Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, King's College, MS 45

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11885

Introduction: This manuscript, probably dating to the 12th century, contains the Life of Barlaam and Joasaph (or Josaphat), a Christianised version of the life of the Buddha. He appears as Joasaph, a name ultimately derived from the term Boddhisatva, while Barlaam is his teacher, a character derived from the ascetic who inspired the Buddha's turn to spiritual pursuits. In this text they are credited with reviving Christianity in India, supposed to have reverted to its old religious traditions after conversion to Christianity by St Thomas. The story of the Buddha had been adopted into the Manichaean tradition, capitalising on the analogous themes of renunciation of material desires found in Buddhism and Manichaeism, and passed thence through Persian and Arabic versions before entering the Georgian Christian tradition. From there it was translated into Greek, with some alterations, in the late 10th or early 11th century by Euthymios Hagioreites, a Georgian monk who spent much of his life in Constantinople and in the monasteries of the Byzantine holy mountains of Olympos and Athos, eventually becoming abbot of the Georgian Monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos. The title commonly transmitted with the work credited a monk named John with bringing the story from India (here conflated with Ethiopia), and this led to a traditional attribution of the text to the Church Father John of Damascus. This manuscript is extensively illustrated with narrative scenes illustrating the text. It is one of six copies of this text to receive such embellishment, from a total of 160. The illustrations appear on 90 pages, depicting 134 different scenes. The vast majority of the illustrations are simply drawings in ink. However, a handful of them, found in a continuous run in the latter part of the manuscript (ff. 141v-148v), have been completed with paint. The last of these has only been partially painted, revealing the artist breaking off work in the course of the task and never returning to it (f. 148v). It is unclear whether or not the illustrations, which are fitted into the normal margins rather than having had space specially set aside for them, were part of the original plan for the manuscript or a later addition. The latter is quite possible, as they appear to be derived from the illustrations of a manuscript which was not the source for the text. It is also uncertain why the quickly abandoned effort at painting the illustrations was begun in the midst of the manuscript. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

ff. 1r-193v

Euthymios Hagioreites (d. 1028)

Traditionally attributed to John of Damascus .

Life of Barlaam and Joasaph

Defective at the beginning and end (ed. Mattingly and Woodward, pp. 84-594), with lacunas.

Filiation: According to Volk, the manuscript does not fit readily into any family of the text, being derived eclectically from representatives of his families B, C and D. Toumpouri identifies Mount Athos, Monastery of Iviron, MS 463, the oldest surviving illustrated manuscript of this work, as the source for the illustrations, or as another copy from the same lost exemplar. Its text is unrelated to that of this manuscript, belonging to family E. The manuscript was used in the preparation of Robinson's edition of the Greek version of the Apology of Aristides incorporated into this work.

Incipit: || f. 1r τῆ προνοία τοῦ δημιουργοῦ φωτιζόμενα καὶ διακρατούμενα

Explicit: f. 193v ἐν ὁδῶ ἐντολῶν σου ἠξίωσας τὸν δρόμον τελέ⟨σαι⟩ ||

TLG 2934.066

CPG 8120

BHG 0224-0224a

PG 96, coll. 860-1240

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (FHHF), of variable thickness and relatively poor quality, with occasional holes dating to the time of production, including some in the written area (e.g. f. 130).

Extent: Codex: iii + 193 + iii leaves. 230 × 177 mm.

Foliation: The manuscript is foliated with the numbers [i-iii] + 1-193 + [iv-vi] in Arabic numerals, in pencil, recto, at the lower left-hand corner of the written area.

Foliation: ff. 1-2 are foliated with the numbers 1-2, in Arabic numerals, in pencil, recto, upper right.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 24 quires, all of them quaternia. The order of Quires 8 and 9 is inverted. Several quires have been lost at the beginning of the manuscript, and one or two at the end.

Quires 1-5⁸ ff. 1-40
Quire 6⁸⁺¹ ff. 41-49 The fourth folio is a later insertion.
Quires 7-24⁸ ff. 50-193

Condition

Parts of ff. 138, 180-183 and 186 have been lost, with loss of text, and losses to ff. 175, 177-178, 186-187 and 192-193 have removed some of the illustration, while there are various marginal losses to other folios, some extensive. The more serious losses and some of the lesser ones have been repaired with paper patches, which have also been used to fill the curvature of corners where the parchment was cut from the edge of a skin. A weak spot in f. 23 has given way to form a substantial hole. There are occasional holes elsewhere (e.g. f. 82). There is creasing and some areas of dirt.

Layout

A single column of 24 lines. Written space 152 × 118 mm. Piercing sometimes survives to the head and tail edges, but much has been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, system Leroy 1, type Leroy 32C1. Text hangs from the lines.

Hand(s)

The manuscript was copied in an upright mixed minuscule Perlschrift, in brown ink, with minimal variation in letter size. There are deletions and scribal corrections by erasure.

Syllabic abbreviations appear only at the end of lines, and are very rare apart from the horizontal line signifying nu. Word endings are not superscribed. Breathings are usually angular but sometimes round, and mute iota is absent or occasionally adscript. There is limited decorative use of the double dot, and accentuation of all lengths of nomina sacra . The double grave accent and marginal quotation marks are in use. Circumflexes over breathings are expanded.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower and middle commas, question mark and full stop.

Decoration

The text is illustrated with frequent narrative drawings in the margins. Only those on ff. 141v, 142v, 143v-144r, 147r-147v and, partially, 148v are painted. The pictures infringe at times on the written area.

Sections begin with minor initials in red ink.

Additions

There are corrections by later hands, including one which substantially expands the text (e.g. ff. 11r, 22v, 35v)

There are a number of notes in various hands giving the names of those added them. One on f. 12r gives the name of the hieromonachos Anthimos : ‘Ἀνθημοὺ ἡερομονᾶχου’. Another appears on f. 65v, giving a name which is partially illegible but may be Zacharias : ‘Μνησθήτι Κύριε καὶ συνχόρι τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ δούλου σου Ζαχ⟨αρίου⟩ (?) ’. A note on f. 68r dated 14 March 1561 was written by one Theodoros, whose surname was perhaps Gokatan : ‘1561 μηνὶ Μαρτίου ιδʹ ἡμέρα Παρασκευὶ ἀναγνώστιτη τῶ παρῶν ὑπὸ στῶματι ἐμοῦ Θεοδώρου του ταπυνου κε τῶ γοκατάν’. The name Theodoros appears in another on note f. 175r, though the context is unclear: ‘Του ωυσιου(?) καὶ Θεοδορου πα’. One on f. 177v gives the name of Georgios Roumeliotes : ‘Γεὡργὴς Ρουμὲληὼτὴς αυτὼ κ(?)ρασώβω δὶδαχη τοὺ [.10..] καὶ ελη(?)σιοὺ’. Another on f. 182r gives the name of Kostas Pelemonetas : ‘Μνῆσθητι Κύριε καὶ σιχορητόν τὴν ψυχην του δοῦλου σου Κὀστά του Πελεμονητα’.

There are other occasional marginal annotations by later hands (e.g. ff. 28r, 33v, 49v, 64r-66r).

Binding

19th-century binding with green velvet covering over millboards, with plain parchment pastedowns.

247 × 197 × 67 mm.

History

Origin: The characteristics of the script suggest that the manuscript was copied during the 12th century. The illustrations may well be a later addition, as they appear to be derived from a different source than the text. The possible dating range has sometimes been extended to include the later 11th century, but the developed form of the abbreviation of καί suggests a later date. Earlier scholarship sometimes dated the manuscript to the 13th century, but this seems inconsistent with other features of the script, such as the continued widespread use of angular breathings and the occasional presence of adscript mute iota.

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by Jonathan Peckover (1835-1882) .

Donated to King's College on 22 September 1921 by Algerina Peckover (1841-1927) .

Additional Information

Description draws on Patricia E. Easterling, "Greek manuscripts in Cambridge: recent acquisitions by college libraries, the Fitzwilliam Museum and private collectors.", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 4 (1966), pp. 179-191 at p. 187.

Availability

Visitors to King's College who wish to consult Special Collections material are required to apply to the Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: King's College Library.

Bibliography

The Apology of Aristides on behalf of the Christians: from a Syriac ms. preserved on Mount Sinai , (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1891)

Le roman de Barlaam et Joasaph illustré et peinture Byzantion: Revue internationale des Études Byzantines, Ştefănescu, J. D. (7, 1932)

Der Religionsdisput der Barlaam-Legende, ein Motiv abendländischer Dichtung: Untersuchung, ungedruckte Texte, Bibliographie der Legende Acta Salmanticensia. Filosofía y letras, Peri, Hiram (Salamanca, Universidad de Salamanca, 1959)

Greek manuscripts in Cambridge: recent acquisitions by college libraries, the Fitzwilliam Museum and private collectors. Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Easterling, Patricia E. (4, 179-191, 1966)

Neues vom Schreiber Kallistos und vom Fortwirken zweier illuminierter Handschriften des griechischen Barlaam-Romans Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik, Volk, Robert (48, 243-272, 1998)

Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos Band VI/1: Historia animae utilis de Barlaam et Ioasaph (spuria) - Einführung Johannes von Damaskos Patristische Texte und Studien,, (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2009)

Barlaam and Ioasaph A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts, Toumpouri, Marina (Leiden, The Netherlands, 149-168, Brill, 2017)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

Cambridge, King's College, MS 45

Contents