ARISTENO, ALESSIO. — Byzantine canonist of the 12th century, who wrote his Commentaries on the Synopsis of the Canons at the request of the emperor Giovanni Comneno (1118–43). His importance, overshadowed by the fame of the other two canonists of Byzantium, Balsamone and Zonara, has rightly been asserted, since A. preceded Zonara’s work by at least 15 years.
BIBL.: His canonical commentaries, together with those of Balsamone and Zonara, are found in PG, 137 and 138. On A., cf. Zachariae von Lingenthal, in Sitzung. d. k. preuss. Akademie der Wiss. zu Berlin, 53 (1887), pp. 1155–59; M. Kranszen, I commentatori del Codice canonico della Chiesa Orientale, A., Zonara e Balsamone (in Russian), Moscow 1892. Maurizio Gordillo