2/8/21
Schaff, Philip. "A Precious Volume." The Oldest Church Manual Called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1886, 2-7.
In this brief chapter, Schaff describes the library of the Jerusalem Monastery in Istanbul. "It contains about a thousand volumes and 'from four hundred to six hundred manuscripts'" (Schaff 1886, 2), including the bound volume of 120 leaves approximately 8x6 inches, including seven documents. Schaff describes them in turn: a synopsis of Old Testament books, by Chrystostom; the Epistle of Barnabas; 1 Clement; 2 Clement; (Schaff notes that the epistles of Clement are the only complete manuscripts known of those texts (Schaff 1886, 3); The Didache (less than ten pages, "By far the most valuable of the documents" (Schaff 1886, 4); the Epistle of Mary of Cassoboli; and twelve Pseudo-Ignatian Epistles (Schaff 1886, 5). The text was prepared, according to the signature on the last leaf, by "Leon, notary and sinner" and completed Tuesday, June 11, 1056.
Schaff provides for his readers a picture of the first page of the Didache as well as a picture of the last page of the volume (Schaff 1886, 4 and 6 respectively). The manuscript is clean and largely legible, though there is considerable abreviation in use. Examination of the text illustrates to the reader of Greek that it is an entirely different matter to read from a manuscript such as that of Leon than to read from a modern, typeset, unabbreviated Greek edition including standard modern spacing and punctuation. Schaff kindly includes such a modern Greek typeset version of what he has shown as a photograph, along with his translation of the Greek text.