gems, ancient gemology, Theophrastus, bibliography, early mineralogy, early lapidaries

No systematic study of the manuscripts of Theophrastus has ever been attempted, though a worthy effort was made by the Leipzig editors of the Characters. As the number of existing manuscripts, both of the Characters and the other works, far exceeds the number of those already known and collated, the present list may be useful. My list comes from the catalogues mentioned in M. Richard, Répertoire des Bibliothèques et des Catalogues des MSS. Grecs, 2nd ed., Paris 1958. Not all the catalogues are accessible to me, and though Richard makes it clear that the majority of those do not contain any classical manuscripts, there are still some that I should have liked to consult. They are (by Richard’s numbers): 93, 172, 325, 441, 477, 505, 509. This list consists in fact mostly of minor libraries in various Balkan towns, and as such libraries are rarely of importance, it is not likely that much of interest could be added from them. At this point I should say that I am much indebted to M. M. Wittek for his kindness in securing for me some inaccessible catalogues. The data given about each manuscript come from the catalogues, but in many cases have been supplemented by my own inspection of a manuscript. A few lost collections of manuscripts I have not bothered to investigate very closely. I have departed from the usual practice in such lists of the manuscripts of one author by adding sections on papyri, indirect tradition (on the Characters only), scholia, and translations into Latin, Oriental, and modern vernacular languages.