Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.3.25

Diktyon no.: 12197

Introduction: This manuscript, probably copied in the 14th century, contains a selection of homilies by the Patriarch of Constantinople and patristic theologian John Chrysostom (d. 407): the six homilies on King Uzziah, six of the seven homilies on Lazarus and the homily on the kalends of January. It was originally the last part of a larger manuscript which, at some point, was split into three distinct entities. That division happened after the production of the manuscript but before it came into the possession of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1564. The first part of the original volume is Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 21, which comprises its first 18 quires, whereas the Cambridge manuscript, in which the foliation added by the scribe is still present, starts with the last leaf of quire 29 and ends with quire 47. However, the second part of the original volume is yet to be identified. The Oxford manuscript contains the logoi 1 to 10, and the Cambridge manuscript the logoi 20 to 32. The English scholar Henry Savile used MS Ii.3.25 for his eight-volume edition of the complete works of John Chrysostom (see: H. Savile, Sancti Ioannis Chrysostomi opera Graece, Eton, 1612-1613). The previous owner, the Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker (1504-1575), speculated on its origin, affirming in the note present on the front pastedown that it used to belong to the library of one of his remote predecessors, Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 7th century. That hypothesis was however rejected by palaeographers because the evolved Greek minuscule, known as "mixed-minuscule", in which our manuscript was written could not have been used at a time when even the fully formed 9th century minuscule book-hand had not yet emerged.

Language(s): Greek with few notes in Latin

1. ff. 3r-50r

John Chrysostom, 344-407, In illud: Vidi Dominum (homiliae 1-6) Homilies on King Uzziah

Incipit: f. 3r Εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεός· ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γενεᾶς τῆς ἡμετέρας. ἐβλάστησαν μάρτυρες

Explicit: ff. 49v-50r Ἂν οὕτω τὰ καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τὰ κατὰ τοὺς πλησίον οἰκονομῶμεν, δυνησόμεθα μετὰ παρρησίας στῆναι ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ βήματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, μεθ’ οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ δόξα τιμὴ κράτος, σὺν τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ ζωοποιῦν· νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν

Final rubric: f. 50r τετέλεσθαι σὺν Θεῶ τὰ κατὰ Ὀζίου ἐν λογοις ἕξ

Homily 3: ff. 3r-14r (the end is much longer than editions, cf. CCG I, Appendix 17)
Homily 4: ff. 14r-23r
Homily 1: ff. 23r-32v
Homily 2: ff. 33r-37v
Homily 5: ff. 37v-43r
Homily 6: ff. 43r-50v

CPG 4417

BHG^a 129k-q; 124

PG 56, 97-142

TLG 2062.498

2. ff. 50r-136v

John Chrysostom, 344-407, De Lazaro conciones (homiliae 1-5, 7) Homilies on Lazarus

Rubric: f. 50r τοῦ αὐτοῦ μετὰ τὰς Καλάνδας· τῇ ἑξῆς κατὰ μεθυόντων· καὶ περὶ τῶν εἰς καπηλεῖα εἰσιόντων· καὶ ὅτι τὸν διδάσκαλον οὐ χρὴ ἀπογινώσκειν τῶν μαθητῶν κἂν πρὸς τὸ παρὸν μὴ πείθωνται· καὶ εἰς τὸν Λάζαρον

Incipit: f. 50r Τὴν χθὲς ἡμέραν ἑορτὴν οὖσαν διαβολικὴν, ἐποιήσατε ἑορτὴν πνευματικὴν

Explicit: f. 136v τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἐκείνων ἀγαθῶν ἀπολαύσωμεν· ὧν γένοιτο πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐπιτυχεῖν· χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπία τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, μεθ’ οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα κράτος τιμὴ· νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων

Homily 1: ff. 50r-70r
Homily 2: ff. 70v-81v
Homily 3: ff. 81v-99v
Homily 5: ff. 99v-111r
Homily 4: ff. 111r-124r
Homily 7: ff. 124r-136v

CPG 4329

BHG^a 1700z; BHGⁿ 2103i

PG 48, 963-1026, 1043-1054

TLG 2062.023

3. ff. 136v-147v

John Chrysostom, 344-407, In Κalendas Homily on the kalends of January

Rubric: f. 136v Τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου ^ἐν^ ταῖς καλάνδαις μὴ προελθόντος τοῦ ἐπισκόπου Ἀντιοχείας Φλαβιανοῦ. Ἐλέχθη κατὰ τῶν παρατηρούντων τὰς νεομηνίας· καὶ κατὰ τὴν πόλι^ν^ χορείας τελούντων καὶ εἰς τὸ ῥητὸν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου τὸ, πάντα εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ ποιεῖτε

Incipit: f. 136v Καθάπερ χορὸς τὸν κορυφαῖον ἐπιζητεῖ· καὶ ναυτῶν πλήρωμα τὸν κυβερνήτην

Explicit: f. 147v Μὴ τοίνυν ῥήμασιν· ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτὸν δοξάζωμεν συνεχῶς ὅτι αὐτῷ πρέπει ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν

CPG 4328

BHG^a 2212

PG 48, 953-962

TLG 2062.022

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (FHHF), of medium thickness and quite good quality.

Extent: Codex: 2 + 145 + 1 leaves. 235 × 155 mm.

Foliation:

In the centre of the lower margins, there is an early red-ink foliation in Greek numerals starting anew when a new homily begins. It consists of the word φύλλον (leaf) followed by the relevant Greek numeral.

Red-ink running titles on rectos, indicating the number of folios occupied by the corresponding homily.

Foliation: 2-148. Modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals, recto, upper right hand corner, recto.

Foliation: Modern pagination in red crayon in Arabic numerals, recto, upper right.

Collation

The manuscript consists of 18 quaternions and one leaf from the last quire of the second part of the original volume.

One leaf ff. 3r-3v
Quires 1-18⁸ ff. 4r-147v

Original brown ink quire signature in Greek numerals in the lower margin of the first folio, recto and last folio, verso of the quire, from κθ (29) to μζ (47).

Condition

The book block is overall in good condition. It has been trimmed and presents slight cockling throughout. The two front endleaves have been crumpled and slightly wormed. Some worm activity is also found on f. 147, on the back flyleaf and the back paste-down. ff. 3, 146 and 147 have been blackened by dirt.

Layout

ff. 3r-147v: A double column of 27 lines, written space 225 × 150 mm. Pricking does not survive. Ruled in hardpoint, system Leroy 1, type Leroy Leroy 34C2df .

Hand(s)

The manuscript was copied in a mixed archaizing minuscule, upright slanting, pending from the ruling line, in brown ink, with variation in letter size and some flourishing of tails into the lower margin. The same hand has added the headings, in the same script but with wider use of majuscule, and running titles in a smaller script, in red ink.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings are in use only at the end of lines or for nomina sacra. Breathings are curved and not joined to accents; mute iota is usually absent but occasionally used with no consistency. Marginal quotation marks of curved shape are used.

The handwriting is characterized by enlarged letters on the first line of columns; the letters have different alternative forms used indiscriminately, majuscule beta both in enlarged or small shape, along with the old u-shape one; zeta is à trompe; psi is both in regular and cross-shape.

Ligatures of double lambda are overlapping. Those with rho are traced from below and usually in stirrup-shape if with the following letter, open if with the preceding letter.

Punctuation includes the middle and upper point, lower comma and full stop.

Decoration

Ornamental friezes in red ink are drawn on the top of the rubrics beginning each homily: ff. 3r, 14r, 33r, 37v, 43r, 50r, 70v, 81v, 99v, 111r, 124r, 136v

Flourished major initials in red ink marking the start of homilies.

Presence of set-out minor initials in a red-ink uncial script.

Additions

A few annotations have been added by some later western hands: the front pastedown contains an early modern Latin inscription about the history and acquisition of the manuscript written by Matthew Parker in 1564, and the title ‘Homiliae Chrysostomi’ written in brown ink by a 18th or 19th century hand.

In the upper outer corner of the same pastedown the old shelfmark "#D.β.4" remains, in use before the introduction of the current shelfmark.

A label containing a late medieval or early modern gothic inscription reading ‘Homiliae Chrysostomi’ was stuck on the recto of f. 1r, possibly extracted from the former binding of the manuscript.

A western hand has added references in all likelihood to a printed edition pages for each homily.

The inscription ‘Homil. Chrys. Grec.’ (Homiliae Chrysostomi Graece) in a thick and hardly legible hand is written on the fore edge.

Binding

18th or 19th century binding with much worn paper boards covered with thin black paper. Four raised bands. An orange tanned skin covers the spine and a part of the boards. The classmark of the manuscript is gold-tooled on the spine. The edges have been gilded.

334 × 253 × 50 mm.

History

Origin: The manuscript was written in the 14th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

Toward the middle of the 16th century, the manuscript was conserved in Rochester Cathedral.

Given by the dean of Rochester Cathedral to Matthew Parker (1504-1574) , archbishop of Canterbury, in 1564, as stated in the Latin inscription on the left pastedown: ‘Hic grecus codex quonda(m) fuit Theodori Archiepi(scopi) Cant(uariensis) et servatus in Eccl(es)ia Cathedrali Roffensi: eius eccl(es)ie Decanus dedit eu(m) Mattheo Cantuar(iensi) a(nno) 1564.’ The manuscript was counted by Matthew Parker among the books believed to have belonged to Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690) , archbishop of Canterbury.

Presented to the University Library in 1574 by Matthew Parker (1504-1575) , archbishop of Canterbury. No. 8 in the list of 25 'Libri Scripti in pergameno' published to commemorate Parker's gift (see Early catalogues of manuscripts, up to c. 1600.

Additional Information

Record Sources

A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1858, p. 428-429 and unpublished description by Clément Malgonne (2015).

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)

The dispersal of the monastic libraries and the beginning of Anglo-Saxon studies: Matthew Parker and his circle. A preliminary Study Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Wright, C. E. (1, 3, 208-237, 1951)

Codices Chrysostomici Graeci I Codices Britanniae et Hiberniae, Aubineau, Michel (Paris, CNRS éditions, 1968)

Before palaeography: notes on early descriptions and datings of Greek manuscripts Studia Codicologica, Easterling, P. E. (124, 179-88, 1977)

From Britain to Byzantium: the study of Greek manuscripts Through the looking glass: Byzantium through British eyes : papers from the twenty-ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, London, March 1995 Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies publications, Easterling, P. E. (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000)

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 Ii.3.25

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