La génesis del Laur. Plut. 59.35, con el Epistolario de Teodoro II Láscaris y con cinco cartas atribuibles a Manuel Ángelos aquí editadas

Abstract

The codicological and palaeographic study of MS Laur. Plut. 59.35, the most important manuscript of the epistolary of Theodoros II Laskaris, determines that it is made up of three codicological units and that, despite the dauntingly changing aspect of the handwriting, only four hands transcribed texts and one out of them (scribe 1) copied the primary texts of the codex (the epistolaries of Theodoros II Laskaris and Synesius and a homily by Maximos Planudes). Initially the codex was possessed by Manuel Angelos, whose death around 1303 provides a terminus ante quem for its copy. For his part, scribe 4 has to be identified with a subsequent owner of the manuscript, since he included in it private notes, dated between 1324 and 1325. Those reminders present him as an aristocrat who belonged to imperial and ecclesiastical circles and a man of letters with economic interests in the Sporades Islands. The current book was therefore produced from before 1303 to before 1324-1325 in a stable copying environment, whether a private library or a public bureau. The last addition to the book were five letters composed probably by Manuel Angelos, that we publish here for the first time.