L’Imago pietatis nell’esegesi di Massimo il Greco: un incontro tra Oriente e Occidente nell’orizzonte della renovatio

Maximus the Greek addresses the subject of sacred images in a handful of writings, some aim to defend the Orthodox tradition from European reformist developments, and others to instruct the Russian faithful on the correct reading and interpretation of specific iconographies. To this second group belongs the Tale about the Image called ‘Sorrow’ (Skazanie ob obraze, nazyvaemom Unynie). On the whole, the work remains obscure in terms of its addressee and dating, the purpose and concrete circumstances of its composition and its sources. The present study investigates these questions and brings the following re-sults. As for the dating, it can be assumed that the Tale belongs to the second period of Maximus’ Slavic production, when, after the trial of 1531, he was transferred to Tver’ under the protection of bishop Aka-kij, who can be identified with his interlocutor in the Tale. If we accept this hypothesis, the dating of a copy of the Tale to 1533 allows us to specify the chronology of Maximus’ stay in Tver’ by fixing 1533 as the terminus ad quem of his arrival. With respect to the purpose of the text and the concrete circum-stances of its composition, there are several plausible scenarios. Considering the work revising liturgical texts that Maximus was called upon to carry out in Muscovy and given his writing habits, the most prob-able hypothesis seems to be that the Tale was prompted by the erroneous Slavic rendition for the Greek Ákra tapeínosis referring to the Imago pietatis in a written source, possibly the codex GIM Sin. nr. 310(377) (or in a codex closely related to it). Finally, with reference to the sources, the elements charac-terising the episode of the ‘Mass of Saint Gregory’ in the version offered in the Tale, above all the con-nection between Saint Gregory’s vision and the reproduction of that vision in the form of the Imago pie-tatis unequivocally leads the text back to the ‘minor version’ of the printed reproduction of van Meck-enem’s Imago pietatis belonging to the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. In conclusion, the Tale seems to bring Maximus back to Tver’ in the aftermath of the second trial and to show him intent on instructing his interlocutor on the meaning and authenticity of the Imago pie-tatis, which he now illustrates by recalling the image’s ability to evoke God’s mercy and arouse the de-votion of the faithful, and by narrating the story of its origins in the ‘Mass of St. Gregory’.Thus restored to its context, the Tale can ultimately be read as an action aimed at the renovatio of Russian culture at the meeting of the traditions of East and West, which finds the reason for their synthesis in the values of ear-ly Christianity.