Hermeneiai with Various Hymns

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Accession number: 
MS M.574
Title: 
Hermeneiai with Various Hymns
Created: 
Egypt, 897 or 898.
Binding: 
Ancient binding: according to Petersen: upper and lower covers of leather, over double papyrus boards, and 2 leather bookmarks. (Binding cataloged separately as MS M.574A.)
Credit: 
Purchased for J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1911.
Description: 
91 leaves (1 column, 31-34 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 280 x 218 mm
Provenance: 
Monastery of Saint Michael (Dayr al-Malāk Mīkhāʼil); found in 1910 near the village of Hamuli, Fayyūm Province, Egypt, at the site of the Monastery of Saint Michael; purchased in Paris in 1911 for J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Arthur Sambon, a dealer acting in behalf of a consortium of owners including a certain J. Kalebdian; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes: 

Manuscript hermeneia book (Psalm selections) with hymns; written and illuminated at the Touton scriptorium in the Fayyūm Province, Egypt, and completed on AM 614 (i.e., either Aug. 29, 897 or Aug. 28, 898).
Colophon on fol. 91r: Donation in Coptic: By the koinobiarch and archimandrite Papa Iōhannēs, oikonomos of the Monastery of St. Michael near present-day Hamuli. Copyist and artist (Coptic), place and date of copying (Greek). By Deacon Basili and his "son" Samouēl from Touton. Edited by van Lantschoot and translated into German by Quecke.
Written area ca. 203 x 160 mm. Divisions: Brown leather tabs fastened to fore-edge on fols. 54, 65, 76 at major divisions of the codex. Divisions of the hermeneiai and various hymns are marked according to 4 distinct systems (1) (fols. 2r-53v) reddened dot-and-dash divider, ekthesis, enlarged or greatly enlarged initial (mostly reddened), and 1 or 2 paragraphus signs (reddened simple or budded diple, sometimes vine-scroll coronis) setting off introductions, numbered subdivisions, and conclusion(s) of each hermeneia; hermeneia numbers written within or beside the initial, numbers of sub-units between 2 double oblique reddened strokes. (2) (fols. 54r-64v) Title and number, reddened dividers, reddened greatly enlarged initial, and paragraphus sign (reddened obelus above, vine-scroll or zeta-shaped coronis below) setting off hermeneiai; reddened enlarged initial and paragraphus sign (reddened dotted diple; paragraphus signs more frequent than in fols. 2-53) setting off subdivisions of each hermeneia. (3) (fols. 65r-76r) reddened dividers and reddened greatly enlarged initial setting off each hermeneia; reddened enlarged initial and paragraphus sign (reddened dotted diple) setting off subdivisions of each hermeneia. (4) (fols. 76v-end) reddened initial and paragraphus sign (vine-scroll coronis, budded diple) setting off other subdivisions. Some passages, typically quotations, marked by a small diple in margin of each line, as at fol. 18r. Exceeding letters of last line of the page written below end of the last line and mostly encompassed by a reddened stroke on ca. a third of rectos, on fol. 17v at end of quire, and on ca. a sixth of versos.
Script: Right-sloping. 10 lines = ca. 72 mm (fopls. 76v to end) or ca. 62 mm
Superlineation: Non-standard. Punctuation: Raised reddened dot in conjunction with a space; sometimes space fillers at end of textual units. No tremas.
Collation: Signed on first and last page of the quire, top inner margin (omitted on 2v). No quire ornaments, monograms, headlines or catchwords.
Scribe: Basili.
Artist: Samouēl.
Decoration: Frontispiece on fol. 1v: Mary, Virgo Lactans: frontally enthroned with numbus, Jesus holding a book, 2 angels supporting books. Headpieces on fol. 2r: tablet framing title, infilled with knotted rope interlace, 2 columns wide, with spearhead finials at corners; on fol. 54r: rectangular, infilled with twisted rope interlace, 2 columns wide, followed by title; fol. 65r: tablet framing title, infilled with twisted rope interlace, 2 columns wide, with spearhead finials at corners. Tailpiece ornament, on fol. 90v: 3 dividers. Marginal ornaments: tail, fol. 2r: 2 quadrupeds. Initial E often infilled with dots (forming an obelus with horizontal of E). Paragraphus signs: coronis: budded, vine-scroll, both painted; diple: budded, dotted, both reddened. Signatures and page numbers: with single or double horizontal rule above and below, and often decorated with strokes, all reddened. Extended letters. Colors: dark reddish orange (Centroid 38), moderate reddish brown (43), dark yellow (88), dark grayish blue (187).

Language: 
Coptic, the Sahidic dialect, and Greek