[Theological Miscellanea, including works by Saints John of Damascus and Gregory Thaumatugus].

Forms part of the Kenneth Willis Clark Collection of Greek Manuscripts (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)

Format: Manuscript codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Layout: Written in 1 column of 22-23 lines; unruled.

Script: Three different hands and papers are used, as follows: Scribe I: fol. 1r-250v, 271r-309v; Scribe II: fol. 252r-270v (dated 1689); and Scribe III: fol. 310r-312v. Hand I comprises most of the text and is remarkably consistent throughout with a use of both the uncial and minuscule forms, and numerous abbreviations. In general the hand, which is small with numerous tachygraphic elements, has a fast-moving, facile presentation with a frequent use of high points, diaeresis, commas and for the end of sections the :-. Hand II represents the effort to include the missing leaves when the book was rebound in the seventeeth-century. It is a scratchy, hastily written piece of work undertaken to fill the missing pages of The Orthodox Faith to which he has added Concerning those who have Died in the Faith (a work dubiously attributed to St. John of Damascus). Hand III is another example of an undistinguished seventeenth-century hand, but more unpracticed than the scratchy Hand II.

Decoration: Throughout the manuscript the scribe, or scribes, have used illustrative diagrams within the text: fol. 15v, 25v, 76r, 77v, 110v, 204v, 279v, and 281r. Ornamental headpieces of penwork in reddish brown appear on fol. 1v, 7v, 49v, 78r, 271v, 278v, 281v, 284r, 290r, 291r, 292v, 307v. Ornamental initial letters in reddish brown appear throughout the text, and where appropriate section numbers are in the margins in the same reddish brown ink.

Title cataloged from existing description.

Orthodox Church miscellany, including St. John of Damascus's Dialectics; other authors are Gelasius Cyzicensus and St. Sophronius of Jerusalem. Also includes The Ten Commandments.

Binding: The binding is contemporary with the textblock; it is of parchment over paste boards with red sprinkled edges, slightly trimmed to accommodate the inserted leaves. The endsheets of cream soft paper appears to be Italian although there are no identifiable watermarks.