Τυπικόν / Typikon — Venice 1545

Τυπικὸν καὶ τὰ Ἀπόρρητα. — [Venice] Ἀνδρέας Κουνάδις [1545]. [Colophon:] Ἐνετίησιν, ἐν οικία ἰωάννου ἀντονίου καὶ πέτρου τῶν σαβιέων καὶ αὐταδέλφων. α᾿φ᾽μ᾽ε᾿. ἰανουαρίου, Δ᾽. (Venice, Giovanni Antonio, and Pietro Nicolini da Sabbio and brothers, 4 January 1545 [for Damiano di Santa Maria di Spici].)

First edition 

Folio. α-π⁸ ρ⁴ ς-ω⁸ Α⁸: (196) leaves, including blank ρ₄. Signatures both in Latin and Greek below the right column, „Τυπι.“ below the left column. Ornamental head-pieces in different sizes. Printed in black and red throughout. Short tear to outer margin of the title-page. Contemporary overlapping vellum. Provenance: Early bibliographical notes on title.

Layton, The sixteenth century book in Italy, no. 91 (p. 231); Legrand I, no. 114, p. 268-270 (L’insigne rareté de ce livre …). An edition printed in 1525 (listed in Greek Libr./Onassis Libr. no. 808) does not exist. On the occurence of the books of the Kounadis-Damiano company Layton writes: „Most of the books from this press … survive in only one or two copies, and a number have disappeared completely.“ (p. 353, n. 36)

It seems that there are eight complete copies of the Typikon outside Greece: Edit 16 lists four copies in Italy; USTC lists the Italian copies and the Mazarine copy; OCLC adds Harvard (which seems not lacking title only, but another 29 leaves), Munich/BSB, Copenhagen/Royal Library, and Ann Arbor. Layton lists six complete copies in Greek libraries.

 

Publisher: The image shows the device of the publisher Andreas Kounadis. What you see is a marten of which the name in modern Greek is κουνάδι. Andreas died by the end of 1522, but the device was first published in the Horologion of 1524. In other words, Damiano di Santa Maria da Spici had ordered and used the little woodcut to bring lasting memory to his beloved and revered son-in-law. 58 books from 1523 to 1553 have the device and bring Andreas to mind even 30 years after his death. As far as the Typikon is concerned, the name of Damiano is not mentioned on the title-page nor in the colophon; his name appears in the introduction by Andreas Noukios, the editor of the Typikon, where Noukios mentions Damiano as the financier of all costs: συνεργῷ χρησάμενοι κὰι χορηγῷ τῆς δαπάνης ἁπασης Δαμιανῷ τῷ φιλοχρίστῳ ἀνδρί; what συνεργῷ exactly means is uncertain.

Andreas Kounadis came form Patras to Venice, where he completed his studies at the Greek school in 1520, when he married the daughter of Damiano, a prosperous clothmaker born in Spic on the Balkan, at that time under Venetian rule. The great idea of Andreas was to publish Greek books for Greek readers. When he started, supported by Damiano, no more than five or six liturgical books had appeared. The first liturgical book he published, in 1521, was a Psalterion; when the Kounadis-Damiano company ceased, they had published nearly thirty liturgical books, and, of equal importance, nearly 20 book in modern Greek. 

Because of that F. R. Walton, former director of the Gennadius Library, wrote: „It is hardly an exaggeration to rank Andreas Kounadis (and his alter ego, his devoted father-in-law Damian di Santa Maria di Spici) as a second Aldus Manutius. Each was an innovator, bringing to light Greek texts hitherto unknown or unavailable.“ ¹ 

Editor: The editor of the Typikon is Andronikos Noukios from Corfu, who came to Venice in 1537, where he earned a living by copying manuscripts. In 1541 he became member of the Greek Brotherhood of Venice; in 1543 its secretary. In 1542 Noukios was engaged as editor by Damiano. We know for sure that besides the Typikon he edited the Apostolos of 1542, and his own translation of parts of Aesop into modern Greek in 1543. 

Layton suggests that there are more chapbooks and liturgica edited by him, but since „all of the chapbooks published during this period are without indication of editor“ ² this remains uncertain.

In his introduction to the Typikon (the Greek text is reprinted in Legrand I 268 ff.) Noukios wonders that the Typikon has not yet appeared in print, since it is so important for the proper use of the other liturgical books. Neither carelessness nor lack of financial resources could have been the reason for the absence of a printed edition. Rather, it lies in the fact that it is difficult to find a manuscript of the Typikon at all; and when a copy emerges, it is so full of mistakes or incomplete that it is useless as a model for printing. However, he had a complete manuscript, so that, with much effort and comparison with other manuscripts, he created an excellent model for printing. He expresses his hope that even in the eyes of those who track down every mistake like a Laconian hunting dog, he does not look like an illiterate. After mentioning the collaboration with Damiano di Santa Maria, he writes that he is proud to have published this necessary and extremely useful book – τὴν βύβλον ὡς ἀναγκαίαν καὶ  πανὺ ὠφελίμον.

Another Greek involved in the Typikon left his island for Venice, when Corfu was pillaged by Turkish troops in 1537: Vasileios Valeris. Like Noukios he earned a living by copying manuscripts and editing liturgical books; he was a member of the Greek Brotherhood since 1538. In our book he is the author of the sixty calculations of Eastern from 1545 to 1604 (πασχάλια) at the end of the book.

Printer: As the colophon states the Typikon was printed by Giovanni Antonio, and Pietro Nicolini da Sabbio and brothers. 

In 1521 Kounadis engaged the brothers to print the Ψαλτήριον.; they produced some 46 Liturgica and books in modern Greek for the Kounadis-di Santa  Maria group between 1521 and 1546. Among the publishers they were engaged by are Melchiorre Sessa, Ottaviano Scoto, Andrea Arrivabene, and many others. One of the finest productions of the four brothers is the fourvolume work of Joannes Chrysostomos, printed in Verona for Gian Matteo Giberti, bishop of Verona, in a new Greek type cut by Stefano Nicolini da Sabbio.

Type: Kounadis no. 1: 20 lines = 114-115 mm. „There are strong indications that this font“ was „engraved and cut by Stefano Nicolini da Sabbio“. (Layton p. 347). It is the liturgical type par  excellence.

Layton notes that its last appearance was in 1585 in an Euchologion published by Giacomo Leoncini, who purchased it from the son of Andreas Kounadis (p. 360), and who even used the mark of Kounadis. Leoncino’s Typikon of 1577 was also printed with the Kounadis 1. It seems that the Pinelli firm purchased fonts and other material from Leoncini or his successors since their editions of the Typikon 1603, 1615, and 1643 are also printed in K1, which means that this type appeared even later than 1585.

Text: „The Typikon is not actually a liturgical book proper, i. e., it is not used during any liturgical functions of the Church. It contains the order in which the liturgical ceremonies are conducted throughout the year and gives all the detailed rubrics of the different offices of each day for the entire year.“ (Layton p. 154)

Three traditions of the Typikon exist: The Typikon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia), the Studite Typikon, and the Sabaite Typikon. As said in the expanded heading on α2 the first printed typikon is the Sabaite Typikon, which began to replace the Studite Typikon from the 12th century onwards. „Sabaite Typikon“ refers to Saint Sabas (✝︎ 532, Sabba, Saba) founder of the monastery Mar Saba – the Great Laura, the prototype for the development of Eastern Orthodox monasticism – in the Kedron Valley near Jerusalem. The most ancient version dates from a 12-13th century manuscript. 

About this time the so-called Chapters of Mark were added – σύνταγμα εἰς τὰ ἀπορούμενα τοῦ τυπικοῦ on leaves σ1-χ8r. 

I have no idea – it seems I am not the only one – whether the texts following these σύνταγμα belong to the Sabaite Typikon, or whether Andreas Noukios selected them from other sources and added them to the Typikon. They are not mentioned in „The Typikon Decoded“ by J. Gretcha (NY 2012).

The first of these texts is a Ἐκ τῶν νομικῶν διατάξεων ἐρώτησις, followed by a poem on fasting by any of the three or four different Nicholas, Patriarchs of Constantinople, and by texts, which Legrand calls without going into detail „Observation diverses“ (I 270). Here you find for exampel a Βίοι τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελιστῶν, ἐκ τῆς τοῦ δωροθέου μάρτυρος, καὶ τυρίων ἐπισκόπου συνόψεως. As author of this synopsis Dorotheos Martyr, 4th century, is named. In fact it dates from the 8th or 9th century; or Ἀναστασίου ἐπισκόπου καισαρείας τῆς παλαιστείνης περὶ τοῦ ἀρτζιβουρίου, which is written by Anastasius – 11th century, Bishop of Caesarea – the usual Latin title is: Adversus falsam Armenorum religionem. Since our edition is subject of a not yet finished doctoral thesis at Cologne University, of which I unfortunately could not profit, all Ἀπόρρητα of the work of the editor Andreas Noukios will be answered soon.

The πασχάλια of Vasileios Valeris (see above), written in 1544, form the end of this great book.

¹ F. R. Walton, The Greek Book, 1476-1825, in: Dixieme congres international des bibliophiles, Athens 1979, p. 37

² E. Layton, The Sixteenth Century Greek Book in Italy. Venice 1994, pp. 421ff.