Revue des Études Byzantines, volume 82 (2024).
CONTENTS INCLUDE
Frequently Asked Questions: Erotapocritic Canon Law Texts in the Komnenian Church (ca. 1080-1170)
James MORTON
This article aims to enhance the scholarly understanding of the origins of twelfth-century Byzantine canon law scholarship by introducing an extensive, but largely neglected, body of ‘erotapocritic’ literature composed in the period ca. 1080-1170. This literature originated in the correspondence of monks and clergy who asked canonical questions of the church’s experts; many of their questions and answers were later re-packaged and transmitted as erotapokriseis in legal manuscripts. After introducing the historical context, the article presents key details about the authors, texts, and manuscripts. It then analyses the texts’ contents and function, arguing that they formed part of a wider Komnenian effort to promote uniformity of education and knowledge in the Byzantine church. They would go on to become a core element of the systematic canon law literature of late Byzantium.
La chaîne C57.1 sur les douze prophètes: Un état des lieux
Tiphaine LORIEUX
Only one witness of the catena C57.1 on the twelve minor prophets is known today, the manuscript of Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, B.I.2 (10th c.), unfortunately so damaged that the catena is largely illegible. The aim of this paper is to present new witnesses of the catena and to show how interesting it would be to publish it. There are in fact two other manuscripts that contain the entire catena and a third one that only transmits the introductory texts. These witnesses attest to its originality: the catena transmits not only fragments of Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, but also extracts from Hesychius of Jerusalem and Hypatios, as well as a large number of unidentified scholia. These are of various kinds, ranging from short stylistic and grammatical scholia to lengthy allegorical interpretations.
Les versions géorgiennes de la Vie de Pierre l'Ibère: Une traduction annotée
Nicolas J. PREUD'HOMME
Peter the Iberian is one of the most famous figures from the Late-Ancient Caucasus. Attested through several Syriac sources, including a Vita attributed to John Rufus, this saint known for his Miaphysite orientations was the subject of a rewriting operation in the pro-Chalcedonian circles of medieval Georgia. A Georgian Vita, known through two versions and two interpolations derived from them in the corpus of chronicles Life of K‘art‘li, offers a very different point of view on Peter the Iberian’s theological orientation, despite strong structural similarities with the story of John Rufus. One of these versions claims that the author, a disciple of Peter named Zachariah, would have composed a Syriac hagiography, which was then translated into Georgian by a certain Makari the Meskhian. This article provides the first French translation of all these Georgian documents about this witness of the religious dissensions that pervaded the Near East in the 5th century CE.
The Landed Property of the Church of Thessalonike (esp. 11th-15th Centuries): A Contribution to the Study of Ecclesiastical Wealth in Byzantium
Elisabeth CHATZIANTONIOU
The metropolis of Thessalonike was one of the oldest and most important ecclesiastical sees in the Byzantine Empire, while narrative, epistolary and epigraphic sources indicate that it was quite wealthy throughout the Byzantine period. This paper focuses on the evidence primarily culled from the Athonite archives and presents information relating to landed properties of the metropolis. Our findings and conclusions refer to the types of its landed possessions, their geographical distribution, the preferred ways for their exploitation and their management by diocesan officials and the metropolitan clergy, as well as the archbishop’s involvement in the financial administration. The above-mentioned issues have not been addressed and evaluated in a comprehensive and systematic survey until now. Thus, our paper demonstrates an aspect of the ecclesiastical history and administration of Thessalonike and contributes to the study of the ecclesiastical wealth and management.
Who was Alexios Apokaukos?
Dionysios STATHAKOPOULOS
This article reviews all the source material on the life and career of Alexios Apokaukos (ca. 1280-1345) in order to offer new interpretations of his social background, his political actions, and his radical vision of the future of the Byzantine state. Apokaukos came from the mesoi and became wealthy through tax farming and the exploitation of state monopolies. His skills in fiscal matters and his fortune (which must have been considerable as early as in 1321) made him a desirable political player and led to a spectacular career, the culmination of which saw him as a quasi-ruler during the civil war of the 1340s. His political actions show a clear preference for the maritime sphere (through the construction of fleets, close relations with seamen, merchants and entrepreneurs) and suggest that he had a vision of the direction the Byzantine state should take. His violent death in 1345 put an end to this, but even his opponents came to adopt the policies he had championed. In many ways, he paved the way for the social and economic dominance of aristocratic entrepreneurs in the last century of Byzantium.
Le séjour de Dèmètrios Kydônès à Lesbos/Mytilène (ca automne/hiver 1373/1374 - été/hiver 1374/1375): Les raisons du départ de Constantinople du mésazôn
Giulia D'ALBENZIO
Between the winter of 1373/1374 and the winter of 1374/1375, Demetrios Kydones, the principal counsellor (mesazon) of Emperor John V Palaiologos, left Constantinople and stayed on the island of Lesbos. By re-examining some of his texts, in particular his letters, this article aims to offer a new interpretation of his stay and, more specifically, of the reasons that prompted Kydones to visit Francesco I Gattilusio, ruler of Mytilene. A three-stage analysis of the visit under consideration (the start of tensions between Kydones and John V, Kydones’s stay on Lesbos, and Kydones’s return to Constantinople) not only highlights the important role played by the financial dimension in this affair, but also allows us to reconsider the relationship between Kydones and John V from a new perspective that helps to deconstruct the traditionally negative image of this emperor.
The Homily on the Study of Orthodoxy of Kallistos I: The History of Heresies According to a 14th-Century Patriarch of Constantinople
Antonio RIGO
The manuscript Patmos, Mone tou Hagiou Ioannou tou Theologou, 366 (Diktyon 54610) contains a small group of writings by Patriarch Kallistos I, only partially known, and among these works his Homily on the Sunday of Orthodoxy (March 6th, 1351). The article discusses the content of the homily, its relations to precedent texts (especially Photios’ letter to Michael of Bulgaria), the information about the contemporary heretics (koudigeroi) and about Gregory Akindynos’ biography.
L'impulsion conférée aux études byzantines par les assomptionnistes français
Christian HANNICK
The 2014 Bucharest conference was devoted to the contribution of the French Assumptionists to Byzantine studies. This contribution has been significant since the founding of the Byzantine Institute in Kadiköy under the direction of Louis Petit in 1895. This article attempts to highlight both the extremely rich results of their research and the difficulties faced by the few religious scholars working in Constantinople, then in Bucharest and finally in Paris. It also emphasizes the attempts at continuity that came from different sides, the Assumptionists’ relations with representatives of Russian science, and a few methodological questions.