The Capita of St. Symeon the New Theologian in the Slavic Tradition. The Oldest Manuscripts and their Particularities
The Capita of St. Symeon the New Theologian in the Slavic Tradition. The Oldest Manuscripts and their Particularities

Summary/Abstract: The present paper depicts the Slavonic tradition of the Practical, Gnostic and Theological Chapters of St. Symeon the New Theologian. The research focuses on the oldest Slavic manuscripts (14th c. and the beginning of the 15th c.), their composition, structure, translation, diffusion and sources. Two major groups were identified (A and B), connected to the Alphabeticae ascribed to St. Symeon (A), and to a corpus of less than 100 capita (B). Both of them were most surely translated in Paroria, the scriptorium of Gregory of Sinai, in the first part of the 14th century. A preserves some lines of the Symeonian Catechesis mixed with contents which could be authored by condemned mystics such as Constantine Chrysomallos. At the same time, B contains three clusters (B I, B II, B III) corresponding to the Greek kephalaia of St. Symeon and to one of Niketas Stethatos’. The analysis shed light on the structure and the standardisation of the collection known as the 24 Slova of Symeon the New Theologian, preserved today in East Slavic witnesses. The translation (B) was revised and then reworked in the second part of the 14th century. New data were revealed about the Greek source, hinting at a third-family manuscript (according to J. Darrouzès’s classification), which probably underwent revision by Niketas or one of his apprentices from the Monastery of Studious.

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