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Document Details : Title: Vita beati Silvestri Subtitle: Status questionis et versio armeniaca Author(s): SHIRINIAN, Manea Erna Journal: Le Muséon Volume: 138 Issue: 1-2 Date: 2025 Pages: 19-34 DOI: 10.2143/MUS.138.1.3294397 Abstract : The article discusses the problems associated with the forged Vita beati Silvestri and its Oriental versions, as well as others considered forged works. It seems that these spurious writings should receive almost the same attention as any other medieval text, since they bring forward interesting data. An amusing aspect of the Vita Silvestri is that the Roman legend about Constantine’s baptism by Sylvester is so commingled with elements of its Oriental versions that it is almost impossible to reveal its original core without studying all these versions. Both the Latin original and its Greek translation have been preserved in different versions. The Syriac and Armenian translations were made from Greek. In the Armenian tradition, the Life of Sylvester has an old Armenian Hellenizing translation and a concise version of it. The latter was included in the so-called Short Socrates, which also contains the short recension of another ancient Armenian Hellenizing translation, namely the Ecclesiastical History by Socrates Scholasticus. The author of the Short Socrates, having actually combined these two versions into one, presents them under the general title History of Socrates and begins the narrative with the Vita Silvestri. Topics related to the question of why such a pro-Roman opus was so widespread in Armenia (since both the translation and its recension later served as a source for some spurious writings) are also explained in this study. |
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