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 O.1.54

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11964

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript was originally bound with Cambridge, Trinity College Library, O.1.55 (see, in particular, Rosenbaum (2004), p. 102* note 290 and Bady-Tchernetska (2003), pp. 63-65). It contains (f. 1) the ending of the Catena on Proverbs present in that manuscript and a Catena on the Song of Songs. Dr Erika Elia

Language(s): Greek

1. f. 1r
Catena on the Proverbs (Cambridge Catena, see Danezan (2019)), ending Catena in Proverbia (Cambridge Catena, see Danezan (2019))
Incipit: || f. 1r θεία σοφία τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας ὑπέρκειται
Explicit: f. 1r l. 11 ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ εἰσαγωγικά

This is the end of the text contained in MS Trinity O.1.55, ff. 9r-78v

2. ff. 1v-79v
Catena on the Song of Songs (Catena Cantabrigiensis) Catena in Canticum Canticorum (Catena Cantabrigiensis)

In the text there are major lacunae, due the loss of leaves, between ff. 43v-44r, 45v-46r, 47v-48r, 53v-54r, 59v-60r

CPG C 85; the text is unpublished (see, with cited bibliography, Ceulemans (2011), p. 114 note 43)

2.1. ff. 1v-3r
⟨ Nilus, of Ancyra, -approximately 430⟩ , Prologue
Rubric: f. 1v Προοίμιον τῆς ἑρμενείας τοῦ ᾅσματος τῶν ᾁσμάτων· ἐκ διαφόρων συνειλεγμένων
Incipit: f. 1v Τὸ τῶν ᾁσμάτων βιβλίον ἔοικεν γυναικί
Explicit: f. 3r l. 11 ἐνεργεῖν ἔτι τὴν οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν

In the manuscript the prologue is not explicitly attributed to Nilus of Ancyra

Ed. H.-U. Rosenbaum, Nilus von Ancyra. Schriften, Band I: Kommentar zum Hohelied, (Berlin-Boston, 2004), pp. 1-5

2.2. ff. 3r l. 11-79v
Catena on the Song of Songs
Rubric: f. 3r ᾍσμα ᾁσμάτων ὅ ἐστιν τῷ Σαλωμών
Incipit: f. 3r Ἀκολουθίᾳ καὶ τάξει
Explicit: f. 79v τῶν οὐρανίων καὶ καθαρῶν

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment ( FHHF)
Extent: Codex: iii + 1 + 79 + ii leaves. 190 × 145 mm.
Foliation:

Modern pencil foliation, in Arabic numerals, in the upper margin right; f. 71 is now bound after f. 79; four endleaves at the beginning and two at the end of the manuscript are unnumbered (ff. [v] and [vi] are still joined along the upper edge, which was not cut; only ff [v] recto and [vi] verso have been photographed): [i]-[iv] + 1-70, 72-79, 71 + [v]-[vi].

Collation

The manuscript consists mainly of quaternions. 4 quires have lost leaves: quire 6 the 4th, 5th and 8th, quire 7 the 3rd, quire 8 the 4th and 5th, quire 9 the 4th and 5th. The structure of the last quire (12) does not correspond to the original structure: f. 71 has been misplaced, bound after f. 79. The last quire was originally a quinion, missing the last leaf, without loss of text: ff. 71-72-73-74-75 | 76-77-78-79-x. This reconstruction is confirmed, besides the sequence of the text, by the sequence of flesh and hair sides in the quire.

  • Quire 14 ff. left pastedown-[iii] (4 paper endleaves )
  • 1 parchment endleaf, f. [iv]
  • Quires 2-68 ff. 1-40
  • Quire 78-3 ff. 41-45(4th, 5th, 8th leaf are missing)
  • Quire 86-1 ff. 46-50(3rd is missing, a stub remains )
  • Quire 98-2 ff. 51-56(4th, 5th leaf are missing)
  • Quire 108-2 ff. 57-62(4th, 5th leaf are missing)
  • Quire 118 ff. 63-70
  • Quire 128 ff. 72-79
  • f. 71(11)
  • 1 endleaf f. [v]

Two signatures in Greek numerals, in ink, very faded, are visible in the upper margin, right, of the first leaf recto of the quires:
  • ιϛ΄ (16, f. 9r)
  • ιη΄ (18, f. 25r)
. They are probably original to the production of the manuscript, since they continue the series found in Trinity O.1.55. Modern signatures in pencil, in Arabic numerals, on the lower corner, right, of the first recto of the quires, from 2 ( f. 9r), to 11 ( f. 71r).

Condition

The manuscript is in fair condition. It has lost some leaves (see also Collation): 2 leaves between ff. 43v-44r, 1 between 45v-46r (see also James (1903), p. 52; for M.-G. Guérard [ed.], Nil d'Ancyre, Commentaire sur le Cantique des cantiques (Paris, 1994), pp. 87-88 3 leaves are missing) , 1 between 47v-48r, 2 between 53v-54r, 2 between 59v-60r (this lacuna is not mentioned in Guérard (1994)). There are water and humudity stains throughout, see e.g. ff. 53v-54r, ff. 56v-57r. f. 71 has been bound in the wrong position, after f. 79, when the manuscript was rebound in 1982 (see an annotation in pencil on the exemplar of the catalogue digitised and visible online on the Wren Digital Library).

Layout

A single column of 29 lines. 140 × 90 mm. Pricking survives in the external and lower margins, but much has been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, system Leroy 1, type Leroy 20C1. Text hangs from the lines.

Hand(s)

ff.1r ll. 1-11, 1v-79v Hand A (= Hand C in Trinity O.1.55): the texts have been written by a single hand in a Perlschrift minuscule script, vertical, in brown ink, with enlargement of some letters, as majuscule epsilon, round zeta, phi, tau, datable in the 11th c. The text of the Song of Songs is written by the same scribe in an Auszeichnungs-Schrift based on the Alexandrian majuscule script.

Iota subscript is not regularly written.

The text is written in brown ink.

The script hangs from the ruled lines.

The scribe wrote in the margins the sigla for the authors' names.

f. 1r ll. 12-28

Hand a: a later hand added two small texts on f. 1r, in a portion left blank by hand A, in a minuscule script, informal, non calligraphic, slanting to the right, datable in the 14th c.

The ink is brown

Decoration

One thick initial in ekthesis in red ink, decorated with a simple vegetal motif, on f. 1v, is a later addition.

Additions

On f. 1r ll. 1-11, in the blank space left after the ending of the first text, a later hand added two short texts in Greek:

  • f. 1r ll. 12-18, tit. ⟨Σ⟩τίχο⟨ι⟩ τῆς ἀγάπης
  • f. 1r ll. 19-28, tit. Στίχοι Συγκέλλου(?) Γεωργίου

On the left pastedown are written the older shelfmark, ‘ C 82’, and number, ‘ 214’, the present shelfmark, ‘ O.1.54’, and another one which has been erased, ‘ O.3.47 ’.

On f. [i] recto is written the old shelfmark of the Gale collection, erased, ‘ C. 82 ’.

On f. [iv] recto there is a title, written in brown ink: ‘ Canticum Canticorum cum Catena ex variis Patribus Collecta Graece’.

On f. 8v, in the upper margin, there is an annotation in Greek by a later hand, in black ink, which has been erased.

Binding

Early modern western binding; full leather cover over paste-boards. Blind tooling on both boards, a rectangular border, unfilled, with vegetal motifs at the corners. Gold tooling on the boards' edges. On the spine are pasted three paper labels with the shelfmark, ‘ O’, ‘ 1’, ‘ 54’. The binding is identical with the binding of Trinity O.1.55. 191 × 145 × ca. 35 mm.

History

Origin:

The manuscript was copied in the 11th century, probably in the fiirst half. It formed originally a single volume with Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.55.

Provenance and Acquisition

The manuscript was part of the collection of the antiquary Roger Gale (1672-1744) (the manuscript is not identifiable among Thomas Gale's manuscripts in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxoniae, 1697).

It was donated to Trinity College by Gale in 1738. On f. [iv] verso is pasted the Trinity College bookplate. Stamps of Trinity College Library are present on ff. 1r and 79v.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2020) draws partly on M.R. James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), vol. 3, pp. 52-53.

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) Commentaire sur le Cantique des cantiques / Nil d'Ancyre Sources chrétiennes ; no 403-, Nilus, of AncyraGuérard, Marie-Gabrielle (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1994) Un nouveau témoin direct des 'Scholies aux Proverbes' d'Evagre le Pontique Revue d'histoire des textes, Bady, G.Tchernetska, N. (32, 63-72, 2002) Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments Bible. Old Testament. Supplementum. Greek. Septuagint. 1931, , (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2004) Nilus von Ancyra · Schriften, Band I: Kommentar zum Hohelied [Unter Verwendung der Vorarbeiten von Harald Ringshausen] Patristische Texte und Studien, Rosenbaum, Hans-Udo (Berlin ;Boston, De Gruyter, 2004) New manuscripts of the Catena Trium Patrum (‘B2’) and of the commentaries by Theodoret of Cyrrhus and the Three Fathers (‘B1’) on the Song of Songs Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik, Ceulemans, R. (61, 105-120, 2011)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

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