A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

Lincoln College MS. Gr. 8

Diktyon no.: 48662

Heirmologium, ca. 1515

Contents

Language(s): Greek

1. (fols. 1r-v)

List of nineteen monasteries on Mt Athos and of their respective patron saints, starting with the Lavra and ending with Hagiou Paulou. Fol. 1r-v was originally blank.

2. (fols. 2v–3r)
Προκείμενα εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους ( prokeimena for different categories of saints). Ff. 3v–5r were originally blank.
3. (fol. 5v)

Ὑπερευλογημένη ὑπάρχεις Θεοτόκε παρθένε· διὰ γὰρ τοῦ ἐκ σοῦ σαρκωθέντος etc.

4. (fols. 6r–5v)
Πίναξ ἄριστος τῆς παρούσης πυξίδος

Table of contents listing fifteen items, only the first of which, an Heirmologion, is now present in the manuscript.

5. (fol. 6v)

Ἐν τῇ ἀναλήψει καταβάσια «Θείῳ καληφθεὶς», ὡσαύτως καὶ ἐν τῇ Πεντηκοστῇ τὸν αὐτὸν etc.

6. (fols. 7r–167r)
Heirmologion

The heirmoi are listed by tone and then by ode number, i.e. Tone I Ode I, Tone I Ode III, Tone I Ode IV, etc.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper folded in 12°. Flower watermarks similar to Piccard Blatt-Blume-Baum 2013–2014 (attested in 1514), chain-distance 38 mm. – Ff. 162–167 are folded in 8° and have anchor watermarks with GC countermark similar in part to Mošin 1512 (attested in 1639) and 2169 (attested in 1626), chain-distance 30 mm.
Extent: i+167 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 139 × 105 mm.

Collation

vi (ff. 1–6), 19 × viii (ff. 7–158), 4 × i (ff. 159–162), vi (ff. 163–167 plus the pastedown). The principal scribe signed his quires in the centre of the lower margin of each first page and each last page. The series begins with αον on f. 7r and ends with ζ´ on f. 62v, whereas the remaining signatures have evidently been lost in the course of trimming.

Layout

16 lines, ruling Leroy D 22D1; 90 × 55 mm.

Hand(s)

Produced by a single anonymous scribe – except that ff. 162–167, which were added ca. 1630, are the work of Hieromonk Cyprian, who signed his name in a cryptogram on f. 167r: πχκϡϟθνλω ϟε|ϡλξλνθυλω λ ζθτθω, i.e. Κυπριανος ιερομοναχος ο γ(ρ)αψας. This is evidently the same Cyprian who copied in 1632 Mt Athos, Iberon, 892. – The text on ff. 1r-v and 3v–5r is not original to the manuscript.

Decoration

The scribe drew in red and/or brown ink ornamented headbands on ff. 7r, 38v, 67v, 92r, 114r, 124v, 139v, and 148v.

Additions:

Fol. 3v contains the prayer Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ υἱὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ, διὰ τῆς Θεοτόκου καὶ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων ἄνοιξον τὰ ὦτα καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας μου etc. (CPG 4687) copied in a sixteenth-century hand.

A seventeenth-century hand has written on f. 4r three troparia: Τῆς μετανοίας ἄνοιξόν μου πύλας etc., Τῆς σωτηρίας εὔθυνόν μοι τρίβους etc., Τὰ πλήθη τῶν πεπραγμένων μοι δεινῶν etc.

Another seventeenth-century hand has written on the back pastedown the riddle Ἄνω ἵσταμαι τῆς γαίας καὶ τοῦ πόλου etc., on which see I. Vassis, Initia carminum Byzantinorum (Berlin 2005) 63.

Just as in Lincoln College Greek 9, the front endpaper is a reused piece from a letter written in seventeenth-century handwriting: Πανοσιώτατε καὶ ἅγιαι προγούμενε χαίροις ἐν Κύριῳ καὶ οἰγίαινε etc. There are sketches of ornamented initial letters on its back side.

Binding

Binding (seventeenth-century) of blind-tooled light-brown leather over pasteboard. The covers are flush with the book-block; the spine has no ridges; traces remain of two leather ribbons.

History

Origin: c. 1515, with additions c. 1630

Provenance and Acquisition

Bequeathed by Sir George Wheler (1651–1724), who acquired it during his journey to Greece (1675–1676).

Record Sources

Description by Georgi Parpulov (2023).

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2021-06: First online publication.