CHRYSOSTOMUS JOHANNES, IN EPISTULAM I AD TIMOTHEUM... Lot 16

CHRYSOSTOMUS JOHANNES, IN EPISTULAM I AD TIMOTHEUM ARGUMENTUM ET HOMILIAE 1-18 Fragment in Greek, manuscript on parchment; 11th-12th cent. One leaf on parchment, 299 x 215 mm (299 x 215 mm); 35 lines on two columns; carbon ink; drypoint rules, Greek foliation "ΙΘ/I" (19/1), "113" (old rating?); slightly italicized cursive Greek minuscule, some calligraphic ligatures; rubricated initials, black ink band with interlacing work, red and black ink frieze ornamented at the end with a trifoliate pattern at the end of the front of the folio, marginal rubricated quotation marks on the back of the folio; folio bears the marks of an old binding reuse, trimmed inner margin with slight lack of text (2 or 3 letters missing). Fragment of an 11th/12th century Greek manuscript of the most famous biblical commentary of early Christianity from the library of one of the founders of the Florentine Renaissance, Niccolò Niccoli. TEXT The homilies of John of Constantinople (c.347-407), a famous Greek orator of the fifth century who received Chrysostom's posthumous nickname, "Golden Mouth," comprise more than 900 sermons. Our folio begins with the last six lines of the sixth chapter of the seventeenth Homily on the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy I (Pat. Graec. 62:600) and the second column opens with two lines from Timothy II 1:1-2 and the incipit of the first chapter of the first homily on Timothy II, which continues on the verso of the folio (Pat. Graec. 62:599-600 or Clavis Patrum Graecorum 4436 and 4437). PROVENANCE From the famous library of the forerunner of the Florentine humanists, Niccolò Niccoli (c.1364/5-1437), who inspired humanistic cursive and "built up a magnificent library, notable for the rarity and quality of the texts that it contained" (A. C. de la Mare, The Handwriting of Italian Humanists, I, i, 1973, p.46). Poggio Bracciolini, a famous philologist and close friend of Niccoli, described his friend's library as admirable because it contained over 800 manuscripts. This important sum for the time was even confirmed by a bookseller and biographer of the period Vespasiano da Bisticci. This library was all the more remarkable because it contained more than 146 volumes in Greek; a rare fact for the time, because Greek scholars after the fall of Constantinople (1453) had not yet arrived with their manuscripts to feed the publications of the Renaissance (B. L. Ullman and P. A. Stadter, The Public Library of Renaissance Florence, Niccolò Niccoli, Cosimo de' Medici and the Library of San Marco, 1972, pp. 59-60). Niccoli learned Greek from Manuel Chrysoloras, who was teaching in Florence at the time (c.1497-1400), but he probably never mastered it perfectly. This manuscript may well have come from Chrysoloras himself. Between 1429 and 32, the volume from which the leaflet comes was lent to Ambrogio Traversari, who translated it into Latin (Vite, ed. A. Greco, 1970, I, p. 451). The Latin version of this translation written in Niccoli's hand, dated 1432, is now preserved in Florence (Bib. Naz. Conv. Sopp. J.VI.6). Niccoli's library was passed on to 16 heirs; it was from them that Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) turned to acquire the most beautiful volumes of what would form the nucleus of the new public library of the convent of San Marco in Florence. The Niccoli provenance "ex hereditate Nicolai de Niccolis" with the ex-libris of San Marco was inscribed on these volumes by the librarian of the convent, Zanobi Acciaiuoli, who was active from 1497 to 1513. He then indicates that the volume also contained the Homilies of the Epistles to the Philippians. A handwritten note in the upper margin attributed to the same librarian by researcher Xavier van Binnebeke (see art. p.30), indicates that the single leaf was at the end of another volume: "'propter or ob' ignorationem avulsa est ab alio volumine quod desinit in quaternione / 'Ι'h et in prima ad Thimoteum, cum ligari simul debuissent." The scholars Ullman and Stadter link the folio to entry 1098 of the library inventory dated 1499/1500 "Iohannes Chrysostomus in epistolas ad Timotheum secundam et in eph'as [sic for "epl'am"] ad Philippenses, in membranis" (Ullman and Stadter, p.253). Xavier van Binnebeke explains the identification in more detail: "At least one further leaf can be added to the group of identified Chrysostom manuscripts with links to Niccoli and San Marco. This is London-oslo, Schøyen Coll. Ms. 1571/1 (PL. VII), transmitting the end of Chrysostom, In Epist. Pauli I ad Timotheum, and the beginning of II ad Timotheum. As becomes clear from partly cut off inscriptions by Zanobi Acciaiuoli, Ms. 1571/1 served as a (?temporary) flyleaf to a volume of the convent library that came "ex hereditate Nicolai de Niccolis" and contained Chrysostom's " expositio in epis