Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.37

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11962

Introduction: This manuscript contains the Greek tragedy Iephte (Jephthah) by John Christopherson (d. 1558), chaplain and confessor to Queen Mary I of England, Master of Trinity College (1553-1558), Dean of Norwich (1554-1557) and Bishop of Chichester (1557-1558). The composition of this play has to be contextualised within the framework of the sixteenth-century collegiate drama, used by teachers for the behavioral, moral and linguistic instruction of the students, in the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. This text is quite unique, because it is an original composition in Greek, instead of an adaptation or translation of a Greek tragedy, which was more common (see Paul D. Streufert, 'Christopherson at Cambridge: Greco-Catholic Ethics in the Protestant University' in Early Modern Academic Drama, ed. by Paul D. Streufert and Jonathan Walker (London, 2009), pp. 45-63). The tragedy, inspired by Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, has as its protagonist a Biblical character cited in Judges, Iephte (or Jephthah), a judge of Israel who killed his daughter, having vowed to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. The drama was written from 1543-1547, maybe around 1544 (for the date see F.S. Boas, University drama in the Tudor age (Oxford, 1914), pp. 45-47; C. Upton, John Christopherson Iephte, William Goldingham Herodes (Zürich; New York, 1988), p. 2; F.H. Fobes [ed.], Jephthah by John Christopherson (Newark, 1928), pp. 7-8 ). The only other known copy of the text in Greek is Cambridge, St John's College, MS H.19 . A translation into Latin is preserved in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 466 (see Upton (1988), where the Latin text is reproduced). In the opinion of the editor of the text, the manuscripts are two different revisions by the author, and therefore they have not been copied one from one another ( Fobes (1928), p. 16). In this copy of the Greek text, the tragedy is dedicated to William Parr (1513-1571) when he was Earl of Essex, i.e. after 23 December 1543. Therefore, it must have been copied after this date and, in Upton's view, the composition of the play must also have taken place after this date (see Upton (1988), p. 2). Dr Erika Elia

Language(s): Greek and Latin

1. ff. 1r-58v

John Christopherson, Iephte Jephthah

Rubric: f. 1r Τραγῳδία Ιεφθάε[sic] υπὸ[sic] τοῦ Ιωάννου[sic] Χριστοφερσώνου, ξυνγραφεῖσα[sic] ἐκ τοῦ κεφαλαίου ια΄ τῶν Kριτῶν

Ed. H. Fobes, Jephthah by John Christopherson (Newark, 1928)

f. 1v is blank

1.1. ff. 2r-8r

Dedication letter by John Christopherson to William Parr

Incipit: f. 2r Honoratissimo viro et singulari suo Patrono D. Parro Comiti Essexiae

Explicit: f. 8r tuae nobilitatis observantissimus Ioannes Christofersonus

f. 8v is blank

1.2. ff. 9r-11v

Poems on the tragedy Iephte

Rubric: f. 9r Carmina quaedam in tragoediam Iephte inque exempla vitae quae inde sumi possunt. Iambicum trimetrum

Incipit: f. 9r Diserta quaeque scriptio laudem invenit

Explicit: f. 11v disce ut deo vivas, id est vita frui.

ff. 12r-13v are blank

1.3. ff. 14v-15v

Hypothesis of Iephte

Rubric: f. 14v Ὑπόθεσις Ιεφθάε[sic]

Incipit: f. 14v Ιεφθάε[sic] τὸν Γαλααδίτην ἐκ πατρὸς Γαλαάδ

Explicit: f. 15v ὁ δὲ χορὸς συνέστηκεν ἐκ τῶν Γαλααδίτων

1.4. f. 16r

List of characters

Rubric: f. 16r Τὰ τοῦ δράματος πρόσωπα

Incipit: f. 16r Ιεφθάε[sic]

Explicit: f. 16r οἰκέτης

1.5. f. 16v

Six elegiac verses

Rubric: f. 16v Εἰς τὴν τραγῳδίαν Ιεφθάε[sic] ὑπὸ Ιωάννου[sic] Χριστοφερσώνου ξυγγραφεῖσαν[sic] Ῥωβέρτου Πεμβήρου ἐξάστιχον

Incipit: f. 16v Εὔξατ' Ιεφθάε[sic] τὴν εὐχήν

Explicit: f. 16v ἀνὴρ γλώσσῃ κόμψος ἐν ἀμφοτέρᾳ

1.6. ff. 17r-58v

Iephte Jephthah

Rubric: f. 14r Τραγῳδία Ιεφθάε[sic] ὑπὸ τοῦ Ιωάννου[sic] Χριστοφερσώνου ξυνγραφεῖσα[sic] εκ[sic] τοῦ κεφαλαίου ια΄ τῶν Kριτῶν

Incipit: f. 17r Προλογίζει δὲ ὁ Ιεφθάε[sic]

Explicit: f. 58v ἔπειτα καὶ τελεῖτε τοῦτο δ' εὐσεβές

Final rubric: f. 58v Τέλος

2. ff. 59r-61r

Blank leaves

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: ff. 1-61 Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermarks: ff. 2-12 Hand surmounted by a five-point star, with number ‘ 3’ on the palm and two letters on the wrist ( ca. 80 × ca. 30 mm. ), in the gutter, comparable to Piccard online Hand/Handschuh DE4500-PO-155924 , which is dated to 1550, and to Sosower Main 57 , which is dated in the middle of the 16th century. ff. 13-60 Pitcher with one handle, on it letters ‘ I ’ (?), surmounted by clovers ( ca. 40 × 18 mm. ), in the gutter, no exact parallels found in the main repertoires.

Extent: Codex: 61 leaves. 195 × 145 mm.

Foliation:

Modern pencil foliation, in Arabic numerals, in the upper margin right from 1 to 61: 1-61.

Collation

The quires have been sewn very tightly, the manuscript has been rebound, there is no numbering of the quires, therefore it is not possible to ascertain with certainty the original collation.

Condition

The manuscript is in good condition. The leaves are slightly yellowed near the edges.

Layout

A single column of 14 lines. 95 × ca. 80 mm.

Hand(s)

ff.1r-58v Hand A: a western European hand, vertical, regular in size. The scribe wrote also the texts in Latin. The same hand wrote this same text in MS St John's H. 19 , and a Latin translation by John Christopherson of Plutarch's essay ‘ Περὶ ἀδολεσχίας’, together with the text in Greek, in Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.6.56

The text is written in brown ink

Additions

On the left pastedown are written, in pencil, the number of the manuscript in James' catalogue, ‘ James 1061’, and the present shelfmark, ‘ O.1.37’. Below, in brown ink, is written an older shelfmark, which has been erased, ‘ O.3.50’.

On f. 1r are written in brown ink the old marks ‘ C.85’ and ‘ n^o 217’, and the present shelfmark, ‘ O.1.37’.

On f. 61v are written the names of ‘ Charles Nevil’ (repeated three times), amd ‘ Thomas King’.

Binding

Early modern western binding. Leather over pasteboards. Blind and gold tooling on each cover: a blind tooled rectangular frame filled with a vegetal decoration encompasses a gold tooled ractangle with palmettes, filled with arabesques. On the spine are pasted three paper labels with the shelfmark. 200 × 145 × 18 mm.

The codex has been rebacked.

Accompanying Material

In the binding was found a slip of parchment, f. [i], on which is written a text in Latin with glosses. ( 190 × ca. 83 mm. ).

History

Origin:

The manuscript was copied by a scribe of western European origin, probably in the second half of the 16th century, after 1543, in England, as the watermarks indicate and the script confirms.

Provenance and Acquisition

The manuscript was part of the collection of the antiquary Thomas Gale (ca. 1635-1702) (no. 155). It appears among Thomas Gale's Greek manuscripts in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ, Oxoniæ 1697, p. 189, no. 5984 (150) ‘ Joannis Christophersoni Tragoedia Jephtae’.

It was donated to Trinity College by Roger Gale (1672-1744) in 1738. On the left pastedown is glued the Trinity College bookplate. On ff. 1r and 58v there are stamps of Trinity College.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2020) partly draws on M.R. James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), vol. 3, pp. 43-44.

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, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)

Jephthah by John Christopherson, Christopherson, John (Newark, University of Delaware Press, 1928)

Iephte / John Christopherson. Herodes / William Goldingham Renaissance Latin drama in England. 2nd series, Christopherson, JohnGoldingham, William (Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1988)

How to Hold Your Tongue: John Christopherson’s Plutarch and the Mid-Tudor Politics of Catholic Humanism Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, Taylor, Andrew (41, 4, 411-431, 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 O.1.37

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