University of Chicago Library, Goodspeed Manuscript Collection Ms. 129, New Testament. Gospels (Nicolaus Gospels). Greg. 1152. Édhessa, Greece (Macedonia), May 4, 1133.

Contents

Four gospels in Greek. Ammonian section and Eusebian canon numbers, Lectionary headings, and incipits in the margins. Contains 15th century Lectionary tables of Synaxarion and Menologion. Formerly Goodspeed Ms. Grk. 11.

  1. fols. 2r-3r Kephalaia of Matthew.
  2. fols. 3r-3v Prologue of Matthew. Introduction to the four gospels.
  3. fols. 5r-60r Matthew. Subscription.
  4. fol. 60v Kephalaia of Mark (incomplete).
  5. fols. 62r-92v Mark.
  6. fols.93r-93v Kephalaia of Luke.
    Note: Consists of 83, but incorrectly numbered to 84.
  7. fol. 93v Prologue of Luke.
  8. fols. 94r-148v Luke.
  9. fols. 150r-192v John. Subscription.
  10. fols. 192v-193r Colophon: Here is the end of the Christ-spoken words. Remember Lord the writer Nicolaus of Edessa the sinful monk and his family. Amen. This book was finished in the month Artemision which is in the Roman reckoning May on the 4th day the 11th indiction in the year 6641 (1133 C.E) in the Christ-blessed city of Edessa.
  11. fols. 195r-219v Lectionary tables (Synaxarion, Lenten lections, and Menologion).
    Note: Tables contain saints' names, or date references, gospel source and Ammonian section number, incipits and explicits, marginal cross references, and indications of mode. Blank (fols. 194, 220, 221).

Decoration

Miniatures

  1. fol. 1vVirgin Mary, With suppliant: Virgin stands at left, dressed in blue robe, and wimple or kerchief, and red shoes; looks toward hand of god emerging from clouds, upper right. Her hand extends over female suppliant kneeling, lower right, who gestures toward Virgin. She wears gray cape, blue head covering, and robe with red pectoral or embroidered cross on chest.
    Note: Inscriptions, partially illegible. Miniature attached with tape to fol. 6. Blank (fol. 1r).

Comments

Described in a catalogue of 1864 by Emmanuel Joannides as containing 5 miniatures, that are, portraits of the evangelists, and of the Hyperagia Theotokos (most Holy Mother of God) pictured with a young woman. A second catalogue description by Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus, published in 1915, notes 4 extant miniatures, all of which are said to be evangelists, as the Virgin Mary (fol. 1v) is misidentified as St. Matthew. Fragmentary pieces of missing leaves after fols. 60 and 149.

Headpieces

Headpieces embellished with birds and foliate motifs in blue, rose, gold, and green (5r, 62r, 94r, 150r).

Initials

Major initials (30 mm) composed of bead and foliate designs in blue, rose, and gold. Minor initials in red set off from the text (occasional duplication of an end letter of the preceding line).

Physical Description

Support

Parchment and paper. 125 x 98 mm.

Watermarks

Watermark of Lectionary leaves, fols. 196, 207, and 208, similar to Briquet, Balance dans un cercle à plateaux circulaires suspendus à l'attache mediane, 2551 (Ferrare, 1475). For fols. 210, 211, and 221, the watermark is similar to Briquet, Tête de boeuf au serpent s'enroulant autour d'une croix ou d'une tige, 15366 (Brescia, 1474).

Number of Leaves

189 parchment and 30 paper leaves of which 1 back is a flyleaf (modern yellow paper). Flyleaf conjoint with pastedown. The manuscript was foliated before the loss of 4 leaves.

Foliation

1-222. Modern foliation in Arabic numerals in pencil.

Collation

25 parchment quires of 8 leaves, with the exception of quires 2 and 25, originally of 6 and 5 leaves. 3 quires of paper (fols. 194-221) whose block and writing space dimensions match those of the parchment leaves. Material lost includes: Miniatures of Matthew (fol. 4), Mark (fol. 61), Luke (between fols. 93 and 94), and John (fol. 149). Additionally, a leaf following fol. 60 with the final portion of the kephalaia of Mark, and the parchment leaf replaced with paper (fol. 41, Matthew 19:1-19).

Dimensions

Written space 85 x 70 mm (fol. 174r).

Layout

1 column, 21 to 25 lines. Ruling with hard point (parcment and paper). Pricking in the outer margins.

Writing

Written in minuscule script in dark brown ink (some flaking).

Punctuation includes high and low points, comma, marks of elision and interrogation. With quotes, quotation marks in the left margin next to each line.

Text Divisions

Titles and αρχε (beginning) and τελος (end) indicators red.

Condition

Parchment darkened, cracking around cords. Several leaves reinforced with tape or paper. Leaf detached from binding (fol. 3). Textblock detached from binding. Some marginal notation marred due to trimming. Water stains.

Binding Description

Bound in marbled paper over millboard, quarter green morocco. Floral border and stamps of spine panels in gold. Title in gold, ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ ΜΕΜΒΡΑΙΝΟΝ.

History

Origin

The manuscript was written in Macedonia in the city of Edessa, the present-day Édhessa, Greece by the monk Nicolaus who completed his work May 4, 1133 according to the principal colophon (fols. 192v-193r). The miniature of the Virgin Mary with suppliant is judged to be a later addition.

Provenance

Provenance from the 12th to the mid-19th century is unknown. The manuscript was in the collection of the Metochion of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople, the present-day Istanbul, Turkey, where it was seen and catalogued by Emmanuel Joannides in the early 1860s, and by Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus in the early 20th century. Catalogues and scholarly publications have noted the shelfmarks 419, 767, and 799 as those assigned at various times to the gospels while it was part of the Metochion library.

Notation, 62.94.150 (back pastedown).

Acquisition

Acquired by the University of Chicago in 1929 from Rudolf M. Riefstahl (New York), with funds provided by Chicago businessman Frederick T. Haskell.

Bibliography

  1. Emmanuel Joannides, "[Catalogue]," Ho en Konstantinopolei Hellenikos Philologikos Syllogos 2 (1864), pp. 62-63, no. 5 (Holy Sepulchre 419)
  2. Caspar René Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1900-1909), vol. 1, p. 243; vol. 3, pp. 1131, 1474. no. 1152.
  3. A. I. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Hierosolymitikē Vivliothēkē, ētoi Katalogos tōn en tais vivliothēkais: tou hagiōtatou apostolikou te kai katholikou orthodoxou patriarchikou thronou tōn Hierosolymōn kai pasēs Palaistinēs apokeimenōn Hellēnikōn Kōdikōn En Petroupolei: ech tou typographeiou V. Kirspaoum, 1915), pp. 291-292, 555. no. 799.
  4. Samuel A. Cartledge, "A group of gospel manuscripts" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1930).
  5. Seymour de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935), vol. 1, p. 568.
  6. Kenneth W. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937), pp. 231-233.
  7. Merrill Mead Parvis, The Story of the Goodspeed Collection ([Chicago]: n.p., 1952), p. 13.