Alessia Brombin: The epistle to Anne of Savoy: an attempt to re-discover the role of David Dishypato on the Hesychast’s controversy

Current interest in the Hesychast controversy is indicated by the number of studies which have been published in the last fifty years, however there is a short important document, that can be credited to the circle of secondary literature, though it was never considered enough. The author was David Dishypato.
Dishypato belonged to the Palaeologan Dynasty, worked in close contact with Gregory Palamàs. In the 1347, Empress Anne of Savoy requested David to wrote account of the second period of controversy (1341-51) between Palamàs and Barlaam. The text, so called «Historia brevis», was remarkable for the fact that summarized in a clear few words the inconsistency of the Barlaam and Akindynos’s doctrine, giving a considerable endorsement for the palamite’s theology. His work focusing specifically on diatribe around distinction of «essence-energies» to clear the opposite statement using a straightforward style. Specifically, this issue will try to overhaul two editions of «Τοῦ τιμιωτάτου καὶ σοφωτάτου μονάχοῦ κυροῦ Δαυὶδ ἱστορία διὰ βραχέων ὅπως τὴν ἀρχὴν συνέστη ἡ κατὰ τὸν Βαρλαὰμ καὶ Ἀκίνδυνον πονηρὰ αἵρεσις» edited by Uspenskij (1892) and Candal (1949). Last edition seems merely a series of patristic quotations.
This project will consider the variegated compound of the epistle within own specific contexts up to obtain, as much as possible, an homogenous text. Subsequent studies, for example that of Browning, consider the interpolation with the Bodleian manuscript. This third draft of the text will represents an effort to deepen our understanding of the last dispute’s phases.