The Tradition of the Image of Edessa MARK GUSCIN A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London (Royal Holloway and Bedford New College) August 2014 1 Candidate’s declaration: I confirm that this PhD thesis is entirely my own work. All sources and quotations have been acknowledged. The main works consulted are listed in the bibliography. Candidate’s signature: Date: 4 March 2015 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Charalambos Dendrinos, and my advisor Dr David Gwynn, without whose support, suggestions and advice I would never have been able to finish this thesis. Sincere thanks are also due to my two examiners, Professor Miri Rubin and Professor Andrew Louth, for their valuable insight and excellent advice. I would also like to thank Professor Justin Champion for his help. Thanks are owed to the following persons and institutions for studentships, grants and bursaries awarded towards my research and field trips: Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London for The Nikolaos Oikonomides and the Ecumanical Patriarch Bartholomaios I fees-only Studentships in Byzantine Studies (2009-2014). Thanks are also due to Brother Ioannis of the Monastery of Saint John on the island of Patmos, the staff at the Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies in Thessalonike for their extra efforts on my behalf, and the monks of Mount Athos for granting access to their libraries and manuscripts. Special thanks in this regard are due to Father Theologos of the Holy Monastery of Iveron, Father Chrysostomos of the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou, Father Kallistos of the Holy Monastery of Grigoriou, and all the monks at the Protaton. I would also like to thank Dr Ekaterina Gedevanishvili and Dr Tamar Gegia from the National Institute of Manuscripts in Georgia, George Apostolou in Cyprus, Professor Glenn Peers from the University of Texas, John Chapman for his invaluable aid while in Mani, the librarians at El Escorial, Dr Sophia Kapetanaki from the University of Peloponnese, Dr Robert Ousterhout from the University of Oregon, and last but not least Professor Emeritus Cyril Mango. My deepest gratitude goes to my family – Rocío, Joshua and Catherine – who patiently endured my numerous fieldtrips while carrying out research, for their love and unfailing support over the years. It is to them that this study is dedicated. 3 Abstract The Image of Edessa was an image of Christ, which according to tradition was of miraculous origin. It was taken from Edessa (mod. Sanliurfa, Turkey) to Constantinople in 944, and disappeared from known history in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It generated, however, a vast amount of literature and hundreds of copies in churches all over the Byzantine world. This thesis is a study of the literature, paintings, icons and other aspects related to the Image of Edessa. It examines how it was used as a tool to express Christ’s humanity and for various other purposes, and how some of the related literature became completely decontextualised and was used as a magical charm, especially in the West. The thesis comprises an Introduction, six Chapters (1-6 ) and Conclusions. The Introduction presents the aims, scope, approach and structure of the thesis. Chapter 1 is a detailed critical survey of the historical sources. Chapter 2 is devoted to an analytical study of one of the most important texts, traditionally known as Epistula Abgari , including previously unpublished versions . Chapter 3 contains an analysis of the references to the Image and how it is dealt with in the huge body of literature concerning St Alexis. Chapter 4 examines the terminology used to describe the Image in the sources and analyses its physical characteristics. Chapter 5 investigates the Image of Edessa and the Abgar correspondence in the West, the Image’s relationship with the Veronica story and its use as a magical amulet. Chapter 6 explores the paintings and icons of the Image, also based on my fieldwork in churches and monasteries in the sphere of Byzantine influence. The General Conclusions summarise the findings of the research and suggest areas for further investigation. Appendix I contains a new edition and translation of the Narratio de imagine edessena , and Appendix II presents a chronological table showing the development of the tradition of 4 the Image over the course of the centuries. The thesis is accompanied by a DVD with facsimiles of manuscripts, icons and other archaeological evidence cited therein. 5 Table of Contents Abbreviations 9 List of plates (on accompanying DVD) 21 Introduction 28 Chapter 1. Historical Sources 38 1.1 The Origins of the Image 38 1.2 Eusebius and Egeria 41 1.3 The Doctrine of Addai 44 1.4 A Syriac Hymn 47 1.5 The Acts of Mar Mari 49 1.6 The Acts of Thaddaeus 50 1.7 Procopius and Evagrius 52 1.8 The Epistula Abgari 57 1.9 The Piacenza Pilgrim and the Image of Edessa in Egypt 57 1.10 The Oxford and Cairo Fragments of the Abgar correspondence 60 1.11 Theophylact Simocatta 63 1.12 George of Pisidia 64 1.13 The Nouthesia Gerontos 65 1.14 Moses Khorenats’i 66 1.15 The Narratio de imagine edessena 68 1.16 The Menaion 74 1.17 Gregory Referendarius 76 1.18 Contra Patarenos 77 1.19 The icon at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai 79 1.20 Codex Skylitzes 80 1.21 Armenian versions of the legend 81 1.22 MS Tarragonensis 55 83 1.23 Arabic and Coptic versions 85 1.24 Later Syriac versions 86 1.25 Ethiopian versions 87 1.26 Irish versions 89 1.27 Later Greek references 89 1.28 Constantine Stilbes 90 1.29 Anonymous references 91 1.30 Antonius of Novgorod 92 1.31 The Legenda Aurea 93 1.32 A fourteenth-century illustrated Menologion 93 1.33 A nineteenth-century mystic: Jacob Lorber 94 1.34 The Lead Codices of Jordan 95 1.35 The Fourth Crusade and the fate of the Image of Edessa 96 1.36 Conclusions 104 6 Chapter 2. The Epistula Abgari 108 2.1 MS Pierpont Morgan 499 110 2.2 MS Scorialensis Ω-IV-32, ff. 155 v-156 v 117 2.3 The Vienna Scroll 120 2.4 MS Grottaferrata Badia Greca 008 (gr. 285) 126 2.5 Is there a standard version of the Epistula Abgari ? 129 Chapter 3. Saint Alexis and the “ ymago sanguinea ” 138 3.1 The Greek texts 139 3.2 The Latin versions 148 3.3 The vernacular versions 153 3.4 Blood on the Image of Edessa 163 3.5 Conclusions 165 Chapter 4. The terminology used to describe the Image of Edessa and alternative ideas concerning the nature of the Image 167 4.1 Tetr£diplon 167 4.2 'Aceiropo…htoj 169 4.3 E„kèn 173 4.4 Mandylion 173 4.5 Sudarium / soud£rion 177 4.6 Sindèn 180 4.7 'Ekmage‹on 184 4.8 `R£koj 185 4.9 Other terms 185 4.10 Alternative ideas about the Image 186 4.11 Conclusions 199 Chapter 5. The tradition of the Image of Edessa and the Abgar correspondence in the West 202 5.1 The Abgar Correspondence and the Image of Edessa in the West 202 5.2 Jesus’ letter to Abgar as a magical amulet 219 5.3 The seals on Christ’s letter to Abgar 239 5.4 The relationship of the Eastern Mandylion with the Western Veronica 245 5.5 The Image of Edessa and the letter of Publius Lentulus 249 5.6 Conclusions 257 Chapter 6. Fieldwork in Byzantium 262 6.1 Cappadocia 262 6.2 Hagia Sophia in Trabzon (Trebizond) and in Istanbul 270 6.3 Sanliurfa (Edessa) 275 6.4 Mani 278 6.5 Mystra 284 6.6 Mount Athos 285 6.7 North-West Greece and the FYROM 287 7 6.8 Georgia 290 6.9 Cyprus 301 6.10 Conclusions 304 General Conclusions 308 Appendix I: The Narratio de imagine edessena 320 Appendix II: The Development of the Image of Edessa over the Centuries 383 Bibliography 390 DVD with plates Attached 8 Abbreviations Allen, Two Old Portuguese Versions : Joseph H.D. Allen, Two Old Portuguese Versions of the Life of Saint Alexis (Urbana 1953) Amiaud, La Légende : Arthur Amiaud, La Légende Syriaque de Saint Alexis (Paris 1889) Banks and Binns, Otia : S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns (eds.), Otia Imperialia (Oxford 2002) Angold, Byzantium : Michael Angold, Byzantium: The Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (London 2001) Belting, Likeness : Hans Belting, Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeiter der Kunst (Munich 1990), translated into English as Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art (Chicago 1994) Belting, ‘In Search’: Hans Belting, ‘In Search of Christ’s Body. Image or Imprint?’, in The Holy Face and the Paradox of Representation , Papers from a Colloquium held at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome and the Villa Spelman, Florence, 1996 , ed. Herbert Kessler and Gerhard Wolf (Bologna 1998), pp. 1-13 Besançon, L’Image : Alain Besançon, L’Image Interdite: une histoire intellectuelle de l’iconoclasme (Librairie Arthème Fayard 1994), translated into English as The Forbidden Image: an intellectual history of iconoclasm (Chicago 2000) Brock, ‘Transformations’: Sebastian Brock, ‘Transformations of the Edessa Portrait of Christ’, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18/1 (2004), pp. 46-56 Cain, ‘Sacred Words’: Christopher Cain, ‘Sacred Words, Anglo-Saxon Piety, and the Origins of the Epistola salvatoris in London, British Library, Royal 2.A.xx’, All Kinds of Writing, Syriac Articles in English (no date), on-line journal at http://www.syriacstudies.com/AFSS/Syriac_Articles_in_E nglish/Entries/2010/12/8_Sacred_Words,_Anglo- Saxon_Piety,_and_the_Origins_of_the_Epistola_Christop her_M._Cain.html (last accessed: 1 July 2014) 9 Cameron, ‘The History’: Averil Cameron, ‘The History of the Image of Edessa; the Telling of a Story’, Okeanos; Essays Presented to Ihor Sevcenko (= Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7), ed.