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The Canons of John Mauropous

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Joan Hussey
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Extract

John Mauropous, an eleventh-century Metropolitan of Euchaïta, has long been commemorated in the service books of the Orthodox Church. The Synaxarion for the Office of Orthros on 30th January, the day dedicated to the Three Fathers, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom, tells how the festival was instituted by Mauropous and describes him as ‘the well-known John, a man of great repute and well-versed in the learning of the Hellenes, as his writings show, and moreover one who has attained to the highest virtue’. In western Europe something was known of him certainly as early as the end of the sixteenth century; his iambic poems were published for the first time by an Englishman in 1610, and his ‘Vita S. Dorothei’ in the Acta Sanctorum in 1695. But it was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that scholars were really able to form some idea of the character and achievement of this Metropolitan of Euchaïta. Particularly important were two publications: Sathas' edition in 1876 of Michael Psellus' oration on John, and Paul de Lagarde's edition in 1882 of some of John's own writings. This last contained not only the works already printed, but a number of hitherto unpublished sermons and letters, together with the constitution of the Faculty of Law in the University of Constantinople, and a short introduction containing part of an etymological poem. But there remained, and still remains, one significant omission: John's canons have been almost consistently neglected.

Type
Papers Presented to N. H. Baynes
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1-2 , November 1947 , pp. 70 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Joan Hussey 1947. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Ioannis metropolitani Euchaitensis versus iambic in praecipuorum festorum patrum pictas in tabulis imagines et historias atque alia varia editi cura Matthaei Busti, Etonae, 1610.

2 Acta Sanctorum, June 1, pp. 605–14 (5th June).

3 Sathas, C. N., Bibliotheca graeca medii aevi, vol. V, Paris and VeniceGoogle Scholar; ‘Iohannis Euchaitorum metropolitae quae in codice vaticano graeco 676 supersunt,’ ed. Paul de Lagarde (Abh. d. könig. Gesell. d. Wiss. zu Göttingen, XXVIII), Göttingen, 1882.

4 For bibliography and brief account of John Mauropous, see P-W, IX (2), col. 1750 ff., and Hussey, J. M., Church and Learning in the Byzantine Empire (867–1185), Oxford, 1937, 39 ffGoogle Scholar. and 234 ff.

5 For a short general account of the canon and its place in the church services, see Tillyard, H. J. W., Byzantine Music and Hymnography, London, 1923, 19 ff.Google Scholar; Wellesz, E., Byzantin ische Musik, Breslau, 1927, 31 ff.Google Scholar; and Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, ed. C. Höeg, H. J. W. Tillyard, E. Wellesz, II, Copenhagen, 1938, 7ff.

6 See the fine reproduction of the Hirmologium Athoum in the Mon. Mus. Byz., op. cit.

7 It is now possible to read Byzantine musical notation with increasing certainty, mainly owing to the work of the editors of the Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae. See especially the Subsidia and Transcripta published in this series.

8 I am much indebted to Professor Egon Wellesz for information concerning the use of these supplementary collections of canons.

9 P. Lambecius, Commentariorum de augustissima bibliotheca Caesarea Vindobonensi libri VIII, Vienna, 1665–79. See vol. v (1672), cod. 299 and 309. D. de Nessel, Breviarium et supplementum … aut recensio codicum MStorum graecorum …, 2 vols. Vienna and Nuremberg, 1690. See vol. I, cod. theol. gr. 78 and 146.

10 Stevenson, H., Codices manuscripti graeci Reginae Suecorum et Pii PP. II bibliothecae vaticanae, Rome, 1888, pp. 67–8Google Scholar, cod. 92; and Codices manuscripti palatini graeci bibliothecae vaticanae, Rome, 1885, 67–9Google Scholar, cod. 138.

11 Pitra, J. B., Hymnographie de l'Église Grecque, Rome, 1867, 61Google Scholar.

12 Dreves, G. M., ‘Johannes Mauropus,’ Stimmen aus Maria-Laach 26 (1884)Google Scholar, Heft II, 159–179; Draeseke, J., ‘Johannes Mauropus,’ Byzantinische Zeitschrift II (1893), 461–493Google Scholar.

13 I give here only the briefest indication of the whereabouts and significance of the manuscripts and hope to say more about them in my book on John Mauropous.

14 I owe the dating of this manuscript to the kindness of Professor Hans Gerstinger.

15 Vindob. Theol. Gr. 78 (Nessel), f. 1r

16 Volo, 1937, nos. 7, 10, 11. Others may have been since published in this series, but they have not reached me.

17 See my note on ‘The Authorship of the Sex Hymni attributed to St. John of Damascus’, The Journal of Theological Studies XLVII (nos. 187–8, 1946), 200–203Google Scholar.

18 Canon to Christ = Vindob. Theol. Gr. 78 (Nessel), f. 81r–83r; cf. Great Horologion, Venice, 1845, 495 ff., where it is given anonymously. Canon to his Guardian Angel = Vindob. Theol. Gr. 78 (Nessel), f. 83r–87r; cf. Great Horologion, op. cit., 559 ff., where it is given as ποίημα Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ τοῦ μαυρόποδος.

19 =Vindob. Theol. Gr. 78 (Nessel), f. 205v–209r; cf. Great Euchologion, Venice, 1851, 559 ff.Google Scholar, where it is described simply as ‘the ode of John’. It is translated by Woodward, G. R., The Most Holy Mother of God in the Songs of the Eastern Church, London, 1919, 125 ffGoogle Scholar. See also Emereau, C., ‘Hymnographi byzantini quorum nomina in litteras digessit notulisque adornavit,’ Echos d'Orient 23 (1924), 198Google Scholar. As he notes, there are two canons in the Triodion, Office of Orthros for Saturday in the First week of Lent, attributed to John Metropolitan of Euchaïta, but I have not so far come across them in any manuscript.

20 One canon (without an acrostic) to the Theotokos and two canons (one without an acrostic) to the Three Fathers, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom. All are in the Menaion and also in the Acta Sanctorum, June II, 1698, pp. XLIX ff. The canon to the Theotokos and one of the canons to the Three Fathers are printed by Daniel, H. A., Thesaurus Hymnologicus III, Leipzig, 1855, 117 ffGoogle Scholar.

21 As for instance Lamerand, E., ‘La fête des trois hiérarchques dans l'église grecque,’ Bessarione, Anno III, vol. IV, 164–176Google Scholar.

22 Ehrhard, A., Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kircke von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur), I, 1937, 51–3Google Scholar. Cf. Delehaye's, Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum Nov., Brussels, 1902)Google Scholar, 30th January.