Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.4.42b
Diktyon no.: Diktyon 12254
Contents
Language(s): Greek
Transcription: ἀριστείδου λευκτρικοὶ λόγοι πέντε| αος ὑπὲρ λακεδαιμονίων| βος ὑπὲρ θηβαίων| Γος ὑπὲρ λακεδαιμονίων| Δος ὑπὲρ θηβαίων| εος ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδετέροις βοηθεῖν|
TLG 0284.033
TLG 0284.034
TLG 0284.035
TLG 0284.036
TLG 0284.037
Blank folios
Physical Description
Collation
The manuscript consists of 11 quaternions, the last of which is missing a folio.
- 1 paper endleaf (16th century)
- Quires 1-108 ff. 1r-80v
- Quire 118-1 ff. 81r-87v
Condition
Layout
Written space 75 × 50 mm. Main text: 16 lines per page. On ff. 1r, 47r, 57v, 68r titles are missing and one line is blank; two lines on f. 23r.
Hand(s)
f. [i] recto
Matthaeus Devaris RGK II 364, III 440
The main text is written in a small minuscule of the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. Slanted to the right, the hand uses several majuscule letters (β, γ, η, λ, π) and ligatures. Presence of modern ny and sigma telikon, and both high and low gamma and tau. Breathings are curved; accents do not join to letters or breathings.
Binding
18th-century board binding covered in quarter mid-brown tanned calfskin with blue-green paper on the sides, not contemporary with the text. 110 × 83 × 21 mm.
Rebacked.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript belonged initially to the library of the Byzantine scholar Janus Lascaris (?1445-1535) , as testified by his cipher in f. [i] recto (a large kappa whose upper portion of the left vertical stroke serves also for the right half of an appended lambda, and whose bottom part of the vertical stroke has a sigma to the left and a rho to the right; see: Jackson 2003).
Later on, this manuscript entered in the library of the Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi (1501-1550) . Ridolfi's ownership inscription is preserved on [i] recto: ‘ nº 55 della decimae ’ (sic) (the last two words written over a struck-out ‘ della 21 ’).
The volume was part of the estate of queen of France Catherine de Médici in 1589 (Muratore, La biblioteca).
It seems to have been removed from the French Royal collection before 1622 by Jean-Baptiste Hautin (?1580-1640) , who probably added the ex libris on the left pastedown, and an erroneous description ‘ Aristidis orationes et alia ’.
A certain date of accession is not known, however the manuscript is first recorded
among the
collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled in 1754-56 by
Thomas Goodall (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.53-55), as Dd.15.26 (see f. [i] recto.
The manuscript may have belonged to
John Moore (1646-1714)
, bishop of Ely, and it contains the donation bookplate engraved by
John Pine (1690-1756)
in 1736, in commemoration of the purchase and donation of Moore's library by
George I (1660-1727)
(left pastedown). However, it has not been
possible to identify this manuscript among Moore's collections as recorded in Bernard, Catalogi
librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697) or in the handwritten supplementary list of
Moore's manuscripts (now MS Oo.7.50(2)) compiled by
Thomas Tanner (1674-1735)
after its publication, and these bookplates are not wholly reliable guides to a manuscript's
provenance and
acquisition.
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
-
Unidentified Medici-Regii Greek codices Scriptorium. Revue internationale des études
relatives aux manuscrits, Jackson, Donald F. (54, 197-208, 2000)
La biblioteca del cardinale Niccolò Ridolfi Hellenica ;, Muratore, Davide (Alessandria, 32, Edizioni dell'Orso,, 2009)
P. Aelii Aristidis Opera quae exstant omnia , , , , (Lugduni Batavorum, Brill, 1976)
An Old Booklist Revisited: Greek Manuscripts of Janus Lascaris from the Library of
Cardinal
Niccolò Ridolfi Manuscripta, Jackson, Donald F. (43-44, 77-134, 2003)
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 4, Cambridge University Press, 1861)
The Greek Manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne Baluze Codices Manuscripti, , (56/57, 29-42, 2006)
Funding of Cataloguing
The Polonsky Foundation
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
