Gli Actus Silvestri nella tradizione in lingua siriaca. Il testimone contenuto nel manoscritto BL Add 12 174

The hagiographical work narrating the legendary baptism of the emperor Constantine by the hand of the Roman bishop Sylvester is known in Syriac in two different versions: the first one, inserted in the Syriac Epitome of the Ecclesiastical History by Zachariah of Metilene (the so-called Pseudo-Zachariah); the second one, a still unpublished version, preserved, together with many other hagiographical tales, in a 12th century manuscript (BL Add 12 174, dated 1197). The unpublished witness of the Syriac Actus Silvestri reveals some interesting differences from Pseudo-Zachariah’s version. These differences allow us to consider them as two independent witnesses of the hagiographical work, the BL Add 12 174 text showing, even in its shortness (the long final part of the narration is missing), a greater faithfulness to the supposed Latin original (as well as to the Greek redaction of the text). This paper aims to offer the text and the translation of this second Syriac version of the Actus Silvestri, providing them with a short general introduction to the Syriac tradition relating the story of Sylvester and Constantine.