Manuscript Witnesses Research Articles

History as a Visual Concept: Peter of Poitiers ' Compendium Historiae

Abstract: This report introduces a project to create a critical edition of Peter of Poitier's work, Compendium historiae in geneologia Christi . Composed at the end of the twelfth century, Peter of Poitier conceived the Compendium as a visual aid for teaching biblical history to theology students. Depicting history as a chart in the form of a genealogical graph, it quickly became ubiquitous in the Latin West. Our renewed effort to locate and appraise manuscript witnesses (to date ca. 300) of the Compendium has revealed its unparalleled formal and contextual breadth. Given the work's graphic features and richly varied manuscript tradition, the edition will appear in digital format. This report describes our editorial strategies in the face of the challenges posed by the Compendium's structural, textual, and pictorial variance and, more generally, the medial and graphic aspects of text in the Middle Ages.

A new manuscript witness of the poem Altus Prosator in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Clm 18609): Analysis of the poem’s manuscript transmission and transcription of its text as found in Clm 18609

Abstract Altus Prosator is a Hiberno-Latin hymn of twenty-three stanzas which is often attributed to St. Columba of Iona. Until now, eight manuscripts of the poem have been known. This article presents a newly discovered manuscript of Altus Prosator (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 18609): it provides the first detailed description of the contents of the manuscript, an analysis of the poem’s manuscript transmission (and particularly its association with Pomerius’ De uita contemplatiua), and a discussion of Hrabanus Maurus’ knowledge of the poem. At the end of the article a transcription of the text of the poem as found in the newly discovered manuscript is offered.

Malkəʾa ʾArsimā (‘Image of Hripsime’): An Ethiopic Hymn for an Armenian Saint

Despite the growth of a cult for the Armenian martyr Hripsime in Ethiopia during the Middle Ages, no malkəʾ-hymn dedicated to her can be found in manuscripts predating the eighteenth century. There are two extant witnesses, one from the early eighteenth century and one from the nineteenth or twentieth century, to a Malkəʾa ʾArsimā containing seventeen stanzas. Evidently this hymn is the one named in a list of titles of malkəʾ-hymns extant in four manuscripts, two of which indicate that the hymn should have seventeen stanzas. While shorter than most, the hymn skilfully incorporates allusions to biblical stories, including Esther and Judith, paraphrases of and references to verses from the Old and New Testaments, and references to the flight to Egypt and Mount Koskam. While the text seemingly fell out of use, there being no later manuscript witnesses or printed editions of it, a different, longer malkəʾ-hymn was at some point composed and is now widespread in printed collections.

On the Authorship of Pseudo-Archilochus, Frr. 327–328 W2 (290–291 Τ.)

This paper unveils a new manuscript witness of the fragments of Pseudo-Archilochus, frr. 327–328 W2 and presents new evidence to support the attribution of these fragments to Marcus Musurus, as was already postulated by their first editor, Giovanni Tarditi.

ʾinǧīl-in mubīn: A mixed archaic, Quranic, and Middle Arabic translation of the gospels and its implications for the nature of Middle Arabic

AbstractThis paper undertakes a close linguistic study of a unique translation of the gospels into Arabic as attested in three manuscript witnesses. The translation is unique insofar as it imitates the Quran, especially in lexicon and rhyme. Linguistically it mixes numerous features specific to the Quran with features from both the Classical Arabic (ClAr) tradition, including poetic archaisms not typical of standard ClAr, as well as from Christian Middle Arabic. I argue that the regnant framework for Middle Arabic – that it exists on a spectrum from dialects to standard Classical Arabic – is insufficient for understanding this text. Instead, we need to conceptualize the high register for at least some communities as encompassing distinctively Christian features, which originated as living features and had achieved prestige, along with ones from Classical Arabic and Quranic recitation traditions, and even Old Hijazi.

Transparency and Discovery: Using a Text-Image Network to Study Manuscripts and Text Transmission

This article describes desired use cases of manuscript-text interactions that could positively influence future scholarship. These examples illustrate the potential for greater transparency between critical editions and their data sources (i.e., manuscript witnesses). Further, these use cases demonstrate how the possibility of a connected environment could facilitate the automated discovery of related manuscripts at granular levels (i.e. identifying connections at precise coordinates regions) through the discovery of related texts. In the second section, the article walks through the data modelling and engineering steps required to achieve these uses cases. Finally, the third section provides examples to illustrate how this future is already a fledging reality.

The Transmedial Knights of the Round Table: Character-Based Worldbuilding in the Manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes

Abstract The five Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes were hugely influential in establishing King Arthur’s world as one that could easily expand to include the adventures of a seemingly endless group of chivalric heroes. Chrétien’s use of character details to connect his romances and suggest a shared fictional world inspired other romance writers as well as medieval translators, illustrators, and manuscript copyists and compilers. The result was a multimedia Arthurian universe akin to the modern narratological concept of the transmedial storyworld. This storyworld relied on the recognisability of the Arthurian knights as characters and existed in many different forms across written and visual media, including the unique combinations of text and image that appear in different manuscript witnesses of Chrétien’s romances. Emphasising the utility of both individual manuscripts and modern narratology, this article investigates three manuscripts that contain romances by Chrétien: Paris, BNF fr. 1450, Paris, BNF fr. 1433, and Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, H 249. Through examining the distinct arrangement, editing, and decorative choices in these manuscripts, I argue that they illustrate the potential of character as a means of worldbuilding, not only for medieval authors but also for other creators and audiences.

The homily “On fasting” by Rǝtuʿa Haymanot (CAe 6587). Edition and translation

This article provides an editio princeps and a translation of a Gǝʿǝz homily, “On fasting” (CAe 6587), attributed to the author known under the pen name Rǝtuʿa Haymanot. The edition is based on two manuscript witnesses from the 14th century: EMML 1763, f. 162r–164r and BritLib Orient. 8192 f. 31v–34r. One can assume that the homily is an indigenous Ethiopian work. The homily focuses on the ethical aspects of Christian fasting and teaches that, in order for the fast to be valid, abstaining from food must be accompanied by proper moral conduct.

The Humours and the Dyes

Abstract This contribution presents the edition and translation of a new manuscript witness to the Arabic tradition of Galenic summaries On urine (MS Collegesville, Minnesota HMML olm 00041). Uroscopy appears to be a complementary diagnostic element in ancient medicine, which gained increasing popularity in later centuries, as attested by the rich traditions in Greek and Arabic. The summary, as attested in this manuscript witness, compares the four bodily humours to dyes, creating a concrete and tangible frame for the study and memorization of this diagnostic branch. This text, moreover, stresses the performative dimension of uroscopy, particularly in the form of instructions for physicians on how to recognize devious fake samples offered by obnoxious people seeking to test the physician in order to undermine his authority and credibility.

Elegiac Additions: Marking Arthur's Death in Manuscripts of Geoffrey of Monmouth

Abstract: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae is structured around the sequence of British rulers. This structure inevitably means that the text is punctuated by death: an old ruler dies, and another succeeds. The reception of Arthur's death varies across time and manuscript witnesses. This article traces some of the ways that Arthur's death (or his departure) is marked in the manuscript tradition. Both the original design of a manuscript and interventions by later readers can shift how the transition from Arthur's reign is presented and received.

A New (Double Palimpsest) Witness to the Old Syriac Gospels (Vat. iber. 4, ff. 1 & 5)

AbstractVat. iber. 4, a membrum disjectum of the manuscript Sin. geo. 49, contains on two of its folios the Syriac Gospel text as the lowest layer (scriptio ima) within a double palimpsest. Comparison with known Syriac versions of the extant text – Matt 11.30–12.26 – shows that the text represents the Old Syriac version, and is particularly akin to the Curetonianus (Syc). On palaeographic grounds, the original Gospel manuscript can be dated to the first half of the sixth century. The fragment is so far the only known vestige of the fourth manuscript witness to the Old Syriac version.

Three short poems in Acallam na senórach. Poetry as an indicator of the relationship between the manuscript witnesses

The poetry in the early thirteenth-century Irish text Acallam na senórach serves many functions within the narrative as a whole, summarizing, emphasizing, and even conveying key points within the piece. Beyond the important role verse plays within the context of the tale, however, the poems can also serve as useful signifiers of the relationship between the four manuscript witnesses of the text. This is particularly true of the shorter poems, which are brief enough that they were able to be altered or omitted without creating too great a chasm in the text, and so exhibit greater differences between the manuscript copies than other portions of the text do. Comparison of a poem across the four manuscript witnesses provides consistent evidence that the copies of Acallam na senórach in Laud Misc. 610 and the Book of Lismore agree more with one another, that Franciscan A 4 will often agree with Laud Misc. 610 against the Book of Lismore, and that Rawlinson B 487, while quite different to the other copies, will often agree with Franciscan A 4.

A Manuscript Witness of Cultural Activity in Mongol Baghdad

Abstract This article focuses on MS Leiden Or. 95, which contains a version of the Ḥall mushkilāt al-Ishārāt by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1273), copied apparently in 1272 CE. This article explores the paratextual evidence present in the manuscript in order to reconstruct the history of the book and investigate aspects of cultural life in Mongol and post-Mongol Baghdad. It is an attempt, based on manuscript evidence, to contribute to the broader discussion on the impact that the Mongol invasions had on the cultural life of the Middle East in general and the city of Baghdad in particular. The analysis of the colophon, ownership marks, reading certificates, and annotations in this codex offer a particular case study of aspects of production, distribution, and consumption of knowledge in Ilkhanid Baghdad.

Yoshio Gonnosuke and His Comparative Dutch-Japanese Syntax: Glimpses at the Unpublished Second Part of Siebold's "Epitome Linguae Japonicae".

After outlining the life and works of interpreter Yoshio Gonnosuke, this paper introduces the manuscript witnesses of his hitherto unstudied comparative Dutch-Japanese syntax written in the mid-1820s, which was modelled on Pieter Weiland's Nederduitsche spraakkunst (1805). This is followed by a closer look at the process of compilation and publication of Philipp Franz von Siebold's "Epitome linguae japonicae," of which only the first part was published in 1826. Evidence is provided to confirm Yoshio's involvement in this work and to suggest that Yoshio's syntax was in fact intended to form the core of its unpublished second part.

Barlaam’s Paraphrase of Euclid, Elements II 1–10. A Critical Edition

The article presents a critical edition, with a translation and an introduction, of the arithmetical rewriting of Euclid, Elements II 1–10, authored by the 14th-century scholar and polemicist Barlaam of Seminara, one of the two leading characters in the Palamite and hesychast controversies. In this way, a further item of Barlaam’s scientific writings can now be read in a critical edition. The present edition explains in detail the mathematical background of Barlaam’s work, describes all of its manuscript witnesses, reconstructs a stemma codicum that does not require any lost witness, and pays due attention to the diagrams that accompany the text.

Gofraidh Óg Mac an Bhaird Cecinit: 8. Tarla Leónadh don Leith Tuaidh

Abstract: This elegy on Maghnas (son of Niall Garbh son of Conn) Ó Domhnaill, who died in the Battle of Benburb in 1646, is the eighth in a series of editions of poems attributed to Gofraidh Óg (son of Gofraidh son of Brian) Mac an Bhaird. Though ascribed indirectly to Gofraidh Óg in the only independent manuscript witness, Stonyhurst College MS A II 20, it was probably not composed by him.

Theology of the Icon in Hymnographic Form: A Kanon and Four Stichera for the Second Council of Nicaea Attributed to (Theodore?) Stoudites

This article is dedicated to a kanon and four stichera for the Second Council of Nicaea (787), attributed by codex Vind. theol. gr. 187 (c. an. 1500) to (Theodoros?) Stoudites. Although these hymnographic texts were published for the first time in 1992—on the basis of the Viennese codex, alongside a Church Slavonic translation of earlier date than this Greek witness—, they have attracted scarcely any attention in the scholarship on Theodore the Stoudite. The present article offers a new edition of the texts, based, in addition to Vind. theol. gr. 187, on two other Greek manuscript witnesses. The edition is accompanied by an English translation and by an analysis of the hymns’ particularities of content and form, with a special focus on their theological and philosophical concepts regarding the veneration of icons, and on the question of their authorship.

An alleged homily on the paralytic by John Chrysostom in the codex Athonensis, Lauras A 112 (Eustratiadis 112)

Through the efforts of the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), a list of manuscripts is available that preserves homilies on the healing of the paralytic. Included in this list is the codex Athonensis, Lauras A 112 (Eustratiadis 112), which, according to those who provided its second description, preserves in the last four folios ‘a homily on the paralytic by John Chrysostom’. After a brief presentation of what is known about this codex, this article offers a detailed examination of the codex’s last four folios, revealing that the description of them by Spyridon Lauriotis and Sophronios Eustratiadis is inaccurate.Contribution: This article provides the first thorough examination of the last four folios of the codex Athonensis, Lauras A 112 (Eustratiadis 112), demonstrating that they do not contain ‘a homily on the paralytic by John Chrysostom’ but rather several fragments of homilies on Thomas, Mid-Pentecost and the Ascension. Thus, the article contributes to the description of the codex and to the identification of a previously unknown manuscript witness to several homilies.

The Catalogus geometrarum from the Corpus Agrimensorum

Abstract An overlooked fragmentary Latin text preserved in the Corpus of Roman Land Surveyors proves to be a translation of a lost branch of the Aratean commentary tradition. Stripped of the classicizing veneer mistakenly applied by earlier editors, the fragment can be recognized as the work of an unknown and inept late-antique Translator, perhaps working within a generation of the fragment’s earliest manuscript witness, the Codex Arcerianus. The branch of the commentary tradition used by this Translator made use of Euclid ‘the Sicilian’, an authority now absent from the surviving tradition: if this Euclid is identical with the famous geometer, as argued here, we may have radical new evidence for his homeland, hitherto unknown. The Aratean manuscript used by the Translator was equipped with interlinear Latin glosses and with illustrations of a type otherwise unattested in the surviving Aratean tradition.

Reading the Old Norse–Icelandic “Maríu saga” in Its Manuscript Contexts

Reading the Old Norse–Icelandic “Maríu saga” in Its Manuscript Contexts