Uppsala University Library, Gr. 28B
Composite manuscript with mainly epistolographic contents, in two volumes (together with Gr. 28A) (‘Codex Rolambianus’)
Constantinople, mid 14th c.
paper
ii, 225, ii' leaves
220 × 145 mm
8 units
Greek
Unit 7
Unit 8
Unit 9
Unit 10
Unit 11
The text breaks off abruptly at the foot of the page.
f. 402v is blank.
Unit 12
Unit 13
Unit 14
Comprises sixteen excerpts from Carmen 7, namely the following tetrastichoi according to Emmanuel Miller’ edition: No. 1, 45, 44, 41, 15, 24, 19, 38, 43 (lines 10–13), 39, 40, 11, 21, 42, 14, 16 (lines 1–8).
f. 456v is blank.
Support
Binding/Endleaves
Unit 1
Watermark 10
Watermark 9
Unit 2
Unit 3
Watermark 1
Unit 4
Watermark 3
Unit 5
Watermark 13
Unit 6
Watermark 21
Foliation
Collation
Binding/Endleaves
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Unit 7
Unit 8
Layout
Unit 5
Unit 6
Script
Unit 1
Hand 1
(ff. 226r–260v) Scribe A, ⟨Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria⟩ (PLP, no. 29896), who is the main scribe and the organizer of this volume as well as of its sister volume, Codex Upsaliensis graecus 28A. Writes in a distinct digraphic way, with one more calligraphic variant, suggestive of the Metochitesstil, and one more narrow and cursive minuscule.Unit 2
Hand 1
(ff. 261r:1–261:6, 277r–316v) Scribe A, Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria. Responsible for the first few lines and the second half of the unit, as well as marginal lemmata in the quires composed for the rest by Scribe C. His initiating the text in his spruce minuscule on (ff. 261r–261) would seem to indicate a tutor-pupil, or supervisor-subordinate, relationship between the two scribes.Hand 3
(ff. 261r:7–276v) Scribe C, another collaborator of Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria, as is also evident from marginal notes by the latter, present on the same pages. The hand is a mid-fourteenth century ornate cursive minuscule, with a tendency to let the up- and downstrokes colonize the margins and the space between lines. The impression is a densely woven fabric.Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Hand 1
(ff. 395r–396r, 399r–402r) Scribe A, Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria. The rubrics on (f. 396v) and (f. 398v) are also in his hand. (f. 402v) is blank.Hand 2
(ff. 396v–398v) Scribe B, collaborator to Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria. Displays a cursive minuscule script is not altogether different from the cursive variant of the main hand. Scribe B has contributed also in quires Q9, Q13–14, and Q18 in Gr. 28A, .Unit 6
Hand 4
(ff. 403r–437r) Scribe D, collaborator to Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria, with the exception of the first title and a few lines on the last page. Writes in so-called Metochitesstil. Resembles Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria’s more calligraphic variant of writing.Hand 1
(ff. 437v–440v) Scribe A, Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria. He also contributed the title on (f. 403r) and added a few lines mid-page on (f. 437r).Unit 7
Unit 8
Additions
Decorations
Unit 1
Titles, initials, marginalia and a plethora of interlinear glosses in red ink. Most initials are plain or with just a small flourish. On (f. 226) a simple headpiece made up from a couple of lines and two trefoils.
Unit 2
Titles, initials, and marginal lemmata in red ink. Little or no flourish at all on initials.
Unit 3
Decoration sparse: on the first page, (f. 317r), a title in red ink, a headpiece in the form of a single wavy line with dots and end flowers, and the only more ornamented initial, six lines in height. Otherwise, red initials are fairly plain. The triangular-shaped text ending on (f. 377r) is accompanied by a couple of red crosses. Paragraph numbers have been added secondarily in the margins, in a pale brown ink (αʹ–ρλδʹ). No glosses.
Unit 4
Titles and plain red initials in red ink. A few reading signs in the margins, written in the same dark brown ink as the main text.
Unit 5
Some titles and initials in red ink. The greenish-brown ink which Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria used for everything on (ff. 395r–396r) was also employed for the replacement title on (f. 399r).
Unit 6
Titles, initials, and marginalia in red ink. A headpiece in red on (f. 403r), displaying a double frame, a wavescroll in the space left blank, and corner beads.
Unit 7
Unit 8
Titles, initials, and marginalia in red ink; in some places faded and rewritten.
Binding
Inboard binding covered in stained brown calfskin. Sewn on five supports. Stuck-on endbands in brown and reddish-brown. Blue edges. Binding title on spine: CODEX MS. GRAECUS. Gold-tooled decorations on spine compartments, bands, and board edges. The same kind of tooling is found on books bound by Johan Nilsson Norman, who was active as a bookbinder in Stockholm 1693–1723 and was employed as bookbinder to the King’s Library 1700–1714. Cf. Hedberg (1949–1960), vol. 1, pp. 301–303, plate 102.
Origin
The volume was, together with its sister volume, Ups. Gr. 28A, , written in the mid 14th c., based on the watermarks and the handwriting (partly in ‘Metochitesstil’). As it is an extensive composite of several autonomous units, it is not unlikely that the production was stretched out over a longer period of time. The following units were, according to Dieter Harlfinger, probably the earliest (1440s): units 1 and 5 in Ups. Gr. 28A, together with units 9 and 12 in Ups. Gr. 28B, ; cf. Karlsson (1981), pp. 24–28. Dieter Harlfinger has suggested that, on the basis of the contents as well as the handwriting, the main scribe is likely to have been a pupil of Thomas Magister and Nicephorus Gregoras; he first proposed that Scribe A might be Demetrius Cydones, in which case we would have a geographical connection to Constantinople. In an addendum, though, this assumption was corrected into an identification of Scribe A as Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria (Karlsson (1981), p. 32). This still supports a close connection to the intellectual milieu around Nicephorus Gregoras, to whom Philotheos Metropolitan of Selymbria supposedly was a pupil but later turned against (cf. the anathema preserved in autograph in the Register of the Patriarchate, Vindob. Cod. Hist gr. 47, ).
Provenance
The manuscript was acquired in Istanbul by Claes Rålamb, who was the Royal Swedish ambassador there in 1657–1658. Before that acquisition, the codex/codices (28A and 28B) had probably been in Europe for some time, judging from marginalia and Latin titles added in the fifteenth century. In the late sixteenth century it was part of Mattias I Corvinus King of Hungary’s library in Poland, according to the very accurate description of its contents given in a letter from 1573 (Karlsson (1981), p. 30). How and when it returned to Istanbul in between is not known.
Acquisition
Claes Rålamb’s library came into the hands of Charles XI King of Sweden as part of the payment of a debt. The library, including codex Ups. Gr. 28A–B, was thereafter donated to Uppsala University Library in 1693.
Former shelfmarks
- Norrmann (1691–1694).
- Foerster (1877).
- Graux (1889), pp. 53–55.
- Foerster (1903–1927), vol. 9, pp. 145–146.
- Lindstam (1910), pp. LIV–LX.
- Hermelin (1934).
- Karlsson (1981).
- Harlfinger (1996), pp. 47–48, plates 10–12.
- Gastgeber (2010), pp. 419–421.
- Kotzabassi (2010), p. 479.
