Genizah Ms. 17: an Extract from an Early Version of the Passio of St Plato of Ancyra, Part 1

Abstract

Abstract The study pursues two aims. The first part is dedicated to the deciphering and editing of a new text preserved as palimpsest on a parchment bifolio. It belongs to a small collection of documents from the Cairo Genizah owned by the University of Geneva. The fragment reveals an extract from an early version of a Passion of St Plato of Ancyra, a saint who is best known through Byzantine menologia. His Passion was also reworked by Symeon Metaphrastes in the 10th century. However, the new text is closest to an anonymous pre-metaphrastic version available in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca. The second aim of the paper (developed in Part 2) is, therefore, to establish the relation between different versions of the Passion and locate the new witness from the Cairo Genizah in the history of the transmission of this text.