Anno Mundi MMMMMMMDXXXIV · ix id. Oct. Brother Symeon the corrected exemplar of John Climacus

Of the Brazier and the Corrector: A Working Note

"As the harbour is sweet to sailors, so is the last line to the scribe."

Sicut navigantibus dulcis est portus, ita scriptori novissimus versus.

Abstract

On f. xcviii v of the corrected exemplar of John Climacus, in a hand we have come to recognise as Br. Symeon's, the following marginal note appears in smudged sepia: an aside both characteristic of the working scriptorium and useful for our purposes. the note repays attention beyond its modest length

Context

The genre — if we may dignify it as such — has been treated elsewhere only in passing. Our own contribution is modest: a growing card-index, kept by Br. Photios when he can find it.

Paleographic Note

The hand here is upright minuscule of the twelfth-century convention, with the characteristic narrow uncial m and the slightly hooked ligated st. The ink, examined under low magnification, shows a slight gritty texture consistent with insufficient grinding; we infer either a second hand returning to the line or an interruption mid-line, with the corrector preferring the latter.

Notes

An anonymous reader has questioned this attribution; we remain confident.
We have declined to date the second hand on present evidence.
The marginalia were photographed under low candlelight; results were as expected.

We thank Br. Methodios for the loan of the third calamus, 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.

Br. Eustathios ad f. xcviii r, lin. x

On reflection: the cat may have been at the desk during the original copying.
Br. Cyril ad f. xcviii v, lin. xiv

The hand is steady here, but the rubric is misaligned by half a line.