Manuel Chrysaphes

Not to be confused with the 17th-century composer Manuel Chrysaphes the Younger.

Manuel Doukas Chrysaphes (Greek: Μανουὴλ Δούκας Χρυσάφης, 1440–1463fl. 1440–1463) was the most prominent Byzantine musician of the 15th century. He was a singer, composer and musical theoretician.

Little is known of his life, except that he held the office of lampadarios, and received commissions from the last two Byzantine emperors, John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos. Two of his own autographs survive, one from July 1458 in the Iviron Monastery in Mount Athos, and one from July 1463 in the Topkapi Palace collection. He is also one of the few Byzantine musicians to write on theoretical issues. His surviving treatise, On the Theory of the Art of Chanting and On Certain Erroneous Views That Some Hold about It, is an invaluable guide to Byzantine music and the evolution of Byzantine singing in the late Palaiologan period.

Sources

• Conomos, Dimitri E., ed (1985). The treatise of Manuel Chrysaphes, the lampadarios: On the theory of the art of chanting and on certain erroneous views that some hold about it (Mount Athos, Iviron Monastery MS 1120, July 1458). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 450. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
• Polemis, Demetrios I. (1968), The Doukai: A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography, London: Athlone Press, p. 116 

See also

• John Kukuzelis

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