Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/580

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VULGATE

The work of exploring the various libraries of Europe was commenced almost at once. The con- tents of most of them were already arranged and catalogued, but for the most part the various Latin Biblical MSS. had not been sufficiently studied or collated to allow the Commission to dispense with a fuller examination and a thorough collation. This was set on foot in various places at once. The finest collection of such MSS. is probably in theBibUo- theque Nationale at Paris. For the past three years two, and sometimes three, Benedictines have been at work on this precious collection of Bibhcal treas- ures. The authorities have given the workers every faciUty for photographing and collating any manuscript desired. In this way the Commission now possesses complete photographs of several of the most important codices, and collations of all these are either already finished, or are in the process of being done by the collaborators. In London too the authorities of the British Museum readily permitted the Commission to do what was desired to secure copies and collations. Last summer Dom Henri Quentin travelled with the photographing machine in Italy. At Florence he secured a large-sized copy of the celebrated " Bibha Amiatina", now in the Lauren- tian Library in that city. It may be useful to say a word about the almost romantic history of this manu- script, especially as it may very possibly be found to be among the most important MSS. for the Vulgate text.

The "Codex Amiatinus", so-called because it at one time belonged to the monastery of Amiata, was much used by the revisers of the sixteenth century who produced the Sixtene version of 1.590. It was then considered to be a very excellent Italian MS., and it was so considered until quite recent times. We now know that the volume was actually copied in the north of England about the year 700. On the second page of the codex there is an inscription saying that the volume was given to the monastery of Saint Saviour's, Amiata, by a certain abbot, Peter the Lombard. Some few years ago the celebrated De Rossi, examining these Unes, pointed out that they were not the original lines, and that in particular the Abbot Peter's name had been wi-itten over an erasure and that the original name was a name hke "Ceol- fridas". This conjecture was confirmed by the Cambridge scholar. Dr. Hort, who pointed out that these very lines with changes in those places where changes had been made in the original were given in the ancient lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow as having been in the copy of the Bible taken from England as a present to the pope in A. D. 715.

The history of this precious volume is now clear. St. Benet Biscop, the founder of the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, went many times to Rome in the seventh century and brought back many MSS. St. Bede, who wrote about the abbots of his monastery, tells us that on one occasion Biscoj) re- turned with a great Bible "of the new translation" (i. e. St. Jerome's Vulgate). Of this St. Benet Bis- cop's successor, Ceolfrid, had three copies made at Wearmoutli: one for each of the monasteries and the third destined as a present to the pope. Abbot Ceolfrid resigned liis abbey in 715, and determined to pay a visit to Rome in order to carry with him the great Bible he had i)ri'iiared for the pope. St. Bede describes his setting forth on liis journey with one of his monks bearing the large vohmie. St. Ceolfrid died upon the journey, and it is doubtful whether the Bible ever found its way to Roinc: al any rate all trace of it was lost imtil it was recognized in the "Codex Amiatinus", through the joint scholarship of De Rossi and Dr. Hort.

The book it.self is of great size, each page being 19 J^ by 13>2 inches. It is written in the most regular

uncial hand in two columns to the page. Not even a fragment of the other two copies mentioned by St. Bede was known to exist, until quite recently. Two years ago the present writer recei\-ed, through the kindness of Mr. Cuthbert Turner of O.xford, two large photographs of a page of a Bible, which is undoubtedly a fragment of one of these two MSS. Canon GreenweU of Durham had some years before obtained the leaf from the binding of an old account book, which had been bound at New Castle in the year 1798. It would seem, therefore, that at that time some portions of these precious codices were in exist- ence. It is possible of course that other portions may yet be found in other bindings. The leaf found by Canon Grcenwell has now been acquired by the British Museum.

For the Gospels another celebrated MS., known as the "Lindisfarne Gospels", also written in the north of England about the same time (A. D. 700), may be noted here as furnishing a pretty page in the history of the sacred text. This wonderful MS., which is to be seen among the treasures of the British Museum, was wTitten by Bishop Eadfrith of Lindisfarne (A. D. 698-721) and illuminated by his contemporary, Ethelwald. The illuminations, which manifest the characteristics of Irish art, are of exceptional beauty, and in some ways are not surpassed by any other contemporary MS. The history of the volume deserves a brief notice. It was at Lindisfarne until the invasion of the Danes in 875 forced the monks to carry it away, together with the shrine of St. Cuthbert. Tradition says that whilst flying from the Danes the monks on reaching the western coast of the mainland conceived the intention of carrj-ing their treasures over to Ireland. On making the attempt they were compelled to return, but not before the volume of the Gospels they were carrying had fallen overboard into the sea. It was recovered in a wonderful manner, which is related in the tweKth century by Simeon of Durham. Strange to say, some of the blank leaves at the end seem to show marks of water stains.

The great interest of the volume, apart froin its artistic merits, lies in its pictures of the Evangelists, etc. Whilst the borders of these pictures are char- acteristic of the exquisite interlaced jjattern work of the Irish scribes, the figures themselves are quite different and ai-e suggestive at once of Byzantine models. It had long been a puzzle to archaeologists to account for the existence of such models in the north of England in the early part of the eighth cen- tury. It is seldom that so satisfactory an answer can be given to a problem of this nature. The text of the Gospels was copied from a volume brought into England by the Roman missioners, and thus coming from the south of Italy would probably have had illuminations made after the Byzantine style of art. This knowledge we owe to the researches of Mr. Edmund Bishop, which were fust pubhshed by Dom Morin in the "Revue Benedictine." The Gospel "capitula" (the indications of portions of the Gospels to be read in the churches) follow the NeapoUtan use, and the calendar of the volume enabled Mr. Bishop to give the exact place as the island of Nisita, in the Bay of Naples. To fill up the story is easy: The Abbot Hadrian, who accompanied St. Theodore the Greek to England when he was sent over as Arch- bishop of Canterbury, was abbot of Nisita. St. Benet Biscop, who acted as their guide to England, welcomed them to his monasteries in the north; and there can be little doubt that Abbot Hadrian brought thither the volume with Byzantine models, made in South Italy, which were cojiied by the Irish scribes as we see them to-day in the Lindisfarne Gos- pel Book.

In Rome a partial collation and an entire photo- graphic copy have been made of the important Bible