Beinecke MS 490               Italy, s. XVI^^2
Scholia on Oppian (in Greek)

1. f. 1r  [Title:]  [Greek] ff. 1v-2v blank

2. ff. 3r-86v
[Greek].  [text of Oppian's life begins on f. 3r:]
[Greek]...[ends on
f. 4r:]
[Greek].  [followed immediately by perioche on f. 4r; f. 4v
blank; text of scholia begins on f. 5r:]
[Greek].

     Scholia in Oppiani librum primum here attributed to Theodore Magister,
preceded by the life of Oppian and perioche of his work; portions of the text
of Oppian are quoted as lemmata.  Text of life:  A. Westermann, ed.,
[Greek] (Brunswick, 1845) pp. 63-65; the text is the same as in MS 255.
Text of perioche:  U. Bussemaker, ed., Scholia et Paraphrases in Nicandrum et
Oppianum (Paris, 1849) p. 260.  Text of scholia:  Bussemaker, op. cit.,
pp. 260-301.  The text of the scholia in MS 490 differs substantially from that
of Bussemaker.

     Paper (watermarks similar to Briquet Ancre 558 and to Harlfinger Ancre 78),
ff. i (paper) + 86 + i (paper), 325 x 215 (188 x 110) mm. 18 long lines, ruled
in hard point, single vertical bounding lines full length.
     I-II^^8, III^^6, IV^^8, V^^6 (leaf missing in second half of quire), VI-VII^^8,
VIII^^6, IX-XI^^8, XII^^6 (-6 following f. 86).  Catchwords perpendicular to
text in gutter, verso.  Quires signed by letters of the Latin alphabet, square
capitals, below written space toward right, recto.
     Written by 3 scribes.  Scribe 1 (ff. 1r-35v) writes in an elaborate
minuscule with heavy vertical strokes and uses a pen which gives considerable
shading; this scribe also wrote Beinecke MS 257, was Scribe 2
in MSS 289 and Scribe 3 in MS 290. Scribe 2 (ff. 36r-65v) writes a minuscule
which slants to
the right, and has shading similar to that of Scribe 1.  Scribe 3 (ff. 66r-84v)
writes in an upright minuscule with little shading.
     Headpiece, 2-line initial and heading on f. 3r in dark red.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Brown calf, blind-tooled.

Written probably in Italy in the late 16th century; early modern provenance
unknown.  Purchased from C. W. Traylen in 1970 by Edwin J. Beinecke for the
Beinecke Library.

Barbara A. Shailor