Beinecke MS 239                                                          Italy, s. XV
Manuel Chrysoloras, Erotemata (in Greek)

     1. f. 1r    [Full-page inscription:] [Greek] [badly rubbed] [Greek] [?]
     [Greek]. Followed by short prayer. f. 1v blank

     2. ff. 2r-33v     [Greek]. [Greek] [Greek] [Greek]//

          The manuscript is incomplete at end of quire; the text is the
     abridged version of Guarino of Verona, GKW, v. 6, nos. 6696-700; there
     is no modern printed text.

          Parchment, ff. ii (contemporary parchment, foliated i, 1) + 40
     (contemporary foliation, in red; modern foliation is incorrect; the
     total number of leaves was originally 60 according to a contemporary
     note on f. 11r), 189 x 137 (125 x 82) mm. Written in 20 long lines,
     ruled in hard point mostly on the flesh side; single bounding lines,
     that do not extend into margins, except on ff. i and 1.
          I-IV^^10. No catchwords or signatures.
          Written by a single scribe whose name may be that on the title
     page (second front fly-leaf) which is now erased and partly illegible
     in the critical portion of the text.
          Capitals and headings in red throughout.
          Binding: s. xv. Probably Tuscan according to A. R. A. Hobson. One
     set of sewing holes only. Sewn on four tawed, slit straps laced through
     tunnels in beech boards and nailed. The endband cores, now wanting,
     were also nailed. Covered in brown calf, originally a brick red, with
     corner tongues. Blind-stamped with a rope interlace cross in a rope
     interlace border. Two fastenings. Rebacked.

          Written in Italy in the 15th century by a Western scribe ["Petrus
     Iatrus Florentinus" mentioned on the title page?]. Unidentified bookstamp
     consisting of the initials "A. N." enclosed in a double circle, outer
     thick and inner thin. Collection of Abate Luigi Celotti; his sale through
     Payne and Foss to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 4202, on f. i recto and
     spine). Purchased from Laurence Witten with funds from the Jacob
     Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957 (MS 21).

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 45, no. 239. 
	     Ziskind Catalogue, p. 47.

     Barbara A. Shailor