The oldest textual witness of John Tzetzes’ Exegesis of the Iliad

In ms. Laur. Plut. 32.3, a witness to the Iliad with scholia exegetica usually dated on palaeographical grounds to the 11th–12th cent., in the margins of f. 1r–v, instead of the expected exegetica on Il. 1.5–12, some explanations have been copied which match parts of the Exegesis of the Iliad composed by John Tzetzes before the year 1143. This is not noted at all by H. Erbse in his edition of the Iliad scholia and raises doubts about the origins and authorship of these materials. Textual comparison of the scholia with the corresponding passages in the direct tradition of Tzetzes’ work proves the antecedence of the Exegesis and argues for a date of the Iliad ms. after 1143.