[Commentary on the Hymns of Cosmas of Jerusalem and John of Damascus /Theodore Prodromus. Selections of St. John Chrysostom. Fables of Aesop].

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 23-27 lines.

Decoration: Many red marginal initials with bar headpieces in red and sometimes brown: fol. 21v double rope pattern; fol. 24r double rope pattern with serpent finials in deep red; fol. 66v an asteros and quadripartite foliate cross; fol. 87v flat interlace; fol. 88r a guilloche pattern, background in red, small with only 2 circles; fol. 102r a running pattern with double-lined "C's" back to back with carets connecting them at the top and bottom forming what is similar to an enlarged fleur-de-lis, joined with a double line through the center; fol. 110r a double rope pattern with quadripartite finials; fol. 128r running pattern of cordate forms around a tripartite leaf enclosed within a double lined border, knotted, red background; fol. 139r running vine meander with leaf reverses with a double ruled border and a solid red background; fol. 158v wavy line arc accents with trefoil finials; fol. 231r a running pattern of linked ovals with leaf infilling and paired floral ornamentations where the points of the ovals join.

Script: There appear to be at least four hands: Scribe I: fol. 1r-108v; Scribe II: fol. 109r-109v; Scribe III fol. 110r-122r, 139r-245; Scribe IV: fol. 122v-138v. All the hands come in the same period and even the individual hands show marked similarity in the construction of letters. The difference is in the general appearance: Scribe I is vertical and regularly formed; Scribes III and IV are quite cursive in quickly formed and running letters, and, like Scribe I, often carelessly written with many errors of spelling.

Title cataloged from existing description.

Miscellany with Commenataries on Hymns of Cosmas and St. John of Damascus by Prodromus; selections from The 48 eclogues from various sermons, Perfect charity, and The temptation of the devil by St. John Chrysostom; and Aesop's Fables in an alphabetic recension.

Binding: The textblock was sewn in the traditional Byzantine style, but the original covers are missing. A parchment calfskin wrapper, once sewn on as a cover, is now completely detached from the text block. The sewing indicates that the two halves of the text block were sewn to covers and the two halves joined in the center of the spine.