2 Literature on or touching the Syriac text: Goussen, H., ‘Über eine ‘sugitha’ auf die Kathedrale von Edessa’, Le Muséon 38 (1925) 1–20 Google Scholar (editio princeps); Schneider, A.M., ‘Die Kathedrale von Edessa’, Oriens Christianus 3/14 (1941) 161–7 Google Scholar; Dupont-Summer, A., ‘Une hymne syriaque sur la cathédrale d’Edesse’, Cahiers Archéologiques 2 (1947) 29–39 Google Scholar; Grabar, A., ‘Le témoignage d’une hymne syriaque sur l’architecture de la cathédrale d’Edesse au VI^e siècle et sur la symbolique de l’édifice chrétien’, ibid., 41–67 Google Scholar; Smith, E.A. Baldwin, The dome of heaven (Princeton 1950) 74, 89–91 Google Scholar; Kirsten, E., two articles on ‘Edessa’, one in Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum 4 (1959) 532–97 Google Scholar, the other in Antike und Christentum 6 (1965) 144-72; Wolska, W., La Topographie chrétienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes (Paris 1962) 295–6 Google Scholar; Grabar, A., The Art of the Byzantine Empire: Byzantine art in the Middle Ages (New York 1966) 106 Google Scholar; Segal, J.B., Edessa (Oxford 1970) 189–90 Google Scholar; Sader, J., ‘La ‘sugitha’ sur l’église d’Edesse: quelques remarques sur le texte et sa traduction’, Cahiers Archéologiques (1972) 233–6 Google Scholar; Mango, C., The art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453 (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1972) 57–60 Google Scholar; Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, 3rd ed. (Harmondsworth 1979) 230 Google Scholar; Thomson, R.W., ‘Architectural symbolism in classical Armenian literature’, Journal of Theological Studies NS 30 (1979) 111 Google Scholar; Cameron, Averil, The sceptic and the shroud (London 1980 Google Scholar; reprint in eadem, Continuity and change in sixth-century Byzantium, London 1982, V); McVey, K.E., ‘The domed church as microcosm: literary roots of an architectural symbol’, DOP 37 (1983) 91–121 Google Scholar; Cameron, Averil, ‘The history of the image of Edessa: the telling of a story’, in Okeanos: Essays presented to Ihor Ševčenko, ed. Mango, C. and Pritsak, O. (Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7, Harvard 1983) 80–94 Google Scholar; Whitby, L.M., ‘Justinian’s bridge over the Sangarius and the date of Procopius’ De Aedificiis’, JHS 105 (1985) 129–48 Google Scholar; Macrides, R. and Magdalino, P., ‘The architecture of Ekphrasis: construction and context of Paul the Silentiary’s Ekphrasis of Hagia Sophia’, in the present volume of BMGS 12 (1988) 47–82 Google Scholar.

3 See below; Goussen, art. cit. 134, suggests the year 1144 for its destruction.

4 Anonymi auctoris chronicon ad annum Christi 1234 pertinens I (= Chr. 1234), ed. J.-B. Chabot (CSCO 81; 1920) 123 (text, marked in bold print in the Latin translation in the same series). On the ‘Abgarsage’ see now Drijvers, H.J.W. in Schneemelcher, W., Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, 5. Auflage, I (1987) 389–95 Google Scholar.

5 Chronicon Edessenum (= Chr. Ed.) in Chronica minora I, ed. I. Guidi (CSCO 1; 1903) with a Latin translation in the same series. There is an English translation by Cowper, B.H. in the Journal of Sacred Literature 5 (1864) 28–45 Google Scholar and a German translation by Hallier, L., in Untersuchungen über die Edessenische Chronik (Texte and Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 9:1, Leipzig 1892)Google Scholar. This chronicle is so short (13 pages) that there is no need to give individual references. For orientation in this and the following passages, see Wilkinson, J., Egeria’s travels, revised ed. (Jerusalem/Warminster 1981) 284–7 Google Scholar on the water-supply of Edessa, with a convenient plan. On the building-activity of the bishops Quno, Sha°ad and Ithaloho, cf. Michael (see note 8) VI 10 and Chr, 1234, 181 (text), which are, however, derivative from Chr. Ed.

6 Ed. Dindorf, L.(Bonn 1831), translated by Jeffreys, E. and others (Byzantina Australiensia 4, Melbourne 1986); cf. Chr. 1234, 191 Google Scholar.

7 For the date of the Buildings see Whitby, art. cit; contra Stein, E., Histoire du Bas-Empire II (Paris 1949) 837 Google Scholar, Appendix V, who gives more weight to precarious arguments from the silence of a panegyrist about matters unwelcome to the emperor. Procopius was edited by J. Haury in three volumes (Leipzig 1905-13) and Haury’s edition was reissued with Addenda and Corrigenda by G. Wirth in four volumes (Leip-zing 1962-4). The Buildings is translated into English by H.B. Dewing and G. Downey in volume seven of the Loeb bilingual edition (London and Cambridge, Mass. 1940; reprint 1971). The dam is illustrated in Segal, Edessa, plate 7 and in Drijvers, H. J.W., ‘Hatra, Palmyra und Edessa’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der ròmischen Welt II 8, edd, Temporini, H. and Haase, W. (Berlin/New York 1977) 799–906 Google Scholar, Tafel XV.

8 Chronique de Michel le syrien, ed Chabot, J.-B. (Paris 1901)Google Scholar with a French translation (= MS). Cf. Gregorii Barhebraei chronicon ecclesiasticum I, ed. Abbeloos, J.-B. and Lamy, T.J. (Louvain 1872)Google Scholar with a Latin translation and Gregorii Barhebraei chronicon syriacum [ed. P. Bedjanj (Paris 1890) with an English translation: Budge, E.A.W., The Chronography of… Barhebraeus (London 1932; reprint 1976)Google Scholar, to be used with Honigmann’s, E. corrections in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 37 (1934) 273–83 Google Scholar. Gregory reproduces Michael; Chr. 1234 has more independent value.

9 Chr. 1234, section 44, 182 (text), adding that ‘most of the emperors’ had a hand in its building, the nearest (!) any Syriac text comes to saying that Justinian was directly involved.

10 Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum IV I, ed. Schwartz, E. and Straub, J. (Berlin 1971)Google Scholar.

11 Jacob of Edessa, in Chronica minora III, ed. Brooks, E.W. etc. (CSCO 5; 1905) 321 (text); cf. Brooks, E.W., ‘The chronological canon of James of Edessa’, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 53 (1899) 261–2 Google Scholar: ‘It is probable that originally each notice was written against a particular year in the canon; but such juxtaposition is easily lost in copying, and little confidence can be placed in the dates derived from the position of the notices in our MS.’ For example, the flood of 525 is placed opposite Jacob’s year 196 = A.D. 522.

12 Exodus 36ff.; Palmer, Monk and mason on the Tigris frontier: theearly history of Tur ^cAbdin (Cambridge Oriental Publications 39, Cambridge 1988 or 1989) Chapter 4, Section 2, commenting on the relevant passage of The Qartmin Trilogy, which is edited on microfiche in the same book; the reference for the architects is LIX. 11; Procopius, Buildings 1.1.24. Cf. Whitby, art. cit. note 86; contra Goussen, art. cit. 122.

13 In Migne, PG CXIII, 422-53; cited by Runciman, S., ‘Some remarks on the Image of Edessa’, Cambridge HistoricalJaurnal 3 (1929-30) 238–52 Google Scholar. For the earlier version by Evagrius Scholasticus, see his Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. BidezandL, J.. Parmentier (London 1898; reprint 1964) IV 27 Google Scholar, wrongly cited for the discovery of the image by Cameron, The history 84-6; cf. eadem, Procopius (London 1985) 116-7 (note 29, with an unjustifiable argument from the silence of the Chronicle of Edessa).

14 In MS. 12/17 of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, number 27. f. 99a and in ms. syriaque 235 of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, f. 165a; there is a French summary by Nau, F. in Revue de l’orient chrétien 15 (1920) 60–4 Google Scholar and I am preparing an edition with an English translation for the CSCO.

15 Geert Jan van Gelder drew my attention to Mas^cūdi (d. 956), Les Prairies d’or, ed. B. de Meynard etc., II (Publications de l’université libanaise, section des études historiques 11, Beirut 1966) 51 (II 331), which says that Justinian ‘built the church of Edessa which is one of the wonders of the world … and in this church there was a cloth which was revered by the Christian people because Jesus of Nazareth dried himself with it when he emerged from the waters of baptism’. This is not noticed by Cameron, The history, but when juxtaposed with the tenth-century Byzantine arkhaiologia of the mandëlion (Cameron, ibid., 92) Mas^cūdi’s claim that it ‘circulated’ yatadāwalu) before coming to rest in the church of the Edessa shows an interesting consciousness on the part of an outside observer that there was some uncertainty as to its early history.

16 There may be an allusion to the two choirs on either side of the bema in the symbolism of strophe 16 (AIN): a Good-Friday sugito represents a dialogue between the two thieves: Brock, S.P., sugyoto mgabyoto (Syr. Orth. monastery, Glane/Losser 1982) No. 12, 56–60 Google Scholar. Cf. also Taft, R.F., ‘Some notes on the bema in the east and west Syrian traditions’, OCP 34 (1968) 326ff Google Scholar.

17 See in general Martin, J.P.P., De la métrique chez les syriens (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 7.2, Leipzig 1879)Google Scholar; Kirschner, B., ‘Alphabetische Acrosticha in der syrischen Kirche’, Oriens Christianus 6-7 (1906) 1–69 Google Scholar; Hölscher, G., Syrische Verskunst (Leipziger semitistische Studien 5; Leipzig 1932, reprint 1968)Google Scholar; at Birmingham in 1987 there was a musical performance of a part of the anthem in the Syriac idiom (with the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, Mor Grighorios Yuhannon Ibrahim); this was recorded and I will make a copy for anyone who sends me a cassette-tape with addressed envelope at the Klassiek Instituut, Pleiadenlaan 10-26, NL-9742 NG Groningen.

18 McVey, art. cit. 109 has a somewhat different analysis of the structure.

19 Palmer, Monk and Mason, he. cit; the ref. to the cherub is LX.9. Goussen, art. cit. 130 appears to be suggesting that the ‘cherub’ is actually a curtain on a colonnade in front of the altar; but the parallel with the unambiguous Qartmin description from the same half-century is close and a ciborium is independently attested for the church in Edessa: About 622 the silver — 112,000 pounds of it — was stripped off the ‘naos’ above the altar with ‘its four columns’, ‘off all the columns in front of the sanctuary’, and off the bema, and sent to Persia (Chr. 1234, 230); later in that century, the Caliph Mu^cāwiya ordered the restoration of the ciborium (over the altar) and the ‘two sides of it’ (either ‘of the ciborium’, meaning its supporting structure, or ‘of the church’, meaning two of the galleries?) after they collapsed in the earthquake of Easter morning, A.D. 679 (MS XI 13, misunderstood by Goussen, art. cit. 130). Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, I (Leipzig 1883) 356, under the world-year 6170 (= 678/9), translated by H. Turtledove (Philadelphia 1982) 54, has the following: ‘In this year there was a severe earthquake in Mesopotamia. In it, to batan (Lampe: ‘?ciborium’, Turtledove; ‘pulpit’; but what was said above may justify the translation ‘gallery’ and the dome (this could mean, or be a misunderstanding of, the domed ciborium) of the church at Edessa fell. Because of the Christians’ zealous exertions (or ‘urgent representations’), Muawiyah rebuilt it.’ The Chronicl of 819, edited by A. Barsaum in Chron. 1234, I, 3-22, reports under the Seleucid year 990 (= A.D. 679) that ‘one side of the ancient church of Edessa collapsed (in the earthquake) and was destroyed at the third hour on Easter Sunday’, but says nothing of Mu^cāwiya’s restoration; but this chronicle is an almost random compilation, the silence of which can have no significance whatsoever (see Palmer, Monk and Mason, Introduction, Section 2a). I am grateful to Geert Jan van Gelder for the information that this report is not in the Arab historians.

20 Many scholars have taken the Syriac thronos here to mean synthronos, feeling that the ‘nine steps’ are too many for the base of an altar; but no evidence has been offered of this connotation for the Syriac word, whereas it very frequently means ‘altar’. Besides, the thronos comes at the culmination of the description and is compared with the throne of Christ; and no synthronos or bishop’s throne could vie with the altar for this position.

21 On the theological concept of dispensation or economy, see Stiegler, A.M., ‘Dispensation und Dispensationswesen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung bis zum 9. Jahrhundert’, Archiv für katholisches Kirchenrecht 77 (1897) 3–42 Google Scholar; the basic meaning is of a wise and compassionate handling of affairs. The Incarnation is seen as central to God’s Dispensation; indeed, ‘The Dispensation’ can be used to mean ‘Christ’s life on earth’.

22 Trypanis, C.A., Fourteen early Byzantine cantica (Wiener byzantinistische Stu-dien 5, Vienna 1968)Google Scholar; see Macrides, R. and Magdalino, P., art. cit. 16-11, relating the kontakion Google Scholar to the Syriac anthem and to Paul’s Ekphrasis. Misprints in the text: House 3: distaxon, for distazon; House 4, app: hapantas, for hapanta; House 17 and app. (?): Phonen, for phone; supplement: House 12: ap<o kharitos sy>skiazei (I would like to thank Wim Aerts for this suggestion). On ‘Liturgische Hymnographie’ and acrostics, see Beck, H.-G., Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Byzantinisches Handbuch II 1, Miinchen 1959) 262–6 Google Scholar.

23 Trypanis, op. cit. 10 (note 5) and 139, without any mention of influence of Romanos on the younger generation of hymnographers, or indeed of the possibility that the unique occasion might have caused Romanos himself to adopt another style, so that our kontakion might after all be attributed to him; for the date see the Chronographia of John Malaias, 303; Theophanes, Chronographia 238 (under the world-year 6055); Cramer, J.A., ed., Anecdotda Graeca e codicibus manuscriptis Bibliothecae Regiae Parisiensis II (Oxford 1839; reprinted 1967) 114 Google Scholar; on the liturgical occasion see Paul the Silentiary, Ekphrasis on the Temple of Holy Wisdom, in Friedlànder, P., ed. and comm., Johannes von Gaza, Paulus Silentiarius und Prokopios von Gaza: Kunstbeschreibungen justinianischer Zeit (Leipzig etc. 1912; reprint 1969) lines 311–49 Google Scholar; Mary Whitby, ‘The occasion of Paul the Silentiary’s Ekphrasis of Sophia’, S., Classical Quarterly 35 (1985) 215–228 Google Scholar; and see Macrides, R. and Magdalino, P., art. cit. 63ff Google Scholar. for an alternative dating.

24 Narratio de S. Sophia, 27, in Preger, T., Scriptores originum constan-tinopolitanarum I (Leipzig 1901) 104f Google Scholar. (I am grateful to Michael and Mary Whitby for this reference). The translation is Edward Gibbon’s, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, IV⁷ (1931) 245.

25 Gregory of Nyssa, In diem natalem Christ!, in Migne, J.P., Patrologia Graeca (Paris 1857-66) XLVI, especially 1128–9 Google Scholar.

26 Jan van Dijk both reminded me of the passage in Proverbs and told me of this tradition concerning Mary, which he found in an Orthodox handbook of liturgical feasts.

27 Procopius, Vandal Wars 1.6.26; idem, Buildings, 1.1.21, II.7.6: cf. Cameron, Averil, Procopius and the sixth century (London 1985) 36, 115 Google Scholar; eadem, Agathias (London 1970) ch. 8; Mary Whitby, art. cit. 217, note 11.

28 Assemanus, S.E. and Assemanus, J.S., Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codicum manuscrip-torum catalogus 1.2 (Rome 1756)Google Scholar.

29 Wright, W., Catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1838 (London 1870-2) xxxi Google Scholar.

30 Wright, Catalogue, 362.

31 = 4.

32 See Palmer, note 2 above, for full references.

33 The Art of the Byzantine Empire (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1972) 58.

34 Mango, C., Byzantine Architecture (New York 1976) 192 pl. 211 Google Scholar.

35 Illustrated in Mango, Byzantine Architecture, pls. 175–9 Google Scholar.