The Authorial Edition of Constantine Akropolites

Constantine Akropolites (1254/1255–1323/1324), a prominent Byzantine author of the early Palaeologan period, assembled his extensive literary output into a planned three-volume edition, of which only the first two volumes survive: the codices Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 40 and Ambros. H 81 sup. These manuscripts are pivotal for the transmission of his oeuvre, preserving seventy-nine of his eighty-two known works and serving as the sole witnesses for fifty-nine of them. While Akropolites conceived and outlined the edition, its transcription was executed by professional scribes and, to a lesser extent, by members of his intellectual circle under his close supervision. Equally significant is the edition’s paratextual apparatus, crucial for understanding its internal organisation and authorial design. It comprises titles, a prologue to the first volume, an introduction to the Encomium to Constantine the Great, nine book epigrams, and twenty-five cover letters referring either to the collection as a whole or to individual works. These paratexts illuminate Akropolites’ editorial strategies and his attempt to present his corpus as a unified, self-interpreting body of work. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of Akropolites’ authorial edition, assessing its function within his literary activity and the transmission of his writings. The first part examines the codicological features of the two surviving manuscripts, their structure, the distribution of texts, and the scribal hands involved. The second part shows how the content and arrangement of the paratexts provide insight into the compilation, authorial oversight, and early circulation of the edition. By viewing the manuscripts not merely as text carriers but as the material realisation of a deliberate editorial project, the study reveals Akropolites’ authorial intent and his effort to guide readers through his vast and still understudied corpus.