Un manuscrit de Dionisie Eclisiarhul au monastère de Barlaam

Abstract

In the early thirties Marcu Beza discovered at the Barlaam Monastery
/ Meteora a Romanian manuscript, which he described in his
book Romanian Traces in the Orthodox Orient. The brief description
was accompanied by four photographs.
The manuscript, an abridged register of the Bucovăţ Monastery
(Oltenia), is adorned with miniatures, among which two full-page compositions
deserve particular attention: Saint Nicholas, patron of the
Romanian monastery, and All Saints’, dedication of the Barlaam Monastery.
In 1934 N. lorga published the text of the documents contained
in the Barlaam register. They represent a choice of charters, reconfirming
the monastic properties at different times. The Bucovăţ Monastery
was founded in 1572 and submitted to Barlaam in 1588.
A. Sacerdoţeanu, an experienced archivist, was the first to suggest
(1967) that the Barlaam manuscript could belong to Dionisie
Eclesiarhul, an outstanding Wallachian chronicler, calligrapher and miniaturist
of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His suggestion was
based exclusively on the textual analysis, using the lorga transliteration
as a starting point.
The full version of the Bucovăţ register is preserved at the State
Archives, Bucharest (ms. no. 443). It bears Dionisie’s signature and
the date (1813). The decorative and the palaeographic similarities between
the Bucharest and the Barlaam manuscripts are obvious. Their
title pages and Saint Nicholas miniatures display even a certain identity
of details.
Further comparative material is offered by the obituary of the
Bucovăţ Monastery (State Archives, Bucharest, ms. no. 460). The manuscript
is signed by Dionisie and dates from 1813 as well.
The page-setting, the graphic characteristics and the decoration
reveal Dionisie as compiler, calligrapher and illustrator of the Barlaam
Romanian manuscript, written probably at the same time with the
other two Dionisie / Bucovăţ manuscripts (1813). As an abstract of the original register, the Barlaam short version
was destined to be kept at the patron monastery. The figuration of
the All Saints’scene besides that of Saint Nicholas points out the ad
hoc destination of the Barlaam manuscript. Its function was more
representative than purely documental.
The dedication of the Barlaam Monastery furnishes the best explanation
for the presence of the All Saints’ scene among the wall paintings
from the naos of the Bucovăţ church. This infrequent scene occupies
a prominent place in the naos, namely the half-dome of the
south apse.