The Byzantine Lectionary of Praxapostolos at the Institute for New Testament Research (INTF). A Study of the Byzantine Manuscripts of Praxapostolos with the Sigle “la+Lit”, according to Kurt Aland’s Repertory of Greek New Testament Testimonies

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Georgios Andreou
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535046476

The history of the Byzantine liturgical tradition reveals the mobility and changes during the important period of iconoclasm (843), which at the same time marked major editorial changes in the liturgical books of Byzantine Worship, such as the book of Praxapostolos i.e., those books containing pericopes from the Acts of the Apostles of the Epistles of St. Paul and the Catholic Epistles. This should be the research approach that has been successfully carried out in the past to reveal the great historical and liturgical identity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The configuration of my research upon the manuscripts of Praxapostolos takes as its beginning, primarily, the 9th century and as a conclusion the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. Of course, after the conquest, its liturgical tradition still offers remarkable texts, of Praxapostolos for study and research under editorial criteria. The only textual approach to the manuscripts of the Byzantine Praxapostolos to be found has been conducted by scholars of the New Testament text. Except for the cases of Elena Verkovska, who presented in detail her conclusions in her doctoral dissertation as well as in several articles published from time to time, and mine, which comes with the recent publication of my doctoral dissertation, which concerns research on Byzantine manuscripts of Praxapostolos. Furthermore, the undersigned has recently given in the international bibliography important research of an important manuscript of the Praxapostolos Vlad. 21 Savva 4 of the Moscow Historical Museum. Therefore, the submission of a thorough research proposal related to the historical and liturgical area of the research is therefore essential to the academic community, as there needs to be a research follow-up to the already existing findings through the small but significant literature. The purpose of the transfer in Germany and at the INTF is to carry out profound research on a group of 159 manuscripts of Praxapostoloi which belong to various libraries and monasteries in Europe but have been digitalized and classified by the above-mentioned Institute. All the above sources are collected at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster. Then, after a philological and paleographical approach to the manuscripts containing such provisions, extensive liturgical research will be attempted and a monograph on the Historical and Liturgical Development of the Book of Praxapostolos.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants