Homeric Text and Scholiastic Apparatus
With regard to the Iliadic text, according to Allen’s classification, the manuscript is assigned to the g family (Allen 1931, Prolegomena, 25, 118–122). Like the other manuscript displayed in the exhibition, ms. Ambr. A 181 sup., this codex contains scholia belonging to the so-called h family—the textual tradition transmitted by a rich constellation of manuscripts datable no earlier than the twelfth century. From a textual standpoint, the manuscripts of this family primarily transmit scholia of the D class (the so-called scholia minora, as defined by Erbse), but in a reworked form enriched with material drawn from the other two traditional categories: the scholia exegetica and the VMK scholia (the so-called ‘commentary of the Four’). Manuscripts of this family often preserve a more accurate or more complete version of the text — particularly of the VMK class —such that it has been postulated that the compiler had direct access to a model closely related to the principal witness of this class, the venerable Venetus A manuscript. This codex preserves the commentary attributed to two enigmatic figures, Apion and Herodorus (Mazzucchi 2012, 441–447). Moreover, the h family manuscripts contain additional material not found in any of the three traditional classes of scholia (Erbse 1960, 174-209). As Erbse demonstrated—albeit on the basis of a relatively limited number of witnesses—the h family divides into two sub-branches, h1 and h2 (Erbse 1960, 197; Erbse 1969, LVI-LVIII). To date, over twelve manuscripts have been identified as transmitters of the scholia text belonging to the h2 subfamily. Recent studies — particularly Sciarra (2005) — have shown that these witnesses, among which ms. Ambr. L 116 sup. (siglum M11) is included, were produced in the Terra d’Otranto region during the so-called Salentine Renaissance (13th–14th centuries), an intellectual movement whose early promoters and leading figures included the renowned Nicola-Nettario, abbot of Casole. Finally, traces of scholia belonging to the h family have also been identified on twelfth-century paper supports of the Ilias Picta, copied in the Calabrian-Sicilian area (Castelli 2013, 225–234).