International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Theodora Panella
University of Birmingham, Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, 
Birmingham, United Kingdom; 
[e-mail]
Pauline Catena Manuscripts: The Treatment of the Sources
Pauline Catena manuscripts have their own exegetical value and should be regarded as part of 
the history of interpretation of the biblical text, although scholarship has not focused on the criteria 
that their compilers applied when gathering their material or on the major exegetical trends that 
they may represent. The aim of this paper is to understand the way that the compilers treat their 
sources. Trying to identify the patristic evidence and the anonymous patristic quotations in these 
catenae, I will examine as well compilers’ possible trends or preferences. Is there any main source for 
them? Does the treatment of the source depend on the layout of the catena manuscripts?
Leontien Vanderschelden
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 
[e-mail]
The Origins of the Catena of the ‘Paris Psalter’
There are many catenae on the Psalms, but one of the finest and most important is the 
so-called ‘Paris Psalter’ (
Par. gr.
139 = Rahlfs 1133). It is a tenth-century manuscript that was 
probably composed for emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and contains not only fabulous 
miniatures, but also a catena commentary on the Psalms. The Paris catena has a place high up in the 
catena tradition, but is based on two older catenae: the so-called Palestinian catena from the sixth 
century and the Monophysite catena. Neither of them is preserved in its entirety, but they can be 
reconstructed from other catenae.
In the first part of my PhD project I will identify the citations in the Paris Psalter and situate 
the manuscript in the tradition of the catena. Hereby I will make an edition of the text of the catena 
for a particular selection of psalms. At a second stage, I will have a closer look at the content of the 
text and its functions as a literary product. For example: does the exegesis construct a certain picture 
of the emperor, as the miniatures are known to do?
In my paper I want to focus on the identification of the excerpts on a few psalms (psalm 1, 3, 
5 and others) and the problems that go with it. On the basis of concrete examples I will show that 
some fragments are copied literally from the patristic source text while others are paraphrased, and 
I will discuss the difficulties linked to the attribution of the excerpts (or the lack thereof). Also the 
interplay between the biblical text and the exegetical excerpts will be mentioned. In my conclusion 
I will give an outline of the pitfalls and the relevance of this research, with a preview of the expected 
research results.

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