Mar Sabbas Greek MS 407
of the Ascetical Homilies

Mar Sabbas Greek MS 407 of The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, of which two pages are shown at left, dates to the 12th or 13th century.

The copious scribal notes in the margins illustrate how new readings can be introduced into the text; one scribe adds his own explanations in the margin, and the next, working from the first scribe’s MS, inserts the margin notes into his own copy as if they were part of the original text, and all further MSS copied from that include the first scribe’s notes as if they were the author’s.

The reverse process might account for how text is omitted from MSS. If the writing in the margin is text that a scribe has accidentally omitted and later added in the margin, and if a later scribe ignores it, thinking it not the author’s but the previous scribe’s addition, then the original body of text is reduced.

The details at left show three of the five symbols used by the scribe on these two pages to indicate where each margin note is to be inserted in the text.

Page 85 of the Introduction shows another example of such insertions.

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