Minuscule 542

New Testament manuscripts
papyri • uncials • minuscules • lectionaries

Minuscule 542
Text	Gospels †
Date	13th century
Script	Greek
Now at	University of Michigan
Size	17.7 cm by 13.6 cm
Type	Byzantine text-type
Hand	neatly written
Note	full marginalia not accessible

Minuscule 542 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 336 (in Soden's numbering),^[1] is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on a parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 13th century.^[2] Scrivener labelled it by number 555.^[3] The manuscript is lacunose. Currently it is inaccessible.

Description

The codex contains the text of the four Gospels, on 264 parchment leaves (size 17.7 cm by 13.6 cm), with lacunae at the end (John 19:25-21:1).^[3] The text is written in one column per page, 24 lines per page.^[2] It is neatly written. There are breathings and accents used correctly.^[4] The iota subscriptum is rare.^[4] The nomina sacra are written in an abbreviated forms.

According tο Scrivener Movable nu occurs only seven times, a hiatus for the lack of it thrice. There are not many itacistic errors, except ο for ω.^[4]

The text is divided according to the κεφαλαια (chapters), whose numbers are given at the margin, and their τιτλοι (titles) in red at the top and foot of the pages. There is also a division according to the smaller Ammonian Sections (in Mark 232 Sections, the last section in 16:6) stand at the margin, with references to the Eusebian Canons under them (very partially). There are also Verses (the smallest sections).^[5]

It contains Prolegomena, lists of the κεφαλαια (tables of contents) before each Gospel (three of them in red). The Church lessons stand also at the margin in red. It has incipits, Synaxarion, Menologion, subscriptions at the end of each Gospel, and portraits of the four Evangelists (before each Gospel).^[3][5]

The text of Luke 22:43-44 and the Pericope Adulterae are omitted.^[4]

The eight leaves of the codex contained Matthew 7:1-10:18 were misplaced by the binder at Matthew 26:26.^[4]

Text

The Greek text of the codex is a representative of the Byzantine. Aland did not place it in any Category, because the manuscript was not accessible for him.^[6]

It was not examined by the Claremont Profile Method (inaccessible).^[7]

It has a few textual variations (e.g. Matthew 12:37; 13:32; 21:46; 23:25; Mark 9:28; 10:1.17; 13:11; 14:12; Luke 1:27; 8:14; 12:21; John 2:22; 12:40.42; 15:10; 19:17).^[4]

The Lady Burdett-Coutts

History

Dated, probably by the first hand, to the year 1323,^[3] but dated by paleographers to the 15th century.^[2]

In 1864 the manuscript was purchased from a dealer at Janina in Epeiros, by Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906), a philanthropist,^[8] together with other Greek manuscripts (among them codices 532-546).^[5] They were transported to England in 1870-1871.^[9]

The manuscript was added to the list of the New Testament minuscule manuscripts by F. H. A. Scrivener (555) and C. R. Gregory (542).^[3] Gregory saw it in 1883.^[5]

The manuscript was presented by Burdett-Coutts to Sir Roger Cholmely's School, and was housed at the Highgate (Burdett-Coutts III. 4.13), in London.^[5] It was examined and collated by Scrivener in his Adversaria critica sacra (1893).^[10]

The current storage location of the manuscript is unknown.^[2]

See also

Bible portal

• List of New Testament minuscules
• Biblical manuscript
• Textual criticism

References

1. ^ Gregory, Caspar René (1908). Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testament. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung. p. 67. http://www.archive.org/stream/diegriechischen00greggoog#page/n77/mode/2up. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Aland, Kurt; M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack (1994). Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 79. ISBN 3110119862. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1894). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. 1 (4 ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 254. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, Adversaria Critica Sacra: With a Short Explanatory Introduction (Cambridge, 1893), p. XLIX.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Gregory, Caspar René (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments. 1. Leipzig: Hinrichs. p. 201. http://www.archive.org/stream/textkritikdesne00greggoog#page/n213/mode/2up. 
6. ^ Aland, Kurt; Barbara Aland; Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.) (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1. 
7. ^ Wisse, Frederik (1982). The profile method for the classification and evaluation of manuscript evidence, as Applied to the Continuous Greek Text of the Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 62. ISBN 0-8028-1918-4. 
8. ^ Parker, Franklin (1995). [0826512569 George Peabody, a biography]. Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 107. 0826512569. 
9. ^ Robert Mathiesen, An Important Greek Manuscript Rediscovered and Redated (Codex Burdett-Coutts III.42), The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 76, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 131-133.
10. ^ F. H. A. Scrivener, Adversaria critica sacra (Cambridge, 1893).

Further reading

• F. H. A. Scrivener, Adversaria Critica Sacra: With a Short Explanatory Introduction (Cambridge, 1893), pp. XLIX-L. (as o)
• Gregory, Caspar René (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments. 1. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung. p. 201. http://www.archive.org/stream/textkritikdesne00greggoog#page/n213/mode/2up. 

External links