Beinecke MS 278               Italy, 1453
Didymus, Interpretatio in Odysseam (in Greek)

ff. 1r-160r[Greek] [a red line separates the title
from the chapter heading:]  [Greek].
[Greek].  [colophon:]
[Greek]. ff. 160v-162v ruled, but blank

     C. Schrevelius, ed., Homeri Odyssea et in eandem scholia et interpretatio
Didymi (Amsterdam, 1665) pp. 3-494.

     Paper (watermarks:  Harlfinger Fleur 108, from a manuscript dated
4 Nov. 1445 and attributed to Ioannes Skoutariotes), ff. i (contemporary paper)
+ i (contemporary parchment) + 164 (modern foliation skips a leaf between 13
and 14 and between 14 and 15; early foliation along bottom of page, mostly lost
through trimming) + i (contemporary parchment) + i (contemporary paper), 273 x
208 (202 x 112) mm.  Ruled in hard point for 30 long lines, but written in 2
columns.  Single vertical bounding lines.
     I-XIV^^10, XV-XVII^^8.  Quires signed with letters of the alphabet in lower
margin near gutter, on recto, except for the first which is on verso.
     Written and signed by the scribe Ioannes Skoutariotes, who finished the
manuscript 4 October 1453 (complete colophon given under contents above).
     Simple initials and headings, in red, at the beginning of each book.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Wooden boards.  Quarter bound in brick-red
goatskin.  Bound for the convent of San Marco, Florence; title in
gold on spine with number "232".

Written in Italy by Ioannes Skoutariotes in 1453 (see Vogel and Gardthausen,
pp. 197-99; Canart, p. 68; de Meyier, p. 262).  Acquired from Frater Philippus
Lapaccinus by the Dominican
convent of San Marco in Florence in the 15th century; ownership inscription of
15th century on f. ii verso is partially erased but still legible under
ultraviolet light:  "Iste liber est conuentus Sancti Marci de Florentia ordinis
predicatorum.  In bancho vj occidentis librarie grece.  Habitus a fratre
philippo lapaccino
filio natiuo.  N. LXXXVIIII."  (B. Ullman and P. Stadter, The Public
Library of Renaissance Florence [Padua, 1972] pp. 76, n. 1; 264; 279; 317.)
Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 10371, on spine), who purchased it from
Payne (Cat. 1835, no. 100).  Acquired in 1953 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate)
from C. A. Stonehill.  Gift of Thomas E. Marston in 1959.

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 48, no. 278.

Barbara A. Shailor