Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Miscellany of Greek texts

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

The manuscript is a Miscellany of Greek texts written in England in the 17th century, containing mainly transcriptions from manuscripts held in Cambridge and Oxford, written at various times by Patrick Young (1584-1652), scholar and Royal librarian. The manuscript is formed of different parts. Although the quire structure of the codex is difficult to reconstruct, given the tight sewing, and the conditions of the manuscript, the various parts are distinguishable by the difference in texts, script, paper (watermarks and dimensions of the leaves). The first leaves of the different parts are often darker than the rest; originally they were probably preserved independently, for a time. The first part (ff. 1-27) contains the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a pseudepigraphic work, which purportedly contains the deathbed exhortations of the twelve sons of Jacob. It was copied from MS <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FF-00001-00024'>Cambridge, University Library, Ff.1.24</a>. Part II (ff. 28-78) also contains a text copied from MS CUL Ff.1.24, the so-called Libellus memorialis (or Notebook of Josephus, or Hypomnestikon), copied by an anonymous scribe and Patrick Young. By his hand was also written the text of part VI (ff. 95-111), which he signed in 1636, in Sherborne, Dorset. Eleven years later, in August and September 1647, Patrick Young copied the texts in part VII of the manuscript (ff. 112-183), Eusebius' Onomasticon and a Lexicon of the Scriptures, in Broomfield, Essex. In the third part (ff. [78a]-[78f]), formed by leaves of smaller dimension, there is a portion of book 14 of Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates Judaicae copied from a manuscript of Isaac Vossius. This same excerpt from this work is contained also in a paper bifolium, which has been folded and bound at the end of the manuscript. Part IV (ff. [78g]-[81], 82) contains the table of contents of the Libellus memorialis, copied in part II: the numbers of folios in the index refer to it. The leaves forming this part are in disorder (the correct sequence is [80], [81], [78g], [79], 82), due to the fact that the binion formed by ff. [78g]-[81] was sewn in the manuscript folded the opposite way. Dr Erika Elia