Late Antique Historiography

Stern synopsis

Title(s):
  • Stern synopsis
Author:
Period covered:
314 (synod of Ancyra)-787 (council of Nicea II)
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Council synopsis
Remarks:
This short account of the provicial synods (Ancyra, Carthage, Gangra, Serdica, Antioch and Laodicea) and of the seven ecumenical councils (Nicaea I, Constantinople I, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople II, Constantinople III, Nicea II) appears in a Greek and Arabic version (in parallel columns) within the canonical collection preserved in the Paris manuscript (National Library, Fond arabe 236). The Greek texts are inscribed in full in the mosaics of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem and some of them are preserved also in a Vatican manuscript (Vaticanus Arabus 154). The Arabic version is much more widespread and is contained in numerous Melkite and Syro-Orthodox canonical collections (see Stern 1938: 418). Stern (1938) has published only the Greek texts, taking into account both the manuscripts and the Bethlehem inscriptions.
Edition - Translation:
  • H. Stern (1938) 'Les représentations des conciles dans l'Eglise de la Nativité à Bethléem'. Byzantion 13: 415-459.
  • A. Mai (1842) Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e Vaticanis codicibus edita. Volume Four. Rome: 286.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • W. McGuckin Slane (1883-1895) Bibliothèque nationale, département des manuscrits: Catalogue des manuscrits arabes. Paris: 60-61.
  • I.A. Munitiz (1974) 'Synoptic Greek accounts of the seventh council'. Revue des études byzantines 32: 147-186.
  • E. Révillout (1875) 'Le concile de Nicée d'après les textes coptes et les diverses collections canoniques'. Journal asiatique 7.6: 473-560.
  • W. Riedel (1900) Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats von Alexandrien. Berlin.
  • H.J. Sieben (1979) Die Konzilsidee der alten Kirche. Paderborn: 344-387.
  • H. Stern (1936) 'Les représentations des conciles dans l'Eglise de la Nativité à Bethléem'. Byzantion 11: 101-152.