Gospel of Mark (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 224)
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 224 contains the Gospel of St Mark in Greek, copied by Georgios Hermonymus of Sparta in the late 15th century, when he was working in Paris. As Kalatzi has shown by relating the signatures, the manuscript was originally the second part of a complete Tetraevangelium that contained all Four Gospels, and which was dismembered in the early 16th century. The other three parts are:
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Canon. Gr. 33 (Matthew)
- Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Grec 99 (Luke)
- Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, MS 536 (John)
These three manuscript are recorded in Aland's list of New Testament manuscripts at no. 288, and Corpus MS 224 at no. 2532 (for a different opinion on the existence of a complete Tetraevangelium, cf. Mondrain (1998), p. 46).
Georgios Hermonymos (c. 1430-1511), in addition to being a copyist, was a diplomat: he was sent in England by Pope Sixtus IV. He was also the first lecturer in Greek at the Collège de Sorbonne in Paris. In addition to Corpus MS 224, shown here, he also copied the following manuscripts:
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.35
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.23
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Ll.2.13
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.4.2
Folios 26r-56v (containing Mk 8:17-end) have not been photographed due to the fragility of the binding.
Dr Matteo Di Franco
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Parker Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 224
- Alternative Identifier(s): Diktyon 11829
- Scribe(s): Hermonymos, Georgios, active 15th century
- Origin Place: Paris
- Date of Creation: the last quarter of 15th century and the early 16th century
- Note(s): ff. 55v-56v blank; TLG 0031.002
- Extent: Codex iii + 56 Leaf height: 243 mm, width: 151 mm.
- Collation:
The manuscript consists of 7 quaternions: quires 1-78 ff. 1r-56v
Vertical catchwords in the hand of the scribe placed along the inner bounding line, underlined, reading from top to bottom.Original quire signatures in Greek numerals in red ink, from ιγον (f. 1r) to ιθον (f. 52r), remain in the middle of the lower margin of the recto of the first leaf and the verso of the last leaf of each quire.Leaf signatures in Greek numerals in dark brown ink in the lower margin of the rectos, from f. 1r φύλλ. αον τοῦ ιγου to f. 52r φύλλ. δον τοῦ ιθου (mistakenly spelled τοῦ θι).
- Material: Western paper, folded in octavo. Watermark: chainlines are present but no watermark is detectable.
- Format: Codex
- Condition:
In generally fair condition: leaves have yellowed slightly with age; there are occasional stains and small worm holes.
- Binding:
Bound with couched-laminate boards. The binding re-uses panels by Julien des Jardins, active in Paris ca. 1510. Stamped on both boards: on the front cover SS. Sebastian and Barbara with the inscription: Tout se passe fors aymer Dieu. Julien des Jardins; on the back cover St. Yves, holding a open book and a scroll and dressed as a canon with a cloack of ermine, stands between two trees underneath a cusped arch. Belowe him, his name is stamped. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Gr. 33 presents an identical binding.
Fore-edges are gilded and gauffered
Binding height: 250 mm, width: 160 mm, depth: 20 mm.
- Script:
Georgios Hermonymos: the text is written by the 15th-century Greek scholar and scribe (RGK I 61) in a minuscule script in pale brown ink.
Slanting slightly to the right, Hermonymos' hand shows cursive-like ductus without variation in letter size. Ligatures and abbreviations are rare. His script is characterized by the minuscules gamma, eta, xi, rho. Sigma telikon is in Z-shape and is found sometimes in the middle of the word.
Breathings are curved; accents do not join to letters or breathings.
The running headlines, the marginal summaries (numbered from α' to μη'), the quire signature are written in red ink.
For further details on Georgios Hermonymos' script, see Kalatzi (2009), p. 111-132.
- Foliation:
iii + 56. Modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in the top right-hand corner, recto.
- Layout: Written space: Written height: 140 mm, width: 80-85 mm.
- Decoration: Simple initials of the paragraphs are outlined in red ink.
- Provenance: An ex libris remains on the inside left cover: Danielis Rogerii; the manuscript might have belonged to the Anglo-Flemish diplomat and politician Daniel Rogers (b. 1538?, d. 1591) or, more likely, to the Puritan clergyman Daniel Rogers (1573-1652).
- Origin:
The codex was copied by Georgios Hermonymos during his stay in Paris for Guillaume Budé (see Kalatzi (2009), p. 77) between the the last quarter of 15th century and the early 16th century.
- Acquisition: The manuscript is not included in Thomas James' catalogue of 1600, nor in the manuscript catalogue CCCC MS 490, which lists additions to the Parker collection up to 1613, with further entries bringing the acquisitions up to second half of 17th century. It appears in William Stanley's catalogue of 1722, p. 110: the classmark Lib. ab Al. 18 remains of f. i recto. Presumably Corpus Christi received this manuscript in the second half of the 17th century.
- Funding: The Polonsky Foundation (cataloguing). Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (digital images).
- Data Source(s): Description (2019) draws on M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1912), p. 525; M.P. Kalatzi, Hermonymos: a study in scribal, literary and teaching activities in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, 2009), pp. 185-186, and a record published on Parker Library On the Web.
- Author(s) of the Record: Matteo Di Franco
- Bibliography:James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1912).Goldschmidt, Ernst Philip, Gothic and Renaissance bookbindings (Nieuwkoop, Amsterdam: B. de Graaf, N. Israel, 1967).Dickins, Bruce, "The Making of the Parker Library (Sandars Lecture for 1968-9, 25 April 1969)", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 6 1 19-34 (1972).Gamillscheg, Ernst and Dieter Harlfinger, Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten, 800-1600, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik 3 (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981) I. Grossbritannien.Page, Raymond I., "The Parker Register And Matthew Parker's Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 8 1 1-17 (1981).Kalatzi, Maria P., "Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) 224: the missing link", Scriptorium 49 262-263 (1995).Kalatzi, Maria P., Georgios Hermonymos, a 15th-century scribe scholar: an examination of his life, activities and manuscripts (PhD thesis London: 1998).Mondrain, Brigitte, "Les signatures des cahiers dans les manuscrit grecs", in Philippe Hofmann (ed.), Recherches de codicologie comparée : la composition du codex au Moyen Âge, en Orient et en Occident (Paris: Presses de l'École normale supérieure, 1998) 21-48.Kalatzi, Maria P., Hermonymos: a study in scribal, literary and teaching activities in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Studies in palaeography (Athens: Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, 2009).Maillard, Jean-François and Jean-Marie Flamand, La France des humanistes. Hellénistes II (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).
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- Physical Location: Parker Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 224
- Alternative Identifier(s): Diktyon 11829
- Scribe(s): Hermonymos, Georgios, active 15th century
- Origin Place: Paris
- Date of Creation: the last quarter of 15th century and the early 16th century
- Note(s): ff. 55v-56v blank; TLG 0031.002
- Extent: Codex iii + 56 Leaf height: 243 mm, width: 151 mm.
- Collation:
The manuscript consists of 7 quaternions: quires 1-78 ff. 1r-56v
Vertical catchwords in the hand of the scribe placed along the inner bounding line, underlined, reading from top to bottom.Original quire signatures in Greek numerals in red ink, from ιγον (f. 1r) to ιθον (f. 52r), remain in the middle of the lower margin of the recto of the first leaf and the verso of the last leaf of each quire.Leaf signatures in Greek numerals in dark brown ink in the lower margin of the rectos, from f. 1r φύλλ. αον τοῦ ιγου to f. 52r φύλλ. δον τοῦ ιθου (mistakenly spelled τοῦ θι).
- Material: Western paper, folded in octavo. Watermark: chainlines are present but no watermark is detectable.
- Format: Codex
- Condition:
In generally fair condition: leaves have yellowed slightly with age; there are occasional stains and small worm holes.
- Binding:
Bound with couched-laminate boards. The binding re-uses panels by Julien des Jardins, active in Paris ca. 1510. Stamped on both boards: on the front cover SS. Sebastian and Barbara with the inscription: Tout se passe fors aymer Dieu. Julien des Jardins; on the back cover St. Yves, holding a open book and a scroll and dressed as a canon with a cloack of ermine, stands between two trees underneath a cusped arch. Belowe him, his name is stamped. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Gr. 33 presents an identical binding.
Fore-edges are gilded and gauffered
Binding height: 250 mm, width: 160 mm, depth: 20 mm.
- Script:
Georgios Hermonymos: the text is written by the 15th-century Greek scholar and scribe (RGK I 61) in a minuscule script in pale brown ink.
Slanting slightly to the right, Hermonymos' hand shows cursive-like ductus without variation in letter size. Ligatures and abbreviations are rare. His script is characterized by the minuscules gamma, eta, xi, rho. Sigma telikon is in Z-shape and is found sometimes in the middle of the word.
Breathings are curved; accents do not join to letters or breathings.
The running headlines, the marginal summaries (numbered from α' to μη'), the quire signature are written in red ink.
For further details on Georgios Hermonymos' script, see Kalatzi (2009), p. 111-132.
- Foliation:
iii + 56. Modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in the top right-hand corner, recto.
- Layout: Written space: Written height: 140 mm, width: 80-85 mm.
- Decoration: Simple initials of the paragraphs are outlined in red ink.
- Provenance: An ex libris remains on the inside left cover: Danielis Rogerii; the manuscript might have belonged to the Anglo-Flemish diplomat and politician Daniel Rogers (b. 1538?, d. 1591) or, more likely, to the Puritan clergyman Daniel Rogers (1573-1652).
- Origin:
The codex was copied by Georgios Hermonymos during his stay in Paris for Guillaume Budé (see Kalatzi (2009), p. 77) between the the last quarter of 15th century and the early 16th century.
- Acquisition: The manuscript is not included in Thomas James' catalogue of 1600, nor in the manuscript catalogue CCCC MS 490, which lists additions to the Parker collection up to 1613, with further entries bringing the acquisitions up to second half of 17th century. It appears in William Stanley's catalogue of 1722, p. 110: the classmark Lib. ab Al. 18 remains of f. i recto. Presumably Corpus Christi received this manuscript in the second half of the 17th century.
- Funding: The Polonsky Foundation (cataloguing). Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (digital images).
- Data Source(s): Description (2019) draws on M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1912), p. 525; M.P. Kalatzi, Hermonymos: a study in scribal, literary and teaching activities in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, 2009), pp. 185-186, and a record published on Parker Library On the Web.
- Author(s) of the Record: Matteo Di Franco
- Bibliography:James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1912).Goldschmidt, Ernst Philip, Gothic and Renaissance bookbindings (Nieuwkoop, Amsterdam: B. de Graaf, N. Israel, 1967).Dickins, Bruce, "The Making of the Parker Library (Sandars Lecture for 1968-9, 25 April 1969)", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 6 1 19-34 (1972).Gamillscheg, Ernst and Dieter Harlfinger, Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten, 800-1600, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik 3 (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981) I. Grossbritannien.Page, Raymond I., "The Parker Register And Matthew Parker's Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 8 1 1-17 (1981).Kalatzi, Maria P., "Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) 224: the missing link", Scriptorium 49 262-263 (1995).Kalatzi, Maria P., Georgios Hermonymos, a 15th-century scribe scholar: an examination of his life, activities and manuscripts (PhD thesis London: 1998).Mondrain, Brigitte, "Les signatures des cahiers dans les manuscrit grecs", in Philippe Hofmann (ed.), Recherches de codicologie comparée : la composition du codex au Moyen Âge, en Orient et en Occident (Paris: Presses de l'École normale supérieure, 1998) 21-48.Kalatzi, Maria P., Hermonymos: a study in scribal, literary and teaching activities in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Studies in palaeography (Athens: Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, 2009).Maillard, Jean-François and Jean-Marie Flamand, La France des humanistes. Hellénistes II (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).
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