Mnogosloznyj Svitok: The Slavonic Letter of the Three Patriarchs to Emperor Theophilos

One of the most mysterious texts from the Second Byzantine Iconoclasm

(815-843) is the so-called Synodical Letter, purportedly sent by

Patriarchs Christopher of Alexandria, Job of Antioch, and Basil of

Jerusalem to Emperor Theophilos in 836. The earliest reference thereto

is dated 945, whereas the oldest extant manuscript fragment is written

in the ninth-century uncial. But was it a real missive or pious forgery?

Several Greek texts deriving from the lost original do not prove

sufficient ground for a confident answer. Among the main problems is the

lack of protocol elements indispensable for a document of this kind.

Those elements, however, are present in the Slavonic text entitled

Mnogosloznyj Svitok, which corresponds to Polustichos tomos in

Greek. A thorough scrutiny has revealed that this is the closest version

we possess to the original Letter. The Slavonic, besides indications of

place (Jerusalem) and date (836) within the main text, contains two

solid termini ante quos, 837 and 838, and names the actual

compiler of the Letter - a certain monk Basil, who can very well be

identical with the hagiographer Basil of Emesa. The latter in his Life

of Theodore of Edessa claims to have attended a synod in Jerusalem,

presumably that of 836.
This book presents a critical edition of

the Slavonic text together with corresponding Greek fragments, English

translation, and Glossary. Russian translation is also attached.