The social context of Parisinus Graecus 3039

The social context of Parisinus Graecus 3039 The focus of this paper is a Greek manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Parisinus Graecus 3039; reference will also be made to Parisinus Graecus 1208 and Vaticanus Graecus 1162. Parisinus Graecus 3039 is a large parchment manuscript—315 m m by 250mm—with 278 folios.1 There would originally have been at least thirtyseven gatherings, normally of eight folios each. The only text this manuscript contains, a collection of letters, is set out spaciously with twenty linestothe page and ample margins. There are very few abbreviations. Each letter is given a heading, usually just TOO* OCUTOG ('by the same [writer]'), and a number which is written in gold. Most of the letters also have a handsome initial for thefirstword of the text, also in gold but made up simply from ornamental pen-strokes. The presentfirstfolio, lr , is presented as a tide page, with a half-page headpiece and a heading identifying the author and therecipientof the letters, though some of the phrases describing the letters' recipient are smudged and there is a large bar through lines 3 and 4 of the heading. The design on the headpiece (the only such decoration now in this manuscript) is identical with that on f. 74r of Parisinus Graecus 1208, that is, the opening of Homily 3 of the so-called Kokkinobaphos Homilies. Parisinus Graecus 3039 has suffered a little, though its pages are pristine: it no longer has its original binding, at eight places one or more folios are missing, and ff. 273-77 represent the remains of two separate gatherings whose place cannot accurately be determined from either the text they contain or the nature of the folios (skin side or flesh side). There are probably two reasons for this damage: the dubious status of the letters' recipient and the quality of the book. It could well be that pages were torn out because of too explicit references to contemporary problems. Or there may have been ornamentation, quite probably at least a dedication page and perhaps more, that attracted vandals. The book was probably looted from Constantinople after 1453—it has a note in Arabic identifying the author and probably giving a price. It came to the Bibliotheque Nationale in 1688 Full details are given in the editio princeps of the contents of this manuscript, forthcoming in Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca, Leuven, by E. M . and M . J. Jeffreys. PARERGON ns 13.2, January 1996—Text, Scribe, Artefact 196 E. M. Jeffreys from the library of Cardinal Mazarin, but previous steps in its journey to the West from Constantinople are now untraceable. The date of this manuscript can be estimated fairly convincingly. It has long been noted that there are similarities between the hands of Parisinus Graecus 3039, Parisinus Graecus 1208 and Vaticanus Graecus 1162 (the other copy of the Kokkinobaphos Homilies). Palaeographical and arthistorical opinion, based on common ornamentation and patterns of ruling, puts all these in the mid-twelfth century. By an involved set of arguments which it is not appropriate to repeat here, it is now generally agreed that these manuscripts, and others that can be associated with the same scribe and painter, were produced between ca 1130 and ca 1150. The scribe/ painter is conventionally known as the Kokkinobaphos Master.2 Parisinus Graecus 3039 contains a collection of letters of spiritual advice sent to the sevastokratorissa Eirene, the widowed sister-in-law of the emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143-71) and a noted patron of the arts in Constantinople during the 1140s.3 The letters were sent, apparendy while she was absent from the city, by her spiritual father, Iakovos the Monk; his name is a slighdy unusual formulation. The manuscript containing the letters was thus made shordy after the correspondence had taken place—within a decade at most. W e have no evidence to indicate who it was who arranged for the fair copy of the letters, whether it was Eirene herself, a member of her family (she had several socially prominent children), Iakovos or someone entirely unconnected with them. What is interesting about the letters isfirstof all their very existence. There are,tom y knowledge, no other examples...