I begin this note by announcing a palaeographical discovery of some interest concerning the famous Venetian manuscript of Athenaeus (MS. Marcianus gr. 447), which is our only source for most of the text of that author. Examination of the handwriting has convinced me that folios 3–348, nearly the whole manuscript, were written by John the Calligraphier, the scribe who was commissioned by Arethas of Caesarea to produce well-known and important copies of Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39) and Aristides (MS. Laurentianus Plut. 60.3 and Parisinus gr. 2951). The accompanying illustration should make the identity clear (see plates xi). It is worth noting that owing to a special circumstance the two previously published facsimiles did not permit the identification of the hand. They were both selected from a part of the book where John wrote in a rather larger hand than usual; for in this manuscript, unlike the others that he copied, his writing gradually became larger as he progressed. This, however, was a habit common to many scribes and does not cast any doubt on the validity of identifying his hand here.

The first consequence of identifying the hand is that it becomes possible to date the manuscript fairly precisely. The other books written by John are dated to A.D. 895 and c. A.D. 917–28, and as the span of thirty-five years is at least as long as a calligrapher can be assumed to have exercised his profession, it seems reasonable to place the Athenaeus between the two other books.