Heidelbergensis Palatinus graecus 375 – C

Previous descriptions: Stevenson (1885, 242); Bianconi (2013, 377‒8); the manuscript has also been very accurately described on the website of the Heidelberg University library by A. E. Beron and J. Sieber.

Reproductions: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

Family: d

Siglum: C

Shelfmark: Heidelbergensis Palatinus graecus 375

Date: Second half of the 10th century

Format: parchment (but ff. 225‒229 are a later paper replacement), 275×200 mm, IV+285 ff.

Material: the ink in some parts has faded.

Binding: not original, dated to the 18th century.

Watermarks: none.

Scribes: a single scribe wrote the entire manuscript.

Annotations: at f. IIIr τούτου τοῦ βιβλίου τοῦ Πολυδεύκους τὰ φύλλα εἰσι δυακόσια καὶ ἐννίκοντα ἔννεα χαρτία λέγω μεμβράνα τοῦ Δομινίκου ἤγουν Κυριακοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ῥητο; on f. 1r, in the upper margin, Manuel ChrysolorasManuel Chrysoloras (unfortunately, there is no entry in the RGK), who was for a time also the owner of the book for a time, wrote the title in Greek and Latin Πολυδεύκους Ὀνομαστικόν / Polydeuchys.

1 (ff. 1r‒53v) <Harpocration>, Lexicum in decem oratores Atticos. Title: λέξεις ῥητορικαὶ τῶν δέκα ῥητόρων. Incipit: ἄβαρις ὄνομα κύριον (α 1). Explicit: Ἀφροδίτη καὶ ἔρ[ως] ψίθυρος (ψ 3). Edited in Keaney (1991), where it is manuscript E. This witness contains an epitomized version of the work, see Keaney (1991, XXIII).

2 (ff. 53v‒224v) Pollux, Onomasticon. Title: Κομμόδῳ Καίσαρι Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης χαίρειν. Incipit: ὦ παῖ πατρὸς ἀγαθοῦ (1.1). Explicit: προτόνιον ἡμίμιτρον (10.191). It contains all ten books of Onomasticon: 1 (ff. 53v–75v), 2 (ff. 75v–96r), 3 (ff. 96v–108v), 4 (ff. 108v–125r), 5 (ff. 125v–138r), 6 (ff. 138r–153r), 7 (ff. 153r–170r), 8 (ff. 170r–186v), 9 (ff. 187r–204r), and 10 (ff. 204v–224v). The text is incomplete due to the loss of some folios; fortunately, some pages of this manuscript were used as flyleaves in the Vat. Urb. gr. 92 and can fill in some of the gaps (1.76‒85; 5.141‒67; 9.24‒87; 10.109‒16; 10.134‒42).

f. 225r‒v: blank.

3 (ff. 226r‒228v) these paper folios are a later addendum of passages omitted (because of the aforementioned loss) in the 1536 Basel edition of Pollux’s Onomasticon, see Bianconi (2013, 377).

4 (ff. 230v‒283v) Oribasius, Collectiones medicae (24‒5). No title, as it lacks the beginning of book 24. Incipit: πιπτειν ἔξωθεν σκληρόν (24.1.31). Explicit: οὕτω δὲ καὶ ὅσα (25.58.26). Edited in Raeder (1928).

f. 229r‒v: blank.

Along with Ambrosianus D 34 sup., this manuscript is the earliest witness of the Onomasticon. Even if it was dated to the 12th century by Bethe (1900–1937 vol. 1, IX), it is clearly older, as Bianconi (2013, 378‒80) has noted, and must date from the end of the 10th century, if not the beginning of the 11th.

This volume was part of the library of Manuel ChrysolorasManuel Chrysoloras    (1360‒1415) ‒ he himself wrote the title on f. 1r ‒ but how he acquired it or brought it to Italy remains unknown. On his life and his library see the recent publication by Acerbi, Bianconi, Gioffreda (2021) with further bibliography. It is also impossible to determine exactly when the folios now in Vat. Urb. gr. 92Vat. Urb. gr. 92 fell out or were intentionally torn from the original volume; this certainly happened before 1415, when Francesco Barbaro bought the Urbinas manuscript. The Heid. Pal. gr. 375 was later owned by Ulrich FuggerUlrich Fugger (1526‒1584), whose library signature is found on f. IIr ʻ357 seorʼ; after his death the manuscript was bequeathed to Friedrich IVFriedrich IV (Elector of the Palatine), Elector of the Palatine. In 1623 it was taken to Rome (on f. IIr there is also a signature ʻ50ʼ by Leo AllatiusLeo Allatius) as spoils of war (see D’Aiuto, Grafinger 2011); after a stopover in Paris, it finally returned, after a stop in Paris, to Heidelberg in 1815.

Along with the folios in Vat. Urb. gr. 92Vat. Urb. gr. 92, Heid. Pal. gr. 375 is very important to reconstruct the textual tradition of family d (Bethe’s IV). Pierleoni (1896, 195) found these folios arranged in Heid. Pal. gr. 375 as follows:

Vat.Urb.gr.92     =     Pal.Heid.gr.375

f. 2	f. 60	1.76 οὐδὸς καὶ ὁδός – 1.85 ἔμβολον
f. 270	f. 138	5.141 ἐπὶ γὰρ τούτου – 5.153 ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ
f. 271	f. 139	5.153 ἐναντίου ἀμφίβολον – 5.167 ἐνδε[ῶς
f. 272	f. 190	9.24 καὶ φορτικήν – 9.37 καὶ παροι[κοῦντας
f. 1	f. 217	10.109 γοναῖς – 10.116 βιβλίων εἴρηται
f. 3	f. 219	10.134 ἀπόβαθρα – 10.142 ῥόπαλα σ[κυτάλαι