Maxim Venetskov: Reading traditions of the Ladder of Divine Ascent according to the manuscript marks

The Synaxarium Triodii and Pentecostarii, written in the 11th-12th century at the monastery of the Mother of God Evergetis, prescribes the reading of some ascetic treatises during Lent.A large number of manuscripts containing the text of the Ladder of John of Sinai provide specific information on how the text was read in the Byzantine monasteries from the 14th century.In several codices of the Klimax there are found some various marginal marks or reading notations ("στάσεις" and "ὧραι") which attest to one or many monastic practices of reading the Ladder aloud. These were read in pericopes, performed in the course of the Offices of Terce, Sext and None, and extending from Monday to Friday during the first six weeks of Lent.Various characteristics of the manuscripts (formats, illuminations, annotations) also provide some valuable clues about the readers of Climacus, in the monastic milieu as expected, but also a few secular scholars.The tradition of reading the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the refectory of Mount Athos and other Orthodox monasteries continues to the present day.