Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.8.5A

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11927

Introduction: This item consists of 27 slips of parchment that contain part of the Gospel of Mark and which originally belonged to a 9th-century manuscript. They were reused in the binding of MS B.8.5, a 12th-century manuscript containing orations of Gregory of Nazianzus, and discovered there in 1857. Reassembled, the fragments constitute almost the whole of one bifolium and the lower part of another. The full bifolium was evidently the innermost of a quire, as its text forms a continuous sequence. The partial one, as it contains text from both shortly before and shortly after the other, must have belonged to the same quire, being most probably its outermost leaf. The source manuscript was copied in majuscule script around the time of the emergence of the new minuscule script that came to supplant it as the principal form of Greek formal writing (although majuscule would for some centuries continue to be used for some religious manuscripts, particularly Biblical ones). It displays features of late majuscule in its letter-forms and in the full use of accents and breathings. The manuscript was provided by its scribe with some of the standard aids to structuring and navigating the Gospel text, including marginal numbers identifying the short subdivisions known as Ammonian sections, and numbers and titles for the longer κεφάλαια (chapters). It lacks the numbers for Eusebian canons, the system of numbers placed alongside those of the Ammonian sections to identify which passages had a parallel in other Gospels, from which the reader could refer to the appropriate canon table to identify the corresponding sections in those other books. However, it is provided instead with a much more unusual and more immediately detailed means of identifying such correspondences. At the foot of each page the abbreviated names of each of the four Gospels appear, accompanied by the section numbers appearing on the page and, where applicable, those of corresponding sections in other Gospels. This rare system is found in a handful of other majuscule Gospel books. The manuscript later received further supporting apparatus to assist its use for liturgical purposes, including identification of the lection passages to be read in church and some ekphonetic notation to guide the chanting of the text, though this is not present throughout. The text is highly unusual within the manuscript tradition of the Gospels, containing some unique readings. As a result, it has been extensively used in modern editions. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Gospel of Mark

Fragment: Mk 7:3-4, 7:6-8, 7:30-8:16, 9:2, 9:7-9

Gregory-Aland 0131; Von Soden ε 81 (I'); Scrivener Evan. Wd

Filiation: The text of this fragment was assigned by Aland to his category C. It was used in the preparation of the Nestle-Aland, Bover-O'Callaghan, UBS, Merk, BFBS, Souter, Synopsis, Huck-Greeven and Orchard editions.

Incipit: || Verso καὶ πάντες οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι

Explicit: Verso οὐκέτι οὐδὲν εἶδον εἰ μὴ Ἰησοῦν μόνον· καὶ κα<ταβαινόντων>||

TLG 0031.002

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: Fragment (scraps/bifolia) 2 leaves. 230 × 170 mm.

Condition

The item consists of 27 slips of parchment making up most of one original bifolium and part of another. It contains numerous holes and areas of dirt and glue residue.

Layout

A single column of 24 lines. 150 × 90 mm. Pricking survives in the lower and outer margins. Ruled in hardpoint, type Leroy 20C1. Text stands on the lines.

Hand(s)

The main text was copied in slanted ogival majuscule script, in brown ink.

Accents and angular breathings are present, but often very faint. Mute iota is absent.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points.

Musical Notation: Parts of the text have been provided with ekphonetic notation in red ink.

Decoration

The beginnings of sections are marked by minor initials in brown ink.

Additions

As part of the original production of the text, the scribe has marked κεφάλαιον (chapter) and Ammonian section numbers in the margins. Chapter titles (τίτλοι) are given in the margins in red ink, which has turned black. Notes were included in the lower margin giving Ammonian section numbers for the passages of the different Gospels corresponding to those appearing on each folio.

Lection notes and ἀρχὴ and τέλος marks indicating the beginning and end of lections have been added in the margins.

Alphanumeric marks to identify the various fragments have been marked on them in pencil.

Binding

The slips of parchment are preserved between two glass sheets in a wooden frame.

Accompanying Material

Two notes are attached to the frame (recto). One reads ‘Wd Fragmentum Cantabrigiensis VIIII cent. Found in the library, in the binding of the Manuscript Copy of Gregory Naziaanzen [....], brought from Mount ⟨Ath⟩o⟨s⟩. D.43.37. pp. 43-68’. The other reads ‘MS. IX Cent. from a binding (B.8.5) discovered by the Sub-Librarian W White about 1860. S. Mark's Gospel VII 33 has the unique reading - He (Jesus) spit upon his fingers and put them into the ears of the deaf man. J.R. Harris Diatessaron of Tatian p. 43’.

History

Origin: The style of script suggests that the fragment was copied in the 9th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

These fragments were used in the binding of MS B.8.5, which was owned by the Pantokratoros Monastery on Mount Athos.

Purchased from the Abbot of the Pantokratoros by Richard Bentley (1662-1742) , Master of Trinity.

The source manuscript was bequeathed to the college by Bentley. The fragments composing this item were discovered within it by the Sub-Librarian W. White in 1857.

Additional Information

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 Diatessaron of Tatian: a preliminary study, Harris, J. Rendel (London, C.J. Clay, 1890)

The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College: a descriptive catalogue, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 1, Cambridge University Press, 1900)

Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte, von Soden, Hermann (Berlin, 1, Verlag von Alexander Duncker, 1902)

Novum Testamantum Graece, Souter, Alexander (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1947)

Hē Kainē Diathēkē, Nestle, ErwinKilpatrick, George Dunbar, (London, British and Foreign Bible Society, 1958)

Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, Merk, August (Rome, Sumptibus Pontificii Instituti Biblici, 1964)

La provenance athonite des manuscrits grecs legues par R. Bentley a Trinity College, Cambridge et en particulier de l'oncial 0131 du Nouveau Testament Studies in the history and text of the New Testament in honor of Kenneth Willis Clark, Duplacy, Jean (Salt Lake City, 113-126, University of Utah Press, 1967)

Nuevo Testamento trilingüe, Maria Bover, JoséO'Callaghan, JoséMartini, Carlo M (Madrid, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1977)

Synopsis of the first three Gospels, with the addition of the Johannine parallels, Huck, Albert (Tubingen, Mohr, 1981)

A Synopsis of the four Gospels in Greek / arranged according to the two-Gospel hypothesis and edited by John Bernard Orchard., Orchard, Bernard (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1983)

Synopsis quattuor evangeliorum: locis parallelis evangeliorum apocryphorum et patrum adhibitis, Aland, KurtNestle, EberhardNestle, Erwin, (Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1986)

Adversaria Critica Sacra With a Short Explanatory Introduction, Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Novum Testamentum Graece Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle, EberhardNestle, ErwinAland, BarbaraAland, KurtStrutwolf, Holger, (Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012)

The Greek New Testament, Aland, BarbaraAland, KurtKaravidopoulos, JohannesMartini, Carlo MMetzger, Bruce M. (Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibel Gesellschaft, American Bible Society, United Bible Societies, 2014)

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, Trinity College, MS B.8.5A

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