Greek (Byzantine) Texts

Taft R. F. The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. [A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, vol. II]. Roma, 1975. (Orientalia Christiana Analecta; 200).

Often simply called the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos was the most famous center of Byzantine monasticism and remains the spiritual heart of the Orthodox Church today. This volume presents the Lives of Euthymios the Younger, Athanasios of Athos, Maximos the Hutburner, Niphon of Athos, and Philotheos. These five holy men lived on Mount Athos at different times from its early years as a monastic locale in the ninth century to the last decades of the Byzantine period in the early fifteenth century. All five were celebrated for asceticism, clairvoyance, and, in most cases, the ability to perform miracles; Euthymios and Athanasios were also famed as founders of monasteries.

Holy Men of Mount Athos illuminates both the history and the varieties of monastic practice on Athos, individually by hermits as well as communally in large monasteries. The Lives also demonstrate the diversity of hagiographic composition and provide important glimpses of Byzantine social and political history.

All the Lives in this volume are presented for the first time in English translation, together with authoritative editions of their Greek texts.

Synekdemos, a geographical text of Hierokles presents the administrative structure of the Eastern Roman Empire in the early 6th century AD. Six dioeceses (large administrative units), 64 eparchiai (provinces) and 920 poleis (cities) are registered in catalogues, in such a way that the political geography of the period becomes apparent. The critical edition by Honigmann (1939) displays maps without a geophysical background. This fact makes the study of the historical settlements network more difficult. In order to facilitate this study, maps of the 64 provinces have been created to describe and offer a clear overall view of the regional context. These maps follow historical topography as this appeared in Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (2000). In addition, they support a database which classifies the settlements according to historical and geographical criteria. The first set of criteria is related to parameters and variables, such as the date of foundation, constant presence in five historical periods, ancient and modern toponyms. The second set is related to the location of the settlements, and uses parameters and variables, such as geomorphology, water elements, communication networks and presence of a nodal point or port. The province of Palaia Epeiros has been chosen as an example of the advantages that such a database has to offer. The combination of maps with a database improves the historical-geographical study of the settlements network, and accentuates the importance of Synecdemos as a basic geographical text of the period, α quality that has escaped the attention of the “official” History of Cartography (1987).""

This short article tentatively explores the nature of different "levels of style" in the Greek of five works belonging to the hagiographical and monastic literature of Late Antiquity, by investigating the distribution of different constructions used to express the future tense in different kinds of textual environment (direct speech, narrative etc.). In particular light is shed on the way the stylistic choices in the direct speech passages of certain texts differ radically from those in other kinds of textual environment, lending some credence to the idea of these passages as representations of, if not the everyday spoken language per se, at least a linguistic form closer to the spoken than that represented by the rest of the text.

Musik ist für viele eine ätherische, immaterielle Kunst, die im Gegensatz zur Sprache keine verbal deutbare Bedeutung besitzt. Von keinem geringeren als Victor Hugo stammt das Aperçu: »Das Reich der Musik beginnt da, wo das Reich der Worte aufhört«.
In Erweiterung dieser Auffassung vertrete ich die Ansicht, dass die Musik eine humane Kunst ist, die über eine emotionale und oft über eine bedeutsame geistige Dimension verfügt. Unter allen Künsten vermag sie die stärksten Emotionen auszulösen. Seit jeher gilt sie deshalb als Sprache des Herzens, der Affekte, der Empfindungen, der Gefühle.
Für Robert Schumann war sie »Seelensprache« und für Hegel »Kunst der Innerlichkeit«.

INDICE:

La Sapienza bizantina. Il contributo della Storia dell’arte (1896-1970) - Antonio Iacobini

Le missioni di studio in Oriente e il Centro di Documentazione di Storia dell’Arte Bizantina (1966-2006) - Andrea Paribeni

Il progetto di ricerca sui marmi della Santa Sofia, Alessandra Guiglia - Claudia Barsanti

Hagia Sophia: nuovi studi e ricerche per il restauro, Mario Docci - Storici dell’arte, esploratori, antropologi, archeologi: le missioni
lungo il limes orientale (1982-1992) - Enrico Zanini

Alcune considerazioni sull’architettura bizantina a Creta - Spiridione Alessandro Curuni

Il «Corpus della pittura monumentale bizantina in Italia»: il caso di Umbria, Marche e Abruzzo - Mauro della Valle

Il mosaico parietale aniconico da Tessalonica a Costantinopoli - Alessandro Taddei

Basilio ‘parakoimomenos’, l’aristocrazia e la passione per le arti sotto i Macedoni - Livia Bevilacqua

Il colore scolpito. Raffinatezze cromatiche nella scultura ad incrostazione del Medioevo mediterraneo - Silvia Pedone

Viaggio di un trittico eburneo da Costantinopoli a Roma. Note in margine al «Corpus degli oggetti bizantini in Italia» - Simona Moretti

L’insegnamento della Filologia e della Storia bizantina a Roma dalla
fondazione agli anni Settanta del ’900 - Augusta Acconcia Longo

La Filologia e la Storia bizantina alla Sapienza nell’ultimo trentennio del ’900 - Andrea Luzzi

La Paleografia greca e bizantina alla Sapienza, dagli anni Venti del
’900 a Enrica Follieri e alla sua scuola - Francesco D’Aiuto

Ricerche e iniziative promosse dalla Sapienza per lo studio delle scritture greche antiche e bizantine nell’ultimo trentennio - Guglielmo Cavallo

Immagini eloquenti. Nuove osservazioni sul codice Atheniensis gr. 211 con le Omelie di Giovanni Crisostomo - Giovanni Gasbarri

[résumé français ci-dessous]
This article contains the edition of an encomium of the five martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugenius, Mardarius and Orestes (BHG 646b), together with an English translation. The text is preserved in a single witness, MS. Istanbul, Πατριαρχικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, Hagia Trias 88 (Diktyon 33586). Its author is the monk Michael, a member of the community of Stoudios who later became abbot of the monastery of Dalmatos and synkellos of Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos. A prolific hagiographer, Michael reworked the Late Antique Passio of the saints (BHG 646) by adding rhetorical flourishes to the narrative.

Cet article contient l’édition d’un encomium rédigé en l’honneur des cinq martyrs Eustrate, Auxence, Eugène, Mardaire et Oreste (BHG 646b), et sa traduction anglaise.  Le texte provient d’un témoin unique, le ms. Istanbul, Πατριαρχικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, Hagia Trias 88 (Diktyon 33586).  Son auteur est le moine Michel, un membre de la communauté du Stoudion, qui devient ultérieurement abbé du monastère de Dalmatos et synkellos du patriarche Nicolas le Mystique (901-907, 912-925).  Michel, qui fut un hagiographe très actif, retravailla la Passio des saints écrite durant l’Antiquité tardive (BHG 646), en ajoutant des fioritures rhétoriques au récit.

The Patria is a fascinating four-book collection of short historical notes, stories, and legends about the buildings and monuments of Constantinople, compiled in the late tenth century by an anonymous author who made ample use of older sources. It also describes the foundation and early (pre-Byzantine) history of the city, and includes the Narrative on the Construction of Hagia Sophia, a semi-legendary account of Emperor Justinian I’s patronage of this extraordinary church (built between 532 and 537). The Patria constitutes a unique record of popular traditions about the city, especially its pagan statues, held by its medieval inhabitants. At the same time it is the only Medieval Greek text to present a panorama of the city as it existed in the middle Byzantine period. Despite its problems of historical reliability, the Patria is still one of our main guides for the urban history of medieval Constantinople. This translation makes the entire text of the Patria accessible in English for the first time.

Editoração PAULUS Impressão e acabamento PAULUS © PAULUS -2006 Rua Francisco Cruz, 229 • 04117-091 • São Paulo (Brasil) Fax (11) 5579-3627 • Tel. (11) 5084-3066 sumáRio 9 Premissa | PaRte I | 15 ALGUMAS PRELIMINARES Capítulo 1 17 Não apenas uma vista d'olhos na filosofia antiga, e muito menos um repertório bibliográfico, mas... Capítulo 2 29 O que entendemos por "filosofia antiga" e o que tal filosofia pode significar para nós hoje | PaRte II | 41 OS TEXTOS PUBLICADOS NA ANTIGUIDADE E AQUELES QUE CHEGARAM ATÉ NÓS Capítulo 3 43 Muitos tipos de fontes Capítulo 4 49 As cópias, as falsificações, os corpora, a filologia alexandrina Capítulo 5 59 Do papiro ao códice medieval e às primeiras edições impressas 59 5.1. Confecção e utilização do rolo de papiro 68 5.2. A contribuição dos papiros (e da papirologia) para o conhecimento do mundo clássico 74 5.3. A redescoberta dos papiros: Herculano, Oxirinco, Deverni e Aï Khanoum 81 5.4. A passagem do volumen ao codex 83 5.5. Fatores de dispersão e recuperação dos textos clássicos no Medievo

"This special issue of Comparative Literature Studies brings together talks, some extensively revised, others virtually unchanged, that were delivered at a conference entitled "What is Philology?" The gathering took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988 at Harvard University under the aegis of the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The depth and breadth of interest in the conference was deeply gratifying. I had not experienced another occasion when so many scholars from different language and literature departments gathered at Harvard, and I hope that publishing the proceedings will benefit a larger community outside the University.

By way of introduction I will describe how the event originated. My description will explore a few of the reasons why an interdisciplinary conference of a dozen speakers and respondents attracted an audience of more than two hundred, and why a topic that 'may sound rarefied drew participants whose main fields of research and teaching interests ran the gamut from the most ancient Indo-European languages to the most recent African American literature. In short, I will offer tentative explanations for the urgency of the topic to students, professors, and independent scholars who engage in philology, linguistics, literary history, literary criticism, and literary theory."

The Greek text of Ephesians 1:1 features an amazing textual variation that centers on the destination of the letter, which location is found nowhere else throughout the book. Many of the earliest and best NT manuscripts display a complete absence of the prepositional phrase "in Ephesus", except for its later scribal insertion into the margin of a couple of them, leading to the need for the challenging task of successfully resolving the question of the variant's authenticity. This thesis explores the external evidence, then the internal evidence (both transcriptional and intrinsic probabilities), in an attempt to establish confidently whether the variant is indeed original, or actually spurious. A crucially foundational chapter on the praxes of textual criticism, with the aim of determining which praxis rises above the others as the most reliable method for solving textual variants, is included.

In this thesis, the author explores the deadlocked debate about the origin of the Byzantine text and presents some new perspectives that have the potention to bring this polarised debate to a more satisfactory conclusion.
On the one hand, the debate is studied from a 1) historical, 2) theological, and 3) epistemological and sociological perspective. It is found that the different historical considerations have led to opposite conclusions about the origin of the Byzantine text. Next, it is found that the different theological perspectives not necessarily lead to opposite conclusions. Finally it is found that epistemological and sociological considerations are not persuasive to uphold this polarised debate.
On the other hand, it is argued that many historical arguments need more investigation, before they can serve as real arguments. Moreover, it is argued that when the Byzantine text is studied from the perspective of language development and the possible influence of the lectionaries, alongside with the production of a comprehensive textual commentary by Byzantine text defenders, this debate can be brought to a more definite end.
The leading question was: Why has the discussion about the origin of the Byzantine text got bogged down in a polarised debate, and what will be the best way to escape this impasse?

Настоящий сборник содержит материалы (статьи, тезисы, аннотации докладов) Международной научной конференции, в рамках которых обсуждаются актуальные вопросы греческой, латинской, славянской и отчасти восточной палеографии, кодикологии и дипломатики. Конференция посвящена 75-летию со дня рождения доктора исторических наук Бориса Львовича Фонкича, внесшего большой вклад в развитие этих дисциплин.

Yannis Stouraitis LEIDEN | BOSTON 9789004355514_Stouraitis_text_proof-03.indb 3 8/1/2018 11:58:56 AM iv Cover illustration: Folio 73v of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes, XIVth century; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, matritensis graecus, Vitr. 26-2. With kind permission of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

For the first time not only a precisely dated work of a great ancient Russian icon-painter Andrey Rublev but also a miniature of doubtless Rublev’s work is introduced into science. It is really providential that a scientific discovery fell on the 575th year from the death of a reverend icon painter, who departed in God on October 17, 1428.

This article discusses various Greek words, which are attested in lexicographical tools, especially in the Lexikon zur Byzantinischen Gräzität (LBG). However, the present study is much more than a list of Addenda et Corrigenda. On the contrary, it considers the development of Greek vocabulary from Antiquity up to Modern Times and it offers linguistic observations which are missing from the LBG and other dictionaries. The article also stresses that research on (Byzantine) Greek vocabulary needs consideration of nonliterary sources too, especially epigraphy.

This paper reviews recent changes to the apparatus of Revelation in NA28 within the context of the history of the edition, as well as against the backdrop of a broader historical perspective. Particular attention is paid to the role of the corrections in Codex Sinaiticus in tracking the Apocalypse's textual history.

"Cette monographie – la première du genre – est une réflexion sur les miniatures hippiatriques grecques, où se demander pour quel usage et comment le lecteur médiéval les « lisait », conduit nécessairement à essayer d’expliciter les rapports complexes qu'entretiennent l'illustration et le texte.
Après une présentation générale de la littérature hippiatrique, l’auteur élucide des questions liées à la composition du Corpus hippiatricorum graecorum. L’intérêt est principalement porté sur les différentes recensions d’un de ses abrégés, l’Épitomé, et sur sa place par rapport au Corpus hippiatricorum. Ainsi est-on amené à mieux discerner l'histoire de ce traité et celle des deux seuls manuscrits illustrés.
Vient ensuite un chapitre consacré à l'étude minutieuse de ces deux témoins, le Leidensus Vossianus graecus Q. 50 et le Parisinus graecus 2244. Paléographie et codicologie s'en mêlent, qui révisent bien des opinions reçues sur l'origine des manuscrits.
Un re-examen des miniatures des deux témoins est alors possible. Par-delà analyses stylistique et iconographique, trop souvent attachées à la quête absolue de l'archétype, l'auteur analyse les rapports texte/image pour établir, en définitive, le modus operandi des imagiers et déterminer les fonctions concrètes pour lesquelles les figures ont été pensées et conçues. De ce regard synchronique découle naturellement une étude sur la façon dont le lecteur médiéval utilisait les images. Les conclusions pratiques se voient donc confrontées aux théories antiques et médiévales sur le rôle de l'image et celui des mots. Ainsi l'image hippiatrique ne saurait être seulement une simple illustration du texte : elle appartient à l'œuvre tout autant.
L’ouvrage s’adresse aux antiquisants et aux médiévistes, historiens de l’art et de la médecine vétérinaire antique et moderne ainsi qu’aux philologues et à quiconque s’intéresse à l’histoire de l’illustration scientifique et des relations entre l’homme et l’animal."

Da tempo era vivamente sentita l’esigenza di una nuova edizione degli scoli a Platone, che sostituisse quella di Greene del 1938. Questo volume contiene una nuova edizione degli scoli relativi ai dialoghi delle prime sette tetralogie, fondata su una completa collazione dei testimoni principali, aumentati di due unità rispetto all’edizione precedente, e corredata da un apparato di fonti e paralleli, il cui rapporto con gli scoli è stato del tutto rimeditato alla luce delle recenti acquisizioni della critica.

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how issues of textual transmission stymied productive discussion at Ferrara-Florence on the doctrine of the filioque and led to a schism within the Greek delegation, which resulted in the signing of a formula of reunion destined to fail. Were it not for the inability of those at the council to assess properly the texts in question due to the state of their transmission, there would likely have been no union, and thus the aftermath of the council—a divisive controversy in the East and a sense of betrayal and embitterment in the West—might have been avoided. The essay will conclude by demonstrating how recent discoveries in the field of textual criticism have put us in a position to reengage the issue more productively than the churches have been able in the past.

A brief study of the treatment of the text of John 7:39 in modern translations and in ancient manuscripts and transmission-lines.  The transmission-line in Family Π seems to have preserved the original text better than all other transmission-lines.

Инаугурационное миропомазание, благодаря которому особа правителя «производилась» (от греч. προχείρησις - избрание) из сферы мирского в область сакрального, уже в раннее средневековье считалось необходимым условием легитимности интронизации монарха. Между тем проблема появления инаугурационного миропомазания остается одной из наиболее трудноразрешимых в современной византинистике. По мнению ряда ученых, инвеститура византийских императоров до начала XIII в., как и интронизация великих князей на Руси, не сопровождалась официальным (т.е. богослужебным) миропомазанием; другая же группа византинистов предполагает, что обряд миропомазания (библейский по происхождению) существовал значительно раннее - со времени императора Маркиана (450-457).
В настоящей работе впервые в науке подробно исследованы распространение и кодификация миропомазания в качестве правовой основы легитимной интронизации как в Византии, так и на Западе. На основе огромного фактического материала впервые сделан научный вывод, что лишь инаугурационное миропомазание могло стать единственной легитимной причиной для введения царского этикета при дворе русского самодержца св. равноап. Владимира. На равных правах с василевсами Византии Владимир Святой приступил к собственной чеканке золотых и серебряных монет, где исключительные прерогативы русского самодержца были обозначены одним выражением - «На столе (престоле)». На всех этих монетах русский государь представлен с такими же, как у византийского императора, регалиями: византийская императорская корона с крестом, в правой руке - скипетр с крестом, а одежда полностью повторяет императорское облачение (лор). Изображение нимба вокруг головы Владимира Святого несомненно указывает на декларирование полного равенства с правителем Византийской империи. Породнившись с императорским Македонским домом, династия Рюриковичей на Руси смогла сразу же войти в европейскую монархическую семью и занять одно из самых привилегированных мест в ее монолитной иерархии. Проблему легитимности русской монархии при Владимире I Святославиче следует рассматривать, таким образом, в контексте общеевропейской практики инаугурационного миропомазания.

Anlässlich des 30jährigen Regierungsjubiläums Konstantins hält Eusebius von Caesarea im Jahre 336 eine Festrede zu Ehren des Kaisers im Palast in Konstantinopel. Diese sog. Tricennatsrede („De laude Constantini“) ist der erste christliche Panegyricus auf einen römischen Kaiser, der erhalten ist. Euseb versucht, den wohl noch vorwiegend paganen gesellschaftlichen Eliten aus Religion, Politik, Militär und Kultur am kaiserlichen Hof zu vermitteln, dass der römische Kaiser durch den neuen christlichen Glauben nichts von seiner intimen Beziehung zum Göttlichen eingebüßt hat. Gleichzeitig aber tritt er in Konkurrenz zu den professionellen Rhetoren und bemüht sich zu zeigen, dass der christliche Glaube philosophisch-theologisch anspruchsvoll dargestellt werden kann, ohne hinter das Niveau der traditionellen Rhetorik zurückzufallen. Die Tricennatsrede kann daher als eine Gratwanderung zwischen christlicher Verkündigung und der Wahrnehmung offizieller Interessen der kaiserlichen Herrschaftsrepräsentation gelesen werden. Konstantin hat nach Eusebius einen historischen Paradigmenwechsel durch seinen Sieg im Bürgerkrieg herbeigeführt, ja er kann sogar als verlängerter Arm des Logos Gottes gelten, der ihn stets begleitet, inspiriert und beschützt. Mit diesem zusammen und dem transzendenten Gott bildet er nach Eusebius eine quasi-göttliche Trias.
Im Anschluss an die Tricennatsrede ist ein theologischer Traktat („De verbo dei“) überliefert, in dem Eusebius eine mittelplatonisch gefärbte Logoslehre entfaltet. Der Logos nimmt dabei ein subordinatianische Position gegenüber dem transzendenten Gott ein und fungiert als Vermittler zwischen Gott, Welt und Menschen. Um den Fehlentwicklungen der Menschheit wie ständigen Kriegen und Aberglauben zu begegnen, zeigt sich der Logos in inkarnierter Gestalt den Menschen, zeitgleich mit der Pax Augusta. Wie der (inkarnierte) Logos tritt auch der erste christliche Kaiser Konstantin auf, der die Feinde des Christentums erfolgreich besiegt, und wie Augustus eine neue Friedensherrschaft errichtet. Dieser theologische Traktat enthält allerdings nicht die in der ebenfalls von Euseb verfassten Vita Konstantins angekündigte Beschreibung der Kunstwerke und Weihegeschenke der Grabeskirche in Jerusalem, die Konstantin für das Martyrion hatte anfertigen lassen, und die eigentlich entsprechend der Ankündigung in der Vita auf die Tricennatsrede folgen sollte (daher die frühere Bezeichnung für diese Rede „De sepulchro Christi“).
Die vorliegende Ausgabe bietet neben einer ausführlichen Einleitung einen durch die Korrekturen von F. Winkelmann verbesserten griechischen Text der kritischen Edition von I. Heikel sowie eine erstmals publizierte Übersetzung ins Deutsche mit kommentierenden Anmerkungen.

ABSTRACT: The continued use of Latin as the official Heeressprache of the East Roman Empire up to the 630s supplies the context for an examination of a text virtually unknown to classical scholarship. Mediceo-Laurentianus graecus LV-4 contains an anonymous and mutilated Greek military treatise, published by Karl Müller in 1880 and subsequently styled De Militari Scientia. Its character, date and textual affinities are briefly considered, concluding that it is an informal epitome or ‘working copy’ of Maurice’s Strategicon (ca. 590s), possibly compiled ca. 630s–640s as an aide-mémoire for a senior officer. This treatise is a unique witness to two loanwords from Latin – παλμάριον (palmarium) and ῥέκαλα (*recala), neither previously documented in lexica, and the latter not directly attested in Latin. The author’s usage of the construction ῥέκαλα δίδωμι  ῥέκαλα ποιέω, with the sense ‘to make a withdrawal’, now permits recognition of the corresponding expression recala facio in the highly corrupted text of a Latin speech preserved in the Strategicon.

KEYWORDS: Maurice’s Strategikon / Strategicon, Müller Fragment, De Militari Scientia, Late Roman army, Latin Language, Vulgar Latin

The deeply religious character of the Byzantine society gave way to a political system that has been characterized as a “political theology”. Established already during the fourth century, this ideology was based on a close relation between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of heaven and, thus, between God and the emperor. This ideology was used by emperors to strengthen their own power and/or the legitimacy of their dynasty. To reach its aims, the imperial propaganda used –among other mediums– the sanctification of emperors or royals and the composition of liturgical texts. The paper discusses cases of such a use of hymnology

In the summer/autumn of 1175, Manuel Komnenos (1143-1180) undertook the rebuilding of Dorylaion, one of the major aplekta in Asia Minor. For this occasion a poem was written. The strong acquaintance of the poet with the conventions of court literature, the occasional content of the poem and its panegyric character, suggest that the text was written for a small ceremony which took place at Dorylaion. The author is probably an anonymous professional court poet who accompanied Manuel in his expedition. The authorship is further discussed since the manuscript tradition might suggest that John Tzetzes was the author. After a close look at the language, style and metre of the poem, this identification is excluded. In 1908, Spyridon Lambros published the poem on the basis of manuscript Barocci 194 (fifteenth century) of the Bodleian Library. This study re-edits the poem on the basis of two more manuscripts: manuscript Parisinus Graecus 2644 (late thirteenth century) of the Bibliothèque Nationale and Auctarium T.1.10 of the Bodleian Library (sixteenth century). The history of each manuscript is analysed and the relation between them examined. It is established that the Auctarium is a direct copy from the Parisian manuscript. The metrical analysis of the poem follows and special textual problems are discussed. Finally, the translation of the original text is provided.

Considering the importance of the Sasanian era, the independent study of this period does not fit at all with such a deserved magnificence that some say Sasanians are the dark side of the moon in the Late Antiquity. The result has been this situation that Sasanian Iran is concerned to be only a subsidiary subject for Early Byzantine studies. The reason might seem to be insufficiency in local resources. The purpose of this article is to familiarize with the main resources of the Byzantine Empire (and the territories between the two powers), in which reports and illustrations of Sasanian Iran are presented. These resources are mainly written in five languages of Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Latin.

Le modalità di composizione e pubblicazione di un libro sono oggigiorno ben definite e tutto sommato semplici. L'Autore mette per iscritto l'opera, un editore provvede alla sua stampa e, attraverso una rete di distribuzione, alla diffusione. Non altrettanto semplice era la pubblicazione di un testo nell'antichità classica e cristiana. Potevano darsi varie modalità di composizione e diffusione di un'opera, come la ricerca più e meno recente ha in vario modo mostrato 1 . Lo scritto composto, anzi il più delle volte dettato dall'autore a uno scriba, veniva da quest'ultimo ricopiato e, dopo la necessaria revisione del testo, veniva passato in bella copia: da questa ne venivano prodotte altre -con buon dispendio di tempo e di denaro -o per iniziativa dello stesso autore o per il tramite di un intermediario, che poteva servirsi di un'officina collaudata per moltiplicare le copie, o ancora per iniziativa di privati 2 . * Il lavoro rappresenta un ampliamento della relazione letta al VII convegno internazionale italorumeno (organizzato dal prof. N. Zugravu il 10-14 maggio 2010 all'Università di Iaşi, Romania) e pubblicata su Classica et Christiana 6/1 (2011), 27-43. In quell'occasione mi è stato chiesto di illustrare, alla luce degli studi più e meno recenti, alcuni aspetti e problemi oggi discussi intorno alle modalità di edizione di un testo patristico greco o latino. In questa versione si presenta il testo arricchito di alcune esemplificazioni e con integrazioni (in particolare sul tema "filologia e storia", a cui è stato dedicato un intero paragrafo) sorte dal fruttuoso dialogo con studiosi e colleghi del Dipartimento di Studi Classici e Cristiani dell'Università di Bari, che qui mi è gradito ringraziare. 1 Sul significato e la natura dell''edizione' nel mondo antico, ha scritto pagine importanti B. A. Van Groningen, ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ, Mnemosyne 16 (1963), 1-17. Si veda anche T. Dorandi, Trasmissione dei testi nell'antichità: storia del libro, in Introduzione alla filologia greca, ed it. a cura di S. Fornaro, Roma 2004, pp. 23-40. 2 Notizie essenziali ma significative sull'edizione dei testi in questo periodo offre M. Imhof, Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der nichtchristlichen griechischen Li teratur der römischen Kai-Vetera Christianorum Emanuele CASTELLI 48, 2011, 81-98 L'edizione del testo patristico greco e latino. Sguardo alla ricerca del XX secolo * EMANUELE CASTELLI