Britt Dahlman - The Collectio Scorialensis parva: an alphabetical collection of old apophthegmatic and hagiographic material

Two Greek manuscripts contain an inedited alphabetical collection of stories about Egyptian desert fathers. It is called Collectio Scorialensis parva (“the small Scorialensis collection”) after one of the manuscripts, Scorialensis R.II.1 (Revilla 21). Together with the other manuscript, Parisinus gr. 919, it also contains a larger collection of the Apophthegmata Patrum, the so called alphabetica-anonyma derivata. Other manuscripts preserve the latter collection in a later stage, where all or parts of the material in the Collectio Scorialensis parva have been incorporated. This material is of great interest and importance for the study of the textual history of several hagiographical works. Along with other texts it consists of chapters from the Historia Lausiaca and the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto transmitting ancient redactions, which differ very much from the printed texts. This paper will describe and analyse the contents of the Collectio Scorialensis parva, of which I am preparing an edition.