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Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, with a Discussion of Computer-Aided Methods Used to Edit the Text Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Tara L Andrews Linacre College, University of Oxford Hilary term 2009 Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, with a Discussion of Computer-Aided Methods Used to Edit the Text Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Tara L Andrews, Linacre College Hilary term 2009 Abstract The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa is the primary Armenian-language historical source for the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Matthew was a monk who lived in the ethnically mixed city of Edessa; within his Chronicle, he describes the apogee of independent Armenia, its fall to piecemeal Byzan- tine annexation, the subsequent loss of Byzantium’s eastern territory to the newcomer Saljuq Turks, and the sectarian tension that accompanied the First Crusade. This thesis sets out the methodology adopted for the construction of a critical edition of the text, addresses the approach that Matthew took to the composition of the Chronicle, and gives the edited text of the prophecies attributed to Yovhannēs Kozeṙn and the author’s prologues to Books Two and Three of the Chronicle. Chapters 2 and 3 comprise a review of the scholarship to date on the Chronicle, and a discussion of the approach taken to a critical edition of the text. The Chronicle survives in a large number of relatively recently copied manuscripts; it was therefore necessary to devise an approach to text collation and editing that takes full advantage of recent advances in computational methods of philology. I have developed a set of software tools to assist in the task of editing the Chronicle; these tools are useful for the creation of text editions in any language that can be represented through the TEI XML standard. Chapters 4–8 give an examination of the overall framework of Matthew’s Chronicle, and of his interpretation of recent history within that framework. Following a long tradition of the use of prophecy to explain Armenian history, Matthew uses two prophecies attributed to the eleventh-century clerical scholar Yovhannēs Kozeṙn, themselves extended in the twelfth century under the influence of the Apocalypse attributed to Methodius, to frame his argument that both the Byzantine emperors and the Armenian kings had abandoned their responsibility toward the Armenian people. His attitude toward recent history, and particularly toward the Latins of Outremer, may be used to demonstrate that he wrote the Chronicle no later than 1137. i Acknowledgments Any large undertaking incurs many debts of gratitude, and this thesis has been no exception. My profound thanks must go to my husband, Mike Knell, who initially encouraged me to return for the D.Phil. program, and who has en- sured constant moral support, occasional typing assistance, and uninterrupted supplies of tea. The thesis would have been equally impossible without the support of my supervisor, Prof. Theo M. van Lint, who has seen me through with patience, humour, and frequent reminders that literature is as important as history. I would also like to thank the following people and institutions: The Mekhitarist Fathers of Venice and Vienna, the Maštocʿ Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran) in Yerevan, the British Library, the Biblio- thèque Nationale, and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, for graciously providing physical access to, and digital copies of, the manuscripts of the Chronicle. The Colin Matthew fund of St. Hugh’s College, the faculty fund of the Oriental Institute, and Dr Jean Knell, who each provided financial assistance necessary to visit these libraries; as well as the Nubar Pasha fund, who provided the financial means to obtain the necessary manuscript reproductions. Linacre College, for their award of a Mary Blaschko Graduate Scholarship for 2006–8 which enabled me to begin the D.Phil. degree, their assistance with conference travel via the Old Members’ Trust, and their indispensable assistance in various administrative matters. Dr James Cotton of Queen Mary, University of London, who provided invaluable advice and assistance in the application of phylogenetics to my manuscript data. Lou Burnard and Dr James Cummings of the Oxford Text Archive, who advised on the possibilities of TEI as a format for collation output and critical edition. My legion of proofreaders, including Dr Alan Knell, Dr Jasmin Raufer, Dr Tim Stadelmann, Michael Kröll, and Andromeda Yelton. The members of the Vienna.pm Verein, for unfailing hospitality on my multiple visits to the city and the library there, and for the opportunity to speak about my work on Encritic to the Twin Cities Perl Workshop; and the members of the London Perl Mongers, who were ever on hand to assist with technical matters. ii Contents 1 Introduction 1 Anew interpretation,and a new edition . 2 2 The history of the Chronicle 6 Prior scholarship on the Chronicle . 11 The manuscript tradition of the Chronicle . 15 Manuscript groupings and characteristics . 19 List of manuscripts consulted to date . 22 Summary.................................... 32 3 Computer-assisted methods for text edition 34 Transcription.................................. 36 Collation .................................... 42 Edition ..................................... 49 Stemmatic analysis .............................. 53 Conclusion................................... 71 4 The new age of prophecy: the Chronicle’s place in Armenian histori- ography 75 iii Armenian historical philosophy . 78 The prophecies of Yovhannēs Kozeṙn. 82 The prophecy fulfilled: the structure of the Chronicle . 90 Conclusion................................... 96 5 ‘The abandoned Armenian nation’: Matthew’s conception of the his- tory of his people 98 The idealized past: the presentation of pre-1020 Armenia . 99 The loss of the Armenian kingdoms: 1020–45 . 102 The occupied East and the Armenians in exile. 115 The slow revival: the Armenians and the Crusaders . 125 Conclusion...................................128 6 ‘Under the aegis of the Roman emperor’: the Byzantine Empire in the Chronicle 132 The era of growing Byzantine domination over the Armenians . 133 The waning of Byzantine influence . 152 Conclusions ..................................162 7 Muslim, Turk, and Crusader: the Armenian chronicler and the ay- lazgikʿ 166 The role of Muslims within Armenian history . 167 Matthew and the First Crusade . 182 Conclusion...................................197 8 ‘Trouble and dissension in the see of St. Gregory’: Matthew and the Armenian church 199 iv Before the fall: ecclesiastical history prior to the prophecies of Kozeṙn . 201 The recent past: Matthew’s Church in uncertain times . 207 The Armenian church in the wake of the First Crusade . 212 9 Conclusion 218 A Text of selected excerpts from the Chronicle 226 List of witnesses................................226 Text .......................................227 B Translation of excerpts from the Chronicle 289 First prophecy of Yovhannēs Kozeṙn,478 (1029/30) . 289 Second prophecy of Yovhannēs Kozeṙn, 485 (1036/7) . 292 Author’s prologue to Book Two . 299 Author’s prologue to Book Three . 301 C Lists of rulers of the period 307 Byzantine emperors,952–1129 . 307 Armenian kings in Ani,952–1045 . 307 D List of all known manuscripts 308 Manuscripts containing full texts of the Chronicle . 308 Manuscripts containing excerpts of the Chronicle . 309 Maps 310 Bibliography 312 v Chapter 1 Introduction The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (Mattʿēos Uṙhayecʿi) was completed during the decade between 1130 and 1140. Edessa was at that time a majority- Christian city, populated primarily by Syrians and Armenians. Until the Crusades swept into the area thirty years previously, it had been ruled by an Armenian, Tʿoros, who was compelled to perform a delicate balancing act between Edessa’s powerful neighbours, the Byzantines to the north and the Turkish emirs to the south. As the Crusading knights marched toward Jerusalem in 1097, one of their number, Baldwin of Boulogne, had taken advantage of Edessene antipathy toward Tʿoros to become the ruler of Edessa in his own right, and had consolidated his position to establish the first of the Crusader states in the East. Initially, the Armenians welcomed the Franks as ‘liberators’ from their Greek or Turkish suzerains, but they quickly grew disillusioned as they observed the Latin nobles acting for Latin interests, rather than the interests of the city’s natives. The emperor in Constantinople, who considered the nearby principality of Antioch to be an imperial possession that 1 had been effectively stolen by its Crusader prince, contested Latin rule in the region; the Turks never ceased their attempts to take Edessa and its surrounding territory. It is against this turbulent background that Matthew came to write his history. A new interpretation, and a new edition The Chronicle is thus the primary eyewitness account, from an eastern Christian perspective, of the First Crusade. It is also the main source for Armenian history after the end of the eleventh-century History of Aristakēs of Lastivert, and the information therein serves as corroboration for Aristakēs’ history and, to a lesser extent, the tenth-century Universal History of Stepʿanos Asołik. Together with these two other Armenian sources, the Chronicle performs a similar role for Byzantine historians of the tenth and eleventh centuries as it does for Crusader historians of

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