Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration - photo 1
Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration - photo 2
Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration - photo 3

Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration

Starting price
£ 6 500
Auction dateClassic
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 1053135
Lot 21 | Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration
Greek ekphonetic notation with lavish decoration
Leaves from a Gospel lectionary, in Greek, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Greece, late 11th century]
A substantial fragment from a deluxe early Greek Gospel lectionary with ekphonetic notation.

i + 10 + i leaves. 260 x 230mm, two columns of 25 lines in an 11th-century Greek minuscule in brown ink, ruled space: 219 x 69; 219 x 22; 219 x 69mm, ekphonetic notation in red, rubrics, headings and capitals in red, 19 large, elaborately decorated initials either in red ink or in brown ink infilled with blue, red and green, inhabited by hands pointing, blessing, holding scrolls, birds, dragons, flowers and a fish (edges somewhat frayed, some marginal cropping, fading to initials, occasional stains). Bound in modern wooden boards, blind-tooled leather spine.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby's, 20 June 1995, lot 61.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 2033.

Text:
The leaves are not all consecutive: f.1 contains Mark 10.19-30, beginning '[τας εντολας οιδας μη μοιχευσης] μη φονευσης μη κλεψης' and ending mid-sentence 'εαν μη λαβη εκατονταπλα[σιονα νυν εν τω καιρω τουτω οικιας]'; ff.2-10 contain text from the Gospel of Matthew, beginning with 10.15 '[αμην λεγω υμιν ανεκτοτερον εσται] γη σοδομων και γομορρων'.

Script and music:
The classic Perlschrift in which the text is written – with omegas and as double omicrons and pis the same but with a horizontal stroke added above, rather short ascenders and descenders and the generally rounded and thick-set aspect of the letter forms – allows us to compare it to other manuscripts datable to the later 11th century such as British Library, Add. MS 5153B and 82957 (also a Gospel Lectionary with ekphonetic notation).The elaborate, bombastic, intricate inhabited initials are reminiscent of those in a 12th-century Synaxarion at the British Library, Harley MS 5785, but are here far more ornate and refined. The text is marked throughout with ekphonetic notation in red, indicating where the chanter should pause or change pitch.

The term 'ekphonetic' was coined by I. Tzetzes in 1885 (from the Greek 'to call out', or 'declaim'). In no case is the musical significance of the signs known, and hypothetical transcriptions are possible only by comparison with cantillation in the modern practice of the various traditions. Byzantine ekphonetic notation emerged at the beginning of the 9th century and occurred almost exclusively in Old and New Testament lectionaries. It continued to be used until the 14th century, whereupon the system fell into disuse, and the meaning of the notational signs was forgotten.
Place of origin:Greece
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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