Tag: Manuscripts

The text tradition of the Greek artillery manuals

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Few of us know much about the technical treatises of antiquity.  My last post, on Hero of Alexandria, inevitably mentioned his two works of this kind.  When I went to look at the volume in which a translation exists,[1] I was drawn into the question of how these works reach us.

As long ago as 1867, Wescher addressed this question, and, since his work is online, we can inform ourselves what he thought.[2]  The following notes are taken from Marsden’s volume, however.

The collection of works in Greek consists of Biton’s Construction of War Machines and Artillery; Hero’s Belopoeica and Cheiroballistra, and Philon’s Belopoeica.

Our knowledge of this collection depends in the main on four manuscripts.  All contain Biton and Hero, but only P and V contain Philon.

  • M — Codex Parisinus inter supplementa Graeca 607.  This is a collection of several manuscripts, bound together in the 15-16th century.  At one time it was in the library of Matthias Corvinus (1457-1490), and later belonged to the library of the Abbey of Vatopedi on Mount Athos.  It was acquired by a French government agent, Minoidas Minas, who was paid to search for and acquire manuscripts in the East.  He brought it to Paris in 1843, and transcribed a few sections which he made available to scholars, but concealed the manuscript itself, which was only discovered among his papers at his death in 1863.  It was naturally claimed as government property.  The central portion of the ms — folios 16-104 — contains Biton, and then the two works of Hero, and was copied by dictation from a manuscript in uncials, and may be 9-10 or 10-11th century.
  • F — Fragmenta Vindobonensia 120.  A rather carelessly copied ms. of the 16th century, contains lengthy excerpts of Biton and Hero which derive, not from M, but from a sister manuscript of equal antiquity, and that ancestor was somewhat better written than M.
  • P — Codex Parisinus 2442 (part of the manuscript is also in Codex Barberinianus 276).  It was carefully copied in the 11th century, and contains Biton, Hero and, at the end, Philon.
  • V — Codex Vaticanus 1164.  A sister manuscript of P, copied at the same time from the same exemplar.

There is also information to be had in the following:

  • C — Fragmentum in Codice Coisliniano 101.  This contains in its front binding two pages from an 11th century ms. very like P and V, and the text is part of Biton, plus some of Athenaeus Mechanicus.
  • V1 — Codex Vaticanus 219.  This is early 15th century, from the same sources as C, P and V.  But several later mss derive from it.
  • P2 — Codex Parisinus 2435.  A late ms., which was the original of the 1693 edition of Mathematici Veteres by Thevenot.
  • E — Codex Escorialensis Υ-111-11.  E seems to be a copy of V, made not long after V was written.  Some missing leaves (from Philon) are in Codex Borbonico-Neapolitanus.

There are other and more recent manuscripts, but all of them are copies or descendants of these eight.

It seems that a single uncial manuscript of Biton and Hero survived into the 9th century, when two copies were made from it.  One of these, M, survives, and contains traces of the Ionian dialect in Biton and Athenaeus Mechanicus.   The other is lost, but was the ancestor of F.  However at some point the dialect in this family was normalised.

Some time later, someone in the Byzantine world decided to create a collection of seige and tactical works.  This collection used the second family as a source; added three works of Philon, the Belopoeica, Parasceuastica, and Poliorcetica; and also added tactical works from a third source, creating a compendium of works.  P and V are copies of this collection.

In the process of compilation, however, the compiler managed to lose some of the diagrams.  Spaces are left in the text for three diagrams in Biton, which do appear in M, and one of them in F (the portions of the text where the others would be is not preserved in F).  There are likewise spaces in the text of Philon, where illustrations should be, which the compilation did not preserve.

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  1. [1]E. W. Marsden, Greek and Roman artillery: technical treatises, Oxford, 1971.↩
  2. [2]C. Wescher, La poliorcetique des Grecs, Paris, 1887: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6bsUAAAAQAAJ, plus other copies on Archive.org etc.  It contains details of the manuscripts, and then the texts with diagrams.↩

Another 75 Greek manuscripts online at the British Library

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The Stavros Niarchos foundation continue to fund the digitisation of Greek manuscripts at the British Library, who in consequence are still shovelling them online.  Thank you both, gentlemen: this is good news.  Long may it continue!

A new tranche of 75 was released today, bringing the total to 500.  Fortunately the library staff have started to give a summary of the contents of each manuscript, which can be found at the bottom of the post.

So, what goodies are there for patristic and classically minded people in this release?

  • There’s a 16th c. copy of Photius’ Bibliotheca cod. 1-222 — i.e. nearly all of it — in Harley Ms. 5591.
  • Hero of Alexandria, Pneumatica and De automatis, Harley 5605, with diagrams. (16th c.)  These are the texts in which he describes his machines.  Here’s one of the diagrams (fol. 10v).  I was curious to see whether these were copies of ancient diagrams.  But … they look more like modern ones to me.

Useful to be able to see what the manuscript contains, tho.

I wonder if there are online English translations of these two works?  Greek scientific literature is shamefully neglected.

  • Ms. Harley 5638 is not well catalogued, being given merely as “Plutarch and Philostratus”.  Here is where the limitations of the online viewer kick in — it really would not be a simple task to leaf through the book and discover precisely what it contains.
  • Harley 5643 contains a “patristic miscellany”, much of it from Chrysostom (and there’s a thought: given that you usually can’t breathe for codices of Chrysostom in any collection of Greek mss., isn’t he shamefully under-represented in the 500 mss we have had so far?)  There’s a scholion of Eusebius in there too — on what I cannot say.
  • Harley 5646 is another of the same, mostly 216 letters by Chrysostom.
  • Harley 5677 contains the Catena of Nicetas on the Psalms!  Now that is well worth having!  And almost immediately I learn something novel and interesting on fol. 1v, which is how the names of the authors excerpted appeared in 17th century copies of  the catenas.  For it is very hard to work this out, from editions of catenae like those of Cramer.

(How I wish it was possible to link to what I want to display, at the resolution I want, and to embed the precise view that I want, rather than having to screen-grab bits like this?  Surely it should be possible to pass a few parameters to the display engine?)

The sigla are in red in the margin.  The top one is “xru” — probably Chrysostom.  The lower one is “athana” — probably Athanasius.  I wonder what the bit above the name is, in each case?  What we need now, of course, is a list of authors and folio numbers for each.  That would be quite a task, tho!

  • Harley 5689 is a bunch of Chrysostom, including homiles 4-8 of the homilies against the Jews.  This one is 11th century.
  • Harley 6296 is the “impious Porphyry”, De Abstinentia.
  • Harley 6305 is medical works by Galen and Paul of Aegina.
  • Harley 6318 is two books of Stobaeus (and why hasn’t Stobaeus ever been translated?)

It would not be right to ignore two mss. containing work by Manuel Chrysoloras, such as Harley 6505.  Chrysoloras is the father of all modern Greek studies.  He was a Byzantine diplomat who was persuaded to come and teach in Florence at the very end of the 14th century, and who proved capable of reducing the myriad complexities of Byzantine grammars down to something that could be comprehended for the first time by a non-native speaker.  Before it, fol. 1v has with an alphabet, and a few marginal signs at the bottom.  Ever wondered how we know that a sign indicates “obelise”? —

Of course I am just scratching the surface here.  Go and explore!

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The lost preface to Suetonius’ “Lives of the 12 Caesars”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Many will remember the BBC series I, Claudius, which was based on Robert Graves novel of the same name.  The series drew heavily on his translation of the Vita Caesarum of Suetonius Tranquillus.  This was composed under Hadrian in the early 2nd century and published in 120 AD.

Suetonius covered the lives of twelve Caesars, from Julius Caesar down to the murder of Domitian in 93 AD.  His gossipy, colourful work, has always been popular.

Few perhaps are aware that it has reached us only in an incomplete form.  The opening pages of the work are missing in all the handwritten copies that we now have.  It seems that only a single copy from ancient times, now lost, made it into the 9th century — not an unusual pattern for a classical text — but that this copy had lost the opening quaternion.  This means that we do not have the prologue, nor the opening for the Life of Julius Caesar.

I learn from L. D. Roberts’ excellent work on the transmission of Latin literature[1] that as late as the sixth century, John the Lydian had seen a copy which was complete, and included a prologue with a dedication to Septicius Clarus.   This interesting statement is referenced to p.ix-x of the 1858 edition of K. Roth, which is described as the standard critical edition.  I thought it would be interesting to look and see precisely what is said.

Fortunately the Roth edition is easily accessible on Google books.  Here is p.ix, where the facts are laid out in the rather less than straightforward form popular with certain editions of the period.

On p.286 is the text of the extract from John the Lydian concerning the prologue:

Τράγκυλλος τοὺς τῶν Καισάρων βίους ἐν γράμμασιν ἀποτίνων Σεπτικιῳ, ὃς ἦν ὕπαρχος τῶν πραιτωριανῶν σπειρῶν ἐκ̕ αὐτοῦ, πραίφεκτον αὐτὸν τῶν πραιτωριανων ταγμάτων καὶ φαλάγγων ἡγεμόνα τυγχάνειν ἐδήλωσεν.

 This is apparently from On the Roman magistrates, 2. 6, and may be found on p.171 of the Bonn edition.  It tells us that “Tragkullos” — i.e. Tranquillus — in the “letter” or prologue dedicated the lives of the Caesars to Septicius, who was prefect of the Praetorian cohort. (I can’t quite make sense of the titles given above).  I think it is a reasonable inference from this statement that John had seen a copy with such a preface.

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  1. [1]L. D. Reynolds (ed.), Texts and Transmissions: A Survey of the Latin Classics. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983, p.399, at the start of the article on Suetonius written by Michael Winterbottom.↩

More Greek manuscripts online at the British Library

Posted on by Roger Pearse

From the BL manuscripts blog I learn that a further 74 Greek manuscripts have been added to their online site.  The site uses proprietary technology to ensure that users can’t download images — perish the thought! — but is still better than nothing.

The blog post gives a list of manuscripts.  Previous lists just gave the shelfmark, but this time, thankfully, they have indicated the contents.

There’s quite a chunk of useful material here.  A few highlights:

  • Harley 5564 – Epiphanius of Salamis, De duodecim gemmis, 16th century.
  • Harley 5590 – Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on the Psalms, 16th century
  • Harley 5592 – Photius, Bibliotheca, 16th century
  • Harley 5593 – Works of Photius, Aristides, Philip of Side etc., 1555
  • Harley 5596 – Divinations, magic, etc., 15th century

I admit to rubbing my eyes a bit when it came to Harley 5593 — Philip of Side?  Investigation gives a bit more:

Harley MS 5593, ff 207-207v  — (3). Extracts from Philip of Side inc. (a) ἀλλ’ὁ θεὸς ἀνελθόντι τῷ βασιλεῖ εἰς τὸν ναὸν; (b) ὁ τοίνυν Βαλτάσαρ τὶ συμβησόμενα αὐτῷ δεινὰ μεμαθηκὼς.

Regular readers will remember that I commissioned a translation of all the fragments of Philip of Side, which is here. I wonder, therefore, what this is?  I’ve asked Andrew Eastbourne to take a look, and we’ll see.

In other news, I have emailed a Dutch academic to ask about people who might be willing to translate some Old Slavonic for us all.  I am, of course, thinking about the works of Methodius!

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Rochester abbey library catalogue – manuscript page online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A very useful post at the British Library manuscripts blog today gives an image of the medieval catalogue of the books owned by the Abbey of St. Andrew at Rochester.  The page is from Ms. Royal 5 B XII, and is doubtless one that was stolen by the crown when the abbeys were closed down at the Reformation.

These catalogues of medieval libraries are often very imperfectly published, and there is nothing like seeing the actual page!  The Rochester page (f.2r) in fact lists the books owned by the abbey, starting with works by Augustine; then by Gregory the Great; then by Ambrose of Milan; then Jerome / Hieronymus; then the Venerable Bede; and then miscellaneous other books, including a lectionary, a passionary, a homiliary, some saints’ Lives, decretals, and others which I can’t make out. 

But what we all want to see, of course, are the complete mss. online.

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Cheap desktop multi-spectral imaging

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Via Apocryphicity I learn that a multi-spectral imaging scanner is due to hit the market which should be affordable by everyone.  Oxford University have developed it, and gone into partnership with a Chinese company to exploit.  Tony Burke’s explanation is to the point:

Oxford University has developed a portable multi-spectral scanner that is inexpensive enough to be purchased by both institutions and individuals. I don’t know what the exact cost is, or whether it is available for purchase yet, but Dr. Obbink said it was in the price range “of a high-end laptop computer.” See HERE for their info page.

There is a picture of the unit at the OU site.

Let us hope that greed does not price this unit out of the range of normal people, for this could be the greatest innovation in manuscript studies for many years.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A CD arrived today from a kind correspondent, containing photos of the entire unpublished study and translation of the 6th century Jewish medical text by Asaph.  I confess that Jewish literature is not something I know anything about; but it seems clear that this item is not otherwise translated.  The translation is public domain, but OCR’ing it would be quite an effort.  Not sure what to do with this, if anything.  I think my correspondent may do something.

Meanwhile my commission for a translation of further parts of John the Lydian On the Roman months, has been accepted, so this should happen.  The result will be made public domain and placed online, as ever.

Another correspondent kindly pointed out that a PDF online contains an electronic text of the Greek of this work.  This professes to be from Migne; but I have my doubts.  I don’t know if De mensibus is in the TLG, but if so, I would guess that this is the text in question.

I spent a little time reading the introduction of the Wunsch 1898 edition, but not really enough to master it properly.  But it seems that only a single manuscript, from the 9th or 10th century, preserves the text.  There are lacunas later on, indeed.  The work was known to Photius, who mentions it in his Bibliotheca, so the surviving manuscript, Caseolinus Parisinus supplementi graeci 257 (=O), is contemporary with him.  This seems to have been discovered during the 19th century, for I found a publication on Google books from the 1820’s, which contained only excerpts.  Wunsch, indeed, lists a bunch of manuscripts containing extracts, as well as a group of manuscripts containing a ‘recension’ by Planudes, and another group containing a ‘recension’ found in the Vatican Barberini manuscript and its relations.  Both recensions, I would guess, are really collections of extracts.  So this is a text that only just survived in something like its complete form.

I also found that there are quite a few snippets about John and his career in Google Books, in previews.  John the Lydian seems to have been a contemporary of the historian Procopius, although nothing links the two except that both pursued a career in the imperial civil service in the same period, the early to middle 6th century.

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Notes on Libanius, his manuscripts etc

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In his panegyric oration on Antioch, Libanius tells us that he has delivered more orations and declamations “than anyone”.  The extent of his surviving work tends to bear this out.  He was very popular as a stylist during the Byzantine period, and more than 250 manuscripts of his collection of letters (or portions of it) survive.  The three best copies date from the 11th century: Vaticanus gr. 83 (V), the most complete of the three, Vaticanus gr. 85 (Va) and Leidensis Vossianus gr. 77 (Vo).

1544 letters have reached us, all composed between 355-365, and 388-393.  The gap in the middle marks the reign of Valens, whose suspicions of everyone made it too dangerous, most likely, for Libanius as a pagan and friend of Julian to preserve copies of his correspondence.  The rate of survival is one letter every three days for that period!  Nor were these casual compositions — many were written to be read out.

But much that Libanius wrote is unreadable today.  Partly this is because his rhetorical style is out of fashion, and the personal details that might allow us to use his letters as a window onto his life, or the historical details that would make the orations and declamations of historical interest, are few and allusive.  Since I bought two TTH volumes at the conference last week, I have been unable to read into them.  Indeed I have resorted to the last ploy of the desperate — leaving a copy of the selected letters in the bathroom, to read while washing my hands!

The critical edition of Libanius’ works is that by R. Foerster in the Teubner series, between 1903 and 1927, in 12 volumes.  I have been able to find some of these on Google books, and a few more on Archive.org.  I have vols.1-7, 9 and 10.  The others I could not locate, although they should be out of copyright.

There is a two volume Loeb edition of his autobiography and selected letters, by the late A. F. Norman, but this I have not seen.

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Islamic manuscripts website with many PDF articles on it

Posted on by Roger Pearse

… is here.

I found this article about Ethiopian gnomologia, derived from Arabic.

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Manuscript stolen in Spain

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The 12th codex Calixtinus, an illuminated guide for pilgrims going to the shrine of Compostela in Spain, has been stolen from the cathedral library. Reports suggest that it was a professional job.  More at eChurch blog.  It sounds as if it was stolen to order and is perhaps now in some private collection.  If so, it will reappear.

More important is the question of whether the library had photographed it or not.  If a set of colour digital photographs exist — and ought to be online — then the loss is less worrying.

Bet they haven’t tho.

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