Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Menologion for October

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably produced during the 11th century, is a <i>Menologion for October</i>, a liturgical book containing the hagiographical texts to be read in church during that month, including Lives of Saints, martyrdom narratives and accounts regarding relics and posthumous miracles.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The texts in this volume are the work of Symeon Metaphrastes, or Symeon the Metaphrast, a 10th-century Byzantine civil official and later a monk. He rewrote numerous existing hagiographical texts in a more accessible style and compiled these into a new <i>menologion</i>. The term Metaphrast refers to this practice of rewriting. Symeon's versions of these stories became the most widely used, superseding those read previously.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>At the beginning of the manuscript is a later folio bearing a contents list (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>f. I recto</a>). This does not record the contents of this manuscript, but is merely reused here as an endleaf. It belonged originally to a book containing works of Gregory of Nazianzus.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript was previously owned by the Monastery of the Pantokrator on Mount Athos, as indicated by a note of ownership on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>f. 1r</a>. It was part of a group of manuscripts acquired from the abbot of the monastery by the classicist Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity (1662-1742).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>