Terminus Ante Quem Research Articles

On the chronology of the Anonymous Commentary to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos: Analysis of the astronomical evidence

In this paper, a proposal is made that the Anonymous Commentary to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos (Anon. in Ptol.) was composed not before 467 and not after 575 AD. In establishing the terminus post quem and the terminus ante quem, the Author relies on astronomical data provided by the Anonymous himself in his commentary to Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos (=Ptol. Tetr.) II.10 (p. 76, ll. 16-29 Wolf). In this passage, he reports that his master completely succeeded in interpreting the appearance of a celestial beam (δοκός) as a sign of a great loss of trunks, after which a naval battle took place where many ships were sunk; moreover, the master of the anonymous commentator predicted that the comet would remain visible until the end of Mercury’s retrogradation, and so it happened. As will be seen below, it is possible to crosscheck all this data to obtain a precise date of the comet’s appearance: 467 AD, 1 year before the naval battle of Cape Bon (468 AD). These years are also consistent with the dating that can be obtained from one of the horoscopes transmitted by the anonymous commentary (p. 98 Wolf), which corresponds to a birth that actually took place in Lower Egypt on 25 June 448 AD.

Beyond Beauty. Byzantine steatite icon from Chełm. Archaeology, Petrography and Traceology

Abstract A fragmentarily preserved Byzantine icon made of steatite was discovered in 2015 during regular excavations in Chełm, eastern Poland. Identified as the left wing of a diptych illustrating the Twelve Great Feasts and created at the close of the 12th century, the find is one of the most important and beautiful Byzantine artefacts to have been found in Poland. The icon was uncovered within the confines of the palace complex which was created by Daniel (Danylo) Romanovych († 1264) in Chełm in the second quarter of 13th century. The icon, even though it was found within the borders of what is now Poland, is material evidence of contact between Byzantium and the social elite of the Galicia-Volhynia lands, rather than with the Polish Piasts. In this paper we concentrated on the presentation of the archaeological context of the find, which made it possible to establish that the icon arrived Chełm before the middle of the 13th century (terminus ante quem 1253), and especially on petrographic and traceological analyses of the icon. Assuming that greenish plaques were indeed the most characteristic steatite icon type, a decision was made to examine, apart from the Chełm artefact made from white rock, a greenish icon from the National Museum in Krakow as well. Petrographic analyses were based on optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). Both icons were carved in steatite i. e. talc rich rock but their chemical compositions indicate the presence of other components. Artifact from Chełm is white. Porous, enriched in potassium (K) and locally blistering outer rim of the icon from Chełm was formed probably during the fire event. Presence of forsterite and subordinate amount of leucite also indicate high temperature influence. Local enrichment in calcium (Ca) is related to exchange reactions with ground compounds. Accumulation of different components on the surface of the icon’s surface was noted. The icon from the National Museum in Krakow is greenish probably because of the presence of chlorite. The results of the traceological analysis (icon from National Museum in Krakow was not analysed) indicate that the icon found in Chełm was created most likely by a skilled and experienced carver with access to the high-quality magnifying glass and specialist tools required for rendering minuscule objects and their details. The production of the icon also involved the use of a “mechanical” tool, probably a kind of a miller with a rotating polishing head, which also seems to point to a specialist workshop. The use-wear traces observed on artefact are limited to polish resulting from prolonged contact with human hands or storing the icon in a leather case. Most of the extant Byzantine icons are unprovenanced objects held in museum collections or church treasuries. Therefore, as the icon presented in this paper was discovered during archaeological excavations, it ranks among the few Byzantine artefacts to have been found outside of this realm. The petrographic and traceological analyses conducted are the first published natural science contributions to the study of Byzantine steatite icons and we hope they will provide the impetus for undertaking such research on other Byzantine finds, helping to develop Byzantine archaeology further.

Woest versus wonderbaarlijk

Both in Die Riddere metter Mouwen (‘The Knight with the Sleeve’), a Flemish Arthurian romance written in the second part of the thirteenth century, and in Lodewijk van Velthem’s Fifth Part of the Spiegel Historiael (‘Mirror of History’), an early fourteenth-century continuation of Jacob van Maerlant’s voluminous world history (1284-1289), a frightening forest appears which is called Woud(e) sonder Genade (‘Forest without Mercy’). This correspondence is remarkable, for these Middle Dutch texts offer the oldest known occurences of a toponym not found in adjacent languages. Following the reasoning of Marijke Carasso-Kok, Thea Summerfield believes that Velthem has borrowed the name ‘Forest without Mercy’ from the Arthurian romance, which the chronicler may have known at the time: an adaptation of the story is inserted in the Velthem-owned Lancelot Compilation (c. 1320-1330). As Summerfield argues, Velthem presents the English King Edward I as a second King Arthur, not only by stating this explicitly and having Edward enact the role of his predecessor in Round Table festivities, but also, when narrating Edward’s feats, by reminding listeners and readers of Arthurian events from the past as described in romances. One of these romances, according to Summerfield, is Die Riddere metter Mouwen. After drawing his audience’s attention to this romance by using the singular name ‘Forest without Mercy’ again, Velthem in his chronicle – so Summerfield asserts – alludes to frightening incidents in the Arthurian Woud sonder Genade as told in the Flemish story. This narrative strategy, Summerfield concludes, served Velthem’s purpose to prove the historicity of the adventures King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table once experienced. The current paper aims to prove that Summerfield’s argument is not supported by evidence present in Velthem’s text: apart from the shared toponym, the chronicle contains no intertextual references to Die Riddere metter Mouwen. Therefore, its date of composition (1315-1317) is not valid as terminus ante quem for the creation of the Flemish romance.

Who was Peter Karlsson of Helsingborg? An Attempt to Identify a Medieval Seal Stamp Find

Finds of seal stamps in graves from the Middle Ages are very rare, especially if they are undamaged. The owner of the well-preserved stamp in grave 207 in the Church of St. Clement in Helsingborg was a nobleman, called Peter Karlsson. His coat of arms, which is quartered, restricted the searching for his relationships geographically. A ’terminus ante quem' was set by the archaeological investigation. The individual age was determined by means of an osteological and odontological investigation. It has not, on the whole, been possible to connect the actual name with any known armorial seal with the quartered shield. The unclear family relationships of this time and the only accidentally preserved documents from the Middle Ages do not offer the research worker of genealogy and heraldry sufficiently reliable sources. Even if there is no clear evidence, however, many facts nevertheless support the presumption that the seal owner in grave 207 was identical with Mayor Peter Karlsson of Helsingborg and also that he was a member of the Thott family.

Unraveling Past Submarine Eruptions by Dating Lapilli Tuff-Encrusting Coralligenous (Actea Volcano, NW Sicilian Channel)

The dating of young submarine volcanic eruptions, with their potential generation of tsunamigenic waves, is essential for a reliable hazard assessment. This is particularly relevant in highly populated coastal areas. The scarce knowledge of the underwater environment makes however, this reconstruction challenging. Our study is focused on the NW sector of the Sicilian Channel, where several small- and medium-size volcanic edifices are present. The only documented Surtseyan-type eruption occurred in A.D. 1831, forming the ephemeral Ferdinandea Island. Late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene eruptions have been up to now only hypothesized, and based solely on indirect data. Here we present the first radiocarbon dates of a coralligenous bioconstruction sampled at 34 m water depth from the summit of the Actea volcano, grown up progressively (up to nowadays) on a lapilli tuff deposit. Actea volcano is a recently discovered pyroclastic cone located at only four nautical miles off the SW coast of Sicily. The oldest age of the bioconstructions that started to encrustate the shallow water pyroclastics shortly after their emplacement (7,387 ± 175 cal years B.P.) represents a terminus ante quem, thus testifying a mid-Holocene submarine eruption in this sector of the Sicilian Channel. This method may be effectively used to bridge the gap between historical accounts and the geological record and thus may contribute to a better volcanic hazard assessment of submarine eruption and related phenomena such as tsunamis.

THE DATING OF PHILIPPOS OF AMPHIPOLIS (BNJ 280 T2)

AbstractOn the basis of two neglected testimonia, this short note argues that the terminus ante quem for Philippos of Amphipolis (BNJ 280) should be moved forward to the third century or to the early fourth century c.e. if not earlier.

Material Characterisation for Preserving Cultural Heritage: Evidence of the 1595 Fire at Pisa Cathedral

ABSTRACT Recent restoration work on Pisa Cathedral provided the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis of the monument that identified interesting aspects of its history, preservation, and structural safety. In particular, the study of the matroneum provided clues about the role of the structures in the well-known fire that occurred in 1595. Alteration patterns and damage forms on the stone masonry walls were analysed to better understand their relationship with this catastrophic event. The investigation of the stone specimens enabled textural and mineralogical features typical of fire damage to be identified on the surface. The evidence of fire also provided a terminus ante quem to correctly interpret and diachronically date a damage pattern consisting of cracks in the eastern arch supporting the dome. The cracks were likely to have been induced by a soil consolidation phenomenon related to the renowned leaning of the Pisa tower, centuries before the fire.

Can Loanwords Be Used to Date Biblical Texts, and If So, How?

The question of whether or not biblical texts can be dated chronologically remains a lively topic of debate, and one important part of the conversation is the use of loanwords for dating biblical texts. This paper examines the philological relationship between lexical borrowings and the date of biblical texts. By focusing on the Hebrew Bible’s non-Semitic vocabulary, it argues that loanwords both cannot and can be used to date biblical traditions. Negatively, there is no clear one-to-one correspondence between a loanword of a given type and the date of a biblical text. Positively, loanwords can be useful for dating biblical texts in certain circumstances: first, the relative number and type of loanwords can point to plausible historical circumstances of borrowing, and second, phonological and morphological features can establish an approximate terminus ante quem for the borrowing.

Fragments of a steatite icon (diptych wing) with the Great Feasts cycle excavated in Chełm (eastern Poland)

Abstract The paper presents fragments of a Byzantine icon discovered in 2015 during regular archaeological excavations carried out in Chełm, eastern Poland. Iconographic analyses allow the nine surviving fragments to be interpreted as belonging to a diptych wing with the Great Feasts cycle. The icon represents archaic iconography of the subject, with the scene of Transfiguration placed after Entry into Jerusalem and before the Crucifixion. The artefact was created in the second half or at the close of the 12th century, and it was made from steatite, which has been confirmed by petrographic analyses. The icon was discovered in the remains of a palace complex of King Daniel Romanovich, the greatest ruler of the Galicia-Volhynia Lands. The results of the archaeological research allow the terminus ante quem for the icon’s arrival in Chełm to be determined as before the middle of the 13th century. Various possible explanations as to how the icon found its way to Chełm are also explored in the paper.

The Astronomical Situation and a Hitherto Unregistered Comet in Synesius’ Calvitii encomium 10, 5 / 209, 8–14

The text presents, in elementary astronomical terms, a clearer picture of what Synesius describes in the passage.Although the comet cannot be pinpointed chronologically, it is quite likely hitherto unregistered cometographically. Its terminusante quem is the year 404.

ХРОНОЛОГІЯ ОЛЬВІЙСЬКИХ «БОРИСФЕНІВ»

Мета статті – перша (оцінна) спроба побудови хронологічної схеми карбування «борисфенів» усіх груп (та подолання альтернативи між двома найбільш поширеними хронологічними схемами П. О. Каришковського та В. О. Анохіна) шляхом виконання просопографічної інтерпретації диферентів. Методика дослідження – типові наукові методи у поєднанні з власними науковими розробленнями автора із синхронізації епонімного каталогу IPE I2 201 (календаря) та просопографії Ольвії. Наукова новизна. У першому наближенні досліджено історичний контекст, який містять диференти на «борисфенах», тобто виконано ототожнення деяких із них з реальними історичними особами. Відповідно, на цій основі побудована орієнтовна хронологічна модель карбування «борисфенів». Висновки. Диференти на «борисфенах» не мають епонімного характеру, однак приблизно 50–60 % із них позначають осіб – монетних магістратів, які згідно з античною традицією в суміжні роки обіймали епонімну посаду (це характерно і для емісій «Деметра-орел, дельфін» 360–330 рр. до н. е. тощо). Диференти (монограми, скорочення), як і імена, підпорядковані стійкій в античному суспільстві традиції родового наслідування. Зазвичай, диференти зазнавали спрощення не тільки упродовж року, але і в разі застосування їх особами з наступних поколінь, пов’язаних родинними узами (наприклад, ΣΩΚΡΣΩΚΣΩ та ΘΕΟΘΕ або ΑΘΗΑΘ, або ΕΥΒΙΟΕΥΒ, або ΒΟΣΠΟΡΙΒΟΣ тощо). Припущення В. О. Анохіна про належність диферентів із різних груп, що повторюються, до однієї особи, яка неодноразово брала участь у карбуванні, та, відповідно, про тривалість випуску «борисфенів» не більше двох-трьох десятиліть, суперечить античній традиції. Початок емісії «борисфенів» – 330 р. до н. е., завершення – орієнтовно 219 р. до н. е. Перша група «борисфенів» датується з 330 до 319 рр. до н. е. включно, друга – з 307 до 301 рр. до н. е. включно; третя – у діапазоні 290 – 271+12 р. до н. е.; четверта–шоста (37 рокових випусків) – орієнтовно з 270+12 до 234+12 рр. до н. е. включно. Також отримані орієнтовні датування сьомої–десятої груп у діапазоні 232+12– 219 рр. до н. е. Патроніми великої групи епонімів 220 – 208 рр. до н. е. корелюють із диферентами «борисфенів» другої половини випусків п’ятої групи, підтверджуючи, згідно з законом генеалогії, їхнє датування в діапазоні 250 – 240 рр. до н. е. За палеографією диферент № 92 не може бути датований раніше останньої третини III ст. до н. е. В. О. Анохін установив масовий характер зв’язку двох і більше диферентів спільними лицьовими штемпелями, на підставі чого головним висновком дослідника стало припущення про існування спеціальних колегій магістратів, які для I–VI групи налічували шість осіб, а для останніх груп – двох осіб, відповідно, тривалість випуску «борисфенів» складала не більше двох-трьох десятиліть. Схема В. О. Анохіна має протиріччя: збільшення об’єму емісії останніх груп майже у шість разів щодо перших супроводжувалося зменшенням кількості магістратів – із шести до двох. Застосування ж спільних штемпелів упродовж кількох років (не більше чотирьох) нами пояснюється не однорічною емісією групи магістратів, а реалізацією відомої в античній монетній справі технології, яка передбачала використання кількох однотипних лицьових штемпелів, розташованих поряд на ковадлі. Поява такої технології цілком зрозуміла з огляду на тривалість та інтенсивність випуску. Нам невідомі принципи, якими керувалися монетарії у разі використання того чи іншого лицьового штемпеля, але, ймовірно, така технологія забезпечувала умовно рівномірне їх зношування; своїм наслідком вона мала появу монет із різними комбінаціями диферентів, пов’язаними спільними лицьовими штемпелями, упродовж кількох років. Отже, із двох найбільш відомих хронологічних схем карбування «борисфенів» (П. О. Каришковського та В. О. Анохіна) ми однозначно віддаємо перевагу схемі П. О. Каришковського (з деякими уточненнями хронології останніх груп).Просопографічне дослідження диферентів на «борисфенах» усіх груп виконано вперше, тому його треба сприймати як оцінне та наближене. Цілком очевидна необхідність подальших досліджень з метою подолання альтернативних варіантів інтерпретації, уточнення та вдосконалення моделі у хронологічній лакуні епонімного каталогу. Також необхідна ревізія інтерпретації скарбів, вивчення нових варіантів диферентів, співвідношення «борисфенів» з іншими монетами, подальше дослідження особливостей родового наслідування монограм та співставлення результатів нумізматичних досліджень із просопографічними.

LIKE GOLDEN APHRODITE: GRIEVING WOMEN IN THE HOMERIC EPICS AND APHRODITE'S LAMENT FOR ADONIS

One of the more powerful recurring motifs in the Iliad is that of the grief-stricken woman lamenting the death of a hero. As with much else in the Homeric epics, these scenes have a formulaic character; when Briseis laments Patroclus, and Hecuba, Andromache and Helen lament Hector, each is depicted delivering a specialized form of speech, specific to the context of a woman's lament. The narrative depiction of grieving women, as well, is formalized, with specific gestures and recurring images that typify these scenes. One element of this depiction that has largely escaped serious consideration is the comparison of a woman in her initial moment of recognition of the corpse to Aphrodite. In this article, I will argue that the allusion is not merely to her beauty but to the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, specifically the moment of the goddess’ discovery of the death of her mortal lover. As the earliest surviving explicit reference to Adonis in Greek literature appears c.600 b.c.e., this would require a raising of the terminus ante quem for the transmission of the Adonis myth from the Near East to the mid eighth century.

The Court of Rostyslav Mykhailovych, Prince and Dominus of Machou, in Hungary (An Excerpt from a Family History between the Late 13th and Mid 14th Centuries)

One of the least-explored aspects of the biography of the Ruthenian Prince Rostyslav Mykhailovych, a maternal nephew of King Daniel Romanovych of Rus’, is his court in a new homeland, the Kingdom of Hungary, between 1242/43 and 1262/64. It is known from various sources that he had numerous supporters among the secular and clerical nobility not only in Hungary but also in the lands of Galicia, Chernihiv, and Bolokhov. To date, however, too little information has been obtained from historical records containing clear mention of individuals who threw in their lot with the runaway prince in the lands of King Bela IV, especially after the defeat at Yaroslav on August 17, 1245. Having verified chronicles and Hungarian charters, the author concludes that the family of Rostyslav Mykhailovych and Princess Anna might well have been related to Lev and his sons, Fedir and Stephan, who were lords of Borod Land near Mukachevo in Bereg County. These people, who must have been descended from the nobility of Chernihiv or Galicia, succeeded one another in an effort to put Prince Rostyslav himself or his second cousin Iziaslav Volodymyrovych on the Galician throne throughout the 1240s and 1250s, all to no avail. What is important is that such attempts were always timed to coincide with the Mongol threat to the lands of the Romanids, which provided the claimants to the Galician throne with additional (albeit missed) chances of success. Their loyalty to the son-in-law of the Hungarian king was rewarded by the latter’s daughter Anna (terminus ante quem 1264); she granted them lands, which were afterwards in the successive possession of the last members of the Arpad dynasty on the Hungarian throne as well as the new kings from the Anjou dynasty. Borod Land remained in the family’s possession at least until the second half of the 14th century.

CALCIUM OXALATE RADIOCARBON DATING: PRELIMINARY TESTS TO DATE ROCK ART OF THE DECORATED OPEN-AIR CAVES, ERONGO MOUNTAINS, NAMIBIA

ABSTRACTThe direct dating of rock paintings is not always possible due to the lack of organic carbon compounds in pigments, or because sampling from a heritage site is often restricted. To overcome these limitations, dating laboratories have to develop new approaches. In this study, we consider sampling calcium oxalate crusts covering the painted artworks as a way to indirectly date the rock art. This stratigraphic approach includes isolating and extracting pure oxalate from the crusts. The approach was tested on natural bulk accretions collected in the open-air sites of Erongo Mountains in Namibia. The accretions were separated into two phases (pure oxalate and the remaining residues) with a special pretreatment. This process removes carbonates through acidification (HCl 6N) and dissolves the oxalate into the supernatant, leaving the minerals and windblown organic compounds in the residue. The efficiency of the separation was checked on the two phases by FTIR analyses and by 14C dating and showed that pure oxalate powders were indeed obtained. AMS radiocarbon results of various accretions on the same art panels provided ages from modern periods to 2410 ± 35 BP. From these first results, more targeted sampling campaigns can be considered to provide a terminus ante quem for the rock art.

Prehistoric mining

Prehistoric copper mining in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula continues the previous work on copper mining by the editors and main authors N. Rafel Fontanals, M.A. Hunt Ortiz, I. Soriano and S. Delgado-Raack. The site La Turquesa, a deposit mainly of Gossan type (iron cap), belongs to the same fault zone and mining basin as the already published Solano del Bepo (Rafel Fontanals et al. 2017). Mining of copper and lead (galena) at the site cannot certainly be traced back into prehistory, let alone to the Neolithic, and the earliest radiometric dates point to mining beginning before the early Middle Ages. The typo-chronology of mining tools is inconclusive, as is usual at these sites, and as the reader may infer from the comprehensive 80-page catalogue of hammerstones and picks. In his archaeo-metallurgical chapter, Montero Ruiz concludes convincingly that, currently, the most reliable date for mining at La Turquesa is in the Copper Age or the Early Bronze Age: the isotope signature of the mine's ore seems to accord with isotope ratios measured in a handful of artefacts from that period. The geology and mineralogy of the deposit is instructively summarised, adding archaeologically relevant information on visibility, accessibility and workability (with A. Andreazini and J.C. Melgarejo as co-authors). Traces of prehistoric opencast copper mining in small and irregular shafts have been heavily damaged by nineteenth- or twentieth-century mining of turquoise and variscite (with accessory chalcopyrite and malachite). The archaeological documentation of shafts and galleries from recent and pre-industrial times is cursory and does not fully attend to the three-dimensionality of the deposit. The use of more up-to-date measurement technology would have offered a clearer understanding of the site in its excavation, analysis and publication. No traces of tools were documented, making it impossible to combine the mineralogy of the deposit with the practical mining work. Without any quantitative information on heap material the mine's productivity cannot be estimated. The discovery of evidence for fire-setting using thermoluminescence (detailed in the chapter by A.L. Rodrigues et al.) seemed a promising test for archaeological hypotheses. Unfortunately, the palynological sediment sample gives a terminus ante quem of the seventh or eighth century AD (chapter by S. Pérez Díaz and J.A. López Sáez). Alongside unpublished indeterminate pottery, 117 mining tools are described in detail (including use-wear, lithology and surface types). Comparison with material from nearby Solana del Bepo (Rafel Fontanals et al. 2017) reveals that the artefacts from La Turquesa are less sophisticated and more opportunistic: mainly hammerstones modified during use or simple picks, sometimes with a picked groove that indicates hafting. Delgado-Raack argues convincingly that the tools were used in a context of direct extraction, for crushing the rock as well as for fragment-crushing copper ore at the site.

New evidence for a bronze age date of chariot depictions in the eurasian steppes

Two-wheeled horse-drawn chariot depictions in the Eurasian steppe have long been stylistically dated to the Bronze Age. Here we present an example of a petroglyph embedded in the architecture of an early Scythian royal tomb in the Tuva Republic, Siberia. The construction of the tomb is dated through wiggle-matching to between 833 and 800 BCE (95.4%) thus providing a rare terminus ante quem for chariot depictions in southern Siberia.The new evidence supports the current chronological range for this type of petroglyph in the Eurasian steppe belt.

A Historical Morphology of Western Karaim: the -a-d- Continuative Present

Abstract In this paper the author presents the hitherto undescribed Western Karaim -a-d- ~ -a-dy- ~ -a-dyr- verbal forms. The description of these forms is based on philological data collected from 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts and the final conclusion is that it was primarily used to express continuative present. The author also argues in favour of treating the first half of the 19th century as the terminus ante quem for its final disappearance in colloquial Karaim. This paper is the second in a series of articles introducing previously undocumented Karaim grammatical categories.

A Curious Synchronicity of Dates—How a Hypothetical Reconstruction of the Stage History of Two of Shakespeare’s Comedies Mirrors the Performance History of Lost Plays Recorded in Philip Henslowe’s Diary

It is possible—without recourse to Henslowe’s diary—to reconstruct a hypothetical stage history for Love’s Labour’s Lost. The terminus ante quem is provided by the 1598 quarto—which was the first play quarto to identify Shakespeare as the playwright on its title page. Additional information on that page suggests that the play was not new at the time of printing,1 and that it was modified in or around that year. Multiple analyses2 have placed it just after Comedy of Errors, which was probably performed at Grays Inn on Saturday, 28 December 1594.3 As part of the same winter festivities at Gray’s Inn, the Gesta Grayorum also describes a visit from ‘an Ambassador from the mighty Emperor of Russia … who came in Attire of Russia, accompanied with two of his own Country, in like Habit’. It has been speculated that this entertainment inspired the masque of Muscovites in Love’s Labour’s Lost 5.2.4

Old, New, and Newer Still in Book 7 of the Speculum musice

In chapter 27 of the last book of his Speculum musice, Jacobus faults an unnamed theorist for misattributing some ars nova doctrine to the ars antiqua; he then excuses the offense by explaining that the oldest ars nova theory might already seem old to current practitioners. This passage and several others suggest that Jacobus was writing at a time when the ars nova was hardly new. And yet the earliest ars nova theory dates from 1319, while the completion of the Speculum musice is often placed in the mid-1320s or ca. 1330. Since the Speculum cites a range of ars nova treatises that in turn cite a repertoire of motets, Jacobus's comments serve as a terminus ante quem for the ars nova writ large. This study reconsiders the date of completion for the last, seventh book of the Speculum musice. It is clear that Jacobus was older than the moderni and finished his treatise as an old man, but he also reveals that he wrote over a long span of time and revised his work repeatedly. His notational proclivities are those of a musician who came of age in a post-Franconian idiom prevalent until ca. 1320, but the latest notational developments he mentions include semiminims, dragmas, and even note shapes otherwise associated with the so-called ars subtilior. In light of this, I suggest that the Speculum musice could have been finished as late as the 1350s by an author in his mid- to late seventies. This redating, in turn, invites broad reconsideration of the transition between ars antiqua and ars nova.

Koitonites Niketas – The Donor of “Niketas Bible” of the 10th Century

Introduction. The article is devoted to the identification of the donor of the famous illuminated codex, which received the name “Niketas Bible” in historiography. The name of the donor Niketas, and his position as a ‘koitonites’ are known from the epigram in this manuscript. Until now, researchers cannot come to a decision about the date of the “Niketas Bible” and hesitate about the identification of its owner to one of the Niketas of the 10th century known to us. Dating to the 960s – 970s has until now been considered the most reasonable. However, all the arguments related to the paleography and the decoration of this manuscript are quite random and don’t make it possible to narrow down its dating on reasonable grounds. In the historiography there was no coherent research of the biographies of those men named Niketas, who could potentially be identified with the eponymous owner of this luxurious manuscript. Methods. On the basis of the prosopographical and historical-cultural analysis, we proposed a new identification of the owner of the manuscript and restored his ‘cursus honorum’, which allows us to obtain a new “narrow” date for ordering the codex of the “Niketas Bible” and identify another manuscript that belonged to him. Analysis. The only ‘koitonites’ Niketas, which would satisfy all the indirect indications of the personality of the donor of “Niketas Bible”, is the protospatharios and ‘koitonites’ Niketas. He was the addressee of one of the letters of Metropolitan of Nicaea Theodore. All the surviving letters of Metropolitan Theodore fit into the period from 956 to 959, and it is precisely this time period that his letter to ‘koitonites’ Niketas should be dated to. It turns out that the codex of “Niketas Bible” is associated with a person who is mentioned in the sources between 956 and 959. There is a solid ‘terminus ante quem’ to limit the residence of ‘koitonites’ Niketas in this position at the court. After the death of Emperor Constantine VII in November 959, his son Romanus II removed all of the courtiers that worked under his father from his posts. Obviously, Niketas had to lose his position along with all the other courtiers. It is possible to identify ‘koitonites’ Niketas with patrician, protospatharios, and droungarios of the fleet Niketas. Courtier Niketas is known as the donor of “Niketas Bible”, while the droungarios Niketas is known as a person who wrote the Paris. gr. 497 manuscript. The Paris. gr. 497 manuscript was written by him when he was in captivity in Africa; after his returning to Constantinople in 968 he decorated this manuscript and in 970 donated it to the church of St. George in Cyprus. Results. ‘Koitonites’ Niketas ordered the manuscript of “Niketas Bible” in the second half of the 950s, ‘terminus ante quem’ – November of 959, or the very beginning of 960. Courtier Niketas is most likely the same person as patrician Niketas. The life story of the eunuch Niketas, the courtier, the commander and the bibliophile, is quite typical for the close circle of Emperor Constantine VII’s and Basil Lecapenos the Nothos.