The Göttinger Psalter Project has recently acquired from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) a digital color reproduction of Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035, a “recueil factice”[1] created by Henri Omont between 1883 and 1885[2] from folios coming from different manuscripts of the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. The manuscript consists of a total of forty-one parchment leaves, some of which are palimpsests, and is divided into thirty different codicological units (C.U.) containing texts of various content[3]. To Septuagint research, Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035 is of relevance because of the presence of five folios, which have preserved fragments of three Septuagint manuscripts and the fragment of a Theodoret manuscript. New Rahlfs sigla have been assigned to all of them:

Ra 8009 = Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035, f. 16r–v (s. XVI)

Codicological unit X. Parchment leaf (275 × 235 mm.) originating from a sixteenth-century Psalter and written full page on twenty lines. Titles, initials letters, and the numbers of the Psalms are rubricated in vermilion red[4]. This folio, which has part of the upper outer corner and the lower margin mutilated[5], has Ps 60:5b-61:10b:

inc. σκεπασθή]σομαι ἐν σκέπῃ [...]

des. [...]ν ἀν(θρώπ)ων ἐν ζυγοῖ[ς]

Ra 5012 = Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035, f.26r–v (s. XII)

Codicological unit XVIII. Palimpsest folio (307 × 205 mm.) dated to the twelfth century, which has in its scriptura superior a fragment of Job 3:16a–4:13a, written on two columns on thirty/thirty-three lines each:

inc. ἐκ]πορευόμενον ἐκ μήτρας

des. ἐπιπίπτων φόβος

According to Astruc and Concasty’s description, this folio must have been reused later in a binding, but we don’t know much else apart from this information[6]. Folio 26 is written on palimpsested parchment and its scriptura inferior which is, based on Astruc and Concasty’s description, a “minuscule carrée” dated to the tenth century. Its content was unknown to the two French scholars because the script was “à peine lisible”[7]. I will return to the scriptura inferior below.

Ra 9054 = Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035, f. 29r–v (s. X)

Codicological unit XXI. The upper half of a parchment folio (150 × 223 mm, seventeen lines) dated to the tenth century. This fragment provides Theodoretus Cyrensis, Interpretatio in Psalmos (CPG 6202). The text of the commentary is written in ancient minuscule while the verses of the Psalms are written in “Auszeichnungsschrift”; no decorations or rubrications are present.[8]

f. 29r, in Ps 77:64–66 [PG 80, 1500C₃–1501A₅]:

inc. μὴ θαρρεῖν παρανομίᾳ

des. οὐκ ἐξελέξατο.

f. 29v, in Ps 77:68–69 [PG 80, 1501B₇–C₁₃]:

inc. Πρόδηλον δὲ

des. δημιουργῆσαι προσέταξαν

Ra 8008 = Codex Parisinus suppl. gr. 1035, ff. 33–34 (s. XIV)

Codicological unit XXIV. Two small parchment folios (143 × 105 mm) coming from a fourteenth century Psalter. The text is written full page on twenty/twenty-two lines. Titles and initial letters are rubricated in red.[9] They contain Ps 96:2b–98:8c:

inc. τοῦ θρόνου αὐτοῦ;

des. πάντα τὰ ἐπιτη[δεύματα.

Thanks to the digital images we acquired, I was able to study in more detail these leaves and to described them. Moreover, these images – although they are not multispectral and in low-resolution – allowed me to analyse and decipher the scriptura inferior of f. 26, which had already been described by Astruc and Concasty but whose content, as already mentioned, had remained unknown:

© BnF, Suppl. gr. 1035, f. 26r.

This first and partial analysis revealed that this folio bears in its scriptura inferior a part of Galen’s De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis (PHP) VI 8,6–20, inc. Την ὑλην διοικησεως [De Lacy (2005), pp. 408₂₂–412₁][10]. The ancient folio is upside down and must be read in the order recto-verso. The scriptura inferior runs parallel to the superior and is placed, likewise to the superior, on two columns.

Bnf, Suppl. gr. 1035, f. 26r, detail

Bnf, Suppl. gr. 1035, f. 26r, detail of the elaborated image

PHP was composed by Galen between 162 and 176 AD[11] and became afterwards translated into Syriac in the ninth century by Hunain ibn Ishāq (a. 809–873)[12]. The Greek text is known from four papyrus fragments, all originating from the same codex, dated to the third century, and coming from Hermopolis.[13] In addition to that, PHP is transmitted in ten Greek manuscripts from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.[14] The scriptura inferior of our new witness (Suppl. gr. 1035, f. 26) seems to be written in the so-called “minuscola antica oblunga”.[15] The paleographic features of this script can be recognized in the shape of some letters: Epsilon with the upper part ending in a hook; theta with an oblong shape and with the middle stroke placed very high; the linear lambda. As well as in the shape of the final ny and initial ypsilon, and in the ligatures that epsilon forms with letters that follow. I propose here a brief paleographic comparison with the manuscripts that have been assigned to this script[16], dated to the ninth and tenth centuries:

1. Cod. Oxon. Christ Church, Wake 5
2. Cod. Vat. gr. 155
3. Cod. Vat. gr. 462
4. Cod. Vat. gr. 503

The script of f. 26, which seems to be lacking in accents, among other things, could in my opinion be dated to the ninth century. At present, however, it is not possible to say much more about its paleographic features or to make suggestions about the possible area of origin of this fragment since there are no multispectral images that can reveal anything more about the scriptura inferior. Only one fact remains certain: Folio 26 represents the earliest Greek manuscript witness of the PHP we know so far. This folio, therefore, deserves a more in-depth study that can only be conducted first of all by an autopsy examination – which has not yet been effectuated and which I reserve the right to carry out as soon as possible – and through the realisation of new high-resolution RGB and multispectral images.

*A note on the recent discovery of this fragment is being prepared by the author of this blogpost.