Marks of Provenance
Part 1: The Seals
The Aristophanes Seals
Aristophanes, MS Nn.3.3
This Greek manuscript (CUL MS Nn.3.3) contains two comedies by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, along with the scholia (notes) on it by two Byzantine scholars Thomas Magistros and Demetrius Triclinius. It was written in the 13th-14th century.
A fragment of red wax seal and a short note written vertically in the margin are the keys to its story.
The margin note reads: "απο του δεονισιου (sic) νουμερο 11", meaning "from the Dionysiou, number 11". From the context, we know this means the manuscript is from the Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos.
απο του δεονισιου νουμερο 11
Aristophanes MS Nn.3.15
The same red seal can be seen on two other manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library, CUL MS Nn. 3.15 (also an Aristophanes manuscript) and CUL MS Add. 2603 (letters of Lucian and Synesius).
On Nn. 3.15 a note in the same handwriting as in Nn 3.3 reads: απο του δεονισιου νουμερο 8, "from the Dionysiou, number 8". Below it, is the remainder of a red seal.
απο του δεονισιου νουμερο 8
Leiden University Libraries
BPG 74 G
This seal has been found on other manuscripts. The complete version of it on a manuscript in Leiden (BPG 74 G) helps us identify it as the mark of Antonios Triphillis, (ΑΝΤΟΝΙΟΥ | ΤΡΙΦΙΛΙ | 1713).
Triphillis was an educated Greek man living in London in the first part of the 18th century. He seems to have visited Mount Athos and bought books on behalf of British collectors from the monasteries there.
Aristophanes in Cambridge
Comparing the seals, it seems clear that MS Nn.3.3 and MS Nn.3.15 were owned at one point by Antonios Triphillis, and that the notes in the margins are in his handwriting.
It is likely that he added his seals, together with a number and the name of a monastery, to indicate provenance and his work before reselling the books.
Explore parts 2 and 3 of the story:
Or Return to the Main Page for this story
Images of BAV Pal. gr.31 and BAV Pal. lat.1950: © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Images courtesy of BAV and Heidelberg University Library.
All images of Leiden BPG 74 G: © Leiden University Libraries CC BY 4.0.
All images of Corpus Christi College (MS 081): © The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge CC BY-NC 3.0.
Portrait of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, NPG 1574, © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Image of Fugger Family Crest: Das Ehrenbuch der Fugger, BSB Cgm 9460, © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek/ Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Niketas Lychnos seal: © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC.
Portrait of Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares, ca. 1636 or later. Attributed to Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, CC0 1.0.
All other images: © Cambridge University Library/Licensed under CC-BY-NC 3.0.