Manuscript Witnesses Research Articles

For the Care of Body and Soul: A CPA Bible and an Arab-Islamic Medical Text in a Tenth-Century Palimpsest Fragment

This paper studies a palimpsest fragment from the Qubbat al-khazna in Damascus, which presents a very interesting composition. The Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) scriptio inferior, already identified as a biblical text (Genesis 19.1-5, 7-10), coexists with the Arabic scriptio superior. This latter, except for the identification of its general content, has not been studied so far. The Arabic text is an excerpt belonging to the medical work entitled Mukhtaṣar fī l-ṭibb (Compendium of medicine) – otherwise known from just one manuscript witness, Rabat, Al-Khizāna al-ʿāmma, 2640 (D 1442c) – written by the Andalusian jurist ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238 AH/853 AD). This paper, focused on the textual analysis of the excerpt, provides its edition and translation. The study of the text is integrated with a palaeographical and codicological examination of the Arabic script. These multidisciplinary investigations represent the starting point for some insights related to the history of the fragment. Specifically, a Sinaitic-Palestinian origin, linked to a monastic environment, is suggested, in consideration of some peculiar features: the botanical-pharmaceutical knowledge displayed in the Arabic text of the scriptio superior, the palimpsest order of the fragment, as well as the significant phenomenon of the discard of the religious text (the Bible in CPA) of the scriptio inferior, which can be contextualised within the »arabicisation« process that characterised the monastic milieu of the area from the second/eighth century onwards.

Sull’eliminatio descriptorum nella tradizione manoscritta dei Theognidea

Among the editors of the Theognidea, Douglas Young is the only one to have systematically examined almost all the manuscript witnesses, but the results of his collation are unpublished for the most part. This article, based on a new examination of the entire manuscript tradition, aims to verify the validity of the eliminatio descriptorum of Young, which has been accepted by later editors without further verification. It bears on twentynine recentiores, for which a selection of the most significant collation results are presented.

Major Prophets

Major Prophets Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, Fred W. Guyette, William J. Urbrock, and Brian J. Meldrum Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary William J. Urbrock University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Brian J. Meldrum Catholic University of America 596. [Prophetic Texts from the Hellenistic Period?] Hervé Gonzalez, "No Prophetic Texts from the Hellenistic Period: Philological and Historical Observations on the Writing of Prophecy in Early Hellenistic Judea," Times of Transition, 293-340 [see #787]. G. contends in this essay that certain textual units in the corpus of late prophets date from the Hellenistic period. In his opinion, the general view that the prophetic corpus had been completed already in Persian times assumes a clear-cut distinction between the time when a given book was composed and its subsequent transmission. G., for his part, adduces various methodological, philological, and historical arguments to challenge this assumption. In particular, the ancient manuscript witnesses (the DSS and the OG and OL translations) show that the prophetic figures remained fluid until late in the Hellenistic period—if not right up to the very end of the Second Temple period. Against this background, G. therefore claims that we cannot rule out the possibility that certain textual units were in fact composed in the late 4th or the 3rd cent. b.c.e. Admittedly, the prophetic books contain few—if any—explicit allusions to the Hellenistic period, but this may be the result of the compositional techniques used in accordance with which the prophetic books were revised and expanded in early Hellenistic times, via use of terms and motifs borrowed from other segments in those same texts, or other corpora, primarily the Pentateuch and the Psalms. This system of composition points in turn to the desire on the part of the late scribes in question to assert the continuity between the new sections and their textual context, thus maintaining the apparent antiquity of the prophetic traditions. Claims that prophets ceased to exist in Israel after Persian times, such those found in Zech 13:2-6 and Mal 3:22-24 arguably fulfilled a similar function. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 597. [The Orality of Writing Prophecy; Joel 1–2] Helmut Utzschneider, "Die Mündlichkeit der biblischen Schriftprophetie: Versuch einer Bestandaufnahme," Scribes as Sages and Prophets, 33-64 [see #792]. In his essay, U. makes reference to an element of David Carr's presentation of the tradition of ancient Israel in which Carr, affirming the perspective of the "new orality school," holds that the difference between oral and written transmission has been overestimated by past scholars. The scribes learned most of their literary texts by heart and could write them from memory. This recognition opens up the possibility of understanding prophetic texts as dramatic texts. U. illustrates the benefits of such an approach with an exegesis of Joel 1 and 2. [Adapted from editor's introduction—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 598. [Prophecy and Formation] Micha Brumlik, "Prophetie und Bildung," JBTh 35 (2020) 65-74. The Hebrew Bible does not know a term equivalent to the German word "Bildung." Nevertheless, it is possible to describe the contours of such formation precisely with regard to the prophets. Isaiah and Amos can be cited as examples. In the background of all this is the insight that Judaism is grounded in a living culture of teaching and learning. The "Shema Israel" is of special importance in this context. The order in Israel's declaration "We will do it and then listen" (Exod 24:3) is of groundbreaking significance for Jewish learning practice. This can also be seen as a Leitmotif from the prophetic ethics of action, [End Page 203] from which a prophetic understanding of "Bildung" can be derived. The rabbinical understanding of "Bildung" as an insight into the inevitability of one's own positionality represents a further development of this prophetic approach. See also ##548, 688, 699. [Adapted from published abstract—T.H.] Google Scholar 599. [Nature in OT Prophecy] Konrad Schmid, "Die Natur und ihre Ordnungen in der Prophetie," JBTh 34 (2019) 49...

Multum prodest circa honesta officia occupari.Jacques de Vitry et les artisans en France au XIIIe siècle. Édition du sermon ad artifices mechanicarum artium (Serm. ad stat. 62)

Jacques de Vitry (ca 1165 ? - 1240) was one of the most renowned preachers of his time. The 74 Sermones uulgares uel ad status belong to an uncommon genre of preaching, namely a collection of model sermons organised according to different audiences representing the various classes (status) of medieval society, both religious and lay. Sermon 62 is addressed to manual laborers. The choice of the biblical theme: Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, beatus es et bene tibi erit (Ps. 127:3), suggests a positive approach to this social group and testifies to the change in the Church's attitude towards them that was already evident in the twelfth century. Vitry stresses that for all craftsmen, whatever their trade, their talent is a gift from God through which they are called to contribute to the common good. To illustrate his recommendations and warnings, he uses biblical and patristic quotations, but above all edifying anecdotes or exempla. The edition of Sermon 62 is based on eleven of the fifteen manuscript witnesses of the collection Sermones uulgares uel ad status that preserve our text. It follows the editing principles established by J. Longère for the first 36 sermons (CC CM, 255; 2013). The Franciscan preacher Guibert of Tournai († 1284) used this sermon in his own Sermones ad status diuersos. An appendix lists those borrowings by referring to the text as it is transmitted in MS Paris BnF lat. 15943.

Christmas presents for John Tzetzes: a new verse epistle from the letter collection

Abstract The corpus of Tzetzes’ epistles edited by Pietro Luigi Leone in 1972 includes 107 letters. However, two of the earliest manuscript witnesses of the collection bequeath a 108th letter consisting of 16 iambs and closing the corpus. The short missive is addressed to one Konstantinos Phyteianos. The present paper provides the first edition and translation into English of this letter, analysing its authorship and contents as well as its rhetorical function within the corpus.

A few remarks on the Inedita Pseudo-Chrysostomic Homily De transfiguratione et eleemosyna (CPG 5009; BHGn 1996t)

The article presents the preliminary results of the author’s study of the unedited homily De transfiguratione et eleemosyna (CPG 5009; BHGn 1996t), ascribed to John Chrysostom. The question of the manuscript tradition is first discussed. The article shows that Maurice Sachot is right when he indicates only the manuscript Romanus Angelicus gr. 125 (T.1.7) as a manuscript witness of this homily and that the other two witnesses indicated by Pinakes are erroneous. Then, the descriptions of the folios that preserve the homily are analysed in the light of a new examination of them. This re-examination shows that hitherto several sources that inspired the compiler have gone unnoticed. This is followed by a brief summary of the contents of the homily and an analysis of the passages in which almsgiving is mentioned.Contribution: The article offers a re-examination of the folios 353v–361 from the manuscript Romanus Angelicus gr. 125 (T.1.7), the first presentation of the content of the homily De transfiguratione et eleemosyna, and tries to shed light on the association of the theme of the Transfiguration with almsgiving.

Provenance of Significant Manuscript Witness to Katherine Philips’ Poetry, WOR. MS. 58, Revisited

Provenance of Significant Manuscript Witness to Katherine Philips’ Poetry, WOR. MS. 58, Revisited

Suspicion and Evidence: Manuscript Sources of the Hermeneutic Gates of German Pietism

This study presents a new manuscript witness for the hermeneutics gates that Eleazar of Worms apparently presented as the basis of the esoteric lore he received from his teacher, R. Judah he-Ḥasid. Eleazar of Worms has been widely acknowledged as the recipient of the secrets of German Pietism and the author of the library of texts that would represent the movement. Sefer ha-Ḥokhmah, the Book of Wisdom purports to be the first literary work he composed just after the death of R. Judah. All surviving manuscript copies of Sefer ha-Ḥokhmah were produced in a later period, and studies have shown that later Kabbalistic texts and themes were reworked into what was initially penned by R. Eleazar. Discovery of the gates in an early Ashkenazic manuscript free of any sign of Kabbalistic revision offers new evidence that grounds at least some of the writing and esoteric lore of Ḥasidei Ashkenaz prior to its later use and revision. This study further delves into the R. Eleazar’s self-awareness as the authoritative voice of German Pietism and proposes that scholars consider the role of rhetoric and the narrative function of Eleazar as the sole agent of literary production, whether or not that was indeed the case at the time he wrote this text. The tension between the scholarly suspicion about the historical veracity of the sources and the textual evidence available is thus highlighted for further consideration. The study concludes with a transcription of all the manuscript texts of the hermeneutic gates.

'Loosen the cables' (Aemilianus AP 9.28 = Gow-Page, GP 2)

'Loosen the cables' (Aemilianus AP 9.28 = Gow-Page, GP 2) Taylor Coughlan Aemilianus AP 9.218 = Gow-Page GP 2, transmitted in a surviving sequence of Philip's Garland, presents the reader with a nautical paradox:1 an unmanned ship has arrived at harbor lacking all of its cargo and carrying in its places the corpses of its crew. In this note I defend the reading of the manuscripts at line 4 in the printed text: Ἀβάλε χειμερίου με κατέκλυσε κύματα πόντου δειλαίην, νεκύων φόρτον ἀμειψαμένην.αἰδέομαι σωθεῖσα. τί μοι πλέον ὅρμον ἱκέσθαι δευομένῃ φωτῶν πείσματα λυσομένων;Κωκυτοῦ με λέγοιτε βαρὺ σκάφος· ὤλεσα φῶτας, 5 ὤλεσα· ναυηγοὶ δ' εἰσὶν ἔσω λιμένος.2 4 λυσομένων PPl: δυσομένων Stephanus If only the waves of the wintry sea capsized wretched me, who has exchanged my cargo for corpses. I am ashamed that I have been saved. What's the benefit for me to reach anchorage lacking the men who will loosen my cables [End Page 291] for departure? You may call me the weighty skiff of Cocytos; I've destroyed my men, destroyed them. Within the harbor they are shipwrecked. The text of line four as transmitted in the two manuscript witnesses (P and Pl) has presented scholars with interpretive difficulties. The phrase λύειν πείσματα refers to act of loosening a ship's cables in preparation for departure,3 an action which appears to run counter to that required by the context.4 Stephanus emended λυσόμενων to δησομένων to provide the sense of binding the cables for anchorage.5 Dübner and Cougny 1871–1890, Paton 1916–1919, and Gow and Page 1968 print δησομένων. Brunck 1772–1776, Jacobs 1813–1817, Stadtmüller 1894–1906, Waltz 19576 and Beckby 1957–1958 each print the παραδόσις. Gow and Page note that Brunck 'accepted δυσ- in his note',7 while Jacobs expressed uncertainty in his ('Fort. δησομένων'). Beckby translates the phrase as 'meine Taue … löst' without comment.8 Waltz, who translates 'détacher mes amarres', asserts that the phrase can refer to 'les hommes qui devraient manier les cordages pour aborder' but does not provide any evidence and I have not found a passage in support of this claim.9 The reference to a departure and future trips implied in the phrase πείσ-ματα λυσομένων is intelligible within the narrative context of the epigram and thus emendation is not required. In the epigram's central couplet the ship, having survived some type of catastrophic event that has left her without a crew, considers her uncertain future. What is the benefit of reaching safe harbor if she lacks the crew that will allow her to set sail once again and perform her mercantile purpose? Aemilianus underscores the inversion of the status quo a line earlier with νεκύων φόρτον ἀμειψαμένην. Ἀμείβομαι with an accusative and genitive (in some instances the object of the preposition ἀντί) has the meaning of 'get X (accusative) in exchange for Y (genitive)'.10 Gow and Page object to the translation 'got a cargo instead of corpses' on the grounds that such a statement does not make sense in the context of a ship returning to harbor laden with dead sailors, and thus [End Page 292] propose that 'we must either take νεκύων with φόρτον, "a cargo of corpses", or invert the normal construction and render "exchanged cargo for corpses"'. They conclude that the 'former seems likelier' and then offer up the translation 'having got a corpse-cargo in exchange (i.e. in exchange for my merchandise-cargo)'.11 Paton ('my load of living men now changed for one of corpses') and Beckby ('Denn statt einstigen Frachte berge ich Tote mir'), albeit more freely, render the phrase similarly.12 While the inversion of the normal construction of exchange is quite unlikely, the presence of a genitive and accusative noun + a middle form of ἀμεἰβω is enough, I suggest, to induce the reader to pause and then likely reflect on the syntactic combinations required to make grammatical and semantic sense of the phrase. In the process, the paradox of the image is felt all the more powerfully. The juxtaposition of νεκύων and φόρτον neatly encapsulate the paradox of our Totenschiff: the ship has returned to harbor laden not with cargo ready for the marketplace but rather packed with the corpses of the men who should soon offload it. If it is her fate to lack a crew for future excursions, then she might as well be renamed: Κωκυτοῦ με λέγοιτε βαρὺ σκάφος. An obvious allusion to Charon's vessel that ferries the dead...

Long Lives of Short Sagas: The Irrepressibility of Narrative and the Case of Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra by Philip Lavender

Reviewed by: Long Lives of Short Sagas: The Irrepressibility of Narrative and the Case of Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra by Philip Lavender Roderick McDonald Lavender, Philip, Long Lives of Short Sagas: The Irrepressibility of Narrative and the Case of Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra (The Viking Collection, 25), Copenhagen, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2019; hardback; pp. 401; 20 b/w illustrations; R.R.P DKK$398.00; ISBN 9788740832495. 'To really understand the impact that Illuga saga has had, it is necessary to engage with a great number of contiguous texts' (pp. 350–51). Unlikely as this bold claim might seem, that such a little-known saga can even be described as having had an impact, this volume represents a challenge and a clarion call for saga scholarship more broadly. Philip Lavender is a champion of textual contiguity, and in this work, derived from his PhD and subsequent postdoctoral work at the University of Copenhagen, textual contiguity is shown to be of fundamental importance in negotiating and understanding the interactions and complexities of Icelandic narratives over their many living centuries: sagas don't stop when the Middle Ages ended. This study is exemplary in its methodological scope. Lavender comprehensively negotiates the range of current theoretical worlds of saga and saga-related scholarship: manuscript history; textual variability; prose/poetry interactions; intertextualities and literary contexts of production; close literary analyses against different axes; the appropriation of text for geopolitical and historical ends; and the importance of the modern reflex as an aspect of ostensibly medieval narrative. From start to finish the work is framed in clear theoretical terms. Its opening orientation is the importance of the case study as (quoting Simon Goldhill) 'a narrativized instance that […] is always in a relation of excess or lack to its comparandum or generality' (p. 15). Lavender leads this particular case study through unparalleled degrees of precision and exactitude in his treatment of the considerable range of manuscript exemplars, of which there are upward of thirty-five. He embraces wider narrative sources, for the Illuga character and the Illuga narrative take divergent forms across both poetry and prose, in fictive as well as historiographic contexts. In the course of this work he argues against long-held views about whether the original narrative was poetic or prose, revises received relationships between extant manuscript witnesses, and amends the presumed authorship of at least one of the post-medieval Illuga rímur. [End Page 236] The volume commences with an extensive examination of the 170 years of Illuga scholarship in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and English. Here Lavender traces the concerns of commentators to assess the transmission history of the narrative, and in so doing places the scholarship within a context of the long sociopolitical conditions in Scandinavia and associated national anxieties in a period of modern nation-state formation. Then follow a thorough review and assessment of the many manuscript sources, ordering them into groups and subgroups. Here is where one of Lavender's strengths comes to the fore: his ability to negotiate the divide between New Philology's embracing concern with manuscript variants and the literary critical approach necessary for editorial production. He makes the point that 'the "best" text must be qualified on the ground of "best for what?"' (p. 74), and having sorted the vast array of manuscript witnesses in Chapter 2, he then walks the walk with his approach to narrative analysis in Chapter 3, examining the narrative in different contexts, including the intertextual relationship of this Illuga narrative to other narratives in which there is a character named Illugi, the capacity for the saga to be read as a vehicle for exploring female agency, gender construction, sexuality, and the place of female grotesque, and the difficulties in negotiating humour and irony in such a distant narrative. Lavender then goes on to explore the impact of post-medieval saga reception and print editions, which included production of modern manuscripts based on the Rafn's early nineteenth-century printed edition. He finishes with an extensive manuscript review and analysis of Illugi rímur (poetic Icelandic adaptations), the majority of which are from the nineteenth century, the last manuscript dating from 1956. Beyond this...

Columbanus and Gennadius: Easter Lunar Limits in the Letter to Gregory i Copied from the Liber Ecclesiasticorum Dogmatum

In his letter to Pope Gregory i, Columbanus quoted a passage from Gennadius’s Liber ecclesiasticorum dogmatum. This article presents an overview of the textual history of the quotation in Columbanus’s letter and of the Easter chapter in the Liber ecclesiasticorum dogmatum. It will be suggested that the competing systems for the dating of Easter influenced the reception and transmission of Gennadius’s text from an early phase of its history. The appendix provides an overview of the manuscript witnesses of the Liber ecclesiasticorum dogmatum, noting the key variations in the Easter chapter for a representative sample.

“Deep Calls Unto Deep”: The “Exegetical” Commentary to the Versus maligni angeli (ms. Charleville-Mézières, Médiathèque Voyelles, 117, fols. 1v-19r)

The study presents an editio princeps of a twelfth-century commentary to an obscure poem Versus maligni angeli. The text, a fourth commentary on the poem referred to as “exegetical”, survives in a sole manuscript witness, Charleville-Mézières, Médiathèque Voyelles, 117, fols. 1v-19r, written in the twelfth-century and owned by the Cistercian Signy Abbey. The text presents yet another way of understanding the obscure poem and includes three curious digressions. There are indications that it might have originated in the circle around Hugh of St. Victor. There is a proof of reception of this commentary, in interlinear glosses to the poem in ms. Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, St. Peter Perg. 12, fol. 120v. The study also contributes to the description of the codex with the commentary, which includes six opuscules by Hugh of St. Victor that were previously overlooked.

Du “Bestiaire d’amours moralisé” aux “Dits des bêtes et des oiseaux”, un réemploi iconographique

In order to illustrate Le Bestiaire d’amours moralisé sur les bêtes et oiseaux in verse, a series of 77 woodcuts (sketches featuring animals) were engraved in the Parisian Trepperel workshop of the Ecu de France, between 1511 and 1521. However, the only known manuscript witness of this Bestiary, the ms. Français 1951 (BnF), dated at the end of the 13th century, is decorated with illuminations, which are indeed the iconographic premises of the Trepperel series.Le Bestiaire d’amours moralisé was reissued at the Ecu de France, but with a series of woodcuts copied on the first series. It was then that the Trepperels published a very different text: Les Dits des bêtes et des oiseaux, using part of the series of engraved copied woodcuts, thus transforming them into just decorative pictures.

The Fortunes of Fletcher’s “Against Astrologers”

This essay charts the fortunes of the longest and most significant poem by John Fletcher (1579–1625), an author chiefly remembered for his work as a collaborative playwright. Despite its unique status in the Fletcher canon, the poem has never received sustained critical attention and, as this essay argues, scholars have relied for centuries on a corrupt and mutilated text. The poem was first published in the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher Folio under the title “Upon an Honest Man’s Fortune” as a paratext to the play The Honest Man’s Fortune (1613). Using evidence from seven early manuscript witnesses, this essay argues that the publisher Humphrey Moseley not only fabricated this title and dramatic connection but also omitted lines from the poem to fit it within the available print space. Reintroducing critics to Fletcher’s poem, this essay provides a new text, edited from a manuscript with a connection to Fletcher himself and containing twenty-three hitherto unpublished lines, and proposes the adoption of a new title: “Against Astrologers.” Considered on its own terms, “Against Astrologers” can be appreciated as a devotional work that expands our understanding of Fletcher’s literary career and the personal networks that influenced his writing.

Simplicius et la rotation des astres : histoire d’une scolie du Petit Commentaire de Théon d’Alexandrie

Theon of Alexandria’s Little Commentary to Ptolemy’s Handy Tables, written in the 4th century, was a very successful astronomical treatise during Late Antiquity and the whole Byzantine era, as one can see from the numerous scholia from different periods found in the Greek manuscripts from the 14th to the 16th century. One of these scholia has a very original history : it is a reshaped excerpt from Simplicius’ commentary to Aristotle’s De caelo, in which the author mentions Ptolemy’s “ tables” and deals with the question of the rotation of celestial bodies. Relying on the main manuscript witnesses, this scholion is here edited for the first time. Moreover, its complete textual history will be considered, from its redaction by Simplicius and its transfer to the margins of Theon’s commentary – which may have been an initiative of Stephanus of Alexandria (6th c.) – until the different textual versions found in the Greek astronomical manuscripts until the Renaissance.

Epistula ecclesiae Smyrnensis de passione Polycarpi (BHL 6870) : Kritische Präliminaredition

Epistula ecclesiae Smyrnensis de passione Polycarpi (BHL 6870). Kritische Präliminaredition The „Epistula ecclesiae Smyrnensis de passione Polycarpi” is a literary adaption of the so-called Pionius-recension of the Martyrium Polycarpi (third century). On the grounds of the translation-technique applied and the underlying ideology of martyrdom it can be dated to the first half of the fifth century. By now, we know eleven complete and eleven incomplete manuscript witnesses for this text which represent two distinct hyparchetypes of the transmission, α and β. Whereas most of the complete witnesses depend on the inferior α, the superior β-text is completely represented only by the very negligently written codex S (Paris. Lat. 17625). The textual decisions made in the critical edition thus have to remain preliminary to a certain extent, especially where a β-reading cannot be verified by additional testimony of the partial version also dependent on β.

A Sureth Version of the East-Syriac Dialogue Poem of Mary and the Gardener

In the present paper, a Sureth version is published of the dialogue poem of Mary and the Gardener . As a first attempt to reconstruct the history of this text, the poetic version in the vernacular is compared with five manuscript witnesses of the Classical Syriac original. The poem is presented as part of an intertextual web of Classical Syriac hymns for Easter and Pentecost that are preserved in late liturgical collections and appear to be narrative and rhetorical expansions of John 20:11-17. Formal and thematic parallels to the poem are then found in the broader framework of Christian and Jewish hymnography written in varieties of Late Aramaic.

La reescritura del maldit de Joan Roís de Corella

Abstract The Maldit is Joan Roís de Corella’s only poem that appears in all of the manuscript witnesses of his poetry, which is a good indication of its literary success. This article reviews the variations of the poem throughout these manuscripts in order to focus on the process of rewriting, which reaches its maximum development in the version transmitted in the cancionero known as the Jardinet d’orats. The variants of all of the witnesses are discussed from ecdotic perspectives and the focus is on the double version of the tornada. The article demonstrates that the maldit is Joan Roís de Corella’s poem in which there is the greatest development and the greatest adherence to troubadouresque techniques. The person responsible for the version in the Jardinet d’orats does not notice these formal characteristics, which disappear in the process of rewriting, and this is the principal argument for considering it apocryphal. The literary character of the poem, like the Valencian environment in which it was produced, respond to a certain collectivity, which a different poet took advantage to generate the rewriting of Joan Roís de Corella’s maldit.

Inks as Instruments of Writing

AbstractA short treatise attributed to Ibn al-Ǧazarī (born Damascus 751/1351) deals with what was considered necessary knowledge about the art and craft of penmanship. Along with linguistic and antiquarian remarks, scribal practices, and social applications of writing, an entire section is devoted to the preparation of inks. The selection of recipes includes different ink typologies and technical approaches to ink making, with a preference for metallic compounds; the manipulation of metallic substances often absorbed technological aspects of alchemical practice. This article provides an edition and a commented English translation of the section on inks in the Book on the Art of Penmanship, as preserved by its unique manuscript witness, MS Berlin Sprenger 1918. A recipe for the distillation of an artificial golden ink has been replicated in order to better understand the interaction between the text and the chemical reality behind it.

Bertram, Martin, Die Handschriften des Liber Clementinarum des Johannes de Imola (1404)

Abstract The manuscripts of the Liber Clementinarum of Johannes de Imola (1404). As the author of this contribution has already argued in other occasions, in this paper he would like to highlight once more the importance of manuscripts for research in the literature of late medieval canon law. Manuscript witnesses of canon law literature after 1234 have never been subject of systematic review. This offers an explanation for the fact that this period has been largely disregarded in modern research. The example, chosen for this paper, shows that in particular the makeup and the external features of the manuscripts provide insights which paradoxically may be more revealing than the text itself: The commentary on the Constitutiones Clementinae by the Bolognese doctor utriusque iuris Iohannes de Imola (ca. 1375-1436) is preserved in more than 30 manuscripts, which contain an amazing amount of information regarding dates, scribes, commissioners and owners; last but not least, these manuscripts were continued seamlessly by a series of early printed editions. Altogether, they offer a vivid picture of the making, the proliferation and the use of Iohannes's work.