Introduction:
This Gospel lectionary manuscript was probably copied
in the 12th century, although it has been suggested that it is a
product of the 13th century or later, produced in deliberate
imitation of the style of an earlier period. The inclusion of a
feast particular to the liturgical calendar of Constantinople
(f. 39v) may indicate that it
was produced in the Byzantine capital, though it could merely
reflect the reproduction of a feature of the exemplar from which it
was copied. Its elegant and somewhat unconventional minuscule script
is unusually large, a feature probably related to its similarly
unusual content, which is much more limited than that of a
conventional lectionary and differently arranged.
In the usual arrangement of a lectionary, the early
part of the book contains the synaxarion, the
readings of the movable calendar beginning from Easter, followed by
the menologion, containing the lections of
the fixed calendar beginning from 1 September, sometimes followed by
miscellaneous readings. While the selection of lections in the menologion varies greatly between different
manuscripts, the synaxarion normally falls
into one of two standard varieties. The "weekday" type, typically
for monastic use, includes lections for the whole week, except in
Lent, when the New Testament was read only on Saturdays and Sundays,
while the "Saturday-Sunday" type generally used in other churches
contains only the lections for those two days, except in Holy Week
and the period between Easter and Pentecost, when weekday lections
are also included. In this manuscript, however, not only is the
range of feasts included in the menologion
very small, but only a handful of the most important days in the
movable calendar appear. The order is also unconventional, since the
readings of the synaxarion for Lent which are
included appear after the menologion rather
than preceding it. Given the focus on major festivals, it is likely
that at least some of the lections of Holy Week would have followed,
but much of the later part of the manuscript is missing, including
its end.
The size of the script implies a superfluity of funds,
since it constitutes an inefficient use of expensive parchment.
Other manuscripts of this rare type include exceptionally opulent
examples such as Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurentiana, MS Med. Palat.
244, whose text is gilded throughout. A degree of
conspicuous consumption is also suggested by the very existence of
such a book, whose content was completely inadequate for the
day-to-day needs of a church, and implies that an institution
already possessing a lectionary sufficient for its needs acquired an
additional one for special occasions. However, the availability of
funds may not have remained consistent throughout the project. The
use of gold for headings, ubiquitous in the early folios,
subsequently becomes more restricted and then disappears entirely,
though reappearing towards the end. Gold does, however, remain in
use throughout for the ornamented initial letters of each lection
and other decoration.
The opening folios are, most unusually, written
entirely in red ink, usually reserved for headings, before abruptly
switching to the more usual brown, in the transition from recto to
verso of the same folio (f. 3r-3v).
The accompanying ekphonetic musical notation, which guided the
chanting of the text and was normally written in red, appears
instead in blue on the pages written in red, before reverting to its
more normal colour at the same time as the text. Since text for
gilding was usually written in red ink before being covered with
gold, this could imply that this lectionary was at first intended as
a truly deluxe production like the Laurentiana manuscript, but that
this ambition was curtailed at an early stage, before the further
reductions in the use of gold already mentioned. However, the use of
blue ekphonetic notation suggests that the initial intention was for
the main text to remain red, calling for the use of a different
colour to keep the notation clearly distinct. The early abandonment
of the initial scheme may nonetheless reflect a reduction in
resources, but from a somewhat more modest starting point.
Three of the lections are accompanied by later notes in
Arabic to identify them. This indicates that the manuscript spent
part of its history in use by an Arabic-speaking Christian community
in the Middle East, whose members retained Greek as their liturgical
language but did not understand it well, and would thereore find
such annotations helpful in finding the right text. One of these
annotations, however, in fact identifies the lection incorrectly.
Its provenance remains somewhat mysterious, since it was brought to
Britain in the early 20th century by a man who then died without
revealing where he had acquired it. Ellis Minns, the Librarian of
Pembroke College who subsequently purchased it, reported that the
sand and variety of dead insects which he found between the leaves
led him to suppose that it had spent time in a desert
monastery.
By this time, as well as losing many of its folios and
suffering severely from water damage, the manuscript had lost its
last binding, and it remains unbound apart from its damaged endbands
and small remnants of its sewing. It is presently protected by a
loose leather wrapper which was clearly once the covering material
of a book, and whose appearance would be consistent with the kind of
provenance suggested by Minns. However, this cover was evidently not
that of the manuscript's own former binding, since its structure
implies that the book for which it was made had a different sewing
arrangement.
Dr Christopher Wright
Language(s): Greek
Gospel lectionary (selective)
Defective at the beginning and end, with lacunas: the text begins
during the lection for the Monday after Easter (Jn 1:7) and ends
during the lection for the Saturday of Lazarus (Jn 11:7)
Gregory-Aland l 1987
Incipit: ||
f. 1r ρα
Θεοῦ· ὄνομα αὐτῶ, Ἰωάννης οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν
Explicit:
f. 88v
λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἄγωμεν εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν πάλιν||
1.1. ff. 1r-23v
Synaxarion: Lections for the week after Easter
(Diakainesimou)
Defective at the beginning
1.2. ff. 23v-26v
Synaxarion: Lection for Antipascha (1st Sunday
after Easter)
1.2. ff. 26v-30r
Synaxarion: Lection for Mesopentekoste (4th
Wednesday after Easter)
1.3. ff. 30v-34r
Synaxarion: Lection for Ascension Day (6th
Thursday after Easter)
1.4. ff. 34r-37r
Synaxarion: Lection for Pentecost
1.5. ff. 37r-39v
Synaxarion: Lection for All Saints (1st Sunday
after Pentecost
1.6. ff. 39v-63r
Menologion: Lections for September
1.7. ff. 63r-64v
Menologion: Lections for October
Defective at the end
1.8. f. 65r
Menologion: Lections for November
Defective at the beginning
1.9. ff. 65r-80v
Menologion: Lections for December
Defective at the end; contains minor lacunas due to damage to
the gutter
1.10. ff. 81r-82v
Menologion: Lections for January
Defective at the beginning and end; contains a lacuna due to
the loss of folios
1.11. f. 83r-83v
Menologion: Lections for August
1.12. f. 83v-87v
Synaxarion: Lections for the 1st Saturday and
Sunday of Lent
Defective at the end
1.13. f. 83v-87v
Synaxarion: Lection for the Saturday of
Lazarus
Defective at the beginning and end
Form: codex
Support:
Parchment (FHHF), of
medium thickness and good quality.
Extent:
Codex:
i + 90 leaves.
310 × 213 mm.
Foliation: The manuscript is foliated with the
numbers [i] + 1-83, [83a], 84-87, [87a], 88 in pencil, in Arabic
numerals, recto, upper right.
Collation
The manuscript consists of 13 quires, of which one is a
quinion and the rest are quaternia. One original quire has
been lost after Quire 8, and another six after the present
Quire 11
- Quire 18-1+1
ff. [i]-8
The first folio has been lost, with loss of
text, and a modern blank paper leaf attached to
the stub in its place.
- Quires 2-68
ff. 9-47
- Quire 710-1
ff. 48-56
The original penultimate folio has been
cancelled, without loss of text, and another
bifolio added during the original process of
production.
- Quires 8-108
ff. 57-80
- Quire 118-6
ff. 81-82
The first, third-six and eighth folios have
been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 128-2+2
ff. 83-88
The second and seventh folios have been lost,
with loss of text, and a modern blank paper
bifolio inserted in their place.
There are original quire signatures in
Greek numerals, in red ink, on the first folio of each
quire, recto, lower right. They survive on Quires 2-10 and
12 (βʹ-ηʹ, ιʹ-ιαʹ, ιθʹ).
There are modern leaf signatures, in
Greek numerals for quires and Roman numerals for folios, in
pencil, on each folio, recto, lower right. The leaf number
has later been repeated in Arabic numerals in pencil next to
some of these signatures.
Condition
There have been extensive losses in the gutter to many
folios, sometimes causing loss of text, which have been repaired
with paper patches, creating some hinging on some folios and
restricting the opening of others. There is a tear in the gutter
to f. 38 and tears to the
other edges of various folios, some of which have also been
repaired with paper patches. Numerous worm-holes and other small
holes are present in the outer folios (ff. 1-6, 83-88). There is significant creasing, sometimes
obscuring text, and the edges of the folios are brittle, with a
worn area on the tail-edge. There is extensive and serious water
damage, especially in the gutter, which has led to some blurring
of the text, and there is abrasion of the ink in
places.
Layout
A single column of 12 lines.
151 × 135 mm.
Pricking does not survive.
Ruled in hardpoint, system Leroy 1, type
34C2. Text hangs
from the lines.
Hand(s)
The main text was copied in an unusually large mixed minuscule script, slanting
slightly to the right, with significant variation in letter
size. The text of ff. 1r-3r was
written in red ink, the remainder of the manuscript in brown
ink.
Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings appear only
at the end of lines. Breathings are usually round but sometimes
angular. Mute iota is usually absent but
occasionally present. It appears in a number of transitional
forms, in adscript position but reduced in size to varying
degrees (e.g. f. 50v, col. a, line
10, f. 65r, col. a, line
11) or below the right-hand end of the letter (e.g.
f. 26r, col. a, line 10).
Use of the double dot is functional only, and there is
accentuation of all lengths of nomina
sacra . Nomina
sacra are occasionally uncontracted (e.g. f. 64v, col. b, line 12).
Circumflexes are not expanded, even when appearing above
breathings. Accents are sometimes joined to abbreviations. The
double grave accent and marginal quotation marks are in use.
Distinctive letter forms include minuscule delta with a very short ascender (e.g. f. 56v, col. b, lines 6, 11),
majuscule lambda with the lower
right-hand stroke curved inwards, majuscule lambda with the upper stroke elongated and coiled
inwards (e.g. f. 72v, col. a, line
8), large lunate sigma
wrapped around the following letter and extending further below
than above, and large tau with the
horizontal curved.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower and
middle commas, question mark and full stop.
Headings for lections on ff.
3r-18r were written in epigraphic display majuscule in red ink and gilded,
and thereafter in Alexandrine
majuscule script with some minuscule forms, written
in red ink and gilded on ff.
20v-34r in red ink only on ff. 37r-83v, but with the reappearance of
gilding on f. 85v, the last
surviving folio with headings. Headings indicating the Gospel
are written in the latter script, in red ink only on ff. 5r-20v, 26v and 37r-85v and with gilding on ff. 3r, 23v,
30v and 34r.
Musical Notation: The text is supplied throughout with ekphonetic notation, in
blue ink on ff. 1r-3r and red ink
through the remainder of the manuscript.
Decoration
The beginning of the menologion (f. 39v and
of the lections of Lent (f. 83v)
are preceded by headpieces in a plait or interlace pattern, drawn in
red ink and gilded.
Lections on ff. 63r, 65r, 77v are preceded by simpler
vignettes, drawn in red ink and gilded.
Each lection begins with an ornamented major
initial, either in gold or outlined in gold and infilled with red,
blue, green, yellow and white paint.
Gilded headings are present on ff. 3r-34r and 85v.
Additions
As part of the original process of production, the text is supplied
with headings identifying lections, which sometimes appear in the
margin and sometimes in the line of text, and headings identifying
the Gospel, always in the line of text.
There are notes in Arabic identifying lections on ff. 30v (6th Sunday after Easter),
34r (Pentecost) and 37r (1st Sunday after Pentecost).
The note on f. 30v is incorrect,
as it appears next to the lection for Ascension Day, and there is no
lection for the sixth Sunday after Easter in this manuscript (Minns,
pp. 217-218).
A note on the modern replacement folio f. [i] recto records the purchase and
posited date of the manuscript: ‘310 Evangelistarium
Graece. saeculum XI-XII emptum A.D. MCMXXIIII. Pret. XV.
LI’.
Binding
The manuscript has lost its boards and most of its sewing, of
which only small fragments remain, and for which there were four
sewing-stations. Both endbands survive in part, sewn with bright
red thread around a round core and through a blue textile.
Traces of paint indicate that the edges were once painted red.
The text block is wrapped in a loose leather cover with
turn-ins, decorated on both faces with a simple border and
diagonal lines using fillets. There are ridges on the spine for
three stations of a supported sewing as well as for the
endbands, the position of which does not correspond to that of
the sewing-stations or endbands of the text block. There is no
indication of grooves at the edges of the boards to which the
cover was attached.
355 × 260 × 57 mm.
The endbands are fragile. Parts of the leather cover have
been lost and there are tears to what remains, which contains
numerous small holes due to pest damage. The left outer joint is
partially split.
Accompanying Material
The manuscript is housed along with detailed handwritten notes on
the content, comparisons with other manuscripts and views on date and
origin by Ellis Minns, further notes on the content by another hand, and
exhibition labels.
Origin: The manuscript was probably copied in the
12th
century, as suggested by Easterling (p. 188). It has been
variously dated in the past, Minns favouring a date in the 11th or 12th
century, while reporting that Robert Devreesse argued that it was an
archaising product of the 13th century or later, imitating the style of
the 11th century, owing to features such as the downward extension of
some letters (Minns, pp. 215-217). However, the occasional presence of
angular breathings in a text usually employing round ones seems more
consistent with a 12th-century date than with either the faithful
imitation of 11th-century practice or the inadvertant retention of
13th-century or later norms, although their presence in 13th-century
manuscripts is not unknown. The considerable variation in the size of
letters and the range of transitional forms of mute
iota present also seem to rule out either a genuine
11th-century production or an effective imitation of one. Devreesse,
Giovanni Mercati and a Dr Gianelli, in correspondence reported by Minns,
suggested that it was produced in the
Aegean islands, while Minns argued for production in
Constantinople (Minns,
pp. 215-217), on the basis of its similarity to the lavish
Florence,
Biblioteca Medicea Laurentiana, MS Med. Palat. 244 and the
distinctive reference to the Chalkoprateia in the lection heading for 1
September (
f. 39v). The feast this
alludes to was particular to Constantinople, though it does not
necessarily indicate production in the capital, since it could have been
simply reproduced from the manuscript's exemplar.
Provenance and Acquisition
Bought by Ellis H. Minns (1874-1953), Fellow
and Librarian of Pembroke in 1924 from the bookseller F.M. Barnard (no.
191 in Barnard's Catalogue for 1924). Minns reports that Barnard had
acquired it from another firm, following the death of an unnamed man who
brought it to Britain from an unknown source. The presence of Arabic
notes suggests that it had spent time in Egypt or the
Levant, as noted by Minns, who also remarks that the
sand and dead insects between the leaves suggest that it had previously
been housed in a desert location (Minns, pp. 217-218).
Given to Pembroke College by
Minns in 1924.
