Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Miscellany of Greek texts
Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts
<p style='text-align: justify;'> This manuscript is a <i> Miscellany of Greek texts</i> copied by Henri II Estienne, Henry Scrimgeour, and Patrick Young. The manuscript is probably a composite, formed of various parts which were originally independent and were copied at different times. However, since it is now not possible to ascertain the quire structure, and to distinguish, for instance, different kinds of paper, it is described here as a whole.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Trinity MS O.5.23 is described in James' catalogue as containing " H. Scrimger's Collections": this is, however, a limited description of this codex. Only a few leaves can be assigned to Scrimgeour (or Scrimger, 1505?-1572), ff. 66r-68v, where the Scottish diplomat and book collector copied an extract from Photius' <i> Bibliotheca</i> about Helladius. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Besides this, the volume contains transcriptions and notes made by another important figure in the 16th-century scholarly milieu: the French printer and classical scholar Henri II Estienne (Henricus Stephanus, 1531-1598). By his hand are written, for example, a series of transcriptions and notes on Lucian. Occasionally he indicated his exemplars: there are a codex " Abbatiae" (see <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'> f. 27v</a>), a codex " Scipionis quod fuit Argyropyli" (see <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(35);return false;'> f. 15r</a>), and a codex " D. Marci quod fuit Georgii Anto. Vespucii" (see <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(69);return false;'> f. 32r</a>: on the basis of the content, of the ownership by the convent of S Marco and by Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, this codex could be Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 57.13). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Other texts were written later, by the great-nephew of Scrimgeour, Patrick Young (or Junius, 1584-1652); among them on ff. 74v-75v he copied four inscriptions, one was on a stone originally in St James's Park, Westminster, and is now lost; another is an epitaph of his father Peter Young, who died in 1628. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Dr Erika Elia</p>
