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