MS Kk.5.27

MS Kk.5.27 The Polonsky Foundation Suzanne Paul University Library

Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. University of Cambridge Cambridge University Library Medieval Manuscripts MS Kk.5.27 Diktyon 12210

This manuscript contains the Commentary on the First Alcibiades, a dialogue traditionally attributed to Plato (but whose authorship is disputed), by Olympiodorus, teacher of philosophy in Alexandria in the 6th century CE. Olympiodorus' lectures, as transmitted by this commentary, were aimed to give an introduction to Plato. The codex, which was thought to be a late testimony of the text from the 17th century by its last editor (Westerink 1956, p. vii), can be traced back to the 16th century, after 1535. The watermark of the manuscript's paper is comparable with examples dated in the first half of the 16th century, and comes from a paper mill active in Troyes since 1503. The text derives from Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, gr. 1822 , which was copied in 1535 in Venice by Angelos Bergikios, royal scriptor to the King of France in Fontainebleau (Westerink 1956, p. vii). An anononymous annotator, in a marginal note on f. 120v, seems to refer exactly to this exemplar. Therefore, the manuscript possibly originated in the French environment of Fontainebleau as well. Dr Erika Elia

Greek ff. 1r-147v Olympiodorus, the Younger, of Alexandria, active 6th century Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato In Platonis Alcibiadem I commentarius f. 1r Σχόλια εἰς τὸν Πλάτωνος Ἀλκιβιάδην ἀπὸ φωνῆς Ὀλυμπιοδώρου τοῦ μεγάλου φιλοσόφου f. 1r Ὁ μὲν Ἀριστοτέλης ἀρχόμενος τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεολογίας φησί f. 147v καὶ μετὰ τῶν παιδικῶν αὐτοῦ κρατήσει f. 147v Finis f. 96v Part II f. 112r Part III TLG 4019.004 ff. [i] recto-[i] verso, [iii] recto-[iii] verso Western paper, folded in folio, no watermarks are visible. ff. 1r-147v Western paper, folded in quarto. Watermark: Lily surmounted by a quatrefoil, under the watermark name J NIVELLE ( ca. 35 35 (only the visible part)) in the gutter, the watermark, due to tight sewing, is never completely visible, but it appears comparable to Briquet Fleur de lis 7083 , which is dated to 1546; the Nivelle family is known to have managed a paper mill in Troyes since 1503. f. [ii] Western paper, folded in folio. Watermark Letter B surmounted by a quatrefoil ( 33 20 ) in the centre of the leaf, comparable to Piccard Buchstabe B 26914-26915, which are dated to 1562. Codex i + 147+ 1 + i 290 210 The leaves are foliated 1-147 in the top right hand corner recto, in brown ink, in Arabic numerals: [i] + 1-147 + [ii] + [iii].

At the beginning of the manuscript, after a later endleaf, there are 5 quaternions and a binion with a missing folio (without loss of text). The quires have been sewn very tightly; where the signatures are missing, it is therefore not possible to determine the structure with confidence.

f. [i] Quires 1-58 ff. 1-40( α-ε) Quire 6 4-1 ff. 41-43( ζ) ff. 44-147 [ii]-[iii]( η)

Quire signatures in Greek by the hand of the scribe, on the first folio recto of each quire, lower right, original to the production of the manuscript: from α (f. 1r) to η (f. 44r); the signatures follow the sequence of the Greek alphabet (the numeral ϛ is not present). Horizontal catchwords by the scribe (hand A) on the verso of each leaf, under the text, near the gutter. The codex is in fair condition. The leaves are yellowed near the edges, where water stains are also visible (e.g. ff. 97r-147v). Some traces of mould deposits are visible. There are tears on some leaves' borders (e.g. ff. 88, 146-147). ff. 1r-147v A single column of 23 lines. 205 110

ff. 1r-147v Hand A: the text has been written by an anonymous scribe, whose script can be dated in the first half of the 16th century. It is a minuscule, fairly regular in size, slightly slanting to the right, characterized by a shading effect due to the presence of thicker and slender lines. A certain rigidity, the forms of some letters, in particular of beta (see f. 91v l. 18), epsilon, tau, eta, appear tο be influenced by the Latin script, therefore it could be the Greek script of a western European hand, considering also that the scribe ends his work with a Latin word, finis (f. 147v).

The text is written in brown ink.

Hand a: in the margins there are passim corrections and additions by a contemporary hand, a minuscule script with "baroque" features, showing numerous ligatures, comparable to the scripts of Greek scribes working in Fontainebleau in the 16th century, such as Konstantinos Palaiokappas and Iakobos Diassorinos.

Hand A wrote a few notes in the margins, e.g. f. 64r.

Hand a wrote in the margins corrections, additions and variants to the text, e.g. ff. 36v, 54v.

In the margin of f. 120v, under an addition to the text by hand a, there is a Latin annotation Haec inclusa superflua sunt, licet in exemplari sint Regio. The Regius exemplar is probably to be identified as MS Par. gr. 1822, from which MS Kk.5.27 derives (Westerink 1956, p. vii) and which was part of the French Royal Library in Fontainebleau.

There is another Latin annotation, by another hand, on f. [ii] verso.

On some leaves there are black marks, rather faded, pointing at the text: one seems to be an annotation. See ff. 16r, 66v, 102v.

On the left pastedown and on the upper margin, right, of f. 1r is written the manuscript's shelfmark.

Modern western binding. Paper over couched-laminate boards. Leather spine tooled in gold with title Olimpiod: In Alcibiadem and shelfmark Kk.5.27.

299 226 34

The text was copied in the 16th century, as script and watermarks indicate, certainly after 1535, when Angelos Bergikios signed the exemplar of the manuscript (Westerink (1956), p. vii), MS Par. gr. 1822.

The manuscript was owned by John Moore (b. 1646, d. 1714), bishop of Ely Moore, John, 1646-1714 : number 972 in the list of Moore's manuscripts published in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697). The manuscript was presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I George I, King of Great Britain, 1660-1727 . On the left pastedown is pasted the engraved bookplate made by John Pine for the Royal Library (1737). Description (2019) draws partly on A catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, vol. 3: Gg-Kk, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1858, pp. 696-697.

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A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge Cambridge 3: Gg-Kk Cambridge University Press 1858 Olympiodorus, Commentary on the first Alcibiades of Plato Leendert Gerrit Westerink Amsterdam North-Holland 1956 The Greek Manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne Baluze Jackson, Donald F. Codices Manuscripti 56/57 29-42 2006 Library of Congress Subject Headings Philosophy, Ancient Erika Elia