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Title
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Collectio theologica
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(EN) Collection of theological writings
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Subject
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Patristic literature; theology; religious poetry; John Mauropous; Athenian monuments; Aristoboulos Apostoles; liturgy; anti-islamic polemics; dialogue of the monk Euthymius
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Abstract
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According to Hunger and Lackner (Katalog, 181), this miscellaneous book is formed of 9 originally independent codicological units; it contains the following works:
1. Anastasius Sinaita, Viae dux (ff. 1r-14v: ἀρχὴ σύν Θεῷ. Προθεωρία ὑποθεσέως τῶν ὅρων τῆς βίβλου ἧς ἡ ἐπονυμία λεγέται? Ὁδηγὸς = CCSG 8, Turnhout Brepols 1981). Ff. 14/1r-v and 14/2r-v are blank.
2. Anonymous exegesis of the Decalogue (ff. 15r-24r: Δεκάλογος ἢ περὶ τῶν δέκα ἐντολῶν μετὰ τῆς προσθήκης καὶ πληρωμάτος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). Detailed description of chapters’ content in Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 178). Ff. 24/1-24/6 are blank.
3. John of Damascus (f. 25r: τοῦ ὁσιωτάτου καὶ ἁγιωτάτου καὶ φιλοσοφωτάτου Ἰωάννου πρεσβυτέρου τοῦ δαμασκήνου), Institutio elementaris (ff. 25r-27r, no title in the codex: Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 179; cf. ed. Kotter) and Dialectica (ff. 27r-28r: τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγος περὶ γνώσεως). F. 28v is blank.
4. Anonymous text in verses, identified by Hunger and Lackner (Katalog, 179) as John Mauropous, In magnas festorum tabulas per modum expositionis commentarium (f. 29r: στίχοι ἰαμβικοὶ εἰς τὴν ὑπεραγίαν θεοτόκον = carmen 103; f. 29r-v: ἕτεροι εἰσ τὰς δεσποτικὰς ἑορτάς = carmen 104).
5. Anonymous description of Athenian monuments (ff. 29v-32v: τὰ θεάτρα καὶ διδασκαλεῖα τῶν Ἀθηνῶν = Anonymi Viennensis description urbis Athenarum, ed. L. Ross).
6. Aristobulos Apostoles, poem for Hyeronimus Donatus (f. 32v: Ἀρσενίου τοῦ Μονεμβασίας ἐπίγραμμα εἰς τὸν σοφωτάτον καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῆ Κρητῶν ἡγεμόνα κύριον Ἱερώνυμον τὸν Δωνάτον).
7. Anonymous text in verses, identified by Hunger and Lackner (Katalog, 179) as John Mauropous, In magnas festorum tabulas per modum expositionis commentarium (ff. 33r, 34v-35r: στίχοι εἰς τὸ ἅγιον Πάσχα ἴαμβοι = carmen 105).
8. Anonymous text in prose, identified by Hunger and Lackner (Katalog, 179) as Leo (?), Collection of prophetic quotations on the divine nature of Christ (ff. 33v-34r, 38r-40r: ἔρανος καὶ ἐκλογὴ ἐκ διαφόρων βίβλων καὶ προφητειῶν φιλοπόνως ἐρανισθεῖσα παρ᾽ἐμοῦ τοῦ οὐδαμινοῦ Λέοντος ὅσα περὶ Χριστοῦ γέγραπται ὅτι Θεὸς ὁ Χριστός).
9. Anonymous poem in political verses on the birth of Christ (ff. 35r-37v: ἕτεροι στίψοι πολιτικοὶ σχεδιασθέντες εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ γέννησιν).
10. Final prayer for the Sunday liturgy during Lent (f. 40r-v: εὐχὴ ὀπισθάμβονος λεγομένης τὰς κυρικὰς τῆς ἁγίας τεσσαρακοστῆς).
11. Anastasios I, patriarch of Antioch, Expositio fidei orthodoxae (ff. 41r-42r: Ἀναστασίου πατριάρχου Θεουπόλεως καὶ Κυρίλλου Ἀλεξανδρείας ἔκθεσις σύντομος τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως). F. 42v is left blank.
12. Dialogue of the monk Euthymios with a Saracen philosopher (ff. 43r-48v: διάλεξις εὐθυμίου μοναχοῦ καὶ σαρακινοῦ φιλοσόφου περὶ πίστεως γενομένη ἐν τῇ πόλει Μελειτινῇ). Ff. 48/1-48/7 are left blank.
13. Manuel II Palaiologos, Praecepta educationis regiae (ff. 48r-59v: βασιλεὺς βασιλεῖ· Μανουὴλ Ἰωάννῃ… ἑκατὸν κεφάλαια). Of the same author, f. 60r-61r κεφάλαια κατανυκτικά. 61/1-61/2 are left blank.
14. Anonymous text about the progymnasmata, no title in the ms (cf. Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 180; ff. 62r-65v: f. 62v κοινὸς τόπος κατὰ τυράννου; f. 63r, intitulatio in the upper margin γνώμη; f. 64v ἐγκώμιον).
15. Excerpta from Dionysios Areopagites (cf. Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 180; ff. 66r-v: διονυσίου ἐκ τῶν ἐρωτικῶν ὕμνων). 66/1 is left blank; 66/2r-v just two strips of blank paper are left from a cut folium (15 mm).
16. Anonymous homily addressed to the synodos endemousa of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (cf. Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 181; ff. 67r-68v, no title but long address to the patriarch). f. 69r-70r: diagram or schematic representation of the parts of the soul, and of virtues and vices (cf. Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 181). 70v and 70/1 are left blank.
17. Fragments of catena to Psalm 103, 1-26 (ff. 70r-94r); no title, text of the Psalm followed and intermixed with commentaries; incipit: εὐλόγει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν κύριον.
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list of contributors
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Hunger and Lackner (Katalog, 182) recognize the hands 6 different copyists, without being able to identify them more precisely; one of them may have belonged to the Malaxoi circle (ff. 49r-61r, 71r-94r). Manuel and Nikolaos Malaxoi were two scribes originally from Nauplion who later moved to Constantinople and were active there in the second half of the 16th century, where also another (possibly related) John Malaxos worked as a copyist and a writer (cf. https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TRINITY-O-00002-00036/1). R. Stefec (“Zwischen Urkundenpaläographie”, 323 n. 96) suggests that the copyist of ff. 29r-40v may be an anonymous collaborator of Symeon Kabasilas († ca. 1605) during his sojourn in Italy (on Symeon Kabasilas: https://bibale.irht.cnrs.fr/106227)
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Date
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16th century (second half)
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Format
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Composite manuscript book on paper
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Identifier
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Theol. gr. 252
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Language
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Greek
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Rights
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Wien, Österraichische Nationalbibliothek
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Provenance
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f. 1r, lower margin: Sambuci Pannonii 2 Δ ([Book] of [Johannes] Sambucus Pannonian [bought at the price of] 2 ducati); at f. IIIr table of contents written by the hand of the same John Sambucus (1531-1584), which suggest that the manuscript was bound and had its current conformation already when Sambucus owned it. Marginal annotations by the hand of Sebastian Tengnagel (1563-1636), who was librarian at the court library in Vienna ten in 1608-1636. Court library cover binding by Gerard van Swieten, dated 1755. See Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 182.
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Description
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(Physical description) Court library cover binding by Gerard van Swieten, dated 1755. See Hunger and Lackner, Katalog, 182.
(Size) Variable dimensions of the folia between 19,9/20,0 x 14,7/15,2; VI + 118 folia (cm, height x width)
It can be supposed that the manuscript as it stands today was bought by Sambucus in Italy, whence most of his Greek manuscripts were purchased, but we have no explicit mention of the exact locality were the acquisition took place. If, as supposed by Hunger and Lackner and by Stefec, the manuscript bear traces of writing ascribable on the one hand to the Malaxoi circle, and on the other hand to a collaborator of Symeon Kabasilas during his Italian sojourn, a possible crossroads where all these individuals could have met might have been Venice or Padua, or at any rate the Veneto region. We know indeed that Sambucus was studying in Padua and Venice in 1553-1556; he was back to Venice and Padua in 1558, and he was touring Italy again, north to south, in 1562-63. Also Manuel Malaxos travelled to Italy at some point after 1540; he was certainly in Rome in 1549 and in 1559 until early 1560, and was writing frm Venice in spring 1560; he later travelled back to Greece (he was notaries of the metropolis of Thebes in 1561) and to Constantinople, where he lived and collaborated with John Malaxos in the 1570s. Finally, Symeon Kabasilas seems to have been active in Padua in the late 1550s, where he seems to have had contact with the teacher Michael Sophianos (Gamillscheg, “Beobachtungen”, 23-24), before coming back to Constantinople, too.
It is well possible, however, that the different codicological units composing the manuscript were copied at different moments and in different places, and were later assembled, likely in Italy.
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Has Version
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Editions:
Anastasius Sinaita, Viae dux, ed. K.-H. Uthemann, Turnhout: Brepols, 1981.
B. Kotter, Die Schriften des Iohannes von Damaskos I, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1969.
S. Lilla, Un opusculo sulla teologia trinitaria in quattro codici Vaticani, Vetera christianorum 10 (1973), p. 51-58.
M. Patillon, Corpus rhetoricum [T. I]. Anonyme, Préambule à la rhétorique. Aphthonios, Progymnasmata. Pseudo-Hermogène, Progymnasmata, Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 2008.
E. Trapp, “Die Dialexis des Mönches Euthymios mit einem Sarazenen”, Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 20 (1971), 111-131.
Secondary Literature:
G. Almasi, The Uses of Humanism. Andreas Dudith (1533-1589), Johannes Sambucus (1531-1584), and the East Central European Republic of Letters, Leiden – Boston 2009
G. De Gregorio, Il copista greco Manoul Malaxos. Studio biografico e paleografico codicologico, Città del Vaticano 1991
E. Gamillscheg, “Beobachtungen zur Biographien des Kopisten Symeon Kabasilas”, in S. Perentidis (ed), Ο Ιωάννης και Θεοδόσιος Ζυγομαλάς και η εποχή τους / De Ioanne et Theodosiso Zygomala ac de eorum aetate, 21-38, Athenai 2009.
H. Hunger, W. Lackner, eds, Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der Österraichischen Nationalbibliothek. Teil 3/3: Codices theologici 201-337, Wien 1992
R.S. Stefec,“Zwischen Urkundenpaläographie und Handschriftenforschung: Kopisten am Patriarchat von Konstantinopel im späten 15. und frühen 16. Jahrhundert”, Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 5 (2013), 303-326.
N. Viskolcz, “The fate of Johannes Sambucus’ library”, Hungarian Studies 30/2 (2016), 155-166.
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Rights Holder
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Wien, Österraichische Nationalbibliothek
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Author of the Catalogation
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Luisa Andriollo
