Zeitschrift fär Kirchengeschichte (1890) pp. 155-158

NOTES

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The Greek Irenaeus and the complete Hegesippus in the 17th century.

By

Ph. Meyer,

Pastor in Binnen bei Nienburg a. d. Weser.

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Under the this same title, Zahn in the second volume of this magazine, p. 268ff, published a book catalogue, which is in an exemplar of the ed. prin. of Pindar of 1515 belonging to the monastery library at Patmos and mentions the following theological works, 1) Εἰρηναίου Ἐπισκόπου Λουγδούνων κατὰ αἱρέσεων βιβλία Ε', 2)  Ἡγησίππου ἀνδρὸς ἀποστολικοῦ βιβλια Ε', 3) Ἀμφιλοχίου ἐπισκόπου λόγοι διάφοροι.

In the year 1887, when I was collecting at Athos the main documents for the history of the monasteries there, I copied in passing a catalog, which contains among others the works in the Patmos inventory.

This catalogue is contained in Codex 1280 of the library of Iwiron, paper, s.XVII, octavo.  The main content of the MS consists of church music and the musical notes for it. The last eight sheets contain however no more music, but begins:Θεοφάνους μοναχοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου ῥήτορος τῆς ἁγίας τοῦ χριστοῦ μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας πρὸς τὸν πανευγενέστατου κύριον Γεώργιον τὸν Ραέλ, ἀποβαλόντα τὸν παμφίλτατον υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Μιχαὴλ μετὰ τριῶν ἐκγόνων αὐτοῦ.  

On this Theophanes, who floruit around 1460, see the recent and most detailed notice by Papadopulos Keramefs in|^p156 Βιβλιοθήκη Μαυρογορδάτειος vol. 1. Now this letter follows, and from page 5^b-6^a of the following catalog, which I show in its original orthography, since this may possibly be important for the further pursuit of the trail, by indicating at the same time by an appended question mark, where the preceding word was unreadable either because worm-eaten or because of what seemed to me a very indistinct way of writing. Also I maintained the paragraph-organization of the original. No more writing follows the catalogue, but meaningless scratchings and scribbles. The text is as follows:

    ἡγεσίππου τοῦ ἐπὶ τοῖς χρόνοισ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀκμάσαντος ὑπομνημάτων ε'.
    τοῖ ἁγίου ἰγνατίου ἐπιστολαί.
    εἰρηναίου ἐπισκόπου λουγδούνου λόγος κατὰ αἱρέσεων.
    ἰουστίνου φιλοσόφου καὶ μάρτυρος βίβος ὑπὲρ χριστιανῶν τῆ συγκλύτω δοθεῖσα. ετέρα ἀντωνίνος καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ διαδοχοις. τρίτη, ἐν ἧ περὶ τῆς φυγῆς (?) τῶν ἰουδαίων μόνων διαλέγεται. τετάρτη, ἣν ἐπέγραψεν ἐλέγχον, καὶ ἕτερα.
    tοῦ ἁγίου ἱππολότου λόγοι διάφοροι καὶ ἐπιστολαὶ εἰς τῆν θείαν γραφήν.
    μεθοδίου βιβλία κατὰ πορφιρίου. τοῦ αὐτοῦ συμπόσιον δέκα παρθένον. τοῦ αὐτοῦ περὶ αναστάσεως. τοῦ αὐτοῦ περὶ αὐτεξουσίου.
    τοῦ αὐτοῦ ὑπομνήματα εἰς τὸ ἄσμα τῶν ἀσμάτων.
    εὐσεβίου τῆς κισαρείας βίβλος περὶ τῆς τῶν εὐαγγεκίων διαφα. . ? εἰς τὸν προφήτην ἡσαίαν λόγοι τ. κοντά. πορφυρίου λόγοι λ'!  τόπικον λογος α'. ἀπολογία ὑπὲρ ὠριγένους.  περὶ βίου παμφίλου τοῦ μάρτυρος λόγοι γ'.  περὶ μαρτυρίου (?) εἰς τοὺς ρν' ψαλμοὺς ὑπομνματα.
    εὐσταθίου ἐπισκόπου ἀντιοχείας λόγοι περὶ ψυχῆς.
    ἀμφιλοχίου ἐπισκόπου ἰκονίου λόγοι διάφοροι.
    τοῦ ἁγίου φλαβιανοῦ ὁμιλίᾳ εἰς τὸν  εὐαγγελιστὴν  λουκᾶν καὶ εἰς τὰ θεοφανία.  
    εὐσεβίου ἐμεσανοῖ ὁμιλίαι πολλαί εἰς τὰ ῥητὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς.
    λεντίου ἐπισκόπου νεαπόλεως ἀπολογίαι ὑπὲρ χριστιανῶν καὶ κατὰ ἰουδαίων, καὶ περὶ εἰκόνων τῶν ἁγιων.
    ἀπερίου (?) ἐπισκόπου ἀμασείας ἀγκώμιον εἰς εὐφυμαίαν τὴν μάρτυρα.
    ἐπιφανίον ἐπισκόπου σηλυβρίας λόγοι κατὰ τῶν εἰκονοκ . . ? λίαν ὠφέλιμος.
    βασιλείου τοῦ μεγάλου ὑπομνήματα εἰς τὸυ ἐκκλησιαστήν, τοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν σοφίαν.
    σαβίνου τῆς ἡρακλείας ἐπισκόπου συναγωγή ἁγίων (?) συνοσικῶν. |^p157
    εὐαγρίου, ὅστις ἦν μαθητὴς τοῦ γρηγορίου τοῦ ναζιανζοῦ καὶ μακαρίου.    

Like Zahn, I can only see the point of making such a catalogue if the writer of the same wanted to note down in writing the books which he either owned or had access to in a library. The suggestion that the listing is merely copied from an older codex may be abandoned as such a listing would be completely worthless without the books and the location of the same in our MS. In many codices the owners used the first or last blank sheets of the same for these personal notes.   Similar inventories however were  made more frequently at Athos, both in the monasteries, if the inventory were handed over to a new Igumenos, or particularly frequently, if the monastery handed the houses of its Skiti or a Kellion over to a new tenant.  ὁ Ἂθως, p. 339 gives such inventories at Jedeon. But this dates from 1143, and apparently contains the whole book possession of the earlier monastery Ξυλούργου, hardly in the same year, which appears from the late expressions used (e.g. σενδούκι, which is Turkish). The whole text is in Περὶ τοῦ ζητήματος τῆς ἐν Ἄθω ἱερᾶς μονῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Παντελεήμονος etc., Constantinople 1874, p. 90ff.  I have seen several newer book catalogues of this kind in the so-called Ὁμόλογα, the lease contracts of the Skitioten and Kellioten with their monastery. Now the available catalog is not such an comprehensive inventory, as is shown by the complete absence of the names of practical works.  And there is nothing unusual about the inventory that prevents the supposition that in the 17th century a monk compiled a catalog of selected works from a library close to him.

Automatically one thinks of the library of Iwiron. But Irenaeus and Hegesippus are not contained in it, at least not now, so I checked reliable MS catalogues of Lambros, which I examined in manuscript, before I opened the one on Athos. Also one looks in vain for the letters of Ignatius, but some works of Justin are to be found in a 16th century folio manuscript, which belongs to the Skiti τοῦ Προδρόμου above Iwiron. There were none of these at Lambros. Of the remaining works I am not able to say whether they are to be found in Iwiron or at all on Athos, since I, as said, examined the catalog of Lambros before my journey.

Translated by Roger Pearse, 2001.  Greek text in unicode.

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