This volume offers the first critical edition of the vast Commentary on the Pentecostal iambic
canon (traditionally ascribed to St John the Damascene) composed by Eustathius archbishop of
Thessalonica. The attribution of the hymn to the Damascene was in principle called into
question by Eustathius himself who eventually suggested to have it adopted into Damascene's
paternity only out of ecclesiastical obedience. The Commentary is probably the last text
Eustathius wrote. It can be regarded as the summa of his method of work his style of
exposition his scholarly interests and literary tastes. Moreover it can be read as the first
Byzantine attempt to create a fusion between a method of work which originated from the
exegesis of classical texts and the modes of theological interpretation connected in turn with
liturgical experience and pastoral practice. The edition of the text is accompanied by three
apparatuses a complete range of indices and exhaustive Prolegomena where the editors shed
light on the Commentary as such - its genesis and date its audience its discussion of the
traditional attribution its sources - and on history of its manuscript tradition with a
special focus on the Constantinopolitan didaskaleion of Prodromos-Petra.
