Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Sticherarion

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably copied in the second half of the 14th century, is a <i>Sticherarion</i>, a liturgical book containing the <i>stichera idiomela</i> (hymns with their own melodies, rather than conforming to a standard type) sung at orthros and vespers (morning and evening services).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>It is divided into a Menaion, containing hymns for the feasts of the fixed calendar beginning on 1 September, and two components covering sections of the mobile calendar based on the date of Easter. These are the Triodion, covering Lent and Holy Week, and the Pentekostarion, covering the period from Easter to the feast of All Saints. Confusingly, the Triodion here begins with a heading indicating the beginning of the Pentekostarion (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(197);return false;'>f. 193r</a>). There is also a series of <i>stichera prosomoia</i> (hymns set to standard melodies) for Lent, and the sequence of <i>Eothina anastasima</i> (the eleven morning hymns of the Resurrection) attributed to the Emperor Leo VI (866-912), another normal component of the Sticherarion, together with a few individual hymns. Bound at the beginning and end of the manuscript, probably as endleaves from a previous binding, are leaves taken from two other hymn-books of similar date, one from the beginning of another Sticherarion. All are accompanied by musical notation of the "Round" type, in use in the later centuries of the Byzantine period.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>