Articles by Stefanos Petalas
Travaux et Mémoires 27, t. II, p. 621-631 , 2023
Codex Norimbergensis Cent. V App. 13 of the Synopsis historiôn by George Kedrenos was copied
in ... more Codex Norimbergensis Cent. V App. 13 of the Synopsis historiôn by George Kedrenos was copied
in 1556 in the environment of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The patriarch’s cartulary and
deacon Alexander Apotyras collaborated with Constantine Rhesinos and two other scribes to
produce a copy for the printing press. The copyists used as a model an ancient manuscript, which
they call ἀντίγραφον and which is of a great interest for the manuscript tradition of Kédrènos.
Codicological accidents that occurred in this manuscript have been passed on in the manuscript
tradition, as well as marginal annotations providing evidence of the text being read at the imperial
court by a person close to Emperor Isaac II Angel (1185–95 and 1203–4). We argue for dating
this reading to Isaac II’s first reign. We also demonstrate the use of the ἀντίγραφον in the making
of the codex Vaticanus gr. 1903 (12th–13th cent.), Kedrenos’ oldest preserved manuscript.
Travaux et Mémoires 24, t. II, p. 483-500, 2020
Our knowledge of the manuscript tradition of the chronicle of Pseudo-Symeon has long been limited... more Our knowledge of the manuscript tradition of the chronicle of Pseudo-Symeon has long been limited to the codex Parisinus gr. 1712 (12th c.) and to its suspected apograph Scorialensis Y.I.4 (16th c.). This study produces the definitive proof of this relation between the two manuscripts. In his recent edition of the chronicle of George Kedrenos (2016), Luigi Tartaglia pointed out another, partial copy of the text of Pseudo-Symeon in the codex Vaticanus gr. 697 (14th c.). Two more partial copies are revealed in this study: Vallicelanus F9 (16th c.) copied by John Seviros Lacedemonios and Bononensis 3628 (16th c.), probably copied by Adrianos Spairas. The in situ examination of all manuscripts reveals a series of peculiar textual omissions and suggests, for the oldest manuscripts, a common model copied in the 11th c., not long after the chronicle’s creation in the late 10th c. The relations between the manuscripts are resumed in a stemma codicum.
Books by Stefanos Petalas
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022
In the 11th century, George Kedrenos, who we assume held a state or ecclesiastical office with th... more In the 11th century, George Kedrenos, who we assume held a state or ecclesiastical office with the title of πρόεδρος (president), compiled a Byzantine Universal Chronicle entitled Synopsis Historiôn, in order to relate events from the creation to the reign of Isaac I Comnenus (1057). He did this with the help of earlier chroniclers such as George Syncellus, Theophanes, the anonymous source of Pseudo-Symeon whose manuscript tradition has recently been studied, and other biblical books to cover events up to the reign of Michael I Rangabe (811). From then until 1057, he incorporated into his text the events as recorded in another chronicle also entitled Synopsis Historiôn written in the 11th century by John Skylitzis, Prime Minister of the Byzantine Empire. The text has been published twice (Basel 1566, Paris 1647) and reprinted twice more on earlier editions (Venice 1729, Paris t. 121 in 1869 and t. 122 in 1889) or re-edited on the basis of other manuscripts (Bekker 1838). This PhD thesis analyses the evolution of the transmission of the text of the Synopsis Historiôn of Kedrenos through the rich manuscript tradition of the 43 surviving manuscripts. The methods used to group the manuscripts are, on the one hand, the content of the text and, on the other, the philological similarities and differences between them. The very recent edition of the Kedrenos text by Luigi Tartaglia (2016) has contributed to this. On the other hand, all the paleographical and codicological data that can highlight the relationships between the codices of a family and the relationships between the different families of manuscripts are gathered. We have therefore gathered the manuscripts into three large families: i) the family of Vaticanus gr. 1903, the oldest codex we have preserved. This codex was fabricated in the environment of the Byzantine imperial chancellor chancellery, read and annotated by Nicolas of Otranto, who was a diplomat and head of the Greek department of the papal delegation to the Byzantine court. On Nicolas' return from an expedition to Constantinople, the codex arrived with him in the west and has been the basis for the production of other manuscripts in the following centuries; ii) the Parisinus gr. 1713 family which is a manuscript whose construction is attributed to a certain Trachaneiôtis (monocondyle in the manuscript). It is a revised version of the text of Kedrenos made in the 13th-14th century, as shown by the text with different variants hanging above the main text ; finally the family of Norimbergensis Cent. V App 13, which gathers manuscripts that were part of the preparatory work that we suppose to have been carried out between 1546-1556 for the fabrication of the editio princeps of the text, which was published shortly afterwards (1566 Basel). The in situ study of the manuscripts of this family tells us that the Synopsis Historiôn of Kedrenos was read by a contemporary reader of the reign of Isaac II Angel (1185-1195 and 1203-1204), byzantine emperor. According to the codicological accident that we have been able to identify indirectly in the copy model of the Norimbergensis codex, it is suggested that the evolution of the three families of manuscripts is based on the so-called ἀντίγραφον (copy) codex, which no longer survives.
Uploads
Articles by Stefanos Petalas
in 1556 in the environment of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The patriarch’s cartulary and
deacon Alexander Apotyras collaborated with Constantine Rhesinos and two other scribes to
produce a copy for the printing press. The copyists used as a model an ancient manuscript, which
they call ἀντίγραφον and which is of a great interest for the manuscript tradition of Kédrènos.
Codicological accidents that occurred in this manuscript have been passed on in the manuscript
tradition, as well as marginal annotations providing evidence of the text being read at the imperial
court by a person close to Emperor Isaac II Angel (1185–95 and 1203–4). We argue for dating
this reading to Isaac II’s first reign. We also demonstrate the use of the ἀντίγραφον in the making
of the codex Vaticanus gr. 1903 (12th–13th cent.), Kedrenos’ oldest preserved manuscript.
Books by Stefanos Petalas
in 1556 in the environment of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The patriarch’s cartulary and
deacon Alexander Apotyras collaborated with Constantine Rhesinos and two other scribes to
produce a copy for the printing press. The copyists used as a model an ancient manuscript, which
they call ἀντίγραφον and which is of a great interest for the manuscript tradition of Kédrènos.
Codicological accidents that occurred in this manuscript have been passed on in the manuscript
tradition, as well as marginal annotations providing evidence of the text being read at the imperial
court by a person close to Emperor Isaac II Angel (1185–95 and 1203–4). We argue for dating
this reading to Isaac II’s first reign. We also demonstrate the use of the ἀντίγραφον in the making
of the codex Vaticanus gr. 1903 (12th–13th cent.), Kedrenos’ oldest preserved manuscript.