L'Ambrosiano C 279 inf. e il copista Nicandro

Manuscript Ambr. C 279 inf. consists of three different codicological units. It transmits in the first and second units the Epitome of Johannes Zonaras, and in the last one the Synopsis Historiarum of Johannes Skilytzes. This last unit was undoubtedly copied by Nicander, monk of the well-known Mesopotamon monastery in Epirus, during the middle of the thirteenth century. The identification of Nicander’s handwriting in the manuscript and other elements - both paleographical and codicological - in the whole copy, allows us to propose that the three different units were copied in the same region and in the same period. Then, at a later stage, they were assembled in a unique manuscript to collect together two historic works. Furthermore, the discovery of a manuscript of Skylitzes in the Mesopotamon monastery allows us to confirm the diffusion of Skilitzes’s work also in the periphery of the Empire.