Pembroke College MS LC II.233.2

Pembroke College MS LC II.233.2 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. The Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge (CC BY-NC 4.0) University of Cambridge Pembroke College Library Manuscripts Pembroke College MS LC II.233.2 Diktyon 77215

This manuscript, copied in the late 16th or early 17th century, contains 61 of the Letters of Theophylact of Ohrid, Metropolitan of Bulgaria in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Originally from the Greek island of Euboia, Theophylact was appointed in 1078 to the see of Ohrid, which covered the whole of the former Bulgarian Empire conquered by Byzantium earlier in the century. His letters, addressed to a variety of other clerics, imperial officials and members of the imperial family, are a major source for the history of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule. He was also the author of a range of religious texts, including homilies, biblical commentaries and hagiography. This manuscript was copied from a 14th-century manuscript in the Vatican, which belongs to a group of copies derived from a single exemplar and containing the same set of 64 letters, ending incompletely. Three of the letters from this set are not included here, due to the loss of much of a folio from the Vatican manuscript.

Greek [1]r-[24]r Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055-c. 1126) Letters This manuscript was copied from Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. gr. 509. It was the basis of a mid-17th-century Latin translation, contained in MS LC II.233.1. The manuscript contains (according to the sequence of the edition of Paul Gautier, Théophylacte d'Achrida Lettres (Thessalonike 1986)) Letters 4-18, 22-60, 71-72, 74 and 79-81, in the order: 4-18 (1-15 here) 22-23 (16-17) 24 (unnumbered) 25-28 (18-21) 75 (22) 29-55 (23-49) 71 (50) 56 (51) 72 (52) 57 (53) 74 (54) 58-60 (55-57) 79-81 (58-60) This is the same selection and sequence found in the exemplar, which follows the consistent norm of Gautier's Group B. The end of Letter 18 (15 here), the whole of letters 19-21 and the beginning of Letter 22 (16 here) are omitted due to losses from the exemplar (Letter 18 ends at line 40; Letter 22 begins at line 11). Letter 81 (60 here) ends incomplete (at line 61), as do the exemplar and all other manuscripts of Group B. This manuscript was not among those consulted in the preparation of Gautier's edition f. [1]r Ἐπιστολαὶ τοῦ μακαριωτάτου ἐπισκόπου Βουλγαριίας κυροῦ Θεοφυλάκτου f. [1]r Δέσποινά μου ἁγία πολλοῖς μὲν ἐν τοῖς λυπηροῖς f. [24]r ἐκπεριουσίας γε προσκυνεῖ, καὶ διὰ σοῦ τὸν κράτιστον ἡμῶν βασιλέα τίδε TLG 3219.010 PG 126, coll. 307-558 ff. [i] recto-[ii] verso, 6v-[7]r and [24]v are blank. Western paper, folded in folio. Watermark: Crook ( 90 38 ), in the centre of the folio, similar but not identical to Briquet 1298. This example is dated to 1589-1604. Codex 2 + 24 334 210 The manuscript is foliated with the numbers [i-ii] + [1-3], 4-6, [7], 8, [9], 10-13, [14-24] in brown ink, in Arabic numerals, recto, lower right. Many numbers have been lost due to damage.

The manuscript consists of two quires, of which one is a binion and the other is of 22 folios.

Quire 14 ff. [i]-2 f. [ii] is the stub of a folio which has been cancelled, without loss of text Quire 222 ff. [3-24]

There are extensive losses from the edge of f. [i] and less extensive ones elsewhere, many of which have been repaired with Japanese paper. There is creasing to some folios, and some ink-blots and areas of dirt. A single column of 41-46 lines. 252-268 150 The edges of the written area are ruled in hardpoint, on the recto.

The manuscript was copied in a western European mixed minuscule script, slanting to the right, in brown ink, with little variation in letter size.

Syllabic abbreviations and superscript word endings are not in use. Breathings are round and mute iota is subscript. Use of the double dot is functional only, and there is accentuation of all nomina sacra.

Punctuation used includes the middle and upper points, lower comma, question mark and full stop.

The letters have been numbered in a continuous sequence, 1-60, with some errors and corrections (Letter 24 (ff. [7]v-8r has also been left unnumbered, an error which was not detected). There are marginal corrections by the scribe, and frequent marginal corrections and annotations in Greek and Latin by other hands, including expansions of contracted nomina sacra, on occasion incorrect (f. 12v, line 25, Χριστός for Κύριος). These notes include collations with another manuscript (e.g. ff. [1]v, [14]v, ff. [19]v-[23]v). Since the variations in question generally involve errors made in the copying of this manuscript rather than the reading in the exemplar, it is unclear which manuscript this was. A note on f. [7]v explains the incomplete beginning of Letter 22, numbered 16 here and 17 in the exemplar: Epistola 17 in codice Vaticano, sed truncata capite. Titulus in Vaticano ad filium sebastocratoris. A note by another hand on f. [24]r records the number of letters in the Meursius edition of 1617: Meursius numerat 75 epistolas.

Unbound; the two quires are stitched together.

Housed along with a photocopy from a previous housing with the label Epistulae Theophylacti Archiepiscopi Bulgariae MS. Gr. Eaedem Latine redditae. While no exact match to the watermark has been identified, the dating of similar types suggests that the manuscript was produced in the last quarter of the 16th century or first quarter of the 17th. The style of script suggests that it is more likely to date from the latter part of this period.

Library of Congress Subject Headings Greek letters Christopher Wright