The Early Manuscripts of San Salvatore de Lingua in Messina (Mid-12th Century): Surveying the Chief Decorator
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Scanty Evidence for Figural Decoration
2.2. Did Copyists Identify with Decorators? Sampling Rubricator
2.3. Assembling the Collection: A Note on Contents
‘We collected many beautiful books pertaining to our own sacred writings, totally familiar to us, as well as [other books] not pertaining to our sacred writings. We collected the composition of [St. John] Chrysostom, of the great father Basil, of Gregory the very great Theologian, and of his namesake [Gregory] of Nyssa, and of the other fathers and teachers inspired by God. We collected other compositions and works of ascetic writers, both the simple ones and also the more advanced, as well as historical works and other treatises from the outer and alien courtyard, works such as strive after the sacred knowledge. Other books [we obtained] which teach us about the lives of the fathers and contain the paraphrases which that most wise Symeon [Metaphrast] the Logothete composed while moved by the most sacred Spirit’.
2.4. Manuscript Decoration in an Open Cultural Scene: Inspired by Mosaics?
3. Addendum
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | Emperor Charles V issued a privilege in 1538, granting the monastery of Bordonaro to the monks in response to their loss; the enforcement letter dates from 1539, as stated in the Regiae visitationes: Palermo, Archivio di Stato (AdS), Regia Conservatoria di Registro, 1310, f. 38v. Monks are said to be already moved to a temporarily domicile in 1542 (see note 2). |
2 | Palermo, AdS, Regia Conservatoria di Registro, 1305, f. 28v. |
3 | (Buchthal 1955; see Daneu Lattanzi 1965b, pp. 17–20 (with bibliography)). In his 1955 essay on the codices matritenses from Messina, Hugo Buchthal’s drew parallels between this strand of figurative production and the mosaics in Palermo and Monreale, noting that evidence for ‘byzantinizing’ book production is actually few and far between. On San Salvatore in particular he states that “the position is much better […]. A large part dates from the twelfth century, and these include a fair proportion of illuminated volumes of which some at least were certainly written at St. Saviour’s”. |
4 | (Pottino 1930, nr. 27; Samek Lodovici 1940–1941, pp. 404–5; Daneu Lattanzi 1965a, pp. 87–89; Daneu Lattanzi 1965b, p. 18), the latter with a dating to the twelfth century. |
5 | By Maria Bianca Foti, Santo Lucà, Mario Re and Irmgard Hutter herself; for a synopsis, see (Hutter 2022, vol. 2, p. 749). |
6 | (Hutter 2022, vol. 2, p. 750). Hutter also claims (rightly, in my view) that Monk George must be regarded as one of the most prominent figures in the passage from Rossano to Messina. See also (Re 2001, p. 110). |
7 | See (Re 2000), who pioneeringly explored San Salvatore’s typicon (Mess. gr. 115) as a source for the early library of the monastery. |
8 | Thence comes the Vatican series of Byzantine origin: Vaticani graeci 1005, 2037, 2038, 2039, 2040, 2043, 2044—an almost-complete series missing just two volumes; see (Canart 1978, p. 128; and now Hutter 2022, passim). A provenance from Constantinople has been proposed, dating either to the beginning of the twelfth century (when Bartholomew is supposed to return from a journey to the Capital and Mount Athos) or to the twenties or even thirties: see (Lucà 1983, pp. 143–44; Hutter 2000, pp. 550–51, respectively). |
9 | There is also a third volume (Mess.gr. 138), but unfortunately it lacks its beginning and therefore the pyle. |
10 | See (Lucà 1993, pp. 84–85; Hutter 2022, pp. 725–27; Furlan 1980, p. 41; Canart and Lucà 2000, pp. 91–92). In fact, the Venice manuscript was copied by the same scribe attending to ff. 1–95 in the Vatican Urbinas. |
11 | Abu Jafar ibn-al Gazar’s text, translated as the Ephodia by Constantine of Reggio, excerpts from John’s of Alexandria comment to the sixth book of Hypocratese’s Epidemiai, as well as from Theophylus’s de urinis, the pseudo-galinian Peri Krisimon, recipies by Oribasius, Andromacus the Elder and Archigenis. In the text’s margins many comments by the manuscript’s patron, Philip Xeros, are also present. See (Canart and Lucà 2000, pp. 85–86; Hutter 2022). |
12 | Philip Xeros, who handed over the manuscript to his son, Nikolaos. |
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Decorator | Manuscript | Date (If Known) | Headings (Pylai) | Initials | Scribe | Scribe’s Dates (If Known) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 5 | x | x | George | ||
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 32 | 1150/51 | x (ff. 39-expl.) | x (ff. 39-expl.) | Monk Bartholomew | 1150–1165 |
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 37 | x | x | George | ||
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 46 | x (ff. 49v, 143) | Dionysius χθαμαλός | 1141 | ||
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 49 | x | x | Dionysius χθαμαλός | 1141 | |
Rubricator | Mess. gr. 69 | x (not ff. 1, 159) | Theodore (=Vat. gr. 300—scribe D) | |||
Rubricator (?) | Mess. gr. 137 | x | Theodore (=Vat. gr. 300—scribe D) | |||
Rubricator | Vat. gr. 974 | x | x | George (subscribed) | ||
Rubricator | Vat. gr. 1349 | x (not f. 1) | ‘minuscule’ copyist | |||
Rubricator | Vat. gr. 1391 | x | ‘minuscule’ copyist | |||
Rubricator | Vat. gr. 1495 (II) | x | Dionysius χθαμαλός | 1141 | ||
Rubricator (?) | Vat. gr. 1601 | x | x | George | ||
Rubricator | Barb. gr. 332 | x | x | George | ||
Rubricator | Barb. gr. 446 | 1132–1168 | x | ‘pre-Reggio’ style | ||
Rubricator (?) | Barb. gr. 448 | x | anonymous Reggio-styled scribe | |||
Rubricator | Crypt. gr. 850 | x | George |
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Tranchina, A. The Early Manuscripts of San Salvatore de Lingua in Messina (Mid-12th Century): Surveying the Chief Decorator. Arts 2023, 12, 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12030098
Tranchina A. The Early Manuscripts of San Salvatore de Lingua in Messina (Mid-12th Century): Surveying the Chief Decorator. Arts. 2023; 12(3):98. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12030098
Chicago/Turabian StyleTranchina, Antonino. 2023. "The Early Manuscripts of San Salvatore de Lingua in Messina (Mid-12th Century): Surveying the Chief Decorator" Arts 12, no. 3: 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12030098