Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Gregory of Nazianzus

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

This manuscript, probably copied in the 13th century, contains a series of orations on a variety of religious subjects by Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330-390), one of the most important patristic theologians, whose contributions to the theology of the Trinity were particularly influential. A selection of Gregory's orations were read in churches on particular feast days, and those presented here and the order in which they appear accord with this liturgical arrangement.The dating of the manuscript is ambiguous, since in most respects its script would seem consistent with a 12th-century origin, but it features mute iota in its fully-developed subscript form, not generally found before the 13th century, alongside the original, unmodified adscript form, an incongruous combination. This suggests the possibility that the style of script could be a deliberately archaising product of a later date.Another unusual peculiarity of the manuscript is the placement at the end of many texts of a brief version of the work's title. The purpose of this feature is unclear.At some point, probably in the late 15th or 16th century, a later hand wrote the heading and the opening of the first work in the manuscript on the 15th-century endleaf facing the first folio, duplicating the content found opposite. This was presumably a response to the reduced legibility of the opening page due to fading and abrasion over time. This was an unusual response to a problem more often countered by overwriting damaged text with fresh ink, an expedient used elsewhere in this manuscript.In 1857, slips of parchment from two bifolia of a 9th-century Gospel book were discovered in the structure of this manuscript, having been reused here as binding material at some point. The slips were reassembled under glass and are now stored separately as MS B.8.5A.Dr Christopher Wright