Gonville and Caius College : Philosophical texts in Greek
Gonville and Caius College
<p style='text-align: justify;'> This manuscript contains a collection of <i> Philosophical texts in Greek</i>. It is formed of two parts, both copied by the Cretan scribe and printer Zacharias Kallierges (b. before 1473, d. after 1524); they were produced probably around the same time, since the paper shows the same watermark. The two parts, however, are distinguishable by the presence of two distinct sets of signatures numbering the quires, both starting from the number 1. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Part I contains Proclus' <i> Commentaries on Plato's Republic</i>. Zacharias Kallierges copied the text with a close collaborator (their hands alternate within the same page of text), who has been recently supposedly identified as his son Nikolaos (see Katzopoulou (2012)). Kallierges copied this same text in three other manuscripts:<ul><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b107230098'> Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, gr. 1831</a></li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10722804q/f5.item.zoom'> Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, gr. 1834</a></li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/bav_pal_gr_63/0351 Pal. gr. 63'> Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. gr. 63</a></li></ul>. Their script, decoration and layout are strikingly similar, and illustrate the scribe's working practices (see Katzopoulou (2012)). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Part II contains two texts, Syrianus' <i> Commentaries on Aristotle's Metaphysics</i>, and an extract on providence from the <i> Questions and Answers</i>, a work traditionally attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias (on this <i>quaestio</i> see Sharples (1998), p. 390).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> The manuscript was donated to Gonville and Caius College by John Caius (1510-1573), the second founder of the College. The English physician travelled in Italy from 1539 to 1544, where he consulted various manuscripts (see S. Berlier, 'John Caius et le De usu partium. Contribution à l'histoire du texte de Galien', in: <i>Revue d'Histoire des Textes</i> n.s. 6 (2011), 1-14 (pp. 5-6)) and it was there that he probably acquired at least some of the Greek manuscripts he later bequeathed to the College. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Gonville and Caius MS 495/264 was used as an exemplar for <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LL-00005-00004/1'> Cambridge, University Library, Ll.5.4</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Dr Erika Elia</p>
