Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1879.23

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77974

Contents

Introduction: This fragment is a single folio of the Archimedes Palimpsest, a manuscript originally copied in the middle or later 10th century with mathematical works of the 3rd-century BCE Sicilian Greek mathematician and engineer. In the second half of the 12th or first half of the 13th century, probably in 1229, the leaves of this book were reused to produce a liturgical Euchologion (prayer book). The lower text, identified in 1906, is of exceptional importance, preserving works and portions of works of Archimedes which had otherwise been lost or survived only in translation. Although he was one of the most important mathematical and technical thinkers of the ancient Greek world, the works of Archimedes did not become a part of the standard repertoire of classical education and were seldom copied, resulting in the slender manuscript tradition to which the palimpsest was such an important addition. The work to which the content of this folio belongs, De sphaera et cylindro, regarding the relative volume of a sphere and cylinder of the same height and diameter, survives in other manuscripts, but the readings in this copy allowed some amendments to the edited text. The copy is dated on the basis of its script, and its context of production is otherwise unknown. The palimpsest was created in the usual fashion, each of the original bifolios being cut in half and rotated to form bifolios of a new Euchologion manuscript of smaller format. The upper text of this folio is part of the Liturgy of St Basil. The copying of the palimpsest can be dated by its script to the second half of the 12th or first half of the 13th century. On the verso of the first folio of the main surviving body of the manuscript is a note in a different hand, whose style suggests that it was written in the later 13th or 14th century, but giving the date 14 April 1229. Though not entirely explicit, its wording is consistent with the conventions of a colophon recording the completion of a manuscript, and gives the name of the writer as Ioannes Myronas. Since this is in a different hand from that of the main text, it cannot be the original colophon, something that would also usually appear at the end rather than the beginning of the manuscript. However, it may well be that this is a copy of the original colophon, perhaps made due to damage to the folio on which it originally appeared. The specific liturgical content and textual affinities of the text suggest that the new text may have been copied in Jerusalem. The manuscript certainly appears to have spent some of its later history in the vicinity, as it reportedly used to contain an ownership note of the great monastery of St Sabas (Mar Saba) by the River Jordan, and later entered the possession of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, being transferred at some point to the patriarchal library at the Metochion of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople. This leaf is one of a number of fragments purchased by the Library from the executors of Constantin von Tischendorf in 1876. It is believed that Tischendorf removed the leaf from the manuscript when he visited Constantinople in the 1840s. The remainder of the surviving portion of the Archimedes palimpsest was purchased by a US private collector in 1998. Between 1998 and 2008 the manuscript was the subject of extensive study by imaging specialists and textual scholars. The results of their work are available at https://archimedespalimpsest.net. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Fragment (leaf) 1 leaves. 192 × 147 mm.

Condition

Wear and tear has caused minor losses to the edges, and there is some water staining.

Additions

The fragment is marked with the current classmark and the former classmark T.9.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by the Monastery of St Sabas in the Jordan Valley, according to an ownership note which reportedly previously appeared in the main portion of the manuscript, on f. 184v ( Archimedis opera, ed. Heiberg, p. 241).

Part of the collection of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the Metochion of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople.

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

Bought by the University Library from Tischendorf's executors 23 February 1876.

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1879.23, lower text]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

1. 1r-1v
Archimedes (c. 287-212 BCE), De sphaera et cylindro

Fragment: Book 1, sections 35-37 ( Archimède, ed. Charles Mugler, 4 vols. (Paris 1970-1972), vol. 1, pp. 82-85)

Incipit: Recto σχῆμα εἰς αὐτὸ, οἷον εἴρηται περιεχόμενον
Explicit: Verso ἔστι τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ σχήματος

TLG 0522.001

Physical Description

Form: codex

Layout

Two columns of at least 19 lines, perpendicular to the upper text. c. 121 × 150 mm. Pricking for the original text does not survive. Ruled in hardpoint. Text hangs from the lines.

Hand(s)

The lower text was copied by Hand A in mixed minuscule script, slanting to the right, with consistent letter size, in brown ink.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings appear infrequently, but throughout the line. Breathings are angular and mute iota is adscript.

Majuscule letter-forms in use in normal text include alpha, epsilon. The tails of letters are formed with pronounced hooks.

Punctuation used includes the lower and middle points and full stop.

Decoration

The text is accompanied by mathematical diagrams.

History

Origin: The original manuscript from which the fragment comes was probably copied in the middle or later 10th century, as suggested by the style of script.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1879.23, upper text]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

2. 1r-1v
Liturgy of St Basil

Fragment (Liturgies Eastern and Western, ed. F. E. Brightman (Oxford 1884), pp. 405-406)

Incipit: || Recto Ομοίως καὶ τὸ ποτήριον· ἐκ τοῦ γενήματος τοῦ ἀμπέλου
Explicit: Verso προπατέρων πατέρων πατριαρχῶν· προφητῶν ἀποστόλων· κηρύκων εὐαγγελιστῶν

Physical Description

Form: codex

Layout

A single column of 26 lines. 149 × 100 mm. Pricking survives in all three margins. Ruled in hardpoint, type Leroy 21C1a. Text hangs from the lines, but often imprecisely.

Hand(s)

The upper text was copied by Ioannes Myronas, in upright mixed minuscule script, in brown ink, with little variation in letter size.

Syllabic abbreviations appear only at the end of lines. Breathings are round and mute iota is absent. Nomina sacra are usually accentuated only when three or more letters long. Accents are sometimes joined to breathings.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points and full stop.

Headings and marginal notes are written in the same style in red ink.

Decoration

Sections begin with ornamented initials outlined in brown ink, with red infill.

The beginning of subsections is marked by simple minor initials in red ink.

History

Origin: The copying of the manuscript as converted into a palimpsest was probably the work of Ioannes Myronas and completed on 14 April 1229, as indicated by a colophon copied by a later hand on f. 1v of the main body. This depends on the supposition that this is a reproduction of an original colophon, now lost with the end of the manuscript. This would be consistent with the style of script, which suggests an origin in the second half the 12th century or first half of the 13th. The specific liturgical content of the text suggests that it may have been copied in Jerusalem, which would be consistent with the manuscript's later provenance and the presence of Armenian and Arabic annotations in the main body (Lucà, 'Dating and provenance').

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

    Reise in den Orient, Tischendorf, Constantin von (Leipzig, 2, Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1846) Hierosolymitikē bibliothēkē : hētoi katalogos tōn en tais bibliothēkais tou hagiōtatou apostolikou te kai katholikou orthodoxou patriarchiou thronou tōn Hierosolymōn kai pasēs Palaistinēs apokeimenōn Ellēnikōn kōdikōn syntachtheisa men kai phōtotypikois kosmētheisa pinaxin, (St Petersburg, 4, B. Kirspaoum, 1891) Archimedis opera omnia cum commentariis Eutocii, , (Leipzig, In aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1910) Archimedes, Dijksterhuis, E. J. (Eduard Jan) (Copenhagen, E. Munksgaard, 1956) 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) Scholars of Byzantium, Wilson, N. G. (Nigel Guy) (London, Duckworth, 1983) The Archimedes palimpsest: auction Thursday 29 October 1998 ..., Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc (New York, Christie's, 1998) Codex Bezae and other Greek New Testament Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library: The great collections, Parker, David (Cambridge, 33-43, Cambridge University Press, 1998) Die Wiedergeburt der Antike und die Auffindung Amerikas: 2000 Jahre Wegbereitung einer Entdeckung : Bildkatalog zur Ausstellung, Harlfinger, DieterBrockmann, ChristianBrunschön, Carl WolframTsagris, IlseEscobar, Ángel (Wiesbaden, Reichert, 1992) The Archimedes Palimpsest Christie's Magazine, Mayo, H. (10, 102-103, 1998) Archimedes: the palimpsest and the tradition Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Wilson, N. G. (Nigel Guy) (92, 89-101, 1999) The Tischendorf Greek palimpsests Appunti Romani di Filologia, Tchernetska, Natalie (2, 107-126, 2000) Hand-list of the Greek palimpsests in Cambridge libraries I manoscritti greci tra riflessione e dibattito: Atti del V Colloquio Internazionale di Paleografia Greca (Cremona 4-10 ottobre 1998) Papyrologica Florentina, Tchernetska, Natalie (Florence, 733-739, Edizioni Gonnelli, 2000) Membra disiecta Cantabrigiensa: two Tischendorf fragments identified Scriptorium. Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, Tchernetska, Natalie (56, 119-126, 2002) Archimedes into Icon: Forging an image of Byzantium Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium. Studies presented to Robin Cormack, Lowden, John (Aldershot, 233-260, Ashgate, 2003) The liturgical tradition of the euchologion "of Archimedes" Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, Parenti, S. (2, 69-87, 2005) Minuscole greche informali del X secolo Actes du VIe Colloque International de Paléographie Grecque (Drama, 21-27 septembre 2003), Orsini, Pasquale (Athens, 41-70, Société hellénique de reliure, 2008) On the Dating and Provenance of the Euchologion of the Archimedes Palimpsest The Journal of the Walters Art Museum, Lucà, Santo (66-67, 59-72, 2011) The Archimedes palimpsest, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011., 2011) Two fragments of the Cahirensis of Loci communes found in Cambridge Handschriften- und Textforschung heute. Zur Überlieferung der griechischen Literatur. Festschrift für Dieter Harlfinger aus Anlass seines 70. Geburtstages Serta Graeca: Beiträge zur Erforschung griechischer Texte, Tchernetska, Natalie (Wiesbaden, 161-164, Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2014)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

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Cambridge Digital Library

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