Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.10.55

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12169

Introduction: This manuscript, probably produced in 1425, contains the Erotemata of Manuel Moschopoulos, the grammatical textbook written by the grammarian, classical scholar and teacher, who worked in Constantinople in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The genre of Erotemata (Questions), comprises grammars structured as a dialogue of questions and answers. Moschopoulos's work was the most influential text of its kind produced in Byzantium, dealing with its subject matter more concisely and accessibly than earlier, more exhaustive works. It provided the model for all the major Greek grammars of the Renaissance, and although these successors improved upon it, it long remained in widespread use among both native speakers and western European students of Greek. The scribe's colophon dates the manuscript's completion to July, but gives the year only as the third year of the indiction, the fifteen-year cycle which was a standard feature of medieval chronology, derived ultimately from the cycle of periodic reassessment of agrarian tax obligations in Roman Egypt. The paper bears watermarks with close equivalents dated to between 1419 and 1436, suggesting a date of 1425, the only third year of the indiction close to both dates, though 1410 or 1440, the other two such years in the first half of the fifteenth century, cannot be ruled out. Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek

Moschopoulos, Manuel, approximately 1265?-, Erotemata Ἐρωτήματα

Rubric: f. 1r Ἀρχὴ συν Θεῶ ἁγίω τῶν ἐρωτημάτων κυρίου Μανουὴλ τοῦ Μοσχοπούλου

Incipit: f. 1r Τί ἐστι προσωδία

Explicit: f. 106v τὸ τετυψόμενον. τοῦ τετυψομένου

Colophon: f. 106v Τελειωθὲν κατὰ μῆνα Ἰουλλίου τῆς γʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος:- Τέλος

Ed. Demetrii Chalcondylae et Manuelis Moschopuli Erotemata. Gregorius Corinthius de Dialectis (Milan 1493)

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermark: Tower ( c. 50 × 22 mm. ) in the gutter, similar to Briquet 15864. This example is dated to 1419-1436.

Extent: Codex: i + 107 + i leaves. 220 × 144 mm.

Foliation: The manuscript is foliated with the numbers [i] + 1-106 + [ii], in pencil, in Arabic numerals, recto, upper right.

Foliation: Every tenth folio (1, 11, 21 etc) has also been numbered in pencil, in Arabic numerals, recto, lower right.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 14 quires, of which one is a binion and the rest are quaternia.

Quire 1^8-7 ff. 1-7 The first folio has been cancelled or lost, without loss of text.
Quires 2-13⁸ ff. 8-103
Quire 14^4-1 ff. 104-106 The last folio has been cancelled or lost, without loss of text.

There are original quire signatures in Greek numerals, in brown ink, on the first folio of each quire, recto, lower right, and the last folio of each quire, verso, lower left. A few have been lost to cropping, but they survive on Quires 3-5 (γʹ-εʹ) and 7-13 (ζʹ-ιγʹ), with traces on Quire 6.

There is a modern sequence of signatures in Arabic numerals, in pencil, on the first folio of each quire, recto, lower right, identifying a different sequence, alternating between quires of six and ten folios, with four folios in the last quire.

Condition

Dirt, small brown stains and some water damage are present, mostly in the early part of the manuscript and the last few folios.

Layout

A single column of 19 lines. 155 × 90 mm.

Hand(s)

The manuscript has been copied in a mixed minuscule script, slanting slightly to the left, in dark brown ink, with modest variation in letter size and very occasional flourishing of tails into the margin. Headings are in the same script, in red ink.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings appear throughout the line. Breathings are round and mute iota is absent or subscript. There is decorative use of the double dot, and accentuation of all nomina sacra . Accents are sometimes joined to letters, breathings, abbreivations and nomina sacra strokes.

The modern eta, modern nu, sigma telikon and loop epsilon are present. There are inclusions of letters within omicron.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower and middle commas and full stop.

Decoration

Crude vignettes in red or red and brown ink precede the beginning of the text and some sections (ff. 1r, 15v, 47r).

Small major initials in red ink, with simple ornament, mark the beginning of some sections (e.g. ff. 46v, 75v). Minor initials in red ink, sometimes with very simple ornament, mark the beginning of each section and sentence.

Binding

Rebound in May 1968 by Douglas Cockerell and Son in Grantchester, according to a note inside the left board. Brown quarter leather and patterned paper covering over millboards, with plain pastedowns. The classmark and the author's name ‘Moschopulus’ are tooled in gold on the spine. Labels from a previous binding, bearing the classmark and the author's name tooled in gold, are pasted inside the left board.

229 × 157 × 29 mm.

History

Origin: The watermarks indicate that the manuscript was produced during the first half of the 15th century, which is consistent with the characteristics of the script. The colophon (f. 106v) dates its completion to July of the third indiction. Hence it must have been completed in one of the three years of the third indiction during the first half of the 15th century, probably 1425.

Provenance and Acquisition

Possibly presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I , as part of the collection of John Moore (b. 1646, d. 1714), bishop of Ely . This is suggested by the presence inside the left board of the bookplate used for this collection. However, this bookplate was sometimes incorrectly placed in manuscripts which did not belong to this collection, and this manuscript is not recorded as part of it in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697), nor in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore’s manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735).

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description draws on A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, vol. 1, (Cambridge, 1856), pp. 438-439 and unpublished notes by Patricia E. Easterling.

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, Cambridge University Press, 1856)

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 Dd.10.55

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