The use of an apparatus collationum fontium for the critical edition of a patristic anthology

A dogmatic anthology prepared for the refutation of “heretical” opponents presents idiosyncratic editorial problems; the editor needs to take into consideration the fact that the relationship between a florilegium and its patristic sources is not only important for an accurate reconstruction of the anthological text, but is fundamental for understanding the development of the theological position of the compiler and of those medieval authors who quoted the florilegium as a testimony. The anthology of patristic passages contained in the first half of the Sacrum Armamentarium (Sacred Arsenal) by Andronikos Kamateros and assembled for the emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143-1180) has been the ‘sounding board’ for a critical apparatus dedicated only to the relation between the patristic and theological excerpta and their sources. This kind of apparatus has already been used by Byzantine philologists; for example it can be found in very recent editions: the Florilegium Coislinianum (published by De Vos, Gielen, Macé, Van Deun in Byzantion 2008 and 2010), the Letter by Iakovos Monachòs by Elizabeth and Michael Jeffreys (Corpus Christianorum 2009), and the Opera ascetica of Markos Monachòs by Philipp Roelli (again Corpus Christianorum in 2010). Each of these editors had different reasons to adopt the comparative apparatus, some of them concentrated more on the pure philological approach, like the group of editors from Leuven, others like the Jeffreys were interested in proving the heavy dependence of their author on his patristic sources, in the present case it was used to prove that the anthology of the Sacred Arsenal is an accurate compilation of patristic sources, that is why it was used between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries by Greek theologians who discussed the procession of the Holy Spirit with their Latin counterparts. This case study discusses strengths and weaknesses of this kind of additional apparatus criticus, and the opportunities that this kind of analysis offers to the reconstruction of the history of a text and its manuscript tradition.