Manuscript of Eusebius’ Quaestiones ad Stephanum/Marinum now online!

Readers may remember that a few years ago I published a translation of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel Problems and Solutions (Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum).  Today I learn from a correspondent that the main manuscript, Vaticanus Palatinus Graecus 220, has been digitised and is now online at the Vatican website!  Folios 61-91 contain the work, which is itself an abbreviation of the original in 3 books, which discussed differences between the start and end of each gospel, and attempted to resolve them.

It is interesting to see that there are scholia on some leaves.  I include an image of one below.  Does anyone know what it says?

Here’s the opening of the work (f.61) (click on the images for a clearer image):

vat_pal_gr_220_f61_eusebius_ad_steph

Here is an example of the start of a “question” (f.92):

vat_pal_gr_220_f92

Here is where it breaks of, without any colophon (f.96):

vat_pal_gr_220_f96

And here on folio 90v is a scholion:

vat_pal_gr_220_f90v

I’ve zoomed in somewhat, and it would be interesting to know what it says.

Seeing this crystal-clear manuscript makes me wish we had had it available, back when David Miller was working on the translation.   As it is, we may be so grateful that this is now freely available online!

UPDATE: A correspondent in the comments has kindly translated the gloss for us – thank you!  It reads:

No! But the true mother of the Lord herself is said mother of Jacob and Jose, who are considered brothers of the Lord, being natural sons of Joseph, from his first wife, Salome. For Joseph had four sons: Jacob and Jose and Simon and Jude. And as the mother of the Lord was considered wife of Joseph, so she was considered mother of his sons.

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7 thoughts on “Manuscript of Eusebius’ Quaestiones ad Stephanum/Marinum now online!

  1. Roger,

    Wow, these are great photographs. Thank you for posting this!

    I would also like to comment on how much I (still) enjoy Tertullian.org. I have said this before, but I appreciate the wealth of information listed there (from the selection of quotes to the overview to the dates of the various manuscripts).

  2. Translation of the scholion of last picture, as best as I can:

    No! But the true mother of the Lord herself is said mother of Jacob and Jose, which are considered brothers of the Lord, being natural sons of Joseph, from his first wife, Salom. For Joseph had four sons: Jacob and Jose and Simon and Jude. And as the mother of the Lord was considered wife of Joseph, so she was considered mother of his sons.

  3. Hi Roger,

    I am offering a brief presentation to a few of my friends next weekend on the Nomina Sacra and was wondering if you could help me with a few questions I have. Is the date of this manuscript mentioned on the website? If so, I can’t find it.

    Did scribes use the Nomina Sacra when copying divine names found in Patristic writings, or did they reserve the special writing solely for copying Scripture? It appears to me, on 82v, that Kristou is contracted to XU – however, I am not positive and I am by no means a Greek scholar. In my research on the Nomina Sacra I have been unsuccessful in finding information as to whether Christian scribes always contracted these divine words wherever they saw them in a manuscript, or if they spelled the words in full while copying non-Scripture. (I am not sure how many people are interested in this aspect, but as I prepared my presentation, this thought came to me and I would like to find out more.)

    Lastly, was the scholion on 90v added by the same scribe who copied the rest of the work? It appears that Kurios is shortened to KU with a horizontal line over the upsilon. I confess that I cannot tell if that is part of a Nomen Sacrum or merely accent marks.

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