Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Hesiod, Works and Days

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably copied in the later 13th or earlier 14th century, contains one of the principal works of the early Greek poet <i>Hesiod, Works and Days</i>, a long poem of moral and agricultural guidance grounded in origin myths. The text is supported by scholia by the 12th-century Byzantine scholar Ioannes Tzetzes.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Manuscripts of the Works and Days are often accompanied by illustrations. In this case there is only a single illustration included, but this, depicting a variety of agricultural tools and a wagon, portrayed in a schematic fashion from above, is a notable source for Byzantine farm equipment.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Part of the manuscript is copied on older folios reused in palimpsest. The original text of these leaves is severely faded, but a portion of the text has been identified as part of a Gospel lectionary in minuscule script. Two of the manuscript's original folios were lost and substituted by a replacement folio in the 14th century, also on a palimpsest leaf.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>