Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.56

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77768

Introduction: This manuscript contains epigrams and brief fragments from the works of the ancient poet Callimachus with annotations on many of his works by Thomas Stanley (1625-1678). Stanley was a poet, historian of philosophy and editor and translator of classical Greek texts. He left such annotations on a number of classical authors, but appears to have paid particular attention to Callimachus. The eminent classicist Richard Bentley (1662-1742) was accused in an anonymous pamphlet of using Stanley's notes without attribution (A Short Account of Dr. Bentley's Humanity and Justice to those Authors who have written before him, with an honest Vindication of Thomas Stanley, Esq., and his Notes on Callimachos (London, 1699)). Dr Christopher Wright

Language(s): Greek and Latin

1. pp. 1-48

Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the hymns of Callimachus

Incipit: p. 1 Annotata in hymnum 1. Versus 1. Ζηνος εοι τι κεν ἀλλο] Horatius Ode 3.28

Explicit: p. 48 ιματια Christi στιλβοντα λευκα λιαν ως χιων. et Seneca togam splendentem vocat candidem

pp. 49-50 are blank

2. pp. 51-66

Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the epigrams of Callimachus

Rubric: p. 51 In Epigrammata

Incipit: p. 51 Αττα γερον] Festus Pompeius, Atta pro reverentia seni cuilibet dicimus

Explicit: p. 66 Cantat et apponit, meus est amor huic similis, nam transvolat in medio posita et fugientia captat

3. pp. 67-79

Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the epigrams of Callimachus

Rubric: p. 67 In Fragmenta

Incipit: p. 67 επιβλεπετε] Curatis, επισκεπειτε. Marc: 13.9 βλεπειτε δε υμεις εαυτους

Explicit: p. 79 φιαρη τημος ανεσχεν ηως] A φαος fit φαερος φιαρος splendens nitens. Theocr. -φιαρωτερα ομφακος ωμας

p. 80 is blank.

4. pp. 81-93

Thomas Stanley, Annotations on Callimachus

Incipit: p. 81 Περι Αγανων Ακτια αγων παλαιος ην ως δηλον ποιει Καλλιμαχος εν τῷ περι αγωνων

Explicit: p. 93 Omissa. de comam Berenices carmen a Catullo latine redditum: ex quo haec deprompta sunt

pp. 94-116 are blank

5. pp. 119-120

Callimachus, Epigrammata

Epigrams 28, 44, 31

Rubric: p. 119 Epigrammata

Incipit: p. 119 λγʹ Εχθαιρω το ποιημα το κυκλικον ουδε κελευθω

Explicit: p. 120 Οιδε τα δ'εν μεσω κειμενα παρπεταται

TLG 0533.003

p. 117 is blank apart from a heading to the following texts: ‘Callimachi Epigrammata et fragmenta aliquot in Vulcanii editione non reperta’; p. 118 is blank

6. pp. 121-128

Callimachus, Fragments

Rubric: p. 121 Fragmenta

Incipit: p. 121 E Choliambis Επλευσεν εις Μιλητον ην γαρ η νικη

Explicit: p. 128 Aliud Και τον επι ραβδῳ μυθον υφαινομενον Ηνεκεως ηειδε δεδεγμενος

pp. 129-148 are blank

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: pp. vii-xii, 1-148 Western paper, folded in octavo. Watermark: Crown ( 37 × 30 mm. ) at the top of the gutter, comparable but not identical to Heawood 1037-1040, 1045-1046. The dated examples among these are dated to 1637.

Extent: Codex: 6 + 77 leaves. 166 × 111 mm.

Foliation: The manuscript has been paginated with the numbers i-vi + vii-xii, 1-148 in Arabic and Roman numerals, in black ink (Arabic numerals pp. 1-80) and pencil (Roman numerals, Arabic numerals pp. 81-148). Numerals in ink appear on both recto and verso in the upper outer corner, numerals in pencil on recto only, except for pp. xii and 148.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 10 quires, of which one is a quinion and the rest are quaternia.

Quire 1¹⁰ pp. vii-xii, 1-14
Quires 2-5⁸ pp. 15-78
Quire 6^8-2 pp. 79-90 The first two folios have been cancelled, without loss of text.
Quires 7-9⁸ pp. 91-138
Quire 10^8-3 pp. 79-90 The last three folios have been cancelled or lost, without loss of text.

Condition

There is some creasing, slight water staining and occasional areas of dirt.

Layout

A single column of 20-26 lines. 125 × 75 mm. Margins are ruled in red ink.

Hand(s)

The manuscript was copied by Thomas Stanley, the Greek text in a western European mixed minuscule.

Additions

On p. vii is a dedication: ‘my love to you’. On p. xi is a general heading: ‘T. Stanlei annotata in Callimachum’.

On p. i are some notes by a later hand.

Binding

17th-century full leather binding over couched-laminate boards, with marbled pastedowns. There is decorative gold tooling on the boards, the edges and the rebacked spine. The title ‘Notae in Calli⟨machi⟩ ’ is tooled in gold on a red label on the spine, and the classmark appears on patches. The edges of the leaves have been gilded.

171 × 115 × 21 mm.

The spine has been rebacked.

History

Origin: The manuscript was written by the poet and scholar Thomas Stanley (1625-1678) at some time between 1639 and 1675.

Provenance and Acquisition

Stanley's annotations were reportedly used by the classical scholar Richard Bentley (1662-1742) (A Short Account of Dr. Bentley's Humanity and Justice to those Authors who have written before him, with an honest Vindication of Thomas Stanley, Esq., and his Notes on Callimachos (London 1699)).

A certain date of accession is not known, however the manuscript is first recorded among the collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled in 1754-56 by Thomas Goodall (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.53-55). The manuscript may have belonged to John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely, and it contains the donation bookplate engraved by John Pine (1690-1756) in 1736, in commemoration of the purchase and donation of Moore's library by George I (1660-1727) (left pastedown). However, it has not been possible to identify this manuscript among Moore's collections as recorded in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697) or in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts (now MS Oo.7.50(2)) compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after its publication, and these bookplates are not wholly reliable guides to a manuscript's provenance and acquisition.

D. McKitterick, Cambridge University Library: A History. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 141, 215

Additional Information

Record Sources

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, 2: Ee-Ff, Cambridge University Press, 1857)

Thomas Stanley (1625-1678): A Bibliography of his Writings in Prose and Verse (1647-1743) Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Flower, Margaret (1, 2, 139-172, 1950)

Callimaco Redivivo tra Th. Stanley e R. Bentley Eikasmos, Lehnus, Luigi (2, 285-309, 1991)

Callimaco Redivivo tra Th. Stanley e R. Bentley Incontri con la filologia del passato Paradosis, Lehnus, Luigi (Bari, 47-80, Dedalo, 2012)

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 Ff.6.56

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