Month: June 2011

Manuscripts of Rodosto / Tekirdag

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Last year I wrote about the manuscripts of Rodosto, now modern Tekirdag, which once contained a copy of Eusebius’ work against Porphyry, now lost.  There is a statement in Harnack’s edition of the fragments of Porphyry’s Against the Christians, p.30:

A listing of manuscripts in Rodosto, written between 1565 and 1575, on p.30b: Eusebiou tou Pamphilou Kata Porphuriou (s. Forster, De antiquitatibus et libris ms. Constantinopolitanis, Rostochii, 1877; cf. Neumann in Theol. Lit. Ztg. 1899, col. 299).  In 1838 a great fire broke out in Rodosto.

I’ve had an email about this, in connection with medical mss., and I have done a search back in my inbox.  I found this in an email from 2006, after a query on LT-ANTIQ:

To track down Greek manuscripts, the principal reference is Jean-Marie Olivier, Repertoire des Bibliotheques et des Catalogue des Manuscrits Grecs, 3 ed. (Turnhout: Brepols, 1995).  Theologische Literaturzeitung

Tekirdag is listed on pp. 78-79. Briefly, what is says is that a number of mss. derived from the Metropolitan see of Heraclea were stored at the Metropolitan see of Rodosto together with 5 mss. from the school of Rodosto. There was a fire in which some mss. were destroyed in 1842 and during the course of the nineteenth century the collection was dispersed; the location of 3 mss. is known today.

Again, I need to see if I can find out more.  How do we know all this, for instance?

UPDATE: Forster’s work is De antiquitatibus et libris manuscriptis Constantinopolitanis commentatio. In: Vorlesungsverzeichnis der Universität Rostock. Rostock 1877, pp. 8–10.  But it doesn’t seem to be online.  The Theologische Literaturzeitung article is one I can’t find either.  Anyone any ideas?

UPDATE: The ThLZ 1899 is here (search for editions:HwYoAQAAIAAJ).  He says:

Verlorene Widerlegungsschriften antichristlicher Polemik mögen, ganz oder in Fragmenten, noch sehr wohl verborgen sein und wiederaufgefunden werden. Ein von R. Foerster, De antiquitatibus et libris manuscriptis Constantinopolitanis, Rostochii 1877 veröffentlichtes, zwischen 1565 und 1575 (nicht 1465—1475) geschriebenes Verzeichnis von Handschriften in Rodosto nennt p. 30b Eu)sebi/ou tou~ pamfi/lou kata\ porfuri/ou. Vielleicht ist diese Handschrift erst 1838 bei dem Brande in Rodosto untergegangen, über den man im Theol. Literaturblatt XV, 1894, S. 65—67 Auskunft findet; dieser Brand hat wirklich stattgefunden, was ich mit Rücksicht auf Texte und Untersuchungen VI 1 S. 5 bemerke.

I.e.

The lost refutations of anti-Christian polemics may still exist, in whole or in fragments, hidden away somewhere, and be retrieved.  An index of manuscripts at Rodosto, published by R. Forster, De antiquitatibus et libris manuscriptis Constantinopolitanis, Rostochii 1877, and written between 1565 und 1575 (not 1465—1475), lists on p. 30b a Eu)sebi/ou tou~ pamfi/lou kata\ porfuri/ou. Perhaps this manuscript perished in the fire of 1838 at Rodosto, discussed in Theol. Literaturblatt XV, 1894, pp. 65—67.  This fire really did happen, as I learn from Texte und Untersuchungen VI 1 p. 5.

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How the lost “Peri Alupias” by Galen was found

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have received an email from Veronique Boudon-Millot telling the story of how this lost work was found.  I have made an English translation of what she says, and, by permission, give the relevant portion here.

Hello,

Thank you for your email, your encouragement and enthusiasm, which Greek studies need now more than ever.

Since you ask me about the circumstances of the discovery, I can tell you that it was one of my PhD students, Antoine Pietrobelli (now a lecturer at the university of Reims) who started it.  In January 2005 I sent him, in preparation for his thesis — an edition of the commentary of Galen on Hippocrates’  Treatment for acute illnesses — to the library of the monastery of the Vlatades at Thessalonica to consult the microfilms of the manuscripts of Mount Athos which are kept there, and which concern his text.

While waiting for the microfilms to be brought to him, he had the idea of consulting the catalogue of the manuscripts of Vlatadon published by Eustratiades in 1918, which had a very limited circulation.  This catalogue only contains a single medical manuscript (our Vlatadon 14 of Galen) and the remainder are exclusively patristic manuscripts.  The catalogue of Eustratiades has thus remained unknown to medical specialists.  In this catalogue, the Vlatadon 14 is very rapidly described: none of the treatises of Galen present in the manuscript are described, and in particular the Do not be grieved has been omitted.

After locating the Vlatadon 14 in the catalogue, my student Antione Pietrobelli sent me an email the same evening asking whether this manuscript was known, or whether he had made a discovery.  But as the manuscript did not contain his treatise, the Commentary of Galen on the treatment of acute illnesses, and as he had to return soon to France, he did not have time to see it.

On this news I went myself to Thessalonica to see the manuscript.  Unfortunately I was only allowed to see the microfilm, and, so far, despite much effort, several requests, and two visits to the site, I have not been permitted to examine the manuscript directly … <snip>

So I began to read the microfilm, and noted that the catalogue of Eustratiades is very incomplete, and that manuscript contains many more treatises than are indicated by Eustratiades in his catalogue.  And above all, I discovered the entirely new treatise Do not be grieved, the title of which was already well known to me thanks to Galen’s treatise On his own books, which I was editing at that time and where the physician of Pergamum mentions it.

I should add that the Vlatadon 14 likewise preserves for us the complete text of the two bibliographic treatises by Galen, On the order of his own books, and On his own books, of which I have since also prepared an edition in the CUF series (2007), because the only Greek manuscript available hitherto (the Ambrosianus Q 3 sup.) is very seriously lacunose for those treatises.  The Vlatadon 14 also contains the complete Greek text of Galen’s On his own opinions (De propriis placitis) which Nutton edited in the CMG series from the Arab-Latin translation, all that was known hitherto.  The Vlatadon 14 is thus a new and very important witness for 4 texts of Galen which were either thought lost, or known only in a very lacunose form.

There!  You know everything!

Thank you for your interest and your attention.

Very cordially,

Véronique Boudon-Millot

That is very interesting indeed, and I am grateful to Dr. Boudon-Millot for permission to give that information here.

It is a reminder that, when we are in any little-known library, we must always see if there is anything we can find in the catalogue that might be interesting.  There are treasures to be had, it seems.  We have only to look!

UPDATE: Dr Boudon-Millot added a postscript which clarifies a couple of things:

There is one thing to correct, and the error is mine.  The Vlatadon 14, contrary to what I wrote, does indeed contain the Treatment of serious illnesses by Galen.  But it isn’t an important witness for the edition of the text, and wasn’t significant for A. Pietrobelli for his thesis.  In fact Pietrobelli’s stay at Thessalonica was complete, he was obliged to leave the next day, and didn’t have the time to examine the manuscript in detail.

Thank you again!

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve boxed up a few books that I want to send to a colleague in the EU.  Weight turns out to be around 7.5 kgs.  Prices, tho, seem prohibitive, whoever I  go to.  I mean … 110 GBP? ($160)

Perhaps the trick is to send a few at a time.  Take them out of the box, perhaps, and put them in padded envelops?  Meanwhile the box goes back on the side.  How silly this.

The installation of Omnipage 10 on my Win7 box had its due reward this morning, when my PC would not boot.  Took it off again and all was well.  Not sure how I’m going to handle that.  I do need to unpack all those old .opd files.

A box arrived from Glasgow with photocopies of Bar Hebraeus Chronicon Ecclesiasticum vol. 3, plus some replacement pages for those in vol. 2 which were damaged or less than readable.  Also an invoice for the copying for vol. 2 — the original price of 24.10 GBP had 20% tax added on — what thieves our masters have become! — and then another 5 GBP postage, making a total of $55 or thereabouts.  All that, for one book to go online.  Still, there seems no other way to get it online.

One of the CDR’s last night was unreadable, but trying again this morning when the drive is cold, it looks as if it might copy.  Most have been copied OK, thankfully.  Still more to do, and then I need to unpack the .opd’s.  A busy day lies ahead today, perhaps.

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Insomnia, old backups to CD, and books to post off

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Insomnia.  How tiresome.  But productive too.

I wandered into my front room where a pile of books, mostly Tertullian-related, sits on the side gathering dust.  I intend to donate most of them to a scholar I know who has only limited access to such texts.  I sort out a handful which I am pretty sure I have in PDF form. 

This leads me to wonder where I might find the image files of books that I scanned long ago.  These could be turned into PDF’s, after all.

And so to my cupboard, where piles of backup CDR’s stand.  Some are labelled in a truly meaningful way, “only copy of roger_scan 1/4/2” and such like. 

Out comes the external hard disk, and I begin the process of copying these disks onto it.  I have two such hard disks, mirrors of each other, one of which lives in my house and the other in my car.  The second CDR, and one directory is unreadable.  Fortunately the rest of the disk is fine.  But it’s a warning that CDR is not a permanent medium.

I find a book I remember copying.  In the directory are … three .opd files.  What on earth are those, I wonder?  Memory suggests they must be Omnipage.  I hope I have the software for that somewhere!

UPDATE: 00:50 hrs, and I have come across quite a few .opd files.  It seems I switched to Finereader some time in 2001.  But I still have Omnipage 9 and 10.  I install Omnipage 10 on Win7 without problems, and it asks me to do an online registration.  The screen that appears carefully explains what “HTTP” is, and offers other options including dial-in.  I wonder uneasily whether the server will still be there — Caere, the manufacturer, is long gone.  But it does.  And it opens the .opd files too. 

I know better than to accept the default tif compressed format for the export of the image files — TIF files could be quite chancy  in those days, and no two applications could read each other’s compressed formats.  But uncompressed tif processes fine on Win7.  I soon have Gerlo’s 1940 edition of Tertullian’s De Pallio (in 2 long volumes) in PDF form.

Nothing electronic is permanent.  Thank heavens I chose to look into this tonight.  Another version of windows, a chance decision to clear out unused software, and that data would be gone for good.

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The sack of Constantinople (part 2)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Just over a week ago I posted here about a supposed eyewitness account of the sack of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 which was travelling around the web.  The source was Critoboulos, or Kritovoulos as it is also spelled. 

I now have the Riggs English translation before me, and a comparison is interesting.  For it seems that the online “quotations” — supposedly from Halliday’s translation of R. Guerdan, Byzantium: its triumphs and tragedy do not correspond that well to what Kritovoulos wrote.  They are true in substance, I think — but I do not see how the text in Greek can possibly agree with both.  One or the other is deviating from the text.

Here is the complete text from Riggs.

(p.71) § 237. Then a great slaughter occurred of those who happened to be there: some of them were on the streets, for they had already left the houses and were running toward the tumult when they fell unexpectedly on the swords of the (p.72) soldiers; others were in their own homes and fell victims to the violence of the Janissaries and other soldiers, without any rhyme or reason; others were resisting, relying on their own courage; still others were fleeing to the churches and making supplication-men, women, and children, everyone, for there was no quarter given.

§ 238. The soldiers fell on them with anger and great wrath. For one thing, they were actuated by the hardships of the siege. For another, some foolish people had hurled taunts and curses at them from the battlements all through the siege. Now, in general they killed so as to frighten all the City, and to terrorize and enslave all by the slaughter.

§ 239. When they had had enough of murder, and the City was reduced to slavery, some of the troops turned to the mansions of the mighty, by bands and companies and divisions, for plunder and spoil. Others went to the robbing of churches, and others dispersed to the simple homes of the common people, stealing, robbing, plundering, killing, insulting, taking and enslaving men, women, and children, old and young, priests, monks-in short, every age and class.

§ 240. There was a further sight, terrible and pitiful beyond all tragedies: young and chaste women of noble birth and well to do, accustomed to remain at home and who had hardly ever left their own premises, and handsome and lovely maidens of splendid and renowned families, till then unsullied by male eyes-some of these were dragged by force from their chambers and hauled off pitilessly and dishonorably.

§ 241. Other women, sleeping in their beds, had to endure nightmares. Men with swords, their hands bloodstained with murder, breathing out rage, speaking out murder indiscriminate, flushed with all the worst things-this crowd, made up of men from every race and nation, brought together by chance, like wild and ferocious beasts, leaped into (p.72) the houses, driving them out mercilessly, dragging, rending, forcing, hauling them disgracefully into the public highways, insulting them and doing every evil thing.

§ 242. They say that many of the maidens, even at the mere unaccustomed sight and sound of these men, were terror-stricken and came near losing their very lives. And there were also honorable old men who were dragged by their white hair, and some of them beaten unmercifully. And well-born and beautiful young boys were carried off.

§ 243. There were priests who were driven along, and consecrated virgins who were honorable and wholly unsullied, devoted to God alone and living for Him to whom they had consecrated themselves. Some of these were forced out of their cells and driven off, and others dragged out of the churches where they had taken refuge and driven off with insult and dishonor, their cheeks scratched, amid wailing and lamentation and bitter tears. Tender children were snatched pitilessly from their mothers, young brides separated ruthlessly from their newly-married husbands. And ten thousand other terrible deeds were done.

§ 244. And the desecrating and plundering and robbing of the churches-how can one describe it in words? Some things they threw in dishonor on the ground-ikons and reliquaries and other objects from the churches. The crowd snatched some of these, and some were given over to the fire while others were torn to shreds and scattered at the crossroads. The last resting-places of the blessed men of old were opened, and their remains were taken out and disgracefully torn to pieces, even to shreds, and made the sport of the wind while others were thrown on the streets.

§ 245. Chalices and goblets and vessels to hold the holy sacrifice, some of them were used for drinking and carousing, and others were broken up or melted down and sold. Holy vessels and costly robes richly embroidered with much gold or brilliant with precious stones and pearls were some of them given to the most wicked men for no good use, while (p.74) others were consigned to the fire and melted down for the gold.

§ 246. And holy and divine books, and others mainly of profane literature and philosophy, were either given to the flames or dishonorably trampled under foot. Many of them were sold for two or three pieces of money, and sometimes for pennies only, not for gain so much as in contempt. Holy altars were torn from their foundations and overthrown. The walls of sanctuaries and cloisters were explored, and the holy places of the shrines were dug into and overthrown in the search for gold. Many other such things they dared to do.

(p.75) § 256. After this the Sultan entered the City and looked about to see its great size, its situation, its grandeur and beauty, its teeming population, its loveliness, and the costliness of its churches and public buildings and of the private (p.77) houses and community houses and of those of the officials. He also saw the setting of the harbor and of the arsenals, and how skilfully and ingeniously they had everything arranged in the City-in a word, all the construction and adornment of it. When he saw what a large number had been killed, and the ruin of the buildings, and the wholesale ruin and destruction of the City, he was filled with compassion and repented not a little at the destruction and plundering. Tears fell from his eyes as he groaned deeply and passionately: “What a city we have given over to plunder and destruction!”

§ 257. Thus he suffered in spirit. And indeed this was a great blow to us, in this one city, a disaster the like of which had occurred in no one of the great renowned cities of history, whether one speaks of the size of the captured City or of the bitterness and harshness of the deed. And no less did it astound all others than it did those who went through it and suffered, through the unreasonable and unusual character of the event and through the overwhelming and unheard-of horror of it.

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One evening

Posted on by Roger Pearse

“Alas, alas!” I cried.  For I thought that I had found a treasure, and it was brutally jerked from me at the last moment!  I am inconsolable.

The history of Mehmet the conqueror sits in my scanner, and I turn the pages as I type.  The library lent it to me today.  It is a scarce volume.  The author, Kritovoulos, witnessed the fall of Constantinople to the Turk, and their mercy to the fallen city. 

Rarely do I sit at my scanner now.  Somehow I am more tired in the evenings, than I was even ten years ago.  Then I would merrily dedicate a weekend to wrestling with some huge volume.  Now a pile sit on the side, that I would rather have in electronic form, and simply gather dust.

The scan is for my own reference.  A PDF shall be created, and sit on my hard disk. 

But as I sat, and scanned, and surfed, I noted that the translation was made in 1954.  A glimmer of hope crept into my heart.  Perhaps, I thought, perhaps they did not renew the copyright?  Perhaps it is out of copyright?  Perhaps it could go online?

So I thought, and hoped and reasoned.  And I surfed around, searching for the copyright renewals.  I found that renewals for 1982 — when such a book must be renewed or become public domain — were accessible and searchable at www.copyright.gov.  And a search for “mehmed  the conqueror” in the title brought nothing back!

Alas!  I rejoiced too soon. A closer inspection of the search page revealed curious features of the title search.  So I searched again on keyword.  And … woe … a record appeared.  A copyright claimant, a Sarah R. MacNeal, appeared, claiming to be the child of Charles Riggs the translator, and her claim was allowed.

Of course in 1982 the web was not thought of.  All that Mrs MacNeal wanted was to ensure that she got a share of whatever was going.  But now the work will be in copyright until 2049, when I shall be in my grave.  Not that this profits anyone.

But in the meantime, I consoled myself with a volume of poems by R. C. Lehmann.  He wrote light verse, and charms.  But in his portrait of a village, he gave this shrewd picture of the local squire, written in days when the class hatred and political spite of these days were unknown.  Read it aloud, so that you can hear the melody of the words.

He talked of his rights as one who knew
That the pick of the earth to him was due:
The right to this and the right to that,
To the humble look and the lifted hat;
The right to scold or evict a peasant,
The right to partridge and hare and pheasant;
The right to encourage discontent
By raising a hard-worked farmer’s rent;
The manifest right to ride to hounds
Through his own or anyone else’s grounds;
The right to eat of the best by day
And to snore the whole of the night away;
For his motto, as often he explained,
Was “A Darville holds what a Darville gained.”
He tried to be just, but that may be
Small merit in one who has most things free; …

My favourite among his verses is the Ramshackle Room, about remembering his college days.  My eyes too grow dim as I read it, for his thoughts are mine.

Meanwhile the last page is done, and the scanner is silent.  I must unplug it and place it back in my cupboard.  9 minutes, it took me.  Now to make my PDF.  Alas, that I cannot share it with you all! 

The library copy had marginalia written in pencil, in Arabic.  A first, that!

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Books by the Coptic Pope Shenouda III at Google Books

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I accidentally stumbled on a mass of English translations of works by the current Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, at Google books.  This search brings up a long list.  Some have preview; some are full view, and can be downloaded in PDF form.

The first one I saw was a hagiography of St. Mark, here.  The work is a modern composition in the traditional style, and references are on p.143 to sources like Eusebius HE, Jerome’s De viris illustribus, Severus ibn al-Mukaffa’s History of the Patriarchs, and other interesting-looking sources.

These books are an invaluable insight into modern Coptic church thinking.  It is very good to see them accessible.  For which of us could otherwise even know they existed?

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A list of the new manuscripts online at the British Library site

Posted on by Roger Pearse

At the British Library manuscripts blog, Julian Harrison is paying attention, and well done to him.  In response to comments like those here, he’s today posted a list of the 25 newly uploaded manuscripts.  Here it is, with extra text by me.

  • Additional MS 4949  – 12th c. four gospels
  • Additional MS 4950 – 13th c. Matthew, Mark, a summary of Luke, and a page of stuff from Eusebius on Jesus and the Evangelists “Ex Eusebio Chronicis”.   Anyone able to read any of the last?
  • Additional MS 4951 – 13th c. Luke, John, Menologion, plus a colophon.
  • Additional MS 5107  – 1159 AD.  Eusebius, letter to Carpianus, with a bit of a canon table, then the 4 gospels.
  • Additional MS 5111  – 6-12th century.  Eusebius to Carpianus, canons, plus Matthew and Mark.
  • Additional MS 5112  – 12th c.  Luke, John, and 3 leaves of a patristic florilegium.  Clearly written, this one!  But I can’t make out any names.
  • Additional MS 5117 – 1326-1457.  4 gospels, Eusebius to Carpianus, and a couple of other late things.
  • Additional MS 10057 – 14-16th c.  Euripedes!!! — 3 plays: the Hecuba, Orestes, and Phoenissae, plus scholia!
  • Additional MS 11870  – 11th c. Metaphrastes, Saints’ Lives for September.
  • Additional MS 14771  – 10th c. Gregory Nazianzen!!! — a bunch of his orations (1, 45, 44, 41, 21, 15, 38, 43, 39, 40, 11, 14, 42, 16), including the funeral oration for Basil the Great.  The ms. starts with a table of contents in red uncial.  I was once told such tables of contents were rare!  This manuscript once belonged to Niccolo Niccoli in Florence, then to the monastery of St. Mark, where Niccoli’s books went after his death.  Evidently someone stole it and sold it on.
  • Additional MS 18231 — 972 AD.  Dionysius the Areopagite, Gregory Nazianzen’s orations (again with table of contents): 2, 12, 9, 10, 11, 3, 19, 17, 16, 7, 8, 18, 6, 23, 22, 38, 39, 40, 1, 45, 44, 41, 33 against the Arians, 27 against the Eunomians, 29, 30, 31, 20, 28, 34, 14, 36, 26, 25, 24, 21, 15, 42, 43, 4 & 5 against Julian the Apostate, 37, 13, ; letters 101 and 102 and 202; a couple of Carmina; a vita of Gregory; ps.Nonnus’ Scholia mythologica (I wonder what these are).
  • Additional MS 18277 – (modern papers)
  • Additional MS 19387 – 13th c. 4 gospels.
  • Additional MS 20002 – 10th c.  Old Testament; Judges, with bits of Joshua and Ruth.  This was acquired by Tischendorff from Sinai.
  • Additional MS 20186 – (modern papers)
  • Additional MS 21030 – 13th c. Psalter.  Acquired in Maloula in Syria.
  • Additional MS 21061 – 15th c. Anastasius the Sinaite on the Hexameron, followed by ps.Caesarius, Quaestiones et Responsiones.
  • Additional MS 21165 – 15th c. Iamblichus! Life of Pythagoras, Protrepicus, De communi mathematica scientia, In Nicomachi arithmeticam introductionem.
  • Additional MS 21261 – 14th c. Gospel lectionary.
  • Additional MS 22733 – 11th c. Metaphrastes, more saints’ lives.
  • Additional MS 22750 – 14th c.  Hagiography: “Fragments of sermons and services in honour of the Archangel Michael, including that of Pantaleon the Deacon”, from a burned volume.
  • Additional MS 22909 – 1680 AD.  Some very late Byzantine writers.
  • Additional MS 23895 – 16th c. Onasander, Strategicus!
  • Additional MS 23927 – 16th c. Aristotle, Problemata.
  • Additional MS 35021 – (modern)

I was a bit afraid after the opening section that it would all be gospel mss.!  But thankfully not — there are some gems in there.  But what does smack you in the face is the need for a course in Greek paleography in order to make much of them.

Do add that blog to your RSS feeder.  They don’t post that often, but all the posts are interesting and useful, and usually illustrated with some precious page image.

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Obtaining the catalogue of manuscripts of the Vlatadon monastery in Thessalonika

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have just placed an order for a photocopy of the catalogue of the manuscripts of the Vlatadon monastery in Thessalonika.  This is the place which had the unknown Galen manuscript, which recovered such treasures for us.  I’ve ordered it from the French National Library using their online (and unduly complex) form.  Here’s their catalogue entry:

Auteur(s) :  Eustratiadès, Sophronios
Titre(s) :  Katalogos tôn en tê Monê Blateôn (Tsaous-Monastêri) apokeimenôn kôdikôn [Texte imprimé] / Sôphronios Eustratiadês
Publication :  Thessalonkê : S Pantelê kai N Thenopôntu, 1918
Description matérielle :  1 vol. (136-VII p.) ; 26 cm

Veronique Boudon-Millot emails to say that it also appeared in a periodical, Γρεγόριος ὁ Παλαμᾶς, vol. 2 (1918), p. 97-107 ; 224-237 ; 274-283 ; 326-330 ; 386-404 ; 437-443 ; 473-475 ; 503-507 ; 708-717. and vol. 3 (1919), p. 29-45 ; 74-91 ; 137-150.

It was interesting using their form, because it showed you what it cost.  I first asked for digital images, sent by email.  They wanted 6,000 euros for that (!).  I then asked for photocopies and that was merely 34 euros.  So that’s what I ordered.

Let’s see if it works.

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