Building a Text through Paratexts: Toward a Critical Edition of Nicetas Seides’ Conspectus Librorum Sacrorum

The Conspectus librorum sacrorum (hereafter CLS) is a summary of the Bible composed by Nicetas Seides (12th century). This work combines multiple sources with the author’s exegetical commentary, revealing a sophisticated editorial process. This paper presents preliminary research towards a new critical edition of the CLS, clarifying its sources and analyzing Nicetas’s compositional strategies. First, we examine the sources, which are primarily ‘paratexts’, i.e., works originally conceived as accompaniments to primary texts. Building on Simotas’s 1984 edition, we confirm the influence of the Pseudo-Athanasian (CPG 2249) and the Pseudo-Chrysostomian Synopsis (CPG 4559) for the Wisdom and Prophetical books of the Old Testament. We then propose Oecumenius’s hypotheseis (CPG 7475) as the principal source for the New Testament section. Additionally, we identify a previously unrecognized source: Theodoret of Cyrrhus’s hypotheseis (PG 118–119) for certain Pauline epistles. Second, we analyze Nicetas’s compositional strategies, which reveal two distinct approaches: (1) for the Pentateuch and the Historical books of the Old Testament, Nicetas draws upon the two Synopsis while incorporating his exegetical comments; (2) for the remaining biblical books, he reproduces his sources nearly verbatim with minimal intervention. Finally, we argue that a pedagogical purpose drives Nicetas’s redactional choices. This purpose is evident both in his reliance on established sources and in the work’s dedication to Michael πρόεδρον τὸν Γυρῆν, who had requested a guide to the Holy Scripture. A new dating of the CLS, based on direct analysis of the codex unicus (Athens, EBE 483), supports this view: CLS is one of Nicetas’s earliest works, composed when he still depended on established models.