Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 1880.7

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77981

Introduction: This fragment is a bifolium of a manuscript containing the Letters of Libanius, a Late Antique orator and teacher of rhetoric, probably copied during the 14th century. The bifolium was acquired by Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874) during travels in the East, from Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine, Cod. gr. 1198 . This bifolium was originally between ff. 111v and 112r. Thirty-three more leaves from the same manuscript were donated by Tischendorf to the University Library of Leipzig, and today make up Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Cod. gr. 38 (Tischendorf 7) . Dr Matteo Di Franco

Language(s): Greek

ff. 1r-2v

Libanius, 314-393 CE , Letters (fragment)

Incipit: || f. 1r ἐνθυμοῦ πόσοι παρὸν ἐν πόλει διατρίβειν, τοὺς ἀγροὺς αἱροῦνται

Explicit: f. 2v καὶ παρ’ ἐμοῦ τοῖς γράμμασιν ἔπαινον οὐκ ἐψεύσατο· ἐκρότουν γὰρ||

Letters 1508 (defective at the beginning), 1517, 1518, 1524, 1526, 1527, 1533, 1536, 1540 (defective at the end) Foester. The selction of Libanius' letters in the Sinai manuscript was arranged in six group of one hundred each: the letters are numbered in left-hand margings as [ξβʹ] ξγʹ-οʹ and the number of the centuria is written in Greek numerals, in red ink, on the upper margin of each recto folio: ͵ρ ϛ (centuria sexta)

TLG 2200.001

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: ff. 1r-2v paper, folded in quarto. No watermark is visible.

Extent: Fragment (bifolium) 2 leaves. 219 × 156 mm.

Foliation: The bifolium is foliated with the numbers 1-2, in Arabic numerals, in pencil, recto, upper right.

Collation

A reverse folio count in black ink on the lower margin of each verso folio, repeated on the opposite recto folio, serves as a signature in Arabic letters, consistent with the use of Arabic numerals and letters in the origin manuscript (cf. the Leipzig manuscript description): f. 1r ف, f. 1v-2r غ, f. 2v ع.

Condition

There are water and brown stains on the bifolium. The fragment is now sewn into a white paper cover.

Layout

One column of 36 lines. 165 × 110 mm.

Hand(s)

The text was copied in a scholarly, small-format mixed minuscule script, in dark brown ink. Accents are small and modestly executed, ascenders and descenders are restrained, and there is limited use of abbreviations.

Decoration

Each letter begins with an ornamented initial, outlined in red ink.

Additions

A modern hand has added the numbers of the letters in pencil according to Joannes C. Wolfius' edition (Amsterdam 1738).

Binding

The fragment has a modern card binding reinforced with cloth inside the spine.

History

Origin: The style of script suggests that the manuscript from which this fragment came was copied in the first half of the 14th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

The fragment was part of the manuscript Cod. gr. 1198, owned by the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai.

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

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

Additional Information

Record Sources

P. Easterling, Hand-list of the additional Greek manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge, in: Scriptorium 16, 1962, pp. 302-323: 320, and unpublished description by R. V. Kerr, Under-Librarian of CUL(† 1987).

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)

Libanius. Opera, Foerster, R (9, Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1963)

Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Graecorum qui in monasterio Sanctae Catharinae in Monte Sina asservantur, Beneshevich, Vladimir Nikolaevich (Hildesheim, 1, G. Olms, 1965)

Cambridge, Leipzig, Sinai: Tischendorf and Benechevitch Hyperboreus, Tchernetska, Natalie (16-17, 564-569, 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. 1880.7

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