Gospel of Luke (MS Add. 10062)
The undertext of this palimpsest manuscript is a commentary on the Gospel according to Luke in the format of a frame catena. Most pages contain biblical text in the middle, with the excerpts from early Christian writers in the three outer margins. The biblical text is written in a slightly larger and upright script called biblical majuscule. The excerpts are written slightly smaller, in a script called upright pointed majuscule. There are numbers linking the biblical text to the excerpts. The numbers run from 1 to 100 and then start again at 1. There is a brief introduction (Folio 1r) and a list of chapters (Folios 1v-2v). The introduction is written in a third script known as sloping pointed majuscule. Most of the excerpts have a title indicating the source from which they come.
The lower writing of this manuscript was carefully scraped off to prepare the parchment for re-use. The sheets were cut in half at the gutter and turned through ninety degrees, so that the original text is written at right-angles to the replacement text. This means that although much ink is lost, some of the writing can be read quite easily with the naked eye in areas not covered by the later text. The pages were arranged in a different order, so that the original text is no longer in sequence.
We do not know where the older text was written, or who the scribe was. It is even hard to date it very accurately. But the evidence of the handwriting and the decoration has led us to decide that a date in the eighth century is most probable.
These images are composed from digital photographs taken at different wavelengths of light (multispectral imagery). The ink of the undertext is artificially presented in a dark blue colour (with rubrication in a lighter shade), while the overtext is shown in a cyan colour. The multispectral images were produced by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library and the University of Hamburg Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, and they have been joined in order to reconstruct the pages of the original document.
Details of the two pages of the overtext which correspond to each folio of the catena are provided on the images, with links to each page on the concordance of the overtext and undertext. In addition, the original images for each page are available on the University of Birmingham eData repository. A full list of the contents of the catena of Codex Zacynthius, with links to the images, is available here.
The transcription is presented in an uncial font which resembles that of the manuscript, but users who wish to view it in lower-case script may copy and paste the text into a standard text editor. The XML transcription files of the entire manuscript are available on the University of Birmingham eData repository.
Professor David Parker
Professor of Digital Philology
Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing
University of Birmingham
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: MS Add. 10062
- Alternative Identifier(s): 73427
- Subject(s): Bible. Greek; Christian literature, Early--Greek authors
- Date of Creation: from the 6th to the 8th centuries
- Language(s): Greek
- Format: Codex
- Script:
The biblical text is in biblical majuscule script. The catena, headings and chapter table were copied in upright pointed majuscule script, while the preface to the catena was copied in slanting pointed majuscule, in brown ink. Accents and breathings are generally absent but occasionally used. Punctuation used includes the lower, middle and upper points, lower comma and full stop.
- Foliation:
Folio numbers for the structure of the original manuscript before its transformation into a palimpsest appear on those current folios formed by the upper part of the former folios, in black ink, in Roman numerals, recto, lower right, in an orientation corresponding to that of the undertext. The numbers were added by Tregelles in the nineteenth century.
- Layout: The catena occupies the broad upper, outer and lower margins of the main text, with up to c. 32 lines. Written space Written height: c. 275 mm, width: 120 mm.
- Additions:
As part of the original production of the text, the scribe has placed the names of authors to whom excerpts in the catena are attributed, sometimes with specific citations of works, in the upper margin. Others are described as unattributed ("ἐξ ἀνεπιγράφου"). The κεφάλαια (chapters) of the Gospel text are numbered in the margins. The highly unusual alternative sequence of chapters also found in the Codex Vaticanus is marked by larger numbers further from the text, often preceded by the letter psi. The successive excerpts of the catena are numbered in the margins in sequences which proceed from 1 to 100 and then begin again from 1.
- Provenance: Owned by the nobleman Prince Antonio Comuto (1748-1833) on Zakynthos. Given by him in 1820 to General Colin Macaulay (1760-1836), and donated by Macaulay to the British and Foreign Bible Society on 6 November 1821. It was bought from the Society by Cambridge University Library in 2014.
- Origin:
The production of the original manuscript must be dated after 518, the earliest possible date for the composition of the treatise of Severus against Julian of Halicarnassus, one of the texts featured in the catena. On the basis of the style of script, it has been dated variously from the 6th to the 8th centuries, but an 8th-century date is currently considered most likely.
Its transformation into the present palimpsest can be dated to the second half of the 12th century, the period of activity of the scribe Neilos, who copied a dated manuscript in 1170 and two more in 1180. Since the latter two manuscripts were produced on Rhodes, it may well be that the upper text of this manuscript was also copied there.
- Acquisition: Purchased by the University Library in 2014.
- Funding: Acquired with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries, the Anstruther Literary Trust for Rare Books and the Friends of Cambridge University Library
- Author(s) of the Record: Christopher Wright
Section shown in images 5 to 178
- Title: Gospel of Luke
- Filiations:The closest relative to this manuscript's biblical text is Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS gr. 62.
- Note(s): Gregory-Aland Ξ/040; Von Soden A1; Defective from Chapter 11 Verse 33.; This text forms the block in the centre and inner side of each folio.; TLG 0031.003
- Excerpts:Rubric: f. IIIr Ευαγγέλιον κατα ΛουκανIncipit: f. IIIr Επειδηπερ πολλοι επεχειρησαν αναταξασθαι διηγησινExplicit: f. LXXXIXv εις κρυπτην τιθησιν αλλ επι την λυχνιαν
Section shown in images 5 to 178
- Title: Catena to Luke
- Note(s): Type C137.3; Defective at the end.; This text forms the block in the upper, lower and outer areas of the folio.; The authors named in the catena are Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Titus of Bostra, Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, Victor of Antioch, Isidore of Pelusium, Cyril of Alexandria, Apollinarius of Laodicea and Severus of Antioch.
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- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: MS Add. 10062
- Alternative Identifier(s): 73427
- Subject(s): Bible. Greek; Christian literature, Early--Greek authors
- Date of Creation: from the 6th to the 8th centuries
- Language(s): Greek
- Format: Codex
- Script:
The biblical text is in biblical majuscule script. The catena, headings and chapter table were copied in upright pointed majuscule script, while the preface to the catena was copied in slanting pointed majuscule, in brown ink. Accents and breathings are generally absent but occasionally used. Punctuation used includes the lower, middle and upper points, lower comma and full stop.
- Foliation:
Folio numbers for the structure of the original manuscript before its transformation into a palimpsest appear on those current folios formed by the upper part of the former folios, in black ink, in Roman numerals, recto, lower right, in an orientation corresponding to that of the undertext. The numbers were added by Tregelles in the nineteenth century.
- Layout: The catena occupies the broad upper, outer and lower margins of the main text, with up to c. 32 lines. Written space Written height: c. 275 mm, width: 120 mm.
- Additions:
As part of the original production of the text, the scribe has placed the names of authors to whom excerpts in the catena are attributed, sometimes with specific citations of works, in the upper margin. Others are described as unattributed ("ἐξ ἀνεπιγράφου"). The κεφάλαια (chapters) of the Gospel text are numbered in the margins. The highly unusual alternative sequence of chapters also found in the Codex Vaticanus is marked by larger numbers further from the text, often preceded by the letter psi. The successive excerpts of the catena are numbered in the margins in sequences which proceed from 1 to 100 and then begin again from 1.
- Provenance: Owned by the nobleman Prince Antonio Comuto (1748-1833) on Zakynthos. Given by him in 1820 to General Colin Macaulay (1760-1836), and donated by Macaulay to the British and Foreign Bible Society on 6 November 1821. It was bought from the Society by Cambridge University Library in 2014.
- Origin:
The production of the original manuscript must be dated after 518, the earliest possible date for the composition of the treatise of Severus against Julian of Halicarnassus, one of the texts featured in the catena. On the basis of the style of script, it has been dated variously from the 6th to the 8th centuries, but an 8th-century date is currently considered most likely.
Its transformation into the present palimpsest can be dated to the second half of the 12th century, the period of activity of the scribe Neilos, who copied a dated manuscript in 1170 and two more in 1180. Since the latter two manuscripts were produced on Rhodes, it may well be that the upper text of this manuscript was also copied there.
- Acquisition: Purchased by the University Library in 2014.
- Funding: Acquired with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries, the Anstruther Literary Trust for Rare Books and the Friends of Cambridge University Library
- Author(s) of the Record: Christopher Wright
- Title: Gospel of Luke
- Filiations:The closest relative to this manuscript's biblical text is Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS gr. 62.
- Note(s): Gregory-Aland Ξ/040; Von Soden A1; Defective from Chapter 11 Verse 33.; This text forms the block in the centre and inner side of each folio.; TLG 0031.003
- Excerpts:Rubric: f. IIIr Ευαγγέλιον κατα ΛουκανIncipit: f. IIIr Επειδηπερ πολλοι επεχειρησαν αναταξασθαι διηγησινExplicit: f. LXXXIXv εις κρυπτην τιθησιν αλλ επι την λυχνιαν
- Title: Catena to Luke
- Note(s): Type C137.3; Defective at the end.; This text forms the block in the upper, lower and outer areas of the folio.; The authors named in the catena are Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Titus of Bostra, Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, Victor of Antioch, Isidore of Pelusium, Cyril of Alexandria, Apollinarius of Laodicea and Severus of Antioch.
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