La tradizione bizantino-slava del «Commento» di Niceta di Eraclea alle «16 Orazioni» di Gregorio di Nazianzo: prolegomeni ad uno studio comparato delle fonti

The present paper aims at laying the foundation for a comparative text-critical
and linguistic analysis of the Greek and Church Slavonic traditions of Nicetas of Heraclea’s Commentary on the 16 Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (CPG 3027). This exegetical work, which was originally composed between the late 11th and the early 12th centuries, survives in both languages in a plethora of manuscripts dating from the 12th up to the 17th centuries. While only a few portions of the Greek text have been published (mostly in diplomatic editions), both
Church Slavonic versions, Slav. 1 and Slav. 2, still await in-depth philological investigation. The first translation was carried out in all likelihood by the late 12th century and therefore appears to be almost contemporary with the original. This study deals with the Church Slavonic transmission of the Commentary and provides scholars with a methodological framework for establishing the textual relationship between the Greek original and the Slav. 1. Moreover, a preliminary analysis of the Scholia on Chapter 4 of Homily 39 is offered, in which Nicetas of
Heraclea addresses a number of mythographic themes.