Original Acts and Documents at Chalcedon (AD 451)

Abstract

The analysis of document-reading conducted at the first session of Chalcedon brings to light the deliberate use of different textual objects that is decisive for understanding the session. The imperial instructions for the earlier council of Ephesus (449 AD) were read from a codex, shown to be a government register of imperial correspondence and independent of the acts of the council that contain the same texts again. The acts of the Ephesine Council, by contrast, were recited from a different document, which can be identified as the unpublished draft-original of its record. It is called a schedarion and comes in the physical shape of a (sc)roll. The use of this format, shown as characteristic of original conciliar acts, is assessed for its practical utility, the reading strategies consequent upon it, and the symbolic charge the council-rolls gain as objects.