Western Medieval Manuscripts : Erotemata

Moschopoulos, Manuel, approximately 1265?-

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably produced in 1425, contains the <i>Erotemata of Manuel Moschopoulos</i>, the grammatical textbook written by the grammarian, classical scholar and teacher, who worked in Constantinople in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The genre of Erotemata (Questions), comprises grammars structured as a dialogue of questions and answers. Moschopoulos's work was the most influential text of its kind produced in Byzantium, dealing with its subject matter more concisely and accessibly than earlier, more exhaustive works. It provided the model for all the major Greek grammars of the Renaissance, and although these successors improved upon it, it long remained in widespread use among both native speakers and western European students of Greek.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The scribe's colophon dates the manuscript's completion to July, but gives the year only as the third year of the indiction, the fifteen-year cycle which was a standard feature of medieval chronology, derived ultimately from the cycle of periodic reassessment of agrarian tax obligations in Roman Egypt. The paper bears watermarks with close equivalents dated to between 1419 and 1436, suggesting a date of 1425, the only third year of the indiction close to both dates, though 1410 or 1440, the other two such years in the first half of the fifteenth century, cannot be ruled out.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>