A Misapplication of eliminatio codicum descriptorum in the Manuscript Tradition of Narsai (d. c.500)

In 1979, F. G. McLeod published an edition of five metrical homilies, or mēmrē, of the important East-Syriac theologian and poet Narsai (d. c.500). Though McLeod knew of seventeen manuscripts attesting these five homilies, his edition was based on only five. Of particular interest to the present article is that McLeod disregarded eleven manuscripts as ‘of no value in determining the critical text’, claiming that they descend from a single manuscript, MS Baghdad (olim Mosul), Chaldean Patriarchate, 72 (1705). This represents one of the more far-reaching applications of the axiom of eliminatio codicum descriptorum, or eliminating derivative manuscripts, in Syriac studies. In the present article, I introduce hitherto-unnoticed manuscript evidence to argue that most of these eleven manuscripts cannot derive exclusively from MS Baghdad (olim Mosul), Chaldean Patriarchate, 72 (1705) and that, therefore, they cannot be discarded via the axiom of eliminatio codicum descriptorum