Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

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

Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.7.7

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11914

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript is a late 13th- or early 14th-century copy of homilies on moral subjects. The text is ascribed to the Father of Church John Chrysostom in the manuscript, but it is now attributed to an otherwise unknown Symeon monachus (perhaps 11th century). The editor of the homilies, Paisios Hieromonachos, Κατάνυξις. Σύγγραμμα ἱερὸν συντεθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὁσίου καὶ θεοφόρου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Συμεὼν τοῦ Μεταφραστοῦ (Athens: Nicolas Rousopoulos, 1873), while attributing them to Symeon the Metaphrast, also notes that the manuscripts are uncertain about their attribution. J. Darrouzès, 'Bulletin critique' in Revue des études byzantines, 9 (1951), p. 172-191 , at p. 176 (with reference to Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticanus gr. 715) states that the author of the homilies can be identified neither with Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) nor with Symeon the Metaphrast. (cf. S.J. Voicu, 'Fonti patristiche di Simeone monaco', in Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, n.s. 27 (1990), p. 191-94). The provenance of the manuscript is unknown. It could have belonged to Richard Porson (1759-1808), Regius Professor of Greek from 1792, before it came to the Wren Library. The manuscript was rebound Nov. 2020-Jan. 2021; the new endleaves (ff. [i-iv] and [xi-xiv]) and the new binding have not been photographed. Dr Matteo Di Franco

Language(s): Greek

Symeon monachus, Thesaurus sive Sermones de passionibus, virtutibus et vitiis (Sermones 1-17 ed. Paisios)
Rubric: f. 1r Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις π(ατρὸ)ς ἡμῶν Ἰω(άννου) ἀρχιεπισκόπου Κων(σταντινουπόλεως) Χρ(υσοστόμου) περὶ τοῦ δεῖν πάντα τῶν οἰκείων ἁμαρτιῶν ἐξομολόγησιν ποιεῖσθαι καὶ διὰ παντὸς πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχειν τὸν θάνατον
Incipit: f. 1r Ἀγαθὸν τὸ ἐξομολογεῖσθαι τῶ κυρίω φησὶν ὁ προφήτης· καὶ γὰρ ἀληθῶς ἀγαθὸν καὶ καλὸν ἐξομολογήσις
Explicit: f. 84v ἀμαρτάνουσιν εἰ οὖν ἡμῖν τοῖς πονηροῖς||

Ascribed in the manuscript to John Chrysostom

  • Hom. 1: ff. 1r-8v (ed. Paisios 1873, p. 1-16)
  • Hom. 2: ff. 8v-11r Περὶ προσευχῆς (p. 16-23)
  • Hom. 3: ff. 11r-16v Περὶ γλώσσης καὶ καταλαλιᾶς (p. 23-35)
  • Hom. 4: ff. 17r-20v Περὶ φθόνου καὶ μισαδελφίας (p. 36-44)
  • Hom. 5: ff. 20v-22v Περὶ ἀγάπης καὶ περὶ τοῦ μὴ ὀργίζεσθαι (p. 44-49)
  • Hom. 6: ff. 23r-25v Περὶ πορνείας (p. 49-57)
  • Hom. 7: ff. 25v-33r Περὶ ἁγνείας καὶ σωφροσύνης (p. 58-69)
  • Hom. 8: ff. 33r-44v Περὶ ἁγνείας καὶ σωφροσύνης καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἀπέχεσθαι πορνείας (p. 69-91)
  • Hom. 9: ff. 44v-48v Περὶ γαστριμαργίας (p. 92-101)
  • Hom. 10: ff. 48v-50v Περὶ νηστείας καὶ γαστριμαργίας καὶ τοῦ μηδ' ὅλως γογγίζειν (p. 101-105)
  • Hom. 11: ff. 50v-53r Περὶ μέθης (p. 105-110)
  • Hom. 12: ff. 53r-60v Περὶ τοῦ μὴ θαρρεῖν ἐν πίστει μόνη ἄνευ ἀγαθῶν ἔργων (p. 110-127)
  • Hom. 13: ff. 60v-64v Περὶ πλεονεξίας (p. 127-135)
  • Hom. 14: ff. 64v-68v Περὶ ἐλεημοσύνης καὶ εὐσπλαγχίας (p. 136-144)
  • Hom. 15: ff. 68v-72r Περὶ ἐλεημοσύνης (p. 145-155)
  • Hom. 16: ff. 72r-79r Περὶ ἀκτημοσύνης (p. 156-170)
  • Hom. 17: ff. 79r-84v Περὶ ἀσκήσεως καὶ ἀποταγῆςβίου (p. 170-185 l. 26)

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: ff. ff. 1r-84v, paper, folded in octavo, not watermarked.
Extent: Codex: iv + iii + 84 + iii + iv leaves. 200 × 130 mm.
Foliation: [i-vii] + 1-84 + [viii-xiv]. Modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals, recto, upper right corner.

Collation

Although the binding of the volume too tight to determine the collation from material evidence, a possible structure of the leaves may be inferred from the position of the sewing threads between ff. 4v and 5r, 30v and 31r, 42v and 43r, 53v and 54r, 66v and 67r, 77v and 78r, as follows:

  • Quires 1-28 ff. 1r-16v
  • Quire 38+1 ff. 17r-25v
  • Quire 410 ff. 26r-35v
  • Quire 514-1 ff. 36r-48v
  • Quire 610 ff. 49r-58v
  • Quire 716 ff. 59r-58v
  • Quire 86 ff. 75r-80v
  • Quire 98-4 ff. 81r-84v

An incomplete series of signatures in Arabic numerals, written in pencil, and not corresponding to the collation above, is present on ff. 17r (3), 25r (4) 36r (5) 57r (8) 65r (9) 81r (11), in all likelihood inserted by M.R. James.

Condition

The paper leaves have a soft, felty texture. The textblock has suffered from worm damage and there are some detached leaves, repaired in 2020-2021.

Layout

ff. 1r-84r: written space 160 × 105 mm. 36 lines per page.

Hand(s)

The manuscript is written in a mixed minuscule script, upright or slanting slightly to the right, in black ink. The writing is characterized by large lunate epsilon and kappa and the epsilon-pi ligature in which pi is performed in the form of a large sampi.

Syllabic abbreviations are rare, and mute iota is absent. Punctuation includes the middle and upper point and full stop.

Decoration

A faded headpiece in red ink on f. 1r, single decorated lines (e.g. f. 8v) or cord motif (e.g. f. 17r) at the beginning of each homily.

Coloured initials in faded red ink.

Additions

Notes by a reader with reference to the Bible quotations in the text, a few lines on the margins (f. 10v), and running titles.

A note in pencil on former left cover, inner: ‘This down as belonging to Porson in Class Book’.

Binding

The manuscript was rebound Nov. 2020-Jan. 2021; the former binding from the 18th century is preserved in a box along with some remains of the headband and parchment strips.

The 18th-century binding is made of boards covered with full tanned calfskin tightback, edges are tooled in gold. The spine is in light brown skin, the title is tooled in gold on a label in brown leather. A parchment guard was present before the first leaf and after the last leaf. Remains of the headband and parchment strips are enclosed in melinex.

The 21st-century binding has not been imaged. It is made of a brown flax-covered paper, covered with limp vellum. Endleaves are constructed of two bifolia of handmade paper (not imaged).

210 × 145 × 32 mm.

History

Origin: The manuscript was copied in the late 13th or early 14th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

According to a note on the former left cover, inner, probably added by the Sub-Librarian William White, the manuscript belonged to Richard Porson (1759-1808) , Fellow of Trinity College and Regius Professor of Greek.

If the manuscript belonged to Porson, it could have entered into the Wren Library after his death, in 1808.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2020) draws on M.R. James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1900, p. 236-237.

Availability

Visitors to Trinity 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: Trinity College: Information for Readers.

Bibliography

    The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College: a descriptive catalogue, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 1, Cambridge University Press, 1900) Codices Chrysostomici Graeci I Codices Britanniae et Hiberniae, Aubineau, Michel (Paris, CNRS éditions, 1968)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

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