Vaticanus Palatinus graecus 149 – Vp

Previous descriptions: Stevenson (1885, 80–1), but see instead the description by A. E. Beron, J. Sieber on the website of the Heidelberg University Library.

Reproductions: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

Family: d²

Siglum: Vp

Shelfmark: Vaticanus Palatinus graecus 149

Date: Last decade of the 15th century

Format: paper, 205×160 mm, I + 318 ff.

Material: paper in a good state of conservation.

Binding: not original, 18th century.

Watermarks: arbalist inscribed in a circle, i.e. Briquet 758 (1487); a five-petal flower, i.e. Briquet 6464 (1499‒1504).

Scribes: A: ff. 4r‒163v and ff. 293r‒317v, Emmanuel ZacharidesEmmanuel Zacharides (RGK I 114 = II 146 = III 189); B: ff. 164r‒290v), Arsenius ApostolisArsenius Apostolis (RGK I 27 = 38 = III 46); C: f. 318r, Johannes ReuchlinJohannes Reuchlin (RGK II 219)    

Annotations: on f. 163v a poetic subscription by Emmanuel Zacharides: Ἐμμανουὴλ χεὶρ τεῦξ’ Ἐπικτήτου τύπους, ‘The hand of Emmanuel impressed Epictetus’ [work]’; on f. 290v a subscription by Arsenius Apostolis: Ἀριστόβουλος ἱεροδιάκονος καὶ ταύτην τὴν βίβλον ἐν Κρήτῃ ἐξέγραψα, ‘I, hierodiakonos Aristobulus copied this book in Crete’.

1 (ff. 4r–145v) Libanius, Epistulae.

ff. 146r–148v: blank.

2 (ff. 149r–163v) Epictetus, Enchiridion.    

3 (ff. 164r‒290v) Pollux, Onomasticon. Title: ἀρχὴ τοῦ Πολυδεύκους βιβλίων ὀνομαστικῶν. Pollux’s work is mutilated. Incipit: ὦ παῖ πατρὸς ἀγαθοῦ (1.1). Explicit: ἀριστεῖα καὶ ἐπινίκεια (6.186). It contains books 1 (ff. 164r–201v), 2 (201v–227r), 3 (227r–241r), 4 (241r–259r), 5 (259r–271r), and 6 (271r–290v); the work is incomplete: ff. 291r–292v are blank. On f. 258v there is a gap after κεφαλαλγία (4.184), where part of the folio was left blank; Books 4 resumes with ἐρεῖς δὲ μαῖα (4.208) and continues to the end.

ff. 291v–292v: blank.

4 (ff. 293r–312v) Theophrastus, Characteres. Title: Θεόφραστος πολυκλείτ⁽⁾. It ends at τετελευτηκότων κακῶς λέγειν (28.6), left incomplete, since the copyist wrote the title of the next chapter as περὶ φιλοπονηρίας, but then deleted it and wrote τέλος instead.

5 (ff. 313v–317v) Hermogenes, De ideis 1.3–12. Title: Ἑρμογένους περὶ ἀναπαύσεως. Edited in Rabe (1913, 213–413). Probably left incomplete.

6 (318r) Comment on Hermogenes. Title: Τροφωνίου σοφ[ι]στοῦ. Incipit: ἐὰν ἄδηλον ἦ. Explicit: χρῆσις προοιμίων οὐκ ἦν· Εx Trophonio; (f. 318r) note about the difference between τόμος and τμῆμα (see Rhet. Gr. 14.369.3); (f. 318r) synopsis of the work on Hermogenes’ De figuris edited in Rhet. Gr. 3.704.6–3.711.19

f. 318v: blank.

In the subscription on f. 290v Arsenius Apostolis identifies himself as hierodiakonos, which allows us to date his section of the manuscript to the end of the 15th century (as also suggested by the watermarks). As he stated, he worked on it in Crete, where he lived between 1492 and 1500 (see RGK I 27). Emmanuel Zacharides (see RGK I 114), the other copyist, was also active in Crete between the 15th and 16th centuries, previously also in the atelier of Michael Apostolis, Arsenius’ father. The entire manuscript appears to have been produced in Crete, but Zacharides’ section presents older watermarks, which suggest that the codex was assembled by combining earlier materials with some newer ones. Vp descends from Perusinus I 108Perus. I 108 (Pe), probably indirectly: Vp has the same gaps as Pe and many of the same errors, but Arsenius could not have used the Perusinus directly, since at that time it was owned by Francesco Maturanzio, who bought it in Crete in 1473. For this reason, an intermediary witness must be supposed between Pe and Vp. Beron and Siebe hypothetically ascribed the hand at the bottom of f. 318v to Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522; on his writing see the specimina in Sicherl 1978). It later belonged to the library of Ulrich FuggerUlrich Fugger (1526‒1584), after whose death the manuscript was bequeathed to the Palatine Elector Friedrich IVFriedrich IV (Elector of the Palatine). In 1623 the manuscript was taken to Rome as spoils of war during the Thirty Years’ War.