The Anti-Tritheist Florilegium in MSS BL Add 14532 and 14538 Revisited

In 1924, Giuseppe Furlani published an Italian translation of an anti-Tritheist florilegium he found in MS BL Add 14532. His translation focused mainly on the chapter titles in the florilegium and the quotations from the works of John Philoponus. In 1980, Albert van Roey published the Syriac Trinitarian fragments of Philoponus, found in various manuscripts, together with their Latin translation. Van Roey’s contribution also presented the same florilegium, as found in MS BL Add 14538 as well as 14532, and identified most of the patristic passages quoted by the compiler. Both scholars, besides some inaccurate readings and some errors in identifications, paid attention only to the quotations of Philoponus, while the Trinitarian position of the compiler and his identityremained unanalysed. In this study then, I aim to analyse the Trinitarian position of the complier, which offers important evidence of a relationship between the doctrine of Damian of Alexandria against Tritheism and some West Syrian circles. In doing so I will first present the florilegium, illustrate the profile of the compiler, his sources, and a probable date and place of his compilation of the florilegium as well as the doctrinal context in which this text was composed.