Un antico inno per la traslazione a Bari delle reliquie di S. Nicola

This paper provides the first critical edition of a Byzantine hymn that concerns the translation of the relics of St. Nicholas from Myra to Bari that occurred on AD 1087. The hymn, an acephalous canon, survives on a single, fragmentary manuscript witness, now preserved in Grottaferrata (ms. Cryptensis Β.β.IV [= gr. 276]: first half of the 12th cent.). In addition to the critical edition, which is accompanied by an Italian translation and a commentary on the text, the paper deals with some structural, stylistic, and lexical elements of the hymn, in order to: investigate the possible identification and geographical localization of the author, an hymnographer most probably called Basileios; shed some new light on the origin of the annual liturgical commemoration (on May 9th) concerning the translation of St. Nicholas to Bari; and investigate the circumstances of the composition of the hymn. Furthermore, the paper gathers all the «minor» hymns that – as far as we know – are dedicated to the same, not very widespread, liturgical commemoration: in two appendices, the author provides the critical edition and an Italian translation of these texts.