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Detailed record for Harley 5664
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| Author |
Solon, Homer, Pythagoras, Aristophanes |
| Title |
Miscellany, including 'Dicta Catonis' translated by Maximos Planoudes (ff. 1-8v, 11-24), Solon's verses (ff. 9-11), 'Batrachomyomachia' (ff. 25-38v), Pythagoras's 'Carmina aurea' (ff. 67-70), and Aristophanes's 'Plutus' (ff. 71-128v), 'Nubes' (ff. 129-184) and 'Ranae' (ff. 185-238) |
| Origin |
Italy, N. E. |
| Date |
Last quarter of the 15th or 1st quarter of the 16th century |
| Language |
Greek |
| Script |
Greek minuscule |
| Scribe |
Andreas Donos (ff. 1-24, 39-107v, 110-111v, 114-238) |
| Decoration |
Headpieces and initials with foliate decoration in red or brown (ff. 1, 11, 40). Text in display capitals in brown (ff. 25, 71). Headpiece with geometric decoration in brown (f. 71). Titles and decorated initials in red, brown or purple. Glosses in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
225 x 155 (135 x 80) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 238 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end, and one modern leaf inserted after f. 107). |
| Collation |
The manuscript leaves and gatherings are now mounted on guards. |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1983. |
| Provenance |
Written by Andreas Donos of Crete, cleric, Ephoros and Epitropos (see Gamillscheg and Harlfinger 1981).
The Jesuit College in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne, France), maintained by the Jesuits from 1591 to 1762: inscribed, 17th century 'Est Coll. Agen. Soc. Jesu. Catal. Inscr.' (f. 1; see Wright 1972).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
The manuscript also includes:
'Galeomyomachia' (ff. 40-56);
Pseudo-Phocylide, 'Sententiae' (ff. 57-66);
a life of Aristophanes (f. 71).
Each of Aristophanes's works is preceded by a prose argument (ff. 71v-72, 129-129v, 185-185v) and accompanied by marginal and interlinear scholia.
A full table of contents in Summary Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts, I, p. 162.
Watermark of scales, similar to Gerhard Piccard, Wasserzeichen Waage, Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, Findbuch 5 (Stuttgart: Kotilhammer, 1978), nos. VI 137-157 (1499-1532: Italy, N. E., Germany, S., and Austria) and 25-27 (Udine, 1491-1492; Brescia 1495; Bassano, Brescia 1497). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5664.
Henri Omont, 'Notes sur les manuscrits grecs du British Museum', Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 45 (1884), 314-50 (p. 335).
E. Maunde Thompson, ‘Catalogue of Classical Manuscripts’, Classical Review, 2 (1888), 102-4, 171-74 (pp. 104 no. 20, 171 no. 31, 174 no. 54); 3 (1889), 149-55, 440-45 (p. 440 no. 107).
John White, 'The Manuscripts of Aristophanes', Classical Philology, 1 (1906), 1-20, 255-78 (pp. 10, 268, 269, 270).
J. F. Lockwood, 'The London Manuscripts of Aristophanes', Classical Review, 51 (1937), pp. 164-66 (pp. 164, 165).
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani. A study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 47, 460.
Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten 800-1600, ed. by Ernst Gamillscheg and Dieter Harlfinger, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik, 3.1, ed. by Herbert Hunger, 3 vols (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981-), I: Handschriften aus Bibliotheken Grossbritanniens, 3 vols, no. 230.
Summary Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1999- ), I, p. 162 [with further bibliography]. |
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f. 1
Decorated headpiece and initial |
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