Andronikos Kamateros’ Sacred Arsenal: Critical edition, translation and commentary
The Sacred Arsenal is one of the most important remaining Byzantine inedita of the twelfth century. It was written most probably around 1173 by the megas droungarios Andronikos Kamateros, an aristocrat from the Doukas family, active at the Constantinopolitan court during the second half of the twelfth century. The emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143–1180) commissioned this work of refutation of Latin and Armenian heresies during a period in which negotiations with the Latin and the Armenian churches about a possible reunion were proceeding fervently. This massive text is still unpublished, except for a small part (about 63 of 309 folia) which appears in Migne's Patrologia Graeca as part of the work written by John Bekkos, Refutationes adversus D. Andronici Camateri Viglae Drungarii super scripto traditis testimoniis de Spiritu Sancto animadversiones (PG 141, 396–613).
My PhD thesis, completed in 2006, focused on the prolegomena to the critical edition and on the edition of the first half of the text dedicated to the Catholic Church and the procession of the Holy Spirit "from the Son" (Filioque). During my stay at Dumbarton Oaks, I concentrated on the second part of the Sacred Arsenal dedicated to the Armenian Church and I made substantial progress towards the edition of the entire volume transcribing and collating the text from the manuscripts Monacensis Gr. 229, ⅩⅢ century and Venetus Marcianus Gr. 158 (coll. 515), ⅩⅣ century. The Dumbarton Oaks fellowship also provided the library resources that enabled me to write two articles: the first on the dating of the Sacred Arsenal and the second on the relation between two icons described by the Codex Marcianus Graecus 524 and Kamateros' text. Moreover, Dumbarton Oaks' collection of microfilms gave me the possibility of analyzing the microfilm of the manuscripts Laurent. Gr. Plut. Ⅷ. 26 which contains, in addition to the already well-known and published Refutationes by John Bekkos against the anthology of the first half of the Sacred Arsenal (PG 141, 396–613), also the refutations by the same patriarch against the entire dialogue between the emperor Manuel Komnenos and the Roman cardinals. Finally, during the period of my fellowship I started to create a website dedicated to Andronikos Kamateros and the Sacred Arsenal, a project that gives access to information about the life of an unjustly forgotten author.