Philo About the Contemplative Life (De Vita Contemplativa)

A specimen of its script was provided by Constantinus Tischendorf in the second table added to his Philonea. I owe my collation of this to the kindness of Dr. Leopold Cohn of Breslau, from whose edition of the De Mundi Opificio I have taken the above description, for I have not seen the MS. itself. Dr. Cohn refers to this MS. under the symbol A.

P = Codex Mediceo-Laurentianus Medici-Laurentian Manuscript, plut. X, cod. 20, parchment, in what they call duodecimo format, from the beginning of the 13th century, written in small letters. A specimen of the script of this codex was edited by Constantinus Tischendorf in the photographic plate added to the book titled Philonea (Lips. 1868). On the inside of the cover these words are read: A. Cocchius Mugellanus compared it in the year 1733 with the printed text of Turnebus. He compared it for the use of Mangey. On the other page of the second folio these things are written: This book belongs to Francesco Filelfo. I borrow the above description from Dr. Cohn's introduction, p. vii. The D. V. C. in this MS. was collated for me by Dr. Enrico Rostagno of Florence. Dr. L. Cohn's M. The D. V. C. occupies foll. 330 v.–337 r.

Q = Cod. Laur. Laurentian Manuscript 10 plut. LXXXV, 15th century. This codex is written partly in the 15th, partly in the 16th century. The D. V. C. is of the earlier date. Collated by Dr. Enrico Rostagno. The D. V. C. occupies foll. 186 v.–194 v. Dr. L. Cohn's F.

§ 3. In addition to the above, I examined and in part collated the following MSS. belonging to the Vatican Library.

R = Codex Otthobonianus Gr. Ottobonian Greek Manuscript no. 48. This codex is in three volumes, on paper, written in a XVIth-century hand. The D. V. C. begins on fol. 75 of the first volume.

S = Codex Uaticanus Vatican Manuscript 380, clearly written on parchment, seemingly in the XVth century.

T = Codex Palatinus Palatine Manuscript 183. This codex was originally at Heidelberg. In it the D. V. C. begins on fol. 250.

U = Codex Uaticanus Vatican Manuscript 382, written on paper. The D. V. C. occupies foll. 68–76. This codex is of the XIVth century.

In each of these four codices I examined the first half of the treatise, in order to satisfy myself as to the family of text represented by them.

§ 4. The majority of the above codices may be readily classified as belonging to the one or the other of two distinct groups, which are referred to in my Apparatus Criticus under the symbols β and γ. The group β includes the following codices: B, D, E, M, S, T. The