Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.19
Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11958
Contents
Language(s): Greek
Under the text there is a note by the scribe, saying that he copied the epigram from another exemplar: ‘ Haec ex alio manuscripto codice de astronomia descripsi’
The same epigram is found in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS grec. 2492 , ed. by J.L. Heiberg, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae extent omnia, 2: 'Opera Astronomica Minora' (Leipzig 1907), p. cxlviii.
In the manuscript the text is attributed to Emperor Heraclius , but this attribution has been rejected by scholars (see Lempire (2011), pp. 244-248)
Commentary on Ptolemy's Handy Tables Commentarium in Ptolemaei canonesThe text is preceded on p. 1 by a table of contents
Ed. J. Lempire, Le commentaire astronomique aux Tables faciles de Ptolémée attribué à Stéphanos d'Alexandrie (Louvain-la-Neuve, 2016).
Physical Description
Pagination in brown ink, original to the production of the manuscript, in the centre of the upper margin of the leaves, from 1 to 133 (the number 134 written on f. [iii] recto has been deleted). After p. 3 there is a blank unnumbered page ([3a]). Modern pencil pagination, i-ii, on the external upper corner of an endleaf contemporary to the text block. After p. 10, the original foliation reads 8; the correct page number, 11, has been added in pencil. After p. 107 there is a blank unnumbered page ([107a]). After p. 45 there is an unnumbered page ([45a]), where the text has been completely erased with oblique lines in brown ink. Modern pencil pagination from 134 to 137 on the folded paper leaves inserted between p. 133 and f. [iii]. Two unnumbered later endleaves at the beginning (ff. [a]-[b]) and three (ff. [c]-[e]) at the end of the manuscript (the upper part of ff. [c]-[d] and of f. [e] and the right pastedown have not been cut: only ff. [c] recto, [d] verso, and [e] recto are visible in the digital copy of the manuscript). ff. [a]-[b] + pp. i-ii + 1-3, [3a], 4-45, [45a], 46-107, [107a], 108-133 + 134-137 + ff. [iii] + [c]-[e].
Collation
The leaves have been sewn very tightly and the quires are not numbered, therefore it has not been possible to ascertain the quires' structure.
Condition
Layout
A single column; the number of lines varies from 22 to 37. The lines are passim traced in pencil. ca. 165-180 × 130 mm.
Hand(s)
ff. 1-133 Hand A: the text has been written by a single hand, prοbably by a scribe of western European origin, in a minuscule script, uprιght, of regular size.
The text is written in a brown ink, initials in red.
p. ii Hand a. Another minuscule script, by a western European scribe. James suggested that this hand could be the one of Patrick Young, but the script is different, see e.g. Young's script in MS Trinity College, MS O.1.36 .
The ink is brown.
Decoration
Thick initials in ekthesis, in red ink, see e.g. p. 131.
The text comprises tables, see e.g. pp. 106-107.
Additions
On the left pastedown, in the upper left corner, are written, in brown ink, the old marks ‘ C.61’ and ‘ no. 193’, and the present shelfmark, ‘ O.1.19’. Near these, is written an older shelfmark, which has been erased, ‘ O.3.26’.
On p. i are written, in brown ink, the old mark ‘ C.61’, and a note about the manuscript's contents, ‘ Heraclii Imperatoris Commentarius in Ptolemaei Canones προχείρους, idemque de Paschate Christiano. Liber emendate scriptus, rarus, ineditus’.
Binding
Western modern binding. Paper cover over pasteboards; parchment on spine, on which are glued three paper labels with the shelfmark, ‘ O’, ‘ 1’, ‘ …9’. 210 × 160 × 17 mm.
The spine is split and damaged in the upper part.
Accompanying Material
After p. 133 two folded paper leaves have been inserted, perpendicularly to the other leaves of the manuscript, and contain texts written in Arabic and a few diagrams:
- pp. 134-135 ( ca. 390 × 160 mm. ). This leaf, now folded twice, was originally folded in two at a different point, and the text has been written on both sides from the folding line downwards. On p. 134, directly after the original folding line of the leaf, there is a note in Latin indicating the title of the text following in Arabic, and its author, ‘ Incipit libellus Hypsiclis de ascensionibus, ἀνέκδοτος’; on the same page, after the text in Arabic, another note in Latin by the same hand indicates its end, ‘ Finis libelli Hypsiclis de ascensionibus’.
- pp. 136-137 ( ca. 260 × ca. 190 mm. ). On p. 136 there is a title in Latin, ‘ Incipit liber Theodosii de diebus et noctibus’; the leaf, moreover, is numbered by the same hand ‘ Pag. ia ’; on the same leaf, in the lower part, there are some notes and calculations by the same hand, written perpendiculalry to the text in Arabic. On p. 137, near the upper edge, there is a note indicating that this is the last page, in Latin, ‘ Pagina ultima’; after some lines of text in Arabic, there is another indication in Latin, ‘ Finis libri Aristarchi de corpore luminarium (scil. Solis et Lunae)’; notes in Latin by the same hand follow.
History
The manuscript was copied in the 17th century, probably in the latter part, in England: the text was copied from two manuscripts - Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Cromwell 12 and MS Savile 51 - which at the time were already in Oxford (see Lempire (2016), p. 48).
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript was part of the collection of the antiquary Thomas Gale (ca. 1635-1702) (no. 196), Regius professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, High Master of St Paul's School and Dean of York (see James (1902), pp. xix seqq.): no. 6072 (238) in the list of Thomas Gale's Greek manuscripts in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697) (p. 190).
The manuscript was subsequently part of the collection of Thomas's son, the antiquary Roger Gale (1672-1744) .
It was donated to Trinity College Library by Roger Gale (1672-1744) in 1738. On p. ii is pasted the Trinity College Library bookplate. On pp. ii and 133 there are stamps of Trinity College.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
-
The western manuscripts in the library of
Trinity College: a descriptive catalogue, James, M. R. (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
L'astronomie byzantine (du Ve au XVe
siècle) Byzantion, Tihon, A. (51, 2, 603-624, 1981)
D'Alexandrie à Constantinople. Le commentaire
astronomique de Stéphanos Byzantion, Lempire, J. (81, 241-266, 2011)
Le commentaire astronomique aux Tables Faciles
de Ptolémée attribué à Stéphanos d'Alexandrie Publications de l'Institut orientaliste
de
Louvain, Lempire, J. (Louvain-la-Neuve, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut
orientaliste-, 2016)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
