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from Byzantine Historical Texts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2018
The text known as the Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio is a brief, anonymous fragment of a history about the reigns of Michael I (811– 813) and Leo V (813– 820). The author is hostile to Leo V and his iconoclastic policies, but favorable to Patriarch Nikephoros.
Markopoulos suggests a date of composition between 820 and 829, but Ševčenko prefers a narrower window of 820– 821. Sénina argues that it was written between 844 and 847 by someone close to the Rhangabe family. While scholars once thought that the same author wrote both the Scriptor Incertus and the Chronicle of 811, that view is no longer generally accepted.
Manuscripts, Editions, and Translations
Manuscript
The only extant manuscript is Codex Parisinus Graecus 1711, dated 1013. This codex is also one of major exemplars of George Synkellos.
Editions
Iadevaia, Francesca, ed. Scriptor incertus: testo critico, traduzione e note. Messina : Sfameni, 1997.
Forthcoming: Markopoulos, Athanasios, ed. Scriptor I ncertus de Leone Armenio. Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae : Series Berolinensis.
Publication History
The text was first published by Fran ç ois Combefis with a translation by Jacques Goar for the Paris Corpus in 1655. The Scriptor Incertus was published in the Bonn Corpus in 1842, with Goar's translation. In 1863 the Patrologia Graeca reprinted the work of Combefis and Goar.
Translation
Italian
Iadevaia, Francesca, ed. Scriptor I ncertus: testo critico, traduzione e note. Messina : Sfameni, 1997.
Starting Points
Stephenson, Paul. “ About the Emperor Nikephoros and How He Leaves His Bones in Bulgaria: A Context for the Controversial Chronicle of 811.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 60 (2006): 87 – 109.
Kazhdan, Alexander, Lee F. Sherry, and Christine Angelidi. A History of Byzantine Literature, 650– 850. Athens : National Hellenic Research Foundation Institute for Byzantine Research, 1999 ; 208 – 211.
FURTHER READING
Most scholarship has focused on whether this was originally part of the same text as the Chronicle of 811.
Different Texts
Kazhdan, Alexander, and Lee Francis Sherry. “ Some Notes on the Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio.” Byzantinoslavica 58 (1997): 110 – 12.
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