Codex Integrum
Darth Gupta
Codex Leningradensis (bibliothecae sigla: B19A) e collectione Abraham Firkowitsch est antiquissimus codex manu scriptus, qui integrum textum Veteris Testamenti lingua Hebraica (sive Tanach) continet. Sunt quidem notae partes antiquiores (vide etiam: Manuscripta Maris Mortui), etiam versionis Graecae exemplaria (Septuaginta) longe antiquiora exstant, sed nullum manuscriptum textum integrum praebet. Codex Leningradensis iure optimum Masoretici textus exemplar habetur.
Cum urbs Leningrad anno 1991 denuo Sankt-Peterburg nominata sit, interdum Codex Petropolitanus vocatur. Quod aptum non est, quia hoc nomen pro codice prophetarum anno 1876 publicato (bibliothecae sigla: MS. Heb B 3) adhiberi solet. Hic circiter 100 annis antiquior est (ex anno 916), sed tantum libros prophetarum continet.
Manuscriptum in annum 1008 datatur. Scriptor Samuel ben Jacob ipse indicat se libros ab Aaron ben Mosche ben Ascher emendatos exscripsisse. Verisimiliter manuscriptum Cairo scriptum, postea ad hominem quendam Damasci habitantem venditum est. A saeculo undevicesimo medio codex in Petropoli in bibliotheca Russica gentilicia asservatur, ubi anno 1990 etiam photographice reproducta est.
Codex Leningradensis omnes Bibliorum libri Hebraice confecti continet eo ordine, quo editiones Iudaicae (Tanach) imprimi solent. Libri Paralipomenon autem im Codice Leningradensi (sicut et in Codice Aleppensi) non sunt in fine "scriptorum" (Cetuvim), sed in initio eorum. Praeterea copiosae peritorum glossae inveniuntur nec non sedecim paginae ornatae. Textus tribus columnis divisus est, quibusdam in libris poeticis (Psalmi, Iob, Proverbia) duabus.
Una cum quibusdam manuscriptis mancis Codex Leningradensis usque ad hoc tempus est plurimarum editionum Bibliorum Hebraicorum exemplar, quia est antiquissimum manuscriptum perfectum systemate Masoretico confectum, quod a familia Ben Ascher, quae a Masoretis disciplinae Tiberiadis saeculorum 9./10. repetit, creatum est. Etiam Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia et Biblia Hebraica Quinta, quae modo editur, hoc textu innituntur.
The manuscript is a Miscellany of Greek texts written in England in the 17th century, containing mainly transcriptions from manuscripts held in Cambridge and Oxford, written at various times by Patrick Young (1584-1652), scholar and Royal librarian. The manuscript is formed of different parts. Although the quire structure of the codex is difficult to reconstruct, given the tight sewing, and the conditions of the manuscript, the various parts are distinguishable by the difference in texts, script, paper (watermarks and dimensions of the leaves). The first leaves of the different parts are often darker than the rest; originally they were probably preserved independently, for a time. The first part (ff. 1-27) contains the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a pseudepigraphic work, which purportedly contains the deathbed exhortations of the twelve sons of Jacob. It was copied from MS Cambridge, University Library, Ff.1.24. Part II (ff. 28-78) also contains a text copied from MS CUL Ff.1.24, the so-called Libellus memorialis (or Notebook of Josephus, or Hypomnestikon), copied by an anonymous scribe and Patrick Young. By his hand was also written the text of part VI (ff. 95-111), which he signed in 1636, in Sherborne, Dorset. Eleven years later, in August and September 1647, Patrick Young copied the texts in part VII of the manuscript (ff. 112-183), Eusebius' Onomasticon and a Lexicon of the Scriptures, in Broomfield, Essex. In the third part (ff. [78a]-[78f]), formed by leaves of smaller dimension, there is a portion of book 14 of Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates Judaicae copied from a manuscript of Isaac Vossius. This same excerpt from this work is contained also in a paper bifolium, which has been folded and bound at the end of the manuscript. Part IV (ff. [78g]-[81], 82) contains the table of contents of the Libellus memorialis, copied in part II: the numbers of folios in the index refer to it. The leaves forming this part are in disorder (the correct sequence is [80], [81], [78g], [79], 82), due to the fact that the binion formed by ff. [78g]-[81] was sewn in the manuscript folded the opposite way. Dr Erika Elia
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