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VELLUM CODICES] Of the 3rd century also are some fragments which are palaeographically of interest, as they are written neither in the recognized literary hand nor in simple cursive, but in cursive characters moulded and adapted in a set form for literary use—thus anticipating the early stages of the development of the minuscule book-hand of the 9th century from the cursive writing of that time.

With the 3rd century the literary hand on papyrus appears to lose most of its importance. We are within measurable distance of the age of vellum, and of the formal uncial writing of the vellum MSS. which is found in some existing examples of the 4th century and in more abundant numbers of the 5th century. We have now to see how the connexion can be established between the literary handwriting of the papyri and the firmer and heavier literary uncial writing of the vellum codices. The literary hands on papyrus which have been reviewed above are distinctly of the style inscribed with a light touch most suitable to the comparatively frail material of papyrus. In the Bankes Homer, however, one may detect some indication of the fullness that characterizes the vellum uncial writing. But it now appears that a larger and rounder hand was also employed on papyrus at least as early as the 1st century. In proof of this we are able to cite a non-literary document (fig. 10) bearing an actual date, which happens to be written in characters that, exclusive of certain less formally-made letters, are of a large uncial literary type. This writing, though not actually of the finished style familiar to us in the early vellum MSS., yet resembles it so generally that it may be assumed, almost as a certainty, that there was in the 1st century a full literary uncial hand formed on this pattern, which was the direct ancestor of the vellum uncial. The tendency to employ at this period a calligraphic style, as seen in the fragments of the Odyssey and one of the Hesiodic poems mentioned above, supports this assumption. The document now referred to is a deed of sale written in the seventh year of Domitian, 88 (Brit. Mus. pap. cxli.). The letters still retaining a cursive element are alpha, upsilon, and in some instances epsilon.

As evidence in support of this view that the uncial hand of the vellum MSS. is to be traced back to the period of the document just quoted, we have the important papyrus found by Mr Flinders Petrie at Hawara in Egypt, and now in the Bodleian Library, which contains a portion of the second book of the Iliad. The writing is of the large uncial type under consideration; and there is now full reason for assigning it to the 2nd century at latest. Before the discovery of the document of the year 88 there was nothing to give a clue to the real period of the Homer; and now the date which has been suggested is corroborated by a fragment of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus inscribed with some lines from the same book of the Iliad (fig. 11) in the same large uncial type (Ox. Pap. vol. i. no. 20, pl. v.). In this latter instance there can be no question of the early date of the writing as on the verso of the papyrus accounts of the end of the 2nd century or of the beginning of the 3rd century have been subsequently added. Yet a third example of the same character has more recently been found at Tebtunis (Tebt. Pap. vol. ii. no. 265,

pl. i.): again a considerable fragment of the second book of the Iliad.

Thus, then, in the 1st and 2nd centuries there was in use a large uncial hand which was evidently the forerunner of the literary uncial hand of the early vellum codices. It is also to be noted that the literary examples just mentioned are MSS. of Homer; and hence one is tempted to suggest that, as in the production of sumptuous copies on papyrus of a work of such universal popularity and veneration as the Iliad this large and handsome uncial was specially employed, so also the use of a similar type for the early vellum copies of the sacred text of the Scriptures naturally followed.

Uncial Writing.—It has been shown above how a round uncial hand had been developing in Greek writing on papyrus during the early centuries of the Christian era, and how even as early as the 2nd century a well-formed uncial script was in use, at least for sumptuous copies of so great and popular an author as Homer. We have now to describe the uncial hand as it appears in Greek MSS. written on vellum. This harder and firmer and smoother material afforded to the scribes better scope for a calligraphic style hardly possible on papyrus. With the ascendancy of the vellum codex as the vehicle for literature, the characters received the fixed and settled forms to which the name of uncial is more exactly attached than to the fluctuating letters of the early papyri. The term uncial has been borrowed from the nomenclature of Latin palaeography and applied to Greek writing of the larger type, to distinguish it from the minuscule or smaller character which succeeded it in vellum MSS. of the 9th century. In Latin majuscule writing there exist both capitals and uncials, each class distinct. In Greek MSS. pure capital-letter writing was never employed (except occasionally for ornamental titles at a late time). As distinguished from the square capitals of inscriptions, Greek uncial writing has certain rounded letters, as modifications in others, and some letters extending above or below the line.

It is not probable that vellum codices were in ordinary use earlier than the 4th century; and it is in codices of that age that the handsome calligraphic uncial above referred to was developed. A few years ago the 4th century was the earliest limit to which palaeographers had dared to carry back any ancient vellum codex inscribed in uncials. But the recovery of the Homeric papyri written in the large uncials of the 2nd century has led to a revision of former views on the date of one early vellum MS. in particular. This MS. is the fragmentary Homer of the Ambrosian Library at Milan, consisting of some fifty pieces of vellum cut out of the original codex for the sake of the pictures which they contain; and all of the text that has survived is that which happened to be on the back of the pictures. The Ambrosian Homer has hitherto been generally placed in the 5th century, and the difference of the style of the writing from that of the usual calhgraphic type of uncial MSS. of that time, which had been remarked, was thought rather to indicate inferiority in age. But the similarity of the character of the writing (taller and more slender than is usual in vellum codices) to that of the large uncials of the papyrus Homers of the 2nd century from Hawara and Oxyrhynchus and Tebtunis is so striking that the