Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, St John's College, MS O.79

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11899

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript, probably produced in the late 14th century, contains the Erotemata of Manuel Moschopoulos, a grammatical textbook written by the grammarian, classical scholar and teacher who worked in Constantinople in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Grammars in the genre of Erotemata (Questions) were structured as a dialogue of questions and answers. Moschopoulos's work was the most influential text of its kind produced in Byzantium, dealing with its subject matter more concisely and accessibly than earlier, more exhaustive works. It provided the model for all the major Greek grammars of the Renaissance, and, although these successors improved upon it, it long remained in widespread use among both native speakers and western European students of Greek. The manuscript retains a binding in the Byzantine style, whose blind-tooled ornament includes the imperial double-headed eagle. Given the date of the manuscript, it is plausible to suppose that this binding is the original one. The binding incorporates endleaves of parchment waste, made up of two parts of a Byzantine imperial document issued in the middle of the 14th century, whose text is not preserved elsewhere. It belongs to a rare type, the chrysoboullos horismos, a formal grant made by the emperor and authenticated by his seal in gold, but less solemn and elaborate than the traditional chrysoboullos logos. Since the latter part of the document is not preserved, it lacks the date of issue and the name of the emperor responsible. However, the few other known examples of this category of document belong to the early years of the personal rule of John V Palaiologos, which began in 1354, after he overthrew the regime of his father-in-law and co-emperor John VI Kantakouzenos (Magdalino, 'Pronoia grant', pp. 155-156). It was almost certainly issued by one of these two emperors. The grant is an example of pronoia, the practice, increasingly common in the later centuries of Byzantium, of assigning tax revenues from a given area to soldiers, officials and relatives of the emperor. It confers the revenues of the small island of Marmara (Prokonnesos) near Constantinople to Manuel Sergopoulos for his lifetime. Sergopoulos was a personal retainer (oikeios) of the emperor, who held the court title of parakoimomenos tes sphendones. This was traditionally a high office of the imperial bedchamber, which in earlier centuries had always been held by a eunuch, with particular responsibility for the imperial signet ring used for sealing documents. However, by this period its holders had ceased to be eunuchs and it may well have become merely an honorific title without specific functions, like many other positions in the Byzantine court hierarchy. Little is known of Manuel Sergopoulos beyond what is revealed in this document, but a man of that name was sent by John VI on an embassy to Egypt in 1349. Prerogatives explicitly assigned to Sergopoulos by this grant included the island's sales tax and pasturage dues, and the right to buy its inhabitants' produce at market rate before it was offered to other purchasers. While the degree to which pronoia entailed the delegation of governmental powers and duties is a matter of much debate, Sergopoulos is here given responsibility for aspects of the island's security and its settlement (‘οἰκισμός’). This was a time of acute political and military insecurity, and Marmara was devastated by an earthquake in 1344. It could be that one goal of the grant was to promote economic recovery by conferring authority over the island on someone with a vested interest in its prosperity. By this period pronoia grants often were or became hereditary, but the fact that within probably only a few decades this valuable document had become scrap fit for reuse in a binding suggests that the grant was not extended beyond its initial lifetime term, if indeed it endured that long. The manuscript evidently found its way to Italy within a few decades of its creation. A note on f. 1r identifies it as the property of the Florentine banker, politician and humanist scholar Palla Strozzi (1372-1462), on loan to the Monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua, with a stipulation that it should not be sold. Strozzi was one of the founders of Greek studies in Renaissance Italy, supporting the pivotal recruitment of the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras to teach in Florence from 1397 and studying under his tuition. He continued throughout his life to act as a patron of Greek scholarship, and acquired numerous Greek manuscripts. The manuscript has been extensively annotated in Greek and Latin by an Italian hand of this period, but it is not that of Strozzi. Strozzi was exiled from Florence in 1434 for his leading role in political opposition to Cosimo de'Medici, and thereafter lived in Padua until his death. He bequeathed some of his books, including Greek manuscripts, to the Monastery of Santa Giustina, but this one is not among those listed in this bequest (L. A. Ferrai, 'La biblioteca di Santa Giustina di Padua', Inventario dei manoscritti delle biblioteche di Francia, 3 vols. ed. G. Mazzatinti, (Rome 1887), vol. 2, pp. 549-661 at pp. 569-572). It also does not appear in the inventory of the monastery's books begun in 1453 and updated until 1484 ( ibid, pp. 579-661). There is a Greek paper manuscript of Erotemata listed, but it is described as being bound without boards ( ibid, p. 626 (no. 602)). However, it is possible that this manuscript's original status as a loan led to its omission from the inventory. Supposing that the monks failed to return the manuscript, it may soon have left Santa Guistina, since many of the monastery's books were dispersed in the late 15th century, and a search in 1599 could find none of the manuscripts bequeathed by Strozzi in its collections. Its subsequent history is unknown, until its acquisition by the 19th-century Professor of Archaeology, Churchill Babington. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: Codex: i + 82 + i leaves.
Foliation: The manuscript is foliated with the numbers [i] + 1-2, [3-8], 9, [10-16], 17, [18-24], 25, [26-32], 33, [34-40], 41, [42-48], 49, [50-56], 57, [58-64], 65, [66-72], 73, [74-80], 81, [82] + [ii] in Arabic numerals, in pencil, recto, upper right. Apart from f. 2, only the first folio of each quire has been numbered.

Binding

Medieval Greek binding. The textblock is cut to the size of the boards.

There are three sewing stations prepared as v-shaped recesses. Continuous sewing guards made from reused parchment manuscript are present in the centre of each gathering. The sewing is an unsupported loop-stitch.

Both left and right endleaves are made from reused parchment manuscript and comprise of a full-size leaf and a stub folded inwards towards the textblock. The full-size leaves are pastedowns that have now become unstuck.

Projecting wound endbands are present at the head and tail. They are sewn in a natural-coloured thread and extend approximately a quarter of the way onto the boards. Where the endbands extend onto each board they are tied down to three holes drilled through the thickness of the board.

Evidence of an overall spine lining can be seen at the inner joints; how far the lining extends onto the boards cannot be determined.

The board attachment is bridling. There are three attachment stations each consisting of a pair of drilled holes perpendicular to the spine, with a recess cut between each hole. The sewing thread is wound between each pair of holes (the sewing path on the outside of the board is obscured by the covering). The start/end of the sewing thread can be seen at the tail-most station on the left board and the head-most station of the right board, held under other winds of thread to secure.

The boards are made from wood. The head-, tail- and fore-edge of both boards are grooved. The thickness of the boards is greater at the fore-edge (≈12mm including covering) gradually becoming lesser towards the spine (≈7mm including covering). The outer spine-edge is shaped to a gentle round to meet the spine of the textblock.

Full covering in dark red-brown tanned skin. The turn-ins suggest the skin was originally a red colour. The turn-ins are rough-trimmed and the corners are mitred.

Later brown tanned skin repairs are present at the head- and tail-caps. The repairs partially cover the endbands and extend onto the inner face of the boards.

On the edge of the left board, at the centre, are the remnants of a hole likely to have held an edge pin. Remnants of the corresponding tanned skin straps can be found towards the fore-edge of the right board, cut flush with the outer face of the board but left long on the inner face. Four pieces of leather remain, evenly passing through a pair of holes. It is likely that the straps would have been braided and held a metal open pin-clasp.

At the top of the right board, in the centre, is a title frame secured with six brass coloured metal pins. The label is ink on paper, the translucent horn has suffered some loss and the original metal frame has been lost. The label reads ‘γραμματικὴ Grammatica graeca’.

There are three modern paper labels on the spine. The top and centre are printed and the one at the tail is handwritten, all are in black ink.

The cover is decorated with blind tooling over the left and right boards. Both boards follow the same tooling pattern, which consists of a number of concentric frames created with two-line fillets. The central frame contains five round, double-headed eagle, intaglio tools aligned from head to tail. This frame is intersected with six small star tools at each long edge. The second frame is filled with lozenge-shaped, floral, intaglio tools rotated so the base faces the centre frame. The second frame intersects the third frame, which contains small star tools, six along the long side and three the short side. Additionally, four small star tools are used in each corner at the points which the second and third frame intersect. The fourth frame is filled with a small round tool containing a tree. The fourth frame intersects the boarder frame. The boarder frame contains small star tools, eight along the long side and five the short side. Additionally, four small star tools are used in each corner at the points which the fourth and boarder frame intersect.

What appears to be the beginning of the author's name (‘Man’) had been written inside the left board in pencil before being overlaid by the college bookplate. The number 641 has been written in pencil inside the right board.

227 × 154 × 51 mm.

Accompanying Material

Strips of parchment manuscript waste have been used for strengthening in the centre of each quire.

A printed bookplate recording the donation of the manuscript to St John's is pasted to the inside of the left board: ‘Hunc librum huius Collegii bibliothecae dono dedit Magdalena Churchilli Babington, S.T.B. Archaeologiae olim Professoris Disneiae et Collegii Socii uxor superstes. A.D. 1889’.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by the Florentine humanist Palla Strozzi (1372-1462) and lent by him to the Monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua, as indicated by the note on f. 1r.

Owned by Churchill Babington (1821-1889) , Professor of Archaeology and Fellow of St John's, as indicated by the bookplate on the left pastedown.

Given to St John's College in 1889 by Babington's widow, Madeleine .

Part 1 [Cambridge, St John's College, MS O.79, ff. [i-ii]]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

1. ff. [i] recto-[i] verso, [ii] recto-[ii] verso
Chrysoboullos horismos granting the island of Marmara to Manuel Sergopoulos

Defective at the end

Incipit: f. [ii] recto Ἐπεὶ ὁ οἰκεῖος τῆ βασιλείᾳ μου παρακοιμόμενος τῆς μεγάλης σφενδόνης κῦρ Μανουὴλ ὁ Σεργόπουλος
Explicit: f. [ii] recto διδῶ δὲ αὐτοῖς τὸ αὐτὸ||

Ed. Paul Magdalino, 'An Unpublished Pronoia Grant of the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century' Zbornik Radova Vizantološki Institut 18 (1978), pp. 155-163

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: 221 × c. 305 mm. c. 305

Condition

The lower part of the document has been cut away and the upper part cut vertically into two pieces, which have been bound upside-down as endleaves at each end of the manuscript. There is some pest damge, cockling, extensive areas of dirt, and staining from contact with the leather turn-ins of the binding. There is red staining on f. [i] verso.

Layout

A single column of 19 wholly or partially surviving lines. Margins are ruled in hardpoint. There are no text lines.

Hand(s)

The document, parts of which now form ff. [i] and [ii] was copied by Hand A in mixed minuscule script, with variable slant, in black ink, with modest variation in letter size.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings appear throughout the line. Breathings are round and mute iota is subscript. There is decorative use of the double dot and accentuation of all lengths of nomina sacra . Accents are sometimes joined to letters and nomina sacra strokes.

The modern nu is present.

Punctuation used includes the upper point, and lower commap.

Additions

There are various brief annotations and pen-trials in Greek, including the name ‘Ἰωάννης’ and sketches of a chess-board on f. [ii] recto and of plaited ornament on f. [i] verso. A pen-trial on f. [i] recto appears to have originally read ‘καλὸν κόκκινον’ ("good red") in red ink and ‘καλὸν μελάνιν[sic] ’ ("good black") in black ink. Most of these reflect the original orientation of the leaf, and therefore now appear upside-down, indicating that they were probably added before it was bound into this manuscript. However, the number 1 (αʹ) has been marked on ff. [i] verso and [ii] recto in accordance with the present orientation. These were presumably added since the reuse of these fragments.

A note of content in black ink has been added to f. [i] recto: ‘Emanuelis Moscopuli Erotemata Grammatica, et Prosodiae graeca, saeculi XIV. Bachinius Iten[sic] Aphtonii Sophistae Progymnasmata grece’.

Also on f. [i] recto is a note of sale in pencil: ‘2 rare ancient Greek MSS. together 5£ 5s’.

Several serial numbers appear on f. [i] recto: VV 4 no. 227; Αρ. 6 (in ink, followed by the price 5£ in pencil); 2440; and a number written in ink beginning with the digit 2 and ending with 5, later altered in pencil to read 247 or 248.

History

Origin: The document was issued in the mid-14th century by the Emperor John V Palaiologos (1332-1391, r. 1341-1391) or John VI Kantakouzenos (c. 1292-1383, r. 1347-1354) to Manuel Sergopoulos (PLP 25210).

Part 2 [Cambridge, St John's College, MS O.79, ff. 1-82]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

2. ff. 1r-81v
Manuel Moschopoulos, Erotemata Ἐρωτήματα
Rubric: f. 1r Ἀρχὴ σὺν Θεῶ τῶν ἐρωτημάτων· περὶ προσῳδιῶν
Incipit: f. 1r Τί ἐστι προσωδία· ποιὰ τάσις ἐγγραμάτου φωνῆς
Explicit: f. 81v τὸ τετυψόμενον· τοῦ τετυψομένου
Final rubric: f. 81v Τέλος τῶν ἐρωτημάτων

Ed. Demetrii Chalcondylae et Manuelis Moschopuli Erotemata. Gregorius Corinthius de Dialectis (Milan 1493)

f. 82r-82v is blank apart from some later notes

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermark: Bird ( c. 75 × 62 mm. ) in the gutter, similar but not identical to WZMA IT6900-PO-42214, IT6900-PO-42216. These examples are dated to 1384.
Extent: 222 × 145 mm.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 10 quires, of which one is a single bifolio and the rest are quaternia.

  • Quires 1-108 ff. 1-80
  • Quire 112 ff. 81-82

There are original quire signatures in Greek numerals, in brown ink, on the first folio of each quire, recto, lower centre, and the last folio of each quire, verso, lower centre. They survive on all quires (ιʹ-ιαʹ). The original sequence omitted the signature at the beginning of Quire 3 (f. 17r). A later signature was added here as a Greek numeral, in pencil, recto, lower right.

Condition

An area has been torn from the lower outer corner of f. 58, and there is slight wear and tear to the edges of other folios. There is slight pest damage in the first few folios. There is very slight water staining and occasional small areas of dirt.

Layout

A single column of 23 lines. 147 × 100 mm.

Hand(s)

The manuscript was copied by Hand B in mixed minuscule script, with variable slant, in brown ink, with moderate variation in letter size.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings appear throughout the line. Breathings are round and mute iota is absent or subscript. There is decorative use of the double dot. Accents are sometimes joined to letters, breathings and abbreviations.

The modern eta, modern nu, sigma telikon and loop epsilon are present.

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

Headings are written in the same style, in red ink.

Decoration

The beginning of the text on f. 1r is preceded by a simple vignette in red and brown ink.

Sections begin with small, simple minor initials in red ink, while slightly enlarged normal letters within the text begin subsections.

Additions

As part of the original production of the manuscript, the scribe has added brief marginal notes regarding content in red ink.

Through much of the manuscript (ff. 13r-48v) a later hand has added abbreviated indications of the content of the adjacent lines in small Greek script in the outer margins. There are longer annotations in Greek in an inelegant hand (e.g. ff. 2r, 3v-4r), and occasional marginal annotations in Greek by other hands.

In the early part of the manuscript (ff. 1r-32r) a humanist hand has added notes in Greek and Latin regarding adjacent content, and some interlinear glosses.

An note in a 15th-century hand has been added to f. 1r, regarding the loan of the manuscript by Palla Strozzi to the Monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua: ‘Iste liber est monasterii Sancte Iustine de Padua deputatus usui dicti monasterii largitione per dominum Palantem de Strocis. Non debet vendi’.

Another hand of similar date has added notes of content here: ‘Ἐρωτήματα: loco donati’ and ‘Proton hoc est liber in grammatica. 492’. The note ‘Ἐρωτήματα: loco donati’ also appears on f. 81v. Various brief Greek and Latin jottings and pen-trials and a sketch of some plaited ornament appear on f. 82v, with the motto ‘Non potest regere qui non se regi’.

A later hand has added a note regarding content on f. 1r.

History

Origin: The manuscript was probably copied in the late 14th century, as suggested by the watermark. This would be consistent with the style of script. However, this would also be consistent with a 15th-century dating, and production in the early 15th century remains possible as an exact match for the watermark has not been found. The manuscript must, however, have been produced early enough to have been acquired by Palla Strozzi and lent to the Monastery of Santa Giustina before his death in 1462.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description of binding draws upon unpublished description prepared (2020) by Samuel Foley and Cecilia Diminuco, Dept of Conservation and Collection Care, Cambridge University Library.

Availability

Visitors to St John'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: St John's College: Old Library and Special Collections.

Bibliography

    A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge, James, M. R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1913) An Unpublished Pronoia Grant of the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century Zbornik Radova Vizantološki Institut, Magdalino, Paul (18, 155-163, 1978)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

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