page_title: Mutinensis gr. 122
section_title: Content
hierarchical_section_title: Mutinensis gr. 122 / Content
caption_attribution_description: English: Emperors Alexius IV Angelos, Alexios V Doukas and Theodore I Laskaris.
context_page_description: Mutinensis gr. 122 is a 15th-century codex written in Greek, stored in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, Italy. The designation "Mutinensis gr. 122" is modern, the codex itself bearing the title Epitome of Histories as it contains a copy of the work of the same name by the 12th-century Byzantine historian Joannes Zonaras. Zonaras's work is a chronicle of world history, focusing on the Roman and subsequent Byzantine Empire up until the ascension of Emperor John II Komnenos in 1118. The Modena codex also features additional work by two later scribes, extending the codex to cover Byzantine history after John II up until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
  The codex is most notable for containing miniature portraits of every Roman emperor from Augustus in 27 BC to Constantine XI Palaiologos in 1453. While portraits of early emperors are likely to be entirely imaginary, portraits of emperors from the 7th century onwards are more reliable and accord well with other sources depicting the same emperors. Some emperors, such as Michael IX and Andronikos IV have no known surviving portraits outside of the Modena codex.
context_section_description: Mutinensis gr. 122 contains a copy of the Epitome of Histories by the 12th-century Byzantine historian Joannes Zonaras, a chronicle of world history, focusing on the Roman and subsequent Byzantine Empire up until the ascension of Emperor John II Komnenos in 1118. The manuscript of the codex has been written by two different hands, with an earlier scribe simply copying the work of Zonaras and a later scribe, working during the second half of the 15th century, expanding the work to include history after the 12th century and writing an introduction to the work. The work of the two different scribes can be distinguished by the later work being written on paper of a different texture and bearing a watermark depicting two scissors. The additions of the second scribe at the end of the work include a list of emperors and their consorts from Alexios I onwards, a list of offices at the Byzantine court, a list of episcopal sees, a list of the Patriarchs of Constantinople, a list of imperial tombs, another list of emperors (this one beginning with Augustus), an account of a statue of Justinian I and portraits of the 24 emperors who reigned after Alexios I.
  The most notable feature of the Modena codex is the portraits featured throughout. On the margins of its pages there are portraits depicting every Roman and Byzantine emperor from Augustus in 27 BC to Constantine XI Palaiologos in 1453. The second scribe must have felt that it was important to complete the list and accounts of the emperors and also restored and edited portraits in earlier sections of the manuscript, in addition to creating portraits of the last few emperors. As some portraits, such as the portrait of Claudius (r. 41–54), are uncolored and others are colored in with watercolor, it is likely that the portraits in earlier sections of the work were originally without color, later colored in by the second scribe. The second scribe also wrote over annotations which had faded and added inscriptions beneath some of the portraits in red.
  It is clear that the later scribe rearranged parts of the codex. The early and final parts of the earlier scribe's work appear to have been in poor condition, apparently damaged by fire, before the second scribe took to restoring and adding to the codex. The later scribe thus kept the main body of the older codex, restoring some parts (such as the faded portraits), restored some of the lost text and added new text of his own. One of the key pieces of evidence that the codex was not only restored but also rearranged is that some of the portraits presented in the later sections of the work, such as those of emperors Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185–1195, 1203–1204) and John IV Laskaris (r. 1258–1261), appear to have been cut out of earlier portions of the text and pasted in later parts.
  The date of the manuscript is not known for certain. The latest portrait pasted from the work of the earlier scribe is the portrait depicting Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391–1425) as an old man with a white beard, meaning that the earlier scribe must have worked at the earliest around year 1425. The later scribe, who ends his gallery of Byzantine imperial portraits with the portraits of Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) and the final emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1448–1453), must have worked at some point after the Fall of Constantinople and the end of the empire, at the earliest in year 1453. The choice to put the portrait of Constantine the Great as the final portrait in the work, after Constantine XI, conveys a prophetic and apocalyptic message. Constantine being featured last might follow the sentiment of the Patriarch of Constantinople in the immediate aftermath of Constantinople's fall, Gennadius Scholarius, who believed the coincidence of the first and last emperor in Constantinople having the name Constantine meant that the end of the world was near. The pictoral sequence in the Modena codex suggests that the second scribe believed that the beginning and the end of the imperial line were indelibly linked.
caption: Emperors (from left to right) Alexios IV Angelos, Alexios V Doukas and Theodore I Laskaris as depicted in the Modena codex.
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