Textus Originalis
sunt membranacea; chartacea sunt folia 127—132, 135—140, 143—148, praeterea quinque folia, quae nonnullis locis ex deteriore Diodori codice sumptis incondite neque eadem manu depicta codici praefixa sunt. Huc accedit, quod is qui folia numeris Arabicis significavit nescio quo casu deceptus numerum 262 praetermisit, ita ut illis quinque foliis additis 297 folia computaret. At recte prior, fortasse primus librarius in folio 294 verso adscripserat quaternionis numerum 4s, in folio 295 recto 4t. Qua cum computatione quaternio alia conveniunt, veluti illi tres quaterniones fol. 126—149, qui constant ex senis foliis chartaceis inter bina folia membranacea. Hic liber 'perelegans optimae notae' a Montefalconio inventus est Neapoli in bibliotheca S. Joannis de Carbonara Augustinianorum (Montfaucon biblioth. p. 231, Paris 1739), postea Carolo sexto etiamtum regnante translatus Vindobonam (Kollar in supplem. Lambecii p. 486). Neapolim venisse codicem per Ianum Parrhasium, humanistam saeculo XV Consentiae natum, indicant verba in ultimo folio scripta: 'Antonii Seripandi ex Iani Parrhasii testamento'. Post Garellium bibliothecae Vindobonensis praefectum, qui Wesselingio pauca excerpta misit (edit. Wess. I p. 195), postque J. Baptistam Bollam, qui editoribus Bipontinis collationem integram et multo accuratiorem confecit (edit. Bipont. IV praef. et X p. 391—493), codex D denuo singulari diligentia excussus est anno 1869 (Neue Jahrb. CIV p. 447) a Richardo Bergmann, qui in exemplar suum, quo usus est editione Bekkeri, una cum distinctione paginarum atque etiam versuum ex codice accentus spiritus interparunctiones compendia ductusque litterarum transscripsit.
Traduzione
English — scholarly
ARETHE Knowledge Engineering Divisionare parchment; paper leaves are folia 127–132, 135–140, 143–148, as well as five leaves that were crudely copied from a different, inferior Diodorus manuscript and prefixed to the codex by a different hand. To this must be added the fact that the person who numbered the leaves with Arabic numerals, misled by some accident, skipped the number 262, so that with those five leaves included, he counted 297 leaves in total. But the earlier — perhaps the original — scribe had correctly noted the quire number 4s on folio 294 verso and 4t on folio 295 recto. Other quire numberings accord with this reckoning, such as those three quires of folia 126–149, which consist of six paper leaves set between two parchment leaves each. This manuscript, 'most beautiful and of the highest quality,' was discovered by Montfaucon at Naples in the library of the Augustinians of San Giovanni a Carbonara (Montfaucon, Bibliotheca, p. 231, Paris 1739), and was later transferred to Vienna while Charles VI still reigned (Kollar in the supplement to Lambeck, p. 486). That the manuscript had come to Naples through Janus Parrhasius, a humanist born at Cosenza in the fifteenth century, is indicated by the words written on the last leaf: 'Property of Antonio Seripando, from the testament of Janus Parrhasius.' After Garellius, the prefect of the Vienna library who sent a few excerpts to Wesseling (Wesseling edition, I, p. 195), and after J. B. Bolla, who prepared a complete and far more accurate collation for the Bipontine editors (Bipontine edition, IV, preface, and X, pp. 391–493), codex D was examined anew with extraordinary diligence in 1869 (Neue Jahrbücher CIV, p. 447) by Richard Bergmann, who transcribed into his own copy — for which he used Bekker's edition — the accents, breathings, punctuation, abbreviations, and letter forms from the manuscript, distinguishing both pages and even individual lines.
Commentario Arethe
membranacea; chartacea sunt folia
Vogel's meticulous description of the manuscript's composition — parchment (membranacea) and paper (chartacea) leaves interleaved — is typical of 19th-century codicology. The hybrid composition tells a story: the original 11th-century manuscript was on parchment; the 13th-century restorations used paper, a cheaper material by then widely available. The five prefixed leaves from an 'inferior manuscript' suggest that at some point a later owner tried to repair the codex's beginning, which had been damaged.
Ianum Parrhasium, humanistam saeculo XV Consentiae natum
Aulo Giano Parrasio (Janus Parrhasius, 1470–1522), born in Cosenza, Calabria, was one of the most important Italian humanists and bibliophiles. His library, bequeathed to Antonio Seripando, contained manuscripts of immense value — including this Diodorus codex. The provenance chain (Parrhasius → Seripando → Augustinian library of San Giovanni a Carbonara → Imperial Library of Vienna) is a microcosm of how classical manuscripts traveled through Renaissance Italy into the great public collections of modern Europe.
accentus spiritus interparunctiones compendia ductusque litterarum transscripsit
This passage reveals Bergmann's revolutionary method: he transcribed not just the words, but every paleographic feature — accents, breathing marks, punctuation, abbreviations, and even the forms of the letters themselves. This level of detail, which anticipates modern digital paleography, allowed later editors to make judgments about the manuscript without needing to examine it in person. It is the scholarly equivalent of a photographic record.