YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 247 Byzantium, s. XV^^in
Pseudo-Pythagoras, Carmina Aurea, etc. (in Greek)
1. ff. 1r-3r [Greek]. f. 3v blank
Pseudo-Pythagoras, Carmina aurea; Knox lists the variant readings
from the critical edition of P. C. Van Der Horst (Ziskind
Catalogue, p. 53).
2. ff. 6r-92v [Greek].
Hierocles, Commentary on Pythagoras; F. Koehler, ed., Hierocles in
aureum Pythagoreorum carmen commentarius (Stuttgart, 1974) MS C (p.
xvi), pp. 5-122.
Parchment, ff. i (paper) + i (parchment) + ii (contemporary
parchment) + 90 + i (contemporary parchment) + i (parchment) + i
(paper). The foliation, by an early owner, begins on the third front
flyleaf. 173 x 117 (117 x 71) mm. Written in 20 long lines, ruled in
hard point on hair side before folding; double vertical bounding lines,
full across; with additional single guide-lines, in upper, lower, and
outer margins, prickings in all margins except inner.
I-XI^^8, XII^^4. Signatures consist of miniscule letters located in
the center of the lower margin on first and final folio of each
gathering.
Written by a single copyist whose writing becomes more compact and
more abbreviated in the latter portion of the codex.
The manuscript is incomplete, since the initials for headings and
text are lacking.
Binding: s. xix. Dark blue goatskin, gold-tooled and with the arms
of Henry Drury. Bound by C. Lewis (worked 1800-40).
Written apparently in Byzantium at the beginning of the 15th
century. The parchment flyleaves bound with the manuscript bear
inscriptions roughly contemporary with the main text. If the obituary
notice written on f. 93r was originally bound with the main text, the
manuscript was written before 25 July 1333 A.D. Henry Drury (1778-1841;
arms on cover; according to the description in the auction catalogue,
the manuscript was obtained in Italy); his sale (Evans, Feb. - March
1827, no. 3630) to Thorpe for Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 3397, on
spine). Purchased from Laurence Witten with funds from the Jacob
Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957 (MS 56).
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 45, no. 247.
Ziskind Catalogue, p. 53.
Barbara A. Shailor