Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1879.17

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77967

Introduction: This fragment consists of a single folio from the Passion of St Menas, an Egyptian soldier martyred in the early 4th century, from a manuscript probably copied in the 12th century. The text is one of the works of Symeon Metaphrastes, or Symeon the Metaphrast, a 10th-century Byzantine civil official and later a monk, who rewrote numerous existing hagiographical texts in a more accessible style. The term Metaphrast refers to this practice of rewriting. Symeon's versions of these stories became the most widely used, superseding those read previously. A larger portion of this manuscript is now St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Nacional'naja biblioteka, MS gr. 94, of 121 folios, containing a variety of Lives of Saints and homilies. It includes a later part of the Passion of St Menas, preceded by a lost quire to which this folio probably belonged. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Symeon Metaphrastes, Passion of St Menas

Ed. G. Van Hoof, Analecta Bollandiana 3 (1884), pp. 258-270. The fragment begins at p. 259, line 4 and ends at p. 261, line 5

Incipit: || Recto ⟨οἰ⟩κητόρων· οἱ ποτὲ τῶν οἴκων εὐθηνοῦντες ἐδείκνυντο

Explicit: Verso ἐθαύμαζον τε[sic] τῆς παρουσίας τὸν μάρτυρα, καὶ πολλῶ τῶ περι⟨όντι⟩ ||

BHG 1250

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: Fragment (leaf) 1 leaves. 316 × 250 mm.

Condition

Some of the folio has been torn away in the gutter, and there are small tears to the edges.

Layout

Two columns of 32 lines each. 250 × 175 mm. Pricking survives in the outer margin, but has elsewhere been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, type probably Leroy 12D2a or 14D2 (two horizontal lines appear in the upper margin; the cropping of the lower margin may have led to the loss of lines there). The text hangs from the lines.

Hand(s)

The text was copied in a mixed minuscule script, slanting slightly to the right, in brown ink, with little variation in letter size.

Syllabic abbreviations are not used except the horizontal stroke for nu, which appears only at the end of lines, while superscript word endings do not appear. Breathings are angular, (but do not appear in the half-H form), and mute iota is absent. The double grave accent is in use.

Punctuation used includes the lower, middle and upper points and the lower and middle commas.

Decoration

The beginnings of sections are marked by minor initials in brown ink.

Additions

Line numbers in Arabic numerals have been added every five lines on the recto. A note giving a textual citation appears in the upper margin. The fragment has been marked with the present classmark and the former classmark T.18.

History

Origin: The style of script suggests that the fragment was copied in the first half of the 12th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned 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

Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum graecorum Germaniae, Belgii, Angliae, van de Vorst, CharlesDelehaye, Hippolyte (Brussels, Société des Bollandistes, 1913)

Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kirche: von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kirche Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Ehrhard, Albert (Leipzig, 2, 1937)

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

Further "Membra Disiecta Cantabrigiensia" from the Tischendorf Collection Alethes Philia. Studi in onore di Giancarlo Prato Collectanea, Tchernetska, Natalie (Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 2010)

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. 1879.17

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