Steven Avery
Administrator
Manuscript Production on Mount Sinai from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century (2010)
Nancy Sevcenko
In short,
we have clear evidence forthe presence of Georgian scribes on Sinai in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but evidence for a Georgian presence there as late as the thirteenth is less certain.There are virtually no qualifying Greek manuscripts executed in this early period: as was noted, Harlfinger could point to only two manuscripts in his corpusof thirty-four dated Sinai manuscripts from the period of the ninth to the twelfthcentury that were surely done in their entirety at the monastery itself. One
twelfth-century Greek manuscript of unclear origin was presented by the
fourteenth-century (?) archbishop Germanos of Sinai to the metochion of John
Klimakos, a little monastic community living nearby on a site connected with Kli-
makos’s long years as a hermit in the wilderness of Sinai.34 What is interesting is
that his fiery curse on anyone who would take the manuscript away from the
metochion, a curse that invokes the Holy Fathers of the Council of Nicaea to take
action against the thief, here invokes the wrath of John Klimakos as well.35
33 A number of Greek m anuscripts are attested as having been done on S inai in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. See p. 14 and note 49 below. Furthermore, a New Testament (Athos, MS
Lavra A 128) was written there by the monk G regory in 1278: Sophronios Eustratiades, Catalogue
of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Lavra on Mount Athos (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1925), p. 938. Another New Testament (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS
B.10.16 [227]) was written there in 1315/16 by the hieromonk James, though destined for a
monastery on Chios: Alexander Turvn, Dated Greek Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Centuries in the Libraries of Great Britain (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Center for
Byzantine Studies, 1980), pp. 79-82; pis 55 and 11 lc.
34 Sinai, MS gr. 754, a Triodion/Pentekostarion, was written in 1177: Harlfmger and others,
Specimina Sinaitica, no. 31. The location of the metochion (Phoukara) is probably the place
referred to as Fucra in the list of Sinai properties guaranteed by Pope Honorius III in 1217, and
there is a reference to this monastery in the typikon of Mount Sinai of 1214: Sevcenko, ‘Liturgical
typikon , p. 284.
Nancy Sevcenko
Manuscript Production on Mount Sinai from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century
Manuscript Production on Mount Sinai from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century
www.academia.edu
In short,
we have clear evidence forthe presence of Georgian scribes on Sinai in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but evidence for a Georgian presence there as late as the thirteenth is less certain.There are virtually no qualifying Greek manuscripts executed in this early period: as was noted, Harlfinger could point to only two manuscripts in his corpusof thirty-four dated Sinai manuscripts from the period of the ninth to the twelfthcentury that were surely done in their entirety at the monastery itself. One
twelfth-century Greek manuscript of unclear origin was presented by the
fourteenth-century (?) archbishop Germanos of Sinai to the metochion of John
Klimakos, a little monastic community living nearby on a site connected with Kli-
makos’s long years as a hermit in the wilderness of Sinai.34 What is interesting is
that his fiery curse on anyone who would take the manuscript away from the
metochion, a curse that invokes the Holy Fathers of the Council of Nicaea to take
action against the thief, here invokes the wrath of John Klimakos as well.35
33 A number of Greek m anuscripts are attested as having been done on S inai in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. See p. 14 and note 49 below. Furthermore, a New Testament (Athos, MS
Lavra A 128) was written there by the monk G regory in 1278: Sophronios Eustratiades, Catalogue
of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Lavra on Mount Athos (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1925), p. 938. Another New Testament (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS
B.10.16 [227]) was written there in 1315/16 by the hieromonk James, though destined for a
monastery on Chios: Alexander Turvn, Dated Greek Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Centuries in the Libraries of Great Britain (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Center for
Byzantine Studies, 1980), pp. 79-82; pis 55 and 11 lc.
34 Sinai, MS gr. 754, a Triodion/Pentekostarion, was written in 1177: Harlfmger and others,
Specimina Sinaitica, no. 31. The location of the metochion (Phoukara) is probably the place
referred to as Fucra in the list of Sinai properties guaranteed by Pope Honorius III in 1217, and
there is a reference to this monastery in the typikon of Mount Sinai of 1214: Sevcenko, ‘Liturgical
typikon , p. 284.