Byzantine
Manuscript Transcription
Introduction:
Before I could
even hope to transcribe anything from Medieval Greek, I first had to gain a
better knowledge of how Greek letters were formed including the various
ligatures and forms of diacritics. I
found a few neat videos on Youtube explaining Medieval Greek letter and word
formantion.
1. Alphabet with letter variants
2. Diacritics
3. Basic Ligatures
4. Unique Ligatures
The Manuscript:
The particular
manuscript I chose to transcribe is an eleventh century copy of Romans. This manuscript is identified as MS 5116. The below link is part of a collection from
the British Library. They are in the
process of scanning all of their Byzantine manuscripts.
Transcription:
I started at the very beginning of Romans.
1. Title
Pros Rwmaious Theia Epistole Paulou
Notes: Uncial title and the Rho-Omega
ligature.
2. archei
(the notes in the right hand margin are unreadable)
Notes: Guidelines and marginal notes (scholia).
3. Paulos
doulos i(eso)u ch(risto)u kleitos apostolos
Notes: nomina sacra IU XU
4.
athorisme[nos] eis euaggelion Th(eo)u, ho pro-
Notes: faded ink, nomina sacra,
breaking up words and double gamma
5.
epeggeilato dia tw[n] [p]ropheitwn autou
Notes: ligatures, and similarity
between omega and pi.
6. en
graphais hagiais, peri tou huiou autou
Note: “agi“ ligature and
punctuation
7. tou genomenou
ek spermatos da(ui)d ka-
Notes: similarity between mu and
nu.
8. ta sarka,
tou horisthentos huiu Th(eo)u en
Notes: square and rounded breathing
marks used together.
9. dunam[ei] kata
pn(eum)a agiwsuneis ex ana-
Notes: crazy ex.
10. stasews
nekrwn I(eso)u Ch(risto)u tou k[urio]u heimwn,.
Notes: nomina sacra and “st”
ligature.
11. Di ou elabomen
charin kai apostolein
Notes: ornamented delta and no
abbreviation for Kai.
12. eis hupakoein
pistews en pasin tois
Notes: Kapa and Eta shapes
13. [e]thnesin
huper tou onomatos autou,
Notes: seemingly odd word breaks.
14. en hois este
kai humeis kleitoi I(eso)u Ch(risto)u pasin
Notes: nomina sacra and hanging I
15. (top of
page 2) Tois ousin en romei agapeitois Th(eo)u klei-
Notes: nomina sacrum (I don’t know
what the scholia says), and ornamented tau.
16. tois agiois,
charis humin kai eireinei apo
Notes:
eta shapes and ei ligature.
17. Th(eo)u
p(at)r(o)s heimwn kai K(urio)u I(eso)u Ch(risto)u. prwton
Notes: Nomina sacra, and pi-omega
similarities
18. men
eucharistw twi Th(e)wi mou dia I(eso)u Ch(risto)u
Notes: nomina sacra and iota
subscript.
19. huper pantwn
humwn hoti hei pistis hu-
Notes:
rounded breathing marks and the square breathing above hoti.
20. mwn
kataggelletai en holw twi kosmw.
Note: iota
subscript, ambiguous punctuation
21. martus
gar mou estin ho Th(eo)s Hwi latreuw en
Note: nomina sacra, ornamented mu
22. Twi pn(eumat)i mou en twi euaggeliw tou hui-
Notes:
iota subscript and nomina sacra
23. ou autou,
hws adialeiptws mneian humw(n)
Notes:
adialeiptws has interesting ligatures.
24. poioumai
pontote epi twn pro-
Notes:
pontote and seeming word separation.
25. euchwn
mou deomenos, ei pws eidei
Notes:
ei ligature and pi and omega next to each other.
26. pote
euodwtheisomai en twi theleima-
Notes:
iota subscript and word of death.
27. ti tou Th(eo)u elthein pros humas. Epipo-
Note: nomina sacra
28. Thw gar
idein humas, hina ti metadw cha-
Notes:
red theta
29. risma
humin pneumatikon eis to
Notes:
interesting lack of nomina sacrs
30.
sterichthenai humas, touto de esti[n]
31. sumparakleitheinai en humin dia teis
Notes:
interesting use of two differen etas in one word of death.
32. en alleilois
pistews humwn te (kai)
Note: Abbreviation for Kai (and)
33. emou. Ou thelw de humas agnoein
34. Adelphoi
, hoti pollakis proethemein
35. tou elthein pros humas, kai ekolu-
Notes:
pros instead of epi (used in most texts), and two different forms of kappa.
36. thein achri
tou deuro, hina tina karpov
No comments:
Post a Comment