folio BS-004 recto

The Byzantic Scriptorium

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Notes Toward an Edition of Homilies of John Chrysostom on Matthew: f. cv r

"My arm aches; the work does not."
Brachium meum dolet; opus non dolet.
Abstract

On f. cv r of Homilies of John Chrysostom on Matthew, in a hand we have come to recognise as Br. Cyril's, the following marginal note appears in minium-and-cinnabar: an aside both characteristic of the working scriptorium and useful for our purposes. we transcribe it here for the wider record

Context

Such notes are easily dismissed as ephemera; we are not in the business of dismissing things. The smallest marginalium tells us, often, what the principal text declines to.

Paleographic Note

A first-pass reading was offered by Br. Anastasios, with the loupe; on review the desk concurs. The hand shows characteristic minim-pair, with occasional minim-pair; the ink is a colour-shift suggesting two pots, or one pot in two sittings.

Notes

  1. We thank Br. Symeon for the verification, and the Tuesday lapis for its colour.
  2. Br. Photios's stack collapsed during preparation; no folios were lost.
We thank Br. Photios for the loan of a freshly-trimmed quill, and the desk for not interrupting. The work proceeds; the cat is fine. Iam scripsi totum, pro Christo da mihi potum.

Other Hands

Annotations by other scribes, in the order in which they were entered into the margins.

  1. Seal of Pangur
    Pangur ad f. cv v, lin. xxvi
    [the folio was warm when reopened; the cat had departed]
  2. Seal of Brother Symeon
    Br. Symeon ad f. cv v, lin. xxiii
    If I have read correctly, the prior reading is preferable; the present folio carries a split letter.
  3. Seal of Brother Methodios
    Br. Methodios ad f. cv v, lin. xx
    I would add only that the cinnabar is thinner than usual.
  4. Seal of Brother Anastasios
    Br. Anastasios ad f. cv v, lin. xx
    If I have read correctly, the prior reading is preferable; the present folio carries a minor lapse of the calamus.
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