Ανέκδοτος κανόνας εις την υπεραγίαν Θεοτόκον του Ευθυμίου Α´ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (;)

The codex X.IV.8. (403) of Real Biblioteca at El Escorial contains, on folios 56r-58v, a canon of supplication (κανὼν Παρακλητικός) addressed to the Virgin Mary Theotokos. The canon, although anonymous in the manuscript as well as in a large part of the manuscript tradition, is transmitted in a great number of manuscripts under the name either of Euthymios I, patriarch of Constantinople (907-912) or of Methodios I, patriarch of Constantinople (843-847). The presence of another canon (ἕτερος κανὼν), which is also anonymous, in the same codex following the aforementioned canon and more specifically on folios 58v-61r, led G. de Andrés to the suggestion of a possible common authorship of the two hymnographical works, which he then attributed to Euthymios. Current research remains quite vague regarding the attribution of the canon of supplication to either Patriarch Euthymios or Patriarch Methodios or potentially to a third person. As a result, the attribution of the two canons to a specific person is uncertain, even if their comparison leads to their attribution to the same composer. For this reason, we proceed to a comparison of the second canon, which is published here for the first time, with the original works of Euthymios, with a view to finding similarities which would probably allow us to consider Euthymios as its potential composer.