The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-02-26
.round. Twelve leaves of q

s Syysn Museum, six in the Vatican, and tw
= at Vienna. They are of very thin vellun
of a purple dye, and stamped with silve
letters which lave turned black. II
decoration of manuscripts of the Bib
, and of other works. which was the deligl
of medieval monks, has served inciden
ally as one important means of determil
ing their age.
Manuscripts of the New Testament al
OF two classes: the "uncial," as they al
called from the form of the letters in
scribcd on them, and the "cursive" TIL
uncial manuscripts are written in squar
capital letters. disconnected, but in clos
iuxtaposition to each other. with no spac
between the words, and with few, if any
marks Of punctuation. The difficulty O
reading books thus written can be under
stood by any one who will try the expert
ment on a few lines of English writer
in the same way. From the tenth cen
fury. the cursive or running hand cam'
into vogue, with more or less cOmplet,
system of punctuation. Thus. the uncia
manuscripts are the oldest. and for THU
reason presumably the most correct. Yet
4 cursive manuscript may be of higher
authority than certain unciaIs. for the
reason that the former may be the tran
script of an uncial of much earlier date
| Among the uncials there are five of pre-.
eminent value. The "Codex Alexan.
drinus," which is supposed to have been
written early in the fifth century. was
sent in 1928 by the Patriarch of Constan-
tinople to Charles l., and is now in the
| British Museum. The "Codex Eati-
cauus." has been il the Vatican Library
| since 1865. 1t is incomplete. all after
Hebrews tx, II being from later hand.
Its date is probably not later than the
fourth century "Codex Ephrnmi " is
one of the treasures of the Paris Library.
1t is in fragments, however, considerable
portions having been lost. 1t is of about
the same age rs the Alexandrinus -
"Codex Beza " presented to the Univer-
sity Library at Cambridge by Beza in
1851, comprises the Gospels and Acts. 1t
is referred to the sixth century. Last
on this select list, and the latest found,
is the "Codex Sinaiticus '-designated
by the initial letter of the Hebrew alpha
bet. In May. 1914. Tischendorf. as he
sat in the library of the convent of St.
Catherine,-a cloiStcr established at ike
foot of Mount Sinai by the Emperor
Justinian.-noticed in waste basket, the
contents of which. he was told. had twice
before been emptied into the oven, num-
Der of sheets of parchment, inscribed in
Greek characters of the most ancient
form. His practiced eye was instantly
caught by these remarkable sheets. which
he found to be forty three leaves of the
Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation
Of the Old Testament. The monks gave
them to him. He saved the manuscript
of which the leaves formed part by
informing them Of their value But of
the manuscript from which they had
been taken. he had no knowledge until.
on third visit. in 1859. while lie was
sitting in cell of the cloister with one of
the brethren. in whose company he was
partaking of refreshments after IN cx-
cursion upon the mountains. his host said
to him: I" have here Greek Old Tesla
ment.' Suiting his action to the word.
he brought 4 manuscript wrapped in a
red cloth, which Tischendorf to his
amazement and joy, found to contain
portions of the SeptuaGint-the leaves
previously obtained having been taken
from it-and with them the entire New
Testament, together with the Epistle of
Barnabas in Greek, only Latin version
was possessed beforehand parts of the
- Shepherd of Hemas." He was allowed
to take it to his room. Not until I
reached my chamber he writes. ..did
give myself up to the overpowering i'm
preston of the fact; my most daring
dreams and hopes were surpassed. |
knew that | had an inestimable treasure
for Christian science in my hands, He
could not think of sleep. Through the
whole night, indifferent to the cold, he
was busy in copying the Epistle of Barna-
bas. How at length he was enabled to
carry away the precious discovery as
present to the Gar Alexander is an inter
esting story, which cannot here be told
The manuscript is of the finest vellum
Tischendorf considered it older even than
the Vatican codex. The poetical books
of the Old Testament in the Sinaiticus"
are stichometric-tha is, divided into
lines according to parallelism. or the true
principle of Hebrew poetry. Eutl,alius
of Alexandria, in the fifth century. pub |
lished portions of the New Testament,
broken up into longer or shorter clauses.
for the convenience of the reader. and to
avoid the use of punctuation. The |
clauses terminated at the more important
pauses. Manuscripts written in this style |
are called stichometric. The amount
of vellum required was hinderance to |
this practice becoming general Yet |
where the division was not made to the |
eye, the number of stichoi is frequently |
given at the end of the manuscripts. |
showing that the terminal places We're
known to Scribes and readers. Sti:h- |
ometry was really nothing but a cum
brous substitute for punctuation.
One of the uncials just mentioned, the
= Codex Ephr;emi,' is a palimpsest.-
About the twelfth century. the writing
was almost erased, and upon it were
written Greek works of St. Ephraem. a
celebrated teacher in the Syrian church
in the fourth century. In ancient Rome,
there was in use a kind of parchment or
other writing material, on which writing
could be easily etfaced, and which could
then be used again. Cicero rallies cor
on his frugality. as shown in
his making use of such material to write
his letters upon. AS papyrus increased
in price, and especially after the conquest
Of Egypt by the Mohammedans. in the
seventh century, had cut off the supply,
it became more common to make use of
impsests-parchmen on which the
writing has been rubbed off. The popu-
lar impression, however, that the monks
made Il practice of thus treating the an
,icnt classical literature, is unfounded.
The parchments which were rewritten in
his way were generally scraps or frag.