With many thanks to Dominique Gatté who indicated this new publication of a digitised manuscript, this time a rather rare type: the Akolouthiai or Taxis ton akolouthion ("Order of services").
Cherouvikon asmatikon in echos plagios devteros (ff. 255v–259r)
ca. 1400 • Thessaloniki. Mathema Mega Ison by Ioannes Koukouzeles (ff. 1-2), Flag with the title Βιβλίον σὺν Θεῷ ἁγίῳ περιέχον τὴν ἄπασαν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς τάξεως συνταχθὲν παρὰ τοῦ μαΐστορος κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κουκουζέλη (ff. 3r-4r), Hesperinos collection (ff. 3r–76v), Orthros collection (ff. 77r–233v), Liturgy of John Chrysostom (ff. 233v–276v), Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (ff. 276v–281v), Appendix: Chant for the Holy Week (ff. 282r–291r), 2 stichera of the Triodion (ff. 291v-292v), Ioannes Kladas: Evlogetarion (ff. 293r–300v), Xenos Korones the Protopsaltes' oktoechos method of the sticherarion (ff. 301r-308v), Sticherarion (ff. 309r–341v).
See the more detailed description by Christian Hannick in the catalogue (pp. 370–374).
Replies
Thank You so much. It is very interesting manuscript. Cherouvikon is very old.
I am also very grateful to Dominique, because this is the first Akolouthiai manuscript which was published as a whole online. It was written after Ioannis Koukouzelis' death, but it still has a rather anonymous approach to the compositions listed here.
The collection of cherouvika is quite a long section (ff. 255v–264r), most of them are different realisations of the cherouvikon asmatikon and the shorter cherouvikon palatinon, both with the main signature plagios devteros like in the asmatika, although the choir of the asmatikon has a medial intonation of kyrios devteros and the register goes beyond the upper tetrachord like in the kalophonic realisations in the other Akolouthiai (EBE 2458, ff. 161v–164v dated to 1336; EBE 2406, ff. 236vff realisation by the Domestikos Michael of Aneotos dated to 1432). It is closer to the earlier realisation, where the kalophonic sections are reserved to the Domestikos, while the Monophonaris sings most of the text, in a quite melismatic way, but without abstract syllables.
Note that the psaltikon part in Messina Ms. 161 is contemporary to the early Akolouthiai, since its collection already has compositions ascribed to Ioannis Koukouzelis. The monophonaris also sang in a kalophonic melos, similar to the later version of 1432, but also psalm verses with a kind of prosomoion.
In this Akolouthiai of Thessaloniki, which is a rather surprising provenance with respect to the traditionalist attitude of the local Hagia Sophia cathedral known from the liturgical treatises by the Metropolit Symeon (it was probably not shared in other communities of the polis), we already have two cherouvika composed in the plagios protos (the one by Xenos Korones has already changes to the phthora nenano), but there is no papadic oktoechos cycle yet as in Iviron 1120. It is assumed that Manuel Chrysaphes composed the first one.
Our topic cherouvikon already supports the datation of the manuscript.