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 Dd.3.86.10-11

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77483

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript was formerly part of a miscellaneous composite volume (MS Dd.3.86) formed of eleven parts, containing texts in English, Latin and Greek (it is described as such in the Cambridge University Library manuscripts catalogue of 1856, as sections 10 and 11 of the manuscript). These two sections are now bound separately as MS Dd.3.86.10-11. It is a composite volume, containing a work by Maximus the Confessor and a fragment of the Geoponica . Part I contains Maximus the Confessor's Computus ecclesiasticus, on calendrical and chronological matters, with tables. The text seems to have been copied in the 15th century. Part II contains a brief fragment of the Geoponica, a collection of excerpts on agriculture, in twenty books, compiled in Byzantium at the time of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (945-959). Both parts of the manuscript were owned by John Moore (1646-1714) (see Provenance). The fragment from the Geoponica, comprising only the prooimion and the beginning of the first book, was used by Peter Needham for his 1704 edition of the text dedicated to Moore ( P. Needham, Geoponicorum, sive de re rustica libri XX, Cassiano Basso scholastico collectore, antea Constantino Porphyrogenneto a quibusdam adscripti (Cantabrigiae, 1704); the manuscript is indicated as ‘ Norv. Fragmentum Manuscriptum penes Episcopum Norvicensem’). Dr. Erika Elia

Language(s): Greek

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: Codex: i + 18 + i leaves., ca. 210 × 140 mm.
Foliation: Part I is foliated 122-130 (the sequence skips no. 127; the last two leaves are not numbered) in red (crayon?), in Arabic numerals, in the upper part of the right margin of the leaves, recto. The leaves of part II have not been numbered. The manuscript is foliated: [i] + 1:122-1:126, 1:128-1:130, 1:[130a]-1:[130b] + 2:[1]-2:[8] + [ii].

Collation

f. [i] | 18, 22 | 38 | f. [ii]

Condition

The manuscript is in fair condition. Leaves are all damaged in the lower part near the gutter, and the missing parts have been repaired with paper additions. They are yellowed and stained with water and dirt.

Binding

Modern western binding (first quarter of the 20th century). Bookcloth cover over millboards. Gold tooling on the left cover with author name ‘Maximus’ and, in the lower part, classmark ‘ Dd.3.86.10.11’.

The same type of binding, made in 1921, is found on MS CUL Dd.3.86.9. Therefore the binding of this manuscript can be dated around the same period of time.

222 × 146 × 13 mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

The two parts now bound together in MS Dd.3.86.10.11 were owned by John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: they appear together as number 87 in the list of Moore's manuscripts published in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (Oxoniae 1697), II, p. 363 (‘Fragmentum Γεωπονικῶν, Gr. Fragmentum computi Maximi Monachi.’). Apparently these two parts were already kept together at that time (and perhaps the present part II, containing the fragment from the Geoponica preceded the present part I with the Computus by Maximus the Confessor); the next mention of them is found in the Cambridge University Library catalogue of manuscripts of 1856, where they are parts 10 and 11 of a larger volume coprising 11 parts, Dd.3.86. The number of the manuscript in Bernard's list is written on f. 2:[1]r. That the fragment from the Geoponica was in Moore's possession is also testified by its mention in Needham's edition of the text of 1704 as ‘ Fragmentum Manuscriptum penes Episcopum Norvicensem’ (see Summary).

Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I .

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.3.86.10-11, ff. 1:122-1:[130b]]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

1. ff. 1:122r-1:130v
⟨Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662⟩ , Computus ecclesiasticus
Incipit: || f. 1:122r Τίς ἡ ἀπὸ ιθ΄ τῆς σελήνης ἔτους ἀλλ'οὐκ ἀπὸ πρώτης ἐν τῷ εὐωνύμῳ διαγράμματι. Ἡ δὲ αἰτία καθ’ ἣν οὐκ ἀπὸ πρώτου ἔτους
Explicit: f. 1:130v διὰ τε τῆς ἐνεστώσης δυοκαιδεκάτης περιόδου, τουτέστι||

The text starts at PG 19, 1224 A8 and ends at 1236 B14

The first title is almost illegible due to the fading of the red ink

CPG 7706; PG 19, 1217-1280

2. ff. 1:[130a]r-1:[130b]v
Τables of the cycle of the moon

The last table is for the year 6966 (1458-59)

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermarks: ff. 1:122-1:130 Cross of tau in a circle ( ca. 34 × ca. 40 mm. ) in the gutter, comparable, with differences, to Briquet Lettre T 9126-9127, dated to 1425/1434 and 1444-1490.

Collation

Part I of the manuscript is formed by a quaternion and a binion; f. [i] is a later endleaf, which came with the binding.

  • f. [i] later endleaf (20th century)
  • Quire 18 ff. 1:122-1:130
  • Quire 22 ff. 1:[130a]-1:[130b]

Condition

The leaves are yellowed; there are many water stains and some brown stains.

Layout

A single column of 22 lines. 160 × 90 mm.

Hand(s)

ff. 1:122r-1:[130b]v Hand A: the text has been written in a minuscule script, vertical, regular in size, datable to the 15th century.

The text is written in brown ink; titles and initials in red, now faded.

Decoration

Red thick initials in red ink, in ekthesis.

Additions

In the upper margin of f. 1:122r there is a note in Latin mentioning the edition of the text by Denys Pétau (1757): ‘ Fragmentum Computi Maximi monachi (in D. Petavi Uranologium pag. 173(?))’. The same hand wrote a note on the upper margin of f. 1:123r, which has been erased and it's not readable.

In the upper margin of f. 1:[130a]v is written, upside down, an invocation in Greek.

History

Origin:

The script and the watermark suggest that the manuscript was copied in the 15th century.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.3.86.10-11, ff. ff. 2:[1]-2:[8]]

Contents

Language(s): Greek

3. ff. 2:[1]r-2:[8]v
Geoponica
Rubric: f. 2:[1]r Ἀρχὴ σὺν θεῶ[sic] τοῦ γεωπονικοῦ βιβλίου
Rubric: f. 2:[1]r Πολλοῖς μὲν καὶ ἄλλοις βασιλεῦσι χρηστοῖς ἡ μεγαλόπολις αὕτη ἐκαλλωπίσατο
Explicit: f. 2:[8]v ἐν αἰγοκέρωτι οὔσης αὐτῆς ἡ ἐπιτολὴ γένοιτο, στρατοπέδων κίνησις||

  • ff. 2:[1]r-2:[2]r l. 19 Prooimion
  • ff. 2:[2]r l. 20-2:[8]v Book 1

The text ends, incomplete, at H. Beckh (ed.), Geoponica (Leipzig, 1895), p. 16 l. 20 (book 1, ch. 8, sect. 7 l. 3)

TLG 4080.001

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermark: ff. 2:[1]-2:[8] Scissors with a letter or round element(?) (difficult to discern) ( ca. 60 × ca. 20 mm. ) in the centre of the leaf, , the element accompanying the scissors is not sufficiently visible for an identification; this type of watermark presents an accompanying element from 1432, see Briquet, Ciseaux 3691-3706, dated 1433-1486

Collation

Part II is formed by one quaternion; f. [ii] is a later endleaf, which came with the binding.

  • Quire 38 ff. 2:[1]-2:[8]
  • f. [ii] later endleaf (20th century)

Condition

There are water stains on all leaves.

Layout

A single column of 21 lines. 150 × 90 mm.

Hand(s)

ff. 2:[1]-2:[8] Hand B: the text has been written in a minuscule script, vertical, characterized by the presence of a few larger letters, (beta, tau, gamma), and curling flourishing in the margins, datable to the 15th century.

The text is written in black ink, title and initials in red.

Decoration

Red thick initials in red ink, in ekthesis.

Additions

On the upper margin of f. 2:[1]r there is a note concerning the text, mentioning the edition of 1539: ‘Fragmentum libri primi Γεωπονικῶν Constantini Bassi Graece (sine auctoris nomine) excus. Basil. an. 1539’, by the same hand who wrote a similar annotation on the upper margin of f. 1:122r. The same hand wrote a marginal annotation on f. 2:[2]r.

History

Origin:

On the basis of the script and of the watermark, this part of the manuscript was copied in the 15th century, probably between the 1430s and 1480s.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2020) partly draws on A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1856), vol. 1: Dd, pp. 196-200.

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

    A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 1: Dd, Cambridge University Press, 1856) De Geoponicorum Codicibus Manuscriptis, Beckh, H. (Erlangen, 1866) Geoponica: sive, Cassiani Bassi scholastici De re rustica eclogae [Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana], (Lipsiae, In aedibus BGTeubneri, 1895) Cambridge University Library: a history, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, 2: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1986)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

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Cambridge Digital Library

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