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Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. sir. 623

Palimpsest collection: overtexts in Syriac; undertexts in Greek, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian and Syriac. Date:

The Syriac overtexts were written in the Seleucid year 1197, i.e., ad 886 (170r, 172v, 222v); the underlying Greek copy of the Handy Tables and the Arabic fragment of Theon’s Little Commentary on that work were found to most likely date from the second half of the eighth century and to be in the hand of the translator (Giuffrida et al.). Thus the single original folio (8 pages in the palimpsest) with Theon’s commentary constitutes one of the earliest securely dated Arabic manuscripts (Proverbio, p. 376).

Or.:

Around half of the codex (ff. 105–227, now kept separately as part 2) consists of parchment leaves from eight earlier codices containing works on a variety of topics in Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Christian-Palestinian Aramaic, and Syriac. The original six leaves of parchment covering the Handy Tables and Theon’s commentary (of size 334×246 mm) were first cut in half and then folded in order to produce three consecutive quires (24 folios) of the current Syriac codex (cf. Giuffrida et al., pp. 3 and 39). The Syriac overtexts were copied by the monk Theodosius for abbot John and his brother Simon at the monastery of St. Catharine at the foot of Mount Sinai (van Lantschoot).

Prov.:

The codex most probably remained at the monastery of St. Catherine until the nineteenth century. It was then in the possession of the collector of Christian-Arabic manuscripts Friedrich Grote (1861–1922) and was purchased by the Vatican Library in 1952.

Cod.: parchment palimpsest, 227 ff. The manuscript is now kept in two separate parts: part 1 contains ff. 1–104 (available online) and part 2 consists of ff. 105–227 (not seen by us as a whole). The Arabic writing was identified as Palestino-Sinaitic (see Paolo La Spisa in Tihon, Πτολεμαίου Πρόχειροι κανόνες, pp. 84–86). For further characteristics of the Arabic and Greek writing, see Giuffrida et al., pp. 8b–14a. The Syriac overtext is in esṭrangēlā script. Dimensions: 167×123 mm, overtext between 13 and 28 lines per page. Part 1 has leather covers and type III binding.

Cont.: religious overtexts in Syriac; various topics, including astronomy and religious ones, in the undertexts. For the Syriac overtexts, see van Lantschoot. Among the undertexts in the palimpsest are fragments of such important works as two comedies by Menander in Greek and Galen’s On Simple Drugs in Syriac; for a complete overview with references, see Giuffrida et al, pp. 38a–40a. — Index: Ptolemaica (ff. 121v+116r | 115r+122v, 116v+121r | 122r+115v); Ptolemy, Handy Tables (ff. 117–120 and 123–138, in uncial Greek).

Bibl.: Arnold van Lantschoot, Inventaire des manuscrits syriaques des fonds Vatican (460-631), Barberini Oriental et Neofiti, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1965, pp. 151–153; Anne Tihon, ‘Les “Tables Faciles” de Ptolémée dans les manuscrits en onciale (IXe-Xe siècle)’, Revue d’Histoire des Textes 23 (1992), pp. 47–87, here pp. 68–70; Delio Vania Proverbio, ‘Theonis Alexandrini fragmentum pervetus arabice, sul più antico manoscritto del Commentarium parvum di Teone Alessandrino’, Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche), Rendiconti Serie 8, 13 (2002), pp. 373–386; Michael Kohlbacher, ‘Palimpseste als Geschichtsquelle. Geschichte im Spiegel der Textüberlieferung am Beispiel von Palimpsesten’, in Véronique Somers (ed.), Palimpsestes et éditions de textes: les textes litteraires, Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut Orientaliste, 2009, pp. 263–319, here pp. 289–292; Anne Tihon, Πτολεμαίου Πρόχειροι κανόνες. Les Tables Faciles de Ptolémée. Volume 1a. Tables A1-A2. Introduction, Édition critique, Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste, 2011, pp. 41–47, 84–86, and 193–198; Raymond P. Mercier, Πτολεμαίου Πρόχειροι κανόνες. Ptolemy’s Handy Tables. Volume 1b. Tables A1-A2. Transcription and Commentary, Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste, 2011, pp. 196–198; Paul Géhin, Les manuscrits syriaques de parchemin du Sinaï et leurs membra disjecta, Leuven: Peeters, 2017, pp. 153–156 etc.; Anne Tihon, ‘Le diagramme des horizons dans le palimpseste Vaticanus syriacus 623’, in Michel Cacouros and Jacques-Hubert Sautel (eds), Des cahiers à l’histoire de la culture à Byzance. Hommage à Paul Canart, codicologue (1927-2017), Leuven: Peeters, 2021, pp. 183–205; Giuliano Giuffrida, András Németh and Delio Vania Proverbio, ‘An Arabic-Greek Codex of Ptolemy’s Handy Tables from the Eighth Century. Reassessment of the Arabic Winds List and the Horizon Diagram in Vat. sir. 623’, The Vatican Library Review 2 (2023), pp. 1–41. DigiVatLib: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.sir.623.pt.1 (with scans of part 1).

121v+116r \| 115r+122v, 116v+121r \| 122r+115v	\121v+116r\ أمّا الطريقة المستقيمة لحساب قوانين النجوم العتيدة يا بنيّ أبيفان فقد* أوضحنا* ذلك في خمس مصاحف في تثبيت آخر. فأمّا في هذا المصحف لأنّ كثيرين (؟) منمن (؟) يصير إلينا لجهة علم هذا التعليم مع أنّهم لا يقدرون على إتباع الأمر لإضعاف الأعداد وتجزيّتها أيضًا ليس لهم علم أصلًا بدلائل المساحة ... = Theon of Alexandria, 〈Sharḥ〉 Qawānīn al-nujūm al-ʿatīda (unknown tr.) (C.4.1) , only the first two pages as undertext on eight pages of the palimpsest. — Title: Qawānīn al-nujūm al-ʿatīda (121v+116r). — Index: Preface, 121v+116r–122r+115v. The Arabic text corresponds to the Greek text published in Tihon, Le “Petit Commentaire”, pp. 199:1–203:2 (Giuffrida et al, p. 8, n. 39).

121v+116r | 115r+122v, 116v+121r | 122r+115v

\121v+116r\ أمّا الطريقة المستقيمة لحساب قوانين النجوم العتيدة يا بنيّ أبيفان فقد* أوضحنا* ذلك في خمس مصاحف في تثبيت آخر. فأمّا في هذا المصحف لأنّ كثيرين (؟) منمن (؟) يصير إلينا لجهة علم هذا التعليم مع أنّهم لا يقدرون على إتباع الأمر لإضعاف الأعداد وتجزيّتها أيضًا ليس لهم علم أصلًا بدلائل المساحة ...

= Theon of Alexandria, 〈Sharḥ〉 Qawānīn al-nujūm al-ʿatīda (unknown tr.) (C.4.1)

, only the first two pages as undertext on eight pages of the palimpsest. — Title: Qawānīn al-nujūm al-ʿatīda (121v+116r). — Index: Preface, 121v+116r–122r+115v. The Arabic text corresponds to the Greek text published in Tihon, Le “Petit Commentaire”, pp. 199:1–203:2 (Giuffrida et al, p. 8, n. 39).