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 Gg.6.43

Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12195

Contents

Introduction: This 16th-century manuscript is a late copy of Achilles Tatius, The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon , one of the few surviving Ancient Greek romances and the only extant work of Tatius who lived and worked in Alexandria in the written in the 2nd century. The manuscript was copied from the editio princeps of the work, printed in Heidelberg in 1601 from a 16th-century manuscript of the Bibliotheca Palatina, now in the Vatican (Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. gr. 52). Dr Matteo Di Franco

Language(s): Greek

1. ff. ix recto - 81r
Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon Leucippe et Clitophon
Rubric: f. ix recto Αχιλ⟨λ⟩έως Αλεξανδρέως[sic] Τατίου τῶν ἐπὶ Λευκίππην καὶ Κλειτοφῶντα
Final rubric: f. 81r τέλος τῶν περὶ Λευκίππην καὶ Κλειτοφῶντα ἐρωτικῶν πλασμάτων

  • Book i: ff. 1r-10v
  • Book ii: ff. 11r-24v
  • Book iii: ff. 25r-35r
  • Book iv: ff. 35v-43v
  • Book v: ff. 44r-55v
  • Book vi: ff. 56r-63v
  • Book viiff. 64r-70v
  • Book viii: ff. 64r-70v: there is lacuna from viii 16, 3 (f. 79v ἀποσκευάσαντες ἔρριψαν ὁμοίως) to viii 17, 4 (f. 80r ἦν δὲ καὶ ὀφθῆναι καλὸς) indicated on upper margin of f. 80r (‘Λείπει τὰ ἑξῆς τοῦ τῶν τῆς φάρου λῃστῶν μύθου, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα’); the same lacuna is in the editio princeps, in which the last part is taken from the manuscripts Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 2367 or Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, grec 2913

TLG 0532.001

2. ff. 81v-97v
Blank leaves

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermark: pillars in the gutter comparable to Heawood, Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries (Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae I) 3506 ; watermarks of this shape are in use in the first half of 17th century.
Extent: Codex: i + 104 + i leaves. 200 × 155 mm.
Foliation: i-ix + 1-82, [83], 84-90, [91-95], 96-97. Modern foliation in Roman and Arabic numerals in the top right-hand corner, recto, in pencil (i-ix, 82-97) and brown ink (1-81).

Collation

The manuscript consistes of 13 quaternions: quires 1-138.

Horizontal catchwords by the same of the text on each folio. Some of them are lost in trimming.

Condition

In generally good condition; folios are yellowed by time and stained; ff. iii-iv and 90-91 are partially uncut, with small tears: ff. iii verso, iv recto, 90v and 91r not imaged.

Layout

ff. 1r-81r: A single column of 31 lines. 190 × 117 mm.

Hand(s)

The manuscript is written by a western hand of the first half of the 17th century in a mixed minuscule; title are in majuscule. Abbreviations and ligatures are absent. The writing is characterized by an inclined gamma, mu traced from a u with the addition of a hook, and psi traced in four strokes.

Binding

Late 17th-/early 18th-century binding of brown leather covering couched-laminate boards. On the spine a general title is tooled in gold: Liber Græ.

209 × 162 × 30 mm.

History

Origin: The watermark, the handwriting features and filiation from the printed edition suggest that the manuscript was written in the first half of 17th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 219 in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).

Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I (1660-1727) : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine (1690-1756) in 1736 on the left pastedown.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description (2019) draws on A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1858, p. 234.

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, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1858) Leucippe and Clitophon, , (Stockholm, Almquist & Wiksell, 1955) The Greek Manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne Baluze Codices Manuscripti, , (56/57, 29-42, 2006)

Funding of Cataloguing

The Polonsky Foundation

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

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