Anno Mundi MMMMMMMDXXXIV · i id. Iul. Brother Photios Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogia

On the Cinnabar of f. lxviii: A Pigment Note

"The book being finished, let praise and glory be to Christ."

Finito libro, sit laus et gloria Christo.

Abstract

Working through Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogia in the present quarter, Br. Photios encountered at f. lxviii v a marginal note left by an earlier hand. The note is here transcribed and briefly discussed; further investigation is welcomed but not, on present resources, planned.

Context

The present marginalium is unusual chiefly for its self-awareness; the scribe knows that what is written here will be read by another scribe, who is the chief audience for such asides. The reader at home is at best a third party.

Paleographic Note

A first-pass reading was offered by the desk in chapter, by acclamation; on review the desk concurs. The hand shows characteristic uncial m, with occasional rho-descender; the ink is a colour-shift suggesting two pots, or one pot in two sittings.

Notes

Vespers interrupted the preparation of this footnote; we resume.
All folio numberings follow our internal census; the imperial census differs.

Composed at the desk between Lauds and Sext; corrected at Vespers; typeset in cinnabar where cinnabar would be tolerated. Calamus laetatur explicit habendo.

Other Hands

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

Pangur ad f. lxviii v, lin. xix

[the folio was warm when reopened; the cat had departed]
Br. Symeon ad f. lxviii r, lin. ii

The lectio is correct as it stands; further interpretation is not warranted.
Br. Eustathios ad f. lxviii r, lin. i

The corrector is, on this occasion, content. This is rare.
Br. Nikephoros ad f. lxviii v, lin. xi

The lectio is correct as it stands; further interpretation is not warranted.
Br. Cyril ad f. lxviii v, lin. v

If I have read correctly, the prior reading is preferable; the present folio carries a split letter.