Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae. Descriptio Ambonis

The two poems Descriptio S. Sophiae and Descriptio Ambonis of Paul the Silentiary, composed for the inauguration (562 AD) of the church of St. Sophia (Istanbul) after its partial rebuilding, are an invaluable source for the history of Byzantine arts and a beautiful piece of late Greek poetry. Silentiary's poems respectively describe the church and its (now lost) pulpit. The Descriptio S. Sophiae also contains a lavish praise of emperor Justinian and of the patriarch Eutichius. De Stefani’s edition is based on a collation of the witness of the text, Heid. Pal. gr. 23, and takes into account all previous bibliography. Some corrupted passages of the poems have been emendated, the few false readings still present in the text printed by the last, authoritative editor, P. Friedländer (1912), have been corrected.

• New critical edition
• Source text for the Byzantinian era

Claudio De Stefani, Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy.

"De Stefani’s new edition of Paul’s ekphraseis is an impressive achievement and it will be the standard text for many years to come. We may now look forward to De Stefani’s commentary on the poems, which, he says in the preface, he hopes to publish soon."
Steven D. Smith in BMCR 2012.04.33