Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Thesaurus sive Sermones de passionibus, virtutibus et vitiis (Sermones 1-17 ed. Paisios)

Symeon monachus

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This manuscript is a late 13th- or early 14th-century copy of homilies on moral subjects. The text is ascribed to the Father of Church John Chrysostom in the manuscript, but it is now attributed to an otherwise unknown <i>Symeon monachus</i> (perhaps 11th century). The editor of the homilies, Paisios Hieromonachos, <i>Κατάνυξις. Σύγγραμμα ἱερὸν συντεθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὁσίου καὶ θεοφόρου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Συμεὼν τοῦ Μεταφραστοῦ</i> (Athens: Nicolas Rousopoulos, 1873), while attributing them to Symeon the Metaphrast, also notes that the manuscripts are uncertain about their attribution. <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.persee.fr/doc/rebyz_0766-5598_1951_num_9_1_1045'> J. Darrouzès, 'Bulletin critique' in <i>Revue des études byzantines</i>, 9 (1951), p. 172-191</a>, at p. 176 (with reference to Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticanus gr. 715) states that the author of the homilies can be identified neither with Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) nor with Symeon the Metaphrast. (cf. S.J. Voicu, 'Fonti patristiche di Simeone monaco', in <i>Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici</i>, n.s. 27 (1990), p. 191-94).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> The provenance of the manuscript is unknown. It could have belonged to Richard Porson (1759-1808), Regius Professor of Greek from 1792, before it came to the Wren Library.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> The manuscript was rebound Nov. 2020-Jan. 2021; the new endleaves (ff. [i-iv] and [xi-xiv]) and the new binding have not been photographed.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Matteo Di Franco</p>