Western Medieval Manuscripts : Liber geeponicus

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript was formerly part of a miscellaneous composite volume (MS Dd.3.86) formed of eleven parts, containing texts in English, Latin and Greek (it is described as such in the Cambridge University Library manuscripts catalogue of 1856, as section 9 of the manuscript). It is now bound separately as MS Dd.3.86.9. It contains the <i><i>Liber geeponicus</i></i>, a work attributed traditionally to the 1st c. CE mathematician Heron, and comprising a collection of extracts from his works, such as <i>Geometrica</i> and <i>Stereometrica</i>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dd.3.86.9 was written in the 17th century by a western scribe. In the margins of the manuscript are notes in Latin by the scribe, referring to its exemplar; it was erroneously identified in the catalogue (<i>A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge</i>, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1856), vol. 1, pp. 197-199) as Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, gr. 2438. H. Beckh instead identifies the exemplar of Dd.3.86.9 as <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_5604'> London, British Library, Harley MS 5604</a> (15th-16th century) (see H. Beckh, <i>De Geoponicorum codicibus manuscriptis</i> (Erlangae, 1886), p. 41). Indeed, in the Harley manuscript (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_5604_f020v'>f. 20v</a>), the <i>Geoponica</i> starts immediately after the <i>Liber geeponicus</i>, exactly with the same title and the same passage (prooimion is omitted) as in the Cambridge manuscript (f. [28a]r). Moreover, in Dd.3.86.9 the scribe copied marginal annotations which can be found in Harley MS 5604.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr. Erika Elia</p>