Beinecke MS 308               Byzantium, s. XIII
Gospels (in Greek)

1. f. 1r [No title, text begins:]
[Greek],//
[text ends abruptly at bottom of f. 1r].

     Genealogia Christi:  Matthew 1.1-7.

2. ff. 1v-2v [Greek]:
[Greek]:...
[Greek] [the list of chapters is followed by notes on psalm verses].

     Capitula Evangelii secundum Matthaeum.

3. ff. 3r-65r [Greek].
[Greek].  Marginal notes give chapters and
readings; one unnumbered folio cut out between ff. 62-63, with loss of text
(Mt. 27.31-27.51).

     Evangelium secundum Matthaeum; Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum
Graece^^26 (Stuttgart, 1979) pp. 1-87.

4. ff. 65r-v [Title:]
[Greek].  [text:]
[Greek].

     Capitula Evangelii secundum Marcum.

5. ff. 66r-107v [Greek]:
[Greek] [sic]
[Greek].  [marginal notes in red give chapters and readings].

     Evangelium secundum Marcum; Nestle-Aland, op. cit., pp. 88-149.

6. ff. 107v-109r [Greek]:
[Greek][[Greek]]// [bottom of f. 109 cut off, with
loss of text].  f. 109v blank

     Capitula Evangelii secundum Lucam.

7. ff. 110r-177r [Greek]:
[Greek].

     Evangelium secundum Lucam; Nestle-Aland, op. cit., pp. 150-246.

8. f. 177r-v [Title:]
[Greek]:  [text:]
[Greek].

     Capitula Evangelii secundum Ioannem.

9. ff. 178r-229r [One unnumbered folio cut out, with loss of beginning
of John; text begins abruptly at John 1.12:]  //
[Greek].  [marginal notes in
red give chapters and readings; below some decoration, the original scribe
added the note:]
[Greek].

     Evangelium secundum Ioannem; Nestle-Aland, op. cit., pp. 247-319.

10. ff. 229v-257v [Title:]
[Greek]  [text:]
[Greek].

     Tabula Lectionum Liturgicarum.

11. ff. 257v-258v Brief selections from the Epistles, added by a later
hand.

     Parchment, ff. 258, 205 x 156 (145 x 95) mm.  Written in 21-22 long lines,
ruled in hard point, double vertical bounding lines full length.  Prickings in
upper, lower and outer margins.
     I^^2, II-VIII^^8, IX^^8 (-5, after f. 62), X-XI^^8, XII^^10 (-3 following f. 83
and 9 following f. 88), XIII-XIV^^8, XV^^4 (lower part of 4 cut off), XVI-XIX^^8,
XX^^7 [structure uncertain], XXI-XXIII^^8, XXIV^^8 (-6 following f. 177),
XXV-XXVII^^8, XXVIII^^10 (-3 following f. 205 and 8 following f. 210),
XXIX-XXX^^8, XXXI^^8 (- 3 following f. 237 and 9 following f. 242),
XXXII^^10, XXXIII^^8, XXXIV^^8 (-7 following f. 257).  Quires signed on recto by
a later hand, continuous through codex.
     Written by a single scribe in a rather variable minuscule which has faded
unevenly.  Some sections have been retraced by a later hand.  Added texts on
ff. 2v, 257v-258v are in another later hand.
     Elaborate headpieces, 4- to 2-line initials with stylized florals, plain
1-line initials and headings, all in red, covered with gold on ff. 4r-29v.
     Binding:  s. xvi-xvii.
Sewn on four vegetable fiber cords or with four chains laced into horizontal
grooves on the outside of wooden boards which have deep edge grooves forking
at the corners.  According to B. van Regemorter, "La reliure byzantine,"
Revue Belge d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de l'Art 36 (l967) p. 110, forked
grooves are frequently found on Cyrillic bindings, but seldom on Greek ones.
She suggests a Macedonian origin for Greek manuscripts with this
characteristic; she also states that Cyrillic manuscripts were sewn on
cords (op. cit., p. 124).  The cords or chains are visible on the
round spine which is lined with cloth which extends over about half of the
outside of the boards.  The headbands are Western.
Covered in dark red goatskin, now brown, with
corner tongues.  Remains of two leather fastenings, probably braids,
laced through two pairs of holes in the lower board, holes for the pins
in the edge of the upper one.  Triple blind-tooled fillets form an
intersecting pattern more or less the same on both boards and the spine.

Written in Byzantium in the 13th century; early provenance unknown.
Purchased in 1957 from Lathrop C. Harper, Inc., by Thomas E. Marston
(bookplate) who gave it to Yale in 1960.

Barbara A. Shailor