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Rh Ambrosian Homer must be classed with them. Hence it is now held that that MS. may certainly be as early as the 3rd century. But, as that century was still within the period when papyrus was the general vehicle for Greek literature, it may be asked why that material should not in this instance also have been used. The answer may fairly be ventured that vellum was certainly a better material to receive the illustrative paintings, and on that account was employed. The Ambrosian Homer may therefore be regarded as a most interesting link between the papyrus uncial of the 2nd century and the vellum uncial of the 4th and 5th centuries.

With the introduction, then, of vellum as the general writing material, the uncial characters entered on a new phase. The light touch and delicate forms so characteristic of calligraphy on papyrus gave place to a rounder and stronger hand, in which the contrast of fine hair-lines and thickened down-strokes adds so conspicuously to the beauty of the writing of early MSS. on vellum. And here it may be remarked, with respect to the attribution to particular periods of these early examples, that we are not altogether on firm ground. Internal evidence, such, for example, as the presence of the Eusebian Canons in a MS. of the Gospel, assists us in fixing a limit of age, but when there is no such support the dating of these early MSS. must be more or less conjectural. It is not till the beginning of the 6th century that we meet with an uncial MS. which can be approximately dated; and, taking this as a standard of comparison, we are enabled to distinguish those which undoubtedly have the appearance of greater age and to arrange them in some sort of chronological order. But these codices are too few in number to afford material in sufficient quantity for training the eye by familiarity with a variety of hands of any one period—the only method which can give entirely trustworthy results.

Among the earliest examples of vellum uncial MSS. are the three famous codices of the Bible. Of these, the most ancient, the Codex Vaticanus, is probably of the 4th century. The writing must, in its original condition, have been very perfect as a specimen of penmanship; but nearly the whole of the text has been traced over by a later hand, perhaps in the 10th or 11th century, and only such words or letters as were rejected as readings have been left untouched. Written in triple columns, in letters of uniform size, without enlarged initial letters to mark even the beginnings of books, the MS. has all the simplicity of extreme antiquity (Pal. Soc. pl. 104). The Codex Sinaiticus (Pal. Soc. pl. 105) has also the same marks of age, and is judged by its discoverer, Tischendorf, to be even more ancient than the Vatican MS. In this, however, a comparison of the writing of the two MSS. leads to the conclusion that he was mistaken. The writing of the Codex Sinaiticus is not so pure as that of the other MS., and, if that is a criterion of age, the Vatican MS. holds the first place. In one particular the Codex Sinaiticus has been thought to approach in form to its possible archetype on papyrus. It is written with four columns to a page, the open book thus presenting eight columns in sequence, and recalling the long line of columns on an open roll. With regard to such general outward resemblances between the later papyrus literary rolls and the early vellum uncial MSS., we may cite such papyri as the Berlin commentary on the Theaetetus of Plato of the 2nd century and the Oxyrhynchus fragment of Julius Africanus of the 3rd century as forerunners of the style in which the two great codices here mentioned were cast.

The Codex Alexandrinus (fig. 12) is placed in the middle of the 5th century. Here we have an advance on the style of the other two codices. The MS. is written in double columns only, and enlarged letters stand at the beginning of paragraphs. But yet the writing is generally more elegant than that of the Codex Sinaiticus. Examining these MSS. with a view to ascertain the rules which guided the scribes in their work, we find simplicity and regularity the leading features; the round letters formed in symmetrical curves; Ⲉ and Ⲥ, &c., finishing off in a hair-line sometimes thickened at the end into a dot; horizontal strokes fine, those of Ⲉ, Ⲏ, and Ⲑ being either in the middle or high in the letter; the base of and the cross-stroke

of also fine, and, as a rule, kept within the limits of the letters and not projecting beyond. Here also may be noticed the occurrence in the Codex Alexandrinus of Coptic forms of letters (e.g. Ⲁ, Ⲙ,, alpha and mu) in the titles of books, &c., confirmatory of the tradition of the Egyptian origin of the MS.

To the 5th century may also belong the palimpsest MS. of the Bible, known from the upper text as the Codex Ephraemi, at Paris (ed. Tischendorf, 1845), and the Octateuch (Codex Sarravianus), whose extant leaves are divided between Paris, Leiden and St Petersburg—both of which MSS. are probably of Egyptian origin. Perhaps of the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century is the illustrated Genesis of the Cottonian Library, now unfortunately reduced to fragments by fire, but once the finest example of its kind (Cat. Anc. MSS. i. pl. 8). And to about the same time belong the Dio Cassius of the Vatican (Silvestre, pl. 60) and the Pentateuch of the Bibliotheque Nationale (ibid. pl. 61).

In the writing of uncial MSS. of the 6th century there is a marked degeneration. The letters, though still round, are generally of a larger character, more heavily formed, and not so compactly written as in the preceding century. Horizontal strokes (e.g. in, , ) are lengthened and finished off with heavy points or finials. The earliest example of this period which has to be noticed is the Dioscorides of Vienna (fig. 13), which is of particular value for the study of the palaeography of early vellum MSS. It is the first uncial example to which an approximate date can be given. There is good evidence to show that it was written early in the 6th century for Juliana Anicia, daughter of Flavius Anicius Olybrius, emperor of the West in 472. Here we already notice the characteristics of uncial writings of the 6th century, to which reference has been made. To this century also belong the palimpsest Homer under a Syriac text in the British Museum (Cat. Anc. MSS., i. pl. 9); its companion volume, used by the same Syrian scribe, in which are fragments of St Luke's Gospel (ibid., pl. 10); the Dublin palimpsest fragments of St Matthew and Isaiah (T. K. Abbot, Par. Palimpsest, Dubl.), written in Egypt; the fragments of the Pauline Epistles from Mount Athos, some of which are at Paris and others at Moscow (Silvestre, pls. 63, 64; Sabas, pl. A), of which, however, the writing has been disfigured by retracing at a later period; the Gospels (Cod. N) written in silver and gold on purple vellum, whose leaves are scattered in London (Cott. MS., Titus C. xv.), Rome, Vienna, St Petersburg, and its native home, Patmos; the fragmentary Eusebian Canons written on gilt vellum and highly ornamented, the sole remains