medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> I am trying to track down the precise text of the story of the Emperor
> Justinian entering Hagia Sophia for the first time and declaring,
> "Solomon, I have surpassed you!" A recent book on Justinian attributes
> this to a work by an anonymous author known as the "Anonymous of
> Banduri," and only gives a citation of Anonymi Narratio, ed. Preger, c.
> 27.
> Does anyone know of an English translation of this particular story, or
> have access to the particular volume of the CSHB (vol. 32?)?
The full reference to Preger is: _Narratio de structura templi S.
Sophiae_, in T. Preger, _Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum_
(Leipzig, 1901), vol. 1, pp. 74-108. A partial translation into
English is available in Cyril Mango, _The Art of the Byzantine Empire
312-1453_ (Englewood Cliffs, 1972), pp. 96-102. According to Rowland
J. Mainstone, _Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure and Liturgy of
Justinian's Great Church_ (London, 1988), p. 10, the "so-called"
Narratio is a "late and largely legendary account". It is highly
unlikely that Justinian actually uttered these words, but the
contemporary description - or ekphrasis - by Procopius is pretty darn
laudatory.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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