Fonds Coislin () is a collection (or

fonds In archival science, a fonds (plural also ''fonds'') is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be ...

) of Greek manuscripts acquired by

Pierre Séguier Pierre Séguier (; 28 May 1588 – 28 January 1672) was a French statesman who was the chancellor of France from 1635. Biography Early years Séguier was born in Paris to a prominent legal family originating in Quercy. His grandfather, Pierre S� ...

, but named after Henri-Charles de Coislin, its second owner. It is now held in the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, as one of three fonds of Greek manuscripts: ''fonds grec'', ''fonds Coislin'', and ''supplément grec''. Seguier

History of collection

The majority of these manuscripts were collected between 1643 and 1653, by Père Athanase the Rhetor, who bought them for

(1588–1672), chancellor of France from 1635. Athanase bought the manuscripts in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

, and in other territories bordering the northern and western Aegean. The collection contains almost 400 manuscripts. Athanase collected more than 300 manuscripts (probably 358) personally. After Séguier's death, all this collection was inherited by his grandson, Henri-Charles de Coislin (1664–1732),

bishop of Metz This is a list of bishops of the Roman Catholic diocese of Metz, which now lies in eastern France. To 500 * Clement of Metz (c. 280–300) * Celestius * Felix I * Patient * Victor I 344–346 * Victor II * Simeon * Sambace * Rufus of Metz * Ad ...

. He gave it to the Benedictine monks of

Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the nor ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Bernard de Montfaucon - Imagines philologorum

The first catalogue of this collection, the Coislin catalogue, was made in 1715, in which 42 manuscripts were described (

Bernard de Montfaucon Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B. (; 13 January 1655 – 21 December 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of w ...

, ''Bibliotheca Coisliniana olim Segueriana'', Paris: Ludovicus Guerin & Carolus Robustel, 1715). A large part of the collection was burned in 1793, and in 1795 ''Fonds Coislin'' was deposited in the

, where it has been held until the present day. A few manuscripts, bought by Russians during the time of

Catherine II Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

, now are held at

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

(s.v. Dubrowski). One of the best known manuscripts of the collection is the fragmentary uncial

Codex Coislinianus Codex Coislinianus designated by Hp or 015 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1022 ( Soden), was named also as ''Codex Euthalianus''. It is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Pauline epistles, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. The ...

. The collection also includes

Minuscule 35 Minuscule 35 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ309 ( von Soden), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, written on 328 parchment leaves (). Paleographically it has been assigned to the 11th century. The manuscript has complex co ...

(Coislin 199), now considered to be one of the best witnesses of the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main Textual criticism#New Testament, text types. ...

, and the basis for ''The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition'' (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart 2007). The collection also includes further witnesses to the text of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, as well as to the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, and other ancient, and medieval authors.

Some manuscripts

* Coislinianus 20 —

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s (Gregory-Aland 36) * Coislinianus 24 — Gospel of Matthew and Mark (Gregory-Aland 41) * Coislinianus 26 —

Acts of Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...

(Gregory-Aland 056) * Coislinianus 131 — part of Pseudo-Josephus report on Jesus Christus and early Christianity * Coislinianus 149 —

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

* Coislinianus 199 — (Gregory-Aland 35) * Coislinianus 200 —

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

(Gregory-Aland 38) * Coislinianus 305 — Chronicon of

George Hamartolus George Hamartolos or Hamartolus () was a monk at Constantinople under Michael III (842–867) and the author of a chronicle of some importance. Hamartolus is not his name but the epithet he gives to himself in the title of his work: "A compendiou ...

(with fragments of Papias) * Coislinianus 311 —

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' () is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described th ...

* Coislinianus 345 — Codex Unicus of the Homeric lexicographer Apollonius the Sophist * Coislinianus 386 —

On the Soul ''On the Soul'' ( Greek: , ''Peri Psychēs''; Latin: ) is a major treatise written by Aristotle . His discussion centres on the kinds of souls possessed by different kinds of living things, distinguished by their different operations. Thus pla ...

* Coislinianus 387 — manuscript of

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{cite journal , last=O'Meara , first=Dominic J. , title=The philosophical Writings, Sources and Thought of Athanasius Rhetor (ca. 1571–1663) , journal=

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings are a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confer ...

, volume=121 , year=1977 , pages=483–499 }
Abstract

External links

* :de:Athanasios Rhetor
Henri-Charles de Coislin (1665-1732)

Le fonds Coislin
Manuscript collections