Manuscripts
Every book written by hand on flexible material and intended to be placed in a library is called a manuscript. We must therefore set aside from the study of manuscripts (1) books graven on stone or brick (Library of Assurbanipal at Ninive; graven documents discovered at Cnossus or Phæstos in Crete); (2) all public acts (diplomas, charters, etc.), the study of which constitutes the object of diplomatics. Manuscripts have been composed from the most remote antiquity (Egyptian papyri of the memphite epoch) down to the period of the invention of printing. However, Greek manuscripts were still copied until the end of the sixteenth century, and in the monasteries of the East (Mount Athos, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc.), the copying of manuscripts continued well into the nineteenth century. On the other hand the most recent Western manuscripts date from the last years of the fifteenth century.
I. MATERIALS AND FORM OF MANUSCRIPTS
The principal materials employed in the making of manuscripts have been papyrus, parchment, and paper. In exceptional cases other materials have been used (e.g. the linen books of Etruria and Rome, a specimen of which was found on an Egyptian mummy in the museum of Agram; the silken books of China, etc.). Besides, in ancient time and during the Middle Ages tablets dipped in wax on which characters were traced with a stylus were made us of for fugitive writings, accounts, etc.; these might be folding in two (diptychs), or in three (triptychs), etc. Papyrus (charta ægyptica) was obtained from a long-stemmed plant terminating in a large and elegant umbrella; this was the Cyperus Papyrus, which grew in the marshes of Egypt and Abyssinia. The stem was cut in long strips which were placed one beside the other. On the vertical strips others were placed horizontally; then after they had been wet with the water of the Nile they were submitted to strong pressure, dried in the sun, and rubbed with shells to render them solid. To make a book the separate pages (selides, paginæ) were first written on, then they were put end to end, the left margin of each page being made to adhere to the right margin of the preceding page. A roll (volumen) was thus secured, of which the dimensions were sometimes considerable. Some Egyptian rolls are forty-six feet long by nine or ten inches wide, and the great Harris papyrus (British Museum) is one hundred and forty-one feet long. The end of the last page was fastened to a cylinder of wood or bone (omphalos, umbilicus), which gave more consistency to the roll. The page having been ruled, the writing was done with a sharpened reed on the horizontal portion of the fibres. From being almost exclusively used in Egypt, the use of papyrus spread to Greece about the fifth century, then to Rome and throughout the West. Its price remained very high; in 407 B.C. a roll of twenty leaves was worth twenty-six drachmas, or about five dollars (Corp. Insc. Attic., I, 324). Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat., XIII, 11-13) gives a list of its various grades (charta Augusta, Liviana, etc.). Egypt retained the monopoly of the manufacture, which furthermore belonged to the State. Alexandria was the principal market. In the first centuries of the Middle Ages it was exported to the West by the “Syrians”, but the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs (640) stopped the trade. However it still continued to be used for diplomas (at Ravenna until the tenth century; in the papal chancery until 1057). The Arabs had attempted to cultivate the plant in Sicily.
Parchment (charta pergamena), made of the skin of sheep, goats, calves (vellum), asses, etc., was used by the Ionians and the Asiatics as early as the sixth century B.C. (Herodotus, V, 58); the anecdote related by Pliny (Hist. Nat., XIII, 11), according to which it was invented at Pergamus, seems legendary; it would seem that its manufacture was simply perfected there. Imported to Rome in ancient times, parchment supplanted papyrus but slowly. It was only at the end of the third century A.D. that it was preferred to papyrus for the making of books. Once prepared, the parchment (membrana) was cut into leaves which were folded in two; four leaves together formed a book of eight folios (quaternio); all the books formed a codex. There was no paging before the fifteenth century; writers merely numbered first the books (signature), then the folios. The dimensions of the leaves varied; the most in use for literary texts was the large quarto. An Urbino catalogue (fifteenth century) mentions a manuscript so large that it required three men to carry it (Reusens, “Paléographie”, 457); and there is preserved at Stockholm a gigantic Bible written on ass-skin, the dimensions of which have won for it the name of “Gigas librorum”. The page was ruled in dry point so deeply that the mark was visible on the other side. Parchments were written on both sides (opistographs). As parchment became very rare and costly during the Middle Ages, it became the custom in some monasteries to scratch or wash out the old text in order to replace it with new writing. These erased manuscripts are called palimpsests. With the aid of reacting chemicals the old writing has been made to reappear and lost texts have been thus discovered (the Codex Vaticanus 5757 contains under a text of St. Augustine the “De Republica” of Cicero; recovered by Cardinal Mai). Manuscripts thus treated have been nearly always incomplete or mutilated; a complete work has never been recovered on a palimpsest. Finally, by sewing strips of parchment together, rolls (rotuli) were made similar to those formed of papyrus (e.g. Hebrew Pentateuch of Brussels, ninth century, on fifty-seven sewn skins, forty yards in length; “rolls of the dead”, used by the associations of prayer for the dead in the abbeys; administrative and financial rolls used especially in England to transcribe the decrees of Parliament, etc.)
Paper is said to have been invented in China in A.D. 105 by a certain Tsai-Louen (Chavannes, “Jounr. Asiatique”, 1905, 1). Specimens of paper of the fourth century A.D. have been found in Eastern Turkestan (expeditions of Stein and Sven Hedin). It was after the taking of Samarkand (704) that the Arabs learned to make paper, and introduced it to Bagdad (795), and to Damascus (charta damascena). It was known in Europe as early as the end of the eleventh century, and at this early date it was used in the Norman chancery of sicily; in the twelfth century it began to be used for manuscripts. It was sold even then in quires and reams (Arabic, razmah) and in the thirteenth century appeared the filigranes or watermarks. According to chemical analyses, the paper of the Middle Ages was made of hempen or linen rags. The expression “charta Bombycina” comes from the Arab manufactory of Bombyce, between Antioch and Aleppo. The copyist of the Middle Ages used chiefly black ink, incaustum, composed of a mixture of gall nuts and vitrol. Red ink was reserved from ancients times for titles. Gold and silver ink were used for manuscripts de luxe (see EVANGELIARIA). The method of binding codices has varied little since ancient times. The books were sewn on ox sinews placed in rows of five or six on the back. These sinews (chordæ) served to attach to the volume wooden covers, which were covered with parchment or dyed skin. Covers of the manuscripts de luxe were made of ivory or brass, ornamented with carvings, precious stones, cut and uncut.
II. PAPYRI
Montfaucon (Palæographia græca, 15) confesses that he never saw a papyrus manuscript. There were such, nevertheless, in some archives, but it was only in the eighteenth century, after the discover of the papyri of Herculaneum (1752) that attention was devoted to this class of documents. The first discovery took place in Egypt at Gizeh in 1778, then from 1815 the discoveries in the tombs have succeeded one another without interruption, especially since 1880. The hieroglyphic, demotic, Greek, and Latin papyri are at present scattered among the great libraries (Turin, Rome, Paris, Leyden, Strasburg, Berlin, London, etc.). The publication of the principal collections has been begun (see below) and the edition of a “Corpus papyrorum” is projected, which my be one of the greatest undertakings of erudition of the twentieth century. The importance of these discoveries may be estimated from the consideration of the chief kinds of papyrus published to-day.
(1) Egyptian Papyri
The greater number are religious documents relating to the veneration of the dead and the future life. The most ancient date from the epoch of Memphis (2500-2000 B.C.), the most recent belong to the Roman period. One of the most celebrated is the “Book of the Dead”, of which several copies have been recovered. Moral and philosophical treatises have also been found (the Prisse Papyrus, in the Bibliothèque Nat., Paris) as well as scientific treatises, romances and tales, and popular songs.
(2) Greek Papyri
They are distributed over ten centuries (third century B.C.-seventh century A.D.) and contain registers from archives (giving a very exact idea of the administration of Egypt under the Ptolemies and the Roman and Byzantine emperors; their study has given rise to a new diplomatic science), literary works (the finest discovered are the orations of Hyperides found on papyri in the British Museum in 1847, 1858, 1891, and in the Louvre in 1889; Aristotle’s “Republic of Athens” on a papyrus of the British Museum in 1891; the “Mimes” of Herondas, lyric poems of Bacchylides and Timotheus; and lastly, in 1905, 1300 verses by Menander at Kom Ishkaou by G. Lefebvre), and religious documents (fragments of Gospels, of which some remain unidentified, religious poems, hymns, edifying treatises, etc., e.g.: the Greek Psalter of the British Museum, of the third century A.D., which is one of the most ancient Biblical manuscripts we possess; the “Logia” of Jesus, published by Grenfell and Hunt; a hymn in honour of the Holy Trinity similar to the “Te Deum”, discovered on a papyrus of the sixth century; etc.).
(3) Latin Papyri
These are rare, at Herculaneum as well as in Egypt, and we possess only fragments. A papyrus of Ravenna dated 551 (Library of Naples) is in Ostragothic writing (Catal. of Latin papyri in Traube, “Biblioth. Ecole des Chartes”, LXIV, 455).
Chief Collections
Louvre (Brunet de Presle, “Not. et ext. des MSS.”, XVIII), Turin (ed. Peyron, 1826-27); Leyden (ed. Leemans, 1843); British Museum (ed. Kenyon, 1898); Flinders Petrie (ed. Mahaffy, Dublin, 1893-94); University of California (Tebtunis Papyrus, ed. Grenfell and Hunt, London and New York, 1902); berlin (Berlin, 1895-98); Archduke Renier (ed. Wessely, Vienna, 1895); Strasburg (ed. Keil, 1902); Oxyrhyncos excavations (Grenfell and Hunt, London, since 1898); Th. Reinach (Paris, 1905).
III. THE MAKING OF MANUSCRIPTS
In ancient times the copyists of manuscripts were free workmen or slaves. Athens, which was before Alexandria a great library center, had its Bibliographos, copyists, who were at the same time librarians. At Rome Pomponius Atticus thought of competing with booksellers by training slaves, for the most part Greeks, to copy manuscripts, their work to be afterwards sold. Some booksellers were at once copyists, calligraphers, and even painters. to the great libraries founded by the emperors were attached rooms for copyists; in 372 Valens attached to that of Constantinople four Greek and three Latin copyists (Theod. code, XIV, ix, 2). The edict of Diocletian fixing the maxima of prices sets down the monthly salary of the librarius at fifty denarii (Corp. Inscript. Latin, III(2) 831). Unfortunately, except for the Egyptian papyri, none of the works copied in ancient times has come down to us, and our oldest manuscripts date only from the beginning of the fourth century. The copyists of this century, several of whom were Christian priests, seem to have displayed great activity. It was by transcribing on parchment the works hitherto written on papyrus and in danger of being destroyed (Acacius and Euzoïus at Cæsarea; cf. St. Jerome, “Epist.”, cxli), that they assured the preservation of ancient literature and prepared the work of the copyists of the Middle Ages. The most ancient and the most precious manuscripts of our collection date from this period; Biblical manuscripts: Codex Sinaiticus, a Greek fourth century manuscript discovered by Tischendorf at the monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai (1844-59), now at St. Petersburg; Codex Alexandrinus, a Greek Bible executed at Alexandria in the beginning of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; Codex Ephræmi Rescriptus, a palimpsest of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, containing fragments of a New Testament written in the fifth century; Latin Bible of Quedlinburg, fourth century, in the Library of Berlin; Fragments of the Cotton Latin Bible (Brit. Mus.), fifth century. Profane authors: The seven manuscripts of Virgil in capitals [the most famous is that of the Vatican (Lat. 3225), fourth century]; the “Iliad” of the Ambrosian Library, fifth century; the Terence of the Vatican (Lat. 3226) in capitals, fifth century, the “Calendar” of Philocalus written in 354, known only by modern copies (Brussels, Vienna, etc.).
The barbarian invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries brought about the destruction of the libraries and the scattering of the books. However, in the midst of barbarism, there were a certain number of privileged refuges, in which the copying of books went on. It is to these copyists of the Middle Ages that moderns owe the preservation of the Sacred Books as well as the treasures of classical antiquity; they veritably saved civilization. The chief of these copying centres were: Constantinople, where the library and schools continued to exist; the monasteries of the East and West, where the copying of books was regarded as one of the essential labours of monastic life; the synagogues and schools of the Jews, to which we owe the Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible, the most ancient of which date only from the ninth century (British Museum, MSS. Orient, 4445, ninth century; Codex Babylonicaus of St. Petersburg, copied in 916); the Mussulman schools (Medressehs), provided with large libraries (that at Cordova had 400,000 vols.) and copying rooms, in which were transcribed not only the Koran but also theological works and Arabic translations of Greek authors (Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, etc.). The most important works undoubtedly was done by the monasteries; its history is identical with the history of the transmission of sacred and profane texts of antiquity.
(1) Oriental Christendom
From the very beginning of Egyptian monasticism copying rooms were installed in the monasteries, as is shown by the Coptic chronicle on papyrus studied by Strzygowski (“Eine Alexandrinische Weltchronik”, Vienna, 1905). In Palestine, Syria, Ethiopia, and Armenia, in Melchite, Jacobite, or Nestorian monasteries, the copying of manuscripts was held in esteem. We know the name of one scribe, Emmanuel, of the monastery of Qartamin on the Tigris, who copied with his own hand seventy manuscripts (one of them the Berlin Nestorian Evangeliarium; Sachau, 304, tenth century). At the Nestorian school of Nisibis the students copied the Holy Scriptures, the text of which was afterwards explained to them. Indeed the Bible was copied by preference, hence the numerous Biblical manuscripts, whether Syriac (text of the “Peshitto” preserved at Milan; end of the fifth century), Coptic (fragments discovered by Maspero at Akhmin; see “Journal Asiatique”, 1892, 126), Armenian (Gospel in capitals, Institute Lazarev of Moscow, dated 887; the most ancient complete Bible belongs to the twelfth century), Ethiopian, etc. Commentaries on Holy Scripture, liturgical books, translations from the Greek Fathers, theological or ascetical treatises, and some universal chronicles constitute the greater number of these manuscripts, from which the classic writers are excluded.
(2) Greek Church
In the Greek monasteries St. Basil also recommended the copying of manuscripts and his treatise “On the usefulness of reading profane authors” bears sufficient witness that side by side with the religious texts the Basilian monks assigned an important place to the copying of classical authors. That a large number of texts have perished is not the fault of the monks, but is due to the custom of Byzantine scholars of composing “Excerpta” from the principal authors, and afterwards neglecting the originals (e.g. Encyclopedia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in the library of Photius. See Krumbacher, “Gesch. der Syzant. litter.”, p. 505). Wars, and especially the taking of Constantinople in 1204 also brought about the destruction of a great number of libraries. The work of the Byzantine copyists from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries was considerable; and to convince ourselves it is enough to peruse the list of three thousand names of known copyists recovered by Maria Vogel and Gardthausen from Greek manuscripts (“Beihefte zum Zentralblatt für Bibliothekwesen”, XXXIII, Leipzig, 1909). It will be seen that the greater number of copyists are monks; at the end of the manuscript they often place their signature and the name of their monaster. Some of them through humility preserve anonymity: Graphe tis; oide theos (“Who wrote this? God knows”). Others on the contrary inform posterity concerning the rapidity with which they have completed their task. The scribe Theophilus wrote in thirty days the Gospel of St. John (985). A manuscript of St. Basil begun on Pentecost (28 May) of 1105 was ended 8 August of the same year. With the monks there were some secular copyists known as notarii, tabularii, among them a tax collector of the eleventh century (Montfaucon, “Palæog. gr.”, 511), a judge of the Morea (Cod. paris, gr. 2005, written at Mistra in 1447), and even emperors. Theodosius II (408-450) had earned the surname of “Calligrapher” (Codinus ed. of Bonn, 151) and John V Cantacuzenus, having in 1355 retired to a monastery, copied manuscripts. Among copyists is also mentioned the Patriarch Methodius (843-847), who in one week copied seven psalters for the seven weeks of Lent (Pat. Gr. G. 1253).
The monasteries of Constantinople remain the chief centres for the copying of manuscripts. From them perhaps proceeded in the sixth century the beautiful Gospels on purple parchment in letters of gold (see MANUSCRIPTS, ILLUMINATED). In the ninth century the reform of the Studites was accompanied by a veritable renascence of calligraphy. St. Plato, uncle and master of Theodore of Studion, and Theodore himself copied many books, and their biographies extol the beauty of their writing. Theodore installed at Studion a scriptorium, at the head of which was a “protocalligrapher” charged with preparing the parchment and distributing to each one his task. In Lent the copyists were dispensed from the recitation of the Psalter, but rigorous discipline reigned in the work-room. A stain on a manuscript, an inexactness in copy was severely punished. All the monasteries which came under the influence of Studion also adopted its method of copying; all had their libraries and their copying rooms. In the eleventh century St. Christodoulos, another monastic reformer, found of the convent of St. John of Patmos, ordained that all monks “skillful in the art of writing should with the authorization of the hegoumenos make use of the talents with which they had been endowed by nature”. There has been preserved a catalogue of the library of Patmos, dated 1201; it comprised two hundred and sixty-seven manuscripts on parchment, and sixty-three on paper. The majority are religious works, among them twelve Evangeliaries, nine Psalters, and many Lives of the saints. Among the seventeen profane manuscripts are works on medicine and grammar, the “Antiquities” of Josephus, the “Categories” of Aristotle, etc.
In the monasteries located at the extremities of the Hellenic world are found the same occupations. The monastic colony of Sinai, which has existed since the fourth century, formed an admirable library, of which the present remains (1220 manuscripts) afford but a faint idea. In Byzantine Italy from the tenth to the twelfth century, the Basilian monks also cultivated calligraphy at Grottaferrata, at St. Salvatore at Messina, at Stilo in Calabria, at the monastery of Cassola, near Otranto, at St. Elias at Carbone, and especially at the Patir of Rossano, founded in the eleventh century by St. Bartholomew, who bought books at Constantinople and copied several manuscripts. The library of Rossano became one of the sources from which the manuscripts of the Vatican library were drawn. Besides, from the end of the tenth century the great monasteries of Mt. Athos, the great laura of St. Athanasiu, Vatopedi, Esphigmenou, etc., became most important centres for the copying of manuscripts. Without speaking of the treasures of sacred and profane literature which are still preserved there, there is not a library of Greek manuscripts which does not possess some examples of their work. Finally the monasteries founded in the Slav countries, in Russia, Bulgaria, Servia, on the model of the Greek convents, also had their copying rooms, in which were translated into the Slavonic language, with the help of the alphabet invented in the ninth century by St. Cyril, the Holy Scriptures and the most important works of the ecclesiastical literature of the Greeks. It was also in these monastic study halls that the first monuments of the national literature of the Slavs were copied, such as the “Chronicle of Nestor”, the “Song of Igor”, etc.
(3) The West
The work of the Western copyists begins with St. Jerome (340-420), who in his solitude of Chalcis and later in his monastery of Bethlehem, copied books and commended this exercise as one most becoming to monastic life (Ep. cxxiii). At the same time St. Martin of Tours introduced this rule into his monastery. The copying of manuscripts appears as one of the occupations of all the founders of monastic institutions, of St. Honoratus and St. Capresius at Lérins, of Cassian at St. Victor’s at Marseilles, of St. Patrick in the monasteries of Ireland, of Cassiodorus in his monasteries of Scyllacium (Squillace). In his treatise “De Institutione divinarum litterarum” (543-545) Cassiodorus has left a description of his library with its nine armaria for manuscripts of the Bible; he also describes the copying room, the scriptorium, directed by the antiquarius. He himself set the example by copying the Scriptures and he believed that “each word of the Saviour written by the copyist is a defeat inflicted on Satan” (“De Institut.”, I, 30). The work of the copyists was also considered meritorious by St. Benedict. In the sixth century copying rooms existed in all the monasteries of the West.
Since the time of Damasus, the popes had a library which was probably provided with a copying room. The missionaries who left Rome to evangelize the Germanic peoples, such as Augustine in 597, brought with them manuscripts which they were to reproduce in the monasteries founded by them. In the seventh century Benedict Biscop made four journeys to Rome and brought thence numerous manuscripts; in 682 he founded the monastery of Jarrow which became one of the chief intellectual centres of England. Theodore of Tarsus (668-680) accomplished a similar work when he reorganized the Anglo-Saxon Church. The first period of monastic activity (sixth-seventh centuries) is represented in our libraries by a large number of Biblical manuscripts, many of which come from Ireland (“Liber Armachanus” of Dublin), England (“Codex Amiatinus” of Florence, copied at Wearmouth under Wilfred, and offered to the pope in 716; “Harley Evangeliary”, Brit. Mus., seventh century), some from Spain (“Palimpsest of Leon”, cathedral archives, seventh century). Finally the library of the University of Upsala possesses the “Codex Argenteus”, on purple parchment, written in the fifth century, which contains the Bible of Ulphilas, the first translation into a Germanic language of the Holy Scriptures.
At the end of the seventh and during the eighth century Gaul became more and more barbarous; monasteries were destroyed or ravaged, culture disappeared, and when Charlemagne undertook the reorganization of Europe he addressed himself to the countries in which culture was still flourishing in the monasteries, to England, Ireland, Lombardy. The Carolingian renaissance, as the movement has been called, had as its principle, the establishment of copying rooms at the imperial court itself and in the monasteries. One of the most active promoters of the movement was Alcuin (735-804), who after having directed the library and school of York, became in 793 Abbot of St. Martin of Tours. Here he founded a school of calligraphy which produced the most beautiful manuscripts of the Carolingian epoch. Several specimens distributed by Charlemagne among the various monasteries of the empire became the models which were imitated everywhere, even in Saxony, where the new monasteries founded by Charlemagne became the foremost centres of Germanic culture. M.L. Delisle (Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscript., XXXII, 1) has compiled a list of twenty-five manuscripts which proceeded from this school of Tours (Bible of Charles the Bald, Paris, Bib. Nat., Lat. No. 1; Bible of Alcuin, Brit. Mus., 10546; manuscripts at Quedlinburg relating to the life of St. Martin; Sacramentaries of Metz and Tours of the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, etc.)
Among the works proceeding from the imperial scriptorium attached to the Palatine School is mentioned the Evangeliary copied for Charlemagne by the monk Godescalc in 781 (now at the Bibliothèque Nationale), and the Psalter of Dagulf presented to Adrian I (now at the Imperial Library of Vienna). Other important scriptoria were established at Orléans by Bishop Theodulfe (whence issued the two beautiful Bibles now kept in the treasury of the cathedral of Puy Amand (where the copyist Hucbald contributed eighteen volumes to the library), at St. Gall, under the Abbots Grimaldus (841-872) and Hardmut (872-883), who caused the making of a complete Bible in nine volumes; there are extant ten Biblical manuscripts written or corrected by Hardmut. At St. Gall and in many other monasteries the influence of Irish monks is very marked (manuscripts of Tours, Würzburg, Berne, Bobbio, etc.). Besides numerous Biblical manuscripts there are found among the works of the Carolingian epoch many manuscripts of the classical authors. Hardmut had had copied Josephus, Justin, Martianus Capella, Orosius, Isidore of Seville; one of the most beautiful manuscripts of the school of Tours is the Virgil of the library of Berne, copied by the deacon Bernon. Many of these works were even translated into the vulgar tongue: at St. Gall there were Irish translations of Galen and Hippocrates, and at the end of teh ninth century King Alfred (849-900) translated into English the works of Boethius, Orosius, Bede, etc. At this epoch many monasteries possessed libraries of considerable size; when in 906 the monks of Novalaise (near Susa) fled before the Saracens they carried to Turin a library of six thousand manuscripts.
The period of the eleventh and twelfth centuries may be considered as the golden age of monastic manuscript writing. In each monastery there was a special hall, called the “scriptorium”, reserved for the labours of the copyists. On the ancient plan of St. Gall it is shown beside the church. In the Benedictine monasteries there was a special benediction formula for this hall (Ducange, Glossar. mediæ et inf. latin.”, s.v. Scriptorium). Absolute silence reigned there. At the head of the scriptorium the bibliothecarius distributed the tasks, and, once copied, the manuscripts were carefully revised by the correctores. In the schools the pupils were often allowed as an honour to copy manuscripts (for instance at Fleury-sur-Loire). Everywhere the monks seem to have given themselves with great ardour to the labour which was considered one of the most edifying works of the monastic life. At St. Evroult (Normandy) was a monk who was saved because the number of letters copied by him equalled the number of his sins (Ordericus Vitalis, III, 3). In the “explicit” which concluded the book the scribe often gave his name and the date on which he wrote “for the salvation of his soul” and commended himself to the prayers of the reader. Division of labour seems as yet not to have been fully established, and there were monks who were both scribes and illuminators (Ord. Vital., III, 7). The Bible remained the book which was copied by preference. The Bible was copied either entire (bibliotheca) or in part (Pentateuch, the Psalter, Gospels and Epistles, Evangeliaria, in which the Gospels followed the order of the feasts). Then came the commentaries on the Scriptures, the liturgical books, the Fathers of teh Church, works of dogmatic or moral theology, chronicles, annals, lives of the saints, histories of churches or monasteries, and lastly profane authors, the study of which never ceased entirely. Rather a large number of them are found among the ne thousand manuscripts in the library of Cluny. At St. Denis even Greek manuscripts were copied (Paris, Bib. Nation., gr. 375, copied in 1033). The newer religious orders, Cistercians, Carthusians, etc., manifested the same zeal as the Benedictines in the copying of manuscripts.
Then beginning with the thirteenth century the labour of copyists began to be secularized. About the universities such as that of Paris were a large number of laymen who gained a livelihood by copying; in 1275 those of Paris were admitted as agents of the university; in 1292 we find at Paris twenty-four booksellers who copied manuscripts or caused them to be copied. Colleges such as the Sorbonne also had their copying rooms. On the other hand at the end of the thirteenth century in the greater number of monasteries the copying of manuscripts ceased. Although there were still monks who were copyists, such as Giles of Mauleon, who copied the “Hours” of Queen Jeanne of Burgundy (1317) at St. Denis, the copying and the illumination of manuscripts became a lucrative craft. At this juncture kings and princes began to develop a taste for books and to form libraries; that of St. Louis was one of the earliest. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these amateurs had in their pay veritable armies of copyists. Thenceforth it was they who directed the movement of the production of manuscripts. The most famous were Popes John XXII (1316-34), Benedict XII (1334-42); the poet Petrarch (1304-74), who was not satisfied with purchasing the manuscripts in convents but himself formed a school of copyists in order to have accurate texts, the King of France, Charles V (1364-1380), who collected in the Louvre a library of twelve hundred volumes, the French princes Jean, Duke of Berry, a forerunner of modern bibliophiles (1340-1416), Louis Duke of Orléans (1371-1401) and his son Charles of Orléans (d. 1467), the dukes of Burgandy, the kings of Naples, and Matthias Corvinus. Also worthy of mention are Richard of Bury, Chancellor of England, Louis of Bruges (d. 1492), and Cardinal Georges d’Amboise (1460-1510).
The copying rooms were made more perfect, and Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim (1462-1513), author of “De laude scriptorum manualium”, shows the well-established division of labour in a studio (preparation and polishing of parchment, ordinary writing, red ink titles, illumination, corrections, revision, each task was given to a specialist). Among those copies religious manuscripts, Bibles, Psalters, Hours, lives of the saints, were always represented, but an increasingly important place was accorded the ancient authors and the works of national literature. In the fifteenth century a great many Greek refugees fleeing before the Turks came to Italy and copied the manuscripts they brought with them to enrich the libraries of the collectors. A number of them were in the service of Cardinal Bessarion (d. 1472), who after collecting five hundred Greek manuscripts, bequeathed them to the Republic of Venice. Even after the invention of printing, Greek copyists continued to work, and their names are found on the most beautiful Greek manuscripts of our libraries, for instance Constantine Lascaris (1434-1501), who lived a long time at Messina; John Lascaris (1445-1535), who came to France under Charles VIII; Constantine Palæocappa, a former monk of Athos, who entered the service of Cardinal de Lorraine; John of Otranto, the most skilful copyist of the sixteenth century.
But the copying of manuscripts had ceased long before in consequence of the invention of printing. The copyists who had toiled for long centuries had completed their tasks in bequeathing to the modern world the sacred and profane works of antiquity.
IV. PRESENT LOCATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Save for some exceptions, which are becoming more and more rare, the manuscripts copied during the Middle Ages are at present stored in the great public libraries. The private collections which have been formed since the sixteenth century (Cotton, Bodley, Christina of Sweden, Peiresc, Gaignières, Colbert, etc.) have eventually been fused with the great repositories. The suppression of a great number of monasteries (England and Germany in the sixteenth century, France in 1790) has also augmented the importance of storehouses of manuscripts, the chief of which are, Italy: Rome, Vatican Library, founded by Nicholas V (1447-55), which has acquired successively the manuscripts of the Elector Palatine (given by Tilly to Gregory XV), of the Duke of Urbino (1655), of Christina of Sweden, of the Houses of Caponi and Ottoboni, in 1856 the collections of Cardinal Mai, and in 1891 of the Borghese library: 45,000 manuscripts (codices Vaticani and according to their particular foundation, Palatini, Urbinates, etc.); Florence: Laurentian Library, ancient collection of the Medici; 9693 manuscripts largely of the Greek and Latin classical authors (Codices Laurentiani); National Library (formerly the Uffizi), founded in 1860, 20,028 manuscripts; Venice, Marcian Library (collection of Petrarch, 1362, of Bessarion, 1468, etc.), 12,096 manuscripts (Codices Marciani); Verona: Chapter Library, 1114 manuscripts; Milan, Ambrosian Library, founded 1609 by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, 8400 manuscripts (Codices Ambrosiani); Turin, National Library, founded in 1720, collection of the Dukes of Savoy. In Jan. 1904 a fire destroyed most of its 3979 manuscripts, nearly all of them of the first rank (Codices Taurienses); Naples, National Library (ancient collection of the Bourbon family), 7990 manuscripts. Spain: Library of the Escorial, founded in 1575 (one of the principal constituents is the collection of Hurtado de Mendoza, formed at Venice by the ambassador of Philip II), 4927 MSS. (Codices Escorialenses). France: National Library (had its origin in the royal collections gathered at Fontainebleau as early as Francis I, and contains the libraries of Mazarin, Colbert, etc., and those of the monasteries confiscated in 1790), 102,000 MSS. (Codices Parisini). England: British Museum (contains the collections of Cotton, Sloane, Harley, etc.), founded in 1753, 55,000 manuscripts; Oxford, Bodleian Library, founded in 1597 by Sir Thomas Bodley, 30,000 MSS. Belgium: Brussels, Royal Library, founded in 1838 (the principal basis is the library of the Dukes of Burgandy), 28,000 MSS. Holland: Leyden, Library of the University, founded in 1575, 6400 MSS. Germany: Berlin Royal Library, 30,000 manuscripts; Göttingen University, 6000 manuscripts; Leipzig, Albertina Library, founded in 1543, 4000 manuscripts; Dresden, Royal Library, 60,000 MSS. Austria: Vienna, Imperial Library, founded in 1440 (collections of Matthias Corvinus and of Prince Eugene), 27,000 MSS. Scandinavian countries: Stockholm, royal Library, 10,435 manuscripts; Upsala, University, 13,637 manuscripts; Copenhagen, Royal Library, 20,000 MSS. Russia: St. Petersburg, Imperial Library, 35,350 manuscripts; Moscow, Library of the Holy Synod, 513 Greek manuscripts, 1819 Slavic MSS. United States: New York Public Library, founded 1850 (Astor collection, 40 manuscripts; Lenox collection 500 manuscripts); Pierpont Morgan collection, 115 manuscripts, illuminated miniatures. Orient: Constantinople, Library of the Seraglio (cf. Ouspensky, Bulletin of the Russian Archeological Institute, XII, 1907); Monasteries of Athos (13,000 manuscripts), of Smyrna, of St. John of Patmos at Athens, the Library of the Senate — at Cairo, the Library of the Khedive (founded in 1870, 14,000 Arabic manuscripts) and the Patriarchal Library (Greek and Coptic manuscripts). The Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai, the patriarchal libraries of Etschmaidzin (Armenian manuscripts) and of Mossoul (Syriac manuscripts). The dangers of all kinds which threaten manuscripts have induced the greater number of these libraries to undertake the reproduction in facsimile of their most precious manuscripts. In 1905 an international congress assembled at Brussels to study the best practical means of reproduction. This is a great undertaking, the accomplishment of which depends on the progress of photography and of colour photography. By this means will the works of the copyists of the Middle Ages be preserved. (See LIBRARIES.)
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Revue des bibliothèques (Paris, since 1890), a periodical devoted to bibliography, contains numerous unedited catalogues, and critical studies of manuscripts; Zentralblatt für Bibliothekwesen (Leipzig, since 1884), treats of periodical bibliography in the supplement; GRAESEL, Fr. tr. LAUDE, Manuel de Bibliothéconomie (Paris, 1897) deals with the material arrangements of manuscript cabinets; EHRLE (prefect of the Vatican), Sur la conservation et restauration des anciens MSS. in Rev. des Biblioth. (1898), 152; OMONT, Liste des recueils de fac-similes conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1903); GILBERT, The National manuscripts of Ireland (Southampton, 1874), 3 vols.; KOENNECKE, Bilderatlas der deutschen Nationalliteratur (Marburg, 1894).
On the history of copyists and the production of MSS.: Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes (Paris, since 1839), contains numerous bibliographical articles; LECOY DE LA MARCHE, L’art d’écrire et les calligraphes in Revue des questions historiques (1884); DELISLE, Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bib. Nat. (Paris, 1868-81), 3 vols. and album, a fundamental work for the history of medieval libraries; GARDTHAUSEN, Griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters under der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1909); BERGER, Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siècles du moyen Age (Nancy, 1893); FAUCON, La librairie des papes d’Avignon (Biblioth. Ecole Franc. de Rome, XLIII and L); MÜNTZ, La bibliothèque du Vatican au XVe siècle (ibid., XLVIII). A large amount of information concerning papyri will be found in Archiv für Papyrusforschung (Leipzig, since 1900). See also HOHLWEIN, La papyrologie grècque (Louvain, 1905), Studien zur Palaeographie und papyrusurkunde (Leipzig, since 1901, edited by WESSELY).
LOUIS BRÉHIER Transcribed by Bryan R. Johnson
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
MANUSCRIPTS
It appears that the books of the Bible were written originally on scrolls of papyrus, a material made from dried and flattened strips of papyrus reed (see WRITING). Papyrus did not last well, and the original writings all perished long ago. But from the beginning people had made copies of the original writings, and others continued to make copies down through the centuries. These copies are known as manuscripts (abbreviated MS in the singular, MSS in the plural).
Although the original writings were written by ordinary people in ordinary human language, they were at the same time written under the special direction of the Spirit of God. They expressed the truth as God wanted it expressed (see INSPIRATION). The copies that have survived, however, have suffered some damage from people who have copied or used them.
Because methods of mechanical printing were unknown in ancient times, people who made copies of the Scriptures had to write them out by hand. Writing skills varied and copyists at times made errors. Some of the common errors were to misread the master copy, misspell words, or misplace, omit, or repeat words or lines. There were also cases where copyists deliberately changed the wording to make a sentence mean what they thought it should mean. Yet, in spite of human failings, God has preserved his Word. There are so many good manuscripts in existence that people with the necessary skills are able to determine the original wording fairly accurately.
Old Testament manuscripts
The language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, reads from right to left and was written originally with consonants only. The absence of vowels caused no problem to the readers, as they could mentally put in the vowels as they read. But with the spread of the Aramaic language and then Greek during the latter centuries BC (see ARAM; GREECE), Hebrew had become less widely known in Palestine in New Testament times. After the destruction of the Jewish state in AD 70, the use of Hebrew declined even further. This decline continued, till Hebrew ceased to be a commonly spoken language.
Over an extended period from the sixth to the eleventh centuries AD, Hebrew scholars called Massoretes introduced a system of vowel signs, or points, to ensure that the meaning of the original writing was not lost. These vowel points were dots and other symbols placed below or above the consonants to show what the word was and how it should be pronounced. The version of the Old Testament that the Massoretes established is commonly called the Massoretic Text (MT).
Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, the oldest known manuscripts of the Old Testament were from the ninth to the eleventh centuries AD. The reason why no earlier manuscripts survived was that when manuscripts became too old or worn to use, the Hebrew scholars buried them, rather than let them fall into dishonourable use. In making fresh manuscripts, the Hebrew copyists were almost fanatical at preserving every letter exactly as it was in the former manuscripts. As a result they made few errors.
Versions and translations from the ancient past confirm the general reliability of the Hebrew manuscripts. Among the most important of these are the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Old Testament and other writings belonging to a Jewish community that lived in the region of the Dead Sea about 130 BC to AD 70.
There is added confirmation of this reliability in the copies of early translations that were based on Old Testament manuscripts older than any available today. These include translations into Greek in the second century BC, into Syriac in the first century AD, and into Latin in the fifth century AD. Further confirmation comes from the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch and from quotations from the Old Testament found in Jewish writings of the first five centuries AD. (See also SEPTUAGINT.)
New Testament manuscripts
In New Testament times Greek was the language commonly spoken throughout the lands of the Bible story. The books of the New Testament were written in Greek not classical Greek, but the everyday language spoken by ordinary people. From the beginning, people made copies of letters that Paul and others had written, as well as copies of the Gospel records, and sent them to churches far and near. All this took time, and many years passed before all the writings were gathered together to form the complete New Testament as we know it today (see CANON).
Greek manuscripts were of two kinds, those written entirely in uncial (or capital) letters, and those written in minuscule (or lower case) letters. Writing in uncials was more common in the earlier centuries, but it was gradually replaced by the more convenient minuscule script.
Copyists errors are more common in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament than in the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament. But the variations in the Greek manuscripts do not seriously affect our understanding of what the New Testament writers wrote. There are in existence over five thousand manuscripts of the Greek New Testament (in part or in whole), and although these increase the number of variations, they also increase the possibility of eliminating the errors.
The most valuable manuscripts come from the period of the fourth to the sixth centuries AD, though there are earlier ones. As a rule, the earlier the manuscript, the more likely it is to be correct. On the other hand a more recent manuscript could be more accurate if it was copied from a much earlier and more reliable manuscript. One way of checking the accuracy of manuscripts is to compare them with early translations of the New Testament, or with quotations from the New Testament in the writings of early authors.
As they study all this evidence, experts are able to assess the value of manuscripts and arrange them in groups according to their common features. It has become apparent that different groups of manuscripts belonged originally to different regions (e.g. Rome, Alexandria, Byzantium). This gives scholars an indication of the kinds of manuscripts that were in use at various stages of the early churchs history, and so helps towards determining the exact wording of the original writing.
A reliable text
Using all the material available to them, those skilled in the processes outlined above can prepare accurate editions of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. These books are called texts. Modern translations of the Bible are made from these texts, not from the ancient manuscripts. Most of the manuscripts are carefully preserved in museums or places of learning around the world.
No doubt as there are further discoveries and further insights into ancient languages and practices, there will be further revisions of the Hebrew and Greek texts. Any changes will probably be only minor, as history has shown that changes made to the text through fresh discoveries have been comparatively few and unimportant. In spite of damage to the ancient manuscripts through wear and tear, misuse, copyists errors and government opposition, the Scriptures have remained intact, essentially as they were when first written. God has preserved his Word in such a way that no important teaching is anywhere affected.
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Manuscripts
MANUSCRIPTS.The aim of the present article is to give a select list of the more ancient or interesting Manuscripts of the Gospels, with a description of the most important or interesting of these. The simplest course will be to divide them into the languages in which they are written, premising that the Gospels were originally written in Greek, and that the versions in other languages are translations, generally direct, from the Greek. The symbols employed to indicate these manuscripts, whether letters or numbers, were invented for the sake of brevity, when they are referred to in an apparatus of variant readings. The standard collection of variants contained in Gospel manuscripts is that of C. Tischendorf (Novum Testamentum Graece: Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. i., Lipsiae, 1869), and the standard lists of Manuscripts are those contained in the Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes (2 vols., Leipzig, 1900, 1902) of C. R. Gregory, an American scholar domiciled in Germany. The new numbers which von Soden (Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, Band i., Berlin, 1902) has given to the Greek Manuscripts are added for the sake of completeness, but it is very doubtful whether they will gain wide currency. Capital letters are used to indicate Manuscripts with uncial writing, which is never later than the 10th cent.; numbers, for those in minuscule writing (9th to 15th centuries and later).
I. Greek Manuscripts :
(a) Uncials:
(= 2, von Soden), Codex Sinaiticus (of the 4th or 5th cent.), now in the Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, with the exception of a small portion, which is in the University Library, Leipzig, contains OT (with considerable losses), NT (complete), followed by Ep. Barnab. and the Shepherd. The MS, found by Tischendorf in the Convent of St. Catharine, Mt. Sinai, in 1844, consists of 346 (NT 147) leaves of fine parchment, measuring 48 37.8 cm., with four columns to the page and 48 lines to the column. The ink is now brownish; the letters are not very large, and are painfully regular, without breathings or accents, the use of which is only sporadic till the 9th century. The hands of seven revisers, dating from the 4th (5th) to the 12th centuries, can be observed in the MS. This MS shares with B the honour of being considered the purest MS of the Gospels. Tischendorf has been charged more than once with having stolen this MS, but the charges are successfully refuted by Gregory.
A (= 4, von S.), Codex Alexandrinus, in London, British Museum, Reg. I. D. v.viii. (the NT is in showcases). This MS is of the 5th cent., and consists of 773 leaves (NT 143 leaves) of parchment, measuring 32 26.3 cm., with 2 columns to the page and 4951 lines to the column. It contains, with some losses, the whole Greek Bible. It was probably written in Egypt, and came in 1098 into the possession of the patriarch of Alexandria, from which place it gets its name. Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, and former patriarch of Alexandria, sent it as a gift to Charles I. of England in 1628. About a century afterwards it was presented to the nation. A few lines at the beginning of each book are written in red. The following portions of the Gospels are lost: Mat 1:1 to Mat 25:6, Joh 6:50 to Joh 8:52. It is quite clear that Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11 never formed a part of the manuscript. A complete facsimile was published in 18781880.
B (= 1, von S.), Codex Vaticanus, Vat. Lib. MS Gr. 1209 (in showcases). The MS is of the 4th cent., and consists of 759 (NT 142) leaves of parchment, measuring 27 cm. square, with 3 columns to the page and 42 lines to the column. The parchment is very soft and fine. The uncial letters are small, simple, and written, without breaks between the individual words; the first hand wrote no breathings or accents, and punctuation is very rare. The MS is of uncertain origin, and, when complete, contained the whole of the Greek Bible with perhaps the exception of the Books of Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasses. No gaps occur in the Gospels. It has been twice revised, once by a corrector contemporary with the original scribe (called B2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ), and again by another of the 10th or 11th cent., who worked over the letters and often added accents and breathings. WH [Note: H Westcott and Horts text.] consider it our very best MS, and regard the combination BN as practically infallible. A splendid facsimile of the NT part was published by Hpli of Milan in 1904 (see the notice of it by Nestle in the Theol. Literaturblatt for 6th Jan. 1905), superseding the inferior photograph issued by Cozza-Luzi at Rome in 1889.
C (= 3, von S.), Codex Ephraemi rescriptus, Paris Bibl. Nat., gr. 9, a palimpsest of the 5th century. Contains, in present form, 209 leaves, written in single columns. The NT portion consists of 145 leaves, and contains parts of every book except 2 John and 2 Thessalonians. Edited by Tisch. (Leipzig, 1843 and 1845).
D evv. act. (= 5, von S.), Codex Bezae, in Cambridge University Library, Nn. 2, 41 (in a showcase in Cockerells Building). This MS is of the 6th cent. (according to Burkitt, of the 4th), and is bilingual (Greek and Latin). It is on parchment, 26 cm. in height and 21.5 in breadth, and contains now 415 (406 + 9 added later) leaves, with one column to the page. When the book is open, the left side is Greek, the right side Latin. Originally it contained probably Mt., Jn., Lk., Mk. (the regular Western order of the Gospels), Apocalypse, Apocalyptic , 1, 2, 3 Jn., Acts (Dom Chapman in Expositor, 1905, ii. p. 46 ff.). Now the Gospels and Acts are almost complete, the Apocalypse and 1James , 2 nd. Jn. have disappeared, and of 3 Jn. there remain only a few verses in Latin. Many hands have been engaged in correcting the MS. It was probably written in Italy, or South France, where it was when Beza acquired it and gave it to the University of Cambridge in 1581. The MS is the only representative of the Western text in Greek, a form of text which was widespread already in the 2nd century. It contains, therefore, many original elements, which have been worked over at a very early date. In spite of this revision, it often agrees with the neutral Manuscripts , B. Scrivener published an accurate and handy edition of the MS at Cambridge (1864), which retains its use side by side with the gorgeous facsimile published by the Cambridge University Press in 1899.
N (= 19, von S.), Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus, incomplete and mutilated, the parts being distributed between St. Petersburg, Rome, Patmos, London, and Vienna. It is an uncial, probably of the 6th cent., measuring 32 by 26.5 cm.; has 2 columns to the page, 16 lines to the column, and 227 leaves. The leaves are stained with purple, and the writing is silver, the Divine names being in gold. The MS is very like both in text and external character. The only complete edition is that of H. S. Cronin in TS [Note: S Texts and Studies.] , vol. v. No. 4 (Cambridge, 1899). He considers N and to be copies of the same lost original. The text is of a mixed character, representing a sort of transition stage between the purity of the older uncials and the corruption of the majority of cursives. While it sometimes supports the former, it also at times provides the earliest known authority for readings which are subsequently almost universal. For particulars see Cronins valuable introduction.
(= 18, von S.), Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, in the charge of the Archbp. of Rossano, S. Italy. An uncial of the 6th cent., probably later than its. brother MS N, it is, like it, purple with silver writing. It measures 30.7 by 26 cm., has 2 columns, to the page, 20 lines to the column, and comprises 188 leaves. It contains Matthew and Mark (the latter without Mar 16:14end). Edited by von Gebhardt (Die Evangelien des Matthus und des Marcus aus dem cod. purp. Rossan., Leipzig, 1883). See under N. The credit of the discovery of this MS belongs to von Gebhardt and Harnack (1879), It contains eight pictures of Gospel scenes, the oldest known.
(= 6, von S.), Athos, Laura 172 ( 52), an uneial of the 8th or 9th cent., measuring 20.8 by 15 cm., has 31 lines to the page, and comprises 262 leaves. It contains the greater part of the NT, but lacks Mt., and Mk. down to Mar 9:3. The ending of Mk. is like that in L and T1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] . After Mar 16:8 , it proceeds as follows: : , , , : : , …, up to Mar 16:20, and at the end . It is only in this Gospel that the text is of interest. The character of its readings, is set forth in Lakes edition (Studies Biblica et Ecclesiastiea, vol. v. (Oxford, 1903) pp. 94122), [pp. 89186 can be obtained separately].
TX (= 02, von S.), Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. ii. No. 208. We mention this papyrus uncial fragment of the 3rd cent. (Joh 1:23-31; Joh 1:33-41; Joh 20:11-17; Joh 20:19-25), because it is probably the oldest fragment of Gospel MS in existence.
(b) Minuscules:
1 (= 50, von S.), Basel University Library, A.N. iv. 2 (formerly B vi. 27), of the 12th (others say 10th) century. This MS was used for Erasmus Gr. Test., the first published edition. It gives a good text, which is often in agreement with 118 (= 346, von S.), 131 (= 467, von S.), and 209 (= 457, von S.). Lake has edited the four, taking 1 as the basis, and showing the variants in the others (Codex 1 of the Gospels and its Allies in TS [Note: S Texts and Studies.] , vol. vii. No. 3, Cambridge, 1902). He has also discussed with thoroughness the relations between them. The reader will find his Introduction a valuable lesson in textual criticism. It is sufficient here to quote his conclusion with regard to the text in Mark, which escaped a good deal of the assimilating process which affected the texts of Matthew and Luke: (1) fam1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] in St. Mark seems to form part of a larger family of which the most certain members are fam13 [Note: 3 designates the particular edition of the work referred] 22, 28, 565, 700; (2) this larger family seems to represent a local text or local texts which were current in a comparatively limited region in the East; (3) the only definite localities which there is any reason to suggest are Jerusalem and Sinai, and even for these the evidence is insufficient to justify confident assertion (p. liv). The most noticeable features in the other Gospels are an element akin to B and a Western element (cf. p. lv).
13 (= 368, von S.), Paris, Bibl. Nat., gr. 50, of the 13th century. This MS is one of the group 1369124346543788826828983 1053 (von S.) 1054 (von S.), conveniently named by Lake fam13 [Note: 3 designates the particular edition of the work referred] . The group is also called the Ferrar group, because the relation between 13, 69, 124, and 346 was discovered by Ferrar of Dublin (A Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels, by W. H. Ferrar and T. K. Abbott, Dublin, 1877). The studies of Rendel Harris (On the Origin of the Ferrar Group, Cambridge, 1893; Further Researches into the History of the Ferrar Group, London, 1900), Lake (JThSt [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] , vol. i. [18991900] pp. 117120), and von Soden have shed further light upon this group. The archetype appears to have been in Calabria or Sicily in the Middle Ages. Its most remarkable characteristics are the transposition of Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11 to Luk 21:38, and Luk 24:43 f. to Mat 26:39 (on the first transposition see von Soden, Die Sehriften des Neuen Testaments, i. (Berlin, 1902) p. 486 ff.). The importance of the group lies in the great support which it gives to the Western text.
II. Syriac Manuscripts :
(a) of the Old Syriae translation (Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, Gospel of the Separated Ones):
1. London, British Museum, Additional Manuscripts , No. 14,451 (No. 119 in Wrights catalogue), and Berlin, Royal Library, Orient. Quart. No. 528. This MS, Codex Nitriensis Curetonianus (Burkitts C), consists of 82 leaves in the British Museum and 3 leaves in Berlin; and came from the great Library of the Convent of St. Mary Deipara in the Nitrian Valley, west of Cairo. The greater portion of the MS reached England in 1842. In its original state it contained Mt., Mk., Jn., Lk. (in this unusual order). The portions still extant are Mat 1:1 to Mat 8:22; Mat 10:32 to Mat 23:25, Mar 16:17-20, Joh 1:1-42; Joh 3:5 to Joh 8:19; Joh 14:10-12; Joh 14:15-19; Joh 14:21-24; Joh 14:26-29, Luk 2:48 to Luk 3:16, Luk 7:33 to Luk 16:12; Luk 17:1 to Luk 24:44. The early part of the 5th cent. is the latest possible date for it. Each page has two columns, each with lines varying from 22 to 26. Each leaf measures 30 by 24 cm. The first edition of this MS is that of Cureton (London, 1858) supplemented by Rdiger (Berlin, 1872), but the definitive edition is that of F. C. Burkitt, who has edited this MS and the following together, the only representatives of the Old Syriac version, with an English translation, copious Introduction and Notes (Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, etc., 2 vols., Cambridge, 1904). From this work the details here are taken. A photograph of a page of C is in vol. ii. opposite p. 7, also p. 38 two pages; also in Kenyons Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts , facing p. 155.
2. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine; Syr. [Note: Syriac.] 30, Codex Palimpsestus Sinaiticus (Burkitts S). The MS was discovered by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, of Cambridge, in 1892, and has been since studied repeatedly by Mrs. Lewis and other scholars. The MS consists of 182 leaves of vellum (one leaf was stolen in 1902, but afterwards restored; see Exp. Times, xiii. 405; xvii. 396). The upper writing is of the 8th cent., and consists of Lives of Saints. In its original form the MS had 166 leaves, containing the four Gospels in the usual order. Its date is early 5th, perhaps 4th century. Each page contains 2 columns, with from 29 to 21 lines each, and measures 21.9 by 15.8 cm. The Gospels are nearly complete. Of the two Manuscripts this must be regarded as the better representative of the original translation. Complete photographs of it are in Cambridge University Library; Westminster College, Cambridge; Rylands Library, Manchester: photos of separate pages in Burkitt, vol. ii. pp. 28, 257, and elsewhere.
The Evangelion da-Mepharreshe was so called to distinguish it from Tatians Diatessaron or Harmony, in which form the Gospels were regularly read in the Syrian Church at first. This Church had its centre at Edessa near the Euphrates, and its language must not be identified with the Aramaic our Lord spoke. The value of the Old Syriac Version consists in the fact that it reproduces the Greek text current in Antioch at the end of the 2nd cent., with a certain amount of contamination from the use of the Diatessaron, which is in origin Italian. It is of the first authority for the constitution of the text of the Greek Gospels. For all problems connected with it the reader is referred to Burkitts second volume.
(b) of the Peshitta (simple) translation:
2. Earl of Crawfords MS 1, now Rylands Library, Manchester, of the 6th cent. (Gwilliam, No. 11).
13. London, British Museum, Addit. Manuscripts 14,470, of the 5th or 6th cent. (Gwilliam, No. 17).
15. London, British Museum, Addit. Manuscripts 14,453, of the 5th or 6th cent. (Gwilliam, No. 14).
22. London, British Museum, Addit. Manuscripts 12,140, of the 6th cent. (Gwilliam, 31).
There are many other codices, complete or incomplete, of equal antiquity, in other libraries. See Gwilliams list of 42 Manuscripts in the Tetraeuangelium Sanctum by Pusey and Gwilliam (Oxonii, 1901), which is the best edition of the Peshitta, and is provided with a literal Latin translation. As to the date of the Peshitta itself, Burkitts view that it was prepared by Rabbula, bp. of Edessa from 411 to 435 a.d., has gained wide acceptance. He regards it as a revision of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, undertaken mainly with the object of conforming the translation more closely to the Greek text as read at Antioch early in the 5th century (Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, vol. ii. p. 5).
(c) of the Palestinian or Jerusalem translation:
1. Rome, Vaticanus Syr. [Note: Syriac.] 19 (formerly 11), of the year 1030 (Codex A, Lewis-Gibson).
6. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine, of the year 1104 (Codex B, Lewis-Gibson).
7. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine, of the year 1118 (Codex C, Lewis-Gibson).
Edited by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson in the Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels (London, 1899). This version is perhaps more closely related to the Old Syriac than to the Peshitta, and may be a revision of the former.
(d) of the Philoxenian-Harklean translation:
1. Belonging to the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, but lent to the Union Theological Seminary of New York. Of the 9th cent., and somewhat defective.
22. Florence, Laur. i. 40 (Assem. 3). Of date 757.
25. Rome, Vat. Syr. [Note: Syriac.] 266. Of the 7th century.
26. Rome, Vat. Syr. [Note: Syriac.] 267. Of the 8th century.
This, the youngest of the Syrian versions, is a revision by Thomas of Harkel (Heraclea) in the first half of the 7th cent. of an earlier version made at the instance of Philoxenus, Monophysite bp. of Hierapolis (Mabog) in the early 6th century. The earlier translation was perhaps made from the Peshitta by reference to the corrected form of the Greek text, and Thomas found in Egypt older Greek Manuscripts , which had escaped the enthusiasm of the destroyers, who favoured the corrected text, and inserted some readings from them, adding others in the margin.
III. Egyptian (Coptic) Manuscripts :
(a) of the Bohairic translation:
Complete manuscripts are all of late date, none being earlier apparently than the 12th century. On all questions connected with this translation and its Manuscripts , see The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect [ed. G. Horner]; 4 vols. (Oxford, 18981905).
1. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Huntington, 17,* [Note: Gregory wrongly Huntingdon, 11.] Horners A, printed entire by him as the basis of his edition. This MS was written in 1174, and contains the Gospels complete, both in Bohairic and Arabic. It is on paper, contains 457 (+ 5) leaves, and 2 columns to the page, with 20 lines each. It measures 34.5 by 26 cm. The MS has a number of omissions: see the valuable tables of omissions in the chief Bohairic Manuscripts in Horners edition, vol. i. p. cxxvi ff.
21. Paris, Bibl. Nat., copt. 16, Horners C. The MS was written in 1196, and contains the Gospels almost complete, both in Bohairic and Arabic. It is on paper, contains 369 (+2) leaves, and 2 columns to the page, with 26 lines each. It measures 28.5 by 21 cm. The text is perfect, with the exception of a small lacuna, Joh 16:6-18.
33. Paris, Institut Catholique, Horners H. This MS was written in 1250, and contains the Gospels complete, both in Bohairic and Arabic. It is on paper, contains 235 (+2) leaves, and 2 columns to the page, with 33 lines each. It measures 25 by 17.5 cm., and contains some beautiful pictures.
(b) of the Sahidic translation:
Of this there exists only a considerable quantity of short fragments (Gregory gives 91). Some are as old as the 5th century. One is still older (No. 48 Rome, Propag. 65).
(c) of the Fayyum translation:
Gregory gives fragments of 5 Gospel Manuscripts only, one (No. 2), in the possession of Flinders Petrie, of the 4th century. Of (b) and (c) there is as yet neither a comprehensive edition nor a complete study. Further fragments of both are certain to be discovered.
The Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Persian, and Arabic translations may be here passed over.
IV. Latin Manuscripts :
(a) of the pre-Vulgate (otherwise called Old Latin, or Itala) translation(s):
a: Vercelli, Cathedral. This MS is of the 4th cent., measures 25.5 by 16 cm., has 2 columns to the page, and 24 lines to the column. The order of the Gospels is Mt., Jn., Lk., Mk., the regular Old Latin order. Much is wanting in Matthew 20-27; Jn. is slightly defective; in Lk. much of chs. 1, 11 and 12 has disappeared; in Mk. chs. 1, 4, 5, 15, 16 have suffered greatly; a second but ancient hand has supplied Mar 16:7-20. The text is good, and was, according to tradition, copied by the famous bishop Eusebius of Vercelli, martyred in 371. The book has suffered greatly from neglect and bad treatment. Editions by G. A. Irico (Sacrosanctus Evangeliorum Codex S. Eusebii Magni, Milan, 1748), J. Bianchini (Evangeliarium Quadruplex, Rome, 1749; very accurately reprinted in Mignes Patrologia Latina, vol. xii.), and J. Belsheim (Codex Vercellensis, Christiania, 1894).
b: Verona, Cathedral Library (Biblioteca Capitolare). The MS is of the early part of the 5th cent. (or of the end of the 4th), and is written in silver. The following parts are wanting: Mat 1:1-11; Mat 15:12-23; Mat 23:18-27, Joh 7:44 to Joh 8:12, Luk 19:26 to Luk 21:29, Mar 13:9-19; Mar 13:24 to Mar 16:20. Edited by Bianchini (see under a) and by J. Belsheim (Codex Veronensis Quattuor Euangelia, Prag, 1904). It was probably a MS like this which was the chief basis of Jeromes revision known as the Vulgate. It is perhaps the best representative of the European Latin versions of the 4th century. There is a photograph of one page in Monumenta Palographica Sacra (Turin, 1899).
c: Paris, Bibl. Nat. 254 (Colb. 4051), of the 12th century. Edited by P. Sabatier (Bibliorum Sacrorum Latin Versiones Antiqu, vol. iii., Paris, 1751; there is also an edition with Reims on the title-page), and by J. Belsheim (Codex Colbcrtinus Parisiensis, Christiania, 1888). The work of P. Sabatier is still unsuperseded as the most complete repertory of the readings of the Old Latin Bible.
d: This symbol indicates the Latin side of Codex Bezae (D).
e: Palatinus; all that is left is in Vienna (Kais. Lat. 1185) except one leaf, which is in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (N. 4, 18). The MS is of the 5th cent., and is, with k (see below), representative of a form of text used in the Roman province of Africa (corresponding to modern Tunis). It is very defective, containing about half of Mt., nearly the whole of Jn. and Lk., and about half of Mark. A copy of the MS made before its present mutilation exists in the Vallicellian Library, Rome, as U. 66. The Vienna part was edited by Tischendorf (Evangelium Palatinum, Leipzig, 1847), the Dublin leaf by T. K. Abbott (Par Palimpsestorum Dublincnsium, etc., London, 1880); reports on the copy in the Vallicellian Library were published by H. Linke (Sitzungsberichte der Knigl. bayer. Akad. der Wissenschaften [Phil-Philolog. und Hist. Classe], Munich, 1893, Heft 2, pp. 281287). See also Belsheim (Evangelium Palatinum, Christiania, 1896), and Old-Latin Biblical Texts, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1886), pp. lxviilxxxv, by W. Sanday.
f: Brixianus; in the Capitular Library of Brescia. It is of the 6th cent., and is written in silver. It lacks the last quarter or so of Mark. It was edited by Bianchini (see under a), and is also printed under the Vulgate in Wordsworth and Whites edition (Oxford, 18891898), as in the opinion of these editors and Hort the type of text which Jerome used as the basis of his revision. The other view with regard to it, namely, that of Burkitt, is that it is an Old Latin text deeply contaminated with the Vulgate (see JThSt [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] , i. [1899] pp. 129134). With Burkitts view the present writer agrees. If it be correct (see under q), the result is the disappearance of Horts Italian class altogether.
ff1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] : St. Petersburg, Imperial Library, formerly Corbeiensis 21 (10th cent.): Matthew.
ff2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] : Paris, Bibl. Nat. 17225, formerly Corbeiensis 195. It is of the 5th cent. (C. H. Turner in JThSt [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] , vol. vi. [19041905] p. 257), not the 7th (Tischendorf, Gregory, and the Paris authorities). The following parts of the four Gospels are wanting: Mat 1:1 to Mat 11:16, Luk 9:48-62; Luk 11:45 to Luk 12:7; Joh 17:15 to Joh 18:9; Joh 20:22 to Joh 21:8. Published reports of this MS are incomplete and inexact. An exact edition is expected from Rev. E. S. Buchanan, who has made a very careful study of the MS, and has already published a translation of its text of some Gospels (e.g. The Latin Gospels in the Second Century, Part I. S. John, Sevenoaks [1904]), and prolegomena (JThSt [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] vii. 99 ff.).
g1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] : Paris, Bibl. Nat. 11553, formerly Sangermanensis 15, of the 8th cent., edited by the Bishop of Salisbury (Dr. John Wordsworth) in Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. I. (Oxford, 1883).
k: Turin, Nat. G. vii. 15 (formerly of the Irish monastery of Bobbio). This, perhaps the most precious of all Old Latin Manuscripts , is of the 4th (Burkitt) or 5th cent., and represents the text habitually used by St. Cyprian in the early 3rd century. The MS measures 18.7 by 16.7 cm., and consists now of 96 leaves. It contains Mar 8:8-11, Mar 8:14-16; Mar 8:19 to Mar 16:8; Mat 1:1 to Mat 3:10; Mat 4:2 to Mat 14:17; Mat 15:20-36. The only reliable edition is that of Wordsworth, Sanday, and White (Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. II., Oxford, 1886), which is enriched by discussions of the greatest value for the study of all Biblical texts. Side by side with this edition should be consulted the article of Turner and Burkitt, A Re-Collation of Codex k of the Old-Latin Gospels (JThSt [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] , vol. v. [19031904] pp. 88107).
m: Rome, Sessorianus lviii. This MS, of the 8th or 9th cent., contains the so-called Speculum, falsely attributed to St. Augustine, a series of extracts from nearly all the books of the NT. The compilation appears to be of Spanish origin, as the text closely resembles that used by the Spanish heretic Priscillian. Edited by F. Weihrich in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xii. (Vienna, 1887).
q: Munich, Lat. 6224, formerly of Freising. It is of the 6th cent., and contains the Gospels, except Mat 3:15 to Mat 4:2; Mat 5:25 to Mat 6:4; Mat 6:28 to Mat 7:8, Joh 10:11 to Joh 12:39, Luk 23:22-36; Luk 24:11-39, Mar 1:7-22; Mar 15:5-36. This, like f, belongs to Horts Italian class, and stands or falls with f (see above). Edited by H. J. White as Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. III. (Oxford, 1888).
(b) of the Vulgate revision (made by St. Jerome in 383), the two best Manuscripts out of thousands which exist are:
am: in the Laurentian Library, at Florence, formerly in the monastery of Monte Amiata, No. 1. This MS was written about the year 700 in the North of England, probably by an Italian scribe, and was taken by Ceolfrid, the abbot of Jarrow, to the Continent as a present to the Pope in the year 716. It measures 50 by 34 by 20 cm. (without the cover), and comprises 1029 leaves, with 2 columns to the leaf, and 43 or 44 lines to the column. It contains the whole Bible. The NT was published by Tischendorf (Leipzig, 1850, and again 1854), but not with perfect exactness. (See Nouum Testamentum Domini Nostri lesu Christi Latine, rec. Wordsworth and White, Pars Prior, Oxonii, 18891898, p. xi; and Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica, vol. ii., Oxford, 1890, pp. 273324). Wordsworth and Whites A.
fuld: in the library of Fulda, Prussia. The MS was written about the year 540 at the wish of Victor, bishop of Capua. The Gospels are written in the form of a harmony. Edited by E. Ranke (Codex Fuldensis, Marburg and Leipzig, 1868), with specimens of the handwriting. (See Nov. Test. etc. Latine, rec. Wordsworth and White, Pars Prior, p. xii). Wordsworth and Whites F.
V. Gothic Manuscripts :
1. Upsala University, the Codex Argenteus. The MS is of the 6th cent., and now consists of 187 leaves, which are stained with purple and bear silver writing. The contents are fragments of Mt., Jn., Lk., Mark. (The translation was made by Ulfilas (Wulfila) in the 4th cent., and all surviving fragments are collected in Gabelentz and Loebes Ulfilas (Altenburg and Leipzig, 18361843).
Literature.Most of the important literature has already been indicated in the course of the article. Reference should also be made to The NT in the Original Greek: The Text revised by westcott and Hort, vol. ii. Introduction and Appendix (London, 1881 and 1896); Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the NT (London, 1901); Nestle, Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the Greek NT (London, 1901); Hammond, Outlines of Textual Criticism applied to the NT (Oxford, 1902).
Alex. Souter.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Manuscripts
MANUSCRIPTS.See Text and Writing.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Manuscripts
manu-skripts: In the broadest sense manuscripts include all handwritten records as distinguished from printed records. In a narrower sense they are handwritten codices, rolls and folded documents, as distinguished from printed books on the one hand and inscriptions, or engraved documents, on the other. More loosely, but commonly, the term is used as synonym of the codex.
The Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament and New Testament, respectively, form the primary sources for establishing the text or true original words of the respective authors. The subordinate sources, versions and quotations have also their text problem, and manuscripts of the versions and of the church Fathers, and other ancient writers who refer to Biblical matters, play the same part in establishing the true words of the version or the writer that the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts play in establishing the original of Scripture. For discussion of the textual aspects, see the articles on TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, on VERSIONS, and especially the SEPTUAGINT. For the material, writing instruments, form of manuscripts, etc., see BOOK; and especially the literature under WRITING.