ANTIOCH preceded by the end of a list of the PATRIARCHS OF ALEXANDRIA and followed by a list of the canonical books of the Bible, in Greek, bifolium from a MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Greece?, mid- to late- 10th century] 196 x 153mm. 17 lines ruled in blind written in brown ink in a fine and formal Greek minuscule, headings in uncials, modern foliation 46-47. In a modern cloth binding.
Provenance: (a) the conservative character of the writing is very marked, as is customary with the codices vetustissimi and vetusti of the 9th – 13th centuries. The minuscule slants slightly to the right, the breathings are square and the accents precise, and there is no enlargement of certain letters and intermixing with uncial forms as tends to happen in later centuries, all indicating a possible dating to the 10th century. The list of the Patriarchs of Alexandria ends with Peter IV (642-651), while the list of the Patriarchs of Antioch ends with Anastasius II (599-610), and the scribe has left space for 9 and 10 more names respectively, which would suggest he was copying the text from an earlier manuscript and writing a few centuries after the names listed. (b) ANDRe ROORYCK (1923-2010), sold at Sotheby’s, 5 July 2005, lot 7. An interesting and early bifolium from what would probably have been a compendium of useful religious dates, events, and lists relating to the Greek Orthodox Church. George I (621-630), Cyrus (631-641) and Peter IV (642-651) close the list of Patriarchs of Alexandria (following the Greek Orthodox as opposed to the Coptic Orthodox tradition, after the schism of 536), while the Patriarchs of Antioch run from Peter the Apostle (c.37 – 53) to Anastasius II (599-610).
