PHAIDRA – Digital collections

This project examines overall 13 documents, in particular 6 parchment charts called “Carte del Concilio di Firenze” [Charts of the council of Florence], which consist of original documents reporting the outcome of the theological debate occurring between the East and the West at the council held in Florence from 1439. The documents are preserved in a silver gilt case called “Cassetta Cesarini”, part of the collections of the Medicea Laurenziana Library.

The DSU (Department of Humanities), within the research project "I secoli XI e XII prodromi dell'Europa unita e divisa: confronti e scontri tra l'Oriente bizantino e l'Occidente latino”, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education in the framework of the 2013 FIR program (PI: Dr Alessandra Bucossi, Ca’ Foscari University; Local coordinator: Dr Pietro Podolak, University of Pisa) has examined 6 parchments and other 7 documents of various nature (including 2 fascicules and a codex, and some material in Arabic and Ethiopian).

No. 19 is a more recent document, included at a later stage, after the other documents had been gathered by cardinal Cesarini, and thus it has been excluded from the collection of documents coeval to the council. It consists of an authentication of the originality of the decree of 1439 (Modula recognitionis bullae), compiled by the Archbishop of Florence and cardinal Francesco Nerli between 1676 and 1682, during the pontificate of Innocent XI.

Nos. 20-21 contain few lines in Arabic and they have not been described.

Bibliography

J. Gill, Quae supersunt actorum graecorum Concilii Florentini, I (V.1) (Res Ferrariae Gestae) (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1953;
Id. Quae supersunt actorum graecorum Concilii Florentini, II (V.2) (Res Florentiae Gestae) (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1953;
Id. Quae supersunt actorum graecorum Concilii Florentini. Appendix Concilii Florentini e Ms. Venetiano, Roma 1964;
Id. Orationes Georgii Scholarii in Concilio Florentino habitatae, VIII.1 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1964;
G. Hofmann, Epistolae pontificiae ad Concilium Florentinum spectantes, I-III (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1940-1946;
Id. Documenta Concilii Florentini de unione orientalium, I (De unione Graecorum), Textus et Documenta. Series Theologica 18, Roma 1935;
Id. Documenta Concilii Florentini de unione orientalium, II (De unione Armenorum), Textus et Documenta. Series Theologica 19, Roma 1935; Id. Documenta Concilii Florentini de unione orientalium, III (De unione Coptorum, Syrorum, Chaldaeorum Maronitarumque Cypri), Textus et Documenta. Series Theologica 22, Roma 1936;
Id. Andreas De Santacroce. Acta Latina Concilii Florentini, VI (Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Series B), Roma 1955;
Id. Acta Camerae Apostolicae et civitatum Venetiarum, Ferrariae, Florentiae, Ianuae de Concilio Florentino, III.1 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1950;
Id. Fragmenta protocolli, diaria privata, sermones, III.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1951;
Id. Orientalium documenta minora, III.3 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1953;
L. Petit-G. Hofmann, De Purgatorio disputationes in Concilio Florentini habitae, VIII.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1969;
V. Laurent, Les «Mémoires» du Grand Ecclésiarche de l’église de Constantinople Sylvestre Syropoulos sur le concile de Florence (1438-1439), IX (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1971;
J. Krajcar, Acta Slavica Concilii Florentini, XI (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores), Roma 1976;
E. Cecconi, Studi storici sul concilio di Firenze, I, Firenze 1869; E. Candal, Bessarion Nicaenus S. R. E. Cardinalis. Oratio Dogmatica de Unione, VII. 1 (Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Series B), Roma 1958;
Id. Bessarion Nicaenus S. R. E. Cardinalis.De Spiritus Sancti Processione ad Alexium Lascarin Philanthropinum, VII.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1961;
Id. Ioannes De Torquemada O. P. Cardinalis Sancti Sixti. Apparatus super decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum, II.1 (Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Series B), Roma 1942;
Id. Ioannes De Torquemada O. P. Cardinalis Sancti Sixti. Oratio Synodalis De Primatu, IV.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma, 1954;
Id. Andreas De Escobar O. S. B. Episcopus Megarensis. Tractatus polemico-theologicus de Graecis errantibus, IV.1 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1952;
L. Petit, Marci Eugenici Metropolitae Ephesi Opera anti-unionistica, X.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1977;
B. Schultze S. I., Fantinus Vallaresso Archiepiscopus Cretensis. Libellus de ordine generalium conciliorum et Uione Florentina, II.2 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series B), Roma 1944;
G. Hofmann-E. Candal, Isidorus Arch. Kiovensis et totius Russiae Sermones inter Concilium Florentinum conscripti, X.1 (Concilium Florentinum. Documenta et scriptores, Series A), Roma 1971.

Further reading

S. Kolditz, Johannes VIII. Palaiologos und das Konzil von Ferrara-Florenz (1438/39) (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, 60), Stuttgart 2013;
G. Lusini-A. Rigo, Bessarione di Nicea. Orazione Dogmatica sull’Unione dei Greci e dei Latini (Biblioteca europea. Istituto Italiano per gli studi filosofici, 28), Napoli 2001;
J. Gill, The Council of Florence, Cambridge 1959;
Id. Personalities of the Council of Florence, Oxford 1964;
M.-H. Blanchet, La question de l’Union des églises (13e-15e siècle): historiographie et perspectives, Revue des Études Byzantines 61 (2003), σ. 5-48;
M.-H. Blanchet – F. Gabriel (ed.), Réduire le Schisme? Ecclésiologies et politiques de l’Union entre Orient et Occident (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècle), Paris 2013;
P. Viti (ed.), Firenze e il Concilio del 1439 (Convegno di studi. Firenze, 29 novembre-2 dicembre 1989), Firenze 1994;
A. Mercati, Il decreto d’unione del 6 luglio 1439 nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 11 (1945), pp. 5-44.