Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Eunomius

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> The manuscript contains two texts by <i>Eunomius</i> (d. 394), bishop of Cyzicus. Eunomius adhered to the Christian heresy of Arianism, which denied the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son, and was condemned by the Council of Constantinople (381 CE). His works were condemned and a few survive. In this codex are preserved his <i>Expositio fidei</i> ("Exposition of faith") and <i>Liber apologeticus</i> ("Apology"). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript was copied between the end of the 17th century (after 1697) and the beginning of the 18th century (before 1738) (see Origin) and was owned by Roger Gale. While the first work was copied probably from the printed edition of 1668 (see R.P. Vaggione, 'An appeal to antiquity: the seventeenth and eighteenth century manuscripts of the Heretic Eunomius', in R.C. Gregg (ed.), <i>Arianism: historical and theological reassessments (papers from The Ninth International Conference on Patristic Studies, Sept. 5 - 10, 1983, Oxford, England)</i>, (1985), pp. 335-360, p. 343), the <i>Apology</i> was transcribed from a manuscript, London, Lambeth Palace Library, 802, which was owned by Archbishop Thomas Tenison of Canterbury (1636-1715) ( Vaggione 1985, p. 343). The production of Trinity MS O.2.3 is to be linked with the Arian debate of the beginning of the 18th century ( Vaggione 1985, pp. 342-345), in the context of the Socinian controversy, and the codex could have been used by William Whiston (1667-1752) for his English translation of the <i>Liber Apologeticus</i> (R.P. Vaggione, <i>Eunomius. The extant works</i>, (Oxford, 1987), p. 27). He succeeded Isaac Newton as Lucasian professor of mathematics but was removed from his chair and expelled from the university for his Arianism.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Dr Erika Elia</p>