Western Medieval Manuscripts : Euripides

Western Medieval Manuscripts

This mid-14th century working text manuscript transmits the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (b. c. 480, d. 406 BC), selected for study in Byzantine schools: Hecuba, Orestes and Phoenician Women.The first section (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(11);return false;'>ff. 1r-33v</a>) comprises Hecuba and Orestes ll. 1-133, and the text follows the recension (i.e. redaction) of the Byzantine grammarian Manuel Moschopoulus (13th-14th century; see Turyn (1957), p. 123-124).The second section (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(77);return false;'>ff. 34r-107v</a>) contains Orestes ll. 134-end and Phoenician Women, in the recension of Byzantine grammarian Thomas Magistros (13th-14th century), and is accompanied by scholia of the same scholar.The order of quires from ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(91);return false;'>41r</a> to <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(146);return false;'>68v</a> is inverted, and an English hand has noted the order of lines.Richard Porson, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (b. 1759, d. 1808), used this manuscript (siglum Cant) in his edition of Euripides' tragedies (see the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10232794-4'>second edition, 1802</a>).J. Diggle designated the manuscript with siglum Mm in his edition of Phoenician Women (Oxford, 1994); the manuscript is also designated as Zx for scholia by Günther (1995).The fragments that are now<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-02753-00001/1'> Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 2753.1</a> once served as endleaves to this manuscript before the present binding.Dr Matteo Di Franco