Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Speeches by the Roman emperor Julian

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

The manuscript contains a collection of <i> Speeches by the Roman emperor Julian</i> (331-363) and consists of two parts. The first and larger part (Part I, ff. I-II, pp. 1-[146b]) was copied by the French scholar, editor and printer Henri II Estienne in Padua in June 1552, from MS Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss. gr. F° 77 (see J. Bidez,<i> La tradition manuscrite et les éditions des discours de l'empereur Julien</i>, Paris 1929, pp. 14-19, ms. J; the Cambridge manuscript includes the first six works contained in the manuscript in Leiden, as well as an index, which was added to Leid. Voss. gr. F° 77 by another hand, see Bidez 1929, pp. 15-16). Part II contains another work of Julian, the <i> Misopogon</i> (literally "Beard-hater"), a satirical work written against the people of Antioch, who did not understand Julian's paganism (the beard of the title being a reference to the "philosophical" beard of the emperor). The text was copied by the Greek scribe Iakobos Diassorinos from MS Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, G 69 sup. (see Bidez 1929, pp. 90-91). This part of the Cambridge manuscript was owned by Estienne as well, who annotated copiously the text in the margins, appearing to have collated the text of the <i> Misopogon</i> with Leid. Voss. gr. F° 77 (see Bidez 1929, pp. 16, 91). The two parts were therefore probably united by Henri II Estienne after 1552. The manuscript was used by Denis Pétau in his edition of Julian's works of 1614 (see Bidez 1929, pp. 17-19; H.-G. Nesselrath, <i> Iuliani Augusti Opera</i>, Berlin-Boston 2015, p. XX); the editor defined the MS " Codex Henrici Stephani qui in Londinensi bibliotheca servatur" (see Bidez 1929, p. 17). Information on the text of this manuscript was given to him by the Royal librarian Patrick Young (1584-1652) in 1618 (see Nesselrath 2015, p. XX; Bidez 1929, pp.17-19). <p style='text-align: justify;'> Dr Erika Elia</p>