Byzantine & Post-Byzantine manuscripts 22 items

1.
  • Tēs hagias hosiomartyros eudokias.

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Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Parchment ; foliation consists of two sets of numbers in pencil.
  • Layout: Lectionary A: 22 lines per page ; hardpoint ruling ; Lectionary B: 20-21 lines per page.
  • Description: Lectionary A was written in brown ink in a minuscule script dating from the middle or the second half of the 11th century, with liturgical references and titles in carmine alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiauskel ; initials mostly gold, but many were illuminated ; Lectionary B was written in brown ink in a slightly larger sloping minuscule script dating from the beginning of the 11th century, with liturgical references written partly in carmine epigraphical script, partly in carmine alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiauskel.
  • Decoration: The menologion of Lectionary A very closely follows the calendar of Constantinople. The metropolitan origin of the manuscript is confirmed by its elegant decoration: strips in blue and gold, illuminated and/or gold initials, titles of the menologion commemorations written in carmine, the references to gospel readings written in gold. Many of the initials contain a blessing hand. The headpieces and many of the strips were apparently prized enough to be cut out of the manuscript. Only Lectionary A has any illuminations.
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2.
  • [Gospel book].

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Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Cataloged from existing description.
  • Layout: framed ruled in dry point.
  • Decoration: full-page miniatures; 10 canon tables with decorative frames, figures, and ornament; illuminated headpieces.
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3.
  • Pindari Quaedam et Sopho[...] MS.

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Description:
  • Spine title.
  • Ms. codex.
  • Physical description: Manuscript is written on 21 lines per page in a brownish ink with interlinear glosses and marginal commentaries in the scribal hand in a red faded ink; nota bene hands and large ornamental initial letters on several pages.
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4.
  • Elthōmen loipon kai epi tous euangelistas kai apostolous...

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Subject:
Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Parchment ; fol. ii + 240 + ii ; modern foliation in numerals.
  • Layout: 22-24 long lines per page ; hardpoint ruling ; some prick-marks are visible in the upper and lower margins about 4-8 mm from the edge of the parchment.
  • Description: The entire manuscript, except fol. 188r-v, was written by a single scribe in a round minuscule, with many ligatures and few abbreviations, in dark brown ink ; titles of the gospels are in epigraphic majuscule script, with liturgical references in alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel, written in red ink ; the prologues are written in a smaller script ; there are also several notes by different hands, all in brown ink.
  • Decoration: The manuscript has headpieces that may well have been executed by the scribe himself. Each headpiece is topped by a small cross on steps, flanked by the apotropaic acronyms IC XC NI KA or EEEE. Into this manuscript have been inserted three folios of a slightly different parchment, containing four ink drawings lightly washed with light blue, pale brown, and pink. Three of the drawings are evangelist portraits, while on the recto of the portrait of John are images of Christ Pantokrator and the Virgin. The combination of the two figures has suggested a Deesis group, lacking only John the Baptist. All of the drawings seem to have been executed by the same hand. The dating of these drawings is difficult. They have usually assigned to the second half of the 12th century.
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6.
  • The Akathistos hymn.

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Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Paper ; fols. ii + 102 ; foliation in the upper right corner in ink (19th century) and in ink numerals made by a numbering stamp machine in the center of the upper margin.
  • Layout: 15-24 long lines per page.
  • Description: Written in Late Hodegon-style script by three scribes ; each part of the manuscript was written by a different scribe ; Part I was written by Luke of Buzău in brown ink with initials and the concluding line of each oikos in red ; the titles are written in red epigraphic majuscules. Part II was written by two scribes ; the older one who wrote the Akathistos humn in brown ink, can be identified as Matthew of Myra ; a later scribe wrote a vernacular Greek paraphrase of the Akathistos hymn in black ink in a calligraphic script of the period with ink-drawn initials. Part III was written by a single scribe, whose is close to that of James of Canon. Titles and small initials in gold.
  • Decoration: Part I consists of twenty-five full-page miniatures, one for the prooimion and one for each of the twenty-four stanzas of the Akathistos hymn. Every miniature is roughly the same size and has a narrow gold frame with green or red panels in its four corners and at the center of each side. The colors used are fairly limited: gold, green, re, purple-red, deep purple, yellow and various browns. Part II lacks miniatures but is adorned with a remarkable series of painted initials, as well as with a frontispiece and several headpieces.
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7.
  • Lectionary of Acts and Epistles.

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Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: parchment ; fols. 112 ; modern foliation in pencil.
  • Layout: 18-20 long lines per page ; hardpoint ruling.
  • Description: Written by one scribe with black ink used for the text and red ink for the simply decorated initials ; some letters are occasionally extended into upper or outer margin.
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8.
  • Gospels.

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Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Parchment ; fols.iii + 328 + iii ; foliation in brown ink was mostly trimmed away by an earlier binder: it is preserved only on fols. 206r-209r. Later foliation (19th century?) in brown ink.
  • Layout: 20-28 long lines per page ; hard point ruling ; prick-marks in the lower margin are not always visible.
  • Description: Scribe A wrote fols. 12r-16v and fols. 17v-327v in a calligraphic minuscule script in brown ink in the late 11th or early 12th century ; titles are written in gold alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel (fols. 12r-41v) and epigraphischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel (fols. 42r-327v) ; text, initials, chapter numbers, and liturgical indications are in gold. Scribe B is probably identical with the later owner of the manuscript, the hieromank Kallistratos ; he wrote fols. 1r-11v, the captions that accompany the miniatures of the evangelists, and the note on fol. 327v in brown ink around 1300. Scribe C, who wrote fols. 16v-17r was perhaps identical with scribe A but wrote in cursive style in brown ink.
  • Decoration: The gospel was written in the late 11th-early 12th centuries; the miniatures, lectionary tables, and calendar added around 1300. There are four evangelist portraits, some of the largest ever painted in a Byzantine manuscript. Also, the canon tables in this manuscript can be ranked among the finest products of late 11th-early-12th century Constantinopolitan art. The painted ornament of the headpieces is more loosely organized than that of canon tables, and it has been suggested that the headpieces may have been executed by a different artist.
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9.
  • Homilies

Author:
  • Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint
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Subject:
Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Parchment ; fols. 276 ; modern foliation in pencil ; some Greek numbers in brown in the upper margins of the misbound folios indicating the correct order of the folios.
  • Layout: 25 long lines per page ; hardpoint ruling ; prick-marks are sometimes visible in the margins.
  • Description: Written in brown ink by one scribe who wrote the text in variation of Perlschrift and the titles of the homilies in alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel ; marginal notes ; marginal Greek numerals for scholia.
  • Decoration: Except for the narrow strip preceding Oratio I on Easter, the text is accompanied by very little decoration. The main initials, outlined by the scribe in brown ink of the written text, are painted in blue, green, a dark reddish brown, and a dark blue or reddish purple that gleams as though it had a bit of silver in it.
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10.
  • John of Damascus and Miscellaneous treatises.

Author:
  • John, of Damascus, Saint
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Description:
  • Physical description: I (modern) + 222+I' (modern) folios; 16.9 x 11.6 cm (13.2 x 9.5 cm); 30-32 long lines per page. Arabic paper (bombycine). Modern foliation in pencil in the outside corner of the upper margins. Quire marks by a modern hand in pencil for the purpose of rebinding, the final quire lacks the last two folios, which may have been blank.
  • Manuscript is written by one scribe using brown ink in the second half of the 13th century. Initials in pale reddish brown (red from fol. 201 on). A 16th-century hand wrote the poem on fol. 222r (in dark brown ink with red initial letters) and replacement text (on the upper right part of the page) on fol. 137r. Some notes by two different hands of the 14th and 16th centuries. One tall leafy initial outlined in brown ink and occasional strips, all in brown ink, in the hand of the scribe. The ornament of the strips is a running ribbon design outlined against a pale brown background (fol. 15r).
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