Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1840
Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12063
Contents
Language(s): Greek
After the 11th Sunday of Luke, Saturday and Sunday lections only
Defective at the end, with lacunas: ends during the pannychidas lection for Monday of Holy Week
Gregory-Aland l 308; Scrivener Evst. 294
Incomplete, with lacunas
Incomplete, with lacunas
Incomplete, with a lacuna
Possibly defective at the end
Defective at the beginning
Possibly defective at the end
Incomplete, with a lacuna
Defective at the end
Physical Description
Collation
The manuscript consists of 17 quires, of which one was originally of twelve folios and the rest are quaternia. One quire has been lost between Quires 7 and 8.
- Quires 1-28 ff. 1-16
- Quire 312-2 ff. 17-26 The tenth and eleventh folios have been cancelled, without loss of text.
- Quire 48-2 ff. 28-33 The first and last folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 58-4 ff. 36-41 The first, third, six and eighth folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 68 ff. 43-50
- Quire 78-2 ff. 52-57 The first and last folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 88-3 ff. 69-73 The first, second and eighth folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 98-3 ff. 75-82 The second, fifth and seventh folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 108-1 ff. 83-90 The fifth folio has been lost, with loss of text.
- Quires 11-138 ff. 91-114
- Quire 148-2 ff. 115-120 The seventh and eighth folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 158 ff. 123-130
- Quire 168-2 ff. 132-138 The first and sixth folios have been lost, with loss of text.
- Quire 178-7 f. 140 The first and third-eighth folios have been lost, with loss of text.
Condition
Layout
Two columns of 33 lines. 213 × 155 mm. Pricking survives in the lower and outer margins, but some has been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, system Leroy 1, type Leroy 32C2. Text hangs from the lines.
Hand(s)
The text was copied in upright mixed minuscule script similar to Perlschrift, in brown ink, with little variation in letter size.
Syllabic abbreviations appear only at the end of lines, and are rare apart from the horizontal stroke for nu. Superscript word endings do not appear. Breathings are both angular and round and mute iota is absent. Nomina sacra are unaccentuated. Use of the double dot is functional only.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower comma, question mark and full stop. The middle point often takes an unusual form, resembling a comma bent in the opposite direction from the usual.
Headings have been added in Alexandrine majuscule script in red ink.
Decoration
The beginning of the text is preceded by a pyle in red ink with blue infill (f. 1r).
The beginning and end of sections is sometimes accompanied by simple vignettes in red or red and brown ink (e.g. f. 55r).
The text begins on f. 1r with a major initial in red ink with blue infill, in the same style as the preceding headpiece, including a hand gripping the letter.
Lections begin with minor initials in red ink. Major sections sometimes begin with a more ornate initial outlined in red ink (e.g. f. 55r).
Additions
As part of the original production of the manuscript, parts of some lection headings were written in the margin.
Notes in English, in pencil, have been added regarding lost folios, by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) , University Librarian 1867-1886
Binding
Conserved and rebound at Cambridge University Library by Shaun Thompson in 2020. Native dyed goatskin over quarter-sawn boards. The text block was sewn in two halves at four stations in the Greek loop-stitch tradition, using 3-ply linen seaming twine. The halves were joined with a figure-of-eight knot, and bridlings provide the board attachment. The spine was lined with a continuous transverse lining of aero linen. A Greek on-two-cores endband was adapted to compensate for the squares. Along the boards, a simple wound primary endband was worked around a single 8-ply linen core. A second core was then added and the Greek-on-two-cores endband sewn, with an oblique stitch covering the second core. Both were worked in Barbour best common unbleached linen thread.
292 × 223 × 64 mm.
The pieces of the former binding, of medieval eastern Mediterranean origin, have been retained, and are housed with the manuscript.
The parchment textblock was cut to the size of the boards. Multiple sewing preparations can be identified, including 7 v-notches and 6 sawn-in recesses. This is likely evidence of multiple resewing. No sewing or sewing supports remain, except a few remnants of thread in the gatherings. No endbands are present.
There is no evidence of spine lining.
Endleaves are of laid paper. Both consist of one bifolio – the elements of which are a pastedown and a flyleaf.
It is likely the board attachment was via the covering material at the spine and the endleaves tipped at the inner joint. The boards are now detached.
The boards are wooden, with grooved edges, and are shaped to a gentle cushion at the outer spine edge.
Full covering of dark brown tanned skin, with reback in dark brown tanned skin. Repairs to the board covering in dark brown tanned skin are present at the board edges and patches on the outer board face.
Four false double raised bands, formed with cord. Decoration is blind impressions only. It consists of various intersecting fillets including a boarder of two ‘thin-thick-thin’ triple fillets. Various hand tools have been used between the fillets and at intersections, these include roundels, small and large diamond shaped florals, a square shaped floral at intersections, round tool of a double-headed eagle and a smaller round zoomorphic tool. Use of a floral intaglio tool on the spine.
There are occasional remnants of leather page-marker tabs (e.g. f. 126).
298 × 228 × 63 mm.
Accompanying Material
There are two loose notes by Henry Bradshaw, regarding collation and the erasure of text.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Bought by the University Library from the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch in 1876.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.
Bibliography
-
Plain Introduction to the
Criticism of the New Testament, Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (Cambridge, 1, Deighton, Bell, 1874)
Novum Testamentum Graece: ad
antiquissimos testes denuo recensuit apparatum
criticum apposuit Constantinus Tischendorf, Gregory, Caspar René (Leipzig, 3:
Prolegomena, J.C. Hinrichs, 1894)
Textkritik des Neuen
Testamentes, Gregory, Caspar René (Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1900)
Some Byzantine musical
manuscripts at Cambridge Annual of the British School at
Athens, Tillyard, H. J. W. (Henry Julius
Wetenhall) (23, 194-205, 1918)
Hand-list of the additional Greek
manuscripts in the University Library,
Cambridge Scriptorium. Revue internationale
des études relatives aux manuscrits, Easterling, Patricia E. (16, 2, 302-323, 1962)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
