Beschreibung:

GOSPELS, in Greek, with Eusebian Canon Tables and Ammonian Sections, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM.
GOSPELS, in Greek, with Eusebian Canon Tables and Ammonian Sections, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. [southern Italy, late 10th century]180 x 138mm. 222 leaves: 1 8 , 2 7 (of 8, v a cancelled blank), 3 7 (of 8, i a cancelled blank), 4 8 , 5 4 , 6-15 8 , 16 6 , 17-23 8 , 24 6 , 25-29 8 , COMPLETE, modern foliation followed here, 27 lines in two columns written in Greek minuscule in several hands in red and black ink, each column between two verticals (with two further verticals to the left and right for versal initials and canon table references) and 28 horizontals ruled in blind, with the chapter lists of each Gospel and the epistle of Eusebius to Karpianos in uncial letters, kephalaia and titloi in red, TEN CANON TABLES WITHIN ARCADED FRAMING of columns, capitals and pedestals composed of intertwined ribbons of red, blue, yellow and white, FOUR INTERLACE HEADPIECES AND LARGE DECORATED INITIALS opening the Gospels: Matthew headed by a panel composed of twisting thorny ribbons of yellow and red with three interlocked white rings, surmounted with a Cross inset with twisted straps of blue and red with knots of yellow, blue and red in outer corners and 5-line opening initial 'B' in blue and red; Mark with a knotted panel of red and white and 7-line opening initial 'A' formed in part by a marginal drawing of a stylized bird in white and red; Luke and John headed by similar, less elaborate panels, each Gospel ending with a colophon giving the traditional author, place and date of publication and number of stichoi in red, prickings for rulings survive on ff.3-15, ff.1 and 222 seem to be lifted pastedowns, once glued or nailed to the original boards, first leaf of third quire reinforced with a strip of parchment from a ?14th-century service book (some worming and occasional holes with no loss of text, , tear to lower corner of f.11, browning and cockling to opening and final leaves, occasional stains). 16th-century alla greca Ottoman binding with green silk brocaded with silver and red over wooden boards, remains of braided red and white cord ties and label on spine, (edges slightly frayed, silk worn in parts, a few wormholes). PROVENANCE: The text, style and decoration all indicate the origin of the manuscript in southern Italy in the 10 t h -century and later inscriptions and binding show that it remained there for several centuries after its creation. The text does not conform to that customary in Gospel books of Byzantine origin and displays variations typical of Caesarean text-type manuscripts; the strapwork decoration of the Canon tables is characteristic of southern Italian manuscripts such as the Gospel book in Vienna (ÖNB, Theo.graec.188); the Greek minuscule used for the Gospel text with precise, compact and rounded forms and rectangular breathings (similar to British Library Add.MS.11300) is associable with the script of the so-called codices vetustissimi and codices vetusti of the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries that was especially prevalent in early liturgical manuscripts. It is in marked contrast to the hurried, slanting styles of later centuries. The manuscript was presumably made for and continued to be used in a southern Italian monastery. It was augmented with a Synaxarium (ff.2v-15v), a compilation of hagiographies corresponding roughly to the martyrology of the Roman Church and written in a later, 11th-century hand. A 13th or 14th-century inscription on ff.1 and 2, written by 'Nikola', is in grecanico , a dialect typical of Salentine Greece, the southern Italian region of Apulia and Calabria, and used extensively in these areas until the late 15th century. It appears to concern dealings in salt (\kalati\K) and fleece (\knakon\K) on the 23rd (\kkg\K) and 29th (\kkq\K) of November (\kmhn noebbou\K on f.1 and \kmhni noembriw\K on f.2). A 14th-century Latin ex libris 'Hoc evangelium est fratris Romani' makes explicit the manuscript's ownership by a religious. There is a later inscription in Greek on f.16. H.P.