Elio Aristides en el Monasterio de Cora

Abstract

Most of the Aristidean codices we preserve were copied in Constantinople during the Palaeologan period (1261-1453) and their typological variety is remarkable. The context of their manufacture was a learned environment where book loans and team work were the standard practice. This circumstance explains the increasing complexity of the textual transmission in the 13th/14th centuries and stresses the importance of locating each volume in a precise copy environment or study circle. The current paper points out the existence of several Aristidean manuscripts linked by different reasons to the Monastery of the Christ of Chora (Χριστοῦ τῆς Χώρας). Even if we can not confirm that they were copied at that very Constantinopolitan monastery, nevertheless, the identity of their scribes or marginal hands with Maximos Planudes, Nicephorus Gregoras, Michael Klostomalles, or Cardinal Bessarion, allows us to precise the context they were studied in.