Νομοκάνων Μανουὴλ Μαλαξοῦ

This Νomokanon, or collection of ecclesiastical laws by Manuel Malaxos, has been transcribed by Zacharias Senekas of Cyprus. Rare. Only one other manuscript transcribed by Senekas is known, a copy of the notes on Aristotle by Mathaios Typaldos, later Meletios, Bishop of Philadelphia, dated to about 1680. The Typaldos manuscript, ms. 272, is in the Docheiariou Monastery on Mt. Athos and contains description of Senekas himself in the colophon: ‘Κύπριος και μέγας λογοθέτης της αρχιεπισκοπής και πάσης Κύπρου και πρώην δραγομάνος της βασιλείας των Τούρκων’, that is, ‘Cypriot and Megalos Logothetes of the archbishopric and all Cyprus, formerly dragoman of the Kingdom of the Turks’. Little is known of Senekas apart from his description of himself in this colophon. According to Paschalis Kitromilides, Κυπριακή Λογιοσύνη, p. 246, he died in Venice in 1689 at the age of 90. Kitromilides also mentions another Senekas, Antonios Senekas, who was active at about the same time as Zacharias. Perhaps they were brothers or cousins. Two manuscripts transcribed by Antonios are known: one, another manuscript of the Nomokanon of Manuel Malaxos, dated 1700, is in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice (Marc Ms. Gr. II, 187, l. 176b). The other, an interpretation of the minor prophets by Theodoros Mopsuestias, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris gr. 682 [8408]). Because Antonios Senekas’ manuscript of Malaxos in the Biblioteca Marciana came from the Jesuit monastery in Venice, Kitromilides suggests that he may have been a Catholic priest, possibly a Jesuit. The fact that Zacharias Senekas died in Venice is also suggestive.