Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.32

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11960

Introduction: The manuscript contains texts by Michael Psellos and John Kamateros. The two small philosophical treatises by the eleventh-century Byzantine polymath Psellos deal respectively with the creation of the souls in Plato, and with the Chaldaean Oracles, a set of texts belonging to the mysterical tradition which carry revelations from the Gods. Psellos' texts are accompanied by the astrological treatise On the zodiac written in the middle of the twelfth century by John Kamateros. The manuscript was copied by the Greek scribe Iakobos Diassorinos, who worked at the royal library at Fontainebleau around the middle of the 16th century. He copied these same texts multiple times: both Psellos' texts are present in MSS CUL, Gg.6.10 and Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. gr. 38; the Expositio brevis de dogmatis Assyriorum was transcribed by him in MS El Escorial, Real Biblioteca, Φ.II.11. Dr Erika Elia

Language(s): Greek

1. ff. 1r-29r

Psellus, Michael , In psychogoniam Platonicam

Rubric: f. 1r Τοῦ Ψελλοῦ Μιχαὴλ εἰς τὴν τοῦ Πλάτωνος ψυχογονίαν

Incipit: f. 1r Τὸ μὲν λεγόμενόν ἐστιν, ὅτι οὐ μάτην ἡ τῶν ἐφεξῆς λόγων εὕρεσις

Explicit: f. 29r ἀναφέρει τὰς περατώσεις τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκρότητα.

Final rubric: f. 29r Τέλος

The text is accompanied by some diagrams, see e.g. ff. 6r, 21r-23r

Moore 2005 phi. 72a

ed. G.C. Linder, Τοῦ Ψελλοῦ Μιχαὴλ εἰς τὴν ψυχογονίαν τοῦ Πλάτωνος, Michaelis Pselli in Platonis De animae procreatione praecepta commentarius, Uppsala 1854, pp. 1-49 nr. 1; PG 122, 1077-1101

ff. [i] verso-[ii] recto are blank.

2. ff. 29v-31v

Psellus, Michael, Expositio brevis de dogmatis Assyriorum

Rubric: f. 29v Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔκθεσις κεφαλαιώδης καὶ σύντομος τῶν παρ' Ἀσσυρίοις δογμάτων

Incipit: f. 29v Μετὰ τὸ ἓν, τὸν πατρικὸν φασὶ[sic] βυθὸν, ἐκ τριάδων πληρούμενον

Explicit: f. 31v καὶ ὡς θείας φωνὰς ταῦτα ἐδέξαντο.

Moore 2005 phi. 114; O'Meara 1989, op. 41; TLG 2702.011

ff. 32r-32v are blank.

3. ff. 33r-89r

Kamatèros, Iohannes, d. 1206 , De zodiaco

Rubric: f. 33r Ἰωάννου τοῦ Καματηροῦ τοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ κανικλείου περὶ τῆς τῶν ἀστέρων διαθέσεως ἐν συνόψει, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οὐρανίων. Προοίμιον πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν πορφυρογέννητον

Incipit: f. 33r Ἐξ οὐρανίων ἀντύγων σοι βιβλίον γράψας προσάγω δέσποτα στεφηφόρε, Ἄναξ κράτιστε πορφυρόβλαστε κλάδε

Explicit: f. 89r Καὶ ταῦθ' ἡ βίβλος Βαβυλωνίων γράφει.

The work is dedicated to the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, rather than to Manuel I Komnenos (on this matter see E. Miller, 'Poèmes astronomique de Théodore Prodrome et de Jean Camatère', in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Biblithèque Nationale et d'autres bibliothèques 23.2, 1872, pp. 53-111: p. 50 note 1).

The text ends at line 1352 (the three ending lines of the text in Miller's edition are probably to be attributed to the scribe Angelos Bergikios, see Miller 1872, p. 111 note 4).

A later hand collated the text with that of a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and supplied missing lines in the margins.

TLG 3014.002

ff. [iii] recto-[v] verso are blank.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermarks: f. [i] Pitcher with handle, surmounted by clovers and a four-leaf clover ( ca. 40 × ca. 25 mm. ) in the gutter, Only about half of the watermark is visible ff. 1-80 Pitcher with handle, surmounted by crown and a four-leaf clover ( ca. 37 × ca. 18 mm. ) in the gutter, comparable to Briquet Pot 12632, which is dated to the years 1542/1550. ff. 81-[iv] Pitcher with handle, surmounted by palmette and a four-leaf clover; on the pot letters GG ( ca. 50 × ca. 16 mm. ) in the gutter, comparable to Briquet Pot 12733, which is dated to 1553. f. [v] Jester's head ( ca. 65 × ca. 50 mm. ) in the gutter, Only about half of the watermark is visible.

Extent: Codex: i + 1 + 89 + 2 + i leaves. 195 × 135 mm.

Foliation: The manuscript is foliated in pencil, in Arabic numerals, on the recto, upper right: [i]-[ii] + 1-89 + [iii]-[v]

Collation

The manuscript consists of 1 later endleaf forming a bifolium with the left pastedown, 1 endleaf, 11 quaternions, a binion with the 4th leaf missing (without loss of text) and 1 later endleaf forming a bifolium with the right pastedown.

Quire 1² ff. left pastedown-[i]
1 endleaf f. [ii]
Quires 2-12⁸ ff. 1-88
Quire 13^4-1 ff. 89-[iv]
Quire 14² ff. [v]-right pastedown

Vertical catchwords in the scribe's hand on the last verso, lower part, near the gutter; very short, they are written from the top down. There are later quire signatures in Arabic numerals, on the first leaf of each quire, recto, lower right, from 2 (f. 9r) to 12 (f. 89r)

Condition

The manuscript is in good condition.The edges of the left pastedown, ff. ff. [i], [v] and the right pastedown are stained in brown. There is some water staining, see fff. [ii] recto-17v.

Layout

A single column of 13 lines. 130-140 × 90 mm.

Hand(s)

ff. 1r-39r Hand A: the texts have been written by Iakobos Diassorinos (16th c., 2nd quarter-1563) , ( Ἰάκωβος Διασσωρινός, RGK I, 143. See also RGK II, 191; RGK III, 241), in the more calligraphic variant of his script.

The text is written in black ink; titles and initials in red.

Decoration

Small friezes in the form of a wavy line in red ink are present at the beginning of two of the texts, ff. 1r, 33r.

Thick red-ink initials in ekthesis , see e.g. f. 34r.

Additions

A later hand, probably of a western scholar (maybe Roger Gale?), wrote additions to the third text in the margins (see e.g. ff. 33v-34r); on f. 33v an annotation by this hand states that the added lines were copied from a manuscript of the Bodleian Library, ‘ ex cod(ice) Bodl(aeianae) Biblioth(ecae)’. Presumably the codex can be identified with Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F. 4. 16 . Other additions on ff. 35r, 42v and 45v. The same hand wrote an annotation on the upper margin of f. 33r: ‘ Est inter Codd. MSS. Westmon. liber qui Apuleo tribuitur, huic similis, latine scriptus. Habetur cl. 26. v. 10’.

On f. [ii] verso there is an index of the manuscript's contents.

On the left pastedown there are some annotations referring to the manuscript's numbers and shelfmarks: ‘C 54’ (old shelfmark), ‘ n° 185’ (previous number), ‘ O. 1. 33 32 ’ (present shelfmark). On f. [i] recto ‘ ~~C 54~~ ’ (old shelfmark).

Binding

Early modern western full leather binding over couched-laminate boards. Blind tooled frame on the boards. Gold tooled borders on both boards, traces of red in the edges. Rebacked, with paper labels for the shelfmark. 200 × 142 × 22 mm.

There are some scrapes on the cover.

History

Origin:

The manuscript was copied by Iakobos Diassorinos between the third and seventh decade of the 16th century..

Provenance and Acquisition

It was donated by the antiquary Roger Gale (1672-1744) in 1738. On the lower part of f. [ii] verso is glued the Trinity College bookplate.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2019) draws partly on M. R. James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College Cambridge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1902, pp. 36-37.

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. (Montague Rhodes) (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)

Specimen eines Repertoriums der griechischen Kopisten. Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik, Gamillscheg, ErnstHarlfinger, Dieter (27, 293-322, 1978)

Michaelis Pselli Philosophica minora, vol. II: Opuscula Psychologica, Theologica, Daemonologica Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, , (Leipzig, Teubner, 1989)

Iter Psellianum: a detailed listing of manuscript sources for all works attributed to Michael Psellos, including a comprehensive bibliography Subsidia mediaevalia, Moore, Paul (Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005)

El copista griego Jacobo Diasorino (s. XVI): estudio paleográfico y codicológico de sus manuscritos, García Bueno, Carmen (2017, 2019-10-03T15:23:34Z, http://hdl.handle.net/10803/456128)

Jacobo Diasorino en Italia ΠΗΓΗ/Fons, García Bueno, C. (3, 51-69, 2018)

The evolution of Jacobos Diassorinos’ handwriting in context Griechisch-byzantinische Handschriftenforschung : Traditionen, Entwicklungen, neue Wege, , C.Brockmann, C.Harlfinger, D.Valente, S.Deckers, D. (Berlin ; Boston, 201-210, De Gruyter, 2020)

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 O.1.32

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