Pinakes | Πίνακες

Résumé :

MS Ambrosianus D 52 sup. is a collection of homilies by Basil and John Chrysostom, written by several similar hands around the mid-tenth century, clearly in a monastic milieu. It bears a general resemblance to MS Vat. gr. 167 of Theophanes Continuatus. A different scribe, the one who copied the famous Iliad MS Marcianus gr. 454, transcribed most of the Narratio de imagine Edessena (ff. 81r-92v), then handed over the task to one of the homogeneous group (ff. 93r-94v). The Narratio stands in a peculiar recension, which turns out to be the oldest, connected with Theophanes the parakoimomenos. A coeval hand made corrections and additions to the codex to retain only the second tradition about the origin of the Mandylion, that of the imprint of bloody sweat. The relic was never displayed and thus was usually imagined rather than seen. If we consider the interventions in codex Ambrosianus, a piece of information by Pseudo-Symeon the chronographer, and the homily of Gregory the referendarios, we are led to believe that the Mandylion could be superimposed on the face of the Turin Shroud. The Church’s need to sacrifice its treasures to pay the substantial debt owed to the Crusaders provided the opportunity to discover the true size of the cloth.