Second Codicological Unit (Eastern origin, 15th century, ff. 145-230)

The second unit of the manuscript consists of quires 19-29, for a total of 86 parchment leaves.
Quires 19-28, all quaternions of eight leaves each, comprise ff. 145-224, while quire 29 is a senion, extending from f. 225 to f. 230. As in the first unit, the foliation is modern, written in pencil at the upper margin of each recto. By mistake, folios 228-230 have been numbered as guard leaves I′-III′. This portion of the manuscript bears contemporary quire signatures, written in Greek ordinal numerals with the same ochre-brown ink used in the first unit. The ruling is executed in drypoint, probably traced on the flesh side of the open bifolium; ruling holes are visible along the outer margin (corresponding to the vertical bounding lines) and occasionally along the upper and lower margins (at the justification lines). Each leaf contains thirty lines, with the first line written ‘below the top line’.

The Callimachean Hymns, accompanied by a scant scholia apparatus preserved from f. 209r to f. 227v, were copied by Georgios Chrysokokkas during his period of activity in Constantinople, between 1419 and 1428. The major initials introducing the poetic compositions display slight floral ornamentation. On f. 132v, there is a floral border in red with a large initial decorated with floral motifs, perhaps executed by a somewhat later hand. The poetic text and the commentary apparatus (marginal scholia and interlinear glosses) are written in different inks (dark brown and ochre), alternating and distributed in blocks of leaves. This might suggest that the scribe worked in stages: he first copied the main text of a section, then paused to insert the commentary, and subsequently resumed the main text alternating between the two rather than completing one in its entirety before proceeding to the other. It is, however, worth noting that this well-organized and easily consultable commentary apparatus was designed to facilitate the reading of the text. The scribe, in fact, habitually places the scholia close to the words they refer to, enclosing them in small, perfectly aligned compartments set at an equal distance from both the margin of the page and the poetic text.