A repertoire of stories : first soundings on the historiographical excerpts of ms. Vat. Sir. 145

The present article analyzes the macro-structural organization of the historiographical excerpt collections of ms. Vat. Sir. 145 (ninth–tenth century). It shows that through simple adjustments the excerptor created a thematic narrative revolving around certain figures or topics. If the excerpts from Socrates and Theodoret’s Ecclesiastical Histories are arranged following similar principles, those from Pseudo-Zachariah are differently and less carefully structured. The paper then suggests that the whole historiographical collection might be a copy of an earlier manuscript, written by two or more excerptors. Finally, thanks to an analysis of the marginalia of the codex, the article argues that the codex was conceived as a “repertoire of stories,” easy to retrieve and further extrapolate.