Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-01-28
f=- For che Journal.
Something ON Manuscripts.


Before Faust and Gutenberg had invsnte
the beautiful art of printing, books were no
so COMMON as they are now, but also, shei
was not SO many useless rrodac.ions 81 "
see in our days. To 20 to the trouble 9
transcribing painfully . long work, tn
writer should naturally look for good on
he should select book worth wri,in
over and whose copy should be an acquisi
tion to him. Thus the tenth, eleventh an,
twelfth centuries have left us great man,
manuscripts which even now are looke'
upon as relics and authorities amo & th'
leal ned world. Not only were the |; Dor
of the transcribers limited to bibles, psalter
and prayer books, but they copied the his
torians and poets Of antiquity. To then
we owe all the Greek and Latin classics
such ~ Homer, Pindar; the three grea
trsgios, Eschylua, Sophocles aud Euripidss
Virgil, Horace, Terence, Cicero, etc. With
out the monks, whom va are accustomed +.
call lasy drouss, whose so'e occrpstion VA
to mutter unintsll yible prayers. the history
Of the world would be mystery TO US. Il
is TO their indefatigable researches and un
firing pens that We owe the histories of He
rodotus, Thuc;dydes. and Plutarch among
the Greeks. and Livy, Tacitus> Quintus. Cur
thus and Cornelius Nepos among the Latins
and in fact all the ancient works We pos
sess to-day were saved by them from the
consequent on the many inva-
sions Of the barbarians. q,
Whoever has not seen MS. from the be-
ginning OF our millennium can form no idea
Of The labor attendant upon such work.
1t was a lifetime job, but one which seems
to have been attended with great deal of
pleas ure on the part of the copyist, if We
Judge of it by the care he took of always
writing uniform, plain and ineligible
hand. The lines are marked with the points
OF compass and drawn with ink and the
columns carefully divided the text is often
interspersed with beautifully illuminated
capital letters, embossed with gold repre-
senting griffin, or the head OF saint, or
some other portrait, or again tasty and
original arabesque, which our modern artists
will occasionally transfer to their more
recent productions. Vellum was he subs
stance used to write upon, for papyrus had
not yet been invented. Gothic letters are
invariably used, and we meet them yet in
The first printed books, known generally by
the name of inclrables. Ab revia,i ms are
very numerous; there is hardly one word
written unabbreviated chiefly in MSS. of the
XIIth century and upwards. It requires
quite custom to decipher these manuscripts,
but at those times they offered no difficulty,
rs authorizations were general.
1t will he easy to understand how eagerly
these books We're sought after and how
heir possession was secured by all pos
siLle means. None was allowed to be taken
out OF the library room, and the most pre-
;ious ones were cll iined to the desk for fear
Of larceny. 'Absolute as was Louis Xl,"
says DIsraeli,~ Che could not obtain the
MS. of Ra>is, an Arabian writer, to make n
COPY, from the library of the faculty Of
Paris. witht ut pledging. a hundred golden
crowns and the president of his treasury,
charged with this commission, sold part of
his plate to make the deposit" MSS were
as q precious inheritance and
sold at fabulous prices. Some, for the pos
session of single MS, would transfer an
estate or leave in pawn for its loan hundreds
of golden crowns. Owing to the difficulty
If reproducing books, libraries were far
rom equaling in number modern collections,
but they were by no means insignificant
As far back as the With century, we read
IF the public library at Alexandria in Egypt,
which numbered such quantity o: works
hat ut the time of the capture of the city by
Amron, general CT the Mussulmans, Caliif
Omar having decreed that the library should
De destroyed by fire, the books were sent to
The public baths and supplied fuel for the
space of months.
Academies, converts and universities had
each their own library-some Of them with
several thousand volumes. We do no gen.
orally give due credit to ancient times for
heir splendid collections of books, but to
see tie runs spared by times unforgiving
hand-to 10 k over the MSS. kept at the
Vatican or at the Paris National Library,
not to SPEAK of others lis sufficient to alter
,ur ideas on this subject. Revolutions and
wars, still more destructive than age aid
time, have dispersed those relics OF oiden
Times and destroyed the greatest portioD.--
Those that escaped are to be found in the
,nblic libraries of Europe and constitute
till their richest stock. Some find their
way in the antiquarians' shops, but are soon
purchased by the amateurs.
Americans have already Won name in
Europe for their ardor in hunting up old
MSS. or other curious books. The Astor
Library has drained some of the best anti
1uara, > shops In Paris, and the French
'avaas complain that American gold leaves
hem no chance in this line. 1t is not
likely, however, that there is in our ate
another Ms. like the Bible in my possession.
It is portable octave volume Of the Alltl
century, written OH el'um, beautifully illus
rated. and is rendered more valuable by
.le fact of the Psalms beingin ST. Jerolne'S
which is not in other MSS
The sixteen first psalms are written twice
irst according to the old Vulgnte version
md then after St, Jerome's translation
It will be shown with pleasure to anybody
lesirous to see it. I. Il.
= D'Isra.li's Curiositics Of Liter"ture.
Soura AMERICAN AFFAlRs.-The Govern
mants of South America are in most Ia