Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.19
Diktyon no.: 12207
Contents
Language(s): Greek
TLG 0081.011
The same portion of the text is contained in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Can. gr. 48, ff. 374v-378r, Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb. gr. 92 , ff. 265r-267v and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, grec 1736 , ff. 354r-357v.
TLG 2585.001
TLG 0003.001
The entire text of the epigram is given in red ink
cf. DBBE type 2214
TLG 7000.001
Physical Description
Collation
The manuscript now consists of 39 quaternions: quires 1-20 and 22-38 are regular quaternions, quire 21 lacks one folio without loss of text, quire 39 two folios.
- Quires 1-208 ff. 1r-160v
- Quire 218-1 ff. 161r-167v (one folio cancelled after 166v without loss of text)
- Quires 22-388 ff. 168r-303v
- Quire 398-2 ff. 304r-309v
Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) added notes about the cancelled or lost folios on ff. 166v and 309v.
The manuscript presents three distinct quire signatures which all coincide with one another (all of them are visible on f. 200r):- early signatures in brown ink, in Greek numerals from αον (f. 1r) to λθον (f. 304r), on lower corner of the first folio recto of all quires, lost or nearly lost on ff. 25r (δον), 33r (εον), 41r (ϛον), 137r (ιηον), 153r (κον), 161r (καον);
- early signatures in brown ink, in Roman numerals, mostly lost in trimming but preserved on upper corner of ff. 17r (iii), 200r (xxvi), 208r (xxvii), 248r (xxxii);
- modern signatures by Henry Bradshaw in pencil οn the lower corner of the first folio recto and a cross on the fifth: quires 1-23 a-i, k-u, x-z (lower-case); quires 24-39 A-I, K-P (upper-case).
Condition
Layout
ff. 1r-309r: A single column of 26 lines. Written space 205 × 130 mm.
Hand(s)
B. Mondrain has identified the copyist of the manuscript as the Constantinopolitan physician, scribe and scholar Demetrios Angelos active in the 15th century, in a slightly slanting and much ligatured mixed minuscule practised scholar's hand.
Syllabic abbreviations and superscript letter endings are often used and they do not appear only at the end of lines. Breathings are curved and joined to accents; circumflex accent is linkd to the omega. The trema is consistently traced over ypsilon; mute iota is absent.
Demetrios' handwriting is characterized by the beta with an elongated vertical line and ligatures with rho drawn up, traced in a single line and often with small closed loops.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper point, lower comma, full stop and marginal quotation marks. Deletions are done by strikethrough in red ink (f. 271v)
The handwriting in the rubricated notes, title headings and the final epigram, though presenting the same general characteristics as the one of the main text, is less neat and thicker in appearance. It occasionally seems to have been slightly affected by some blotting effect (e.g. f. 225v). It also regularly appears very faded.
Decoration
Major initials in red ink flourished with vegetative ornaments mark the start of a new text or a new book section of Thucydides’ Histories on ff. 1r, 5v, 8v, 10r, 53r, 88r, 125r, 170r, 202v, 272v. Some title headings of the manuscript are followed by ornamental line fillers drawn in red ink (e.g. ff. 170r, 202v).
Some minor red-ink initials are written within the body of the text along with some rubricated marginal notes.
The manuscript contains two sketches drawn in red ink in the lower margins of ff. 57v and 77r. The first sketch illustrates lines 12 to 16 of f. 57v, corresponding to Histories, Book II, 13, 7. It consists of a map representing the city of Athens on the left, the harbour of Phalerum on the right, and the Phaleric walls joining the two. The scribe also provided the drawing with some informative inscriptions using words directly borrowed from the text of Thucydides. Those include indications of distances in Greek numerals and of the guarded (φυλαττόμενον) and unguarded areas (ἀφύλακτον) on the map. Although the second sketch is found on f. 77r, it illustrates lines 2 to 8 of f. 76v, which corresponds to Histories, Book II, 15, 4. It shows the city walls of Plataea reinforced by a wooden structure made to ensure the protection of the city from the siege of the Lacedaemonians. Although the sketch was originally accompanied by three inscriptions, the one located below the sketch is now lost to trimming. The two other ones are Πλαταία (“Plataea”), which is written within the top circle representing the city of Plataea, and ξύλινον τεῖχος (“wooden wall”), located on the right side of the sketch.
Ornamental chevrons precede the remaining words which the scribe was unable to fit in the last line of a page (e.g. ff. 124r, 125r).
Additions
The notes mark important passages, mostly speeches, with a mention of the type of speech in abbreviated forms: δημηγορία ("public oration”), ἀπόκρισις (“response”) or ἀπολογία (“defence”). Those mentions are followed by one indication of the identity of the speaker and another one on the persons to whom the speech is addressed. Some of the red ink notes are only meant to clarify the meaning of Thucydides’ text. The rubricated notes are on ff.: 19v, 21r, 25r, 28v, 30v, 33r, 34v, 43v, 50v, 56r, 63r, 67r, 70r, 75r, 75v, 76r, 81r, 82r, 90r, 96v, 98r, 100v, 104r, 106v, 127v, 130r, 131v, 143v, 152v, 155r, 156r, 167r, 172v, 186v, 197r, 197v, 198r, 198v, 206r, 208r, 210r, 214r, 215v, 217r, 225v, 228v, 230r, 233r, 243r, 261v, 263r, 267v, 271v, 307v, 309r.
Some notes in Latin have been written by an early modern reader on ff. 17r (‘templum Iunonis’) and 100v (‘pulchra omnino’).
The numbers of the books of Thucydides have been added in the upper margin of rectos in Greek numerals from f. 10r, along with the Arabic numerals standing for the modern chapter divisions in a dark brown ink, e.g. f. 19v, lines 4 and 34, f. 20r, line 17. Richard Porson (1759-1808), Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, was allowed to borrow the manuscript in April 1802 and the numbers of the books may have been added by him.
Binding
Bound by Wiseman of Cambridge (first half of 19th century), and signed on lower margin of first marbled endleaf, verso.
Binding in pale brown full leather covering over millboards. Marbled paper endleaves.
The volume is wrapped in a very worn black leather chemise covering the whole binding, save the head and tail of the spine. The name of the author and the classmark are gold-tooled on the spine of the chemise: Kk Thucydides 5 19.
298 × 226 × 73 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
In the late 15th or early 16th century, the manuscript was certainly brought to Italy by Byzantine émigrés.
At some point, it came into the possession of the Italian humanist and Chancellor of the Republic of Genoa (1514) Benedetto Tagliacarne (1480-1536) , also known as Benedictus Theocrenus, whose mark of ownership (‘Benedicti Theocreni’) is found in the upper margin of f. 1r. It is likely to have been seized along with the rest of his goods by the soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire during the sack of Genoa in 1522.
John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 982 in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after the publication of Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I . The royal bookplate, engraved by John Pine in 1736, is not present.
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
-
Thucydidis De bello Peloponnesiaco libri octo, Poppo, Ernst Friedrich (Leipzig, vol. 1, Gerhard Fleischer, 1843)
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1858)
Thucydidis I, Shilleto, Richard (Cambridge, Deighton, Bell, 1872)
Liste des manuscrits de Thucydide Revue des Études Grecques, Dain, A. (46, pp. 20-28, 1933)
The Cretan manuscripts of Thucydides The Classical Quarterly, Powell, J.E. (32, 103-108, 1938)
Thucydidis Historiae, Alberti, G.B. (Rome, 1, Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1972)
Cambridge University Library: a history [2], The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Jean Argyropoulos, professeur à Constantinople et ses auditeurs médecins, d’Andronic
Éparque à Démétrios
Angelos Polypleuros nous: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag
Byzantinisches Archiv, Mondrain, B. (Munich, 223-250, Saur, 2000)
The Greek Manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne Baluze Codices Manuscripti, , (56/57, 29-42, 2006)
Démétrios Angelos et la médecine: contribution nouvelle au dossier Storia della tradizione
e edizione dei medici greci. Atti del VI Colloquio internazionale, Paris 12-14 aprile
2008 Collectanea, Mondrain, B. (Naples, pp. 293-322, Boudon-Millot, 2010)
The library of Richard Porson, Naiditch, P. G. (Philadelphia, Xlibris, 2011)
Philologie grecque Annuaire de l'École pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Section
des sciences historiques et philologiques, Mondrain, B. (146, 55-58, 2015)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
