Anthologies and Anthologists 85Michael Chartophylax^7. On various pages of the Palatine manuscript we also
detect a number of additional epigrams copied by a twelfth-century scribe, Sp.
The structure of the Palatine manuscript is fairly complex. It is reasonable
to assume that the manuscript copied by scribes B did not only contain AP IX,
563 – AP XIV and XV, 28–40, but also the preceding books of Cephalas’
anthology. For one reason or another Constantine the Rhodian (scribe J) had
obtained only the second part of the B manuscript and, desiring to have the
whole Cephalas, ordered scribes A to copy the rest under his guidance. This
they did with the utmost diligence. For reasons unknown to us, Constantine
the Rhodian separated the last few pages from the rest of the B manuscript by
inserting three new quaternions (41–43) containing John of Gaza’s Ekphrasis,
the Technopaegnia and the Anacreontea. And since there were still a few pages
left blank between the Ekphrasis and the Technopaegnia, he filled these spare
pages (pp. 664–668) with various epigrams. Constantine placed the last few
pages of the B manuscript at the very end, after quaternions 41–43. These
pages originally formed a ternion. Constantine turned it into a quaternion and
copied some poems by Gregory of Nazianzos on the pages left blank by scribe
B^3 and on the pages he had added himself.
Although we are greatly indebted to Constantine the Rhodian for his
editorial work on the Palatine manuscript, it cannot be denied that Constan-
tine was sometimes a somewhat sloppy editor. On the last pages of the manu-
script Constantine copied 68 epigrams by Gregory of Nazianzos, apparently
unaware of the fact that these same epigrams could be found in AP VIII, a
book copied by his fellow scribe A^1. Only when the manuscript was already
finished and he had begun checking the work of his fellow scribes, did he notice
the duplication^8. Constantine’s negligence shows most clearly at AP IX, 583–
584, where he failed to notice a major lacuna. If Constantine had checked other
manuscripts of Cephalas’ anthology, he could easily have spotted the lacuna,
but for one reason or another he did not closely examine the B manuscript in
his possession. The exemplar used by scribes B must have missed three or four
quaternions between AP IX, 583 and 584 containing some 450 epigrams on
works of art. Most of these epigrams can be found in the Planudean Anthology
(printed as book XVI, the “Appendix Planudea” (APl 32–387), in modern
editions of the Greek Anthology), a few in the so-called syllogae minores, and
some others in the Palatine manuscript itself as additions by the twelfth-
century scribe Sp (for instance, AP IX, 823–827 and XV, 41–51). The manu-
script that scribes B used did not only lack a considerable amount of epigrams,
but also a title and a prooemium separating the epideictic epigrams (AP IXa
(^7) CAMERON 1993: 116–120.
(^8) CAMERON 1993: 107–108.