MS. Holkham Gr. 103

Hand(s)

The same hand as that in MSS. Holkham Gr. 84, 90. It has been proposed that the scribe was an anonymous Cretan, responsible for many other mss. belonging to Pietro da Montagnana. Cf. Gamba, Pietro Da Montagnana: La Vita, Gli Studi, La Biblioteca Di Un Homo Trilinguis, PhD. thesis, 29 January 2016, pp. 247–255, 340–342. The MS was copied in Padua possibly ca. 1460–1470 by the anonymous Cretan scribe, who worked for Pietro da Montagnana. The codex was a copy of a 14th c. MS, which is now the second part of the composite MS Guelf. 82 Gud. G. As Gamba observes, it has to be pointed out that although Pietro had in his hands the 14th c. MS, he preferred to annotate the recent copy of the text (MS. Holkham Gr. 103). Examination also of the interlinear glosses reveals direct dependence on the Latin translation of Heroicus penned by John Argyropoulos while he was in Padua. This is now preserved in the MS. Marc. lat. XIV.54 (coll. 4328), fols 49r-66r. It is pretty sure that Pietro da Montagnana had direct access to this translation. The grammatical notes accompanying MS. Holkham Gr. 103 also testify to the fact that Pietro had at least adequate knowledge of Ancient Greek, for he provided his own translation whenever he had found Argyropoulos’ text to be less reliable. See Gamba, Pietro Da Montagnana: La Vita, Gli Studi, La Biblioteca Di Un Homo Trilinguis, pp. 146–150, esp. 148–149; E. Gamba, ‘Da S. Giovanni di Verdara a Wolfenbüttel:
Riflessioni intorno alla biblioteca di Pietro da Montagnana e
all’Euripide nel Cod. Guelf. 15 Gud. graec.’ in Retter der Antike Marquard Gude (1635 –1689) auf der Suche nach den Klassikern herausgegeben von Patrizia Carmassi, Wiesbaden, 2016, esp. pp. 88–103. Cf. also N. G. Wilson, ‘The Book Trade in Venice ca. 1400–1515’, in Venezia centro di mediazione tra Oriente e Occidente (secoli XV-XVI). Aspetti e problemi, eds H.-G. Beck et al., Florence, 1977, vol. II, pp. 381–397, esp. pp. 388–389. Wilson found Pietro’s notes of ‘extremely elementary character’.