I was there. Constantine Akropolites’ Typikon

[English page]

MARCH 15, 2018 BY NATALIE ANDERSON

I was there. Constantine Akropolites’ Typikon

By Jonas J. H. Christensen

http://www.medievalists.net/2018/03/constantine-akropolites-typikon/

Scandinavian Journal of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Number 3, 2017

Portrait of the sebastokrator Constantine Palaiologos and his wife Eirene, from the Typikon of the Monastery of Our Lady of Certain Hope. Oxford, Bodleian Library Lincoln College, Ms.Gr. 35

Introduction: Constantine Akropolites wrote an appendix to the typikon for the Church of our Lord’s Resurrection in Constantinople, rebuilt by his father, George (1217-82). The typikon was written sometime between 1295 and Constantine’s own death in 1324, on the occasion of his dedication of a chapel to St. Lazaros. The church, together with the rest of the foundation, was probably combined through the instrument of henosis with the older foundation of the Asiatic foundation of St. Lazaros on Mt. Galesios during the time of the two Akropolitai, reflecting the rapid loss of territorial control and monasteries in Asia Minor.

Constantine’s father, George, the well-known historian and grand logothete under  Michael  VII  Palaiologos,  was  himself  not  the  original  founder of the Church of the Resurrection, but carried out a restoration that put him on a par with the original. Poor or defunct foundations would often be brought under the charge of wealthy Byzantines and as the original founders were often completely forgotten or simply mythical, there was nothing to stop the sponsor from attaining the title of ‘new founder’ or simply ‘founder’.

As we shall see, this usage of the term was stretched to new limits in the case of Constantine’s typikon.