I. SPATHARAKIS, The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, Leiden 1976, pp. 59-60 (figs 27-28), PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, p. 78 (and cat. 3, no. 16 on page 327), and N. P. ŠEVÇENKO, Close Encounters: Contact between Holy Figures and the Faithful as Represented in Byzantine Works of Art, in Byzance et les images: Cycle de conférences organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel du 5 octobre au 7 décembre 1992, ed. by J. DURAND – A. GUILLOU, Paris 1994, pp. 255-285. 31 A century later, ca. 1180, in the north aisle of the church of the Anargyroi in Kastoria, Anna Radene, wife of Theodore Lemniotes, wears a similar white hat that angles out towards the top and features a criss-cross of stripes on its front. On this image, see PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, p. 74 (appendix 3, no. 27 on pp. 329-330) and S. PELEKANIDES – M. CHATIZDAKIS, Kastoria, Athens 1985, pp. 38-43. As a further comparison, in Athos, Koutloumousiou MS 60 (fol. IV), a manuscript dated to before 1169, the wife of protospatharios Basilios is shown kneeling in a white hat with stripes; although it appears less trapezoidal in shape, it suggests more of a structured hat than a kerchief wrap.

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Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 1851, fol. 3v.

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Fig. 16 – Vat. gr. 1851, fol. 6r.

trothed to the heir of throne.32 The attendant women recurring throughout the miniatures of the fragmentary book are not identified by proper name but described by the poet in the text as relatives of the emperor, daughters 32 See C. J. HILSDALE, Constructing a Byzantine “Augusta”: A Greek Book for a French Bride, in Art Bulletin 87.3 (2005), pp. 458-483. C. J. HENNESSY, A Child Bride and Her Repre-

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of kaisars and sebastokrators — so they are meant to represent the upper echelons of the Komnenian court. On the two pages depicting the arrival of the western bride to the imperial capital on the Bosphoros, fol. 3v (fig. 15), and her introduction to her Byzantine family-to-be, fol. 6r (fig. 16), one cannot help but be struck by the distinctive headdress worn by the aristocratic ‘ladies in waiting’. The headdress fans out widely and is marked by striations both following the contour of the arc of the headdress and on an axis to it. Similar headdresses are worn by the women depicted in the twelfth-century miniatures added to the margins of the celebrated tenthcentury copy of the Iliad in the Marciana on fols 1r and 6r.33 These portraits of identifiable patrons or representations of contemporary ladies of court in Constantinople provide a clear contextualization for this feature of dress in the late eleventh century and continuing into the twelfth century. The appearance of this distinctive headdress at the time of the commissioning of Vat. gr. 752 is also demonstrated by another body of

Fig. 17 – BnF, Paris. gr. 74, fol. 75v (detail). sentation in the Vatican Epithalamion, Cod. Gr. 1851, in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 30.2 (2006), pp. 115-150, relies on dress to propose a date in the Palaiologan period. The headdresses represented in the miniatures in particular, however, are extremely well situated within Middle Byzantine pictorial conventions, as this very discussion testifies and as HENNESSY, A Child Bride, p. 135, acknowledges. PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, p. 79 n. 107, offers a similar twelfth-century point of comparanda in the manuscript of the Heavenly Ladder of St John Climacus, on which see J. R. MARTIN, The Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Princeton 1954, pp. 101-102. The image in question, fol. 279r of Sinait. gr. 418, relates to “tranquillity” and is published in K. WEITZMANN – G. GALAVARIS, The Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai: the Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, Princeton 1990, pp. 153-162, fig. 629 (cat. no. 57). 33 I. KALAVREZOU, The Twelfth-Century Byzantine Illustrations in the Venetus A, in Recapturing a Homeric Legacy, ed. by C. Dué, Cambridge and London 2009, pp. 117-132, at figs 7a-c and 8b-c.

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visual evidence, namely narrative religious scenes in manuscripts, where, as Maria Parani notes, it appears especially in scenes of the wives of David or Salome or Herodias.34 The twin tetraevangelia in Paris (Paris. gr. 74) and Florence (Laur. Plut. VI, 23), both datable to the later eleventh century, offer strikingly close visual parallels for the Vatican Psalter’s distinctive headgear. In Paris. gr. 74, for example, these hats appear in at least three separate instances, including the scene of Salome and the beheading of John the Baptist on fol. 75v (fig. 17), and by a woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon on fol. 79r.35

Fig. 18 – Venice, Marc. gr. 479, fol. 32v (detail).

Moreover, outside the religious context, we encounter this same headdress in the eleventh-century Pseudo-Oppian manuscript in Venice, that is the Venice Cynegetica (Marc. gr. 479). In the scene of Eros attacking the Olympian gods on fol. 33r (fig. 18), a woman wearing this distinctive 34 PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, p. 78. Her description of these hats is clear and evocative: “They are tall with strongly flaring sides and a curved top and are decorated with narrow, apparently gold-embroidered bands, arranged vertically, horizontally, diagonally, or in the form of an X, at the front”. She provides a diagram of the different headdresses as well: cf. fig. 86. 35 On Paris. gr. 74, see OMONT, Évangiles avec peintures byzantines du XIe siècle, Paris 1908; DER NERSESSIAN, Recherches sur les miniatures du Parisinus Graecus 74, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 21 (1972), pp. 112-114, and SPATHARAKIS, The Portrait, pp. 61-67. The three scenes include fol. 75v (Omont pl. 69), fol. 79r (Omont pl. 71), and fol. 190v (Omont pl. 164). In the Florentine codex (Laur. Plut. VI. 23) — on which see T. VELMANS, Le Tétraévangile de la Laurentienne, Florence, Laur. VI. 23, Paris 1971, p. 27 — it is worn by both Salome and Herodias on fol. 29r. This manuscript is now online at the Teca Digitale Laurenziana web-site.

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striped headdress leans out from the window in the upper right-hand corner, and Medea, on fol. 47r, in full courtly attire including the fanning hat, is shown later discarding Jason’s children whom she has just killed.36 As these diverse manuscripts attest, this aspect of courtly dress has a wide currency in terms of eleventh-century manuscript production across genres. To return to the Vatican Psalter itself, clearly the distinctive attire of the daughters of Israel on fol. 449r-v, and throughout the pictorial cycle, is extremely well situated both in terms of contemporary manuscript production and in terms of what we understand of contemporary dress at court. In this sense, then, this particular aspect of dress is firmly situated within eleventh-century sartorial and manuscript trends. Courtliness here, in other words, is not generic but specific. And given this strong sense of specificity, we should look closer at what scenes in particular are being visually contemporized. Throughout Vat. gr. 752, again, three principal narrative contexts for this distinctive headdress can be linked to the contemporary court: the scene of Bathsheba bathing where it is worn by attendant figures, the series of scenes involving David’s wives, and lastly, at the end of the manuscript, in scenes of the daughters of Israel and Miriam, Moses’s sister. Given these contexts, it is clear that the hat is not meant to identify figures in any kind of firmly defined sense — it is not a specific iconographic marker. In other words, it is worn by Bathsheba’s attendants (not her) in the first instance, then by David’s wives a few folia later, and lastly by Miriam and the Israelite women. But it does connect these diverse scenes through visual contemporization, and, taken together, the updated scenes concern adultery, marriage, sin, redemption and celebration — all poignant themes given the fraught historic context of the book. Ultimately, it is those thematically evocative scenes that are contemporized through dress. The anachronism we see with the representation of dress, therefore, does highlight those scenes most resonant with the mid-eleventh century political context. At the same time, however, it is unclear if this sense of visual contemporaneity should be related to a specific mid-eleventh century polemic. Even if the distinctive courtly dress encourages viewers to linger over those particular scenes or to recognize Constantinople’s imperial splendor in those images,

36 See FURLAN, Codici greci illustrati della Biblioteca Marciana V, Padua 1988, and more recently I. SPATHARAKIS, The Illustrations of the Cynegetica in Venice: Codex Marcianus Graecus Z 139, Leiden 2004, p. 204. The Marciana manuscript is associated with the Vatican Book of Kings (Vat. gr. 333) and the Vatican Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus (Vat. gr. 463) dated stylistically by Anderson to the 1060s: see J. ANDERSON, Cod. Vat. gr. 463 and an EleventhCentury Byzantine Painting Center, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 32 (1978), pp. 176-198.

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the visual courtliness does not convey a gloss on those images — it does not constitute a visual commentary in and of itself. *

*

*

In the conclusion to the Dumbarton Oaks Papers article on Vat. gr. 752, the authors characterize their study as “a beginning in the process of unraveling the puzzle” of the manuscript.37 The present collection of papers resulting from the interdisciplinary conference in Rome lays some of the foundational work for further deciphering the complexity of the deluxe Vatican Psalter. My contribution has grappled with the question of how the manuscript’s visual program might refract the political context of its production. To this end, two aspects of the Vatican Psalter’s imagery were examined in detail: the unprecedented recurrence of the sons of Kore and the contemporization through dress of select scenes and characters. This examination was motivated by the need to test some of the basic assumptions undergirding the hypothesis of imperial critique or visual polemicism, which remains the dominant interpretation of the manuscript as put forward twenty years ago by Kalavrezou, Trahoulia, and Sabar. The result of this testing reveals insistent ambiguity rather than absolute clarity, and in so doing asks us to tread cautiously in our further interpretations. With regard to the first case study, analysis reveals that the sons of Kore are not represented as schismatic in any overt sense. This is not to deny that they may have been understood as the first schismatics at the time, but they are represented as far from heretical in the Vatican Psalter. On the contrary, they are privileged as pious companions and teachers. The sons of Kore thus emerge as more versatile figures, and their visual privileging throughout the manuscript is hard to explain as part of a political message. The second case study reveals that the distinctive striped and fanned headdress recurring in a number of miniatures should be understood as decidedly contemporary in terms of court dress and related manuscript production. As for its mobilization for a political critique, however, the argument remains inconclusive. Through the select use of sartorial anachronism, the illuminators were able to mark certain scenes with a degree of contemporary specificity lacking in other scenes in the manuscript. This marking highlights the episodes that are evocative of contested issues of the time such as marriage and royal sin. This aspect of the visual program, then, does lend some support to the political reading of the manuscript,38 but the question of critique is still not entirely clear. Although drawing the 37 38

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 218. Although Dirk Krausmüller’s contribution to this volume calls into question the rele-

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viewer’s attention to scenes with potential contemporary relevance, the miniatures do not necessarily cast those scenes in a negative light. After all, Bathsheba and Micah, both wives of David, are not demonized but treated in a more or less positive or neutral light (they are, for example, shown helping him on fol. 176r). Censure is not implied in the scenes that are visually contemporized through dress. Drawing on the past for contemporary politics is commonplace in Byzantine art, and Psalters pose particularly fertile ground for such typological associations.39 But drawing attention to the links between the past and present does not necessarily mean critique — it does not constitute visual polemicism. Without knowing the ‘who’ of the manuscript’s production, its patron or intended viewer, it is difficult to endorse fully the argument for the imagery as a definitive imperial critique.40 To return to the broader questions posed at the beginning of this essay, it seems that Vat. gr. 752 remains an enigma on many levels. Until a conclusive analysis of the manuscript’s imagery, style, and paleography is conducted in tandem with an investigation of the text, especially the catena, analysis must remain to a certain degree contingent and open-ended. To try to bring to light a veiled imperial critique, therefore, poses a particularly difficult challenge, for it hinges on more definitive knowledge about the manuscript’s original commissioner and intended viewer (the book’s ‘who’). Without anchors beyond the date, there is only so much that can be said about its political meaning. If the manuscript was created for imperial eyes — and this seems likely — it remains difficult to glean from the manuscript’s program the identity of the specific intended viewer and precise motivation for its commission. The patron of the manuscript remains even more elusive. Despite general assumptions, it is not clear that the codex can be associated with the Stoudios monastery — the evidence for such a provenance is insufficient at present.41 Thus the Vatican Psalter presents vance or urgency of the marital misconduct of Constantine IX at the time of the Vatican Psalter’s commissioning. 39 See the recent collection of essays, The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. by P. MAGDALINO – R. NELSON, Washington, DC 2010. 40 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 195, stress at the outset that unlike laudatory imperial imagery, “critical commentary aimed at the emperor has met with some resistance”, citing scholarship on the mosaic of the unnamed emperor over the narthex of Hagia Sophia. Moreover the conclusions to their study offer this caveat: “Although there is no way to prove incontrovertibly that the interpretation presented here is the way the images were meant to be understood, we believe that the issues raised by the images are strikingly relevant to the religious and political concerns of the mid-eleventh century” (p. 218). 41 See also the considerations in favour and against this attribution in the essay by D’AIUTO in this volume.

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far more interpretive challenges than the Theodore and Barberini Psalters with which this essay began. A didactic quality is expected from a Mirror of Princes, that textual genre offering advice to a ruler both in the form of praise and censure. How are we to understand works of art that serve as some sort of ‘mirror’ or form of Kaiserkritik?42 Allusions to imperial transgression and forgiveness would have resonance for an imperial audience embroiled in political turmoil, but that does not necessarily constitute a critique. For a critique to be legible and to resonate for its viewer it must also be hidden so as to still be acceptable. One is left wondering if it should be possible to lift the veil and see visual polemicism proper — in such an instance the commission would surely be deemed incendiary.

42 As a notable comparison from Medieval Spain, the so-called Al-Mughira ivory pyxis now in the Louvre has been read as a veiled threat for its royal recipient by F. PRADO-VILAR, Circular Visions of Fertility and Punishment: Caliphal Ivory Caskets from al-Andalus, in Muqarnas 14 (1997), pp. 19-41.

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URBAN TOPOGRAPHIES: REPRESENTING SPACE IN VAT. GR. 752* Introduction The Psalter Vat. gr. 752 dated to the years 1058/59 occupies a special place among the illustrated Psalters of the middle Byzantine period because of its rich pictorial program.1 Most notable is the omnipresence of buildings and architectural elements,2 actually a visual repository of such variegated urban structures as monuments, palatial complexes, and churches.3 This unique range of architectural imagery has no parallels among the incidental and formulaic representations of architecture and landscape found in other illuminated Psalters.4 “Space” is a familiar term in art history, referring mainly to distances or areas around, between, or within shapes in a given work created by such formal devices as line, light and shadow, and color.5 Edifices and construc* It is an honor to be invited to contribute to this volume, and it has provided an occasion to think anew about a manuscript that I have studied for the first time too many years ago to remember. I want to extend my congratulations to the editors, Barbara Crostini and Glenn Peers for this extraordinary undertaking, which will undoubtedly be a great contribution made to Byzantine Studies. I am grateful for their insightful and useful comments. 1 The patron, scribes, and artists of the codex are unknown. The manuscript has been attributed by DE WALD to the Stoudios Monastery as a commission for the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1055) (ibid., pp. ix-xiii), but was later connected with the emperor Isaak Komnenos (1057-1059); KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor. Francesco D’Aiuto is more doubtful and argued for a provincial provenance in his communication at the Ars Edendi workshop, Rome, 7-10 June, 2012: cf. now his nuanced position expressed by the paper in this volume. 2 This peculiarity was noted en passant in the past, without however being discussed; DE WALD, p. 49. 3 For these urban topographical categories, see Secular Medieval Architecture in the Balkans 1300-1500 and its Preservation, ed. by S. ÒURÇIÒ – E. HADJITRYPHONOS, Thessaloniki 1997, esp. pp. 14-15. 4 For a full list of these Psalters, see S. DUFRENNE, Tableaux synoptiques de 15 psautiers marginaux médiévaux à illustrations intégrales issues du texte, Paris 1978. See also PARPULOV, Toward a History. 5 See e.g., E. PANOFSKY, Die Perspektive als “symbolische Form”, in Vorträge der Bibliothek Warburg 1924-1925, Leipzig 1926, pp. 258-331 (English trans. by C. S. WOOD, Perspective as Symbolic Form, New York 1991); E. H. GOMBRICH, Art and Illusion. A Study of the Psychology of Pictorial Presentation, New York 1960 (Bollinger Series 35; A. W. Mellon lectures in the Fine Arts, 5). A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 517-545.

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tions, which usually establish the opposition between inside and outside, function as visible signs that shape, organize, and articulate the spatial chaos.6 This article aims to bring together the investigation of space and its construction through architecture to elucidate heretofore unremarked issues in the Vatican manuscript. I argue that the spatial constructions result in an imaginary urban topography that draws on the architectural variety and richness of physical forms in medieval Constantinople during the period when the city saw an urban resurgence (ca. 1000-1150), characterized by an unprecedented building of palaces, churches, and other urban entities.7 While my inquiry will not deal with the question of whether any specific building was represented in the manuscript, it will discuss the ways that imitation was conceived and its possible significance. It is important to stress that the small-scale edifices to be discussed are twodimensional depictions, and not actual, or even real renderings of existent monuments. Also, I will read the illustrations almost exclusively from their pictorial aspect, and their examination will not take into account ways in which the Psalms or catenae inflect or determine the understandings to be drawn. I believe that albeit being examined from these restricted points of view, their analysis will nevertheless enlarge our understanding of the still puzzling Vat. gr. 752. The concept of space has been studied extensively, not only in relation to modern times8 but in medieval studies as well.9 However, it was 6

P. ZUMTHOR, La mesure du monde: représentation de l’espace au Moyen Âge, Paris 1993. For the city of Constantinople the following are worth consulting: A. BERGER, Konstantinopel. Geschichte, Topographie, Religion, Stuttgart 2011 (Standorte in Antike und Christentum, 3); N. NECIPOGLU, Byzantine Constantinople. Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life, Leiden 2001; Constantinople: The Fabric of the City. Dumbarton Oaks Symposium 1998, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000), pp. 156-265; R. OUSTERSHOUT, Building Medieval Constantinople, in Proceedings of the Patristic, Mediaeval and Renaissance Conference 19-20, 19941996, Villanova, Pa. 1997, pp. 35-67. See also C. HENNESSY, Topography of Constantinople, in The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, ed. by E. JEFFREYS – J. HALDON – R. CORMACK, Oxford – New York 2008, pp. 202-216, with collected bibliography. Only rarely has the image of urban Constantinople in illuminated manuscripts been broached; see e.g., C. J. HILSDALE, Constructing a Byzantine “Augusta”. A Greek Book for a French Bride, in Art Bulletin, 87.3 (2005), pp. 458-483; C. BARSANTI, Le architetture “ad limitem” del Menologio di Basilio II (Cod. Vat. Greco 1613) e la miniatura con la commemorazione del patriarca Ignazio, in Commentari 27 (1977), fasc. I-III, pp. 3-25. And see N. Trahoulia’s consideration of this topic as part of a comparison between Vat. gr. 752 and the Psalter, Vat. gr. 1927, in this volume. 8 See e.g., G. BACHELARD, La poétique de l’espace, Paris 1958; H. LEFEBVRE, La production de l’espace, Paris 1974 (repr. 2000); M. DE CERTEAU, Pratiques d’espace, in L’invention du quotidien, 1: Arts de faire, ed. by L. GIARD, Paris 1991 (Collection Folio. Essais, 146), pp. 137-191; trans. as The Practice of Everyday Life, by S. RENDALL, Berkeley 1984; M. FOUCAULT, Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias, in Architecture / Mouvement / Continuité (Oct., 1984), trans. J. MISKOWIEC. 9 ZUMTHOR, La mesure du monde. On the problematics and historicity of the concept 7

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slow to acquire significant resonance in the Byzantine realm.10 Only in recent years have scholars tried to obtain a more systematic and thematic understanding of the topic, and this has yielded impressive results. The pictorial articulation of Byzantine space, a subject on which more will be said below, has been revisited and redefined.11 Alexei Lidov has promoted the concept of hierotopy, theorizing space as a sacred place marked by its architectural, liturgical, and object enclosure, as well as by the ritual activities it houses.12 Sacred space as related to liturgy has also been treated in light of the particular role that architectural and decorative elements play in its construction.13 The issue was also discussed as a foil for performative aspects in the church14 and as a multi-sensory pathway — tactile, sensory, optical, and aural — for the faithful to experience.15 The rendering of space through architecture in relation to our manuscript raises various questions about how space is conceptualized, and by “space”, see Medieval Practices of Space, ed. by B. A. HANAWALT – M. KOBIALKA, Minneapolis 2000. 10 T. VELMANS, Le rôle du décor architectural et la représentation de l’espace dans la peinture des Paléologues, in Cahiers archéologiques 14 (1964), pp. 183-216; A. H. S. MEGAW, Background Architecture in the Lagoudera Frescoes, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 21 (1972), pp. 195-201. 11 11 S. ÒURÇIÒ, Relevance and Irrelevance of Space in Byzantine Architecture, in The Notion of Space in Byzantine Architecture, ed. by E. HADJITRYPHONOS, Thessaloniki 2011 (Seminar Proceedings, Aimos-EMMABP Seminar Series II: Theoretical Issues in Medieval Architecture), pp. 23-29. Also worthy of attention is C. ANTONOVA, Space, Time, and Presence in the Icon. Seeing the World with the Eyes of God, Farnham 2010, pp. 29-62. However, ANTONOVA’s main thesis that the “reverse perspective” is a defining feature of the icon and a main pictorial means for creating the sense of a sacred presence in Byzantine post-iconoclastic art is greatly weakened by the fact that the same can be claimed for the medium of the illuminated book, as I will demonstrate. 12 A. LIDOV, Hierotopy. The Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia, Moscow 2006, pp. 98-116, with extensive bibliography. 13 For a valuable overview of the topic of space and the notion of the “sacred space” in Byzantine culture and art, see R. OUSTERHOUT, The Holy Space. Architecture and the Liturgy, in Heaven on Earth. Art and the Church in Byzantium, ed. by L. SAFRAN, University Park, PA 1998, pp. 81-120; Architecture as Icon. Perception and Representation of Architecture in Byzantine Art, ed. by S. ÒURÇIÒ – E. HADJITRYPHONOS, Princeton 2010, esp. pp. 9-21; H. MAGUIRE, Nectar and Illusion. Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature, New York 2012 (Onassis series in Hellenic culture), pp. 135-165. 14 N. ISAR, Chorography (Chora, choros) – a Performative Paradigm of Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantium, in Hierotopy, pp. 59-90; EAD., Choros. Dancing into the Sacred Space of Chora, in Byzantion 75 (2005), pp. 199-224. 15 B. PENTCHEVA, The Sensual Icon. Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium, University Park, PA 2010; EAD., Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics, in Gesta 50.2 (2011), pp. 93111; EAD., Moving Eyes. Surface and Shadow in the Byzantine Mixed-Media Relief Icon, in Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 53 (2009), pp. 223-234; and EAD., Epigrams on Icons, in Art and Text in Byzantine Culture, ed. by L. JAMES, Cambridge 2007, pp. 120-138, esp. pp. 130-134.

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what artistic conventions; the particular nature of the spatial/architectural constructions; the contextual and cultural implications of the artistic choice of one or another spatial/architectural rendering; what marks the use of space as particular; and how space is to be understood in relation to eleventh-century Byzantine culture. Approaching such concepts as urban topography and space is a complex task; for the sake of clarity, they are discussed less in theoretical terms and more from an iconographical perspective, a careful parsing of architectural forms. An exhaustive discussion of all relevant miniatures in Vat. gr. 752 would be tedious and unprofitable because of the repetition of many iconographic schemes; for this reason, only certain case studies will be examined in depth. The paper is organized thematically in two parts. The first proposes a general outline of the formal and aesthetic devices available for the construction of space and considers the structures’ particularities. The next focuses on case studies, civic and religious spaces that can be related to actual urban entities in Constantinople, hence construing an imagined city of sorts. Issues regarding the gendered use of space and their possible cultural implications are also treated. The study will conclude with some general observations, addressing, among other questions, the possible place of the manuscript’s production and its reception. I. Spatial and Architectural Outlines The examination of relevant miniatures in Vat. gr. 752 reveals that the space is public in nature, created through buildings or structures that fall into two main categories that may be broadly termed “civic” and “religious”, with an overwhelming predominance of the latter. Each category shares a common spatial syntax and its own vocabulary of architectural motifs.16 The first group can be further subdivided into urban monuments, walled or fortified cities, and palatial complexes; the second consists of ecclesiastical and liturgical spaces. To shape the spaces, the artists turned frequently to the system most favored by Byzantine artists, the multi-viewpoint perspective (fig. 1),17 occasionally with central projections (fig. 2),18 or the more cartographic 16

Out of the 487 folios in the manuscript, 194 have miniatures, with over 100 displaying scenes with architecture. Private space is rarely depicted; see the military tents on fols 54r, 109v; DE WALD, pp. 14, 18, correspondingly. 17 Fol. 284r (Ps 89:3); DE WALD, p. 30. The “one-point perspective” system is not present in the architectural spatial settings because it requires standardized right-angle modules absent in Byzantine art; ÒURÇIÒ, Relevance and Irrelevance of Space in Byzantine Architecture, pp. 23-29. 18 Fol. 411r (Ps 134:4); DE WALD, p. 37.

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Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 284r: Psalm 89:3 (detail).

Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 411r: Psalm 134:4 (detail).

Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 200r: Psalm 6:7 (detail).

Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 423v: Psalm 140 (detail).

bird’s-eye-view (fig. 3).19 The architectural elements are spatially organized according to reverse perspective; that is, the farther away these are, the larger their representation. The result of this pictorial device is the impression that the vanishing points are in front of the painting, while actually being placed outside it.20 An additional principle for organizing architectural space is the frequent association of Ѭ͖͌-Ѩ͙͋͑͏21 (outside-inside) in a single 19

Fol. 200r (Ps 6:7); DE WALD, p. 26. ANTONOVA, Space, Time, and Presence, pp. 29-62. 21 M. HALM-TISSERANT, EXO-ENTOS – De l’ambiguïté des portes et des fenêtres dans la peinture de vases grecque, in Revue des études anciennes 97 (1995), pp. 473-503. 20

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Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 139v: Psalm 41, title (detail).

Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104v: Psalm 34, title (detail).

edifice, usually employing a visible division between them (fig. 4);22 only occasionally does this association results in an ambiguous representation (fig. 5).23 Spatial hierarchies are established both vertically and horizontally, resulting in a great sense of stability (fig. 6).24 Despite the presence of a unified source of light and the fact that distance is not suggested by gradations of colour, a sense of three-dimensionality is not altogether absent from these structures. The effort to create a sense of physical space is rendered through such devices as frontal and lateral views of the buildings (fig. 7),25 the placing of architectural units on sequential planes (fig. 1), or an altar under a ciborium seen in inverted perspective (fig. 8).26 22 Fol. 423v (Ps 140); DE WALD, p. 38. The spatial exterior-interior feature is constant in the medium of book illuminations, as for instance the two-storied basilica that also affords a lateral view of its sanctuary with the Kyriotissa icon in the Theodore Psalter, made in 1066 at the Stoudios Monastery, fol. 115v; DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Add. 19.352, p. 44, pl. 69, fig. 191. See also my discussion of the image in M. MEYER, “Remembering Zion” and Simulacra. Jerusalem in the Byzantine Psalter, in Visual Constructs of Jerusalem, ed. by B. KÜHNEL – G. NOGA-BANAI – H. VORHOLT, Turnhout 2014 (CELAMA, 18), pp. 451-461. 23 Fol. 139v (Ps 41, title); DE WALD, pp. 19-20. 24 Fol. 104v (Ps 34, title); DE WALD, p. 18. 25 Fol. 359r (Ps 114:2); DE WALD, p. 34. 26 Fol. 399v (Ps 129:1); DE WALD, p. 36. For the treatment of three-dimensionality in Byzantine art, see S. ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture as Icon, in Architecture as Icon, pp. 21-23. Contrast Brubaker’s argument stating that the viewer experiences space and time in the medium of the illuminated book only as a regulated linear sequence: L. BRUBAKER, Originality in Byzantine Manuscript Illumination, in Originality in Byzantine Literature Art and Music. A Collection of Essays, ed. by A. R. LITTLEWOOD, Oxford 1995, pp. 147-165, at p. 155.

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Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 359r: Psalm 114:2 (detail).

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Fig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 399v: Psalm 129:1 (detail).

In general, all these structures show a well-defined space clearly demarcated from its surroundings, and they also evidence the contemporary artists’ predilection for structuring them conceptually. The result is compartmentalized and fragmented architecture. The scale relationship between architecture and human figures has nothing to do with actual sizes; the structures are diminutive in relation to the figures even if they have outsized symbolic and spiritual meaning, as will be addressed below. All the architecture shares a common syntax, a default schema of sorts, which repeats itself in the articulation of space. This approach may be termed a “physiognomic interpretation”; it calls to mind general features of monuments and buildings in the real world; yet, in no way it reproduces them.27 A. Civic spaces Civic spaces are for the most part conceived as a fortified city comprising walls, gates, and towers. The walled city is regularly reduced to the medieval pictorial formula of high walls with conspicuous gates (open or closed) and semicircular ramparts dotted with fortifications, here (fig. 9) inhabited by the royal figure of David and lacking any other edifices, including churches. When they are present at all, clusters of edifices are placed outside the fortified walls.28 27

For the discussion of “physiognomic interpretation”, see MEYER, “Remembering Zion”. Fol. 176r (Ps 55, title); DE WALD, p. 23. Similar depictions on fols 100v and 170r. In contemporary illuminated manuscripts, the fortified city may take the shape of a city enclos28

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Palace complexes are rendered conceptually as a frontal threetiered structure (figs 10-11). On the lower level, the figures are flanked on the left by a richly decorated entrance to the imperial palace and on the right by a curtained entrance or gable-roofed structure. The intermediate part consists either of a gallery with a latticed balustrade29 punctuated by pairs of slender marble columns or two pairs of robust marble columns. The upper level alFig. 9 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r: Psalm 55, title ternates gables topped with crosses, perhaps ecclesiastical edifices, with (detail). lunettes;30 the architectural elements seem to be covered with marble.31 The compact composition results in a continuous façade animated by a rhythmic articulation of architectural elements offering mainly a frontal view, with a glimpse of the roofs.32 ing numerous buildings such as the city of Antioch in the Menologion of Basil II, Vat. gr. 1613, ca. 1000, fol. 97r; P. FRANCHI DE’ CAVALIERI, Il Menologio di Basilio II [Cod. Vaticano Greco 1613], 2 vols, Torino 1907 (Codices e Vaticanis selecti phototypice expressi), vol. 1, p. 26; vol. 2, pl. 97. Another example is the city of Jerusalem in the eleventh-century Book of Kings, Vat. gr. 333, fol. 24r; J. LASSUS, L’illustration byzantine du Livre des Rois. Vaticanus Graecus 333, Paris 1973, p. 53, pl. XIII, fig. 44. It may also be inextricably linked with the church, shaped as a walled city enclosing a church in the eleventh-century liturgical roll, Jerusalem, Stavrou 109 (VOCOTOPOULOS, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, pp. 116-117, fig. 55), or it may be limited to a walled fortified city with no figures or edifices, as in the city of Sodom depicted in the Theodore Psalter, fol. 21v. Compare also the architectural formations pointing to the cities of the tribe of Benjamin in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos, possibly made at the Stoudios monastery between 1060 and 1080 (Jerusalem, Taphou 14, fol. 111v; VOCOTOPOULOS, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, pp. 124-181, figs 59-86). 29 Latticework appears to have been a frequent decorative element in both secular and religious Byzantine architecture; M. ANGOLD, Inventory of the So-called Palace of Botaneiates, in The Byzantine Aristocracy IX to XIII Centuries, ed. by M. ANGOLD, Oxford 1984 (B.A.R. International Series, 221), pp. 255-256. A similar architectural element appears for instance in the scene of the Coronation of David in the Paris Psalter, Paris. gr. 139, fol. VI; H. BUCHTHAL, The Miniatures of the Paris Psalter. A Study in Middle Byzantine Painting, London 1938 (repr. Nendeln 1968), pp. 24-25, fig. 6. 30 The identification of the golden barrel-vaulted edifices as an imperial residence can be inferred not only from the presence of King David and two of his companions on fol. 218v but also from comparison with the similar structure on fol. 163r, cf. infra, figs 10, 24. 31 Fols 218v, 222v (Pss 125:3; 140); DE WALD, pp. 26-27 and 38 respectively. 32 A similar tripartition of the palatial residence appears on fol. 395v, erroneously identified as “a building with a balcony”; DE WALD, p. 36.

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Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 218v: Psalm 125:3 (detail).

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Fig. 11 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 222v: Psalm 140 (detail).

This arrangement creates the impression that the onlooker standing in front can take in all structures at once. B. Religious spaces Far outnumbering the representation of civic structures, the ecclesiastical structures represented in the manuscript are all firmly identified as such by one or more crosses. They consist of two-storied domical covered structures that tend to show both the façade and a lateral wall (fig. 4),33 or a basilica with a domical subsidiary chapel (fig. 7)34; the preference seems to be to show a west/south elevation. Almost all structures have a curtained entrance,35 and all churches are pierced at least by one window 33

See also fols 269v, 417r, 438v. Fol. 359r (Ps 114:2); DE WALD, p. 34. Note close depictions on fols 273r, 290r, 336r, 362r. On subsidiary chapels as a major structural form, see S. ÒURÇIÒ, Architectural Significance of Subsidiary Chapels in Middle Byzantine Churches, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 36.2 (May 1977), pp. 94-110. 35 The veiled entrance into the sanctuary has liturgical connotations connected with the reenactment of the Incarnation; T. E. MATHEWS, The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul. A Photographic Survey, University Park, PA – London 1976, pp. 162-171; R. F. TAFT, The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and Other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Rome 1975 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 200), pp. 209-210, 244-249. For art-historical discussion of this element see, e.g., M. EVANGELATOU, The Purple Thread of the Flesh. The Theological Connotations of a Narrative Iconographic Element in Byzantine Images of the Annunciation, in Icon and Word. The Power of Images in Byzantium. Studies Presented to Robin Cormack, ed. by A. EASTMOND – L. JAMES, Aldershot – Burlington, VA 2003, pp. 261-279. 34

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Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 401r: Psalm 130:2 (detail).

Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r: Psalm 16 (detail).

on the side wall or below the dome, evoking the few windows that pierce those parts of an actual middle Byzantine church. The exterior of the buildings is painted to imitate genuine Byzantine construction techniques, possibly reflecting the use of layered brick-and-mortar courses (on the lower part) and the smoother appearance of the upper parts of the building created by the use of stone courses (fig. 12).36 The manuscript’s buildings may also display structural elements covered by veined and speckled revetments (fig. 13),37 attesting to the long-established custom of covering Constantinopolitan churches with marble and tiles; and they often display decorative motifs attesting to contemporary enlivenment of church façades (figs 7,38 1339). The overall appearance of rep-

36 Evidence for exterior plastering vs. visible construction, see in, R. OUSTERHOUT, Master Builders of Byzantium, Philadelphia, PA 2008, pp. 128-156, 169-184. 37 Fol. 51r (Ps 16); DE WALD, pp. 13-14. 38 Note close depictions on fols 273r, 290r, 336r, 362r. On subsidiary chapels as a major structural form, see ÒURÇIÒ, Architectural Significance of Subsidiary Chapels. 39 Fol. 401r (Ps 130:2); DE WALD, p. 36. The remains excavated in the Myrelaion Palace evidence the perpetuation of the covering of the church with marble revetment and polychrome ceramic revetment: C. L. STRIKER, The Myrelaion (Bodrum Camii) in Istanbul, Princeton 1981, pp. 24-25. For decoration with ceramic tiles, see also R. B. MASON – M. MUNDELL MANGO, Glazed “Tiles of Nicomedia” in Bithynia, Constantinople and Elsewhere, in Con-

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Fig. 14 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 407r: Psalm 132:2 (detail).

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Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 432r: Psalm 143:2 (detail).

resented churches is marked by vertical elongation of proportions, often emphasized by a taller central dome and a cross (figs 14-15).40 To render the inner space of the church, the artists tend to eliminate such spatial divisions as nave, aisles, or any walls flanking the sanctuary, which results in the outsized prominence of the latter. The sanctuary space, enclosing an altar, displays an array of liturgical implements and objects that confer upon it a sacred aura.41 It is usually marked by a domed canopy, more rarely a pyramidal one, carried on three or four slender columns crowned by schematized acanthus capitals; these supports seem to be made of veined marble or painted tiles (figs 8, 1642). The ciboria are ocstantinople and its Hinterland. Papers from the Twenty-seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993, ed. by G. DAGRON – C. MANGO, Aldershot – Brookfield, VT 1997 (Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, 3), pp. 313-131; A Lost Art Rediscovered. The Architectural Ceramics of Byzantium, ed. by S. E. J. GERSTEL – J. A. LAUFFENBURGER, exh. cat., The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, University Park, PA 2001, esp. pp. 13-42, 172-309. For the various decorative patterns adorning the exterior of Byzantine churches, see A. PASADAIOS, Ho keramoplastikos diakosmos ton vyzantinon kterion tes Konstantinoupoleos (= Ceramoplastic Decoration of Byzantine Buildings of Constantinople), Athens 1973. 40 Fols 407r (Ps 132:2) and 432r (Ps 143:2); DE WALD, pp. 37 and 39, respectively. Similar structures appear on fols 284r, 298r, 352v, 359r, 361v, 390v, 401r, 407r, 408r, 427r, 432r. Twostory churches are characteristic of medieval Constantinopolitan building, as for instance the tenth-century North church in the Monastery of Constantine Lips; T. MACRIDY – A. H. S. MEGAW – C. MANGO – E. J. W. HAWKINS, The Monastery of Lips (Fenari Isa Camii) at Istanbul, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18 (1964), pp. 258-265, figs 7, 10-16. 41 The question of the liturgical-performative aspects in these images will be addressed in a forthcoming paper. 42 Fol. 33r (Ps 8); DE WALD, p. 10. Ciboria appear also on the following folios: 41r, 50v,

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Fig. 17 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 265r: Psalm 83:7 (detail).

Fig. 16 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 33r: Psalm 8 (detail).

casionally preceded by golden openwork screens decorated with a variety of motifs, where figures clad in ecclesiastical vestments43 and carrying liturgical objects officiate (figs 8, 1744). These screens reflect the templon

85r, 88v, 97r, 104v, 148r, 156v, 180v, 191r, 193v, 238v, 255v, 258v, 265v, 305v, 396v, 443v, 445v, 447r. The structural element was sometimes decorated with colourful tiles; GERSTEL – LAUFFENBURGER, A Lost Art Rediscovered, p. 208, with collected bibliography. Both types are a recurrent feature in contemporary illuminated Psalters, such as the Theodore Psalter, fols 3v and 208r; or the Bristol Psalter, London, British Museum, MS. Add. 40 731, 1000, fol. 259r: S. DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psautiers grecs du Moyen Âge, vol. I: Pantocrator 61, Paris grec 20, British Museum 40731, Paris 1966 (Bibliothèque des cahiers archéologiques, 1), p. 180, fig. 38. For a short survey of the acanthus capitals, see S. ALPASLAN, Architectural Sculpture in Constantinople and the Influence of the Capital in Anatolia, in Byzantine Constantinople, p. 194, with earlier literature. 43 E.g., fols 88v, 97r. The bishops wear the phelonion decorated with two crosses over an omophorion, with the narrow epitrachelion worn around the neck. A useful and up-to-date discussion of these vestments is in W. T. WOODFIN, The Embodied Icon. Liturgical Vestments and Sacramental Power in Byzantium, Oxford – New York 2012, pp. 10-11, 105, 248, 250 (epitrachelion); pp. 13, 15-16, 104, 281 (omophorion); pp. 11-13, 15, 23, 205, 280 (phelonion). 44 Fol. 265v (Ps 83:7); DE WALD, p. 29. See also fols 76r, 85r, 148r, 191r, 193v, 265r, 305v, 395v, 396v, 443v. A variety of vegetal patterns adorn, for example, the screens at the Topkapi Palace basilica and the Kalenderhane church, now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, all of which are dated to the sixth century; MATHEWS, Byzantine Churches, pp. 383-385, fig. 39.3. Decorated screens feature on their own but not preceding the ciborium, for instance in the ninth-century Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos, Paris. gr. 510, 866, fol. 137r(c), The Presentation, and fol. 452r(a), Gregory the Presbyter; L. BRUBAKER, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium. Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Cambridge 1999 (Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 6), pp. 418, 420, respectively.

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screen that, by the ninth century, replaced the low marble or wooden barriers of early Christian churches, maintaining a strict division between the congregation and the sacred rituals taking place in the sanctuary. This middle Byzantine screen consisted of chancel slabs closed at floor level but open above, with widely spaced columns supporting an epistyle.45 The only illumination that possibly repre- Fig. 18 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 137v: Psalm 40, title (detail). sents a church nave is the two-storied elevation that supports groups of people listening to King Hezekiah, who stands behind an altar (fig. 18). The skeletal structure evokes church galleries supported by an entablature standing on regularly spaced columns.46 To summarize the preceding discussion of the religious spaces in Vat. gr. 752, we can say that despite the artists’ predilection for generic and standard forms, there is a genuine attempt to vary them by integrating more and less credible multiple points of view, specific architectural features and subsidiary spaces, and exterior and interior decoration. The richness of the spatial articulation combined into unified aesthetic structures evokes the general reality of religious buildings in medieval Constantinople, and some unique renderings may point to actual churches. In addition, the overpowering presence of ecclesiastical buildings in the Psalter may be related not only to the liturgical and symbolic associations of the manuscript but also to the reality of urban space in the Byzantine realm, where 45 S. KALOPISSI-VERTI, The Proskynetaria of the Templon and Narthex. Form, Imagery, Spatial Connections, and Reception, in Thresholds of the Sacred. Architecture, Art Historical, Liturgical and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens. East and West, ed. by S. E. J. GERSTEL, Washington, DC 2006, pp. 107-134; C. WALTER, A New Look at the Byzantine Sanctuary Barrier, in Revue des études byzantines 51 (1993), pp. 203-228. 46 Fol. 137v (Ps 40, title); DE WALD, p. 19. De Wald attempted to identify it as a stoa, but this identification is problematic because the late antique stoa, or embolos, a colonnaded street and the porticoes that lined it, was replaced in medieval Constantinople by shops, thus introducing a distinct commercial nature; M. MUNDELL MANGO, The Porticoed Street of Constantinople, in Byzantine Constantinople, pp. 29-33, 40-43, and fig. 5, with bibliography. Galleries adorned churches such as Hagia Sofia, or the Church of the Holy Apostles; C. MANGO, Byzantine Architecture, New York 1976 (History of World Architecture [Abrams]), pp. 61, 66, 79, 144.

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Fig. 19 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18v.

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public urban space was consolidated around clusters of religious buildings rather than around civic centres.47 II. Imaging Urban Constantinople In Vat. gr. 752 there are also some architectural constructions that stand out by their particularity, as compared to the architectural referents discussed above. I would claim that their non-formulaic appearance possibly points to real architecture in medieval Constantinople, even though assumptions of exact copying are untenable. A. Monuments One such specific construction is found on the prefatory page, a complex structure containing Christ, David, and musicians. It is composed of two marble columns supporting an arcuated lintel, the horseshoe arch of which forms a mandorla around an enthroned Christ. Beneath the mandorla a second marble-columned structure frames King David between a two-step platform and a two-tiered lintel (fig. 19).48 The overall appearance of the outer structure, erroneously identified by De Wald as a ciborium, can best be understood as a miniaturized abstract rendering of the Chalke or Bronze Gate on the Augustaion. The Chalke, mentioned for the first time in fifth-century sources, was destroyed and rebuilt by several emperors and drops out of texts after 1200. According to Cyril Mango its supposed exterior appearance would have been that of “a slightly elongated façade with a big door in the middle surmounted by a lunette (in which was the mosaic image of Christ), and a series of arcaded niches above”.49 It has been suggested that the architectural composition of a colonnade in the 47 L. BRUBAKER, Topography and the Creation of Public Space in Early Medieval Constantinople, in Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, ed. by M. DE JONG – F. THEUWS – C. VAN RHIJN, Leiden – Boston 2001, pp. 31-43 at p. 34. 48 Fol. 18v; DE WALD, pp. 7-8; KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 205. On the upper left above the lintel is the scene of the Two Marys at the Tomb, and on the right the scene of the Raising of Lazarus, both identified by inscriptions. The architecture here is close in appearance to the structure topped by two armed statues in the Theodore Psalter, fol. 174v. 49 The emperor used to stop at the Bronze Gate for the acclamations of the circus factions on his way to attend the liturgy at Hagia Sophia, still during the eleventh century; C. MANGO, The Brazen House. A Study of the Vestibule of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople, Copenhagen 1959, esp. pp. 34-35. On the exterior appearance of the Chalke and the putative posticonoclastic image of Christ surmounting the gate, see J. HALDON – L. BRUBAKER, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, c. 680-850. A History, Cambridge 2011, pp. 128-135. A suggested reconstruction of the monument at http://www.arkeo3d.com/byzantium1200/chalke.html.

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Fig. 21 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 65v: Psalm 20, title (detail).

background and a four-sided portico on the left with an image of Christ in the lunette above, seen in the famous Trier ivory (whether it dates to the fifth Fig. 20 – Ivory relief plaque, Hohe Dom- or the ninth-tenth century), was meant kirche Trier, fifth century, or late to represent the Chalke gate (fig. 20).50 ninth/early tenth centuries (detail) Because its grand ceremonial char(photo: Hohe Domkirche Trier). acter and the fact that access to the walled Great Palace was obtained mostly by passing through this monument, the Gate became an imperial symbol and an emblem of the Byzantine Empire. If this be the case, one can only wonder if the striking golden decorated doorway, above which is a lunette with an icon figure of Christ (fig. 21) appearing several times in the manuscript does not actually reflect what must have been a very imposing gate.51 The imperial implications in the miniature are reflected not only in the physical resemblance of this structure to the actual gate but also in its treatment of space. Unlike the corresponding prefatory page of the contemporary Barberini Psalter, where the use of a frame and ground lines 50 Ivory relief, Constantinople, date uncertain (fifth or ninth-tenth century), Hohe Domkirche Trier; K. G. HOLUM – G. VIKAN, The Trier Ivory. Adventus Ceremonial, and the Relics of St Stephen, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 33 (1979), pp. 115-133, at p. 125 and n. 62. 51 Fol. 65v (Ps 20, title); DE WALD, p. 14. Similar representations on fols 100r, 488v. Note the intriguing term masgidion (͊̿͐́Ӄ͇͍͂͋) by which are defined the doors of the sanctuary before which Saul gives his two spies instructions on fol. 100r (DE WALD, p. 17). The Muslim label to the Christian building may be read in a polemical perspective; Saul being David’s foe, it bears on the architecture. I am indebted to G. Peers for drawing my attention to the inscription.

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Fig. 22 – Barb. gr. 372, fol. 5v: frontispiece.

encompassing all the figures establishes a neat distance between Christ, David, and the singers (fig. 22),52 here the axial interaction of Christ and the king in a single space53 establishes a parallel between the celestial and 52 Barb. gr. 372, fol. 5v: ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter, p. 56. The date and commissioner of this manuscript are debated: ca. 1092 and emperor Alexios Komnenos (r. 1081-1118), DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Add. 19.352, pp. 64-70; ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter; or ca. 1060 with emperor Constantine X Doukas (1059-1067) as the probable commissioner: see J. LOWDEN, An Inquiry into the Role of Theodore in the Making of the Theodore Psalter, in BARBER, Theodore Psalter, pp. 1-20; HUTTER, Theodoros, esp. pp. 201-202. 53 This recurrent phenomenon here and in some twenty other scenes in the manuscript was noted by KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 207.

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terrestrial rulers and also serves to break down the distinction between the heavenly and earthly celebrants. Further, the schematic architectural structure governed by horizontal and vertical lines creates a sense of stability and confers a timelessness nature on the composition. The sophisticated construction in Vat. gr. 752 has clearly encomiastic associations that hint at the political perceptions prevalent in eleventh-century Byzantium, according to which earthly imperial rule is legitimized through biblical precedents such as David and approved by God.54 B. The Walled City The presence of walls, which are symbolic markers of urbanism, constructs a civic identity because walls demarcate a city’s inhabitants and are associated with them. The walls’ endowment with fortifications and towers conveys their protective role.55 This defensive aspect is particularly emphasized by the presence of rectangular Fig. 23 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163r: Psalm 50 (detail). towers pierced with openings on certain folios (fig. 23),56 possibly reflecting the rectangular, pentagonal, or hexagonal towers that fortified the walls of Constantinople.57 By eliminating any allusion to specific buildings inside the walls, the city — reduced to ramparts fortified 54 G. DAGRON, Emperor and Priest. The Imperial Office in Byzantium, trans. J. BIRELL, Cambridge 2003, pp. 20-24, 192-219. For the visual expression of this idea, see H. MAGUIRE, The Heavenly Court, in Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204, ed. by H. MAGUIRE, Washington, DC 1997, pp. 245-258. 55 H. SARADI, Space in Byzantine Thought, in Architecture as Icon, pp. 82-86. See also EAD., The Monuments in the Late Byzantine Ekphraseis of Cities, in Byzantinoslavica 69.3 (2011), pp. 179-192. 56 Fol. 163r (Ps 50); DE WALD, p. 21; rectangular towers are also depicted on fols 176r and 200r (cf. supra, figs 9 and 3). 57 ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture in the Balkans, p. 252. Insight into the concrete appearance of this structural element can be obtained from the surviving tower in Istanbul described in the ekphrastic poem of the tenth-century John Geometres; H. MAGUIRE, The Beauty of Castles. A Tenth Century Description of a Tower in Constantinople, in ̣͉͍̓͑̽͋ ͑ͅ͏ ̵͎͇͇͇͈͐͑̿͋Ӏ͏ ̠͎͔͇͍͉͍͇͈̿́Ӏ͏ ̤͇͎͑̿̓̽̿͏ 4.17 (1994), pp. 21-24, at p. 22, fig. 1; p. 23, fig. 2.

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by towers and the massive palatial entrance — projects a medieval fortified enclosure, and more specifically a fortified palace, the way the walled Great Palace in Constantinople must have looked after several emperors had built and rebuilt its enclosure walls.58 This rendering inscribes an imperial meaning onto the urban space, as opposed to nonspecific or religious meanings in contemporary manuscripts; it is most similar to monumental works of art.59 In this respect, the assimilation of the city gates with the barrel-vaulted edifice that terminates in a lunette-like grilled opening on folio 163r (fig. 23) is of particular interest; it is reminiscent of the exterior façade in the reconstruction of the Chalke gate, thus equating the city gates with the symbolic entrance to the imperial palace.60 C. The Imperial Palace The most exceptional constructions, and the ones that give the Psalter illuminations their very distinctive character, are those related to imperial spaces (figs 10-11). These admittedly generic images offer a sense of the way contemporary palatial complexes in Constantinople, comprising both religious and nonreligious edifices, must have looked.61 Although one might think of the Great Palace as the imperial seat of power and the heart of the city, it is unlikely that the artist had it in mind because from late ninth century onward it was used by the emperors only on rare occasions.62 More likely the artist referenced another palace, such as the Mangana Palace on the east face of the Acropolis hill. Built by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1055) the complex included, in addition to the pal-

58

Justinian II (685-695), and Theophilos (829-842); ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture in the Balkans, pp. 252-253, 268, respectively. 59 The imperial association is evident in the model of the city of Constantinople that Emperor Constantine offers the Theotokos in the tenth-century mosaic placed above the south vestibule entrance at Hagia Sophia; R. CORMACK, The Mother of God in the Mosaics of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople, in Mother of God. Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art, ed. by M. VASSILAKI, Athens 2000, pp. 107-123, at p. 107, fig. 61. 60 Similar edifices appear in scenes connected with David, or with his wives, on fols 79v, 162v, 176r, 411r. For the symbolic meaning of the city gate, see S. ÒURÇIÒ, Late Antique Palaces. The Meaning of Urban Context, in Ars orientalis 23 (1993), pp. 67-90, esp. p. 71. 61 Even though very few archaeological remains of palaces survive, especially during this middle Byzantine period, these images and historical documents give some idea of the original palatial appearance; ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture in the Balkans, pp. 268-271. 62 See e.g., A. G. PASPATES, The Great Palace of Constantinople, London 1893, repr. 2004; J. BARDILL, Visualizing the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors at Constantinople. Archaeology, Text, and Topography, in Visualisierungen von Herrschaft. Frühmittelalterliche Residenzen – Gestalt und Zeremoniell, ed. by F. A. BAUER = BYZAS 5 (2006), pp. 5-45.

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Fig. 24 – Kilise Camii, Istanbul, Turkey. Exterior view from the east, April 1935 (photo: Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection: Nicholas V. Artamonoff Photographs of Istanbul and Turkey, 19351945 [PH.BZ.010]; Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.).

Fig. 25 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 151r: Psalm 45, title (detail).

ace, the monastery of St George in the Mangana, a hospital, and a law school.63 The palace was most likely a single building block surrounded by lower elements and open porticoes. Of particular interest was its articulation of space, which was based on a rigorous use of modular bays and a rich vocabulary of structural components, including columns, piers, pilasters, and barrel and domical vaulted units. The Palace’s buildings were constructed in the traditional Constantinopolitan technique alternating courses of brick and stone, as seems to be depicted on the right edifice on folio 222v (fig. 11).64 This arrangement suggests the contemporary recessed-brick technique, which is a hallmark of mid-Byzantine architecture, as can be seen in the tenth-century church of Kilise Camii (fig. 24).65 Two additional images are also relevant in the context of the palatial 63 The emperors mostly used the Blachernai Palace beginning in the eleventh century. On this, see infra, n. 70. 64 R. DEMANGEL – E. MAMBOURY, Le quartier des Manganes et la première région de Constantinople, Paris 1939, pp. 19-47. 65 V. V. SEDOV, Kilise Dz֝ami. Stolic֝naja arhitektura Vizantii (Kilise Camii. Architecture of the Byzantine Capital), Moscow 2008 (Russian with English summary); W. MÜLLER-WIENER, Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls. Byzantion-Konstantinupolis-Istanbul bis zum Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts, Tübingen 1977, pp. 169-171, figs 172-176. On the banded technique, see OUSTERHOUT, Master Builders of Byzantium, pp. 169-184.

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precinct. On folio 151r there is a stepped structure on which stand the sons of Kore; this leads to a complex vaulted and domed church and the parapet behind which King David stands. The parapet, adorned with veined marble slabs and a bird-shaped acroterion and figural statue on top, clearly Fig. 26 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v: Psalm 50 (detail). identify it as a civic and not a religious space (fig. 25).66 The decorative elements of the parapet make one think of the Mese, adorned with colonnades and statues.67 The other image is the barrel-vaulted edifice with grilles in the lunette and side wall, its closed door ornamented with lozenge-shaped motifs, in the scene of the Bath of Bathsheba (fig. 26).68 In line with the evident typological (baptismal) meaning of the scene,69 the schematized structure may be related to urban bathhouses in the city or in the imperial complex, such as the Blachernae Palace.70 The building on the right in the minia66

Fol. 151r (Ps 45, title); DE WALD, p. 20. MANGO, The Brazen House, pp. 97-98. See also the Parastaseis, esp. chs. 11, 39, 41, where the reader is told that statues of pagan deities, both naked and clothed, adorned the public realm of Constantinople at least until the eighth century; A. CAMERON – J. HERRIN, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century. The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, Leiden 1984 (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 10), pp. 45-52. The adornment of architectural elements with standing, nude sculptures is common in illuminated Psalters, as in the Theodore Psalter, fols 6r and 183v, and other manuscripts as well, such as the Menologion of Basil II: FRANCHI DE’ CAVALIERI, Il Menologio di Basilio II, vol. 1, p. 28; vol. 2, pl. 100. 68 Fol. 162v (Ps 50); 2 Kings 11; DE WALD, pp. 21-22; KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 204-205. The rendering here is unique, as compared to other illuminated manuscripts, such as the ninth-century Sacra Paralella, Paris. gr. 923, fol. 282v; K. WEITZMANN, The Miniatures of the Sacra Parallela. Parisinus Graecus 923, Princeton 1979 (Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 8), pp. 83-84, pl. XXXV, fig. 31. 69 As appears in the exegetical explanation by Hesychios of Jerusalem on Psalm 50 accompanying the miniature, where the Father of the Church insists on baptism as a means of cleansing one’s sins: TitPs, PG 27, col. 849B. I second De Wald’s opinion that the tub represents an actual bath and not a baptismal font, as suggested by KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 202. Compare this bath to the baptismal font on fol. 29v, showing a different shape; DE WALD, pp. 9-10. 70 This palatine residence, first built during the fifth century, was situated near the church of the Theotokos of Blachernae west of the city on the Golden Horn. During the time of emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) it was transformed into the main imperial residence; S. RUNCIMAN, Blachernae Palace and Its Decoration, in Studies in Memory of D. Talbot Rice, Edinburgh 1975, pp. 277-283. On the imperial baths in the Blachernae Palace, see P. MAGDALINO, Constantinople médiévale. Études sur l’évolution des structures urbaines, Paris 1996, p. 32. 67

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Fig. 27 – Ivory relief plaque, Constantinople, 17.5 u 12.8 cm, Berlin, Museum für spätantike und byzantinische Kunst (Inv. no. 574): The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (photo: Berlin, Museum für spätantike und byzantinische Kunst).

ture is reminiscent of the architecture of the bath, and more specifically its entrance, as it appears in the eleventh-century ivory depicting the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (fig. 27).71 The extent to which the Psalter’s skeletal renderings of the imperial precinct offer glimpses of actual palace buildings in Constantinople is open to debate, but their visual evocation in some way is not. The rich golden details of these images draw not only on artistic imagination, but also on the well-known lavishness of the imperial residences. The most surprising construction related to the imperial precinct, unique among the Psalter’s images, is the building that encloses the wives of David, the so-called gynaikeion (͇͈́͒͋̿̓‫)͍͋ل‬, or the “women’s quarters”.72 71 G. BÜHL, Mitteltalfel eines Triptychon – die Vierzig Märtyres von Sebaste, in Die Welt von Byzanz-Europas östliches Erbe. Glanz, Krisen und Fortleben einer tausendjährigen Kultur, exh. cat., Museum fur Vor- und Frühgeschichte München, ed. by L. WAMSER, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 166-167. The site ‘Constantinople 2000,’ showing a reconstruction of medieval Constantinople, includes a bath complex within the Great Palace complex (nr. 8); http://www.arkeo3d. com/byzantium1200/blachernae.html. 72 Although the term may convey various meanings, in Byzantine times it probably referred to the private living quarters of the women of the imperial family; Gynaikeion, in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, vol. 2, cols 888-889.

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A case in point is the figure of Michal, richly attired,73 who is helping King David to flee Saul (fig. 28).74 She is positioned at the upper right of an imperial complex.75 The elaborate screens/shutters that let air circulate but keep the women hidden may point to the physical appearance of the gynaikeion’s windows.76 Indeed, review of the architectural configurations suggests that the space in Vat. gr. 752 is highly gendered, compartmentalizing each gender in a separate designated space. Whereas male figures operate in all urban entities, both civic and imperial, females are located only inside Fig. 28 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r: Psalm 58 (detail). the palatial complex, where they are positioned at thresholds, on balconies, and in windows, all of which can connote liminality.77 A suggestive illustration of the spatial division be73 In Vat. gr. 752, female figures associated with David, wives and dancers, all wear a richly decorated wide-sleeved robe adorned with collar and hem bands, and their head covering is a wide, brimless, trapezoidal hat, both of which are recurring features of the imperial or aristocratic wardrobe; Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843-1261, ed. by H. C. EVANS – W. D. WIXOM, exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, pp. 206-207; M. EMMANUEL, Hairstyles and Headdresses of Empresses, Princesses, and Ladies of the Aristocracy in Byzantium, in ̣͉͍̓͑̽͋͑ͅ͏̵͎͇͇͇͈͐͑̿͋Ӏ͏̠͎͔͇͍͉͍͇͈̿́Ӏ͏ ̤͇͎͑̿̓̽̿͏ 17 (1993-1994), pp. 113-120, at p. 118, fig. 6; p. 119, fig. 9; M. G. PARANI, Reconstructing the Reality of Images. Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11th-15th Centuries), Leiden 2003, p. 78, fig. 86(b). Similar garments are worn by the Concubine of the Levite in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos, Jerusalem, Taphou 14, fol. 109v (VOCOTOPOULOS, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, p. 152, fig. 72), and by the aristocratic female figures who welcome Princess Agnes into Constantinople in the twelfth-century illuminated book made there, Vat. gr. 1851, fol. 3v (HILSDALE, Constructing a Byzantine “Augusta”, p. 469, fig. 9; and her discussion in this volume at pp. 507-511). 74 Fol. 183r (Ps 58, title); DE WALD, pp. 23-24. The same scene appears in the earlier Bristol Psalter, London, Addit. 40731, fol. 93, where the nature of Michal’s residence is rendered as a towered edifice; DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psautiers grecs I, p. 59, pl. 52. 75 In this respect, the female figures framed by windows on the upper parts of the palace on fol. 186v are also of interest (Ps 59, title); DE WALD, p. 24. And compare the imperial palace here to fols 176r, 182v, and 218v. 76 On the form of windows in Byzantium, see e.g., A. K. ORLANDOS, Ta Palatia kai ta Spitia tou Mystra, in Archeion ton Byzantinon Mnemeion tes Hellados 3 (1937), pp. 1-114, esp. 67-70. 77 This anthropological term was appropriated for the investigation of various manifestations in medieval culture; see e.g., C. BYNUM, Women’s Stories, Women’s Symbols. A Critique

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tween male and female figures appears in the miniature illustrating the story of David who fled to Gath with his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. There he was met by the Philistine king Achish and was given the city of Ziklag in which to dwell (fig. 9). David’s wives are situated on a balcony of sorts at the right edge of the cluster of upper-story edifices, which, with their barred windows, may be also identified as the gynaikeion.78 The male figures are set apart: King David stands on a stepped platform, indicating a passageway or a staircase into the palace,79 and the walled city on the left is inhabited by soldiers.80 Epitomizing the gendering of space is the image of David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant (fig. 29).81 While David performs in an open urban space, Michal, who watches him, is confined to a liminal one set off by the high wall. One might argue that the city ramparts, which serve as the urban threshold, Fig. 29 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4v (detail). are also a liminal place not unlike of Victor Turner’s Theory of Liminality, in Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion, New York 1991, pp. 27-51; Thresholds of Medieval Visual Culture. Liminal Spaces, ed. by E. GERTSMAN – J. STEVENSON, Woodbridge 2012, esp. the introduction. 78 Women are not frequently positioned on balconies. A miniature in the later illuminated copy of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes (Madrid, Vitr. 26-2, ca. 1150-1175, fol. 124r [b]), shows the empress Zoe, wearing simple garments, standing on a balcony in the Boukoleon palace, possibly indicating the empress’s actual quarters; V. TSAMADKA, The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, Leiden 2002, p. 160, col. fig. 289. 79 Similar staircase on fol. 65v; DE WALD, p. 14. Among the few remains of the Palace of Blachernae, which was originally built during the fifth century and was transformed into the main imperial residence during the time of emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), there is the so-called “Prison of Anema”. The construction consists of a substructure built of a series of parallel walls that supported barrel vaults, creating a high platform on which the now destroyed palace presumably stood. A central passageway and a staircase in the southern part of this substructure led to the upper level of the palace; MANGO, Documents, pp. 161-162; R. JANIN, Les églises et les monastères de Constantinople byzantine, Paris 1969, p. 168. 80 Fol. 176r (Ps 55, title); 1 Kings 27:2-7; DE WALD, p. 23. 81 Fol. 4v; cf. 2 Kings 6:16; 1 Chronicles 15:29; DE WALD, pp. 4-5.

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the gynaikeion set apart from other imperial structural units (fig. 9). However, if we recall that the image of the fortified city in the Vatican manuscript is understood not only in its defensive capacity but also, and mainly, as the symbolic center of the Byzantine universe and of imperial power,82 there is nothing liminal about King David’s or his companions’ position near the ramparts. When they are not inside the city ramparts, the male figures are shown in the public space (fig. 29), either in front of the entrance to the palace or fully inside it (figs 10-11). These palatial images help construct the very concept of palation (›͉̺͇͍̿͑͋), which, like the city walls, held a special place in Byzantine thought. The palace was both the physical setting and the society surrounding the emperor, the site of his justice and his victorious deeds, the ultimate symbol of imperial power.83 Therefore, while the male figures are associated with the dual nature of imperial power, both religious and secular, and with the spaces where this power is activated, the women are confined to the interiors, spaces devoid of the political implications of rule, reflecting the well-known Byzantine reluctance to see well-bred women in the public sphere.84 D. Churches85 The gabled structure with two adjacent parts covered with domes, as on folio 488v, represents the cross-domed type church (fig. 30).86 This type, 82

P. MAGDALINO, Byzantium = Constantinople, in A Companion to Byzantium, ed. by L. JAMES, Chichester, West Sussex – Malden, MA 2010 (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Ancient History), pp. 43-54. 83 C. MANGO, Byzantium the Empire of New Rome, New York 1980, pp. 218-222. 84 See e.g., the ninth-century law that excludes women from undertaking any official activity, apart from appearing in certain circumstances in order to testify before tribunals: J. BEAUCAMP, Les femmes et l’espace public à Byzance. Le cas des tribunaux, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 52 [1998], pp. 129-145. However, women were not forbidden to appear in the public space. A case in point is their freer association with men in the Constantinopolitan churches during the middle Byzantine period, R. F. TAFT, Women at Church in Byzantium: Where, When – And Why?, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 52 (1998), pp. 27-87. 85 For a useful survey of the structural and stylistic features of ecclesiastical buildings in medieval Constantinople, see ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture in the Balkans, pp. 271-277, 355-369, with previous bibliography. For the appearance of actual buildings in Constantinople in illuminated manuscripts, cf. HILSDALE, Constructing a Byzantine “Augusta”, pp. 458-483. For a different view, arguing that Byzantine artists avoided the intrusion of any contemporary settings and opted instead for an antique repertory, see C. MANGO, Discontinuity with the Classical Past in Byzantium, in Byzantium and the Classical Tradition, ed. by M. MULLETT – R. SCOTT, Birmingham 1981 (University of Birmingham Thirteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies), pp. 48-57: p. 51. 86 Canticle of Hezekiah; DE WALD, p. 45.

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exemplified by the no longer extant Nea Ekklesia (New Church), consisted of a cruciform naos with four arms projecting from a central bay topped by a larger dome; the four corners are capped by smaller domes. A sense of the exterior appearance of this church may be obtained from a sixteenth-century drawing by Onofrio Panvinio (fig. 31).87 Of interest here is the cluster of buildings on fol. 284r, which can hardly correspond to a “church of the small cenFig. 30 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 488v: Canticle of tral domical type”, as De Wald put Hezekiah (detail). it (fig. 1).88 The intricate architecture depicted from multiple viewpoints can be read from left to right as follows: a pinkish structure topped by a blue dome; a red-roofed barrelvaulted structure with a curtained doorway and a lateral, mauve coloured wall (front pictorial plane); a blue-tiled dome and a red one standing on a partially shown building (intermediate plane); a tall, blue-domed structure and the top of two additional domed or flat structures terminating in a gabled grey-roofed one (back pictorial plane). The richness of form and the sheer number of components invite comparison with the north church in the monastery of Constantine Lips in Constantinople, built in 907 and still existing in its original form at the time the Vatican manuscript was painted. This building was a two-story cross-in-square church with barrel-vaulted arms and upper-story chapels capped by small domes. To the west, the oblong narthex was flanked by tower-like structures on the north and south sides. Our image shares with the tenth-century church a similar architectural landscape with receding buildings, punctuated by barrel-vaulted, gabled, tower-like, rectangular, and domed forms offering myriad viewpoints (fig. 32).89 87 Vita Imperatoris Basilii, 83-84; MANGO, Documents, p. 194. The unique exterior of the church was for centuries to come a source of standard design in the Byzantine world; ÒURÇIÒ, Architecture in the Balkans, pp. 273-274. 88 Similar complex constructions recur on fols 203r, 204r and 480v. 89 Known by the Turkish name Fenari Isa Camii, the church underwent significant changes during the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries; however, its original construction was retrieved through archaeological excavations; MACRIDY, Monastery of Lips, pp. 258-265, figs 7, 10-16. Reconstruction made by MEGAW; V. MARINIS, Tombs and Burials in the Monastery tou Libos in Constantinople, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2009), pp. 147-166.

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Fig. 31 – Constantinople, Nea Ekklesia, ca. 1450, detail; source: Onofrio Panvinio, De ludis circensibus, libri II, Venice 1600, 6061; plate engraved by Étienne Dupérac before 1568.

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Fig. 32 – Constantinople, Monastery of Lips, “North Church”, 10th century, hypothetical reconstruction by A. H. S. Megaw (photo: Dumbarton Oaks, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC).

On fol. 429v another complex structure diverges from the formulaic approach. Dominated by a peculiar elongated drum pierced by a tall narrow window and crowned by a dome, it incorporates a central gable-roofed structure with two lateral walls. This building is flanked on the left side by a gabled, curtained doorway and on the right of a lower domed edifice (fig. 33).90 We may relate this peculiar structure, and more particularly its tall central feature, to such churches Fig. 33 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 429v: Psalm 142:1 as the so-called Kilise Camii con(detail). structed about 1000, probably by builders associated with imperial workshops. The relatively small squarein-cross church was preceded by an oblong narthex, terminating in shallow segmental niches in its lateral walls, and a three-apsed eastern end. 90

Fol. 429v (Ps 142:1); DE WALD, p. 38; similar structure on fol. 427r.

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The four arms of the cross were barrel-vaulted, and subsidiary spaces were gable-roofed. The high dome drum was pierced by windows, and the overall impression of the dome created a rippled-eave effect, characteristic of contemporary Constantinopolitan domes, which seems to be the case in the roof zone of the image as well (fig. 25).91 Conclusions The current inquiry provides ample evidence that the methods of construction of the pictorial-illusionistic space in Vat. gr. 752 are not innovative in themselves, but they bear a distinctive stamp when compared to earlier and contemporary illuminated Byzantine Psalters. They attest to exceptional artistic ingenuity, which successfully adapted traditional formulas and imbued them with new content. Moving away from the depiction of buildings by assembling generic architectural elements, their polyvalent urban imagery helps create compelling physiognomic resemblance to buildings in Constantinople. The architectural designs in Vat. gr. 752 produce spaces that hover between the specific and the generic, historical and contemporary, real and virtual, symbolic and abstract. My argument is indebted to Michel de Certeau’s perception that the city becomes space through the movement, temporality, and practices of its inhabitants and is always subject to change and actualization.92 In this way, I have argued that the book’s pictorial approach offered its viewer(s) an image of changing spatial entities. The miniatures reflect an urban scenery stretching (but not literally) between the city gates and the Great Palace complex,93 embodied by the Chalke gate, a symbol of imperial rule. However, the urban identity crystallizes mainly in the array of ecclesiastical forms and liturgical activities. Hence, the urban topographies evoked Constantinople mostly as a religious entity and articulated a vision where past (the biblical book) and present (contemporary architecture) were linked through the sacred images in the manuscript.94 These observations raise a question of the utmost importance which was not addressed in the current article. Who could have been the intended 91 Supra, n. 69. Another building that displayed similar features is the church of the Myrelaion, probably built by Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (940-944); STRIKER, The Myrelaion, pp. 21-22, figs 27-28. 92 DE CERTAU, Pratiques d’espace, p. 31. 93 C. MANGO, The Triumphal Way of Constantinople and the Golden Gate, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000), pp. 173-189. 94 In this respect, see e.g., OUSTERHOUT, Constantinople and the Construction of a Medieval Urban Identity, esp. pp. 336-342.

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audience for the unique rendering among others of this panorama in the manuscript: was the codex commissioned by an ecclesiastical figure and produced in a monastic scriptorium aimed to be presented to an imperial figure, as I am inclined to think? No colophon or other indices indicate the identity of a particular individual. Nor are the suggestive comparisons made between images and actual structures, as well as stylistic comparisons adduced to contemporary illuminated manuscripts from Constantinople pointing to the capital as the place of the Vatican Psalter’s production, enough to support this conjecture. Also, the study of the catenae proposed by the Ars edendi project might prove wrong the possible Constantinopolitan provenance implied in the article. Further palaeographic, codicological, and comparative art-historical research is to be done in the attempt to clarify this question.95

95

See in this volume the article by Francesco D’Aiuto.

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VAT. GR. 752 AND VAT. GR. 1927: RELATED MANUSCRIPTS? The Byzantines had a long tradition of using the Old Testament king David as an imperial paradigm in both art and imperial panegyric.1 By the eleventh century, this concept of David as a model for the emperor was an accepted part of imperial ideology. Thus there was always the possibility that a psalter, containing the words of David, could be illustrated to emphasize particular issues relevant to the emperor or affairs of state. This paper examines Vat. gr. 1927, a psalter with illustrations that possess a markedly didactic tone, suggesting it was in fact intended as a kind of “mirror of princes”. It is also a psalter that is often grouped together with Vat. gr. 752. Ernest De Wald published their miniatures in companion volumes, and later scholars have tended to refer to these psalters as in a category of their own.2 Both psalters incorporate illustrations on gold ground 1 Emperors such as Heraclius (610-641), Basil I (867-886), and the twelfth-century Komnenians are likened to David: see S. WANDER, The Cyprus Plates: The Story of David and Goliath, in Metropolitan Museum Journal 8 (1973), pp. 89-104; S. SPAIN, Heraclius, Byzantine Imperial Ideology and the David Plates, in Speculum 52 (1977), pp. 217-237; J. TRILLING, Myth and Metaphor at the Byzantine Court. A Literary Approach to the David Plates, in Byzantion 48 (1978), pp. 249-263; A. CUTLER – N. OIKONOMIDES, An Imperial Byzantine Casket and its Fate at a Humanist’s Hands, in Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 77-87; H. MAGUIRE, The Art of Comparing in Byzantium, in Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 88-103; I. KALAVREZOU, A New Type of Icon: Ivories and Steatites in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and His Age, Second International Byzantine Conference, Delphi 1987, Athens 1989, pp. 377-396; S. LAMPROS, Michael Akominatou tou Choniatou ta sozomena I, Groningen 1968, p. 215, ll. 9-24. In the tenth century the Book of Ceremonies describes the emperor proclaimed as a new David in the hippodrome: A. VOGT, Le Livre des Cérémonies II, Paris 1939, chapter 82 (73), p. 167. For an alternative interpretation of the use of David in art, see R. E. LEADER, The David Plates Revisited: Transforming the Secular in Early Byzantium, in Art Bulletin 82 (2000), pp. 407-427, esp. p. 414. The author challenges the idea that representations of David should always be interpreted as references to the Byzantine emperor, while allowing that there are cases when this is most certainly the intended reference (e.g., David in the Sinai apse mosaic). 2 E. DE WALD, The Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint III, 1: Vaticanus Graecus 1927, Princeton 1941, the next volume being about Vat. gr. 752. A. CUTLER, The Byzantine Psalter: Before and After Iconoclasm, in Iconoclasm, ed. by A. BRYER – J. HERRIN, Birmingham 1977, pp. 93-102, at pp. 94 and 97. J. LOWDEN, Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters, in Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 242-260, at p. 246.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 547-567.

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within text columns, and thus differ from the psalters with marginal illustrations and the so-called aristocratic psalters with full-page illustrations. But while Vat. gr. 752 is firmly dated to the years around 1059, thanks to the manuscript’s Paschal tables, no such tables survive in Vat. gr. 1927. In the absence of Paschal tables, Vat. gr. 1927 has been dated to the first half of the twelfth century on the basis of the style of its miniatures.3 In this paper, I will explore the similarities and differences between the two psalters, primarily in the miniatures. As John Lowden has noted, one reason we tend to group these manuscripts together is the fact that they have “unique picture cycles, seemingly invented for these particular books”.4 The question then is whether these picture cycles have anything in common. The present study will demonstrate that a major similarity linking the two manuscripts is the moralizing nature of their illustrations in which the ruler is repeatedly depicted as either sinful or in need of guidance, while moral authority is consistently placed on the side of the church and its representatives. However, considerable differences exist in the way this message is fashioned, suggesting these psalters may have been produced in the same milieu but under different circumstances. I will begin by laying out the basic differences between the two manuscripts. While Vat. gr. 752 is a large book, measuring 330 × 270 mm, Vat. gr. 1927 is considerably smaller, measuring 245 × 185 mm.5 On the whole, elements that make Vat. gr. 752 a particularly rich manuscript, such as elaborate preface illustrations and ornate frames for miniatures, are not present in Vat. gr. 1927. Vat. gr. 1927 is, overall, a less ambitious project than Vat. gr. 752. Taking into account the fact that Vat. gr. 1927 has a number of illustrated folios missing, with 145 illustrations over 37 gatherings, it is a slimmer and less heavily illustrated codex compared to Vat. gr. 752, which has 220 illustrations over 63 gatherings. And finally, Vat. gr. 1927 does not contain the catenae that make Vat. gr. 752 an especially complex manuscript. The absence of catenae in Vat. gr. 1927 suggests that the illustrations are derived from the psalter text itself. For the most part true, it has earned Vat. gr. 1927 the label “literal” to describe the manner in which the miniatures directly illustrate the words of the psalms. While in Vat. gr. 752 illustrations 3 DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. iii; A. WEYL CARR, Illuminated Musical Manuscripts in Byzantium: A Note on the Late Twelfth Century, in Gesta 28 (1989), pp. 41-52, at pp. 43, 48, 51. 4 LOWDEN, Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters, p. 246. 5 DE WALD gives incorrect dimensions for Vat. gr. 1927 as 330 × 170 mm. In reality, it is 230 × 165 mm, with the outer dimensions of the bound ms being 245 × 185 mm, and the text block 95 mm high. Thanks are due to Sever Voicu for double-checking this data.

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are placed at the beginning of the commentary for the psalm (in the catena column), in Vat. gr. 1927 illustrations are placed at the head of each psalm. The relationship of illustrations to commentary in Vat. gr. 752 is further emphasized by the fact that it is usually the words of the commentaries which are inserted into the scenes as captions. In contrast, in Vat. gr. 1927 the words of the psalms are inscribed within the illustrations or along the frames, and in certain instances David points toward inscriptions as if he is speaking these words. Nevertheless, as we will see, there are instances in which the illustrations in Vat. gr. 1927 are inspired by a commentary to a particular psalm. Indeed, because of the very nature of the psalter text, choices can be made as to what to emphasize in the illustrations and, if need be, the available commentaries can be used as sources, even in the absence of a catena within the manuscript. Although the inscriptions tend to come from different sources, the manner in which inscriptions are used in both manuscripts is perhaps one of the more compelling similarities that suggest these codices were produced in the same milieu. Whether it be an excerpt from the psalms (Vat. gr. 1927) or from the catenae (Vat. gr. 752), the inscriptions are often quite lengthy and are written either within the illustration or alongside it in the margin. This proximity of word to image belies a desire to integrate these two elements closely in both manuscripts. It also indicates an especially scholarly, probably monastic, environment for production. Miniatures in other illustrated psalters tend to include short inscriptions that simply label figures or events, rather than reproducing a substantial portion of the text of the psalm or the catenae. In terms of narrative cycles, Vat. gr. 1927 is both different from and similar to Vat. gr. 752. In Vat. gr. 752 there are essentially three cycles of the life of David, one at the beginning with the Paschal tables, another for the apocryphal Ps 151, and the third one in the body of the psalter text. This is unlike any other Byzantine psalter. In Vat. gr. 1927, narrative scenes from the life of David are scattered throughout the manuscript, usually used for psalms in which the title mentions the episode illustrated, as well as for Ps 151.6 Other Old Testament scenes are used for the psalms and canticles, again often motivated by the title of the psalm or canticle.7 Vat. gr. 752, in contrast, uses practically no Old Testament scenes, aside from the life of David, which seems to play a particularly important role within the manuscript. Equally unusual for psalters, Vat. gr. 752 also uses few New Testament scenes. Here is a resemblance with Vat. gr. 1927, which likewise 6 7

A list of the narrative scenes is given in DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 50. DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 51.

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uses few New Testament scenes, and therefore does not give emphasis to visually positing a typological relationship between David and Christ.8 The style of Vat. gr. 1927’s miniatures is not significantly different from those of Vat. gr. 752. In fact a number of overall similarities exist, suggesting that a date some time in the second half of the eleventh century is quite plausible for Vat. gr. 1927, rather than the first half of the twelfth century.9 The proportions of the figures and the relationship of figures to the space of the illustration are features that present an overall likeness between the two manuscripts. In both manuscripts, heads are rather large in relation to the bodies. Reds, blues, and violets predominate in both manuscripts for the dress of Christ, David, and also other figures. The linear treatment of the drapery in a number of Vat. gr. 1927’s miniatures is very similar to that in Vat. gr. 752.10 In other miniatures, Vat. gr. 1927’s treatment of the drapery relies more on shading. Hair is often rendered in the same squarish wig-like manner in both manuscripts. A major difference between the illustrations of the two manuscripts is Vat. gr. 752’s great variety of architectural settings11 versus the predominantly landscape settings in Vat. gr. 1927. The presence of an arc of heaven towards which David or others offer prayer is a common feature in Vat. gr. 1927, but also appears in a number of Vat. gr. 752’s miniatures.12 In Vat. gr. 1927, Christ sometimes leans out of the arc toward those below (see fol. 94r).13 There are, of course, different hands at work within each manuscript, with Vat. gr. 752 displaying the most dramatic differences in style amongst its various hands. This is perhaps what is to be expected in such an ambitious project requiring a number of artists. In contrast, Vat. gr. 1927’s miniatures maintain a greater stylistic consistency. 8 This is occasionally done in Vat. gr. 1927, as for Ps 108 where Judas hanging from a tree is juxtaposed with Absalom punished for betraying David. DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, fol. 204r, pl. 46. The Theodore Psalter also does not feature typology as a subject for its miniatures: J. ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, in Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 550-568, at pp. 554, 565-566. 9 In terms of palaeography, the script appears to be a late eleventh-century calligraphic and somewhat artificial script. The writing of the captions too — very unusually and almost entirely in blue ink — looks very plausible for the second half of the eleventh century. 10 As seen on fol. 178v of Vat. gr. 1927: DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, pl. 42. 11 As highlighted in the article by Mati MEYER in this volume. 12 Vat. gr. 752, fols 284r, 287v, 462v, 465r, 484r, 488r. 13 Christ leaning out of the arc has been said to be a feature more commonly found in twelfth-century manuscripts, although it should be pointed out that this motif does occur in manuscripts of the second half of the eleventh century, such as the Theodore Psalter, London, B.L. Addit. 19352 (e.g., fol. 192r). A. CUTLER – A. WEYL CARR, The Psalter Benaki 34.3: An Unpublished Illuminated Manuscript from the Family 2400, in Revue des études byzantines 34 (1976), pp. 281-323, at p. 302.

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Unlike the marginal psalters but similar to the aristocratic psalters, David is given prominence in the illustrations of both psalters. He is often shown in a posture of prayer: either standing or kneeling and praying toward the arc of heaven in which Christ appears as in Vat. gr. 1927, or kneeling at the feet of Christ as in Vat. gr. 752.14 However, a significant point of comparison between Vat. gr. 752 and 1927 is the role of David in the illustrations. In Vat. gr. 752, David is one among a number of Fig. 1 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 88v: Psalm 28. figures who actively participate in the actions pictured (fig. 1: Vat. gr. 752, fol. 88v). Conversely, David is not a particularly active figure in most of the illustrations of Vat. gr. 1927. Rather, he is most often shown pointing toward the actions of others (fig. 2: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 238v). In this sense,

Fig. 2 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 238v. 14

While scenes of David praying also appear in other eleventh-century illustrated psalters, the extent to which this image is used in Vat. gr. 752 and Vat. gr. 1927 is striking. On David praying in eleventh-century psalter illustration, see C. WALTER, “Latter-day” Saints in the Model for the London and Barberini Psalters, in Revue des études byzantines 46 (1988), pp. 211-228, at p. 213. The importance of the psalms as an instrument for both prayer and moral instruction, and how this manifests in psalter illustration in the eleventh century, is also discussed in ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, p. 566.

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one could say David is presented as prophet and author of the psalms.15 However, his role also foregrounds the didactic nature of the illustrations. Vat. gr. 752’s function appears to go beyond simple instruction into the realm of censure, which of course is another aspect of instruction. In an article on Vat. gr. 752, Ioli Kalavrezou, Shalom Sabar, and I argued that this manuscript must be seen within the context of the events surrounding its date of production in 1059.16 These events were rather explosive: schism of the eastern and western Churches, clashes between patriarch and emperor, and the death of the patriarch Michael Keroularios while under arrest. The article suggested that Vat. gr. 752’s emphasis on David’s sinfulness, as well as the particular cast of characters who either accompany him in the illustrations or appear on their own, indicates a desire not only to comment on the volatile events of the time, but also specifically to censure particular emperors for their role in these events. Thus, while Vat. gr. 752 emphasizes the sinfulness of David specifically, we will see in this paper that the miniatures of Vat. gr. 1927 shift this moralizing message to the behavior of rulers in general. Certainly, the theme of temporal versus spiritual authority occurs in the illustrations of other eleventh-century psalters and religious texts; what sets both Vatican psalters apart from these manuscripts is the consistently critical manner in which the ruler (David or other rulers) is represented.17 A particular facet of this moralizing tendency in the illustrations of Vat. gr. 1927 is the presentation of the ruler as in need of instruction. The psalter opens with David enthroned in an elaborate tetrafoil surrounded by rich vegetal motifs.18 The following miniature for Ps 2 shows David standing in the center in the upper zone below a bust of Christ in heaven and flanked by a seated ruler on either side, one at the left-hand side addressing a group of kings, the other on the right addressing a group of people with covered heads, an iconography used in Byzantine art for Jews (fig. 3: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 2r). Although they are not named by inscription, these rulers must be Herod and Pilate, respectively, as explained by the commentary of Hesychius on verse 2 of Ps 2, which refers to the evil rulers, such as Herod and Pilate, who in the day of judgment will be set at naught.19 The inscription 15 De Wald notes that David pointing to New Testament scenes as a prophet occurs in the Rossano Gospels: DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 50. 16 KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor. 17 J. Anderson proposes that the illustrations of the Theodore Psalter posit a “parallel between the abbot’s authority over his followers and that of the emperor over his subjects”. ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, esp. pp. 567-568. 18 DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, fol. 1r, pl. 1. 19 TitPs, PG 27, col. 653.

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Fig. 3 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 2r.

in the right margin is an excerpt from verse 2 of the psalm and reads “the rulers take counsel together”.20 The illustration continues in the lower zone with another elaborate scene. At the left-hand side, an enthroned king is flanked by a group of elders, two of whom stand behind him and speak into his ears. This may refer to verse 10 of the psalm which speaks specifically of instruction, “Be mindful, then, you kings; be instructed (π ι ε τε), you earthly rulers”.21 Another figure at the right-hand side is seated under an arched structure (effaced) and flanked by a group of elders on one side and men, women and children on the other. Due to this miniature’s poor state of preservation, it is difficult to make out the iconographic details, and De Wald does not attempt to identify the kings in either the upper or lower zones. What can be said is that the lower zone seems to elaborate on the subject of the ruler receiving counsel. The rulers may again be Herod and Pilate and are therefore negative examples of the ruler who receives poor counsel. Thus the miniature would express the warning explicit in verse 10 of the psalm, as well as in Hesychius’s commentary. Other Byzantine psalters illustrate this psalm with a depiction of a council of Herod and Pilate against Christ. In the Theodore Psalter, two illustrations address this psalm. One illustration depicts three seated figures who address two standing figures with covered heads. The second illustra20 21

DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 3. Ibid.

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tion contains two seated kings before whom stands a figure with covered head.22 In the Bristol Psalter, two seated kings, labeled as Herod and Pilate, are flanked by a small group of figures on either side.23 These illustrations are much simpler than the one in Vat. gr. 1927, where the artist has used a standard subject for illustrating the psalm, but has created a vastly more elaborate depiction of this subject and omitted inscriptions specifically labeling Herod and Pilate. As one of the first miniatures in the codex, this elaborate illustration opens the psalter by presenting the necessity of proper guidance for the ruler who, as we see by the example of Herod and Pilate, may otherwise err. In Vat. gr. 752, Ps 2 is illustrated with David prostrating before a seated Christ and accompanied by the archangel Michael (fol. 20r). The contrast with Vat. gr. 1927’s illustration is indicative of the overall difference between the two manuscripts. In Vat. gr. 752, David is the ruler who is judged, and the miniature’s inscription states that Christ is pardoning David.24 Conversely, David stands directly under a bust of Christ in Vat. gr. 1927 as if receiving his blessing, while other kings exemplify those who err and are sinful. Another illustration in Vat. gr. 1927 poses a negative example of the ruler who associates with evil advisors. On fol. 41r, the illustration for Ps 25 depicts David pointing to a king surrounded by advisors represented as Jews with covered heads (fig. 4: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 41r). The inscription below the miniature is a quote from verse 4 of the psalm, which refers to associating with vain or worthless persons.25 Although both David and the king appear as Byzantine emperors, David is distinguished visually from the king by his grey hair and his halo. On David’s other side stands a bishop with a scroll. The inscription to the right-hand side of this figure is a quote from verse 6 of the psalm: “I will wash my hands in innocence”.26 A depiction of the “council of the impious” made up of figures with covered heads 22 For the Theodore Psalter, see DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 1v, pl. 3 fig. 2 and fol. 2r, pl. 3, fig. 3. For an electronic facsimile of the manuscript see BARBER, Theodore Psalter. 23 For the Bristol Psalter, London, BL Addit. 40731: S. DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psautiers grecs du Moyen Âge I, Paris 1966, fol. 9r, pl. 47. Relatively simple compositions of two or three figures are used for Ps 2 in other psalters also. For the Khludov Psalter, Moscow, Historical Museum, Mosq. gr. 129: M. V. SCEPKINA, Miniatjury Hludovskoi Psaltyri: Greceskij illjustrirovannyj kodeks IX veka, Moscow 1977, fol. 2v; the Barberini Psalter, Barb. gr. 372: ANDERSON – CANART – WALTER, Barberini Psalter, fol. 7r; for illustrations of Ps 2 in other psalters see Y. VITALIOTIS, Le conseil des impies dans les psautiers Vaticanus graecus 1927 et de Kiev, in Cahiers archéologiques 43 (1995), pp. 153-162, at p. 161, n. 20. 24 DE WALD, p. 8; KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 206-207. 25 DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 11. 26 Ibid.

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Fig. 4 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 41r (detail).

occurs in other psalters for Ps 25, such as the fourteenth-century Codex 1252 in Kiev, but without the presence of a king or a bishop.27 While the illustration in Vat. gr. 1927 can be compared to the depiction of the iconoclastic council of 815 in the marginal psalters for this psalm, as Yiannis Vitaliotis has noted, the illustration in Vat. gr. 1927 is unique in its combination of an unnamed king and bishop together with a generic “council of the impious” (including figures with covered heads).28 Notable is also the designation of the bishop as “innocent”. Vitaliotis attributes the depiction of the members of the council as Jews to the word “ υν ριον” used in verse 4 of the psalm (and inscribed below this group in Vat. gr. 1927), which in ecclesiastic usage refers to a council of Jews or heretics.29 Thus this illustration appears to be an adaptation of the depiction of the iconoclast council of 815 found in ninth-century marginal psalters, substituting the iconoclast emperor Leo V and the Patriarch Nikephoros with generic figures of a king and a bishop.30 I would emphasize that the artist has made a particu27 In the Kiev manuscript (St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, cod. 1252), an empty throne is flanked by figures with covered heads: G. VZDORNOV, Issledovanie o Kieckoj Psaltiri, I, facsimile, Moscow 1978, fol. 33r. 28 VITALIOTIS, Le conseil des impies, pp. 158-159. 29 Ibid. 30 In the Theodore Psalter, the illustration for this psalm shows Leo V conversing with Theodore Stoudite and Patriarch Nikephoros. All figures are identified by inscriptions: DER

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lar choice in representing the king in counsel with Jews. The desire seems to be to underscore the contrast between the ruler taking counsel with heretical advisors, and a member of the church who is designated as morally superior. In Vat. gr. 752 this psalm is illustrated with David and the sons of Kore seated around a table (fig. 5: Vat. gr. 752, fol. 80r). If we take into account St Cyprian’s interpretation of the sons of Kore as the first schismatics, then the implication Fig. 5 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 80r: Psalm 25 (detail). is that David takes unwise counsel.31 Once again, Vat. gr. 752 focuses its moralizing message on David himself, while Vat. gr. 1927 shifts this focus to a generic king. A significant instance of rulers receiving proper instruction can be seen in the miniature on fol. 29v for Ps 18 (fig. 6: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 29v). The commentaries of Hesychius and Eusebius identify verses 4 and 5 of Ps 18 with the teachings of the apostles. In Vat. gr. 1927, an elaborate illustration depicts three registers of seated apostles addressing groups of people. Peter and Paul appear in the upper register accompanied by a group of kings. Ps 18 is illustrated with the same subject in a number of psalters, such as the Bristol Psalter and the Theodore Psalter. However, kings are not included among those being instructed.32 Their inclusion in Vat. gr. 1927 suggests NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 27v, pl. 17, fig. 48. The Barberini Psalter represents the iconoclast council of 815: ANDERSON et al., Barberini Psalter, fol. 39v. 31 For the interpretation of St Cyprian as bearing on the frequent appearance of the sons of Kore as the companions of David in Vat. gr. 752, see: KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, p. 218, n. 113. Also relevant is St Arethas who writes that the rebellion of Kore, Dathan, and Abiram was a challenge aimed at the authority of the priesthood. His commentary is part of the catena in Vat. gr. 752, and he is an unusual inclusion in its miniatures. P. KARLIN-HAYTER, Arethas, Choirosphactes and the Saracen Vizir, in P. KARLINHAYTER, Studies in Byzantine Political History, London 1981, p. 466; KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 216-218. 32 For the Bristol Psalter: DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psautiers grecs I, fol. 31r, pl. 49. For the Theodore Psalter: DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 20r, figs 34-35. In Vat. gr. 752 this psalm is illustrated with apostles raising their hands in praise to the heavens: DE WALD, fol. 62r, p. 14, pl. 21.

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Fig. 6 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 29v (detail).

Fig. 7 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 3v.

a desire to place earthly rulers amongst those in need of instruction. The particular placement of the kings with Peter and Paul assigns the role of instructor to those apostles associated with the authority of the church. Another theme prominent in the illustrations of both Vat. gr. 752 and Vat. gr. 1927 is sin and judgment. Again, one of the initial miniatures in Vat. gr. 1927 alerts us to the importance of this theme, as seen in the narrative scene from the life of David that illustrates Ps 3 (fig. 7: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 3v). In the miniature, David is pursued by his son Absalom at the right, a customary scene for this psalm. But at the left-hand side, we see another

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of David’s sons, Amnon, seducing his sister and subsequently being killed by a servant who was sent by his brother. This narrative sequence is unique within the repertoire of psalter illustrations. It presents the element of sin in great detail: not just betrayal of David by Absalom, but also Amnon’s incest, and the subsequent fratricide committed by Absalom. This graphic treatment of sin can be compared with the elaborate, and also unique, cycle of imagFig. 8 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 45r: Psalm 12 (detail). es illustrating the sin of David for Ps 50 in Vat. gr. 752.33 Vat. gr. 752 repeatedly presents David prostrate before Christ and emphasizes his sinfulness via inscriptions that specify that Christ is forgiving David (fig. 8: Vat. gr. 752, fol. 45r). In contrast, in Vat. gr. 1927 David seems to be asking more generally for assistance, and sinfulness is exemplified by other figures in the illustrations. Indeed, David often points at the sinful or correct behavior of these other figures. An instance of David pointing can be seen in the miniature for Ps 9 (fig. 9: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 12r). Christ is

Fig. 9 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 12r. 33

KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 201-205.

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Fig. 10 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 20r.

enthroned as judge in the center and surrounded by the sinful on his lefthand side and on his right the blessed, represented by a small naked figure. A cave of hell can be seen in the lower right-hand corner. David stands on Christ’s right and points, perhaps in warning, to another pit containing a winged demon. On the hill above the cave are two church-like structures.34 When not taking direct part in the narrative of a miniature, David is often differentiated from the other figures in the scene by his larger size. For instance, in the illustration for Ps 14, David stands between two scenes involving smaller figures and gestures toward these figures on either side (fig. 10: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 20r). On the left-hand side, a scene illustrates the “man who will not put out his money to usury nor take reward against the innocent” (verse 5), contrasted on the right with a man identified as a usurer together with another who receives a bribe.35 David points upward toward the “man ascending the holy hill” mentioned in verse 1 and located above the group at the left who exemplify good behavior. As is usually the case in these types of illustrations, David is placed on an axis with Christ who appears above him in the arc of heaven.36 In summary, the illustra34

The subject is similar in other psalters but without the pointing David. For instance see, Theodore Psalter, fol. 8r: DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, pl. 6, fig. 14; Bristol Psalter, fol. 18r: DUFRENNE, L’illustration des psautiers grecs I, pl. 48. 35 DE WALD, Vaticanus graecus 1927, p. 8. 36 The illustration for this psalm in both the marginal psalters and the Theodore Psalter depict a rich man or a priest giving alms to a poor man. DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit.

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Fig. 11 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 218r.

tions in Vat. gr. 1927 take as major themes sin, judgment, and instruction. David does not so much participate, as demonstrate what is proper behavior and what is sinful behavior. In this sense, he appears as guide and exemplum, while other figures, in notable cases representing rulers, exemplify sinfulness. Vat. gr. 1927’s illustrations provide ample reason to suppose that the manuscript was produced in a monastic setting. In particular, the illustrations often feature figures dressed as monks, or members of the church. Likewise, in Vat. gr. 752 David is often shown supplicating before members

19.352, fol. 13v, pl. 10, fig. 24. DE WALD, Vaticanus graecus 1927, p. 52. Anderson notes the emphasis given to the theme of charity in the Theodore Psalter’s miniatures and connects this with the overall moralizing tone of the decorative program. ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, pp. 560-561.

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Fig. 12 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 256r.

Fig. 13 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 256v.

of the church.37 Perhaps most telling is the illustration for Ps 118 in Vat. gr. 1927 (fig. 11: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 218r). This psalm is illustrated with a ladder on which five ecclesiastics are climbing toward an arc of heaven. Three men have fallen from the ladder and are descending toward a pit of hell. This scheme must derive from the writings of John Climacus and is strongly suggestive of the monastic environment in which Vat. gr. 1927 was produced. Also revealing as to Vat. gr. 1927’s monastic context are the two illustrations for Ps 144, one of the few psalms to have more than one illustration (figs 12 and 13: fols 256r and 256v). On fol. 256r, David is shown praying accompanied by four old monks, who are possibly the “holy ones” referred to in verse 10. And on fol. 256v four monks are seated at a stone 37 It should be noted that monastic figures are more common in Vat. gr. 1927 than in Vat. gr. 752. In the latter psalter, bishops, priests, and courtly figures dominate.

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Fig. 14 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 51r.

table, probably illustrating verse 15, “… and thou givest them their food in due season”.38 Whenever possible a number of Vat. gr. 1927’s miniatures also present a statement of ecclesiastical authority or superiority in matters of moral and proper behavior. “The blessed” or “thy saints” in the psalter text are consistently represented as monks, clerics, or bishops.39 In the illustration for Ps 31, a group at the left-hand side is composed of three figures confessing to a monk (fig. 14: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 51r). Verse 5 reads, “I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord”, and is inscribed below this group.40 Above this group is a domed structure with a half-figure of Christ. The other figures in the illustration relate to either the blessed or the wicked. The juxtaposition of the monk and the bust of Christ within a type of sanctuary implies moral authority transferred from Christ to the monk, as does the psalm verse that refers to confession to the Lord. In the marginal psalters 38

DE WALD, Vaticanus graecus 1927, p. 41. Monks and clergy representing “the just” appear in other psalters produced in monastic settings. They can be anonymous figures but are often named saints. Whereas in Vat. gr. 1927 they are almost always anonymous figures, suggesting an interest in monks and clergy as a class rather than particular saints. See C. WALTER, Pictures of the Clergy in the Theodore Psalter, in Revue des études byzantines 31 (1973), pp. 229-242. De Wald notes that saints appear hardly at all in Vat. gr. 1927’s miniatures: DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 51. 40 DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 13. 39

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and the Theodore Psalter this psalm is illustrated with Barlaam, the hermit saint, who is named by inscription and appears on his own praying to Christ in heaven.41 The lack of identification in Vat. gr. 1927 allows for a broader function for the image as endowing moral authority on monks as a class. That moral authority is given to St Sylvester in Vat. gr. 752 where the miniature for this psalm shows “spies” confessing to St Sylvester depicted as a stylite Fig. 15 – Vat. gr. 752, fol. 94v: Psalm 30 (detail). (fig. 15: Vat. gr. 752, fol. 94v).42 So just as Vat. gr. 752 gives great importance to St Sylvester as representative of sacred authority in a number of its miniatures, Vat. gr. 1927 consistently privileges clergy and monks as a group.43

Fig. 16 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 70r. 41

Ibid., p. 52; DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 34v, pl. 20, fig. 58. DE WALD, p. 17. 43 The role of St Sylvester, as well as that of Sts Amphilochius and Arethas, in Vat. gr. 752’s miniatures is analyzed in KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 212-218. See also R. JENKINS – E. KITZINGER, A Cross of the Patriarch Michael Cerularius, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 21 (1967), pp. 235-240. 42

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When David is depicted in need of assistance, he is often accompanied by a monk or ecclesiast, as in the miniature for Ps 39 (fig. 16: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 70r). Here, David emerges from a pit mentioned in verse 3, inscribed below the pit, and at the right stands a priest, identified by inscription as “the blessed man that trusts in the Lord”, taken from verse 5.44 Both David and the priest raise their hands towards Christ in an arc above.45

Fig. 17 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 261v.

Finally, the miniatures for the last psalms in Vat. gr. 1927 appear to summarize the overall message of the psalter. Other than the apocryphal Ps 151, these are praise psalms. Ps 148 urges all creation to praise the Lord, and the miniature features two kings, possibly David and Solomon (identified by inscription as “kings of the earth”), prostrate below Christ who is flanked by two cherubim (fig. 17: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 261v).46 The miniature for Ps 149 juxtaposes a group of monks on the left, identified by inscription as “saints joyful in glory” mentioned in verse 5, with four kings and nobles in chains at the right, identified by inscription as the “kings bound with chains and their nobles fettered with iron” mentioned in verse 8 (fig. 18: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 263r).47 An orant David stands in the center. Thus, the 44

DE WALD, Vaticanus Graecus 1927, p. 16. In the Theodore Psalter St Gregory is placed in the pit, above which stand two unidentified men: DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 48r, pl. 27, fig. 82. 46 DE WALD, Vaticanus graecus 1927, p. 42. In the Theodore Psalter unnamed figures of an emperor and empress stand with hands raised in praise toward a bust of Christ: DER NERSESSIAN, Londres, Addit. 19.352, fol. 187v, pl. 103, fig. 293. 47 DE WALD, Vaticanus graecus 1927, pp. 42-43. The Theodore, Barberini, and Bristol 45

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Fig. 18 – Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 263r.

final miniatures present the paradigm of the good ruler, the prostrate kings demonstrating appropriately pious behavior, but at the same time a contrast is posed: the kings in chains representing the rulers who err and are therefore punished. As in other miniatures, moral authority is assigned to the monks as representatives of the church. In Vat. gr. 752’s miniature for Ps 148, David does not offer praise directly to Christ in heaven, but appears with a companion before a bishop officiating at an altar. An inscription specifies that David praises the Lord with words taken from the commentary of Hesychius.48 This iconography is consistent with the many images in Vat. gr. 752 that depict David as in need of ecclesiastic guidance or mediation. With the many indications that Vat. gr. 1927 was produced in a monastic setting, it is possible that both Vat. gr. 1927 and Vat. gr. 752 were made in the same monastic workshop. The moralizing nature of their illustrations, combined with the interest in spiritual versus temporal authority, does find affinity in manuscripts firmly attributed to the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople, a monastery associated with opposition to heretical emperors.49 As well as St Sylvester depicted as a stylite, Vat. gr. 752 Psalters do not contain miniatures for Ps 149. Kings and nobles in chains appear with Christ, saints, and female musicians for Ps 149 in the Utrecht Psalter: K. VAN DER HORST – J. H. A. ENGELBRECHT, Utrecht Psalter. Vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Original Format der Handschrift 32 aus dem Besitz der Bibliothek der Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, Graz 1984, fol. 83r. 48 DE WALD, p. 39, pl. LI, fol. 443v. 49 ANDERSON, On the Nature of the Theodore Psalter, pp. 560 ff.; G. PEERS, Peter, Iconoclasm and the Use of Nature in the Smyrna Physiologus (Evangelical School, B. 8), in Jahrbuch

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includes two depictions of St Symeon Stylites, and one of St Dositheos Stylites.50 As De Wald noted, few saints are depicted in Vat. gr. 752’s miniatures, making the stylites quite conspicuous.51 This feature may connect the manuscript to a leading intellectual at the Stoudios Monastery, Niketas Stethatos, a devotee of St Symeon the New Theologian who promoted the cult of Symeon Stylites.52 Symeon the New Theologian had entered the Stoudios Monastery on the advice of his spiritual father, another stylite named Symeon the Pious.53 Niketas wrote a biography of Symeon the New Theologian shortly after the translation of Symeon’s relics to Constantinople in 1052, an act Niketas accomplished with the support of Michael Keroularios.54 In this biography he notes that Symeon had discovered the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus in his father’s library and was so deeply inspired by this text that it became his favorite ascetic treatise.55 In fact, other than the Bible, this is one of the few works Symeon quotes from in his writings.56 In addition to the biography, Niketas edited Symeon’s theological works, including one of Symeon’s most important treatises, the homily On Confession, in which he supports the right of unordained monks to hear confession and give absolution from sin.57 Is it possible that Niketas Stethatos’s connection with Vat. gr. 1927 is reflected in the illustration for Ps 118 where we see the Heavenly Ladder (fig. 11: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 218r)? The iconography of this particular miniature is, after all, unique in the repertoire of psalter illustration. Furthermore, we could refer to the miniature for Ps 31 in which three figures are shown confessing to a monk (fig. 14: Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 51r), another unique inclusion in the psalter. Niketas Stethatos would definitely have been capable of directing the intensely scholarly projects of putting together psalters like Vat. gr. 752 der österreichischen Byzantinistik 50 (2000), pp. 267-292; KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 218-219. 50 In addition to St Sylvester as a stylite for Ps 31 (fol. 94v), St Dositheos Stylites is depicted for Ps 93 (fol. 297v), and St Symeon Stylites for Pss 118 (fol. 366r) and 128 (fol. 398r). 51 DE WALD, p. 48. De Wald observed that Vat. gr. 1927 also uses few saints in its miniatures (see above, n. 39). 52 For a concise discussion of Symeon and his beliefs see M. ANGOLD, The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204: a Political History, London and New York 1984, pp. 87-88. 53 J. R. MARTIN, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Princeton 1954, p. 156. 54 ANGOLD, The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204, p. 88. 55 I. HAUSHERR, Un grand mystique byzantin. Vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien par Nicétas Stéthatos, Rome 1928 (Orientalia Christiana, 12), p. 12. 56 MARTIN, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder, p. 158. 57 SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN, On Confession, PG 95, cols 283-304; Engl. transl. by H. J. M. TURNER, The Epistles of St Symeon the New Theologian, Oxford 2009, pp. 26-69.

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with its catenae, and Vat. gr. 1927, a less complex manuscript but one that also makes use of unusual miniatures accompanied by lengthy inscriptions. The production of Vat. gr. 1927 could then have occurred toward the end of Niketas’s life (he dies ca. 1090), when he became hegoumenos of the Stoudios Monastery.58 While similarities can be posed with the moralizing nature of the illustrations in manuscripts known to have been made at the Stoudios Monastery, what is remarkable in the two Vatican manuscripts, as argued in this paper, is that both psalters aim their moralizing tone directly at the ruler in a manner akin to the pointed critique of the ninth-century marginal psalters. There is no doubt that a major topic in Vat. gr. 752’s illustrations is the sinfulness of the ruler, as represented by David.59 This emphasis changes in Vat. gr. 1927 with David once again assuming his role as prophet and guide to proper behavior. However, the illustrations still present rulers as in need of wise counsel, whether the ruler is represented by David or other kingly figures. And members of the church are consistently presented as morally superior to rulers and able to provide the necessary guidance. These are themes one would expect to find in a psalter produced some years following the stormy period of the mid-eleventh century when the patriarch Michael Keroularios’s opposition to the emperors Constantine IX Monomachos and Isaac Komnenos eventually led to his arrest and death in 1058. Unlike Vat. gr. 752, which must have been produced shortly after these events, the illustrations of Vat. gr. 1927 suggest a greater degree of distance from the period of turmoil, a turmoil that seems to have found resolution with the retirement of Isaac Komnenos to the Stoudios Monastery in December of 1059. While the manuscript employs the figure of David in its miniatures in a manner indicative of a desire for reconciliation between church and emperor, the moralizing message of the proper relationship of emperor and church remains.

58 59

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, pp. 1955-1956 with references. KALAVREZOU – TRAHOULIA – SABAR, Critique of the Emperor, pp. 201-212.

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DIANE REILLY

MEDITATION, TRANSLATION, THE LITURGY, AND THE MEDIEVAL ILLUSTRATED PSALTER IN THE WEST Illuminated Psalters were among the most luxurious codices produced by western scriptoria between the ninth and eleventh centuries, and yet at the same time have remained among the most enigmatic to scholars attempting to determine what sources inspired their artists, who used them, and how. The varieties of Psalter illustration practiced by artists in Western Europe between the ninth and eleventh centuries have been well described in previous literature, and are similar to the choices popular among surviving Byzantine Psalters of the same era. The content of Psalter illustrations could be literal or narrative, comprising images from the lives of David and the Old Testament patriarchs, the adventures of the Israelites, or typological references to Jesus, or primarily decorative. The imagery could be scattered across the margins, inserted in text columns at the beginnings of each Psalm, focused before Psalms at liturgically significant intervals, confined to historiated initials, or concentrated at the beginning of the codex as cycles of frontispieces.1 The coincidence of illustration type and format between Western and Byzantine Psalters has been the subject of much scholarly inquiry, summarized recently by Kathleen Corrigan.2 I will not be revisiting this deep but oft-plumbed well. Because the potential function of Vat. gr. 752, with its combination of illustrations and complex catenae, is unclear, I would like to examine the Western European illuminated Psalters of the ninth through eleventh centuries as a group, highlighting especially several better known examples, in order to explore how the form and appearance of the manuscripts was tailored to practices and beliefs specific to the Roman church of this period and the needs of its members. A juxtaposition of this volume’s studies of the Greek Psalter and 1 F. O. BÜTTNER, Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. BÜTTNER, Turnhout 2004, pp. 1-106, has provided an encyclopedic summary of the different formats and subjects employed by medieval artists to decorate Psalters. 2 K. CORRIGAN, Early Medieval Psalter Illustration in Byzantium and the West, in The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David, ed. by K. VAN DER HORST – W. NOEL – W. C. M. WÜSTEFELD, London 1996, pp. 85-103.

A Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 569-608.

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seven of its Western peers that exemplify a variety of potential functions and types of pictorial program may help to cast into relief, even through contrast, features of Vat. gr. 752 that may prove to be significant. The Psalms as a component of the liturgy The Psalms, as Scripture, differ from many other parts of the Bible in form. While the historical books were predominantly narratives, recounting, usually in the third person, the events that had shaped God’s covenant with his people, Wisdom books such as the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus spoke in the first person to record divinely inspired words. Further, the Psalms stand apart from the rest of these in that their words were addressed to God, rather than to the faithful. Many parts of the Bible were frequently read and excerpted, including passages of direct speech incorporated into narrative books such as the Gospels. Those that addressed God, however, were recognized as similar to the Psalms and were often joined to them in the form of the Canticles appended to manuscript Psalters. Thus from an early point, those who copied and compiled Psalter manuscripts established a tradition that Psalter manuscripts shared only with Gospelbooks and copies of the Apocalypse: a Psalter is rarely just a copy of the Psalms but most often includes a selection of ancillary, frequently non-Scriptural, materials. Copyists also singled the text out has having a special function inspired by its literary form. Duncan Robertson has recently elucidated the appropriateness of the Psalms to guiding the mind in prayer, whether inside or outside the walls of a religious foundation: It was thought to be difficult for monks under the best of circumstances, and no doubt impossible for active lay people, to sustain the purity of prayer for more than an instant, unless the mind were occupied by consecrated wording and more mysteriously supported by the power the scriptural texts convey.3

As Alcuin of York, the eighth-century English theologian, explained in his De laude psalmorum, “In the Psalms you will find an intimate prayer, if you study them with an intent mind, such as you could not in any way conceive by yourself”.4 3 D. ROBERTSON, Lectio Divina: the Medieval Experience of Reading, Collegeville, MN 2011 (Cistercian Studies, 238), p. 126. 4 On this preface, J. BLACK, Psalm Uses in Carolingian Prayerbooks: Alcuin and the Preface to De Psalmorum usu, in Mediaeval Studies 43 (2002), pp. 1-60. This passage, p. 50, lines 125130. In Psalmis invenies tam intimam orationem, si intenta mente perscrutaris, sicut non potes ullatenus per te ipsum excogitare. Trans. by ROBERTSON, Lectio Divina, p. 127.

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Appropriately then, the Psalms, from early in the history of the Christian church, provided the backbone of the liturgy. Repeated cyclically by monks, nuns and canons as the heart of the Divine Office, imbedded within the Mass, and excerpted in antiphons, responsories and hymns, the Psalms were among the most commonly sung parts of Scripture.5 The frequency of their use did not, however, contribute to any uniformity among the texts used. Ulrich Kuder has assembled a useful catalogue of thirty-six surviving Latin Psalters or Psalter fragments from before 800 that testifies to the variety of translations and formats popular and the gradual accretion of companion texts.6 A multiplicity of Latin versions of the Psalms circulated in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. The Vetus latina,7 or pre-Vulgate translation, is attested either alone or juxtaposed with other versions in «duplex» or even «triplex» form from the fifth through the eighth centuries. Later translations attributed to Jerome were more popular. What was then believed to be Jerome’s first translation, the Psalterium romanum,8 was made from the Vetus latina, and incorporated into many parts of the liturgy, including the Roman Missal and regional versions of the Office, and at Saint Peter’s in Rome, hence its title.9 It is found in many surviving early Psalters. The Psalterium gallicanum,10 traditionally described as Jerome’s translation from a Greek original, eventually became the more standard translation for use in the medieval Divine Office, and like the Romanum was copied by itself or in combination with other texts. It is also the version typically included in Vulgate Bibles. The Psalterium iuxta 5 J. W. MCKINNON, The Book of Psalms, Monasticism and the Western Liturgy, in The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, ed. by N. VAN DEUSEN, Albany 1999, pp. 43-58; J. DYER, The Singing of Psalms in the Early Medieval Office, in Speculum 64 (1989), pp. 535-578, esp. pp. 535-538; ID., The Psalms in Monastic Prayer, in The Place of the Psalms, pp. 59-89; and D. HILEY, Western Plainchant: A Handbook, Oxford 1993, pp. 19-22. 6 U. KUDER, Illuminierte Psalter von den Anfängen bis zum 800, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. BÜTTNER, Turnhout 2004, pp. 107-135, at pp. 109-116. 7 Vetus Latina: die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel, Freiburg 1949. Spanish versions of the Vetus Latina are edited in T. AYUSO, La Vetus Latina Hispana V: El Salterio, 3 vols, Madrid 1962. 8 Le Psautier Romain et les autres anciens Psautiers Latins, ed. R. WEBER, Rome 1953 (Collectanea Biblica Latina, 10). 9 On the Psalter versions most frequently excerpted in the liturgy, see J. DYER, Latin Psalters, Old Roman and Gregorian Chants, in Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 60 (1984), pp. 11-30. An interesting but understudied by-product of the simultaneous use of several different versions of the Psalms in different components of liturgical life is that an author’s reliance on the Romanum in quotations interpolated into his or her writing may signal either the author’s place of origin or a keen memory for the liturgy of the Mass. 10 Biblia sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem, vol. 10, Rome 1953, Liber Psalmorum, is a modern critical edition of the Psalterium gallicanum.

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hebraicum (or iuxta hebraeos)11 was thought to be Jerome’s last attempt to achieve a precise translation, this time by returning to Hebrew versions and their Masoretic commentaries. Although never excerpted into the liturgy, it survives in both freestanding and duplex or triplex editions from eighth-century France, including one copy from Tours and one from Corbie.12 Early Psalters also often included a selection of canticles, a litany, or commentaries, all of which helped to tailor the Psalter for choir use and facilitate understanding of its rather allusive text. Psalms in the liturgy were sung rather than spoken, in a cycle known as psalmody. Whether part of the “ordinary”, the repetitive cycle of observances used on «ferial» days, or assigned to the “proper” services for feasts, Psalms were always chanted following musical patterns known as “Psalm tones”. In Western Europe probably by the end of the eighth century a complex pairing of musical antiphons and Psalms was in the process of being compiled.13 While each Psalm was chanted weekly in the course of the Night Office, it might be paired with a different antiphon each time. Antiphons, which were short phrases that either synopsized the Psalm or interpreted it according to the lessons or feasts for the day, were sung according to one of the Gregorian “modes”. Because the Psalm needed to match musically the antiphon that was sung before and after it, the tone with which it was chanted changed regularly.14 Sometimes a Psalm was chanted in combination with an antiphon or using a tone more frequently associated with a different Psalm or feast, creating a symbolic auditory connection.15 Furthermore, the doxology (Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto[…]) was sometimes chanted using the same Psalm tone either be11 Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. B. FISCHER et al., vol. 1, Stuttgart 1983, Genesis-Psalmi, pp. 767-955, includes facing page critical editions of the Gallicanum (here called Liber psalmorum iuxta septuaginta) and the Psalmi iuxta hebraicum. 12 Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, Lat. F.v.I.5 from Corbie, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 2 from Northern France, and London, British Library, Harley 2793 from Tours. 13 An introduction to the very complex architecture of Psalm tones, antiphons and doxology tones can be found in Hiley, Western Plainchant, pp. 58-62. 14 A late tenth-century treatise from north-east France illuminates the developing art of psalmody most likely familiar to ninth- to eleventh-century Western European monks: Commemoratio brevis de tonis et Psalmis modulandis, ed. T. BAILEY, Ottawa 1979. 15 In the period under consideration, very few texts were noted for musical performance and those only with neumes, a non-diastematic form of notation. Because neumes cannot record pitch and pattern with any exactitude, they probably served as a form of reference for a cantor already familiar with the tones. None of these Psalters were noted, except occasionally in ancillary texts. Monks were instead required to memorize the Psalm tones and matching antiphons. Thus, reconstructing this type of musical symbolism is nearly impossible for the Psalters examined here. See HILEY, Western Plainchant, pp. 61, 304-305.

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tween Psalm verses or at the end of the Psalm, effectively Christianizing the Psalm. Each monastic or secular foundation had its own system of pairings and musical settings, and by the ninth century most began to compile them into a single book now known as an antiphonary, although at that time few of these contained musical notation.16 In the absence of an antiphonary of the appropriate date, it is impossible to reconstruct with certainty the antiphons and lessons with which a Psalm would routinely have been paired in a house that produced an illustrated Psalter. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that for a monk, nun or canon the liturgical performance of a Psalm would have provided its most immediate interpretive context, perhaps experienced at the same time that he or she viewed the illustrated text.17 The renewals and reforms of communal religious life that occurred between the eighth and eleventh centuries in Western Europe served to enhance an already rigorous schedule of Psalm singing in the choir, as witnessed by the many surviving consuetudines and ordines these reforms inspired.18 Those who chose a religious vocation would have quickly memorized the entire text of the Psalms, assisted by the roster of accompanying antiphons and the tones to which the words were set.19 Devout authors 16

HILEY, Western Plainchant, pp. 304-308. Whether and when monks moved from solo singing of the Psalms to choral psalmody is debated. DYER, The Psalms in Monastic Prayer, pp. 76-77. 18 DYER, The Singing of Psalms, p. 538. From the eighth century onwards, church reformers promulgated ever more specific instructions for the performance of the Office, inspired in large part by the Rule of Saint Benedict. Amalarius of Metz, Liber officialis, and Chrodegang of Metz, Regula canonicorum, imposed a regular round of Psalm chant on both monks and canons in much of Western Europe, at the same time that choral, rather than individual, chanting of the Psalms became the norm. See M. A. CLAUSSEN, The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the Regula Canonicorum in the Eighth Century, Cambridge 2004, pp. 213-214, and J. M. HANSSENS, Amalarii episcopi opera liturgica omnia, 3, Vatican City 1950 (Studi e testi, 140), p. 24. 19 DYER, The Singing of Psalms, pp. 539-547. Also P. RICHÉ, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth through Eighth Centuries, trans. J. CONTRENI, Columbia, SC 1976, pp. 464-465, and A. M. BUSSE BERGER, Medieval Music and the Art of Memory, Berkeley 2005, pp. 47-49. P. Riché, Le Psautier livre de lecture élémentaire, in Études mérovingiennes. Actes des journées de Poitiers, 1-3 mai, 1952, Paris 1952, pp. 253-256. Saintly vitae repeat the trope of memorization of the Psalms as the first step to sanctity. For instance, the vita of Saint Trond reports that he learned to chant the Psalms in order in one year (Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Ben. t. II, p. 1074). The eleventh-century Life of Saint Gery reveals that because as a schoolboy Gery repeated a verse from Psalm 2 from memory to the visiting archbishop Magnericus, he was chosen for ecclesiastical education, and had learned the entire book of Psalms when the archbishop next visited the district. See the text in Vita Gaugerici, newly edited in Gerardi Cameracensis Acta Synodi Atrebatensis, Vita Autberti, Vita Gaugerici necnon varia scripta ex officina Gerardi exstantia, ed. S. VANDERPUTTEN – D. REILLY, Turnhout 2014 (CC.CM, 270), p. 154, lines 233 to 260. 17

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littered their texts with unattributed snippets from the Psalms, testifying to their intimate familiarity with the text.20 All but the newest converts to regular life did not need copies of the Psalter to guide them in their performance of the liturgy. Yet paradoxically most evidence points to the conclusion that the surviving lavishly illuminated Psalters were largely copied and decorated in ecclesiastical contexts and frequently stayed there. The explanation for this may be found in part in the apparatus of texts that quickly surrounded the Psalms and tailored them for liturgical use. Manuals dedicated to monastic life did not provide sufficient direction for how the Psalms were to be framed within the Office: customaries and ordinals described only some components of a mandated liturgy and the order in which the Psalms were to be sung.21 Antiphonals, as described above, could list antiphons, Psalm incipits, and responsories. Tonaries specified the musical settings for the Psalms and the antiphons with which they were paired.22 However, this complement of books would not have provided all the information necessary for correct communal practice among those professed, and breviaries that aggregated all the texts necessary to perform the Divine Office first appeared only in the eleventh century.23 To compensate, within a monastic context there eventually appeared a genre that Eric Palazzo terms “liturgical Psalters”. These divided the Psalms into the daily allotments, and combined them with “invitatories, hymns, antiphons, orations and brief lessons”, canticles, a litany or collects.24 All of the monastic Psalters we will examine include at least some of these items in addition to a program of decoration. Many Psalters reveal immediately their role in the liturgy simply through the combination of texts aggregated in one binding, and the care lavished on their decoration. Among the twenty-four surviving eleventhand twelfth-century Psalters copied in Beneventan script, for example, Virginia Brown identified ten that had been augmented with other Office

20 For example, an analysis of Bernard of Clairvaux’s writings reveals that fully 20% of his biblical allusions and citations were taken from the Psalms. J. FIGUET, La Bible de Bernard: Données et overtures, in Bernard de Clairvaux: Histoire, mentalités, spiritualité. Colloque de Lyon – Cîteaux – Dijon, Paris 1992 (Sources chrétiennes, 380), after G. ZINN, Introduction, in The Place of the Psalms, p. xii. 21 Most surviving western customaries of our period have been edited in the series Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum, Siegburg 1963-. 22 M. HUGLO, Les tonaires: inventaire, analyse, comparaison, Paris 1971. 23 E. PALAZZO, A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, trans. M. BEAUMONT, Collegeville, MN 1998, pp. 169-172, and V. LEROQUAIS, Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, Macon 1934. 24 PALAZZO, A History of Liturgical Books, pp. 130-131.

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Fig. 1 – London, BL MS Add 18859, fol. 39r, Montecassino Psalter, Psalm 73.

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materials.25 A Psalter from Montecassino in the British Library26 is indicative: a very small handheld volume with broad margins and a single column of carefully written, Beneventan minuscule embellished with multicolored versal initials, the Psalter has been lavishly decorated with giant interlace initials embellished with gold, of which eight survive.27 Several of the longer Psalms have been divided with gold Gloria rubrics, likely indicating that the doxology was to be sung at these intervals. Before each Psalm is a carefully written titulus, the statement that names the purported author or describe the occasion that inspired it. This set of tituli has not yet been edited, but is characteristic of early tituli that attribute the Psalms to a variety of voices, such as Christ and the Church.28 The titulus for Ps 73, shown here, Vox christi ad patrem, obviously serves to Christianize the Psalm (fig. 1, London, BL MS Addit. 18859, fol. 39r, Ps 73). The Psalter is followed by a series of canticles and creeds, litanies, and prayers labeled for general use, or for specific offices or days of the week. Similarly, a large-format, eleventh-century Mozarabic manuscript,29 once owned by the monastery of Santo Domingo in Silos, contains a now 25 V. BROWN, I libri della Bibbia nell’Italia meridionale longobarda, in Forme e modelli della tradizione manoscritta della Bibbia, ed. P. Cherubini, Vatican City 2005, pp. 281-307, esp. pp. 283-284 and n. 8. Psalters written in Beneventan script often include texts for the Office. Of the ten surviving examples yet identified, all were written with a single column of script, except for a two-column litany. On the dearth of illuminated Italian Psalters in the period, and the diversity of those that survive, see W. AUGUSTYN, Zur Illustration von Psalterien und Psalmenkommentaren in Italien vom frühen 11. bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert, in Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen, pp. 165-180. 26 London, British Library, Addit. 18859. The manuscript measures just 20.2 × 12.8 cm, and has been heavily trimmed. E. A. LOEW, The Beneventan Script: A History of the South Italian Minuscule, 2nd edn by V. BROWN, 2 vols, Rome 1980 (Sussidi Eruditi, 33-34), II, p. 51. 27 Grand initials survive at Pss 20, 32, 45, 59, 73, 85, and 109, while the first words of Ps 106 are display script set in a frame. The incipits of Pss 1, 41, 50, 72, 89, 101, 149 and 150 were on folios that are now lost. This damage to the manuscript makes it difficult to identify the principle by which the Psalter was divided, but it appears not to align with any of the systems yet studied. H. Schneider, Die Psalterteilung in Fünfziger- und Zehnergruppen, in Universitas, Dienst an Wahrheit under Leben: Festschrift für Bischof Dr. Albert Stohr im Auftrag der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz 1960, pp. 136-147. 28 P. SALMON, Les «Tituli Psalmorum» des manuscrits latins, Rome 1959 (Collectanea biblica latina, 12), pp. 47-74. 29 London, British Library, Addit. 30851, 39.5 × 31 cm. Edited in The Mozarabic Psalter (MS. British Museum, Add. 30851), ed. J. P. GILSON, London 1905 (The Henry Bradshaw Society, 30). The Psalter text has been edited as an example of the salterio visigótico-mozárabe, siglum A33, in Ayuso, La Vetus Latina Hispana. See A. BOYLAN, The Library of Santo Domingo de Silos and its Catalogues (XIth-XVIIIth Centuries), in Revue Mabillon 64 (1992), pp. 60-62 and 78 on the origin of this manuscript. S. BOYNTON, Eleventh-Century Continental Hymnaries Containing Latin Glosses, in Scriptorium 53 (1999), pp. 200-251, at p. 247, and R.

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incomplete Psalter divided into five «books». Each Psalm is prefaced by a neumed antiphon and highlighted with an interlace initial with animal or foliate terminations, and followed by more antiphons and prayers, sometimes annotated with rubrics signaling when they should be used, such as ad matutinum antiphona and ad conpletoria.30 The antiphons are each, for the most part, drawn directly from one of the Psalm verses. Following the Psalter is a set of canticles, each either neumed or paired with an antiphon; a liturgical hymnbook; and a lengthy series of Offices with neumed invitatories, hymns, prayers, benedictions and antiphons.31 Both the Psalter and the hymnal contain glosses of individual words copied into the margins, although the Psalter’s appear to have been added only in the twelfth century. To connect the eleventh-century glosses to the hymns the scribe used neumes as lemmata, suggesting that he was a cantor.32 This, as well as the generous size of the manuscript and the neumed antiphons, all suggest that this was a cantor’s handbook. The smaller, hand-held equivalent is a Mozarabic manuscript possibly made for Santo Domingo in Silos and now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is a composite of two damaged and incomplete Psalters sandwiched together, one from the first half of the eleventh century, the other from the second half.33 Many of the Psalms are written with the text separated into discrete verses, in a single column of well-spaced Visigothic minuscule script. In both manuscripts, each Psalm is ornamented with interlace, animal and organic initials of brown pen, purple, dark blue, maroon and ochre paint, and each sentence begins with a red versal initial. The text has been carefully corrected in contemporary Visigothic minuscule, and outfitted with punctuation and tonic accents, an indication that at least at some point it was sung aloud. Within the canticle Liga testimonium (Is 8:16-9:8; second Psalter, fol. 78v), one finds further clues about this manuWalker, Views of Transition: Liturgy and Illumination in Medieval Spain, London 1998, pp. 51-52, argue that the manuscript could have been made at Silos. 30 The Mozarabic Psalter, p. 12, Ps 42. 31 Hispania Vetus: Musical-Liturgical Manuscripts from Visigothic Origins to the FrancoRoman Transition (9th-12th centuries), ed. S. ZAPKE, Bilbao 2007, p. 272. Eight of the hymns are notated, and these have garnered the lion’s share of scholarly attention paid to this manuscript. BOYNTON, Eleventh-Century Continental Hymnaries, pp. 244-248. 32 BOYNTON, Eleventh-Century Continental Hymnaries, p. 247. 33 Paris, BnF, Smith-Lesouëf 2. It has now been entirely digitized at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ ark:/12148/btv1b84559233. The manuscript is not continuously foliated; instead each Psalter fragment has its own foliation. W. M. WHITEHILL, A Mozarabic Psalter from Santo Domingo in Silos, in Speculum 4 (1929), pp. 461-468, V. LEROQUAIS, Les psautiers latins des bibliothèques publiques de France I, Macon 1941, pp. 323-325, and edited in AYUSO, La Vetus Latina Hispana, siglum A34.

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Fig. 2 – Paris BnF, MS Smith-Lesouëf 2, fol. 77v (Second Psalter), Santo Domingo de Silos Psalter, Canticle Dominus de Sina veniet.

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script’s function: in the outside margin hovers an “R” monogram attached to a cross, signaling a response, while between two verses a tiny, superlinear “gloria” has been inscribed, indicating which response should be interpolated. Such “R” monograms can be found throughout the manuscript. Appended to each Psalter is a series of canticles. The Mozarabic Use favored canticles, and Psalters could include dozens.34 In the second Psalter of this composite, they are labeled with rubrics indicating their seasonal use, such as fol. 77v, Incipit liber canticorum de toto anni circulo, and fol. 91v, Incipiunt cantici de quadragesime. These Psalters lack the antiphons and musical notation that augment the canticles in the Psalter in London. Nonetheless, the incipit for the first canticle of each Psalter, Dominus de Sina veniet (Deut 33:2, 3, 7, 22, 23, 17) has been lavished with attention. In the first Psalter, a page-high interlace D supports a bearded man, probably Moses, executing a sideways gymnastic flip. This has been joined to an equally large interlace initial for the second canticle, Liga testamonium, all painted in the flat, colorful, linear style characteristic of tenth- and eleventh-century Mozarabic art. Before the second Psalter’s forty-four surviving canticles (fig. 2, Paris, BnF, Smith-Lesouëf 2, fol. 77v), one finds a large column illustration depicting the second verse of the canticle Dominus de Sina veniet: “He hath appeared from mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law”. Apparuit de monte Pharan, et cum eo sanctorum millia. In dextera eius ignea lex.35 God appears in a mandorla above a host of standing figures, grasping in his right hand a tiny disk, a composition that is very similar to several contemporary Mozarabic Second Coming images,36 with the exception that the nearly ubiquitous book in the Deity’s hand has been replaced by a disk resembling the Eucharist embossed with a cross and four dots. This iconography, originally used in Carolingian “maiestas domini” images such as in the First Bible of Charles the Bald (Paris, BnF, Lat. 1, fol. 329v), recalls controversies over the Eucharist that boiled to the surface periodically from the ninth through the eleventh centuries.37 While other Spanish artists transformed this disk into an orb of universal dominion, such as in the tenth-century Girona 34 J. MEARNS, The Canticles of the Christian Church: Eastern and Western, in Early and Medieval Use, Cambridge 1914, repr. 2011, pp. 70-74. 35 English translations from The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, Challoner edition. 36 See for instance the Urgell Beatus, Urgell Cathedral, MS 26, fol. 19r, the San Millán Beatus, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, MS 33, fol. 17v, the Beatus of Fernando I, Madrid, BN, Vitr. 14.2, fol. 43v, M. MENTRÉ, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain, London 1996, figs 94, 119, 120. 37 M. SCHAPIRO, Two Romanesque Drawings in Auxerre and Some Iconographic Problems, in Studies in Art and Literature for Belle Da Costa Green, ed. by D. MINER, Princeton 1954, pp. 341-345, repr. in M. SCHAPIRO, Selected Papers: Romanesque Art, New York 1977, pp. 313-317.

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Beatus (Museu de la Catedral de Girona, Num. Inv. 7 (11), fol. 2r),38 the cross, impressed into the surface of this disk, marks it as a stamped host. Why has the artist applied this Christian symbolism to an Old Testament canticle text? Linking the Silos Psalters to the liturgy celebrated by their owners is complicated by the temporal overlap between their creation and a sea change that took place in the liturgy in the later 1000s. The Spanish Church, at the insistence of Pope Gregory VII, switched from its ancient Mozarabic liturgy to the Roman one. Examples of Office books suited to both liturgies survive, and demonstrate an interesting phenomenon: while the Mozarabic Night Office was devoted almost entirely to psalmody, the Roman Office that replaced it interspersed lections and their responses among the Psalms, shifting the overall balance of the service.39 Although as Rose Walker has pointed out, in terms of graphic style it is difficult to distinguish between manuscripts made for the Mozarabic liturgy and those suited to the liturgy that replaced it, as sometimes the artists chose a consciously archaizing style,40 these Psalters seem particularly well suited to the Mozarabic Office, especially given their wealth of canticles. Furthermore, although many eleventh-century liturgical manuscripts survive from Santo Domingo, none give us information about when and how this canticle was sung.41 The surviving Silos Psalter with antiphons lacks both the first quire of the Psalter, and the first quire of the canticles, and other, more complete antiphonaries and breviaries from eleventhcentury Silos do not list it. Evidence from farther afield, however, tells us that in the Mozarabic rite this canticle had long been associated with the season of Advent, and excerpted in several different ways for use in the Office. The Verona Orationale, which was copied at Tarragona before 711,42 a tenth-century mass and office Breviary from San Millán de la Cogolla,43 38 This detail is clearly visible in The Art of Medieval Spain, AD 500-1200, New York 1994, p. 156, fig. 156. 39 WALKER, Views of Transition, pp. 48-68 and 83. 40 Ibid., p. 133. 41 The Roman liturgy is preserved in London, British Library, Addit. 30850, ed. in R. J. HESBERT, Corpus antiphonalium officii 2, Rome 1963-1979 (Rerum Ecclesiasticarum documenta. Series maior: Fontes, 8). Neither this canticle, nor an antiphon derived from it, are recorded in its cycle of offices. The Visigothic Office of Santo Domingo is recorded, much more tersely, in I. Fernández de la Cuesta, El Breviarium gothicum de Silos: archivo monástico, ms. 6, Madrid – Barcelona 1965 (Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie litúrgica, 8). It seldom lists the assigned canticle, and does not reference Dominus de Sina veniet. 42 Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS LXXXIX, fol. 5v, D. N. RANDEL, An Index to the Chant of the Mozarabic Rite, Princeton 1973, p. 50. 43 Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, Aemil. 30, fols 41r (Dom II Advent), 28r (Dom I Advent), 51v (Advent), RANDEL, An Index, pp. 50, 254.

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and an eleventh-century Mozarabic antiphonary from the Cathedral of León,44 all prescribe that Dominus de Sina veniet be sung as an antiphon during Matins of the second Sunday of Advent, while in the second two it also was used as a responsory, traditionally the longest and most elaborate sung component of the office, on Advent itself and the following week. In the San Millán Breviary, a versicle taken from Isaiah, which typically provided Advent lections, followed the responsory on Advent: Et erit iustitia cingulum, “And justice shall be the spiritual kingdom of his loins”.45 Clergy celebrating the Mozarabic rite thus dedicated considerable time to pondering the first lines of this canticle in the season of anticipation of Christmas, and the Second Coming. The Christological image in the Silos Psalter, in which Christ appears to hold a tiny Eucharist rather than the Law, becomes an interpretive gloss perhaps inspired by the liturgical settings of the text. Given that the beginning of each of the two Psalters is missing, it is impossible to know if the Psalms opened with as much fanfare as the canticles, or if any now missing miniatures were connected symbolically to those prefacing the canticles. The remaining illumination does not suggest that these Psalters possessed synthetic pictorial programs. Instead, the colorful celebration of the first and second canticles heralded the beginning of a new section of the codex. Early Illuminated Psalters and Monastic Devotion In other Psalters, the decorative scheme provides an interpretive gloss on the Psalms appropriate to the user. An early example is the ninth-century Corbie Psalter, today Bibliothèques d’Amiens-Métropole, MS 18 C.46 This small, heavily worn, hand-held volume contains a copy of the Gal44 León, Cathedral Archive, MS 8, fols 42r (Dom II Advent), 35r (Dom I Advent), 44r (Advent), ed. in L. BROU and J. VIVES, Antifonario visigótico mozárabe de la catedral de Léon, Barcelona – Madrid 1969. See RANDEL, An Index, pp. 50, 254. 45 In the Leon Antiphonary the next part of the same canticle, Apparuit Dominus de monte was also used as an antiphon for the matins of the feast of Saint Caecilia, while in the Antiphonary of San Millán it was used for the Matins of the second Sunday in Advent as well. In both manuscripts this antiphon was sung for the Matins of the feast of Saint Acisclus, paired with a versicle borrowed from the first sentence of the canticle. León, Archivo de la Catedral, MS 8, fols 33v (Caecilia), 6 (Acisclus), Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, Aemil. 30, fols 42 (Dom II Advent), 6 (Acisclus). Randel, An Index, p. 12. 46 Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France 19: Amiens, Paris 1893, pp. 10-11; U. KUDER, “Die Initialen des Amienspsalter (Amiens, BM MS 18)”, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich 1977 [diss.], and ID., Illuminierte Psalter, p. 114, and R. Kahsnitz, Frühe Initialpsalter, in The Illuminated Psalter, pp. 138-151. A digital copy of this Psalter can be viewed at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8452190t.

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lican Psalter and canticles, prayers, and litanies.47 The compiler favored especially the canticles sung during the morning office of Lauds, ordering them from Monday to Sunday, two for the evening offices of Vespers and Compline, and two less common, old Roman canticles or prayers sung at Lauds during Holy Week.48 All parts are written in two narrow columns in a generous, dark brown, Caroline minuscule script with orange rubrics that record the tituli.49 Pss 1, 51, 101 and 151 each received more graphic embellishment in the form of display script, breaking the Psalter into three sections as was typical especially of early Irish Psalters. In a few isolated cases, additional rubrics assign the Psalm’s words to specific voices, such as vox ecclesiae (Ps 5) and dixit vox christi (Ps 7), similar to those found in the Beneventan Psalter now in the British Library. The Psalms, canticles and prayers are embellished with a remarkable series of decorated and historiated initials. The initials are carefully drawn in brown ink and painted with pale washes of dark teal, muddy pink, purple and ochre, although most traces of color disappear soon after Ps 120. Initials opening the canticles and prayers feature either interlace decoration embellished with animals, or narrative vignettes inspired by the historical contexts of the canticles’ compositions in the life of David, Christological interpretations, or their literal words. Those introducing the Psalms in addition highlight the themes of prayer, divine intervention and violent struggle. Of the roughly 140 surviving initials, only twenty-five are purely decorative, with no figural or animal elements. The rest depict writhing or fighting animals, animals and humans battling each other, humans calling on divine intervention, or humans at prayer. Several scholars have explored the ways in which the decorative programs of selected early medieval Psalters are centered on the theme of spiritual warfare. The Corbie Psalter, the Stuttgart Psalter,50 the Utrecht Psalter,51 the Mondsee Psalter,52 and the Tiberius Psalter53 all feature illuminations that stress violence or bristle with weaponry. The verses of the 47

PALAZZO, A History of Liturgical Books, p. 131. Bibliothèques d’Amiens-Métropole, MS 18 C, fol. 132r, Cantemus domine gloriose enim honorificatus est, is an alternate canticle of Moses attested in the seventh-century Irish Bangor Antiphonary (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, C. 5. inf.), among other manuscripts. Fol. 135v, Benedictus es domine deus patrum nostrorum is an alternate Canticle of the Three Hebrews, known, like Cantemus domine gloriose, from the Mozarabic rite in which both were sung during Holy Week. 49 These tituli traveled independently from the Psalter text. The tituli in Amiens MS 18 C do not appear to match any of the six series edited by SALMON, Les «Tituli Psalmorum». 50 Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Biblia folio 23. 51 Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS 32, from Reims, ca. 820-830. 52 Montpellier, Bibl. Interuniversitaire, H409, before 778, Bavaria. 53 London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius C.VI, mid-eleventh century, England. 48

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Psalms provide ample inspiration for depictions of violent confrontations. The secluded choirs of chanting monks would have echoed with statements such as, “For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: thou hast broken the teeth of sinners” (Ps 3:8), or, “Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. And in it he hath prepared the instruments of death, he hath made ready his arrows for them that burn” (Ps 7:13-14). Yet even more than the words of the Psalms themselves, contemporary understanding of the spiritual outcomes of communal and individual prayer appears to have inspired these pictorial programs. As Kathleen Openshaw explored in the most depth, monastic practice and spirituality, particularly in England, Ireland and the Continental foundations influenced by Insular monks, inspired decorative programs that visualized the spiritual battle in which monks participated during their communal and solitary worship.54 She points out that although all of Western monasticism incorporated psalmody into its patterns of observance, pre-Benedictine Insular monasticism in particular embraced a combination of communal and individual devotion reliant on continuous, penitential Psalm repetition designed to battle inner demons, what she terms a “spiritual psychomachia”.55 Starting in English and Irish Psalters, and then in later Continental Psalters, either at Ps 90, which was often prescribed for penitential use, or at one of the main Psalter divisions, images of Christ triumphant over a demonic adversary became common,56 inspired by Ps 90:13: “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon”. Heather Pulliam has recently demonstrated that each of these Psalters depicts violence in a different way. The ninth-century Carolingian Stuttgart Psalter’s column illustrations often show the unarmed Psalmist, identifiable by his non-martial garb and speaking gesture, pursued by hosts of armed enemies who attempt to stab or stone him. In the almost contemporary Utrecht Psalter, in contrast, bands of armed protagonists cluster and fight in spaces isolated from a similarly identifiable Psalmist, who most often floats, unhindered, above the melee below. In the Corbie Psalter’s violent imagery, routinely a single unidentified but armed figure, or one with the attributes and weapons of David, furiously battles a beast (fig. 3, Bibliothèques d’Amiens-Métropole, MS 18 C, fol. 6r, Ps 7).57 This theme of 54 K. M. OPENSHAW, Weapons in the Daily Battle: Images of the Conquest of Evil in the Early Medieval Psalter, in Art Bulletin 75 (1993), pp. 17-18. 55 Ibid., pp. 25 and 28. 56 Ibid., pp. 25-56. 57 H. PULLIAM, Exaltation and Humiliation: the Decorated Initials of the Corbie Psalter (Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 18), in Gesta 49 (2010), pp. 98-99.

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the victorious or at least militant Psalmist is balanced by an equally prevalent emphasis on humility: David, Mary Magdalene, and unidentified figures are shown humbly bowing, beseeching or prostrate, possibly inspired by biblical commentaries by Cassiodorus, Augustine or Bede, which were well known to those educated in a monastic setting.58 Both those who battle and those who simply sing or pray from a humble position may be rewarded by the intervention of God, through the appearance of the Logos, an angel or the disembodied hand of the Almighty. As in Vat. gr. 752, the Corbie Psalter’s illustrative program was polyvalent, but all its levels of meaning would have been appropriate to monks engaged in prayerful psalmody. The late tenth- or early eleventh-century Southampton PsalFig. 3 – Amiens, Bibliothèques d’Amiens-Métro- ter likewise exhibits both its origipole 18, fol. 6r, Corbie Psalter, Psalm 7. nal function and a monastic interpretive cast through its contents and decorative program.59 Like the Corbie Psalter, the illuminators of this Irish Psalterium gallicanum placed a particular emphasis on the three-fold division of the Psalter text. Not only did they embellish these points with full-page, framed Davidic and Christological narrative scenes, they also interspersed at these intervals the same Lauds canticles found in the Corbie Psalter, in almost the same order, as well as collects, which are prayerful petitions addressed to God.60 58

PULLIAM, Exaltation and Humiliation, pp. 105-111. Cambridge, Saint John’s College, C. 9. Like the Corbie Psalter, this is a small volume, probably intended to be held in the hand. P. P. Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, Turnhout 2012 (CC.CM, 240). 60 Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, pp. xv-xvii, xxxix. The Lauds canticles begin with the Monday canticle in the Corbie Psalter, but the Sunday canticle in the Southampton Psal59

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Each Psalm is prefaced with a titulus and accompanied by an argument and glosses interpreting the Psalm. Each Psalm is also divided into sections punctuated with crosses, according to a scheme devised by Cassiodorus in his Expositio psalmorum, and cues for responses have been inserted in the form of marginal “R” abbreviations.61 Thus the Psalter is reminiscent of one that was constructed for choir psalmody, although as Pádraig Ó’Néill notes, it lacks much of the material found in what scholars of liturgical manuscripts sometimes term a “proper liturgical psalter”.62 Ó’Néill has surmised that the divisions, responses and R notes were written by the original scribe. The tituli, glosses and arguments, on the other hand, were added after those, and the scribe appears to have struggled to insert these interpretive elements into a preexisting page format that was not ruled to accommodate them.63 While glosses of individual words are interlinear, but sometimes well separated from the words they were intended to gloss, the arguments are squeezed into the flanking, upper, or lower margins, whichever was closest to the beginning of the Psalm being interpreted. For Pss 119 to 128 the scribe instead wrote the arguments in interlinear fashion, apparently influenced to change tactics after inserting multiple arguments into breaks in the very long Ps 118. The Southampton Psalter’s illustrations display at the same time a charmingly retardataire, abstract figure style similar to that employed for the figures of the seventh-century Book of Durrow,64 and a wealth of zoomorphic interlace initials and frames, marking this as a luxury codex. Before Ps 1, David reaches out to grasp a snarling lion who possesses dramatically curved claws (I Sam 17:34-36), a theme we encountered already in the Corbie Psalter’s illumination for Ps 7 (fig. 3), while below he shepherds a horned ram by, apparently, pulling its tail (fig. 4, Cambridge, St John’s College, MS C. 9, fol. 4v). Before Ps 51, Christ is crucified, flanked by Stephaton, Longinus, Mary and John the Evangelist, while the bust of God the Father floats above, in a composition well known in Irish artworks.65

ter. The collects are typically Irish, and two of the three are preserved in the Bangor Antiphonary, like the unusual canticles in the Corbie Psalter, and are related to the Irish observance of the Divine Office. 61 Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, pp. xxii-xxiv. 62 Ibid., pp. xxxiv-xxxv. Conversely, it was most likely not originally intended as a scholar’s Psalter, as the glosses and argumenta have been added so awkwardly. 63 The tituli in the Southampton Psalter are Salmon’s series 1, which he sees as dependent on a scheme devised by St Columba. SALMON, Les «Tituli Psalmorum», p. 50. 64 Dublin, Trinity College, MS A.4.5. 65 K. OPENSHAW, The Symbolic Illustration of the Psalter: An Insular Tradition, in Arte Medievale N.S. 6 (1992), pp. 42-46.

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Fig. 4 – Cambridge, Saint John’s College MS C.9, fol. 4v, Southampton Psalter, David Battling the Lion.

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Before Ps 101, David, holding an animal-headed staff, defeats Goliath (I Sam 17:49-50), who has been flipped upside down and clutches his cheeks. The Corbie Psalter’s initial for Ps 7 (fig. 3) was clearly inspired by the Psalm it accompanies: “O Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me. Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, while there is no one to redeem me, nor to save” (Ps 7:1-2). Similarly, its depiction of David battling Goliath inhabits the opening initial of Ps 151, a Deuterocanonical Psalm found in the Septuagint and translated by Jerome in his Psalterium gallicanum, but not always copied in manuscript Psalters (and indeed not included in the Southampton Psalter). Ps 151:6-7 read, “I went out to meet the Philistine, and he cursed me by his idols. But I drew his own sword; I beheaded him, and removed reproach from the people of Israel”.66 By contrast, in the case of the Southampton Psalter, as Openshaw has pointed out, the illuminations prefacing the Psalms cannot easily be linked to either the words of the Psalms themselves, or commentaries on the Psalms that they preface.67 The frontispieces can be explained, however, by reference to commentators such as the early-sixth-century exegete Caesarius of Arles, who in his sermons threaded together David’s defeat of Goliath, his combat with the lion menacing his father’s flocks, and Christ’s defeat of the Devil.68 In fact, the Psalter’s entire pictorial program is presaged in Caesarius’s Sermon 121. When David had been anointed by blessed Samuel before he came here, he killed a lion and a bear without any weapons, as he himself told King Saul. Both the lion and the bear typified the devil, for they had been strangled by the strength of David for having dared to attack some of his sheep. All that we read prefigured in David at that time, dearly beloved, we know was accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ; for He strangled the lion and the bear when He descended into hell to free all the saints from their jaws.

and David came and found the Jewish people fighting against the Philistines. Since there was no one who dared to enter combat, he who prefigured Christ went out to battle, and carrying a staff in his hand opposed Goliath. In him was surely indicated what was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, for Christ the 66

Exivi obviam alienigenae et maledixit mihi in simulacris suis. Ego autem evaginato ab eo ipsius gladio amputavi caput eius et abstuli obprobrium de filiis Israhel. Edited in Biblia sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam, p. 299. English translation from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Containing the Old and New Testaments, New York 1952. 67 OPENSHAW, The Symbolic Illustration, p. 46. 68 See Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones…, ed. G. MORIN, Turnhout 1953 (CCSL, 103), Sermon 121, Sermo Sancti Augustini Episcopi de David et de Isai patre suo et de Golia Spurio…, pp. 504-509. After OPENSHAW, The Symbolic Illustration, pp. 46-51.

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true David came and carried His cross with the purpose of fighting against the spiritual Goliath, that is, the devil.69

Caesarius’s sermons were frequently included in homiliaries compiled from the works of multiple authors, such as the homiliary of Vienne, from ca. 650-750, the eighth-century homiliaries of Alanus of Farfa, Fleury-surLoire, or the early ninth-century Ottobeuren homiliary, which includes Caesarius’s sermon 121, quoted above.70 This theme doubtless would have been quite familiar to anyone living in a monastic context. The argumenta that were added to the margins of the Southampton Psalter very soon after it was copied come from a compilation known as the Pseudo-Bedan Argumenta in Psalmos.71 The texts employ the many forms of exegesis (literal, historical, allegorical or Christological, and moral) with which commentators typically explored the meaning of Scripture. In a few cases, the author of the Southampton version of the argumenta appears to have changed the standard argumentum to emphasize a Davidic or Christological reading. Likewise the interlinear gloss, which was added in two stages, was largely inspired by the seventh-century Anonymi glosa Psalmorum ex traditione seniorum, a treatise composed for French monks, and includes literal, historical and allegorical readings of the words. The glossator augmented this with excerpts from Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos, a Pseudo-Bedan commentary, Cassiodorus’s Expositio Psalmorum, and the works of Jerome, among others.72 In many cases, the gloss assigns the words of the Psalm to David, Christ, ecclesia, or a Christian, indicated with “sanctus”, or more than one of these at the same time.73 According to Ó’Néill, the glosses as a whole, whether literal, historical, or allegorical, are “couched in terms of conflict: David fighting his enemies (notably Saul and Absalom); Christ suffering at the hands of the Jews or Judas Iscariot; and contemporary Christians struggling against vices or demons”.74 Although the arguments and glosses immediately following the frontispieces at Pss 1, 51, and 101 don’t appear to echo the subjects of the miniatures directly, the overall theme of the Psalter’s ancillary texts matches the manuscript’s 69 Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones 121:4, 7, ed. MORIN, pp. 506-507; Saint Caesarius of Arles, Sermons vol. II, trans. M. M. MUELLER, Washington 1964 (The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, 47), pp. 201-202. 70 R. GRÉGOIRE, Homéliares liturgiques médiévaux. Analyse des manuscrits, Spoleto 1980, p. 33, for the use of Caesarius of Arles’s Sermon 121. 71 Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, pp. xliv-xlviii. 72 Ibid., pp. xlix-lxii. 73 Ibid., pp. xlviii-lvii. 74 Ibid., pp. lvii-lviii.

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iconography. At Ps 131, for instance, the glossator was probably inspired by Augustine to gloss the opening words of the Psalm, “Memento, Domine, David” with ‘“David”, vel cristiano, qui et ipse fortis manu (id est in opere), et confringit ora leonum (id est demonum)’.75 At Ps 143 the glossator mostly borrowed the glosses for verses five through fourteen from the Anonymi glosa Psalmorum ex traditione seniorum. The first four verses have been glossed with original, though relatively similar, glosses. All of these complement the pictorial program. 1. Benedictus Dominus Deus meus; qui docet manus meas ad prelium/ David contra Golian; vel potestatem Christi contra diabolum, vel nostra contra demones vel vitia. Aliter, «manus» Christi id est sancti. Et digitos meos ad bellum/id est minores meriti. 2. Missericorida (sic) mea/ id est Christus qui pro nostra nequisitate passus est. Et refugium meum/ id est ad illum «refugimus» ab omni tribulatione. … 10. Qui das salutem regibus/ David, vel sanctis regnantibus corpora sua Qui redemit David servum suum 11. de gladio maligno eripe me / «gladio» Goli; vel Christus de cruce; vel nos de peccato.76

Thus even though the glosses were added after the three full-page illuminations were painted, they reinforce the visual program’s theme, as perhaps they were intended to do. The author of the glosses also took the opportunity to insert, in fifty-two cases, Classical Old Irish or Late Old Irish words or phrases that explained the meaning of the Psalm or argumentum.77 Even though the language of this aspect of the gloss was, with a few exceptions, out of date among a population by then using Middle Irish, the scribe who added the gloss must have assumed that it would assist the reader as originally planned: to “make the Psalms applicable to the monastic lifestyle”,78 and that the monk who read it would be most comfortable reading Irish. The Southampton Psalter as a whole could thus be understood as a tool to foster a specific understanding of the Psalms. Illuminations, glosses, and argumenta ex75 Ibid., p. 348. See Sancti Aurelii Augustini Enarrationes in Psalmos, ed. E. DEKKERS – J. FRAIPONT, Turnhout 1956 (CCSL, 38-40), pp. 1912-1913, pt. 3, ll. 12-22. 76 Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, pp. 372-373. See Anonymi Glosa Psalmorum ex traditione seniorum, ed. H. BOESE, 2 vols, Freiburg im Breisgau 1992-1994, Psalmen 101-150, II, p. 237, pt. 5, ll. 11-12; p. 238, pt. 7, l. 3; p. 239, pt. 10, ll. 4-6, pt. 13, ll. 1-2, pt. 14, l. 5. 77 Ó’NÉILL, Psalterium Suthantoniense, pp. lxii-lxx. 78 Ibid., pp. lxxxvi.

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plained the Psalter text, which was itself divided, annotated and fitted with collects and canticles to accord with the Divine Office. The combination of these components — liturgical accommodations, but also arguments, glosses and translations clearly not intended to be read out during the liturgy — underlines the flexibility of the Psalter codex. At least in this case, the book seems to have been used for multiple purposes. Which of these functions was served by the illuminations? Did a monk contemplate the images, which are not readily explained by the adjacent texts, while engaged in private prayer or reflection on the meaning of the Psalms, aided by the glosses and argumenta? Or did a monk participating in communal psalmody, undoubtedly memorized, take the opportunity to flip to one of the miniatures and contemplate its role in his spiritual battle? And could that even have occurred in the darkness of a tenth- or eleventh-century Irish Night Office? Images are ubiquitous in liturgical manuscripts, and certainly intended to be seen, if only by the celebrant. But in a manuscript that is not purely liturgical in contents, the purpose of a sophisticated, symbolic visual program is more difficult to pinpoint. The Southampton Psalter’s symbolic evocation of a Christian’s battle against evil is mirrored in several other insular Psalters, such as the very damaged, early-tenth-century Irish Vitellius Psalter,79 the Psalter of Cormac, an archaic Irish Psalter from the early twelfth century,80 and the early eleventh-century English Winchcombe Psalter.81 Intriguingly, it also appears in a commentary codex, signaling that the theme was relevant beyond the context of spiritual meditation. The Durham Cassiodorus, a very large Northumbrian codex containing an abbreviated version of his Expositio psalmorum from around 750, includes a similar program dispersed between the three Psalter divisions.82 Openshaw points out that Irish Psalm exegesis particularly favored an emphasis on the historical, Davidic interpretation of the Psalms in addition to the more typical Christological one.83 Cassiodorus, on the other hand, preferred a more purely Christological interpretation, and yet the illuminators have chosen to graft the typological David and Christ sequence onto Cassiodorus’s com79

London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius F.XI. London, British Library, Addit. 36929. 81 Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff. I.23. 82 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.II.30; R. GAMESON, Manuscript Treasures of Durham Cathedral, London 2010, pp. 34-37. Gameson suggests that this volume was studied by Alcuin of York in the late eighth century, and it underwent several campaigns to correct and augment it, including with neumes. On the illustrative programs of all three manuscripts, OPENSHAW, The Symbolic Illustration, pp. 47-52. 83 OPENSHAW, The Symbolic Illustration, pp. 55-56. 80

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Fig. 5 – Durham, Cathedral Library B.II.30, fol. 172v, Durham Cassiodorus, David Triumphant.

mentary in pictorial form, testifying to the widespread popularity of this theme. Before Ps 101 (fig. 5) the artists have drawn a nimbed man in a Christological guise, trampling a two-headed asp while holding a lance, as Christ is often shown before Ps 90. Yet he holds in his other hand a disk inscribed “DAVID”, and thus becomes an amalgam of both vanquishers of evil (Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.II.30, fol. 172v).84 Perhaps the artist was more familiar with the symbolic connection made between David and Christ in popular homilies on the subject, such as that by Caesarius, than 84

Ibid., p. 48.

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with the details of Cassiodorus’s text, which was almost never included in homiliaries. He thus combined symbolic aspects of the two biblical figures to create a visual gloss on Cassiodorus’s interpretation of the Psalms. The Monastic Psalter as Prayerbook The Tiberius Psalter is, as Openshaw has demonstrated, the culmination of this emphasis on psychomachia.85 The scribes and artists of this late Anglo-Saxon Psalter in essence accumulated the type of imagery, themes and texts common to the Insular and Continental monastic Psalters already mentioned. They also innovated to produce a decorative format, the Psalter with a prefatory cycle of framed frontispieces, that would come to dominate Psalter production for clergy and laymen alike from the twelfth century onwards, as epitomized in such well-known examples as the twelfth-century Saint Albans Psalter86 and the thirteenth-century Psalter of Saint Louis.87 Those two manuscripts are generally understood to be prayerbooks intended for individual contemplation by a revered owner: the anchoress Christina of Markyate, and the Capetian king, Louis IX, respectively. The Tiberius Psalter’s contents suggest that it once fulfilled the same role. The Tiberius Psalter, a Psalterium gallicanum executed at the monastery of New Minster in Winchester on the eve of the Norman Conquest, contains a lavish prefatory cycle of tinted drawings depicting the Creation, scenes from the life of David ending with David composing the Psalms, a Passion cycle, Saint Michael slaying a dragon, and a second image of David composing the Psalms on a lyre inserted between diagrams and descriptions of musical instruments (figs 6-7, London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius C.VI, fols 17r and 17v). The prefatory cycle culminates in a painted miniature of Christ in Majesty followed by yet another miniature of David composing, this time with the assistance of four musicians, which faces the beginning of Ps 1. Ps 51 is prefaced by a full-page drawing of a tonsured cleric wearing a chasuble and stola and carrying a maniple, indicating that he is vested for the Mass. Before Ps 101 Christ is shown trampling on a 85 London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius C.VI: K. OPENSHAW, The Battle between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 52 (1989), pp. 14-33. 86 Hildesheim, St Godehard’s Church, MS St Alban Psalter: see O. PÄCHT, The St Albans Psalter, London 1960, but also K. HANEY, The St Albans Psalter: a Reconsideration, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 58 (1995), pp. 1-28. A digital copy, edition and translation can be viewed at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/stalbanspsalter/english/. 87 Paris, BnF, Lat. 10525. H. STAHL, Picturing Kingship: History and Painting in the Psalter of Saint Louis, University Park 2008.

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Fig. 6 – London, BL MS Cotton Tiberius C VI, fol. 17r, Tiberius Psalter, Musical Instruments.

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Fig. 7 – London, BL MS Cotton Tiberius C VI, fol. 17v, Tiberius Psalter, David Composing the Psalms.

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lion and a dragon, a theme borrowed from Ps 90, where it is more typically found ornamenting an initial. The Psalter breaks off incomplete at Ps 113. While at first glance the narrative cycles seem to summarize aptly many of the chief events associated with the lives of David and Christ, a closer examination reveals that both the moments chosen and select details inserted into the scenes emphasize the now familiar theme of spiritual battle. David wrestling the lion (fol. 8), David fighting and beheading Goliath (fols 8v-9r), Christ confronting a tempting demon, and Christ harrowing Hell feature rarely seen motifs that serve to link the events. In the Temptation (fol. 10v), Christ stabs the demon with a cross staff topped with a flapping vexillum. The staff and its vexillum reappear in the Harrowing of Hell (fig. 8, London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius C.VI, fol. 14), this time protruding from Christ’s nimbus, an awkward addition that may indicate that the artist struggled to insert a symbolically significant motif not present in his model.88 Furthermore, the mouth of Hell has been rendered as a giant, gaping, three-quarter-view lion head, mimicking the lion with which David battled earlier in the series.89 An attentive viewer should have noticed the interpolation of both motifs into these images, and connected David and Christ’s victories over the forces of evil. As Openshaw points out in addition, the lion was singled out in contemporary penitential prayers as a one of the guardians of hell, such as in the early ninth-century Book of Cerne,90 a prayerbook used by an unidentified Bishop Aedelvald, which was in the collection of Winchester when the Tiberius Psalter was compiled: I therefore beseech and entreat, archangel St Michael, that you… deign to take up my soul when it leaves my body and free it from the power of the enemy, so that it may bypass the gates of Hell and the ways of darkness, so that the lion or dragon who is accustomed to receive souls in Hell and lead them to eternal torments may not obstruct it.91

Appropriately enough, the Tiberius Psalter’s drawing of Saint Michael battling a dragon also has a lion’s head, and Michael stabs him with a cross-staff.92 David, Michael and Christ all triumph over the forces of evil, and likewise the monk singing the Psalms expected to triumph in his battle against sin. 88

OPENSHAW, The Battle between Christ and Satan, pp. 17-21. Ibid., pp. 21-23. 90 Cambridge, University Library, MS Ll.1.10: M. P. BROWN, The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth-Century England, London 1996. 91 Openshaw’s translation: OPENSHAW, The Battle between Christ and Satan, p. 22. 92 OPENSHAW, The Battle between Christ and Satan, pp. 22-23. 89

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Fig. 8 – London, BL MS Cotton Tiberius C VI, fol. 14, Tiberius Psalter, Christ Harrowing Hell.

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The words of the prayer to St Michael from the Book of Cerne suggest that the theme we have been exploring was not expressed only in Psalters. Many prayerbooks referenced St Michael’s triumph over the forces of evil, which suggests that the spiritual function of prayerbooks and these Psalters overlapped. Furthermore, the contents of Psalters and prayerbooks could be very similar; in fact, as Susan Boynton as pointed out, many libelli precum were actually attached to Psalters, although until now they have usually been studied and edited separately.93 The best-known early prayerbooks, first composed for Carolingian rulers and later commonly used in many contexts, were assembled from Psalms and Psalm extracts,94 or prayers composed specifically to accompany psalmody.95 The libelli precum themselves often included material that indicates they were intended to be used in the context of a public liturgy.96 The Tiberius Psalter contains many of the same textual components we have already encountered in the Corbie Psalter and the Southampton Psalter, although in greater numbers, and a variety of additional elements.97 The Psalter is divided into both the three-fold division typical of Insular Psalters, as well as the eight-fold division that indicates the seven Psalms with which each Matins service commenced (Pss 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97), and Ps 109, the first Psalm of Sunday Vespers, although only the three-fold divisions and Ps 109 are highlighted with miniatures. The Psalter also contains a series of texts that are less obviously liturgical in nature. Beginning on fol. 2 are six folios of computistical tables and diagrams. Between the prefatory cycle of images and the beginning of Ps 1 is a series of prayers and penitential texts. These include a prescription for how to celebrate morning prayers with Psalms, followed by an extract from De laude psalmorum, Alcuin’s preface to De psalmorum usu liber quoted near the beginning of this chapter; a lengthy confessional ordo for use with the aid of a priest; a second, condensed version of the De laude psalmorum to which a list of forty-five Psalms that should be sung every day has been appended98; De virtute psalmorum attributed to Augustine and used as a 93 BOYNTON, Prayer as Liturgical Performance, pp. 899-900, and EAD., «Libelli Precum» in the Central Middle Ages, in A History of Prayer, ed. R. HAMMERLING, Leiden 2008, pp. 255-259. 94 ROBERTSON, Lectio Divina, pp. 125-128, and R. CONSTANTINESCU, Alcuin et les «Libelli Precum» de l’époque carolingienne, in Revue d’histoire de la spiritualité 50 (1974), pp. 17-56. 95 BOYNTON, Prayer as Liturgical Performance, pp. 905-906. 96 Ibid., p. 905. 97 The contents of the manuscript as a whole are summarized in F. WORMALD, An English Eleventh-Century Psalter with Pictures: British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius C.VI, in Walpole Society 38 (1962), pp. 1-13, repr. in Collected Writings 2, ed. by J. J. G. ALEXANDER – T. J. BROWN – J. GIBBS, London 1984, pp. 123-137. 98 The identification of these texts has been refined by K. THOMAS, «De Laude Psalmo-

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preface; and more prayers in both Latin and Anglo-Saxon. The same scribe who copied the Latin Psalter text added an Anglo-Saxon gloss throughout.99 As common in prayerbooks that include Alcuin’s De laude psalmorum, after each Psalm the scribe has inserted a collect,100 in this case taken from a series known as the Hispana series imperfecta.101 The thematic similarity between this compendium of texts and that found in the Book of Cerne, a prayerbook intended for the private use of a bishop, suggested to Openshaw that the Tiberius Psalter was intended for individual, rather than corporate, prayer.102 Is it coincidence that the Tiberius Psalter contains both the constituent parts of a prayerbook and a prefatory cycle that segregates the types of images once interspersed throughout Psalters into a discrete, entirely visual, unit? The images may have been intended to fulfill the same function as the selected confessions, prayers and collects that provided the meditative armature around the Psalms, only in visual terms.103 The complement of decorated and historiated initials ornamenting the North French Corbie Psalter, the three frontispieces inserted at liturgically significant intervals in the Irish Southampton Psalter, and the lavish prefatory cycle of the Anglo-Saxon Tiberius Psalter, exhibit well the variety of ways in which artists across northern Europe and over the course of roughly two centuries expressed the same or similar interpretive themes, all directed at an audience that shared a common form of corporate worship founded on the Psalms. Each of these Psalters includes textual elements specific to monastic liturgical practice, and two of the three include ancillary texts directed specifically at monks. Undoubtedly they did not make a strong distinction between the spiritual battle that took place in the choir, and the one that took place alone.104 Such complex and lavishly rum» and Aelfwine’s Prayerbook: a Quotation from a Carolingian Psalm Devotional in a Late Anglo-Saxon Programme for Morning Prayer, in Notes & Queries 59 (2012), pp. 479-483. 99 On Anglo-Saxon glossed Psalters generally see M. GRETSCH, The Junius Psalter Gloss: its Historical and Cultural Context, in Anglo-Saxon England 29 (2000), pp. 85-121, and G. H. BROWN, The Psalms as the Foundation of Anglo-Saxon Learning, in The Place of the Psalms, pp. 1-24. 100 BLACK, Psalm Uses in Carolingian Prayerbooks, p. 2. 101 L. BROU – A. WILMART, The Psalter Collects. From V-VIth Century Sources (Three Series), London 1949 (The Henry Bradshaw Society, 83). 102 OPENSHAW, The Battle between Christ and Satan, pp. 30-32. 103 Brown’s suggestion (The Psalms, p. 16), that “The pictures perform an educational function as ancillaries to the text, the way modern textbooks do with diagrams, photographs, and drawings”, subordinates the visual component to the text in a way unwarranted by the lavishness and complexity of the picture cycle. 104 See BOYNTON, Prayer as Liturgical Performance, p. 897.

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decorated Psalters would have been the possession of few, however. In the later Middle Ages, examples of personal missals and breviaries used by those living a common life are plentiful, but no such firm evidence exists for earlier periods, making the search for a possible user or recipient even more compelling.105 Most monks or regular canons prayed communally and, for several of the Offices, in the dark. Only a cantor responsible for directing the service, an abbot, prior or dean, or a cleric compelled to travel away from his brethren and celebrate the Office alone, could regularly have held such a book. Psalters for the Laity In the ninth century a Carolingian noblewoman named Dhuoda quoted Alcuin’s De laude psalmorum in a handbook known as the Liber manualis that she composed for her young, absent son, William: “In Psalmis invenies tam intimam orationem, si intenta mente perscruteris, sicut non potes per te ipsum ullatenus item excogitare”.106 Royalty and nobles like Dhuoda appear to have been enthusiastic consumers of Psalters from the ninth century onwards. In Book 11 of the Liber manualis, Dhuoda, once again inspired by Alcuin, implored William to observe the seven hours of the Divine Office, and to chant the Psalms assiduously, so that he, his relatives, the faithful departed and the Carolingian royal family could receive God’s mercy. “There is nothing in this mortal life by which we can fasten ourselves to God more closely than by the divine praise of Psalm singing”.107 She also advised him to study the Psalter at the expense of other Scripture: “In the Psalter alone you have the material for reading, studying, and learning up until the end of your life. In it the prophets, the gospels, and all the books of the apostles and other holy men are set forth and written down so that we may understand them in a spiritual sense”.108 We can only assume that she expected 105 Palazzo’s statement, that “during the celebration of the Office, each participant was provided with the basic book for the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, enlarged by a variable number of pieces (hymns, canticles, litanies, and so on)” (in A History of Liturgical Books, p. 131), is an anachronistic assumption not supported by the manuscript evidence. 106 DHUODA, Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel for her Son, trans. C. NEEL, Washington, D.C. 1991, p. 103, and BLACK, Psalm Uses in Carolingian Prayerbooks, p. 18. Black collated Dhuoda’s text with his edition of De laude Psalmorum, p. 50, ll. 125-128: “In psalmis invenies tam intimam orationem, si intenta mente perscruteris, sicut non potes per te ipsum ullatenus excogitare”. 107 DHUODA, Handbook for William, p. 103; BLACK, Psalm Uses in Carolingian Prayerbooks, p. 49, ll. 110-113: Nihil est in hac mortali vita in qua possimus nos familiarius inhaerere quam divinis psalmodiae. 108 DHUODA, Handbook for William, p. 105; BLACK, Psalm Uses in Carolingian Prayerbooks, p. 60, ll. 246-251: In psalterio solo usque ad obitum vitae habes materiam legendi, scrutandi,

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William to do this using a Psalter manuscript, and that a Psalter made for the son of a well-educated noblewoman may have been embellished with as wide a variety of accessory texts as those created for the clergy. Indeed, like those of monks, lay Psalters were frequently joined to libelli precum. As Susan Boynton has observed, “boundaries between categories of ‘public’ liturgical worship and ‘private’ devotion are fluid”.109 Those avowed clerics or laypeople who chanted the Psalms and said prayers, whether publicly or privately, participated in a “continuum of practice”110 that shared the same methods and goals. Clerical leaders encouraged powerful laypeople in this practice, and probably commissioned Psalters very similar to their own for the aristocrats and nobles under their spiritual care. Asser, the biographer of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred, explained that the king compiled many useful texts, including Psalms, prayers and Office texts in a small book that he used daily, probably while he followed the Office. King Alfred also translated the Psalter, which, echoing the Carolingian noblewoman Dhuoda, he said was “necessary for all men to know”.111 A modest but important illuminated Psalter, the Galba Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton Galba A.XVIII), may reflect his goals but cannot be linked to a patron or owner. Equally intriguing is a small, ninth-century Carolingian Psalterium gallicanum almost surely made for Louis the German (d. 876) at the Flemish monastery of Saint Bertin, near Saint Omer.112 Lavishly illuminated in a Franco-Saxon style characteristic of several northern French monasteries in the ninth through eleventh centuries, the text is divided into eight sections by decorative initials and docendi, in quo invenies prophetas, evangelia, atque apostolos et omnes divinos libros spiritaliterque intellegibiliter. While in this passage, as in most of Book 11 of the Liber manualis, she simply repeats Alcuin’s injunctions, M. A. Mayeski has recently shown that Dhuoda applied this advice in book 4 of the same work, applying Psalm verses to moral problems: A Mother’s Psalter: Psalms in the Moral Instruction of Dhuoda of Septimania, in The Place of the Psalms, pp. 139-151. 109 BOYNTON, Prayer as Liturgical Performance, p. 897, and EAD., «Libelli Precum», pp. 256257. 110 BOYNTON, Prayer as Liturgical Performance, p. 896. 111 R. DESHMAN, The Galba Psalter: Pictures, Texts and Contexts in an Early Medieval Prayerbook, in Anglo Saxon England 26 (1997), pp. 109-138, repr. in Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art by Robert Deshman, ed. by A. COHEN, Kalamazoo 2010, pp. 35-57, at p. 49. 112 Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Theol. Lat. F. 58, measuring 29.4 × 24.6 cm. V. ROSE, Verzeichniss der Lateinischen Handschriften der Koniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, 2: Die Handschriften der Kurfürstlichen Bibliothek und der Kurfürstlichen Lande pt. 1, Berlin 1901, pp. 22-23, E. JAMMERS, Der sog. Ludwigspsalter als geschichtliches Dokument, in Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 103 (1955), pp. 259-271, and K. UGÉ, Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders, York 2005, pp. 45-46.

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framed incipit pages (Pss 1, 10, 51, 60, 70, 80, 101 and 109). The Psalter originally included canticles, hymns and creeds, and a group of prayers and instructions typical of libelli precum, their purpose signaled by their tituli: De lecto surgendo dicendum est; Incipit confessio; Incipiunt psalmi de paenitentia numero VII; Incipit laetania. Soon after it was completed an unusual miniature and two supplementary texts were added. On the first folio, a scribe inserted three neumed laments from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy113 in a form similar to that used for processional liturgies.114 After the prayers and litany, the same scribe added another prayer: Oratio ante crucem dicenda,115 a lengthy supplication for redemption through the wood of the life-giving cross, and the only figurative miniature in the manuscript. The anonymous man, who can be identified as an aristocrat by his bejeweled tunic, kneels on a low prie-dieu while reaching forward to grasp the base of a giant crucifix (fig. 9, Berlin, Staatsbibl., MS Theol. Lat. F. 58).116 The crucified Christ, flanked by the weeping Virgin and John the Evangelist, gazes down on the supplicant, and mourning personifications of the sun and moon float above. Both the Irish Southampton Psalter and the Tiberius Psalter incorporated Crucifixion images into programs devoted to the theme of spiritual warfare.117 The Tiberius Psalter’s Crucifixion is found in the prefatory cycle, while the Southampton Psalter’s faces Psalm 51, signaling the first division of the tripartite Psalter scheme. In the Psalter of Louis the German the image is instead linked directly to a prayer that is intended for individual use. Robert Deshman interpreted such images of Crucifix veneration as depictions of the ritual humility enacted on Good Friday, when the faithful venerated the cross. Clerical advisors like Amalarius of Metz advised Christians that “in the name of Jesus every knee should bow” in imitation of Christ’s obedience to death on the cross.118 The 113 ROSE, Verzeichniss der Lateinischen Handschriften, p. 22. These are Metrum I:1, Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi; Metrum II:5, Felix nimium prior aetas; and Metrum III:8, Eheu quae miseros tramite devios. 114 JAMMERS, Der sog. Ludwigspsalter, p. 265. 115 ROSE, Verzeichniss der Lateinischen Handschriften, p. 23. The incipit for this prayer is Redemptor mundi, et inluminator venientium in hunc mundum domine iesu christe respice me prostratum coram te…. The entire prayer is transcribed in JAMMERS, Der sog. Ludwigspsalter, pp. 261-262, and the neumed verses of Boethius are reproduced in plate 3. 116 R. DESHMAN, The Exalted Servant: the Ruler Theology of the Prayerbook of Charles the Bald, in Viator 11 (1980), pp. 385-417, repr. in Eye and Mind, pp. 192-219. 117 Cambridge, St John’s College, MS C.9, fol. 38v, and London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius C.VI, fol. 13r. 118 Amalarius of Metz, Liber officialis 1.14.4, 100 (ed. HANSSENS, Amalarii episcopi …) after DESHMAN, The Exalted Servant, pp. 197-198. Deshman argued against Jammers’s highly speculative suggestion that the prayers and image record the abdication and ritual penitence of Charles III of 887 in Lorsch: JAMMERS, Der sog. Ludwigspsalter, pp. 269-271.

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Fig. 9 – Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Theol. Lat. Fol. 58, fol. 120, Psalter of ‘Louis the German’, an aristocrat prostrate before a crucifix.

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theme of the Crucifixion, common to both monastic and lay Psalters, here has been tailored to its lay viewer. The Psalter as a text is equally appropriate to clerical and lay use, but in depicting a supplicant who was, at one time, probably identifiable, it extracts the worshipper from the corporate setting of prayer and emphasizes his personal, rather than a communal, quest for salvation. Even though this image most directly illustrates the adjacent text, its theme is applicable to the Psalter as a whole: the worshiper’s humble supplication through prayer, whether using the words of the Psalms or the newer Carolingian preces, sought divine intercession.119 Psalters as Primers For a noble or royal owner such as Dhuoda’s son William an illuminated Psalter could also have served as a primer of Latin. Scholarly consensus on the literacy and Latinity of ninth- through eleventh-century aristocrats remains elusive.120 Nonetheless, whether a well-born youth or young adult wealthy enough to command such a book spoke a variant of Latin or a Romance or Germanic vernacular in the home, the Psalm text was probably the first written Latin that he encountered after mastering his letters. While no Psalters that were unequivocally school books survive, waxed scholastic tablets recovered from a bog in County Antrim preserve copies of verses from Pss 30-32 scratched into the surface with a student’s stylus,121 and descriptions of the early education of prominent figures delineate a phase during which they were considered “psalterati”, and mention the luxurious Psalters procured by parents for their noble offspring.122 Clergy as well as the laity were beneficiaries of the Psalter’s value as a 119

BOYNTON, «Libelli Precum», pp. 268-270. B. STOCK, The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Princeton 1983, pp. 19-30 and R. MCKITTERICK, The Carolingians and the Written Word, Cambridge 1989, pp. 7-22. 121 P. RICHÉ, Apprendre à lire et à écrire dans le Haut Moyen Âge, in Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France (1978-1979), pp. 193-203, at p. 199. The tablets are today in the National Museum of Ireland: Archaeology. Transcribed in M. SHEEDY, Wax Tablets from Springmount Bog, in M. MCNAMARA, The Psalms in the Early Irish Church, Sheffield 2000 (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, 165), pp. 116-119. 122 RICHÉ, Apprendre à lire, pp. 197-198; ID., Education and Culture, pp. 463-465; S. REYNOLDS, Medieval Reading: Grammar, Rhetoric and the Classical Text, Cambridge 1995 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 27), p. 9. See also K. ZIEMAN, Singing the New Song: Literacy and Liturgy in Late Medieval England, Philadelphia 2008, pp. 6-10, for a critique of recent attempts to dismiss the learning of Psalms as a fundamental stage of medieval elementary education. I will leave to one side whether non-noble students would have had access to Psalter manuscripts that were simpler, and cheaper, in form. Surviving illuminated Psalters were unquestionably the possessions of the elite. 120

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pedagogical tool. Twelve Psalters with vernacular glosses in a variety of dialects were produced in Anglo-Saxon England, ten by monks in scriptoria at the intellectual centers of Winchester, Glastonbury, Canterbury and Ramsey. Mechtild Gretsch suggests that they were then sent to other centers, where, Gretsch and George Brown agree, they were used to teach monks Latin.123 The simple lexical glosses could be augmented by construe marks to indicate syntax and interpretations. Similarly, the scribe who added Old Irish explanatory words to the Southampton Psalter may have been attempting to accommodate the needs of monks who were not yet fully literate in Latin. Puzzling out whether a surviving Psalter manuscript was used for either prayer or pedagogy, or both, relies on written descriptions of the actions of their owners, or people like them, and the material evidence provided by the Psalters themselves. From the early Middle Ages onwards, Church Fathers insisted that manuscript Psalters prioritize clarity and legibility. Both Jerome and Cassiodorus insisted that Scripture text be rendered per cola et commata; however, by the eighth century, a new format, influenced by stichic verse — or unrhymed verses of variable length —, was more common.124 Both the Corbie Psalter and another Carolingian manuscript, the Utrecht Psalter,125 feature this system, in which each verse opens on a new line and is highlighted by a slightly larger letter, which M. B. Parkes terms a littera notabilior. Word and sense separation could be indicated through spacing, insetting the text in units, or by inserting dots or other types of punctuation into the text.126 A given manuscript written per cola et commata, in stichic verse pattern, like Vat. gr. 752, or with a variety of punctuation may not have been intended as a pedagogical tool, however. In addition to rendering the sense more obvious this format eased vocalization. A scribe also may simply have copied the layout of his exemplar. A better indication that the Psalter was used as a schoolbook is provided by either a Latin or vernacular gloss, as encountered in the Southampton Psalter or the Tiberius Psalter, or other didactic aids added subsequent to its production. The Utrecht Psalter has received more attention than any other surviv123 GRETSCH, The Junius Psalter Gloss, pp. 87-88, and G. H. BROWN, The Psalms as the Foundation of Anglo-Saxon Learning, in The Place of the Psalms, pp. 2-3. The Salisbury Psalter, Salisbury Cathedral Library, MS 150, may have been written around 975 at the female house of Shaftesbury, but its Anglo-Saxon gloss was likely added only around 1100. 124 PALAZZO, A History of Liturgical Books, p. 130; M. B. PARKES, Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West, Berkeley 1993, pp. 15-16, 235. 125 See above. 126 PARKES, Pause and Effect, pp. 35-36.

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ing medieval Psalter, and little agreement has been reached on its sources, intended recipient, and possible function.127 It is among the largest of the Psalters we have addressed so far, at 33 × 25.5 cm, though it has been severely trimmed,128 and much more completely illuminated. Every psalm and canticle has received a folio-wide pen-drawing in which the words and phrases of each text, and sometimes the biblical incidents to which Christian interpreters believed they referred, have been depicted. The psalms, canticles and creeds have been copied in an unusual selection of consciously archaizing scripts: Roman square capitals, rustic capitals and uncials, and in three columns, a rare format then associated with triplex Psalters.129 The punctuation and tonic accents were added in different ink, and tailored the manuscript for the use of a lector, although where and when this lector read remains to be established.130 Ps 7’s illustration typifies the technique the artists employed (fig. 10, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I n. 32). The verses of the Psalm offer many compelling subjects for illumination: Ps 7:1-2, “Oh Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me. Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, while there is no one to redeem me, or to save me”. In the Corbie Psalter (fig. 3), the artist chose to make a historical reference to David’s renowned battle with a lion. In the Utrecht Psalter instead we witness a powerful lion maul a naked, prostrate, and utterly anonymous victim. Verses 7-8 plead, “Arise, O Lord my God in the precept which thou hast commanded, and a congregation of people shall surround thee. And for their sakes return thou on high”. A nimbed figure stands proudly on a hilltop, while a host of armed soldiers ring the hill below. He holds a sword and arrows, probably in reference to verses 13-14, “Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. In it he hath prepared the instruments of death, he hath made ready his arrows for them to burn”. Three more vignettes illuminate other verses of the Psalm. Scholars have long noted the degree to which the actions described by 127 Recent debates about the Utrecht Psalter have been summarized in The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art, ed. by VAN DER HORST – NOEL – WÜSTERFELD. 128 K. VAN DER HORST, The Utrecht Psalter: Picturing the Psalms of David, in The Utrecht Psalter, ed. by van der HORST – NOEL – WÜSTERFELD, pp. 23-84, at p. 25. 129 VAN DER HORST, The Utrecht Psalter, p. 72, recalling D. Panofsky’S suggestion that the Utrecht Psalter was copied from a triplex Psalter, and that the Iuxta Hebraeos version inspired some details: D. PANOFSKY, The Textual Basis of the Utrecht Psalter Illustrations, in Art Bulletin 25 (1943), pp. 52-53. 130 Van der Horst’s assertion that Psalters intended for liturgical use were always reordered according to a reading cycle suggests a uniformity that doesn’t exist in Psalter manuscripts of that period, The Utrecht Psalter, pp. 37-39.

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Fig. 10 – Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I n. 32, Utrecht Psalter, fol. 4r, Psalm 7.

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the Psalmist are rendered in military terms in the Utrecht Psalter drawings.131 Celia Chazelle examines the full-page drawing prefacing Ps 1, which depicts events from the relationship between Kings Saul and David, and surmises, “Utrecht’s frontispiece ‘portraits’ of the blessed and ungodly men, however, one with a book but the other with a sword, offer a stark choice between virtue associated with pious meditation on scripture and sin tied to violence and warfare”. The drawings prefacing Pss 50, 51, 115 and 151 also appear to allude to this theme. David is repeatedly depicted as the virtuous ruler, contrasted with wicked leaders such as Saul or Doeg, while in the drawing before Ps 50, the penitent and sinful David is conversely contrasted with the virtuous prophet Nathan. Finally in Ps 115, an excerpt from which, according to the Prayerbook of Charles the Bald, was sung during the mass offertory, the Crucifixion is visually paralleled with the Eucharistic offerings within a walled, heavenly city which excludes a group of sinful warriors. Overall Chazelle identifies a pattern of emphasis on virtuous kingship and just war, topics that were equally the focus of contemporary writing, particularly that addressed to rulers.132 In several such texts, the reader was encouraged to engage in spiritual, rather than physical warfare, and to foster peace in his realm. To whom would the Psalter’s visual message have been addressed, and how would they have encountered it? Carol Gibson-Wood offered the appealing though unverifiable suggestion that the Utrecht Psalter was the most luxurious version of a class of manuscripts commissioned for a monastic or clerical school to be employed as a handbook of mnemonic aids, among other things.133 Concurrently and independently Mary Carruthers suggests that the reader for whom this Psalter was created may have been a wealthy or powerful noble who employed it for a similar purpose. The carefully written text of the manuscript, with its elaborate hierarchy of anachronistic scripts, each verse with its imbedded littera notabilior, also provided a graphic scheme well suited to memorization, as Carruthers suggests.134 So opulent a manuscript would undoubtedly not have been the possession of a schoolboy. Instead it could have been commissioned by a churchman associated with the court, such as Archbishop Ebbo of Reims, 131 Most recently C. CHAZELLE, Violence and the Virtuous Ruler in the Utrecht Psalter, in The Illuminated Psalter, ed. by BÜTTNER, pp. 338-339. 132 Ibid., pp. 343-346. 133 C. GIBSON-WOOD, The Utrecht Psalter and the Art of Memory, in Canadian Art Review 14 (1989), pp. 9-15. 134 M. J. CARRUTHERS, The Book of Memory. A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture, Cambridge 1990, pp. 94-95 on page layouts of Psalters, and pp. 226-227 on the Utrecht Psalter imagery.

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as a gift for a patron who cultivated religious knowledge. As Koert van der Horst points out, such a person would not necessarily have needed to memorize the Psalms, and this Psalter was too cumbersome for individual devotional use. Instead, the images may have been intended to foster the visualization of and meditation on the words of the Psalms in the most direct sense.135 Chazelle similarly hypothesizes that the message of peace and virtue embedded in the images would have been most meaningful within a Psalter commissioned by a high-ranking cleric for a member of the Carolingian royal line, such as Louis the Pious, Lothar I, or Charles the Bald, all of whom reigned in periods of considerable turmoil.136 The way in which the Psalter enabled a greater understanding of the Psalms seems to have been appreciated by later generations who copied it, as they augmented its text with the very didactic and contemplative aids appropriate to the more sophisticated student. The scribes of the twelfthcentury Eadwine Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R. 17. 1, added to this copy of the Utrecht Psalter two comparative translations, making it into a triplex psalter, a continuous commentary and glosses in Latin, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman.137 Conclusion These seven Psalters betray at once the diversity of the codex type commonly labeled “Psalter”, and the core understanding of the Psalms that tied all such manuscripts together. Used in a Christian context in which clergy and laity alike, drawn together in communal worship or engaged in solitary prayer, mined the Psalms for spiritual rewards, the Psalter was the fundamental devotional text of Western Europe in the ninth through eleventh centuries. Yet the Psalms were so pervasive in the thoughts and practices of all Christians that the boundaries we apply to the term Psalter would undoubtedly have perplexed them. As revealed by the texts, tools and images that supplemented and customized the book of Psalms, the Psalter could be a schoolbook, a liturgical manual, a prayerbook or a mirror of princes, or all of these at once or serially.

135

VAN DER HORST, The Utrecht Psalter, pp. 82-83. CHAZELLE, Violence and the Virtuous Ruler, pp. 347-348. 137 M. T. GIBSON – T. A. HESLOP – R. W. PFAFF, The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury, London – University Park 1992 (Publications of the Modern Humanities Research Association, 14). 136

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AFTERWORD I have been asked to attempt some final remarks on what has been said in the course of this very interesting meeting. I purposely avoid describing my remarks here as “conclusions”: it has been clear from the outset that this is a work in progress, and anything that could be regarded as “conclusive” can only emerge after — indeed perhaps only long after — the entire project which this event is a part of has been brought to fruition with the on-line publication of the Vat. gr. 752. However, through the choice of papers included here, as well as through their own contributions, Barbara Crostini and Glenn Peers have given us a clear idea of where this project is directed to: an on-line edition of this manuscript will allow study not only of the textual aspect of the book (both the biblical text and the commentaries on it), but also simultaneous study of its visual aspects, while giving due weight to the (as it were) naturally occurring links between those two levels of reading, namely the captions accompanying the artwork in the manuscript. An electronic format will be uniquely suited to the exploration of the interactions between these different levels on which the object can be studied; and the papers that fill this volume give us a glimpse of the sort of questions which will be able to be addressed thanks to this initiative. We also learn here a great deal of important background information allowing us to better understand the manuscript, ranging from the cultural context of the ‘Prophetic Psalters’ to the history of the mise-en-page of volumes such as this one; the use of books in eleventh-century monasteries like the one(s) where this book seems to have been made and used; the question of who exactly we are talking about when we invoke the ‘Hesychius’ whose commentaries fill its margins; or the ‘confluence of subjectivities’ (to recall a particularly apt turn of phrase which was given to us by Erik Varden) which helps us to understand why and how a manuscript like this one might have been read in its day. From the point of view of an interested observer like myself, who can make no claim to be either a Byzantinist or an art historian, the most remarkable thing about this whole enterprise is the general impression that we are dealing with a manuscript which is very odd in very many ways. Of course, oddness is always a welcome observation in historical and philoA Book of Psalms from Eleventh-Century Byzantium Città del Vaticano 2016 (ST 504), pp. 609-611.

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logical research, because it implies that there is something here which demands an explanation, and offers the promise that the explanation, if it can be found, may take us beyond the familiar certitudes which constitute the limits of our knowledge. Many if not most of the oddities we have been invited to consider in the course of these papers fall under the category of “incongruity”. Incongruity of the illustrations, first of all. As we have been reminded, the miniaturists often illustrated the commentary rather than the biblical text. On other occasions, they in fact illustrated neither the text nor the commentary, but instead offered a variety of apparently gratuitous depictions of the Sons of Kore. The odd prominence of the Korahites is matched, or perhaps surpassed, when we see the miniaturists depicting the Jewish textual scholars Aquila and Symmachus (referred to in the catena, but of course not in the biblical text), or King David himself speaking words which in fact come from the marginal catena. To understand how very odd this really is, let us picture an illustrated Iliad featuring depictions Agamemnon, Achilles and Hector interspersed with images bringing to life the names we read in the critical apparatus, clad in tunics and conversing with Homer himself; let us also picture illustrations featuring Homer speaking words which come from the scholia. Further incongruities which have featured prominently in the discussions concern not the subjects of the miniatures but rather the manner in which the subjects are depicted. Many of these oddities fall under the heading of “anachronisms”, and I must say that I personally remain somewhat skeptical about the need for any special explanation in cases where Old Testament figures appear clad as contemporary (i.e. Byzantine) ones, or where an eleventh-century Byzantine miniaturist represents architectural details of David’s Jerusalem with features that more resemble eleventh-century A.D. Constantinople than the little we know (let alone the little a Byzantine miniaturist could have known) about tenth-century B.C. Jerusalem. Still, the precise features of contemporary material culture which the miniaturists chose to import into their depictions of David and his kingdom may not be random and are certainly worth investigating; and anyway the incongruities do not stop there. The “poem” which precedes the text of the Psalms in our manuscript and which, as Augusta Acconcia Longo has reminded us, is not exactly “a poem”, not only because it is written as if it were prose, but also because it is really a pastiche made up of four originally independent epigrams, also makes a worthy contribution. Above all, the magisterial description of the object itself by Francesco D’Aiuto, which opens this volume, throws up a host of questions which I will not recall in detail here but which need to be kept in mind when considering the many oddities we have already mentioned. How are we to explain the incongruity between what seems to

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AFTERWORD

611

have been the very ambitious initial project of this volume and the comparatively mediocre final result? Who could have ordered the creation of such an object? Does the object we see today correspond to that person’s (or that institution’s) intentions, or to those of the team of artisans who set to work to fill the order, or were these intentions somehow modified or even subverted along the way? Fortunately, definitive answers to these and other questions do not need to be forthcoming in order for the planned online edition to be a success: one of the advantages of electronic publication is, or course, that it can remain a work in progress even once it is on-line. Another advantage, which is crucial in the case of the study of this Psalter, is the possibility of integrating discursive and visual levels of enquiry and demonstration. As a result, we can and do hope that the on-line publication of this Psalter, far from presupposing a definitive explanation for all the puzzles it offers to us, will finally allow the emergence of answers to many of the very interesting questions which it poses to historians, art historians and philologists.

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fi GUREs

INTRODUCTION f ig. 1 (p. 26) f ig. 2 (p. 28)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 395v Poster from Ars edendi Workshop, 2012

PART I D’AIUTO t ab. i (p. 68) t ab. ii (p. 68) t ab. iii (p. 77) t ab. iV (p. 84) t ab. V (p. 107)

i copisti principali del Vat. gr. 752 Copista D: lettere e legature caratteristiche Copista A: lettere e legature caratteristiche Riepilogo delle mani dei copisti del codice Vat. gr. 752 Copista A: morfologie tipiche delle inizialette calligrafiche dei due codici e inoltre della maiuscola distintiva epigrafica adottata per la trascrizione dei carmi introduttivi al f. 17r-v del Vat. gr. 752 f ig. 1 (p. 47) Vat. gr. 752, f. 491v (foglio intero): conteggi dei fogli nei margini superiore e inferiore f ig. 2 (p. 48) Vat. gr. 752, f. 1r (particolare): conteggio dei fogli f ig. 3 (p. 49) Vat. gr. 752, f. 2r (particolare): nota di possesso «della (Vergine) Pantanassa» f ig. 4 (p. 50) Vat. gr. 752, f. 299v (particolare): reintegro (sec. XiV-XV) di lacuna testuale a seguito dell’asportazione di un foglio f ig. 5 (pp. 52-53) Vat. gr. 752, ff. 17v-18r: bifoglio con carmi in maiuscola e ciclo di miniature del dodekaorton f ig. 6 (p. 58) Vat. gr. 752, f. 384r (particolare): numerazione dei fascicoli a registro in lettere latine e numeri romani (sec. XV-XVi) f ig. 7 (p. 58) Vat. gr. 752, f. 18v (particolare): segnatura di fascicolo ebraica f ig. 8 (p. 59) Vat. gr. 752, f. 217r (particolare): nota turca a commento della miniatura f ig. 9 (p. 60) Vat. gr. 752, f. 83r: rigatura del tipo K54C2g Leroy [disegno] f ig. 10 (p. 62) Vat. gr. 752, f. 36r: mise en page di testo e commentario f ig. 11 (p. 63) Vat. gr. 752, f. 46r (particolare): imperfetta disposizione del commento catenario f ig. 12 (p. 64) Vat. gr. 752, f. 102r: copista D (nella colonna sinistra) f ig. 13 (p. 66) Vat. gr. 752, f. 4r (particolare): copista A (testi prefatori) f ig. 14 (p. 66) Vat. gr. 752, f. 62r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario) f ig. 15 (p. 67) Vat. gr. 752, 444r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario) f ig. 16 (p. 69) Pal. gr. 382, f. 239r (particolare): , copista del «Menologio imperiale di Mosca» f ig. 17 (p. 71) Vat. gr. 752, f. 5r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario) f ig. 18 (p. 71) Vat. gr. 752, f. 20r (particolare): copista A (commento catenario) f ig. 19 (p. 71) Vat. gr. 752, f. 30v (particolare): copista A (commento catenario) f ig. 20 (p. 73) Vat. gr. 752, f. 2v: ultima delle tavole di computo pasquale f ig. 21 (p. 74) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 195r f ig. 22 (p. 76) Vat. gr. 752, f. 9r: copista B f ig. 23 (p. 78) Vat. gr. 752, f. 13r: copista C

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614

f ig. 24 (p. 79) f ig. 25 (p. 80) f ig. 26 (p. 81) f ig. 27 (p. 82) f ig. 28 (p. 83) f ig. 29 (p. 86) f ig. 30 (p. 87) f ig. 31 (p. 94) f ig. 32 (p. 95) f ig. 33 (p. 108) f ig. 34 (p. 110) f ig. 35 (p. 112) f ig. 36 (p. 114)

f ig. 37 (pp. 116117) f ig. 38 (p. 121) f ig. 39 (p. 122) f ig. 40 (p. 123) f ig. 41 (p. 124) f ig. 42 (p. 124) f ig. 43 (p. 125) f ig. 44 (p. 128) f igg. 45a-e (p. 132) f igg. 46a-d (p. 133) f igg. 47a-b (p. 134) f ig. 48 (p. 143) f ig. 49 (p. 146) f ig. 50 (p. 149)

List of fi

GUREs

Vat. gr. 752, f. 165r: copista C (nel commento catenario) e copista D (testo principale) Vat. gr. 752, f. 33r (particolare): mano E, didascalia della miniatura Vat. gr. 752, f. 34v (particolare): mano E, didascalia della miniatura Vat. gr. 752, f. 29v (particolare): «pentimento» e riscrittura della didascalia della miniatura Vat. gr. 752, f. 17r (particolare): mano f Vat. gr. 752, f. 7r Vat. gr. 752, f. 354r (particolare) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 (f. 66r): rigatura del tipo 32C1 Leroy (disegno) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53: rigature di fogli inizialmente preparati per altri codici (ff. 97r, 143r) (disegno) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 13v: carmi introduttivi, di mano del copista principale, alias copista A del s alterio Vaticano Vat. gr. 752, f. 18v Vat. gr. 752, f. 84r (particolare): inizio dell’alternanza dei copisti A e C nella copia delle due diverse serie di scolii che compongono la catena Vat. gr. 752, f. 63v (particolare): imperfetta gestione dello spazio riservato alla seconda serie di scolii esegetici da parte del copista A, che si sforza di intercalarli a quelli della prima serie da lui precedentemente copiati Vat. gr. 752, f. 151v-152r: gestione dell’impaginazione della catena da parte del copista C Vat. gr. 752, f. 4v (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 3r (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 7v (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 19r (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 23v (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 22r (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, f. 473v (particolare) Vat. gr. 752, ff. 5v, 43r, 45r, 46r, 47v (particolari): «secondo ornatista delle iniziali» Vat. gr. 752, ff. 20r, 22v, 23v, 25v (particolari): primo gruppo di iniziali schizzate a inchiostro Vat. gr. 752, ff. 344v e 352v (particolari): secondo gruppo di iniziali schizzate a inchiostro Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 84v (particolare) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 138v (particolare) Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 203r (particolare)

ACCONCIO LONGO f ig. 1 (p. 158) f ig. 2 (p. 159) f ig. 3 (p. 162) f ig. 4 (p. 163) f ig. 5 (p. 146)

Vat. gr. 752, f. 17r Vat. gr. 752, f. 17v Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 13r Hierosol. S. Se[ulcri 53, f. 13v Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53, f. 14r

GASTGEBER f ig. 1 (p. 218)

Networks of the main players Michael Cerularius, Pope Leo / Cardinal Humbert, and Emperor Constantine iX Monomachus

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615

PART II VARDEN f ig. 1 (p. 233) f ig. 2 (p. 234) f ig. 3 (p. 236) f ig. 4 (p. 238)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 2r Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 42v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44v

GILLINGHAM f ig. 1 (p. 243) f ig. 2 (p. 244) f ig. 3 (p. 245) f ig. 4 (p. 247) f ig. 5 (p. 259)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 1r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 17v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 3r. Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20r (detail)

CROSTINI-FINCATI f ig. 1 (p. 339) f ig. 2 (p. 342) f ig. 3 (p. 344) f ig. 4 (p. 346) f ig. 5 (p. 349) f ig. 6 (p. 379)

Veron. Ms CXiX recto (Hesychius) Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 12r Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 113r Ambros. gr. B 106 sup., fol. 195v Auct. D.4.1, fol. 16r Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7v (detail)

BARBÀRA f ig. 1 (p. 388) f ig. 2 (p. 389) f ig. 3 (p. 390) f ig. 4 (p. 391) f ig. 5 (p. 392) f ig. 6 (p. 393) f ig. 7 (p. 394) f ig. 8 (p. 395) f ig. 9 (p. 396) f ig. 10 (p. 398) f ig. 11 (p. 399) f ig. 12 (p. 400) f ig. 13 (p. 403) f ig. 14 (p. 409) f ig. 15 (p. 409) f ig. 16 (p. 411)

Rigatura verticale del Vat. gr. 752 (disegno) Rigatura verticale del Coislin. 360 e Vat. gr. 1747 (disegno) Mise-en-page (1), Vat. gr. 752 (disegno) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 23v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 54r Vat. gr. 752, Mise-en-page (2) (disegno) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 21r Vat. gr. 752, fol. 67v Rigatura, Vat. gr. 754 (disegno) Rigatura del manoscritto di o xford, Bodleiano Barocci gr. 223 (disegno) Rigatura, Vat. gr. 2057 (disegno) Mise-en-page, Chig. R.Viii .54, ff. 1-84 (disegno) Reg. gr. 40, fol. 344r Reg. gr. 40, fols. 24v-25r Pal. gr. 44, fol. 73r

PART III PEERS f ig. 1 (p. 440) f ig. 2 (p. 441) f ig. 3 (p. 442) f ig. 4 (p. 445) f ig. 5 (p. 445)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 187r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 186v (detail) Barb. gr. 372, f. 160v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 156v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 241v (detail)

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616

f ig. 6 (p. 446) f ig. 7 (p. 446) f ig. 8 (p. 447) f ig. 9 (p. 448) f ig. 10 (p. 448) f ig. 11 (p. 449) f ig. 12 (p. 450) f ig. 13 (p. 451) f ig. 14 (p. 451) f ig. 15 (p. 452) f ig. 16 (p. 452) f ig. 17 (p. 453) f ig. 18 (p. 453) f ig. 19 (p. 454) f ig. 20 (p. 454) f ig. 21 (p. 454) f ig. 22 (p. 455) f ig. 23 (p. 456) f ig. 24 (p. 456) f ig. 25 (p. 457) f ig. 26 (p. 457) f ig. 27 (p. 457) f ig. 28 (p. 458) f ig. 29 (p. 458) f ig. 30 (p. 458) f ig. 31 (p. 458) f ig. 32 (p. 459) f ig. 33 (p. 460) f ig. 34 (p. 460) f ig. 35 (p. 461) f ig. 36 (p. 461) f ig. 37 (p. 463) f ig. 38 (p. 463) f ig. 39 (p. 464)

List of fi

GUREs

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 33r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 139v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 262v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 261r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 267v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 72v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 182v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 159v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 193r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 164r, detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 20r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 54r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 217r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 178v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 27v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 28r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 42v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 44r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 298r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 297v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 148r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 41r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 230v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 236v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 269v (detail)

KOMINKO f ig. 1 (p. 471) f ig. 2 (p. 474) f ig. 3 (p. 475) f ig. 4 (p. 476) f ig. 5 (p. 476) f ig. 6 (p. 477) f ig. 7 (p. 477) f ig. 8 (p. 478) f ig. 9 (p. 479) f ig. 10 (p. 480) f ig. 11 (p. 481) f ig. 12 (p. 483) f ig. 13 (p. 486) f ig. 14 (p. 487) f ig. 15 (p. 488) f ig. 16 (p. 489)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 2r Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4v (detail) Vat. gr. 699, fol. 63v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 3r (detail, middle) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 5r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 7v (detail, lower) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 8r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 23v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 234v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 50v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 195v (detail)

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617

HILSDALE f ig. 1 (p. 494) f ig. 2 (p. 495) f ig. 3 (p. 499) f ig. 4 (p. 499) f ig. 5 (p. 500) f ig. 6 (p. 501) f ig. 7 (p. 501) f ig. 8 (p. 503) f ig. 9 (p. 504) f ig. 10 (p. 505) f ig. 11 (p. 505) f ig. 12 (p. 506) f ig. 13 (p. 506) f ig. 14 (p. 508) f ig. 15 (p. 509) f ig. 16 (p. 510) f ig. 17 (p. 511) f ig. 18 (p. 512)

t heodore Psalter, London Ms. Add. 19352, fol. 192r Barberini Psalter, Barb. gr. 372, fol. 5r Vat. gr. 752, fol. 308v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 144v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 191r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 159v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 393v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 449r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 182v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r (detail) s t Petersburg Public Library, MS. Gr. 291, fol. iii r Vat. gr. 1851, fol. 3v Vat. gr. 1851, fol. 6r Paris. BN gr. 74, fol. 75v (detail) Marc. Gr. 479, fol. 32v (detail)

MEYER f ig. 1 (p. 521) f ig. 2 (p. 521) f ig. 3 (p. 521) f ig. 4 (p. 521) f ig. 5 (p. 522) f ig. 6 (p. 522) f ig. 7 (p. 523) f ig. 8 (p. 523) f ig. 9 (p. 524) f ig. 10 (p. 525) f ig. 11 (p. 525) f ig. 12 (p. 526) f ig. 13 (p. 526) f ig. 14 (p. 527) f ig. 15 (p. 527) f ig. 16 (p. 528) f ig. 17 (p. 528) f ig. 18 (p. 529) f ig. 19 (p. 530) f ig. 20 (p. 532) f ig. 21 (p. 532) f ig. 22 (p. 533) f ig. 23 (p. 534) f ig. 24 (p. 536)

f ig. 25 (p. 536) f ig. 26 (p. 537) f ig. 27 (p. 538)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 284r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 411r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 200r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 423v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 139v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 104v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 359r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 399v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 176r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 218v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 222v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 51r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 401r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 407r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 432r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 33r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 265r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 137v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 18v ivory relief plaque, Hohe Domkirche t rier, fifth century, or late ninth/ early tenth centuries (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 65v (detail) Barberini Psalter, Vat. Barb. gr. 372, fol. 5v Vat. gr. 752, fol. 163r (detail) Constantinople, Kilise Camii, ca. 1000, general view from s E (photo: Dumbarton o aks, image Collections and f ieldwork Archives, Washington, DC) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 151r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 162v (detail) ivory relief plaque, Constantinople, 17.5 x 12.8 cm, Berlin, Museum für

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618

f ig. 28 (p. 539) f ig. 29 (p. 540) f ig. 30 (p. 542) f ig. 31 (p. 543) f ig. 32 (p. 543) f ig. 33 (p. 543)

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spätantike und byzantinische Kunst (inv. no. 574): t he f orty Martyrs of s ebaste (photo: Berlin, Museum für spätantike und byzantinische Kunst) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 183r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 4v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 488v (detail) Constantinople, Nea Ekklesia, ca. 1450, detail; source: o nofrio Panvinio, De ludis circensibus, libri II, Venice 1600, 60-61; plate engraved by Étienne Dupérac before 1568 Constantinople, Monastery of Lips, “North Church”, 10th century, hypothetical reconstruction by A. H. s . Megaw (photo: Dumbarton o aks, image Collections and f ieldwork Archives, Washington, DC) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 429v (detail)

TRAHOULIA f ig. 1 (p. 551) f ig. 2 (p. 551) f ig. 3 (p. 553) f ig. 4 (p. 555) f ig. 5 (p. 556) f ig. 6 (p. 557) f ig. 7 (p. 557) f ig. 8 (p. 558) f ig. 9 (p. 558) f ig. 10 (p. 559) f ig. 11 (p. 560) f ig. 12 (p. 561) f ig. 13 (p. 561) f ig. 14 (p. 562) f ig. 15 (p. 563) f ig. 16 (p. 563) f ig. 17 (p. 564) f ig. 18 (p. 565)

Vat. gr. 752, fol. 88v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 238v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 2r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 41r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 80r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 29v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 3v (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 45r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 12r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 20r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 218r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 256r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 256v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 51r (detail) Vat. gr. 752, fol. 94v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 70r (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 261v (detail) Vat. gr. 1927, fol. 263r (detail)

REILLY f ig. 1 (p. 575) f ig. 2 (p. 578) f ig. 3 (p. 584) f ig. 4 (p. 586) f ig. 5 (p. 591) f ig. 6 (p. 593) f ig. 7 (p. 594) f ig. 8 (p. 596) f ig. 9 (p. 602) f ig. 10 (p. 606)

London, BL Ms Add 18859, fol. 39r, Montecassino Psalter Paris BN Ms Smith-Lesouëf 2, fol. 77v (s econd Psalter), s anto Domingo in s ilos Psalter, Canticle Dominus de Sina veniet Amiens, Bibliothèque d’Amiens métropole 18, fol. 6r, Corbie Psalter Cambridge, s aint John’s College Ms C.9, fol. 4v, s outhampton Psalter Durham, Cathedral Library B.ii .30, fol. 172v, Durham Cassiodorus London, BL Ms Cotton t iberius C Vi, fol. 17, t iberius Psalter London, BL Ms Cotton t iberius C Vi, fol. 17v, t iberius Psalter London, BL Ms Cotton t iberius C Vi, fol. 14, t iberius Psalter Berlin, s taatsbibliothek, Theol. Lat. Fol. 58, fol. 120r, Psalter of ‘Louis the German’ Universiteitsbibliotheek, Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae i n. 32, fol. 4r, Utrecht Psalter

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INDEX OF MINIATURES FROM VAT. GR. 752 DISCUSSED IN Th IS VOLUME 1r: 243-244 (fig. 1) [De Wald 3] 2r: 233-234 (fig. 1), 255, 471-473 (fig. 1) [De Wald 4] 2v: 70-72 (fig. 20) [De Wald 4] 3r: 121-122 (fig. 39), 126, 129, 246-247 (fig. 4), 475-476 (fig. 4) [De Wald 4] 4r: 476-477 (fig. 5) [De Wald 4] 4v: 121 (fig. 38), 474 (fig. 2), 477 n. 40, 505507, 540-541 (fig. 29) [De Wald 4-5] 5r: 477 (fig. 6) [De Wald 5] 7r: 85-86 (fig. 29), 234 (fig. 2), 477-478 (fig. 7) [De Wald 5] 7v: 122-123 (fig. 40), 126, 129, 378-379 (fig. 6), 478 (fig. 8), 485 n. 63 [De Wald 5-6] 8r: 122-123, 126, 129, 478-479 (fig. 9) [De Wald 6] 9r: 30, 75-76 (fig. 22), 123 [De Wald 6] 17v: 51-52 (fig. 5), 109, 126, 157-159 (fig. 2), 234-235, 244 (fig. 2) [De Wald 6-7] 18r: 51-53 (fig. 5), 109 (fig. 34), 126, 234-235, 244-246 (fig. 3) [De Wald 7] 18v: 109-110 (fig. 34), 126, 129, 235, 378, 480 (fig. 10), 524 n. 30, 530-531 (fig. 19) [De Wald 7-8] 19r (Ps 1): 123-127 (fig. 41), 127, 258 [De Wald 8] 20r (Ps 2): 125, 253 n. 32, 253 n. 32, 258-259 (fig. 5), 455 (fig. 22), 554 [De Wald 8] 22r (Ps 3): 125-126 (fig. 43) [De Wald 8-9] 23v (Ps 4): 124-125 (fig. 42), 245, 390-393 (fig. 4), 483 (fig. 12) [De Wald 9] 25r (Ps 5): 125, 145, 245 [De Wald 9] 27v (Ps 6): 455 (fig. 27) [De Wald 9] 28r (Ps 6): 457-458 (fig. 28) [De Wald 9] 29v (Ps 7): 81-82 (fig. 27), 189, 537 n. 69 [De Wald 9-10] 33r (Ps 8): 80 (fig. 25), 445-446 (fig. 6), 527528 (fig. 16) [De Wald 10] 34v (Ps 9): 80-81 (fig. 26), 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14, 502 [De Wald 10] 41r (Ps 10): 461 (fig. 36), 498 n. 12 [De Wald 10-11] 42v (Ps 11): 235-236 (fig. 4), 457-458 (fig.

29), 498 n. 12, 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 11] 44r (Ps 12): 237 (fig. 5), 457-458 (fig. 31) [De Wald 11-12] 44v (Ps 12): 237-238 (fig. 4), 457 (fig. 26) [De Wald 11-12] 45r (Ps 12): 237, 558 (fig. 8) [De Wald 11-12] 46r (Ps 13): 498 n. 12 [De Wald 12] 47v (Ps 14): 498 n. 12 [De Wald 12-13] 50v (Ps 16): 186, 187-189, 487-488 (fig. 14), 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 13-14] 51r (Ps 16): 186 n. 38, 187-189, 460 (fig. 34), 488 (fig. 15), 499 n. 14, 502 n. 20, 526 (fig. 12) [De Wald 13-14] 54r (Ps 17): 390-393 (fig. 5), 456 (fig. 23), 520 n. 16 [De Wald 14] 65v (Ps 20): 459 n. 36, 532 (fig. 21), 540 n. 79 [De Wald 14] 72v (Ps 22): 449 (fig. 11) [De Wald 15] 76r (Ps 24): 528 n. 44 [De Wald 15] 79v (Ps 25): 535 n. 60 [De Wald 15-16] 80r (Ps 25): 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14, 501, 556 (fig. 5) [De Wald 15-16] 85r (Ps 27): 458 n. 36, 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 16] 88v (Ps 29): 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 43, 551 (fig. 1) [De Wald 16-17] 94v (Ps 30): 183, 186 nn. 39, 40, 563 (fig. 15), 565-566 [De Wald 17] 97r (Ps 32): 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 43 [De Wald 17] 100r (Ps 33): 186. 532 n. 51 [De Wald 17-18] 100v (Ps 33): 183, 523 n. 28 [De Wald 17-18] 104r (Ps 34): 144, 186, 450 (fig. 12) [De Wald 18] 104v (Ps 34): 457-458 (fig. 30), 522 (fig. 6), 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 18] 128r (Ps 37): 186, 459 n. 36 [De Wald 18] 137v (Ps 40): 529 (fig. 18) [De Wald 19] 139v (Ps 41): 445-447 (fig. 7), 487 n. 79, 499, 499 nn. 14, 15, 501, 522 (fig. 5) [De Wald 19-20] 142v (Ps 42): 186, 499 n. 14 [De Wald 20]

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620

INDEX OF MINIATURES FROM VAT. GR. 752

144r (Ps 43): 487 n. 80, 499-500 (fig. 4), 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 20] 148r (Ps 44): 186 n. 37, 460-461 (fig. 35), 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 20] 151r (Ps 45): 499 n. 14, 501, 536-537 (fig. 25), 544 [De Wald 20] 156v: (Ps 48): 245 n. 7, 445 (fig. 4), 487 n. 81, 499 n. 14, 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 21] 159v (Ps 49): 246, 453-454 (fig. 18), 499 n. 14, 501 (fig. 6) [De Wald 21] 162v (Ps 50): 147, 186, 452 (fig. 16), 504-505 (fig. 10), 535 n. 60, 537 (fig. 26), 558 [De Wald 21-22] 163r (Ps 50): 186 n. 34, 452-453 (fig. 17), 504-505, 524 n. 30, 534-535 (fig. 23) [De Wald 21-22] 163v (Ps 50): 454-455 (fig. 20), 504-505 [De Wald 21-22] 164r (Ps 50): 454-455 (fig. 21) [De Wald 2122] 170v (Ps 53): 523 n. 28 [De Wald 22] 176r (Ps 55): 451-452 (fig. 15), 505 (fig. 11), 515, 523-524 (fig. 9), 534 n. 56, 535 n. 60, 539 n. 75, 540-541 [De Wald 23] 178v (Ps 56): 456-457 (fig. 25) [De Wald 23] 180v (Ps 57): 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 23] 182v (Ps 58): 450-451 (fig. 13), 505-506 (fig. 12), 539 n. 75 [De Wald 23-24] 183r (Ps 58): 450-451 (fig. 14), 505-506 (fig. 13), 539 (fig. 28) [De Wald 23-24] 186v (Ps 59): 440-441 (fig. 2), 443, 449, 450, 464, 490 n. 93, 506-507, 539 n. 75 [De Wald 24-25] 187r (Ps 59): 30, 439-440 (fig. 1), 444, 449, 490 n. 93 [De Wald 24-25] 191r (Ps 61): 490 n. 94, 499 n. 14, 500 (fig. 5), 528-529 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 25] 193r (Ps 62): 189, 453-454 (fig. 19) [De Wald 25] 193v (Ps 62) 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 25] 195v (Ps 63): 186, 489-490 (fig. 16), 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 25] 200r (Ps 65): 521-522 (fig. 3), 534 n. 56 [De Wald 26] 203r (Ps 66): 149-150, 542 n. 88 [De Wald 26] 204r (Ps 67): 150, 542 n. 88 [De Wald 26] 210r (Ps 67): 499 n. 14 [De Wald 26] 217r (Ps 69): 59 (fig. 8), 456 (fig. 24) [De Wald 26]

218v (Ps 69): 151, 524 nn. 30, 31, 524-525 (fig. 10), 539 n. 75, 541 [De Wald 26-27] 222v (Ps 71): 524-525 (fig. 11), 536, 541 [De Wald 27] 226v (Ps 72): 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 27] 230v (Ps 73): 462-463 (fig. 37) [De Wald 27] 234v (Ps 73): 486-487 (fig. 13) [De Wald 27] 236v (Ps 75): 463 (fig. 38), 499 n. 14, 500 [De Wald 27] 238v (Ps 76): 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 27-28] 241v (Ps 77): 445 (fig. 5), 487 n. 82 [De Wald 28] 252v (Ps 78): 487 n. 82 [De Wald 28] 255v (Ps 79): 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 28] 258v (Ps 79): 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 28] 261r (Ps 81): 447-448 (fig. 9), 487 n. 82, 499 n. 14, 502 [De Wald 28] 262v (Ps 82): 446-447 (fig. 8), 499 n. 14 [De Wald 28-29] 265r (Ps 83): 528 (fig. 17), 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 29] 267v (Ps 84): 448 (fig. 10), 499 n. 14, 525 n. 33 [De Wald 29] 269v (Ps 85): 464 (fig. 39) [De Wald 29] 272r (Ps 86): 498 n. 12 [De Wald 29] 273r (Ps 87): 487 n. 81, 499 n. 14, 525 n. 34, 526 n. 38 [De Wald 29] 274r (Ps 87): 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 29-30] 284r (Ps 89): 520-521 (fig. 1), 527 n. 40, 542, 550 n. 12 [De Wald 30] 287v (Ps 90): 550 n. 12 [De Wald 30] 290r (Ps 91): 525 n. 34, 526 n. 38 [De Wald 30] 292v (Ps 92): 498 n. 12 [De Wald 30-31] 297v (Ps 93): 186, 459-460 (fig. 33), 489 n. 91, 499 n. 14, 565-566 [De Wald 31] 298r (Ps 94): 189, 457, 459-460 (fig. 32), 487488 n. 85, 499 n. 14, 501, 527 n. 40 [De Wald 31] 298v (Ps 94): 189 [De Wald 31] 305v (Ps 98): 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14, 527528 n. 42, 528 n. 44 [De Wald 32] 308v (Ps 101): 487-488 n. 85, 498-499 (fig. 3), 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 32] 317r (Ps 103): 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14, 501 [De Wald 32] 322v (Ps 104): 189 [De Wald 32] 328v (Ps 105): 499 n. 14 [De Wald 32-33] 336r (Ps 106): 525 n. 34, 526 n. 38 [De Wald 33] 352v (Ps 111): 527 n. 40 [De Wald 33]

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INDEX OF MINIATURES FROM VAT. GR. 752

354r (Ps 112): 87 (fig. 30) [De Wald 33-34] 359r (Ps 114): 522-523 (fig. 7), 525, 527 n. 40 [De Wald 34] 361v (Ps 115): 527 n.40 [De Wald 34] 362r (Ps 117): 499 n. 14, 502, 525 n. 34, 526 n. 38 [De Wald 34] 366r (Ps 118): 566-567 [De Wald 35] 390v (Ps 123): 527 n. 40 [De Wald 35] 392r (Ps 124): 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14 [De Wald 35] 393v (Ps 125): 499 n. 14, 501-502 (fig. 7) [De Wald 35-36] 395v (Ps 126): 27-28 (fig. 1), 524 n. 32 [De Wald 36] 396v (Ps 127): 186-187 n. 40, 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44, [De Wald 36] 398r (Ps 128): 186-187 n. 40, 566-567 [De Wald 36] 399v (Ps 129): 522-523 (fig. 8), 528 [De Wald 36] 401r (Ps 130): 526-527 (fig. 13) [De Wald 36] 407r (Ps 133): 526-527 (fig. 14) [De Wald 37] 408r (Ps 134): 498 n. 12, 527 n. 40 [De Wald 37] 411r (Ps 135): 520-521 (fig. 2), 535 n. 60 [De Wald 37] 417r (Ps 138): 483, 525 n. 33 [De Wald 37] 423v (Ps 140): 521-522 (fig. 4) [De Wald 38]

621

426v (Ps 141): 527 n. 40 , 543 n. 90 [De Wald 38] 429v (Ps 142): 543 (fig. 33) [De Wald 38] 432r (Ps 143): 526-527 (fig. 15), 527 n. 40 [De Wald 39] 434v (Ps 144): 487-488 n. 85, 499 n. 14 [De Wald 39] 438v (Ps 145): 525 n. 33 [De Wald 39] 443v (Ps 148): 527-528 n. 42, 528 n. 44, 565 [De Wald 39] 445v (Ps 149): 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 39] 447r (Ps 150): 155, 527-528 n. 42 [De Wald 40] 449r (Ps 151): 481, 504 (fig. 9), 513 [De Wald 40] 449v (Ps 151): 21 n. 1, 481-482 (fig. 8), 503504 (fig. 8), 513 [De Wald 41-42] 462v (Ode of Moses): 550 n. 12 [De Wald 42] 465r (Ode of h abakkuk): 550 n. 12 [De Wald 42] 473v (Ode of the Three Youths): 127-128 (fig. 44), 156 [De Wald 42-43] 480v (Ode of the Three Youths): 542 n. 88 [De Wald 43] 484r (Ode of the Three Youths): 456 n. 27, 550 n. 12 [De Wald 44] 488r (Ode of Simeon): 550 n. 12 [De Wald 45] 488v (Ode of h ezekiah): 532 n. 51, 541-542 (fig. 30) [De Wald 45]

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List of manuscripts cited Amiens, Bibliothèques d’a miens-métropole ms 18 C (c orbie psalter) 581, 582 and nn. 48, 49, 583, 584 (fig. 3) Athens, Benaki museum MS 34:3 —, n ational Library Athen. gr. 6 Athen. gr. 7 Athen. gr. 2073 Athen. gr. 2554 Athen. gr. 2363 Athen. gr. 2676

550 n. 13

166 n. 28 166 n. 28 84 n. 65 122 n. 127 84 n. 64, 122 n. 127, 127 n. 129, 138 122 n. 127

Athos Chilandar 105 122 n. 127, 138 Dionysiou 587 126 n. 128, 462 and n. 42 Koutloumousiou 60 508 n. 31 Lavra B26m 484 n. 59 Lavra 46 138 Panteleimon 33 402-403 n. 33, 408 n. 50 Pantokrator 10 138 Pantokrator 61 481 and nn. 72, 73, 485 S. Annae 7 111 n. 115, 265-267 and nn. 25-27, 30 Xenophontos 7 174, 175 (as X)

Cantab. f f.iii .6 Cantab. Ll.1.10 (Book of c erne)

336, 337 595 and n. 90 Cantab. 213 (c odex Zakynthius) 397 and n. 20 Cheltenham, n ational Library of Wales Phill. 426 427 Dublin, t rinity c ollege MS A.4.5 (Book of d urrow) 585 and n. 64 Durham, c athedral Library MS B.II.30 (d urham c assiodorus) 590 and n. 82, 591 (f ig. 5) El Escorial, r eal Biblioteca, monasterio de s an Lorenzo Scorial. .1.2 263-265, 269, 287 n. 124, 297, 299, 334, 335 and n. 20, 350, 355 (as e ) Scorial. .iii .20 310 n. 44

Berlin, s taatlichen museen, Kupferstichkabinett MS 78.A.9 (Hamilton psalter) 443

Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana Plut. Vi.23 512 and n. 35 Plut. iX.3 161, 166 and n. 49, 173, 175 (as L) Plut. iX.28 474 n. 36 Plut. Xi.4 301 n. 3 Plut. XVii .16 427 and n. 49

—, s taatsbibliothek Theol. Lat. Fol. 58

Grottaferrata, Biblioteca del monumento Crypt. a Vi 402-403 n. 33, 408 n. 50

600 and n. 112, 601, 602 (fig. 9)

Cambridge, s t John’s c ollege C. 9 584 and n. 59, 585, 586 (fig. 4), 601 and n. 117 —, t rinity c ollege Library MS 52 MS 268 MS R.17.1 (e adwine psalter)

426 424 n. 35 608

—, u niversity Library Cantab. f f.i.23 (Winchcombe psalter) 590 n. 81

Jerusalem, Library of the Greek o rthodox patriarchate Hagiou Taphou/S. Sepulcri 14 524 n. 28, 539 n. 73 Hagiou Taphou/S. Sepulcri 45 166 n. 28, 174, 175 (as H) Hagiou Taphou/S. Sepulcri 53 21, 23, 43, 49, 72, 74 (fig. 21), 89-102, 107, 108 (fig. 33), 139-152, 157, 160, 162-164 (fig. 3-5), 165, 167 and n. 36, 171-172, 175, 379-380 Stavrou/S. Crucis 109 524 n. 28

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624

List of manuscripts cited

Hildesheim, s t Godehard’s c hurch MS St Alban Psalter 592 and n. 86 Léon, c athedral a rchive MS 8 581 and nn. 44, 45 London, British Library Add. 18859 (montecassino psalter) 575 (fig. 1), 576 and n. 26 Add. 19352 (t heodore psalter) 254 and n. 34, 485 and nn. 65, 69 and 71, 493 n. 2, 494 (fig. 1), 522 n. 22, 524 n. 28, 528 n. 42, 531 n. 48, 533 n. 52, 537 n. 67, 550 nn. 8, 13, 551 n. 14, 552 n. 17, 553, 554 and n. 22, 555-556 n. 30, 556 n. 32, 559-560 and nn. 34, 36, 563, 564 and nn. 45-47 Add. 20003 69, 69-70 n. 47 a dd. 30850 580 n. 41 Add. 30851 576 n. 29 Add. 40655 69-70 n. 47 Add. 40731 (Bristol psalter) 443, 485 n. 63, 528 n. 42, 539 n. 74, 554 and n. 23, 556 and n. 32, 559 n. 34, 564-565 n. 47 Add. 43725 (c odex s inaiticus) 308 Cotton Galba a .XViii 600 Cotton Otho B.Vi (c otton Genesis) 35 Cotton Tiberius c .Vi (t iberius psalter) 582 and n. 53, 592 and n. 85, 593 (fig. 6), 594 (fig. 7), 595, 596 (fig. 8), 597 and n. 97, 598, 601 and n. 117, 604 Cotton Vitellius f .Xi 590 and n. 79 Harley 3032 426, 427 Harley 2793 572 and n. 12 Reg. 2 f . ii 427 Madrid, n ational Library Vitr. 14.2 579 n. 36 Vitr. 26-2 (s kylitzes) 194 n. 4, 540 n. 78 —, r eal a cademia de la Historia ms 33 579 and n. 36 Messina, Biblioteca r egionale u niversitaria Messan. San Salvatore gr. 6 304 Messan. San Salvatore gr. 29 301-327 Messan. San Salvatore gr. 30 301-327 Milan, Biblioteca a mbrosiana Ambros. B 106 sup. 168 and n. 43, 172, 175 (as a a), 288 and n. 131,

294, 296 n. 164, 329, 340-346 (fig. 2-4), 355 (as a ) Ambros. B 114 sup. 343 n. 56 Ambros. B 119 sup. 343 n. 56 Ambros. c 5 inf. 582 and n. 48 Ambros. f 12 sup. 72 n. 49 Ambros. f 126 sup. 299 and n. 173 Ambros. H 60 sup. 160, 172, 175 (as a b) Ambros. o 39 sup. 285-300 Ambros. Q 74 sup. 432 and n. 7 (as d ) Ambros. + 24 165, 166 and n. 28, 172 and n. 64, 175 (as a ) Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire MS H409 (mondsee psalter) 582 and n. 52 Moscow, Historical museum Mosq. gr. d . 129 (Khludov psalter) 253, 254 and n. 33, 485 and nn. 66, 72-73, 554 n. 23 Mosq. gr. 194 334, 335, 336 Mosq. gr. 358 334, 335, 351-352, 355 (as s ) Synod. gr. 9 135, 139 Synod. gr. 183 69 and n. 45 Munich, Bavarian Library Clm 29402 (olim 29162c) 425 Monac. gr. 252 161, 173 and n. 70, 175 (as m), 174-175 n. 81 New York, pierpont morgan Library MS 768

426

Oxford, Bodleian Library Auct. d .4.1 72 n. 49, 329, 330 n. 7, 347-350 (fig. 5), 355 (as o ) Auct. t .2.3 33 n. 26, 301 n. 3, 307 and n. 33, 310 n. 43, 326, 330 n. 8 Barocci 223 399 (fig. 11) Canon. gr. 62 32, 111 n. 115, 129 n. 131, 261, 262 and n. 9, 263 and n. 11, 264 and nn. 14-15, 265 and n. 21, 267 and n. 31, 269 and nn. 40 and 42, 270-271, 274-278, 281, 283 and n. 103, 286 n. 115, 288 n. 130, 289, 290 and n. 138, 291-292, 295-300, 299 n. 174, 300 n. 177, 330 n. 7, 387 n. 12 Christ Church 42 167, 172, 175 Cromwell 19 138 Hamilton 3 (ms 24433) 427 Laud. gr. 37 138 Roe 13 307 n. 33, 313, 326, 327

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625

List of manuscripts cited

Paris, n ational Library Coislin. 10 400 Coislin. 20 63 n. 42 Coislin. 21 63 n. 42 Coislin. 22 63 n. 42 Coislin. 48 291 Coislin. 360 388 n. 13, 389 (fig. 2), 389-390 n. 16, 408 n. 50 Paris. gr. 12 166 n. 28, 173, 175 (as pa) Paris. gr. 54 461 n. 40 Paris. gr. 74 504 and n. 22, 511 (fig. 17), 512 and n. 35 Paris. gr. 139 (paris psalter) 241 n. 1, 273 n. 61, 485 and nn. 65, 67, 524 n. 29 Paris. gr. 164 173 and n. 74, 175 (as pb) Paris. gr. 168 173 and n. 75 Paris. gr. 510 (paris Gregory) 528 n. 44 Paris. gr. 923 (s acra parallela) 537 n. 68 Paris. gr. 924 419 n. 17, 431 and n. 3 (as c ) Paris. gr. 2743 166 n. 28, 173 Paris. lat. 1 (f irst Bible of c harles the Bald) 579 Paris. lat. 2312 426 Paris. lat. 2508 381 and n. 87 Paris. lat. 10525 592 and n. 87 Paris. lat. 11995 426 Paris. Smith-Lesouëf 2 577-579 (fig. 2) Paris. Suppl. gr. 1335 485 n. 67 Parma, Biblioteca palatina Parm. 1870

257 and n. 44

Patmos, monastery of s aint John the t heologian Patm. gr. 215 299 n. 173 Rossano, museo della c attedrale Codex Purpureus Rossanensis 552 n. 15 Saint Petersburg, n ational Library Petropol. gr. 264 72 n. 49 Petropol. gr. 266 90 n. 72, 92, 93, 140, 144, 147, 151 Petropol. gr. 269 241 n. 1 Petropol. gr. 291 507 n. 30, 508 (fig. 14) Petrop. gr. 1252 555 and n. 27 Petropol. lat. f .v.i.5 572 and n. 12 Salisbury, c athedral Library MS 150 (s alisbury psalter) 604 and n. 123

Sinai, monastery of s aint c atherine Sinait. gr. 3 484 n. 58 Sinait. gr. 11 161 n. 14, 168 n. 40, 174 and n. 80 Sinait. gr. 22 173-174 and n. 77, 175 (as s ) and n. 81 Sinait. gr. 38 241 n. 1 Sinait. gr. 172 507 n. 30 Sinait. gr. 339 484 n. 58 Sinait. gr. 418 511 n. 32 Sinait. gr. 500 138 Sinait. gr. 503 122 n. 127, 138 Sinait. gr. 1633 161, 174 and n. 81 Sinait. gr. Μ 19 166 n. 28, 172, 175 (as s m) Smyrna, e vangelical s chool MS B.8 (s myrna physiologus) 24, 191, 459 n. 37, 565 n. 49 Strasbourg, n ational and u niversity Library MS 1906 (gr. 12) 419 n. 17, 420, 425, 428 and n. 2 (as e ) Stuttgart, Wüttembergische Landesbibliothek Biblia folio 23 252 and n. 29, 582 and n. 50, 583 Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale MS 212

426

Turin, n ational Library Taurin. gr. B.II.4 127 n. 130 Taurin. gr. B.VII.30 388 and n. 13, 408 Taurin. gr. c .i.6 135 and n. 140, 137, 138 Urgell, c athedral Library MS 26 (Beatus)

579 and n. 36

Utrecht, Bibliotheek der r ijksuniversiteit MS 32 (u trecht psalter) 253 and n. 31, 253, 254 n. 33, 258, 564-565 n. 47, 582 and n. 51, 583, 604-608 (fig. 10) Vatican City, Biblioteca a postolica Vaticana (Ba V) Barb. gr. 340 168 and nn. 39, 40, 172, 175 (as B), 315 n. 54 Barb. gr. 348 280 n. 89, 412 and n. 56 Barb. gr. 372 (Barberini psalter) 122 n. 127 136, 137, 138, 168 n. 39, 442 (fig. 3), 493 and n. 2, 493 (fig. 2), 533 (fig. 22) and n. 52, 554 n. 23 Barb. gr. 455 335, 337 and n. 34

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626

Barb. gr. 549 Chig. r .Viii .54

List of manuscripts cited

288, 296 and n. 164 403 (fig. 13), 404 n. 35, 406 and n. 43 Ott. gr. 14 308 Ott. gr. 88 122 n. 127, 138 Ott. gr. 398 161 n. 14, 167, 168 nn. 38 and 40, 172, 175 (as o ), 286 and nn. 116, 119, 286 and n. 116, 286-287 n. 119, 287 and n. 121, 288, 288-289 n. 131, 289 n. 135, 295 and n. 159, 296-297, 335, 336 Ott. gr. 452 403, 406 and n. 44 Pal. gr. 1 138 Pal. gr. 44 15, 281 n. 89, 282 n. 97, 411 (fig. 16), 412 and n. 56 Pal. gr. 367 172, 175 (as p) Pal. gr. 381 241 n. 1 Pal. gr. 382 69 (fig. 16) Reg. gr. 40 401, 408 and n. 50, 409 (fig. 14-15), 410 Reg. lat. 2 572 and n. 12 Vat. gr. 333 513 n. 36, 524 n. 28 Vat. gr. 342 161 Vat. gr. 347 308 n. 38, 406 n. 44 Vat. gr. 372 485 n. 70 Vat. gr. 463 513 n. 36 Vat. gr. 699 474 n. 36, 475 (fig. 3) Vat. gr. 753 389 n. 15 Vat. gr. 754 295 n. 160, 397-398 and n. 22 (fig. 10), 399 n. 23 Vat. gr. 817 138 Vat. gr. 1153-1154 307-308 n. 35 Vat. gr. 1156 51 n. 16 Vat. gr. 1522 20

Vat. gr. 1613 (menologion of Basil ii ) 24, 51 n. 16, 55, 171, 523-524 n. 28 Vat. gr. 1747 288 and n. 131, 294, 296 and n. 164, 389-390 n. 16 (fig. 2) Vat. gr. 1848 172, 175 (as Vb) Vat. gr. 1851 504 n. 22, 508, 509 (fig. 15), 510 (fig. 16), 511 and n. 32, 539 n. 73 Vat. gr. 1866 165 and n. 24, 172, 175 (as Va) Vat. gr. 1927 15, 35, 38-39, 485 n. 71, 518 n. 7, 547-567 (fig. 2-4, 6-7, 9-10, 12-14, 17, 18) Vat. gr. 2057 399 and n. 26, 399 n. 26, 400 (fig. 12) Vat. gr. 2061a 310 n. 44 Vat. gr. 2302 412 n. 56 Venice, Biblioteca marciana Marc. gr. 479 512 (fig. 18) Marc. gr. i, 38 315 Marc. gr. Z. 17 (psalter of Basil ii ) 54 n. 20 55, 63 and n. 42, 171, 389 n. 15 Marc. gr. Z. 139 513 and n. 36 Marc. gr. Z. 454 (Venetus a ) 343 n. 56, 511 and n. 33 Verona, Biblioteca c apitolare ms LXXXiX 580 and n. 42 ms c XViii 295 n. 160 ms c XiX 329, 335, 338-340 (fig. 1), 355 (as V) Vienna, a ustrian n ational Library Vindob. theol. gr. 8 402 n. 32

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487. Congregazione camaldolese dell’Ordine di San Benedetto, a cura di C. Caby e S. Megli (Libri e biblioteche degli ordini religiosi in Italia alla fine del secolo XVI, 2). 2014, pp. 488, tav. 488. Kallas, E. The Travel Accounts of Ra‘d to Venice (1656) and its Aleppo Dialect according to the Ms. Sbath 89. 2015, pp. 86 + 38*. 489. Circolazione di testi e scambi culturali in Terra d’Otranto tra tardoantico e medioevo, a cura di A. Capone con la collaborazione di F. G. Giannachi e S. J. Voicu. 2015, pp. 332, ill. 490. Dominici Bandini , introduzione, edizione critica e commento a cura di E. Merenda, prefazione di P. Parroni. 2015, pp. VI, 238, ill. 491. Inventari di manoscritti greci della Biblioteca Vaticana sotto il pontificato di Giulio II (1503-1513), introduzione, edizione e commento a cura di G. Cardinali. 2015, pp. 364, ill. 492-493. Gaetano Marini (1742-1815). Protagonista della cultura europea. Scritti per il bicentenario della morte, a cura di M. Buonocore. Vol. I-II, 2015, pp. 1767, ill. 494. Bressan, D. – Ridley, R.T. The Prince as poisoner. The trial of Sigismondo Chigi, Rome 1790. 2015, pp. 370, ill. 495. Le postille di Padre Sebastiano Resta ai due esemplari delle Vite di Giorgio Vasari nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, a cura di B. Agosti e S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, trascrizione e commento di M. R. Pizzoni. 2015, pp. 246, ill. 496. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XXI. 2015, pp. 606, ill. 497. Chierici regolari minori, a cura di L. Marinelli e P. Zito; Congregazione dell’Oratorio, a cura di E. Caldelli e G. Cassiani; Ordine dei frati scalzi della B. Vergine Maria del Monte Carmelo, a cura di G. Grosso OCarm con la collaborazione di C. Compare e A. Pincelli (Libri e biblioteche degli ordini religiosi in Italia alla fine del secolo XVI, 3). 2015, pp. 256, tav. 498. van Boxel, P. Jewish Books in Christian Hands. Theology, Exegesis and Conversion under Gregory XIII (1572-1585). 2016, pp. 232. 499. Giovanni Tortelli primo bibliotecario della Vaticana – Miscellanea di studi, a cura di A. Manfredi, C. Marsico, M. Regoliosi. 2016, pp. 552. 500. Tavole e indici generali dei volumi 401-500 di “Studi e testi”, a cura di P. Vian, in preparazione. 501. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XXII. 2016, pp. 880, ill. 503. 619: caricature. Carlo Marchionni e Filippo, a cura di S. Ceccarelli ed E. Debenedetti. 2016, pp. 688, ill. 504. A book of Psalms from eleventh-century byzantium: the complex of texts and images in edited by Barbara Crostini and Glenn Peers. 2016, pp. 628, ill.

STUDI STUDI E E TESTI TESTI 504 504

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BOOKOF OFPSALMS PSALMSFROM FROMELEVENTH-CENTURY ELEVENTH-CENTURYBYZANTIUM: BYZANTIUM: B.B.Crostini Crostini AABOOK THE THECOMPLEX COMPLEXOF OFTEXTS TEXTSAND ANDIMAGES IMAGESIN INVAT. VAT.GR. GR.752 752 G.G.Peers Peers

464. Di Cerbo, V. – Di Paola, M. – Franceschi, C. Bibliografia retrospettiva dei fondi manoscritti della Biblioteca Vaticana. II, a cura di M. Buonocore. 2011, pp. 404. 465. Bilotta, M. A. I libri dei papi. La Curia, il Laterano e la produzione manoscritta ad uso del papato nel Medioevo (secoli VI-XIII). 2011, pp. XXXII, 284, tav. 63. 466-467. Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca Vaticana, a cura di F. D’Aiuto e P. Vian. Vol. I-II, 2011. pp. 1557, tav. 8. 468. La Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana luogo di ricerca al servizio degli studi. Atti del convegno, Roma, 11-13 novembre 2010, a cura di M. Buonocore e A. M. Piazzoni. 2011, pp. XVI, 611, ill. 469. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XVIII. 2011, pp. 881, ill. 470. Rita, A. Biblioteche e requisizioni librarie a Roma in età napoleonica. Cronologia e fonti romane. 2012, pp. 560. 471. Ubaldini, C. I salmi di Gabriele Fiamma ritrovati nella Biblioteca Vaticana (R. I. IV. 447). 2012, pp. 168 e riproduzione anastatica dell’originale. 472. Coptic Treasures from the Vatican Library. A Selection of Coptic, Copto-Arabic and Ethiopic Manuscripts. Papers collected on the occasion of the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies (Rome, September 17th-22nd, 2012), edited by P. Buzi and D. V. Proverbio. 2012, pp. 188, ill. 473. Rao, I. G. L’inventario di Fabio Vigili della Medicea privata (Vat. lat. 7134). 2012, pp. XLII, 116. 474. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XIX. 2012, pp. 660, ill. 475. Congregazione di Santa Maria di Vallombrosa dell’Ordine di San Benedetto, a cura di S. Megli e F. Salvestrini (Libri e biblioteche degli ordini religiosi in Italia alla fine del secolo XVI, 1). 2013, pp. 370, tav. 476. Badalì, R. Carmina medicalia. 2013, pp. 963, tav. 477-478. Studi in onore del cardinale Raffaele Farina, a cura di A. M. Piazzoni. Vol. I-II, 2013, pp. XXVIII, 1382, ill. 479. D’Ottone, A. La storia di Bayâḍ e Riyâḍ (Vat. ar. 368). Una nuova edizione e traduzione. 2013, pp. 130 + ٥٦, tav. 480. Piemontese, A. M. La Persia istoriata in Roma. 2014, pp. 466, tav. 481-483. Catalogo dei codici miniati della Biblioteca Vaticana, I. I manoscritti Rossiani, a cura di S. Maddalo con la collaborazione di E. Ponzi e il contributo di M. Torquati. Vol. I-III, 2014, pp. XXX, 2054, 480, ill. 484. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XX. 2014, pp. 839, ill. 485. Le «giustificazioni» dell’Archivio Barberini. Inventario, I. Le giustificazioni dei cardinali, a cura di L. Cacciaglia. 2014, pp. 412, ill. 486. Dentro l’officina di Giovanni Boccaccio. Studi sugli autografi in volgare e su Boccaccio dantista, a cura di S. Bertelli e D. Cappi. 2014, pp. 510, ill.

A BOOK OF PSALMS FROM ELEVENTH-CENTURY BYZANTIUM: THE COMPLEX OF TEXTS AND IMAGES IN VAT. GR. 752 edited by

Barbara Crostini & Glenn Peers

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO

BIBLIOTECA BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA APOSTOLICA VATICANA VATICANA

BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA 2016

2016 2016

In vendita presso la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana – Città del Vaticano

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STUDI E TESTI 100. Tavole e indici generali dei primi cento volumi di “Studi e testi”. 1942 (rist. 1973), pp. XXII, 182. 200. Tavole e indici generali dei volumi 101-200 di “Studi e testi”. 1959 (rist. 1987), pp. 151. 323. Tavole e indici generali dei volumi 201-300 di “Studi e testi”, a cura di P. Vian. 1986, pp. V, 160. 385. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. VI. Collectanea in honorem Rev.mi Patris Leonardi Boyle, O.P., septuagesimum quintum annum feliciter complentis. 1998, pp. 744, fig. 95. 386. Jaçov, M. Le missioni cattoliche nei Balcani tra le due grandi guerre: Candia (1645-1669) – Vienna e Morea (1683-1699). 1998, pp. XVI, 573. 387. “Intavulare”. Tavole di canzonieri romanzi, serie coordinata da A. Ferrari. I. Canzonieri provenzali. 1. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, A. Lombardi e M. Careri. 1998, pp. XV, 375, tav. 35. 388. “Intavulare”. Tables de chansonniers romans, série coordonnée par A. Ferrari. II. Chansonniers français. 1. Bibliothèque Vaticane – Arras, Bibl. Municipale, par M. Tyssens. 1998, pp. V, 196, tav. 18. 389. Sauget, J. Littératures et manuscrits des chrétientés syriaques et arabes. Recueil d’articles publié par L. Duval-Arnould et F. Rilliet. Préface de L. E. Boyle. 1998, pp. 314. 390. Tihon, A. Le “Grand Commentaire” de Théon d’Alexandrie aux Tables faciles de Ptolémée. Livre IV. Édition critique, traduction, commentaire. 1999, pp. 104, fig. 391. d’Abbadie, A. Douze ans de séjour dans la Haute-Éthiopie (Abyssinie). IV. Introduction, édition, notes et index par J. M. Allier. 1999, pp. X, 458. 392. Raineri, O. Gli atti etiopici del martire egiziano Giorgio il Nuovo († 978). 1999, pp. XLVII, 140, 2 tav. 393. Gli Autografi Paolo VI. Introduzione, inventario e indici, a cura di P. Vian (Cataloghi sommari e inventari dei fondi manoscritti, 6). 1999, pp. XXXIV, 329, tav. 1. 394. De Thomeis, A. Rime, Convivium scientiarum – In laudem Sixti Quarti pont. max., a cura di F. Carboni e A. Manfredi. 1999, pp. XCII, 376. 395. Furrer-Pilliod, C. Ὅροι καὶ ὑπογραφαί. Collections alphabétiques de définitions profanes et sacrées. 2000, pp. X, 313, tav. 4. 396. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. VII. 2000, pp. 505, fig. 47. 397. Niccolò V nel sesto centenario della nascita. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Sarzana, 8-10 ottobre 1998, a cura di F. Bonatti e A. Manfredi. 2000, pp. XV, 699, tav. 122. 398. Enee Silvii Piccolominei postea Pii PP. II De Europa, edidit A. van Heck. 2001, pp. 315. 399. The Correspondence of Agostino Chigi (14661520) in cod. Chigi R.V.C., an annotated edition by I. Rowland. 2001, pp. XXII, 290. 400. Tavole e indici generali dei volumi 301-400 di “Studi e testi”, a cura di P. Vian. 2002, pp. XII, 241.

401. Anzuini, C. A. I manoscritti coranici della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana e delle biblioteche romane. 2001, pp. XIII, 488. 402. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. VIII. 2001, pp. 564, fig. 67. 403. Jaçov, M. L’Europa tra conquiste ottomane e leghe sante. 2001, pp. 281. 404. Piacentini, P. La biblioteca di Marcello II Cervini. Una ricostruzione dalle carte di Jeanne Bignami Odier. I libri a stampa. 2001, pp. XXXIX, 261. 405. Williman, D. – Corsano, K. Early Provenances of Latin Manuscripts in the Vatican Library. Vaticani latini and Borghesiani. 2002, pp. XIX, 173. 406. Grafinger, Ch. M. Die Ausleihe vatikanischer Handschriften und Druckwerke: 18. Jahrhundert. Teil I: Biblioteca Vaticana. 2002, pp. XL, 377, tav. 29. 407. Grafinger, Ch. M. Die Ausleihe vatikanischer Handschriften und Druckwerke: 18. Jahrhundert. Teil II: Archivio Segreto Vaticano. 2002, pp. XXXVIII, 526, tav. 26. 408. Mundó, A. M. Les Bíblies de Ripoll. Estudi dels mss. Vaticà, Lat. 5729 i París, BNF, Lat. 6. 2002, pp. 404, ill. 409. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. IX. 2002, pp. 536, fig. 29. 410. Hermeneumata Vaticana (cod. . 6925) ediderunt G. Brugnoli et M. Buonocore. 2002, pp. XXXII, 214, tav. 24. 411. Giannelli, C. (†) – Graciotti, S. Il messale croatoraguseo (Neofiti 55) della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 2003, pp. CVI, 579. 412. Raineri, O. Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici (secoli XII-XX). 2003, pp. 280, tav. 4 + 11. 413. Carteggi del card. Giovanni Mercati. I. 18891936. Introduzione, inventario e indici, a cura di P. Vian (Cataloghi sommari e inventari dei fondi manoscritti, 7). 2003, pp. XLIII, 671. 414. Maddalo, S. Il De balneis Puteolanis di Pietro da Eboli: realtà e simbolo nella tradizione figurata. 2003, pp. 273, ill. 415. Lilla, S. I manoscritti vaticani greci: lineamenti di una storia del fondo. 2004, pp. XI, 249, ill. 416. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. X. 2003, pp. 437, fig. 70. 417. Comitato del grande giubileo dell’anno 2000. Commissione Teologico-storica, L’inquisizione. Atti del Simposio internazionale, Città del Vaticano, 29-31 ottobre 1998, a cura di A. Borromeo. 2003, pp. 784. 418. Raineri, O. Gli Atti di Qawesýos martire etiopico (sec. XIV). 2004, pp. 311. 419. Tedros Abraha, The Ethiopic version of the Letters to the Hebrews. 2004, pp. 224. 420. Cerulli, E. Inventario dei manoscritti Cerulli etiopici. Introduzione, integrazioni e indici a cura di O. Raineri. 2004, pp. 281, ill. 421. Galland, B. Les authentiques de reliques du Sancta Sanctorum. 2004, pp. 170, ill.

422. Howe, E. D. Art and culture at the Sistine court. Platina’s “Life of Sixtus IV” and the frescoes of the Hospital of Santo Spirito. 2005, pp. 268, ill. 423. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XI. 2004, pp. 699, ill. 424. Vian, N. Figure della Vaticana e altri scritti. Uomini, libri, biblioteche, a cura di P. Vian. 2005, pp. XIV, 412, ill. 425. Rationes decimarum Italiae nei secoli XIII e XIV. Liguria Maritima, a cura di M. Rosada, riveduta e integrata da E. Girardi. 2005, pp. XVII, 442, 1 c. geogr. 426. Ceresa, M. Bibliografia dei fondi manoscritti della Biblioteca Vaticana (1991-2000). 2005, pp. 737. 427. Index seu inventarium Bibliothecae Vaticanae divi Leonis Pontificis Optimi. Anno 1518 C. Series graeca. Curantibus M. L. Sosower, D. F. Jackson, A. Manfredi. 2006, pp. 200. 428-429. Konrad Gruter von Werden, De machinis et rebus mechanicis; ein Maschinenbuch aus Italien für den König von Dänemark 1393-1424, I. Einleitung, II. Edition, übersetz, kommentiert und hrsg. von D. Lohrmann, H. Kranz, U. Alertz. 2006, pp. 258 + 301, ill. 430. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XII. 2005, pp. 532, ill. 431. “Intavulare”. Tavole di canzonieri romanzi, serie coordinata da A. Ferrari. III. Canzonieri italiani. 1. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ch (Chig.L.VIII.305), a cura di G. Borriero. 2006, pp. XVI, 592, ill. 432. L’immagine di Cristo. Dall’acheropita di Cristo alla mano d’artista. Dal tardo medioevo all’età barocca, a cura di Ch. L. Frommel e G. Wolf. 2006, pp. 576, ill. 433. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XIII. 2006, pp. 696, ill. 434. Libri, biblioteche e cultura degli ordini regolari nell’Italia moderna attraverso la documentazione della Congregazione dell’Indice. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Macerata, 30 maggio – 1 giugno 2006, a cura di R. M. Borraccini e R. Rusconi. 2006, pp. 745. 435. Liber usuum Ordinis Calesiensis (Vat. Lat. 15200). Le coutumier de l’Ordre de Chalais publié par L. Duval-Arnould. 2007, pp. 346. 436. Kallas, E. Intimate Songs from the Ms. Vatican Arabic 366. 2007, pp. 95 + 39*. 437. Raineri, O. La Historia d’Ethiopia di Francesco Alvarez. Ridotta in italiano da Ludovico Beccadelli. 2007, pp. 211, ill. 438. Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library. Catalogue, compiled by the Staff of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (Jerusalem), edited by B. Richler, Palaeographical and Codicological Descriptions by M. Beit-Arié in collaboration with N. Pasternak. 2008, pp. XXVII, 682, 66*, ill. 439. Enee Silvii Piccolominei Epistolarium seculare, edidit A. van Heck. 2007, pp. 527. 440. Buonocore, M. La Biblioteca del Cardinale Henry Stuart Duca di York dal codice Vaticano latino 15169. 2007, pp. 569, ill. 441. Wagendorfer, M. Die Schrift des Eneas Silvius Piccolomini. 2008, pp. 295, ill.

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442. Da Luni a Sarzana, 1204-2004. VIII centenario della traslazione della sede vescovile. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Sarzana, 30 settembre – 2 ottobre 2004, a cura di A. Manfredi e P. Sverzellati. 2007, pp. 598, tav. 54. 443. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XIV. 2007, pp. 523, ill. 444. Portraits de troubadours. Initiales du chansonnier provençal A (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 5232) publiées par J.-L. Lemaitre et F. Vielliard avec la collaboration de L. Duval-Arnould. 2008, pp. LVI, 126, ill. 445. Chambers, M. Valla’s Translation of Thucydides in Vat. Lat. 1801 with the Reproduction of the Codex. 2008, pp. XXVI, 367, ill. 446. Macino, F. Sulle tracce delle Istituzioni di Giustiniano nell’alto medioevo. I manoscritti dal VI al XII secolo. 2008, pp. 247, ill. 447-448. Laharie, M. Le Journal singulier d’Opicinus de Canistris (1337 – vers 1341), Vaticanus Latinus 6435. Vol. I-II, 2008, pp. LXXXVIII, 944, ill., tav. 47. 449. Angelo Colocci e gli studi romanzi, a cura di C. Bologna e M. Bernardi. 2008, pp. XVIII, 544, ill., tav. 21. 450-451. Canart, P. Études de paléographie et de codicologie. Reproduites avec la collaboration de M. L. Agati et M. D’Agostino. Vol. I-II, 2008, pp. XXVIII, 748 + VI, 660. 452. Fohlen, J. La bibliothèque du pape Eugène IV (1431-1447). Contribution à l’histoire du fonds Vatican latin. 2008, pp. 489, tav. 12. 453. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XV. 2008, pp. 509, ill. 454. Bernardi, M. Lo zibaldone colocciano (Vat. lat. 4831). Edizione e commento. 2008, pp. 514, ill. 455. Mattioli Háry, N. The Vatican Library and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The History, Impact and Influence of their Collaboration (1927-1947). 2009, pp. XX, 750, tav. 456. Leroy, J. (†) Études sur les Grandes Catéchèses des. Théodore Studite, édition par O. Delouis, avec la participation de S. J. Voicu. 2008, pp. 360. 457. Librorum Latinorum Bibliothecae Vaticanae Index a Nicolao De Maioranis compositus et Fausto Sabeo collatus anno MDXXXIII. Curantibus A. Di Sante e A. Manfredi. 2009, pp. LXX, 456, tav. 5. 458. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XVI. 2009, pp. 480, ill. 459. Hunain ibn Ishaq’s “Questions on Medicine for Students”. Transcription and Translation of the Oldest Extant Syriac Version (Vat. Syr. 192) by E. J. Wilson and S. Dinkha. 2010, pp. XXIII, 615, ill. 460. Johrendt, J. Urkundenregesten zum Kapitel von St. Peter im Vatikan (1198-1304). 2010, pp. 334. 461. Proverbio, D. V. Turcica Vaticana. 2010, pp. 272, ill. 462. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. XVII. 2010, pp. 295, ill. 463. La Bible du Patrice Léon. Codex Reginensis Graecus 1. Commentaire codicologique, paléographique, philologique et artistique publié sous la direction de P. Canart. 2011, pp. xxxv, 339, ill.

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