Vaticanus graecus 1882 – V

Previous descriptions: Canart (1970, 472–88).

Reproductions: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana

Family: φ

Siglum: V

Shelfmark: Vaticanus graecus 1882

Date:    the volume is a late miscellany of various materials compiled in the 17th century. The codicological unit VIII, as identified by Canart (1970, 479), occupies the current ff. 105–111, dates from the 13th century, and contains only Moeris’ lexicon.

Format: 270×190 mm, ff. 207; Moeris’ section (VIII): paper (no watermarks), 270×190 mm, ff. 7

Material: codicological unit VIII is in a fairly good condition, except for the central part of f. 105, where a damp stain makes the text difficult to read.

Binding: not original.

Watermarks: none (codicological unit VIII).

Scribes: a single scribe wrote the entire section containing the text of Moeris. According to Hansen (1998, 17), this writing resembles that of AthanasiusAthanasius (RGK II 10), but I have to admit that no relevant letter of his writing seems to me to be close to the one in the manuscript.    

Annotations: at the top of f. 111v a later hand (14th century) wrote ὁμοίως γάρ ἐστι χ[αλε]πὸν ἔν τε δυσκολίαις πραγμάτων ἀτ[α]πείνωτον τὴν ψυχὴν διασώσασθαι, καὶ ἐν ταῖς περιφανείαις μὴ ἐπαρθῆναι πρὸς ὕβριν (= Basil. Homilia in illud: Destruam horrea mea 1 Courtonne).

As mentioned above, this volume was assembled in the 17th century from several codicological units of different ages and content. Examining the manuscript as a whole is not useful for our purposes. Canart (1970, 472–88) identified twenty-four different codicological units in this volume, the oldest dating from the 10th century and the most recent from the 16th. The lexicon of Moeris is in codicological unit VIII:

VIII (ff. 105–111)

1 (ff. 105r–109v) Moeris, Lexicon. No title. Edited in Hansen (1998).

ff. 110–111: blank.

The history of the manuscript, or rather of the reduced codicological unit containing Moeris’ text, is rather difficult to trace, as might be expected given the material aspects of this witness. Thanks to palaeographic analysis, this codicological unit can be dated to the 13th century, probably in the second half, although the absence of watermarks does not allow for greater precision. In any case, manuscript V is the oldest witness to the lexicon of Moeris, with the exception of Par.Coisl. 345Par. Coisl. 345 (C), and is therefore of great significance within the φ family. It is also the oldest witness to the Vatican recension, which is named after it. Its importance is all the greater because it belongs to a scholarly milieu that, for chronological reasons alone, differs from that of the manuscripts Vat. gr. 12Vat. gr. 12 (E) and, above all, Laur. 91 sup. 10Laur. plut. 91 sup. 10 (F) and Darmstadt 2773Darm. 2773 (D).