The Sun.
London, England, 1815-12-05 00:00:00

.I.ELIQUEti OF IIONIER:

~lactr,' Nov.'24.—De editione fro dniunts rum
.
rtntiquissimortnn 1-lotnert cent Piciuris nuneu
prodromus ; or, Prospectus of an edition of some
very ancient fragments of the Iliad, with paint-
ings.
(We commimicate to our readers a principal
part of this Prospectus, as Nye find it in a German
".rournol. in high estiuntion.)
Angelo Maia, attached to the Ambisisian. Library at Milan,
•-• for 'the 'Oriental Langsinges. To the reader :
Theke existed a vervancient,and- very beautiful Greek ma-
nuscript, containing the whole Iliad in a character • rethatk-
able for its large sine and -elegance, Adorntd-stith paintings.
analogous to the Subject of the poem. Whether time alone
had reserved, or whether it fell into the hands of a mot in-
capable of appreciating its 'mini-:, this manuscript-41as been
cut into pieces-So as to pre•sefve several pictures, sacrificing
the intermediate' text ; anti -even the little which is written •
on the back of the pictures is covered with -a silk paper. As
by this suppression' of the Poem, each picture remained ob-
scure, those have .been written on the silk Which covers it
behind some Greek notes, principally destined to explain it,
and on, the picture itself some epigraphs, in which there is
something interesting. IL is thus a manuscript, the most Ye.
• nerahle of all•those of Homer for its antiquity and beautiful
;execution, has come to us mutilated, reducca to its least
part—even this part masqucd -and invisible, deprived of A
gteat number of its beautiful pictures; containing some
• much injured-by time. Of this rolothinons manuscript there
traffrin only 68-fragments, each of which, has.-its pictuin and
witieti altogether contains about 'eight hundred verses. The
pictures are regularly varied, and thongh they arc not fre'e
'fro, the defeets with which other ancieok monuments of this
_kind are reproached, they -in general do credit to tints, by
swltoin they are drawn. We 'do not remark that stiffaest
which is ft-et:id' in the designs of the t•olloss-ing ages. • The
figures have motiim, 'spirit, and expression in the counts.-
itausas—t he passions are developed in them--s-the artist has
tint neglectei.l the.folds-Of the di aperies—he Isis painted very
happily the-symmetry of the limies, the lights and shallits,i
he
distances, the contieists,--for the test, the chief Merit of tease •
pietni-es is, ,the fidelity With which they represent the u)Ba-
ltd usages of ain
rites circumstance gives new Weight-to Ifni proofs'rif thtt
antiquity of this,-Gls.; and in fact, without accumniating .
proofs, 1 shall content myself- milli oh,errittg, that the M'.
cannot he of -a recent age, it eaning belong- to the ate in
which it was cut in pieces; and;•when its pictures were very
old, whicb is shesvn mite; by the difference, of the. ttes and epi
graphs added to it at tbat time,- it must have preceded the
age of lirharisin, which carries its origin back to the 4th or
sth-century of the Christian era."
Here M. Maja :speaks of his edition, the Pictures will be
copied with the- greatest exactness by a distinguished artist.
F. A. Scott, who has already-employed eighteen months on
Ibis work. As for the teat of the • ancient manuseripts:pf
Homer, which are to he found in libraries, :I.l'e liot anterlfi'r
to the tenth century; that whi.h we annottuce, :has, there-
fore,a great superiority twin- them in th-i:;:respeet. The writ-
ing, in capital, or square letters, is admirable ; the words
follow each other without inlets:, in. the aneintit sic auger,
without accents, anti without points ((:liens spirilsl.s).
of these marks as are •ftanded in it• are 'by a late hand ; the '
bloat o'f' and the coarseness'-of the stroke,' proi-e
this. .•W-e 'know of no kind of penmanship einially heatifittil, •
either anieng- the MSS. of ticrenlametio. or in diplomatic.
Works, whets, we find some fragments of Grvel,s Mt*.s. the
4t Ii arid .sth ef Win itis: ur in'any of the most ancient MliSs'of
the Awbrosian Library. • On the nature of the text it 'oust- tie
obserrcd,.that it is mostly, conformable to 1.4 e editi,,n of
tarehns, ai 1 liave Ciinvince •nryself; by exactly etdlating' it
with thc-„Vetrctimi-Scholia.. Often', too, it del,-iris from it;
and sometitnekit presents the reading of Zersotiot-is.•
llesides these precious, fragments, the'.lathfosittn Library
posSesses- a vast collection of Hinnerie MSS. on parchment,
silk, or line,, •Which•seent to have been written in the 1,211 i
or lath century'. There arc fount there also, many thedited
notes and reading's, which will- also' lie 'published. 'Phis,
then, will be the plan of the work announced. • Prptcgctliellii,
or the-antiquity, the beauty, stud thts ntilitypf the .if:chives
of the Maintsci tot, in the merit of the filigments 1)1- 11-e text,_
and rrpOn ether manuscripts of Homer in the •--ktribrosian-
Lie
brary.,: Tile 5s pictures:am! the explanatioa follow,tas
well. as the frazinents-61- the pnern t‘tf equal number, `one. of
• which will' be engtaked; and kill. present •il ;I(re-simile of the
MS. The others' Neill tic prifitell iii fhe capital: letters, hid-,
tut ing, as nearly as can he done., the beauty of • the tnieirsai
Each 'fragment will-he accompanied with the etAti,
cal notes to which' it may:giV'e rise. Al the en'of• the work
- will be placed chase's nnpublishedaseolia, para-
phrases, and explanations Of all kinks, firrnishEsklty the other
Uomelic manuscripts whiclt have- been mentioned above.—
(Lel•l4•lleift, Nov. 24.)' •
•