Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.3.23

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 11985

Introduction: This manuscript, copied in Spain in about 1575, contains the Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes, a collection of extracts from ancient and medieval historians regarding embassies sent by the Romans to other peoples. The compilation originated as part of a programme undertaken at the order of the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959) . This sought to remedy neglect of the study of these historical texts by compiling material from them into a set of collections, each covering one of fifty-three different topics, in order to make what was considered their most valuable content more accessible. The enterprise formed part of a wider trend of encyclopaedism in 10th-century Byzantium, and at Constantine's court in particular. Two of the six surviving collections assembled by this programme concern embassies: one, those sent by other peoples to the Romans; and the other, the Roman embassies detailed here. These are sometimes considered as a single two-part work. While organised separately, they were found together in the sole Byzantine manuscript that preserved them, El-Escorial, Real Bibloteca, MS I Θ 4, until they attracted fresh attention in the 16th century. However, there is reason to suppose that they had originally been produced as separate volumes and bound together at a later date. This cannot be verified since this manuscript was destroyed in a fire in 1671. The Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes contains extracts from fifteen authors, who range in time from Polybius in the 2nd century BCE to George the Monk (Georgios Monachos) in the 9th century CE. Constantine's historical collections apparently did not prove appealing to posterity. All but six have been lost entirely, while three of the survivors are preserved only in a single Byzantine manuscript and one in two such copies, along with the single manuscript that formerly preserved the collections on embassies. All of these six manuscripts dated from the 10th or 11th century, implying that the compilations did not continue to be copied for very long after their creation. The survivors may even include copies produced at the imperial court at the time of compilation. However, they are of considerable importance in that a number of the works excerpted, or major portions of them, have since been lost, and these extracts constitute a large proportion of what survives of them. Authors found in this collection who survive largely through this and other 10th-century compilations include the Late Antique historians Malchus of Philadelphia , Priscus and Menander Protector . In the 16th century the manuscript containing the two collections on embassies entered the royal library at the Escorial. In 1574, a copy in two volumes was made for Antonio Augustín, Archbishop of Tarragona (1517-1586) , by the prolific Greek scribe Andreas Darmarios, who besides his own copying work ran a workshop of other scribes. In the following months several additional copies were made by Darmarios and his colleagues, evidently including this one. Formerly attributed to Antonios Kalosynos (RGK I, 25; III, 39), it has now been identified as the work of Sophianos Melissenos, another member of Darmarios's scriptorium. While it is not dated, the shifting codicological practices and use of materials by this workshop have been studied in detail, and indications from this work suggest that the manuscript was copied in 1575. Other copies produced at this time can mostly be shown to have included both collections, typically in two volumes, and it may well be that this manuscript was originally accompanied by a companion volume containing the Excerpta de legationibus Gentium ad Romanos, but if so this appears to have been lost. On f. 1r the manuscript carries a peculiar note in Greek referring to one Theodosios the Little as its compiler (‘ἐρανίσας’), a note also found in another copy of the text by the same hand (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, MS 11301-16, f. 2r). This individual has in the past been identified as the scribe (e.g. Moore, "The Manuscript Tradition of Polybius", p. 152), but in the light of the identification of Melissenos as the copyist responsible, more recent research suggests it may be an erroneous attribution of the original compilation of the collection. While the original patron for whom the manuscript was produced is unknown, from 1609 onwards its ownership can be traced in full. It was consulted at that time by the scholar Isaac Casaubon for his edition of the history of Polybius. Casaubon had apparently borrowed it from its then owner, Jacques-Auguste de Thou, and died with it still in his possession, leading to its being sold along with other parts of his collection. While Casaubon had recorded his use of de Thou's manuscript, it was subsequently believed lost, and therefore omitted from most of the editions of the collection or its component texts produced since. This is notable since its textual variations have been shown to form an independent strand within the chronologically compressed manuscript tradition formed by the copies of this compilation produced by the Darmarios workshop. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

ff. 1r-254v

Excerpta de legationibus

The manuscript contains only the Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes, not the complementary Excerpta de legationibus Gentium ad Romanos.

Filiation: According to Krasheninnikov, this manuscript is independent of the rest of the surviving textual tradition of this work. It was identified by Iadevaia as the exemplar from which an excerpt from the text in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS gr. 2463 was copied. It is omitted from the list of manuscripts containing this work in De Boor's critical edition of the Excerpta. As a result, it has habitually been omitted from editions of the texts excerpted within it. Besides its use in Casaubon's edition of Polybius, it has been used in the preparation of the editions of Priscus by Bornmann and Carolla, Blockley's edition of Menander Protector, and Cresci's edition of Malchus.

TLG 3023.001

1.1. ff. 1r-2v

Hypothesis to the Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes

Rubric: f. 1r Ὑπόθεσις τοῦ Περὶ πρέσβεων τεύχους Ῥωμαίων πρὸς ἐθνικοὺς:+ Προοίμιον

Incipit: f. 1r Ὅσοι τῶν πάλαι ποτὲ βασιλέων τὲ καὶ ἰδιωτῶν

Explicit: f. 2v ιεʹ Θεοφυλάκτου ἀπὸ ἐπαρχων[sic] καὶ ἀντιγραφέως τοῦ Σιμοκάττου

1.2. ff. 3r-254v

Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes

Rubric: f. 3r Ὅσους ἐδέξαντο πρέσβεις βασιλέων Ῥωμαίων ἐθνικοὶ, καὶ ποίω σχήματι τούτους ἐδέξαντο, καὶ μεθ'ὁποίας δοχῆς

Incipit: f. 3r Ὅτι Βαλλεριανὸς εὐλαβηθεὶς τὴν ἔφοδον τῶν Περσῶν

Explicit: f. 254v παρὰ τοῖς Πέρσαις σηχηραγωγούμενος

Colophon: f. 254v Τέλος σὺν Θεῶ ἁγίω τοῦ περὶ τεύχους Ῥωμαίων πρὸς ἐθνικούς

1.3. ff. 255r-255v

Contents list to the ‘Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes’

Rubric: f. 255r Πίναξ

Incipit: f. 255r Ὑπόθεσις τοῦ Περὶ πρέσβεων τεύχους Ῥωμαίων πρὸς ἐθνικοὺς: Προοίμιον

Explicit: f. 255v ἐκ τῆς ἱστορίας Θεοφυλάκτου ἀπὸ ἐπάρχου καὶ ἀντιγράφων

f. 256r-256v is blank.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: ff. 1-60 Western paper, folded in folio, with 9 chainlines per leaf. Watermark: Ball and star ( 50 × 17 mm. ) in the centre of the folio. An image of this watermark, which does not appear in published collections, appears in Carolla, Non deteriores, p. 170. ff. 61-90 Western paper, folded in folio, with 7 chainlines per leaf. Watermark: Hand ( 57 × 17 mm. ) in the centre of the folio, similar to Sosower Main 49. This example is dated to 1580. ff. 91-130 Western paper, folded in folio, with 7 chainlines per leaf. Watermark: Hand ( 60 × 18 mm. ) in the centre of the folio, similar to Briquet 11250. This example is dated to 1570. ff. 131-230 Western paper, folded in folio, with 7 chainlines per leaf. Watermark: Pilgrim ( 47 × 37 mm. ) in the centre of the folio. An image of this watermark, which does not appear in published collections, appears in Carolla, Non deteriores, p. 170. ff. 231-256 Western paper, folded in folio, with 9 chainlines per leaf. Watermark: Hand ( 55 × 18 mm. ) in the centre of the folio. An image of this watermark, which does not appear in published collections, appears in Carolla, Non deteriores, p. 170.

Extent: Codex: i + 256 + i leaves. 284 × 198 mm.

Foliation: The manuscript is foliated with the numbers [i] + 1-256 + 257, in pencil, in Arabic numerals, recto, upper right.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 26 quires, of which one is a ternion and the rest are quinia.

Quires 1-25¹⁰ ff. 1-250
Quire 26⁶ ff. 251-256

There are original catchwords on the last folio of each quire, verso. These were apparently added by the original copyist, but subsequent to the copying of the text, as they are sometimes in a different shade of ink.

Condition

There are a few worm-holes in the outermost folios (ff. [i]-1 and 252-257). ff. [i]-1 have become stuck together at the tail end of the gutter.There is some creasing to ff. 1r-2v, and slight water staining to the edges of some folios.

Layout

A single column of 20 lines. 212 × 90 mm.

Hand(s)

The manuscript was copied by Sophianos Melissenos in a mixed minuscule script, slanting to the right, in brown ink, with modest variation in letter size. There are deletions by expunctuation.

Syllabic abbreviations appear only at the end of lines, while there is no superscription of word endings. Breathings are round and mute iota is absent or subscript. Use of the double dot is functional only. Accents are sometimes joined to breathings and abbreviations.

The modern neta, modern nu, sigma telikon and loop epsilon are present. Distinctive letter-forms include minuscule pi with the lower part turned to the side, with minimal division between the cells, and minuscule delta with an almost horizontal upper linking stroke, resembling sigma.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower and middle commas, question mark and full stop.

The same hand has added headings and other rubric in the same style in red ink.

Decoration

The prooimion and individual excerpts each begin with ornamented minor intitials in red ink (e.g. 1r, 3r). Items in the contents list begin with ordinary letters in red ink.

The prooimion, individual excerpts and the contents list are preceded by simple vignettes in red or brown ink.

Additions

The original copyist has marked corrections in the margin, often with the note ‘γράφηται’, and added marginal numbers for the beginning of sections of some texts (e.g. ff. 16v-47r).

A note referring to one Theodosios the Little appears on f. 1r: ‘Ὁ ἐρανίσας τὸ παρὸν, Θεοδόσιος ἐστὶν ὁ μικρός’.

Isaac Casaubon has added a note on (f. 35r), marking the beginning of the first extract of Polybius appearing in the edition of this collection by Fulvio Orsini (1582).

There are marginal Latin notes on the component texts by Patrick Young, usually at the beginning of each excerpt, relating to the correspondence between this manuscript and the editions of Orsini and David Hoeschel (1648), and to the editions of Polybius by Casaubon (1609) and of Zosimos by Sylburg (1590) (e.g. ff. 3r, 6v-7r, 20v, 79v, 83r). He also made occasional marginal corrections (e.g. f. 3r, lines 7-16, f. 3v, line 10, f. 4r, line 16), and marks at the begining and end of certain excerpts (e.g. ff. 7r, 93v).

There are notes on [i] recto giving the former classmarks 327, H.13 and O.10.17.

Binding

Original 16th-century full leather binding over couched-laminate boards, with plain pastedowns. Both boards are decorated with elaborate blind tooling, containing vegetative designs and motifs including crowned lions and crowned and helmeted heads.

286 × 214 × 44 mm.

The binding has been rebacked. Insects have eaten into both boards in places, the areas of damage corresponding to those in the outermost folios. The cover has worn through in places around the edges, exposing the boards.

History

Origin: The manuscript was copied by Sophianos Melissenos (RGK I 362), a collaborator of Andreas Darmarios , whose workshop produced multiple copies of this collection and its counterpart in 1573-1575. On the basis of the arrangement of the quires and the changing practices of the Darmarios workshop, Kresten has dated its production to 1575. The identification of the hand by Carolla cites the unpublished observations of Mark Sosower (Carolla, Non deteriores, p. 157 n. 128). In addition to the manuscripts cited in the RGK, the hand of Melissneos is also found in El-Escorial, Real Biblioteca, MS Υ-II-13, , Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Barb. gr. 68, as well as in a number of other manuscripts containing one or both parts of the Excerpta de legationibus: Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, MS 11301-16, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. gr. 411 and Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. gr. 1418. The manuscript is erroneously attributed by Vogel and Gardthausen to the Theodosios the Little mentioned in the note on f. 1r.

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by the historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617) by 1609.

Given or lent by de Thou at that time to Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) , who retained it until his death.

Owned by the Biblical scholar and royal librarian Patrick Young (1584-1652) .

Acquired after Young's death by the antiquary Thomas Gale (c. 1635-1702) , Fellow of Trinity and Dean of York, along with many of Young's other manuscripts. It appears in the 1697 catalogue of Gale's collection contained in Trinity College MS O.5.38 (p. 161).

Donated to Trinity College by Thomas's son, the antiquary Roger Gale (1672-1744) in 1738.

Additional Information

Availability

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Bibliography

Polybiou tou Lykorta Megalopolitou Historiōn ta sōzomena = Polybii Lycortae F. Megalopolitani Historiarum libri qui supersunt Isaac Casaubon (editor) Polybius Paris Apud Hieronymum Drouardum 1609 Die griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters und der Renaissance Marie Vogel ; Victor Gardthausen Leipzig O. Harrassowitz 1909 Novaja rukopis izvlečenji Περὶ πρέσβεων Ῥωμαίων πρὸς ἐθνικούς Mikhail N. Krasheninnikov Vizantijskij Vremennik 21 45-170 1914 The manuscript tradition of Polybius J.M. Moore Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1965 Eine Sammlung von Konzilsakten aus dem Besitze des Kardinals Isidoros von Kiev Otto Kresten Wien Verl. d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss. 1976 Fragmenta / Prisci Panitae Fritz Bornmann (editor) Priscus Florence Le Monnier 1979 Una nota sulla tradizione manoscritta degli 'Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad gentes' di Pietro Patrizio Francesca Iadevaia Problemi di civilità 6 1-3 1979 Frammenti / Malco di Filadelfia Lia Raffaella Cresci (editor) Malchus Naples Bibliopolis 1982 The history of Menander the Guardsman : introductory essay, text, translation and historiographical notes R. C. Blockley (editor) Menander Liverpool Cairns 1985 Non deteriores. Copisti e filigrane di alcuni manoscritti degli Excerpta de legationibus Pia Carolla Miscellanea Bibliothecae apostolicae vaticanae. 15. Città del Vaticano 129-170 Biblioteca apostolica vaticana 2008 Excerpta et fragmenta / Priscus Panita Pia Carolla (editor) Priscus Berlin Walter De Gruyter 2008 Hacia un repertorio de copistas anonimos del taller darmariano Chico Escobar Alethes Philia. Studi in onore di Giancarlo Prato Spoleto 389-399 Centro italiano di studi sull' alto medioevo 2010 Collectanea 23

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.3.23

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