Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.3.18
Diktyon no.: 12248
Contents
Language(s): Greek
TLG 0003.001
f. 305v blank
Physical Description
Collation
The manuscript now consists of 39 quires: quires 1-36 are regular quaternions, quire 37 lacks four folios without loss of text, the last folio of quire 38 is missing (in all likelihood blank like the preceding verso), and one bifolium was inserted between the sixth and the seventh folios of quire 38, consistently with the text which has not been interrupted.
- Quires 1-368 ff. 1r-288v ([αον]-λϛον, a-N)
- Quire 378-4 ff. 289r-296v (λζον, O)
- Quire 388-1 ff. 297r-305v (P1-P7)
- Quire 392 ff. 303r-304v inserted between ff. 302v and 305r (P*1-P*2)
Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) added modern quire signatures and a general note on collation on f. [xv] recto, and notes throughout the manuscript on lost folios.
Original quire signatures in brown ink, in Greek numerals from αον (f. 8v) to λζον (f. 289r), on lower margin of the first folio recto of quires 2-37, and on the lower margin of the last folio verso of quires 1-36.Modern quire signatures by Henry Bradshaw in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos: quires 1-23 a-z (lower-case); quires 24-39 A-P (upper-case). Quire 38 bears the sequence P1-P7, quire 39 the sequence P*1-P*2.
One horizontal catchword by a later hand on f. 302v.Condition
Layout
ff. 2r-305r: A single column of 29 lines. Written space 160 × 95 mm.
Hand(s)
Andronikos Kallistos : ff. 2r-290v.
The manuscript is written by the scribe and scholar Andronikos Kallistos (RGK I 18) in a practised minuscule without any claim to aesthetic effect, related to the Druckminuskel.
Syllabic abbreviations and superscript letter endings usually appear only at the end of lines and rarely elsewhere (e.g. common abbreviation of μεν). Breathings are curved and joined to accents; circumflex accent is hat-like; almost vertical acutes and graves. Isolated trema is sometimes traced over iota and ypsilon; mute iota is present but not consisitently used. Horizontal bars over names are extended.
Kallistos' handwriting is characterized by the beta in bilobate shape, high gamma and lambda with curved elongated stroke if ligated, and enlarged lunate sigma.
Ligatures with rho are drawn up, traced in a single line and often with small closed loops.
Punctuation used includes the middle and upper point, lower comma and full stop.
Corrections and additions in brown pale ink in the margins are by the same hand.
This hand was previously identified with that of George the Cretan.
ff. 295r-305r probably written by a second hand, that displays a minuscule very closely following the model of Kallistos' handwriting, but slanting slightly to the right, with denser text.
Decoration
Thick red-ink initials on ff. 2r, 3v, 44v, 81v, 118v, 163v, 197v, f. 234r, f. 266r
Additions
Note by Richard Porson on f. 1v: ‘ Videtur esse Hudsoni Codex Clarendonius ’, with reference to the 1696 edition by John Hudson. Porson also marked the number of the books in the upper margin of rectos in Greek numerals.
A general note on collation on f. [xv] recto, and notes throughout the manuscript on lost folios, added by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886.
Binding
Binding in pale brown full leather covering over millboards. Marbled paper endleaves. The title and classmark are tooled in gold on the spine: Herodotus MS. Nn.3.18 xv. cent.. Binding signed by Wiseman of Cambridge, on lower margin of first marbled endleaf, verso.
226 × 155 × 57 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript belonged to the library of the copyist and later to Baldassar Migliavacca active as commentator and book collector in last quarter of the 15th century in Milan; his ex libris remains on f. 1v: ‘κτῆμα ἐμοῦ Βαλτάσορος τοῦ Μελιαβακκοῦ’. Kallistos sold most of his library in Milan in 1475-1476, before he left for France and England. Migliavacca probably purchased the manuscript from Kallistos himself or from Giovanni Francesco della Torre , who bought Kallistos' library (cf. Botley 2018). Kallistos' collection was sold again between 1481 and 1483, but Migliavacca could have been in possession of the manuscript as early as 1475.
The manuscript later entered the collection 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.3.18 Lot. n. 601), and 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 f. 1v.
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
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A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the
library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 4, Cambridge University Press, 1861)
Liste des manuscrits de Thucydide Revue des Études Grecques, Dain, A. (46, 20-28, 1933)
The Manuscript S of Herodotus The Classical Review, Powell, J.
Enoch (51, 4, 118-119, 1937)
The Cretan Manuscripts of Thucydides The Classical Quarterly, Powell, J.
Enoch (32, 2, 103-108, 1938)
Essai sur l'histoire du texte de
Thucydide, Hemmerdinger, Bertrand (Paris, Les Belles lettres, 1955)
Two Greek scribes identified as one Scriptorium, de
Meyier, K. A. (11, 99-102, 1957)
Three Greek scribes working for Bessarion:
Trivizias, Callistus, Hermonymus Italia medioevale e umanistica, Diller, Aubrey (10, 403-410, 1967)
Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten,
800-1600. I. Grossbritannien Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für
Byzantinistik, Gamillscheg, ErnstHarlfinger, Dieter (Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie
der
Wissenschaften, 1981)
Studies in Greek manuscript tradition, Diller, Aubrey (Amsterdam, Hakkert, 1983)
Cambridge University Library: a history [2],
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986)
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)
L'Erodoto di Palla Strozzi (cod. Vat. Urb. gr.
88) Bollettino dei Classici dell'Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei, De
Gregorio, Giuseppe (23, 31-130, 2002)
The library of Richard Porson, Naiditch, P.
G. (Philadelphia, Xlibris, 2011)
Literature and culture in late Byzantine
Thessalonica, Russell, Eugenia (London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)
Baldassar Migliavacca lettore e possessore di
codici greci Studi medievali e umanistici, Orlandi, Luigi (12, 141-195, 2014)
Andronico Callisto e l'epigramma per la tomba
di Mida Medioevo greco, Orlandi, Luigi (14, 163-175, 2014)
Greek Literature in Exile: The Books of
Andronicus Callistus, 1475-1476 Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Botley, Paul (72, 181-196, 2018)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
