Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1879.3

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77953

Introduction: This fragment is a single folio from one of the earliest surviving examples of the Oktoechos, a liturgical book containing hymns for Sunday services, arranged according to the eight echoi (musical modes). It has been dated to the second half of the 9th or first half of the 10th century. During this period the formal Greek minuscule script emerged and became the usual form for copying manuscripts, but some continued to be produced in majuscule script, particularly for liturgical purposes. It is believed to have been copied in the Greek-speaking communities of southern Italy, and features the use of yellow wash to highlight headings, a common feature of manuscripts from this region. The original manuscript is now fragmented: larger portions of it are now Sinai, Monastery of St Catherine, MS gr. 776, Sinai, Monastery of St Catherine, MS gr. 1593 and London, British Library, Add. MS 26113. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Oktoechos (fragment)

This fragment contains a portion of a canon

Incipit: || recto ζωμεν ευλογειτε Την μνημην γερερωμεν του οσιου δοξαζοντες

Explicit: verso Τοις μυροφοροις· αγγελος επεσ||

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: Fragment (leaf) 1 leaves. 188 × 122 mm.

Condition

There are tears to the edges of the leaf, water staining and areas of dirt.

Layout

A single column of 28 lines. 142 × 78 mm. Pricking survives in the upper and lower margins, but that in the outer margin appears to have been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, type Leroy 00C1. Text mostly stands on the lines, but is sometimes written along them.

Hand(s)

The text was copied in a slanted ogival majuscule script, in brown ink, without breathings or accents.

There is decorative use of the double dot, and mute iota is absent. The ligature ΟΥ is present.

Punctuation used includes the middle point and full stop.

Musical Notation: Theta notation is present.

Decoration

Sections of text begin with enlarged initials in brown ink.

The first two lines of the heading marking the beginning of an ode are highlighted with translucent yellow wash (verso) .

Additions

The leaf is marked with the current classmark and the former classmark T.34.

History

Origin: The manuscript from which this leaf came has been dated to between 850 and 950 (Bartolomeo Di Salvo, 'Considerazioni sugli Stichera del vespero e delle laudi del oktoechos bizantino della domenica', Orientalia Christiana Periodica 33 (1967), pp. 159-175 at p. 166; Parpulov, p. 106 n. 26). It has been identified as a product of ; southern Italy (Dieter Harlfinger, 'Beispiele der maiuscola ogivale inclinata vom Sinai aus Damaskus', Ἀληθὴς φιλία: Studi in onore di Giancarlo Prato, ed. Marco D'Agostino and Paola Degni (Spoleto 2010), pp. 461-477 at p. 465).

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai.

Acquired there by the Biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874) .

Bought by the University Library from Tischendorf's executors in 1876.

Additional Information

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

Hand-list of the additional Greek manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge Scriptorium, Easterling, Patricia E. (16, 2, 302-323, 1962)

Towards a History of Byzantine Psalters ca. 850-1350 AD, Parpulov, Georgi (Plovdiv, 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, University Library, MS Add. 1879.3

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