Beinecke MS 478               Byzantium, s. XI/XII
Homer, Iliad (fragment, in Greek)

[Title, added later in English:]  Homer, Iliad. [Greek] XXIV. v. 493
[text begins abruptly:]  //
[Greek]//

     Homer, Ilias, 24.493-536 (lines 501-02 are nearly illegible);
T. W. Allen, ed., Homeri Ilias (Oxford, 1931) v. 3, pp. 356-58.  MS 478 may
be another leaf from the same manuscript as the single folio included in
T. W. Allen's text under the siglum Bm^^1 (British Library, Egerton 267, f. 19)
which contains Book 22.193-236 of the Iliad.  The size, format, date, and
style of writing are very similar; both fragments show signs of having been
used in a binding (we thank T. S. Pattie for his assistance in making the
comparison).

     Parchment, one leaf, 205 x 147 (177 x 125) mm. 22 lines of verse, ruled
in hard point, double vertical bounding lines full across, with an extra
horizontal ruling in upper margin.  Between rulings for text, 8 mm.;
between vertical bounding lines, 8 mm.
     Written by one hand in Greek minuscule, using brown ink; some accent
marks added later in black.
     1-line initial in red.
     Discoloration, rubbing and punctures across lines 9-11, effacing some
of the text; was once used as a binding reinforcement.

Written in Byzantium in the late 11th or early 12th century; early
provenance unknown.  Contents written at top of recto and verso in a
16th-century italic hand:  "Homer. Iliad. [Greek] XXIV. v. 493" and "Homer,
Iliad. [Greek]. XXIV. v. 515."  Gift of Laurence Witten in 1957.

Barbara A. Shailor