Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.3.16
Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12246
Contents
Language(s): Greek
Physical Description
[i-iii] + 1:2-1:145 | 2:1-2:34 + [iv-v]
Two foliation schemes are present, both restarting at the beginning of Part 2. 19th-century foliations in pencil in Arabic numerals in the top right-hand corner, recto. Folio number 1 of Part 1 was assigned to a leaf no longer present in the volume, according to the interpretation of the manuscript's collation (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).
Previous foliations not original to the manuscript, in pencil in Greek numerals in the lower margin of rectos.
Collation
Nn.3.16.1 consists of 18 quires and a single folio, Nn.3.16.2 of 4 quires: 18-1, 2-188, 191 | 20-228, 2310.
Henry Bradshaw added the bifolium signatures and a note on collation on f. [v] recto, and notes throughout the manuscript on the lost and cancelled folios.
Binding
Bound with pale brown full skin covering over millboards. There is decorative tooling on boards, spine and on the board edge. The title (Aristophan Plutus Nubes Hesiodi Opera et Dies) is tooled in gold on the spine. Marbled paper is used as pastedowns with blank leaves.
217 × 157 × 50 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript, in all likelihood in both its parts, used to belong to the Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos: on Nn.3.16.1, f. 3v is a note of the monastery's ownership (‘κτῆμα μονῆς τοῦ κυρίου Διονυσίου’), written by a later hand and repeated three times, probably the same hand that added the foliation in Greek numerals. The same note is found in CUL MS Ff.4.47, f. 23v , CUL Nn.3.15.2, f. 2:4r and CUL MS Add. 2603, f. 2r.
The manuscript later belonged to the physician Richard Mead (1673-1754) .
The manuscript later entered the library of Anthony Askew (1722-1774) , physician and book collector.
After Askew's death, the manuscripts were sold by G. Leigh and J. Sotheby in the auction of his library in 1785 (Nn.3.16 Lot. n. 554), and were eventually bought by Richard Farmer for Cambridge University Library. The University of Cambridge general bookplate (engraved by William Jackson in 1706-1707) was added on inside front board.
Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.3.16.1, ff. 1:2r-1:145v]
Contents
Language(s): Greek
TLG 4158.009
on the final epigram, cf. Greek Anthology Appendix III 33 and DBBE type 5362
TLG 5014.031
followed by the list of characters of the play
TLG 0019.029
extensive scholia and interlinear glosses by different hand in red and faded black ink accompany the text; f. 1:8v left blank without loss of text
TLG 5014.005
followed by the list of characters of the play
TLG 0019.021
final epigram: cf. DBBE type 3473
f. 1:143v: lines 1438-1468 omitted (as noted by H. Bradshaw)
extensive scholia and interlinear glosses by different hand in red and faded black ink accompany the text.
Physical Description
Collation
Nn.3.16.1 consists of 18 quires and a single folio:
- Quire 18-1 ff. 1:2r-1:8v (the first leaf missing);
- Quires 2-188 ff. 9r-1:144v;
- Single folio ff. 1:145r-1:145v.
A bifolium signature (Latin letters for quires, followed by Arabic numerals for bifolios) in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos of the first four folios, followed by a cross on the fifth, was added by Henry Bradshaw: a-i, k-t.
Condition
In fair condition; leaves are yellow with age. There are extensive stains and wormholes, ff. 1:2-1:8 are more damaged than the rest of the volume. Small tears have been repaired with glued paper that sometimes covers part of the text of the scholia. A small tear at f. 1:41 near the gutter is unrepaired. The lower outer corner of f. 1:2 was lost, and with it about a third of the text.
Layout
ff. 1:4r-1:145v: 130 × 80 mm. Scholia that accompany the main texts have a very variable number of lines per page, and are arranged in a orderly manner.
Hand(s)
The main text is written in a mixed minuscule in an upright slanting slightly to the right, in dark brown ink. There is only moderate variation in letter size.
Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings are nearly absent. Breathings are curved and mute iota is not used.
The small majuscules beta, gamma, eta, lambda phi are present. Beta has sometimes a bilobated shape, theta is both in open and round form, epsilon is both regular minuscule and rarely lunate and enlarged. The sigma telikon is present along with regular shape. Epsilon in ligature is deformed.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper point, lower comma and full stop.
Additions
Ownership notes of the Monastery of Dionysiou (Mount Athos) have been added on f. 1:3v: ‘κτῆμα μονῆς τοῦ κυρίου Διονυσίου’.
History
The characteristics of the script suggest that it was produced in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.3.16.1, ff. 2:1r-2:34v]
Contents
Language(s): Greek
TLG 9025.005
f. 2:1v bears scholia by Moschopoulus on lines 1-10
TLG 0020.002
extensive interlinear glosses in red ink and some scholia in brown ink accompany the text
Physical Description
Collation
Part 2 of the manuscript consists of three quaternions and one quinion:
- Quires 20-228 ff. 1r-24v;
- Quire 2310 ff. 25r-34v.
There is a bifolium signature (Latin letters for quires and Arabic numerals for bifolios) by Henry Bradshaw in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos: a-d.
Condition
In good condition. Leaves are yellow with age and stains are rare.
Layout
ff. 2r-34r: 165 × 85 mm. Scholia and prefatory materials that accompany the main texts have a very variable number of lines per page, and are arranged in a orderly manner.
Hand(s)
The main texts are written in a mixed minuscule in an upright, scribal hand, in brown ink script.
There is not a marked variation in letter size. Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings are rare, and usually appear only at the end of lines. Breathings are curved and mute iota is not used.
The small majuscules beta, gamma, eta, kappa and phi are present. Gamma and tau are oftenly high. The majuscule beta has a curled bilobate shape, and epsilon is both regular minuscule and lunate. The sigma telikon is not present. Omega is always closed.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper point, lower comma and full stop.
Decoration
The beginning of the text on f. 2:2r is preceded by rectangular headpieces in brown ink.
An ornated initial, outlined in red ink on f. 2:2r.
History
The characteristics of the script and the watermarks suggest that it was produced in the late 15th century.
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, 4, Cambridge University Press, 1861)
The Manuscripts of Aristophanes. I Classical Philology, White, John
Williams (1, 1, 1-20, 1906)
Historia tēs paradoseōs tou keimenou tou
Hēsiodou, Livadaras, Nikolaos
A (Athēnais, 1963)
Per la storia degli attrezzi agricoli: una
tradizione iconografia nei codici esiodei? Le Machine: bollettino dell'Istituto italiano
per la storia della tecnica, Derenzini, GiovannaMaccagni, Carlo (6-7, 1970)
The Medieval Manuscripts of the Works and
Days The Classical Quarterly, West, M.
L. (24, 2, 161-185, 1974)
Anthony Askew's "Liber amicorum" Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical
Society, Stubbings, Frank (6, 5, 306-321, 1976)
Cambridge University Library : a history [2],
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Clouds, , (Oxford, Clarendon, 1989)
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
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
