Manuscript without Shelf Number at Fitzwilliam Museum Has Been Found
Daniel B. Wallace
Sept 21, 2008
As is well known, the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster, Germany, is the gatekeeper for Greek NT MSS. The Institut’s
former director, Kurt Aland, along with Michael Welte, Beate Köster, and Klaus Junack, produced ‘the Bible for Bibles,’ the Kurzgefasste Liste
der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, 2nd ed. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1994). Sometimes known as the K-Liste, this is the standard
tool that gives a fingerprint on all extant Greek NT MSS. Included in the data are the type of MS, contents, date, number of leaves, dimensions,
material, columns, lines per column, and location. For the last item, the city, institute (or occasionally individual), and shelf number are
listed. Without the work of the INTF for nearly fifty years now, the NT discipline of textual criticism would be unspeakably impoverished. As
accurate and up-to-date as Münster is, every once in a while their publications have some errata. This brief describes one such instance, with
gratitude to the INTF for even making our knowledge of the data possible.
On occasion, a MS is listed in brackets in the K-Liste, which means that its location at the stated institute cannot be confirmed. At other
times, there are question marks in the registry, indicating some doubt about the details of the MS. One such MS is codex 1281, a tenth-century
minuscule that was known to be at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. However, what was not known was its shelf number. In such instances,
it is sometimes a bit tricky trying to find the MS. Usually, in-house catalogs are produced, and the MS may show up somewhere in the catalogs. It
may seem a curious thing to students of the NT that the Gregory-Aland number of the MSS is not immediately recognized at the possessing institutes.
The reality is that these libraries use their own shelf numbers and are often unaware of the Gregory-Aland number that has been assigned to such MSS.
Indeed, some libraries (even highly visible ones) have no immediate knowledge of Münster, the INTF, or even that NT scholars are interested in
their holdings.
On Tuesday, 16 September 2008, Dr. Jeff Hargis and I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum to examine the five Greek NT MSS housed there.
This was our second time at the museum, and we are grateful to Dr Stella Panayotova, the museum’s manuscript keeper, for permission to see
these documents. Four of the five MSS had been bequeathed to the museum in 1905 by Frank McClean’s estate (McClean was a Cambridge graduate
whose estate donated 203 MSS to the museum, following his unexpected death in 1904). The fifth manuscript was listed as having no shelf number
in the K-Liste; it was listed as part of the McClean collection with a question mark. But no shelf number was given. Here is what it listed:
Gregory-Aland codex 1281 (= GA 767), 10th century Gospels codex with a later hand writing some of the leaves; 259 leaves written on
parchment, single column, 19 lines per column, with page dimensions of 26.3 x 19 centimeters. Housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge;
no shelf number, with a question as to whether it was part of the McClean Collection (which was donated in 1905 to the museum.)
Much to our delight, the MS was located without too much trouble. And most importantly, the shelf number was identified. After examining the MS,
we can now offer these corrections to the K-Liste:
260 leaves1 ; page dimensions are 25.5–26 x 18–19.5 cm; it is not part of the McClean Collection but was presented by “the executors of
Professor Francis Wormald by his desire. Oct. 1972.”2 The shelf number is 87–1972 (which means acquisition #87 in the year 1972).
In addition, the following information may be useful to students of the NT. Several leaves are missing from the original codex. The text begins at
Matt 1.8 and continues, with gaps, through to John 13.3. There are only a handful of corrections in the MS, such as the addition of Matt 23.13 due to
the scribe committing a haplographic error due to parablepsis. The same scribe seems to have added it in the margin. A notation is made just before
John 8.12 as well: a different scribe added the pericope adulterae in the margin and at the bottom of the page in a significantly smaller minuscule
hand. In the first instance, the error was no doubt due to the scribe’s inattention to where he or she was in the text; in the second instance, the
omission of the PA was almost certainly due to its lack in the scribe’s exemplar.
1 The in-house catalog of the Fitzwilliam Museum says that there are 258 leaves in this codex, but two rather
fragmentary leaves, both with some writing still on them, were not counted.
2 So says a small note on the inside (verso) of the front of the white-leather dust jacket.