Beschreibung:

Compendium of Canon Law, Homilies and religious treatises, partly copied by the scribe Nicolaos, manuscript in Greek, on paper, in a Greek-style binding perhaps made in Western Europe [Italy (perhaps Venice), c. 1430-1440 and c. 1470-1500] 231 leaves, potentially wanting only a single leaf from 25th gathering, else complete, collation:i6, ii-xv8 (the last followed by an inserted bifolium with tables), xvi-xix8, xx5 (with a singleton to complete text), xxi-xxii8, xxiii4 (ending text), xxiv8, xxv-xxvi7 (the second of these gatherings certainly wanting a blank cancel), xxvii8, xxviii-xxix6, xxx-xxxi8, xxxii4; a sammelband of four units: (a) main body of codex, gatherings i-xi, fols.1-177, single column, 35 lines in a single fine Greek bookhand, pale red rubrics and capitals, large initials (set in margin) and marginalia in same, one large decorative headband picking out acanthus leaves and decorative knots and corner pieces in same in opening frontispiece on fol. 1r, other later marginalia and stylised pointing finger marks, text ending with three scribal marks, watermarks dividing this section up into 4 sub-sections: (i) fols. 1-86, ‘scissors’, no exact match, but distributed throughout fifteenth century and clustered in northern and central Italy, (ii) fols. 87-94, ‘glove with a star’, close to Briquet no. 11165 (Perpignan, 1505), but that with a flower, (iii) fols. 113-157, ‘swords in saltire’, close to those from the second half of the fifteenth century, thus this sub-section probably northern or central Italy, second half of fifteenth century; (b) homilies and religious texts, gatherings xxiv-xxix, fols. 178-219, single column, 34 lines in a squarer Greek bookhand, rubrics in red, simple initials in same with foliate flourishes, capitals and some larger initials in pale iridescent yellow (perhaps faded from red), watermarks dividing this section into two: (I) visible on fol. 194, three stylised ‘hills’, identifiable as Harlfinger (Monts 23), attested in 1431 with proposed usage range 1426-36, (II) ‘horse’ close to Briquet no. 3567 (Venice, 1433), thus this sub-section probably north east Italy, 1420s-1430s; (c) Homily of Philagathus of Cerami, gathering xxx, fols. 220-227, in same hand and arrangement as previous section, watermarks dividing this section into two: (1) visible on fol. 226, letter ‘R’, close to Briquet no. 8969 (1417), but with similar examples throughout first three decades of fifteenth century, (2) visible on fol. 222, letter ‘b’, in family Briquet nos. 7973-7977, from last quarter of the fourteenth to first quarter of fifteenth century, thus this sub-section probably early decades of fifteenth century; (d) gathering xxxi, fols. 228-231, small Greek bookhand in single column of 33 lines, rubrics and initials once in red (now faded), watermark not distinguishable; the whole volume with numerous later additions to endleaves, some notes in nineteenth-century Italian hand on separate leaves tipped-in or interleaved in places, small spots and occasional waterstains at edges, overall good and solid condition, 295 by 203mm., contemporary and high quality binding in Greek style of dark goatskin (with sacking under smooth thongless spine) over massive wooden boards (probably Beech) with channels cut into their edges, with original endbands, blind-tooled with Byzantine foliage designs and rare but not unheard of fleur-de-lys designs (see below), peg holes left by small feet-like bosses (now all wanting), some worm holes and splits (especially to spine), but overall in good condition and solid This is a fine Greek codex written in part by an ethnically Greek scribe otherwise recorded in Venice and Padua, and most probably completely written in Italy; in its contemporary binding which would appear to be a rare and important survival of the work of an otherwise unrecorded Byzantine binder resident in Italy Provenance: 1. Written for a Greek ecclesiastic, who was most probably resident in Italy (perhaps Venice) and using