Documenta Monophysitarum

The Documenta Monophysitarum (fully, the Documenta ad origines monophysitarum illustrandas; English: "Documents illustrating the origins of the Monophysites") is a two-volume scholarly edition and reference work of a collection of Syriac documents related to Miaphysite (Monophysite) Christian history. It was compiled and edited by Jean-Baptiste Chabot for the British Museum, with the text published in 1907 (Volume 1) and a translation and apparatus published in 1933 (Volume 2), as a part of the larger Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO) initiative.^[1][2] Nowadays, the Documenta is paired along with Monophysite Texts of the Sixth Century by Allen and van Roey, which includes select English translations of letters in the Documenta (alongside other Greek and Syriac sources), and includes a detailed overview of the contents of the Documenta.^[3][4]

Each Syriac document is accompanied by a Latin translation, along with an introduction and indices. The documents are chronologically ordered. All materials are derived from one manuscript, British Library Add MS 14602, representing a large collection of documents completed in 580 AD concerning the Miaphysite theology.^[5] Included are correspondence from leading Miaphysite figures, especially Theodosius of Alexandria, Paul of Antioch, Severus of Antioch, Jacob Baradaeus, and a number of other bishops and monks from Syria and Egypt.

The Documenta preserves many texts not found elsewhere and enables a much more detailed understanding of the Miaphysite (Syriac Orthodox) church. The most well known one is the Letter of the Archimandrites of Arabia, where a large number of Monophysite bishops across a large rural zone in Roman Arabia intervene into a Christological dispute over the Tritheist heresy.^[6] The letters demonstrate the presence of close ties between the Egyptian and Syrian Miaphysite patriarchates, as well as how leaders like Theodosius and Jacob Baradaeus responded to many of the salient theological controversies of the time, such as the Tritheist heresy.^[7][5] The letters of the Documenta also record the involvement of the Ghassanids, a major Arab kingdom of the time, in these disputes, as well as networks of monks and archimandrites.^[8]