Text and Paratext in Medieval Manuscripts of the Iliad: New Research Perspectives

The tradition of Greek poetic texts accompanied by scholia is characterized by considerable variety in the strategy of mise en page. In particular, in the thicket of Homeric manuscripts, a large number of ways of organization can be distinguished both in the layout and in the very system of cross-reference between text and scholia. These differences sometimes characterize manuscripts bearers of the same classes of scholia (according to Erbse's classification), or groups of manuscripts descended from the same ancestor. Through a comparative investigation of codicological, paleographical and textual data of some important manuscripts of the Palaeologan age - set up in different geographical areas - and the analysis of the dialectical relationship established between text and paratext, in some cases transposed by the models, in others appropriately established by the scholarly circles responsible for the manuscript, an attempt will be made to shed new light on modes of reading and fruition, the environments of transmission, and the relationship with the manuscripts of previous centuries. As case studies, the paper will focus in particular on some fairly well-known manuscripts, whose new palaeographic data will also be presented: Milan, Ambr. A 181 sup. (Constantinople, 13th century, ‘framed’ scholia); Milan, Ambr. I 4 sup. (13th century, Constantinople, marginal scholia); Breslau, Rhed. gr. 26 (Terra d'Otranto, late 13th century, marginal scholia); Milan, Ambr. L 116 sup., (Terra d' Otranto, late 13th century, recueil after every book of the poem); and finally Genève, Gen. gr. 44 (marginal scholia), a very well-known manuscript from the 13th century, but of which there is still a lack of systematic study defining the origin and stemmatic placement. In the light of the collected data, novelties concerning the genesis and textual tradition of the scholia of the so-called h family of the Iliad will also be presented.