Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts : Exegesis in Homeri Iliadem by Ioannes Tzetzes

Medieval and Early Modern Greek Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This manuscript, produced in the late 14th or early 15th century, contains the most complete copy of the <i>Exegesis in Homeri Iliadem by Ioannes Tzetzes</i>, the 12th-century Byzantine scholar and poet, who composed several commentaries and scholia on Homer (<i>Allegories to the Iliad and Odyssey, Exegesis, Antehomerica, Homerica</i>, and <i>Posthomerica</i>), Hesiod, tragedians, Aristophanes, Lycophron, and others.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Exegesis, composed in approximately 1140, consists of a lengthy Introduction and a running commentary, structured by lemmata, on the entire first book of the Iliad. The Introduction is accompanied by scholia also by Tzetzes. The manuscript has the peculiarity of containing the complete transcript of the Homeric text of the first book of the Iliad, in groups of ten lines surrounded by the Tzetzes' explanation. The lines 503-526 and the corresponding part of the explanation is missing due to the loss of a folio.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Aulus Janus Parrhasius (1470-1522) read the manuscript and left a number of annotations throughout; Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494) copied excerpts from this manuscript in <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0001/bsb00011554/images/'> Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 807</a>, ff. 45r-53r (see Daneloni 2009, p. 98-100).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Matteo Di Franco</p>