A. Anonymous Catenw.—
1. The most ancient of the Pauline Catenz, to judge by the limitation of its sources, is the Paris MS, coislin 204, sec. x. (311 folios), from which Cramer published his Catena on the eleven epistles, Galatians-Hebrews (Karo and Lietzmann’s No. iv.) The Fathers regularly cited are Origen (on the Ephesians), Eusebius of Emesa (on the Galatians), and, throughout, John Chrysostom, Severian, and Theodore of Mopsuestia: while Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Cyril are uoted once each on the Colossians. Putting aside the Epistle to the Hebrews—the Catena on which may perhaps have had a separate origin and history— there is nothing later than the first half of the 5th century, and, if we except the one passage from Cyril, nothing later than the first years of that century. Cramer employed a ‘scriba Parisiensis’ to copy out the MS for him, and expresses in his preface the fear that the copyist ‘non semper codicis lectionem vere representaverit.’ How well justified his fears were, the re-collation of the Origen comments on Ephesians for Mr. Gregg’s edition in JZAS iii. (1902) abundantly demon- strated. The Theodore, too, was re-collated for Dr. Swete’s edition ; but for the remaining Fathers, and especially for Severian, Cramer's edition is still our only authority, and for critical purposes it is quite valueless. See, for previous references to this Catena, pp. 487* (Cramer) ; 488> (Karo- Lietzmann) ; 493°, 494%, 495°, 496 (Origen) ; 498° (Eusebius of Emesa) ; 499° (Basil and Greg. Naz. on Col 12°); 507° (Severian) ; 510*», 511° (Theodore of Mopsuestia) ; 515° (Cyril) ; 518" (absence of Theodoret and Gennadius).
2. Next Beehane in antiquity of origin, and not inferior in the importance of its contents, comes the Vatican Catena, gr. 762, sec. X., an enormous MS of 411 folios; the Catena for Romans commencing on fol. la, that for 1 Corinthians on fol. 218a, and for 2 Corinthians on fol. 340a.* The handwriting is very fine: the blank spaces left, e.g., on foll, 343, 350, show that the exemplar of that part at any rate of the MS could no longer be deciphered, and was probably, therefore, already an old MS when it was being copied in the 10th century.
* For many new details about the Vatican Catenz, and for an important reference in the case of Oecumenius, the writer is indebted to the unwearied kindness of his friend Dr. Mercati, of the Vatican Library,
522 PATRISTIC COMMENTARIES
In Karo-Lietzmann it is No. i. ; their list of the authors cited is divided, according to their custom, into two classes: the first (at least 10 citations apiece) includes Apollinaris, Cyril, Didymus, Dio- dore, Gennadius, John Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Origen, Photius, Severus of Antioch,* Severian, Theodore, Theodoret; the second consists of Acacius of Ceesarea (4 times on Romans), Basil (3 times on Romans), Clement (twice on 1 Corin- thians), Dionysius the Areopagite (once on 1 Co- rinthians), Gregory Nyssen (once each on Romans and 1 Corinthians), Isidore (5 times), Methodius (once on 1 Corinthians), Theodulus chorepiscopus (once on Romans). ‘This account is, however, not quite exhaustive, and omits, for instance, a scholion on fol. 4036, written in smaller characters but by the original scribe, under the heading *ANeEdvdpou emuoxémouv Nixatas. Alexander of Nicsea lived in the first half of the 10th cent., and may conceiv- ably have been the editor of the Catena in its present form. Both Oecumenius and Photius are laid under contribution : the passages taken from the latter are considerable both in number and length. Where both of them are cited together, Oecumenius always comes first.
Of the two late MSS of parts of this Catena which alone were at Cramer’s disposal—Paris er. 227 and Bodl. Auct. E. ii. 20 (=Miscell. gr. 48)— the latter, on the ground of its rather curious history, may claim a few words here.
MS Bodl. Auct. E. ii. 20, containing in a 16th century hand a Catena on Ro 1-91, was presented to the Library in 1659 by S. Cromleholme, master of St. Paul’s School in London; at an earlier date, in 1601, it had been given to Dr. G. Ryves, warden of New College, by John Lloyd (Johannes Luidus), rector of Writtle in Essex. “Lloyd’s inscription on the fly-leaf is headed ‘Ex manubiis Gaditanis,’ indicating that the MS was part of the spoils of the Earl of Essex’s Spanish expedition in 1596 ; but whether it was taken in the sack of Cadiz itself, or formed part of the library of bishop Osorio of Algarve, which is known to have fallen into Essex’s hands on the homeward journey, cannot be said for certain. At the end of the text on the last leaf is the word delre ; and on the following guard-leaf, in different ink but perhaps in the same handwriting as the body of the MS, are epitaphs by John Lascaris (see above, p. 485>) on himself and on his wife Catherine. These two epitaphs were actually inscribed on Lascaris’ tomb in the church of S. Agata dei Goti at Rome ; and since, in the MS, they are separated by a floriated cross, such as one might expect on a tombstone, it looks as if they had been actually copied in situ. If so, the presumption is strong that the MS itself was written in Rome, and that Vat. gr. 762 was its direct exemplar.
See above, for these MSS, pp. 487 (Cramer and Mai); 488» (Karo-Lietzmann) ; 492, 4932 (Origen) ; 499» (Didymus) ; 501 (Diodore) ; 510 (‘Theodore of Mopsuestia) ; 514%» (Isidore) ; 515* (Cyril) ; 517» (Gennadius) ; 520" (Photius) ; 5214 (Clement).