Beinecke MS 245                                                      Italy, s. XV^^med
Aristotle, Mechanica (in Greek)

          ff. 1r-37v    [Greek]. [Greek].

          B. M. W. Knox has collated Beinecke MS 245 with Bekker's text,
     Aristotelis opera (Berlin, 1831), v. 2, 847a11-858b31, in the Ziskind
     Catalogue, p. 45.

          Parchment, ff. i (paper) + i (contemporary parchment) + 37 + i
     (paper), 208 x 128 (112 x 66) mm. Written in 20 long lines, ruled in
     pale brown crayon or ink; single horizontal and vertical bounding
     lines, full across.
          I-IV^^8, V^^6 (-6; last flyleaf glued to f. 37v).
          Greek minuscule, compact and neat, with a large admixture of
     uncial forms; tops of letters hang from ruled lines. J. Wiesner has
     identified the scribe as the Manuel whose hand appears in Vat. Pal. gr.
     258 (illustrated in Harlfinger, Specimina griechischer Kopisten der
     Renaissance [Berlin, 1974], v. 1, pl. 4). Harlfinger attributes the 
     marginalia in this manuscript to Juan Paez de Castro (ca. 1545), whose 
     hand he illustrates on Tafel 4 of Die Textgeschichte der 
     Pseudo-Aristotelischen Schrift... (Amsterdam, 1971) p. 415.
          On f. 1r, title in red minuscule by original scribe. Author and
     title in Latin, brown ink, by a later scribe. 5-line initial in red,
     with simple floral designs. Initials within text sometimes set outside
     bounding lines, enlarged and elaborated slightly. Numerous diagrams of
     geometrical figures in margins.
          Binding: s. xix. Blue edges. Tan calf, blind- and gold-tooled,
     with title on spine.

          Written in Italy in the mid-15th century by the scribe Manuel;
     marginalia added in the 16th century by Juan Paez de Castro (see also
     above). Augusto Mariotti (ex libris on third flyleaf, recto; Cosenza,
     v. 3, p. 2183). Belonged to Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford
     (1766-1827; bookplate; no. 177 in his catalogue); sold to Payne. Sir
     Thomas Phillipps (no. 7488; tag on spine). Purchased from Laurence
     Witten with funds from the Jacob Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957 (MS
     5).

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 45, no. 245. 
	     Ziskind Catalogue, p. 45.

     Barbara A. Shailor