Vaticanus graecus 8 – Xg

Previous descriptions: Mercati, Franchi de’ Cavalieri (1923, 5).

Reproductions: –

Family: x

Siglum: Xg

Shelfmark: Vaticanus graecus 8

Date: Second quarter of the 15th century

Format: paper, 219×135 mm, 331 ff.

Material: the paper is in a good state of conservation.

Binding: not original, 19th century.

Watermarks: cherries, similar to Piccard Frucht II 382 (Brindlein 1433).

Scribes: it is the work of a single scribe, one DemetriusDemetrius (RGK I 106 = II 140 = III 175), active in the first half of the 15th century, especially in the second and third decades.

Annotations: no annotations.

1 (ff. 1r‒331r) Pollux, Onomasticon. Incipit: θεὸς καὶ θεὸν καὶ δαίμονες (1.5). Explicit: κόρημα· κιβωτόν· λύχνον (10.192). It covers Pollux’s text from beginning to end: Book 1 (ff. 1r‒45v), 2 (ff. 45v‒87v), 3 (ff. 87v‒115v), 4 (ff. 115v‒154r), 5 (154r‒186v), 6 (186v‒224r), 7 (224r‒262r), 8 (262r‒285r), 9 (285r‒307r), and 10 (307v‒331r).

Manuscript Xg is one of the earliest witnesses belonging to the x family, and on f.1r it also preserves the subscriptionSubscription (Pollux), albeit with some gaps. Unfortunately, little can be said about its origin and circulation, except that it was likely written in the second quarter of the 15th century. This manuscript has been recorded as belonging to the Vatican Library since the catalogue of 1481 (see Devreesse 1965, 98; Cardinali 2015, 163).