Binding: Barking, Essex, 1994, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case, by Aquarius.

Provenance: 1. Private Collector, Switzerland (-1993); 2. Christie's 7. 7.1993:38.

Commentary: Curse tablets were used in the Graeco-Roman world from second half of the 6th c. BC to 5th c. AD. The lead tablets were folded and deposited in places associated with the underworld. The most common curses were prompted by participators in trials, victims of thievery, jealous lovers, and rival sportsmen. In a trial, like on this tablet, the curse is directed against the tongues of the witnesses or the prosecutor. Doric Greek is extremely rare in MS.

MS in Greek on wood, Egypt, ca. 500, 1 tablet, 14x38 cm, single column, (10x34 cm), 6+2 lines in a clear Greek cursive (side 1), and Greek capitals (side 2).

Binding: Barking, Essex, 1995, blue cloth gilt folding case, by Aquarius.

Context: Other examples of writing practice from Egypt, see MSS 112/29, 1802/13 and 2263/18.

Provenance: 1. Moen collection (1970'ies-1980'ies); 2. Bonhams 29.4.1991:77; 3. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., London.

Commentary: The maxim of the Athenian orator preserved here is: ". . . and he exposed his spirit to dangers. Nor did he display an ill-timed craving for wealth, but he enjoyed the good things present like one who was going to die, yet cared for his property as if he was immortal".

Published: P.J. Sijpesteijn in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 52, 1983, pp.291-2. Papyrologica Florentina, vol. XXXV. Rosario Pintaudi: Papyri Graecae Schøyen. Firenze, Edizioni Gonnelli, 2005 (Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection V: Greek papyri, vol. I), pp. 37-40.

MS in Greek on papyrus, Egypt, 3rd c., 1 partial f., 25x14 cm, text 1: 3 columns, 33 lines in Greek cursive documentary script; text 2: single column, part of 11 lines in an irregular Greek half-uncial.

Context: The collection of the renowned papyrologist Prof. Atiyah consisted of more than 677 papyri, mainly originating in Middle Egypt, including Oxyrhynchus and Fayum. The first part of 140 papyri (H.P. Kraus cat. 105(1961)), is now in Yale, Beinecke Library, while 242 Greek papyri is MS 244 and 295 Coptic papyri is MS 245 in The Schøyen Collection, see also MS 108.

Provenance: 1. Aziz Suryal Atiyah, Utah (-ca. 1960); 2. H.P. Kraus, New York.

Commentary: Very few military pay registers have survived, and the level of legionary pay at different periods has been much disputed. Traditionally, legionary pay was instalments of 75 denarii. In the 3rd c. and beyond, pay rates escalated, either by increasing the size or by increasing the number of the instalments. This evidence for the continued use of the 75-denarii instalment in the 3rd c. is of importance.
Text 2 has so far resisted all attempts of identification. It seems to be hitherto unknown Greek literature.

Published: To be published by Rosario Pintaudi in Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection series.

MS in Greek and Arabic (text 2) on vellum, Byzantine Empire, 9th c., 2 ff., 18x13 cm, single column, (15x11 cm), 22 lines in a sloping Greek half uncial ("mixed script") ; text 2: Palestine/Damascus, 13th c., 3 lines in Arabic naskhi script.

Context: Only 6 MSS of 12th c. crusader books have hitherto been identified: B.L. Egerton MS.1139, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum McClean MS.49 (fragment), B.N. mss.lat.9396 and 12056, and Vatican cod.Vat.lat.5974. All are luxury books, and rescued to the West in the face of the advancing armies of the Mameluks before 2nd October 1187.

Provenance: 1. Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (until 1187); 2. Saracens, Palestine/Damascus (1187-); 3. Private owner, Damascus, Syria (-1993); 4. Sotheby's 6.12.1993:3h.

Commentary: This is a very important witness, among the oldest ones known.

The main text is represented by an acrostich hymn whose structure is quite rare, and whose typology was almost unknown until now. It must be much older than the manuscript fragment itself: this hymn must be dated to the 4th or 5th century C.E., and it is probably part of a chant repertory which was used in Jerusalem in that period, and later was abandoned: we can compare it to ancient Georgian translations of Greek hymns of the Office which was actually used in Jerusalem. This is a very important discovery concerning the origins of Byzantine hymnography.

The script used is quite rare: it is a "mixed script" (in Italian, "scrittura mista"), that is, a majuscule script, with the constant insertion of some minuscule letters (alpha, my) and some other typical forms of letter. Until now, we know less than 20 manuscripts (or fragments) showing this kind of script, that was used only in Palestine and on Mount Sinai (8th-10th c.), or sometimes in some other oriental areas connected to Syria and Palestine.

The importance of the Crusades in the history of medieval Europe can hardly be over-estimated. The liberation of the Holy places was looked upon as God's own work. Antioch fell to the Franks in 1098, Jerusalem in July 1099. In 1100, Baldwin, count of Edessa, was crowned king of Jerusalem. By about 1131 Jerusalem stood supreme as the Christian capital on the very edge of the world, principally a French and Genoese kingdom. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was its cathedral, and followed from 1114, the western Latin liturgy according to the rule of St. Augustine. The Church must have been the leading scriptorium during this period. Jerusalem fell to Saladin on 2nd October 1187, the sacristy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was looted and destroyed, and its libraries were destroyed.

They used the vellum for that most quintessential of Middle Eastern romances and fairy tales, Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Tales of the Arabian nights. They origin from India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, and the tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore.

Published: Francesco D'Aiuto: Per la storia dei libri liturgico-iccografici Bizantini: Un Progetto di catalogazione dei manoscritti più antichi, pp.64-66; in Bollettino della badia Greca di Grottaferrata, terza serie, vol. 3, 2006, pp. 53-66. Francesco D'Aiuto: Un antico inno per la resurrezione. pp. 28-. In: Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, n.s. 45, 2008, Roma 2009.

Exhibited: Comité International de Palaéographie Latin (CIPL) at Senate House, University of London , 3 September 2008.

in Greek on papyrus, Egypt, 2nd c., 1 partial f. and 2 fragments of a scroll, 25x11 cm, 1 column remaining, column width ca. 6,5, (20x10 cm), 36 lines in a fine Greek uncial.

Provenance: 1. G.A. Michaïlidis, Cairo (ca. 1955); 2. Private collector, Frankfurt; 3. Bruce Ferrini, Akron, Ohio.

Published: 1. J. Drescher in Bulletin de la Société Royale d'Archéologie d' Alexandris, No. 38, 1949; 2. D.S. Crawford, ed.: Papyri Michaelidae, being a catalogue of the Greek and Latin papyri, tablets and ostraca in the library of Mr. G.A. Michaïlidis of Cairo. The Egypt Exploration Society. Aberdeen University press, 1955, no 4.

Exhibited: The Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology (PHI), Oslo, 13.10.2003-06.2005.

See also MS 187, Exodus, Egypt, mid 4th c.

MS in Greek on vellum, Byzantine Empire, late 10th c., 1 f., 33x19 cm, 2 columns, (25x15 cm) 24 lines in a tall late Greek uncial, ecphonetic notation in red and dark brown, 2 initials in red.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's 22.6.1999:61.

Commentary: Ecphonetic notation was partly a forerunner of the neumes. Aland l.2413.

Context: F. 113 of the otherwise lost exemplar of Firenze: Bibl. Nazionale conv. Sopp. J. VI. 6, that was partly written by Niccolò de Niccoli after Ambrogio's dictation of the translation from Greek of the exemplar to Latin in 1429-32, made for Niccoli's own library. (Ullman 8, A.C. de la Mare, 9.)

Provenance: 1. Niccolò Niccoli, Firenze (-1437); 2. Trust of 16 friends of Niccoli, Firenze (1437-1441); 3. Cosimo de' Medici (1441); 4. Dominican Convent of S. Marco, Firenze (1441-); 5. Payne & Foss, London (1833); 6. Mark Lansburgh, Santa Barbara, California, deposited at Dartmouth College, Hannover, North Dakota (-1992); 7. Jörn Günther, Hamburg.

Commentary: Niccolò di Bartolomeo Niccoli (1364/5-1437) protohumanist together with Salutati and Poggio, "the common parent of all scholars" (Poggio), also famous, however, for his magnificent library, notable for the rarity and quality of the texts it contained (A.C. de la Mare). Several of his books contain similar inscriptions as text 2 by the librarian of S. Marco. All the other books of Niccoli's library are now divided between Bibl. Nazionale and Laurenziana.

exhibited: Oslo Katedralskole 850 år, Jubileumsutstilling 10. - 14. March 2003.

MS in Greek on vellum, Byzantine Empire, ca. 1100, 1 f., 22x16 cm, single column, (17x12 cm), 6 lines in Greek minuscule, 2 miniatures (ca. 12x12 cm) in gold and colours within a gold frame ruled in blue and red.

Context: This MS is one of the missing leaves from the Royal Academy Library, Bucharest, ms.gr.1294, acquired 1951, which may have formed a preface to an illustrated MS of St. John Climachus's Heavenly Ladder.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's 25.6.1985:9; 2. H.P. Kraus, New York. Deaccession May 2010.

Commentary:This is probably the earliest of 2 surviving examples of an illustrated Penitential Canon of this period, a testimony to the highly developed Byzantine art of the 11th c. The text is monastic devotion, based on the Heavenly Ladder of St. John Climachus (d. ca. 649), abbot of Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai.

Exhibited: Oslo Katedralskole 850 år, Jubileumsutstilling 10. - 14. March 2003.

See also MS 662, Horologion, Greece, ca. 1330