Western Medieval Manuscripts : Greek literary epistles

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript represents a collection of examples of <i>Greek literary epistles</i> of Flavius Philostratus, Theophylactus Simocatta, Ps.-Aeschines and the fragment of the <i>Choice of Heracles</i> of the pre-Socratic philosopher Prodicus of Ceos, preserved by Xenophon. The collection of these texts is followed by a treatise on the 'Epistolary styles', attributed to the rhetorician Libanius (4th century AD) or to the neoplatonic philosopher Proclus (5th century AD). The text of Philostratus is cited in the editions as c.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The codex is written by Georgios Hermonymos (b. c. 1430, d. c. 1511), who in addition to being a copyist, was a diplomat (he was sent in England by Pope Sixtus IV) and the first lecturer in Greek at the Collège de Sorbonne in Paris.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Hermonymos also copied: <ul><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-KK-00005-00035/1'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.35</a></li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LL-00002-00013/1'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Ll.2.13</a></li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-NN-00004-00002/1'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Nn.4.2</a></li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/cy667kp1859'>Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 224</a></li></ul></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Kk.6.23 is divided into two original series of signatures by Georgios Hermonymos, so that two internal classmarks were added on the left pastedown (MS Kk.6.23.1) and on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(101);return false;'>f. 1r</a> (Kk.6.23.2). Nevertheless, the content of the two parts is coherent, and the two groups of quires seem to have been produced contemporaneously, and were in all likelihood bound together from the outset or at least a very early stage.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Before coming to Cambridge University Library as part of the library of John Moore, the manuscript was part of the library of J.B. Hautin.</p>