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 Ff.6.57

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 77769

Contents

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), along with some notes regarding the content of the Chaldaian Oracles. 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
1. pp. vi-xxx (verso only)
Thomas Stanley, Notes on the Chaldaian Oracles
Language(s): English
Rubric: p. vi primitive Zabini providence Μονοι Χαλδαιοι etc
Incipit: p. vi One 5 They that there is one principle of all things
Explicit: p. xxx They conceive ideas to be sometimes

pp. xxxii, xxxiv, xxxvi, xvxxiii are blank.

2. pp. ix-xiii (recto only)
Callimachus, Epigrammata
Language(s): Greek and Latin

Epigrams 28, 44, 31

Rubric: p. ix Callimachi epigrammata et fragmenta hactenus ανεκδοτα
Incipit: p. xi Epigrammata nondum edita. λγʹ Εχθαιρω το ποιημα το κυκλικον, ουδε κελευθω
Explicit: p. xiii Οιδε τα δ'εν μεσω κειμενα παρπεταται

TLG 0533.003

p. vii is blank apart from a heading to the following texts: ‘Callimachi Cyrenaei quae extant, notis illustrata per T. S.’.

3. p. xv
Fragments
Language(s): Greek and Latin
Rubric: p. xv Adscribitur et hoc Callimacho a quam plurimis
Incipit: p. xv Τις δε βιος τι δε τερπνον ανευ χρυσης Αφροδιτης
Explicit: p. xiii Ουτως αργαλεον γηρας εθνικε θεος
4. pp. xvii-xxxvii (recto only)
Callimachus, Fragments
Language(s): Greek and Latin
Rubric: p. xvii Callimachi fragmenta hactenus ανεκδοτα
Incipit: p. xvii E Choliambis Επλευσεν εις Μιλητον· ην γαρ η νικη
Explicit: p. xxxvii Εν κυκλοισι φανεντ'επιτελλομενοις ενιαυτοις

p. xxxix is blank apart from a heading to the following texts: ‘Thomae Stanleii Notae ad Callimachum’.

5. pp. xl, 1-87
Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the hymns of Callimachus
Language(s): Greek and Latin
Incipit: p. 1 Annotata ad hymnum in Iovem. Versus 1. Ζηνος εοι τι κεν αλλο] sic Horatius
Explicit: p. 87 lucem diei candida dici existi vult mal ut a luce lunae distinguetur

p. 88 is blank.

6. pp. 89-126
Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the epigrans of Callimachus
Language(s): Greek and Latin
Rubric: p. 89 Ad Epigrammata
Incipit: p. 89 Epigram 1. Αττα γερον] Festus Pompeius, Atta pro reverentia seni
Explicit: p. 126 Hesychius: θήρ θηρίον, ὁ λέων
7. pp. 127-207
Thomas Stanley, Annotations on the fragments of Callimachus
Language(s): Greek and Latin
Rubric: p. 127 Ad Fragmenta
Incipit: p. 127 Apud Apollonii scholia: επιβλεπετε] curatis, επισκοπειτε. Latini, videre, eodem sensu
Explicit: p. 207 Xenophon 24 Cicero 25, 26

pp. 208-218 are blank apart from later additions.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Western paper, folded in octavo. Watermark: Foolscap ( c. 90 × c. 50 mm. ) at the top of the gutter, comparable but not identical to Heawood 1974.
Extent: Codex: 20 + 109 leaves. 149 × 96 mm.
Foliation: The manuscript has been paginated with the numbers i-xl + 1-218 in Arabic and Roman numerals, in black ink (Arabic numerals) and pencil (Roman numerals). Numerals in ink appear on both recto and verso in the upper outer corner, numerals in pencil on recto only.

Collation

The collation could not be determined.

Condition

There is slight water staining and occasional areas of dirt.

Layout

A single column of 13-21 lines. 100 × 65 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

The name of Dorothy Stanley, Thomas's wife, appears p. iii, probably as a dedication. Thomas Stanley has added a poem in English on p. v.

There are some brief annotations on p. i.

A poem in English, in pencil, has been added to pp. 208-209 and a poem in Greek on p. 216.

Binding

17th-century full leather binding over couched-laminate boards. There is decorative blind tooling on the boards and the edges, and gold tooling on the rebacked spine. The title ‘Notae in Callim⟨achi⟩ ’ is tooled in gold on a red label on the spine, and the classmark appears on patches. The edges of the leaves have been painted green.

158 × 107 × 28 mm.

The spine has been rebacked. Some of the leather covering material has been lost from the head of the spine.

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

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Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

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