Storia di un manoscritto. Composizione e scrittura del Pal. gr. 398, tra paradossografia e geografia, filosofia e scienza

This PhD thesis is the result of a joint PhD programme (Cotutelle de thèse) between the University of Pisa-Siena and the Institute of Byzantine Studies at the University of Vienna. The research focuses on the palaeographic, codicological, and thematic features of the manuscript Heidelberg Universitätsbibliothek Palatinus graecus 398. This miscellaneous codex contains geographical, mythographic, and paradoxographic texts. Codex Palatinus belongs to the so-called “Philosophical Collection” and, in particular, to the group of philosophical manuscripts (Plato, Neoplatonists) written by “Copyist I”. From a palaeographic point of view, the manuscript dates back to the third quarter of the ninth century. It is part of the historical and cultural context that followed the end of Iconoclasm in 843. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the study provides an in-depth analysis of the history of minuscule script between the ninth and the tenth centuries, focusing on the “minuscule of the Philosophical Collection”. This is complemented by a description of the literary phenomena that characterised the reception of paradoxography in the ancient, late antique, and medieval periods. A complete profile of the manuscript is, therefore, provided. Regarding the graphic framework, the research also covers the system of marginal annotation, accentuation, and punctuation. The content description considers the following aspects: the creation process of paradoxographic collections; the relationship between paradoxography and scholarly literature; and the reuse of similar literary forms in post-classical era. The first chapter deals with the codex’s modern history. This is reconstructed by using archive and catalogue sources, as well as the later marginal annotations transmitted by the manuscript itself. The second chapter critically discusses secondary literature and bibliography regarding the “Philosophical Collection” and the Palatinus manuscript. Furthermore, this chapter outlines the methodological principles adopted in the subsequent sections. The sociographical approach enables the palaeographical data to be integrated with the reconstruction of the historical and cultural copying context. Another crucial element is the concept of reception. Indeed, the textual corpus must be studied not only in relation to its origin, but also to its transmission during the Late Antique and Byzantine eras. The third chapter concerns the palaeographic analysis. In particular, it provides an in-depth description of the palaeographic characteristics of the minuscule and the majuscule scripts adopted by “Copyist I”, comparing them with the other scripts already known in the “Philosophical Collection”. It also describes the system of marginal annotations and their typologies and functions, and the accentuation and punctuation marks. Finally, the fourth chapter examines the manuscript contents to trace back the history of paradoxography’s reception. This chapter has a tripartite structure. Firstly, it addresses the characteristics of the textual corpus and its chronology. It also provides examples of the main types of paradoxa transmitted by the textual collection. Secondly, it focuses on the late antique reception in fifth- and sixth-century Neoplatonic environments in Athens and Alexandria. The final section focuses on the reception of paradoxography in the medieval period. Furthermore, it includes a thorough analysis of the anonymous Chrestomathiae and Photius’ Bibliotheca, examining its ways in which geographic, scientific, and mythographic paradoxa were read and interpreted. The cultural and literary characteristics of the Byzantine copying environment are then compared with other literary phenomena. These include eleventh-century Greek literature (Michael Psellus), as well as Latin and Arabic-Islamic traditions. The results reveal a new perspective on the manuscript copying practices. They also point out palaeographic links between the “minuscule of the Philosophical Collection” and general trends in “writing circles” in the ninth and tenth centuries. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of content characteristics has revealed convergences between paradoxography and scientific-philosophical knowledge. These convergences are interpreted in an original way within each period and literary tradition considered.