Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.8.23
Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12165
Contents
Language(s): Greek
Defective at the end: ends during the second lection of the eothina (Mk 16:8)
Gregory-Aland l 146; Scrivener Evst. 146
f. 75v is blank
f. 128v is blank
f. 172v is blank
Physical Description
Collation
The manuscript consists of 28 quires, of which two are ternions, one a binion and the rest quaternia. The shorter quires were chosen, and some folios cancelled, to accommodate the fact that each major section of the text begins at the start of a new quire.
- Quires 1-98 ff. 1-72
- Quire 104-1 ff. 73-75 The last folio has been cancelled, without loss of text.
- Quires 11-158 ff. 76-115
- Quire 168-1 ff. 116-122 The third folio has been cancelled, without loss of text.
- Quire 176 ff. 123-128
- Quires 18-228 ff. 129-168
- Quire 236-2 ff. 169-172 The last two folios have been cancelled, without loss of text.
- Quires 24-288 ff. 173-212
There are early quire signatures in Greek numerals, in brown ink, on the first folio of each quire, recto, lower left, and on the last folio of each quire, verso, lower right. They survive throughout and match the current quire sequence (αʹ-κηʹ).
Modern quire signatures in Arabic numerals, in pencil, have been added to the first folio of each quire, recto, lower right.
Condition
Layout
Two columns of 29 lines each. 290 × 220 mm. Pricking survives in all three margins, but that in the outer margin has sometimes been lost to cropping. Ruled in hardpoint, sometimes with secondary ruling in brown crayon (e.g. ff. f. 77v, 105v ), system Leroy 1, type Leroy 34E2. Text hangs from the lines.
Hand(s)
The main text has been copied by Hand A in a scribal mixed minuscule script, upright or slanting slightly to the right, in dark brown ink. There is only moderate variation in letter size. Tails are occasionally flourished into the lower and outer margins. There are deletions by erasure (e.g. f. 146v).
Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings usually appear only at the ends of lines, but occasionally in mid-line. Breathings are round and mute iota is absent. There is very occasional decorative use of the double dot, and accentuation of all nomina sacra . The double grave accent and marginal quotation marks are use.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower and middle commas, and full stop.
Headings for lections, ekphonetic notation, initials and some marginal quotation marks have been added by Hand B, in an upright mixed minuscule script, in red ink. The heading at the start of the synaxarion (f. 1r) and some lection headings (eg. ff. 61r, 74v ) are by the same hand in epigraphic display majuscule, also in red ink.
Decoration
Most of the areas marked out for ornament have been left unfilled. However, a few rectangular headpieces of this sort have been filled with simple ornament in red ink:-
- f. 194v February
- f. 197v April
- f. 207r August
Vignettes in red ink precede a few sections:-
- f. 196v March
- f. 198v May
- f. 210v lections for various occasions
Vignettes in red ink, or red and dark brown, also appear at the end of major sections of the lectionary (e.g. ff. 28r, 75r, 210r ).
Simple but large major initials in red ink, by Hand B, have been placed at the beginning of sections of the lectionary, and smaller ones at the start of lections. Those for sections, and very occasionally those for lections (e.g. f. 32v) are drawn in outline, suggesting that they may have been intended for later infill with paint, which may also apply to the headpieces. At the beginning of the weeks of Mark the major initial has been omitted and a later hand has added one in brown ink (f. 129r). Other initials have occasionally also been omitted and added by a later hand (e.g. f. 191r). Minor initials in red ink frequently appear in the main text at the beginning of lines, and at the beginning of lection headings in the menologion.
Outlines in red ink for pylai have been drawn at the beginning of a number of sections, but these decorations have not been filled in:-
- f. 1r synaxarion
- f. 28v weeks of Matthew
- f. 178v October
Similarly, unfilled outlines for rectangular headpieces have been drawn at the beginnings of the following sections:-
- f. 76r weeks of Luke
- f. 129r weeks of Mark
- f. 151r lections of the Passion
- f. 173r September
- f. 181v November
- f. 184r December
- f. 189r January
- f. 200v June
- f. 204v July
Additions
A later hand has added marginal notes in Greek giving the echos of the eothina. Other Greek hands have occasionally added other liturgical notes (e.g. f. 146v). Notes in English, in pencil, have been added regarding cancelled folios, by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) , on f. ii recto, University Librarian 1867-1886.
Binding
18th-century reversed skin binding over couched-laminate boards, reused from a previous binding, with plain pastedowns. There is decorative blind tooling on the boards and gold tooling on the spine, along with the title ‘Evangelistarium MS’ tooled in gold on a red label.
The binding has been rebacked, and much of the covering material has been lost or is peeling off.
410 × 326 × 77 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Owned by John Moore (b. 1646, d. 1714), bishop of Ely : number 20 in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I .
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
-
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the
library of the University of Cambridge Catalogue of manuscripts (Dd), (Cambridge, 1, Cambridge University Press, 1856)
Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New
Testament, Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (Cambridge, 1, Deighton, Bell, 1874)
Novum Testamentum Graece: ad antiquissimos
testes denuo recensuit apparatum criticum apposuit
Constantinus Tischendorf, Gregory, Caspar René (Leipzig, 3: Prolegomena, J.C. Hinrichs, 1894)
Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes, Gregory, Caspar René (Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1900)
Cambridge University Library: a history, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, 2: The eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1986)
The Greek Manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne
Baluze Codices Manuscripti, Jackson, Donald F. (56/57, 29-42, 2006)
The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary: the story of a
Byzantine book, Lowden, John (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009)
Beobachtungen zu italogriechischen
Handschriften des Neuen Testaments in der Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana Nea Rhōmē: rivista di ricerche
bizantinistiche, Hutter, Irmgard (13, 51-78, 2016)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
