skip to content

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Aristophanes, Plutus, Nubes and Ranae

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, produced in the second half of the 15th century, contains three of the comedies of <i>Aristophanes, Plutus, Nubes and Ranae</i> (<i>Wealth</i>, <i>Clouds</i> and <i>Frogs</i>). It was copied in the town of Rethymnon in Crete by the prolific Cretan scribe Michael Lygizos, who wrote a colophon on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(199);return false;'>f. 192v</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript begins with a brief biography of Aristophanes, and the first two plays (<i>Plutus</i> and <i>Nubes</i>) are each preceded by a prefatory hypothesis and list of the <i>dramatis personae</i>, and accompanied by interlinear glosses and marginal scholia. The <i>Ranae</i> is less fully supported, appearing with only the <i>dramatis personae</i> and interlinear glosses. The scholia derive from the tradition incorporating the work of the Byzantine scholars of the 14th century.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>An unusual amount is known about the manuscript's provenance, beginning with the identification of the scribe and place of production. Lygizos, who worked at times in various different places in Crete, was one of a considerable number of scribes in the island in the second half of the 15th century who produced Greek books for the Italian market, and is known to have collaborated on copying projects with several others.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This book itself probably soon reached Italy, given the presence of a note in a 15th-century hand identifying it as the property of one Luca (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(202);return false;'>f. 195v</a>). Luca's note mentions that the book might be claimed from him by one Aldo, and another hand of similar date has written a list of Greek books on the same page which had apparently been sold, one to a person named Leoniceno, another to a Giorgio Molino and the remainder to Aldo, for fifteen gold coins. Some conjectures may be made as to these individual's identities. A Greek manuscript copied in Venetian-ruled Crete is likely to have reached Italy via Venice, and the language of Luca's note would be consistent with Venetian dialect. The purchase of Greek books by a person named Aldo, quite possibly in Venetian territory, in the late 15th or early 16th century suggests that the person mentioned may have been Aldus Manutius (Aldo Manuzio) (1449/50-1515), the most important printer of Greek texts in the Italian Renaissance, who established his press in Venice in 1494. More tenuously, the Leoniceno mentioned here could be the Italian humanist scholar Niccolò Leoniceno (1428-1524).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>In 1513 the manuscript was in the possession of the prominent German scholar Beatus Rhenanus, then living in Basle, who added a note recording his ownership on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>f. 3r</a>. Another early owner who left a note recording his possession of the manuscript was a Dominican friar named Iohannes Cunanus (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(199);return false;'>f. 192v</a>).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>In the 18th century it came into the possession of the classicist Richard-François-Philippe Brunck, who used it in his edition of the plays of Aristophanes. As a result of the French Revolution, Brunck lost the royal pension he had received for his scholarly work and was forced to sell his books. It was subsequently bought, along with other books from Brunck's collection, by the theologian George Butler, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and later Dean of Peterborough and headmaster of Harrow. He gave the manuscript to the classicist Richard Porson, who described it as one of his own, but on Porson's death it was returned to Butler, whose son would eventually donate it to Trinity College.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>


Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find , and information about sharing this image.

No Contents List Available
No Metadata Available

Share

If you want to share this page with others you can send them a link to this individual page:
Alternatively please share this page on social media

You can also embed the viewer into your own website or blog using the code below: