Harvard Ms Gr. 17

Intern

Wasserzeichen

• Part I: „crossbow“ in a circle identical to Harlfinger „arbalète“ no. 33 (1487/88) with chain lines 33–34 mm. apart and 22 laid lines in 20 mm.
• Part II: „hand“ with six-ray star on top. identical to Harlfingers „main“ no. 10 (1491), with chain lines 32–35 mm. apart and 18 laid lines 20 mm.
• Part III: „cup“ with a countermark, identical to Harlfinger „coupe“ no.3 (s.XVex –s. XVIin, scribe <Gregorpoulos>) and to Sosower „Coupe/Cup“ no.1(XVIin, scribe <Gregorpoulos>), with chain lines 30 mm., laid lines are poorly visible.
• Part IV: „scale“ in a circle with a cross, close variant of Briquet „balance“ NO: „2565 (Vicenza and Venice, 1483–92), with chain lines 34–37 mm. apart and laid lines in 20 mm.

Anzahl der Linien

All parts are written in 30 lines; interlinear space: Part I, 7 mm.; Part II, 5/6 mm.; Part III, 7 mm.; Part IV, 6/7 mm.

Liniierung

Faint ruling on each verso (duble justification lines only).

Kopist

The manuscript was copied by four scribes. They employed the so-called „humanistic script“, which was developed and used by émigré Greek scribes who lived and worked in Italy in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries.

Scribe I (ff. 2–36^V) is anonymous. His script is small-sized, angular, and narrow, with a pronounced inclination to the right (fig.1): He used medium grayish-brown ink. Dieter Harlfinger has identified this scribe as Demetrios Moschos. But there are significant differences between the scripts of Moschos and scribe I. For example, Moschos's majuscle beta is always open at the bottom, whereas our scribe's beta is always closed; Moschos's majuscle gamma often extends below the line and has a short horizontal bar, whereas or scribe's gamma has short vertical and elongated horizontal strokes;: Moschos's xi is always inclined to the left, whereas our scribe's xi is either vertical or inclined to the right. And, in general, Moschos's script is more spacious, less angular, and much less inclined to the right than scribe I's script. These differences persuade me that scribe I should not be indentified as Demetrios Moschos.

Scribe II (ff. 39r–46v) has been identified by Harlfinger as Thomas Bitzimanos. I agree with Harlfinger's identification. Bitzimanos's script is idiosyncratic: small-sized, angular, with a slight inclination to the right, and with many flourishes. The scribe often elongated strokes of majuscle alpha and tended to inflated a rounded top stroke of zeta and xi when connected with a preceding letter. Bitzimanos used dark charcoal ink.

Scribe III (ff. 47r–54v) has been identified by Harlfinger as Manuel Gregoropoulos. I agree with this identification. Gregoropoulos's script is small-sized, almost upright, and with enlarged majuscle epsilon and sigma. Gregoropoulos used dark brown ink for the text and light red ink for the title.

Scribe IV (ff. 55r–173r) is anonymous. His script is diminutive, rounded, with reduced upper and lower strokes, and quite idiosyncratic (fig. 2). Minuscle deltas are especially distinctive, with a small round body and right strok that is inclined at 45° to the right and ends with a small hook, which is often attached to a following letter from above. Frequently the following letter is a majuscle epsilon that leans to the left and forms a triangular „roof“ the delta. Scribe IV used light and medium brown ink for the text and pale red ink for the titles and marginal glosses. Philippe Hoffmann has dubbed scribe IV „anonymus harvardianus“ has analyzed his handwriting in great detail, and has identified his hand in twenty-five other manusripts.

Illumination

There is a single pen-ornament headpiece with simple stylized vegetal ornament, not framed, drawn in pale red ink (f. 47), as well as a few pen-ornamented initials throughout the manuscript also written in pale red ink.

Ergänzungen zum Textbestand

Some scribal glosses written in pale red ink are present in the margins of part IV. Preparing the manuscript for the printed editions, an editor made numerous short notes, marks, and page divisions in the margins in light brown ink (parts II and IV only).

Joannes Cuno, one of the early owners of the manuscript, added commentaries and glosses in the margins of part IV. He eviddently restored the manuscript and copied f. 163r–v in Padua at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Cuno left notes on f. 154r „Revisus et correctus a f. Io. Cuno Patavii 1509“; and at the end of manuscript on f. 173r: „Revisus per f. Io. Cononem Norimontanum 1507“.

On f.1v is a note by a subsequent owner of the manuscript, Beatus Rhenanus, who gave the manuscript to his friend Matthias Schurer in the beginning of the sixteenth century: „Beatus Rhenanus Matthiae Schurerio suo s.d.p.“ [s.d.p. = salutem dicit plurimam]

Einband

Modern brownish marbled paper over paste-boards

Provenienz

The manuscript was used as printer´s copy for the first (Aldine) editions of Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (1498); Theophrastus, De signis aquarum et ventorum (1497), De historia plantarum (1498), and De causis plantarum (1498); Porphyrios, Isagoge (1495); Pseudo-Galen, De historia philosophica (1497). All folios in parts II and IV are stained with charcoal-black typographic ink. After the editions were printed, the manuscript was kept by the Cretan scholar Ioannes Gregoropoulos, who worked for Manutius as a corrector. Several years later Gregoropoulos gave a manuscript to a prominent humanist, Dominican Ioannes Cuno of Nuremberg (1463–1513). Cuno partially restored and annotated the manusscript in Padua and left two notes with his name and dates 1507 (on f. 173) and 1509 (on f. 154). In 1510 Cuno left Italy for Basel, where he befriended Beatus Rhenanus (1485–1547), to whom Cunio bequeathed most of his books and manuscripts. Rhenanus became the owner of Houghton Gr. 17 after Cuno´s death in 1513, and subsequently gave the manuscripts to his friend, the printer and publisher Matthias Schurer of Strassbourg (see Rhenanus´s note on f. 1 ^V).

Reproduktionen und Digitalisate

• Ms. Gr. 17 (vollstandiges Digitalisat der Harvard University Library)

Bibliographie

Kat.

• W. H. Bond, C. U. Faye, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York 1962, 233–34.
• P. Moraux et al., Aristoteles Graecus I, Berlin-New York 1976, 110–117.
• N. Kavrus-Hoffmann, Catalogue of Greek Medieval and Renaissance manusripts in the Collections of the United States of America, Part V.1: Harvard University, The Houghton Library, Manuscripta 54, 2010, 211–222.

Weitere Sekundärliteratur

• Nigel Wilson, „The Manuscripts of Theophrastus,“ Scriptorium 16, 1962, 96–99 (99).
• Dieter Harlfinger and Diether Reinsch, „Die Aristotelica des Parisinus 1741: Zur Überlieferung von Poetik, Rhetorik, Physiognomik, De signis, De Ventorum situ“, Philologus 114, 1970, 28–50 (45–46).
• Dieter Harlfinger, review of Album de paléografique grecque, by m. Wittek, in Gymnasium 77, 1970, 429–31.
• Benedict Einarson, „The Manuscripts of Theophrastus´Historia plantarum,“ Classical Philology 71, 1976, 67–76 (74).
• Martin Sicherl, Handschriftliche Vorlagen der Editio princeps des Aristoteles: Franz Dirlmeier Zum 70. Geburtstag in Dankbarkeit u. Verehrung (Mainz and Wiesbaden, 1976), repr. in Griechische Erstausgaben des Aldus Manutius: Druckvorlagen, Stellenwert, kultureller Hintergrund (Paderborn, 1997), 31–113 (16–16, 36f. 40–47, 51–65, 70–72, Nachträge 31, Fig. 2–3).
• Nigel Wilson, „The Book Trade in Venice ca. 1400–1515“, in Venezia centro di mediazione tra oriente e occidente (secoli XV–XVI): Aspetti e problemi; Atti del II Convegno internazionale di storia della Civiltà Venezia ... (Venezia, 3–6 ottobre 1973) II, Florenz 1977, 381–97 (392f.).
• Paul Canart, „Démétrius Damilas, alias le librarius Florentinus,“ Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 14–16, 1977–79, ): 281–347 (294, 297 Anm. 4).
• Roger E. Stoddart, Marks in Books, Illustrated and Explained, Cambridge, Mass. 1985, Pl. 2.
• Philippe Hoffmann, „Un Mystérieux Collaborateur d'Alde Manuce: L'Anonymus harvardianus,“ Mélanges de l'École francaise de Rome: Moyen âge, temps modernes 97, 1985; 45–143.
• Philippe Hoffmann, „Autres données relatives à un mysterieux collaborateur d'Alde Manuce: L'Anonymus harvadianus,“ Mélanges de l'École francaise de Rome: Moyen âges, temps modernes 98, 1986, 673–708
• Annaclara Cataldi Palau, Gian Francesco d'Asola e la tipografia aldina, Genoa, 1998, 423, 431f.

Quelle

• Nach der Literatur (Kavrus-Hoffmann 2010).