Beinecke MS 297               Constantinople, ca. 1720-30
Unidentified Geography, Greek tr. Demetrius Notaras

1. pp. i-xv [Table of contents:]
[Greek].
p. xvi blank

2. p. xvii
[Greek].  p. xviii blank

     Dedication to Chrysanthus Notaras, Patriarch of Jerusalem (1707-33).

3. pp. 1-586 [Greek]: [Greek].
[text:]
[Greek].  pp. 587-592 blank

     Unidentified Geography, translated into modern Greek from Latin by Demetrius
Notaras.

     Paper (no watermarks), ff. iii (paper) + ix (paginated i-xviii) + 293
(paginated in Arabic numerals 1-586) + iii (paper), 160 x 103 (123 x 79) mm.
Written in 17 long lines; double vertical bounding lines, full length.
Ruled in hard point, on verso.
     I^^8 (pp. i-xvi), II^^8 (xvii-14), III-XX^^8, XXI^^6, XXII-XXXVIII^^8.  Catchwords
for each subsequent leaf directly under written space near gutter.
     The text was written by two scribes in similar styles of minuscule.  Scribe
1 (pp. 1-238) is the same scribe (Constantine Raphael Byzantinus) as that
designated as Scribe 1 in Beinecke MSS 294, 295 and 300, etc.; Scribe 2 copied
pp. 239-586.  A third person supplied the Table of Contents at the beginning of
the codex (pp. i-xv).
     No ornamentation or rubrication.
     Binding:  s. xviii.  Near Eastern.  Brown goatskin with a deeply impressed
medallion containing a crown, sword, sceptre, eagle, bull and I. [Greek].
K., N. B., originally gilt.  Title gold-tooled.  Spattered edges.

Written in Constantinople at the beginning of the 18th century by Constantine
Raphael Byzantinus (see Nichipor, pp. 186-87) and a second unidentified scribe.
Belonged to Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827; bookplate; not
located in his
sale catalogue). Acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 7673, stamp on first
flyleaf; tag on spine).  Purchased from L. C. Witten with funds from the
Jacob Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957 (MS 29).

Bibliography:  Ziskind Catalogue, p. 49.

Barbara A. Shailor