Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4166.23

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77234

Introduction: This single leaf contains a Fragment from a Synaxarion, which is a collection of hagiographical brief notices for each day of the year. The fragment is related to the so-called Synaxarion of Constantinople for April 3rd and 4th. In the small portion contained in Add. 4166.23 are mentioned the martyrs Bythonios, Galykos and Illyrios, who are remembered on April 3rd, and there is a portion of the notice on the martyrs Theodulos and Agathopous, who are remembered on April 4th. Dr Erika Elia

Language(s): Greek

f. [1]r-[1]v

Synaxarion for the month of April, fragment

Incipit: || f. [1]r … Ὁ Βυθόνιος εἰς βυθὸν βεβλημένος, τὴν κλῆσιν εὗρεν

Explicit: f. [1]v καὶ τὴν ⟨ πρ⟩ὸς οὐρανοὺς πορείαν αὐτῶν||

See, with some differences, H. Delehaye, Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (e codice Sirmondiano nunc Berolinensi), Acta Sanctorum 62, Brussels 1902 (repr. 1985), 584-586; TLG 4411.008

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: f. [1] Western paper.

Extent: Fragment (leaf) 1 leaves., 96 × 77 mm.

Foliation: The leaf has no foliation: [1]

Condition

The leaf is a fragment cut out of a larger leaf. There are some humidity stains. The first line of f. [1]r is scarcely readable, because of the faded ink. The leaf has been pasted on a paper leaf bound in an album, with other fragments.

Hand(s)

ff. [1]r-[1]v Hand A: the text has been written by a single scribe, in an upright minuscule script, of small size, with some imbalance produced by larger letters, as sigma, gamma, ypsilon. It is datable probably to the 14th c., possibly the second half (the script can be compared, for example, with A. Turyn, Dated Greek Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in the Libraries of Great Britain, Washington 1980, plates 87 dated of 1362, and 88 of 1362/1363).

The text is written in black and red ink.

Decoration

On f. [1]r, there is a small undulated linear frieze in red ink.

Thick initials in ekthesis in red ink.

Additions

The leaf is marked on f. [1]r, in pencil, ‘ 23’: it is a reference to the current classmark, Add. 4166.23.

History

Origin: On the basis of the script, the text was written possibly in the second half of the 14th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

The fragment was part of the Bateman's collection (see the book-plate on the left pastedown of the binding of the album of fragments Add. 4166: ‘ Bateman of Middleton Hall (by Youlgrave) in the County of Derby’ ); probably the album was owned, in particular, by Thomas Bateman (1821-1861) (see R. Rushforth, The Barrow Knight, the Bristol Bibliographer, and a Lost Old English Prayer, in: Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 13.1, 2004, pp. 112-131: 112-114). It was sold within the "Bateman heirlooms" sale by Sotheby's on 25th May 1893 (Lot 1528). MS Add. 4166 was acquired by Quaritch (on the sale see Rushforth 2004 : 115), and afterwards came into the possession of the bibliographer Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) , whose family originated in Derbyshire.

MS Add. 4166 was bequeathed to the University Library by Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) , M.A. of Trinity College, in 1894 (see the book-plate on the left pastedown of the binding of the album Add. 4166).

Additional Information

Record Sources

Availability

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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. 4166.23

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