Western Medieval Manuscripts : Aristophanes

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript contains three plays of <i>Aristophanes</i> (ca. 446-385 BCE), the Athenian writer of Old Comedy. The three comedies, <i>Plutus</i> (known also as <i>Wealth</i>), <i>Clouds</i> and <i>Frogs</i>, are known as the 'Byzantine triad' and are often transmitted together in Byzantine manuscripts. They are accompanied here by scholia by the Byzantine grammarians Thomas Magistros and Demetrius Triclinius (13th-14th century).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript is composed of three parts, the first two of which are often referred to as a single part in the scholarly tradition: <ul><li>Part Ia: Nn.3.15.1, ff. 2r-30v (15th century);</li><li>Part Ib: Nn.3.15.1, ff. 50r-114v (14th century);</li><li>Part II Nn.3.15.2, ff. 1r-152v (15th century).</li></ul></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The division of the manuscript into two parts rather than three in the bibliography is due to the two internal classmarks mentioned above ('Nn.3.15.1' on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>f. 2r</a> in Part Ia, and on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(192);return false;'>f. 114v</a> in Part Ib; 'Nn.3.15.2' on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(193);return false;'>f. 1r</a> of Part II) and to the foliation that starts again after f. 114v of Nn.3.15.1.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Part Ib belonged initially to a larger volume, the other parts of which are now represented by: CUL MS Nn.3.14 (ff. 1r-121v) and CUL MS Nn.3.17.1 (ff. 1r-88v).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Greek text is cited in editions of Aristophanes as Ct1 for Parts Ia and Ib (Nn.3.15.1), and as Ct2 for Part II (Nn.3.15.2).</p>