CARLO EMILIO BIUZZI
Universiteit Gent – École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL, Paris
With a Response from EPHREM ABOUD ISHAC, IMAFO, OeAW.

The notion of the collection as a canonical instrument is a typifying feature already emphasised by Arthur Vööbus, who consecrated it in the very title of his major work on canonical law, Kanonessammlungen. While Vööbus devoted part of his analysis to the manuscripts themselves, offering individual descriptions in the final section of the aforementioned publication, a systematic reconstruction of their typology and development is still lacking. The material form of these manuscripts is central to understanding the transmission of legal literature. The performativity of the text reveals its institutional function through its recognisability. Yet, in the Syriac world—marked by its marginal position vis-à-vis Byzantine institutions, its opposition to imperial authority, and its gradual integration into the Islamic polity—legal manuscripts exhibit a remarkable typological diversity. This diversity reflects a more fluid and nuanced approach to interpreting rules and canons. In this lecture, drawing on the newly compiled Repertoire of legal manuscripts, I propose to present a selected corpus of codices. I aim to identify the formal and material features that define a specific legal genre, and to trace the evolving perception of these texts across time. Moving beyond the division between West and East Syriac traditions, I will examine both the shared influences and the distinctive traits that shaped the various phases of legal codex formation in a non-institutional context.
CONTACT: [email protected]

This lecture is organized within the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project „Reviving the Ascetic Ideal in the Eastern Mediterranean. Entangled Memories of Early Egyptian Monasticism in Medieval Syriac, Arabic and Armenian Christianity (969-1375 CE)“ (RevIdEM), Grant Nr. 101078631, PI: Adrian C. Pirtea.