Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Greek Military Treatises

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> The manuscript contains a small collection of <i>Greek Military Treatises</i>, a genre that had a wide popularity in Byzantium; such texts were also widely copied in the Renaissance and in the 16th century. The codex contains four treatises. The first, <i>Strategicus</i>, is a tract on generalship by the Platonic philosopher Onasander (1st c. CE). After this there are two texts taken from the <i> Taktika</i> of the emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912), a large work on strategy and tactics in twenty books, which became an authority in the field in the Byzantine age. Both extracts (from Books 19 and 20) deal with naval warfare. The same topic is found also in the last text, the <i>Naumachica ad Basilium patricium</i>, a text dedicated to Basil Lekapenos (or Basil the Nothos, ca. 925-after 985), <i>patrikios</i> and <i>parakoimomenos</i> at the Byzantine court under the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript was written by one of the more prolific Greek scribes of the 16th century, Andreas Darmarios. This scribe, who was also a dealer of manuscripts, travelled frequently in Europe in order to sell and copy books, and had his headquarters in Venice, where this codex was copied and signed on 1st January 1573. Darmarios transcribed these texts various times: from the manuscript Trinity O.1.14 he copied the <i>Strategicus</i> in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Graec. 268 (see A. Dain, <i> Les manuscrits d'Onésandros</i>, Paris 1930, pp. 108-109). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Erika Elia</p>