The Three (or Four) Redactions of De cerimoniis

The new edition of the “Book of Ceremonies” of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (CFHB 52, Paris 2020) re-opens the debate on the date, context, and meaning of this quintessentially Byzantine text. The pivotal first section of Book I, devoted to church ceremonies, is composed of two main layers, the so-called “old” and “new” ceremonials. While maintaining Bury’s attribution of the old ceremonial to the reigns of Constantine’s father and grand-father (Leo VI and Michael III), the Paris edition proposes a new date for the more recent layer, namely at the very beginning of the sole reign of Constantine VII, in 945–46. In this vision, “De cerimoniis” emerges as a personal work of the Porphyrogenitus motivated by the need to legitimise his power in the wake of the overthrow of the Lekapenoi. In my paper, I will propose a different date for the two ceremonials and will give more weight to interventions into the text after the death of Constantine VII than the Paris editors. I will argue, in particular, for a hitherto unnoticed partial recomposition of the text at the very end of the reign of Nikephoros Phokas. The layering of the text that I will propose has implications for our understanding not only of the working methods of the “emperor-compiler”, but above all of the uses of the imperial ceremonial in the middle Byzantine period, an important, but to some extent optional, facet of Byzantine imperial power.