Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/665

 BCANUAL

614

MANUSCRIPTS

held in strict subjection to the end of their lives. They were not allowed to learn any of the Vedic texts, and their participation in religious rites was limited to a few insignificant acts. Guilt involving penances was attributed to unintentional transgressions of law, and there was a hopeless confusion of duties of con- science with traditional customs and restrictions in large part superstitious and absurd. Yet, with all this, the ethical teachings of the "Laws of Alanu" is very high, embracing almost every form of moral obligation recognized in the Christian religion.

Tne "Laws of Manu" is accessible to modern readers in a number of good translations. It was pub- lished in English dress under the title, "The Insti- tutes of Manu"^ by Sir William Jones in 1794, being the first Sanskrit work to be translated into a Euro- pean tongue. This version is still recognized as a work of great merit. In 1884 a very excellent trans- lation, begun by A. C. Bumell and completed by Professor E. W. Hopkins, was published in London, with the title, "The Ordinances of Manu". Two years later appeared Professor George Buhler's able version with a lengthy introduction, constituting volume XXV of the "Sacred Books of the East". In 1893 Professor G. Strehly published in Paris a very- elegant French translation, "Les Lois de Manou', forming one of the volumes of the " Annales du Mus4e Guimet".

Macdonell, Santkrit Literature (New York; 1900); Frazer, A Literary Hikorv of India (New York. 1898); Monikr Wii/- UA118, Jridian madom (4th ed.. London, 1893); Jouantoen, U^er daa OesettUntch des Manu (Leipzig. 1863).

Charles F. Aiken. Manual Masses. See Mass.

Manuel Ohysoloras, first teacher of Greek in Italy, bom at Constantinople about the middle of the fourteenth centuiy; died at Constance, Germany, and was buried there, 15 April, I4rl5. His first visit to Italy was at the time ot the siege of Constantinople, when he was sent to Venice by Emperor Palseologus to implore the aid of the Christian pnnces. He returned to Constantinople. In 1396 he went to Florence at the invitation of the humanists of that city, Salutato, Niccolo de Niccoli, and their friends, as professor of Greek literatiu^. He severed his connexion with the Florentine government, however, before the time for the end of the agreement had expired, owing either to intrigues which Bruno and Filolfo attributed to Niccoli, or perhaps to his own moodv temperament. He was then engaged in teaching at Milan and after- wards at Pavia. In 1404 he was Manuel Palseolo- gus's ambassador in Venice and visited Rome and England in the same capacity. He was also actively employed in promoting a umon of the Greek with th^ Latin Church, and with that object in view returned once more to Constantinople. In 1413 John XXIII chose him to accompanj^ the cardinals sent as dele- gates to the emperor Sigismund to fix a place for the assembling of a general council. Constance was chosen. He is mentioned in the Bull of convocation. He probably accompanied John XXIII to Constance (1414) and died there the following year. His death gave rise to commemorative essays of which Guarino of Verona made a collection in "Chrysolorina'*.

Chrysoloras's works include opuscules on the Pro- cession of the Holy Ghost; " Epistolai tres de compara- tione veteris et nova* Romae"; letters to his brothers, to L. Bruni, to Guauni, to Traversari, to Pallas Strozzi. He also translated Plato's "Republic" into Latin. Finally he is the author of the first modern Greek grammar, the "Erotemeta" printed for the first time at Florence in 1484, and immediately studiecl by Linacre at Oxford and by Erasmus at ('ambridge. lie was chiefly influential through his teaching in familiarizing men such as Bnmi, Salutato, Giacomo da Scarparia, Roberto de' Rossi, Carlo Mai-suppini, Xer- gerio, Decembrie, Guauni, Poggio, with the master-

pieces of Greek literature. As an oral teacher he too verbose and diffuse. As a man, however, such no- bility of character and integrity was rarely met with in the Greek teachers who succeeded him in Italy.

Leorand, Bibliograpkie helUnioue (Paris, 1884). I. 2L1X. and 5: Sandys, A history of dasaieal xholarvtip. It (Cambridce,

Paul Lejat.

Manumission of Christian Slaves. See Slavery.

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 maniuscripts (1) books graven on stone or brick (Library of Assurbanipal at Ninive; ^ven documents discovered at Cnossus or Phse8U>s m Crete); (2) ail public acts (diplomas, charters, etc.), the study of which constitutes the object of diplomat- ics. Manuscripts have been composed from the most remote antiqmty (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 monaste- ries of the East (Mount Athos, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc.), the copving of manuscripts continued well into the nineteenth century. On the other hand the most recent Western manuscripts date from Hie last years of the fifteenth century.

I. Materials and Form of Manuscripts. — ^The principal materials employed in the making of manu- scripts 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 mu- seum of Agram; the silken books of China, etc.). Be- sides, in ancient times and during the Middle Ages tab- lets dipped in wax on which characters were traced with a stylus were made use of for furtive writings, ac- coimts, etc.; these might be folded m two (diptychs), or in three (triptychs), etc. Papyrus {charta ceffyp- tica) was obtaiuecffrom a long-stemmed plant termi^ nating in a large and elegant umbrella; this was the Cyperus Papyrus, which grew in the marshes of Egypt and Abvssinia. The stem was cut in long strips vi^ch 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 sub- mitted to strong pressure, dried in the sun, and rubbed with shells to render them solid. To make a book the separate pages (ffeXldet^ pagina) 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 roil {volumen) was thus secured, of which the dimensions were sometimes considerable. Some Eg>- ptian 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 (6ti<pa\6i, umbilicus), which gave more consist- ency 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 Eg^'pt, 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, 1, 324). Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat., XIII, 11-13) gives a list of its various grades (charta Augusta^ Liviana, etc.). Ee^t retained the monopoly of the manufacture, whicniur- thermore belonged to the State. Alexanoria was the principal market. In the first centuries of the Middle Ages it was exf)orted 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 tentli centur>'; in the papal chancer>' until 1057). The Arabs had attempted to cultivate the plant in Sicily.