Ambrosianus D 34 sup. – M

Previous descriptions: Martini, Bassi (1906, 254).

Reproductions: Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano

Family: a

Siglum: M

Shelfmark: Ambrosianus D 34 sup.

Date: Beginning of the 11th century

Format: parchment, 222×160 mm, I+II (paper) + 257 ff.

Material: –

Binding: not original.

Watermarks: –

Scribes: a single scribe wrote the entire manuscript.

Annotations: none relevant.

1 (ff. 1r–171v) <[Pollux], Historia physica>. Title missing. Incipit: ἀβύσ]σου ἀπείρως καὶ ἀπλέτως τῇ γῇ (p. 8.16 Hardt). Explicit: ἐπὶ τούτοις δὲ χαλεπῶς (p. 422.24 Hardt). The work is mutilated at the beginning (a single folio is missing), as well at the end. Edited in Julii Pollucis Historia Physica seu Chronicon ab origine mundi usque ad Valentis tempora editum ab Ignatio Hardt, Monachii et Lipsiae 1792.

2 (ff. 172r–219v) <Pollux, Onomasticon>. Title missing. Incipit: ἀθέμητος μισώθεος (sic) (1.21). Explicit: μυκτηρίζειν δὲ Λυσίας (2.78); M preserves only most of Book 1 (ff. 172r–205r) and the beginning of Book 2 (ff. 205r–219v). It is not possible to judge whether the beginning has been lost as a result of mutilation, but there is certainly no mutilation at the end: the copyist left the work unfinished and some blank space. It is most likely, I suppose, that the antigraphon of M had several gaps.

3 (ff. 219v–257r) <[Eustathius Antiochenus], Commentarius in hexaemeron>. Title: φυσιολογικὸν τῆς ἑξαημέρου ἀνεπόιγραφον. Incipit: κλίμης (sic) μὲν οὖν καὶ Ἀφρικανός. Explicit: βλεπόντως εἴσεισι. Edited in MPG 18.708–93. Since it ends at MPG 18.745.25, it was probably copied from a lacunose model: see Macé, Gippert (2021, 97–100).

Manuscript M, dating from the beginning of the 11th century (see Pérez Martín 2013, 844 n. 98 and Lucà 2022, 110 n. 28), is one of the earliest witnesses to the Onomasticon, although it only preserves part of the entire work and contains many orthographic errors (see Bethe 1900–1937 vol. 1, VII). Although this codex was kept in Southern Italy, in the Monastery of San SalvatoreSan Salvatore (Messina) in Messina, it is of oriental origin (see Lucà 2022, 110 n. 28); in 1606 it was bought in Taranto and transferred to the Ambrosiana Library of Milan. From this codex, two manuscripts of the Onomasticon were copied by Andreas DarmariusAndreas Darmarius. (RGK I 13 = II 21 = III 22) in the third quarter of the 16th century: Monacensis graecus 181Mon. gr. 181 (Mo) and Vaticanus Barberinianus graecus 56Vat. Barb. gr. 56 (Vb).