The Apostolic Constitutions (Constitutiones Apostolorum) rank among the most valuable–and checkered–documents available for the study of the history of ancient Church Orders. In antiquity they were erroneously thought to be a collection of ecclesiastical regulations of Apostolic origin, recorded by Clement of Rome. They are, in truth, a much later compilation of three main sources: the Didascalia Apostolorum, the Doctrina Duodecim Apostolorum and the Traditio Apostolica. The collection is of Antiochene provenance, and can be dated approximately to 380 C.E. The Apostolic Constitutions are an important source for the history of the Antiochene liturgy, but their relevance concerns not only liturgics. Much can be learned from them, for instance, about the concepts behind and development of ecclesiastical offices. The textual transmission of this compilation is rather heterogeneous: While the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions is quite well attested by two uncials (Cod. Vat. Barb. gr. 336; and the Latin "Fragmentum Veronense"), no uncial witness for the other books is currently known. To date the only attestations to the first seven books–that we know about at least–have all come from later, minuscule manuscripts. Until now. In my paper I would like to present a totally new textual witness in uncial script for book one of the collection, a witness coming from the Göttingen State and University Library. As it is written in an ogival, inclined majuscule, this newly discovered text can be dated for paleographic reasons to the 9th century and must, therefore, be considered the oldest witness for the first book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Giving a brief codicological and paleographical description, I will present a preliminary edition and a theological placement of this new, uncial witness.
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