Western Medieval Manuscripts : Canon law in Greek

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, copied in the second half of the 16th century, is a collection of <i>Canon law in Greek</i>, composed of two distinct parts bound together. The first part contains the compendium of canon law compiled from earlier collections by the 14th-century monk and theologian Matthaios Blastares, which is organised by topics arranged in alphabetical order. This collection became a standard reference work across the Orthodox Christian world. The second part contains the so-called Apostolic canons, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church and of various other synods, and canonical letters and decrees by Fathers of the Church and later prelates, the latest dating from the early 13th century.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The two parts were the work of two different scribes. The same type of paper forms part of both parts, but since their content forms two cohesive entities and the first part retains original quire signatures which do not appear in the second, they may have been originally the product of two different projects of production occurring around the same time. However, they were evidently bound together at a very early stage, since they retain their 16th-century Greek binding. In the 18th or 19th century the manuscript was owned by one Akakios, from Perge on the southern coast of Turkey.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>