Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/162

 146 164 B.C., and may consequently be at least as old as the first half of the 2d century B.C. The writing of the text of this MS., as has been already noticed, is of a rather cursive character. But the fragments of a work on dialectics in the same collection (J r . et Extr., pi. xi.), which is endorsed with a deed of 160 B.C., is written in set uncials of a perfectly simple style, formed with fine and even strokes. The columns of writing lean out of the per pendicular, to the right, a peculiarity which is seen again in the orations of Hyperides (below). So far as one may venture to take this specimen as a standard whereby to judge of the age of others, a simple and fine and light stroke, without exaggeration of forms in the letters, and unrestraint in the flow of the writing seem to be the chief characteristics of this class of hand in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. And these characteristics are generally to be observed in all docu ments which there is reason to assign to this period. Not inconsiderable fragments of the Iliad dating from the pre-Christian period have also come down to us. First in importance stands the fragmentary papyrus of bk. xviii., found in a tomb near Monfalat in 1849-50. It may be confidently dated as early as the 1st century B.C. The text is written in slender uncials, formed with regularity and generally upright, the inclination, if any, being to the left. This tendency to incline the letters back is a mark of age which repeats itself in the earliest forms of the set minuscule hand. Breathings and accents and various cor rections have been added by a later hand in this papyrus, which is now in the British Museum (Cat. Am. MSS., i. pi. I.). 1 Another papyrus of a portion of the Iliad, on the back of which is a work of Tryphon, the grammarian, was found at the same time, but remains in private hands. Among the papyri of the Louvre are also some fragments of the Iliad, viz., of bk. xiii. (N. et Extr., pi. xii.) and of bks. vi. and xviii. (pi. xlix.), all of a date previous to the Christian era. The fragment of bk. vi. is of particular interest as being written in a hand which is much more set and formal than is generally found in papyri, in rather narrowed letters, among which the normal form of capital A appears. In the other fragments are seen here and there accents and breathings which from all accounts are ancient, although not to be taken as the work of the first hand. Not being applied systematically, they are probably added by some teacher for instruction on particular points. But the Homeric papyrus which has hitherto had the widest reputation is that which bears the name of its former owner, Bankes, who bought it at Elephantine in 1821. It contains the greater part of the last book of the Iliad. The writing, however, differs very essentially from that of the other Homeric fragments just noticed. It is less free, and wants the spirit and precision of the others, and in the form of letters it approaches more nearly to the cast of those in the early MSS. on vellum. For these reasons it seems better to date this papyrus after the time of our Lord, perhaps even in the 2d century. A fragment of papyrus containing a copy in duplicate of some lines supposed to be taken from the Temenid.es of Euripides, together with a few lines from the Medea and some extracts from other works, has been lately published (H. Weil, Un Pajryrus inedit de la bibl. de M. A. Firmin- Didot, Paris, 1879). The writing is in set uncials earlier than the year 161 B.C., a document of that date having been added. But the most important discovery hitherto made among the papyri from Egypt is that of four of the orations of the Athenian orator Hyperides, all of which are now in the British Museum. The papyrus containing the orations 1 Catalogue of Ancient MSS. in the British Museum Part I., Greek, 1881. for Lycophron and Euxenippus is in unusually good pre servation, being 11 feet in length and having forty-nine columns of writing. Other portions of the same roll are extant, containing fragments of a third oration against Demosthenes. The writing is particularly elegant, and is evidently by a skilled penman, considerable play being exhibited in the formation of the letters, which, while still set uncials, are often linked together without raising the pen. The columns of writing incline to the right. There can be no hesitation in placing this papyrus as far back at least as the 1st century B.C. (see editions of Professor Babington, 1853; Cat. Anc. MSS., pis. 2, 3; Pal. Soc.? pi. 126). Of much later date, however, is the papyrus containing the funeral oration on Leosthenes, 323 B.C. The writing differs entirely from that of the other orations, being in coarsely-formed uncials, sometimes wide apart and in other places cramped together ; and the forms of the letters are irregular. This irregularity is not the rough and hasty character of writing of an early age, such as that of the EuSdou re^^, where, in spite of the want of regularity, it is evident that the scribe is writing a natural and practised hand. Here we have rather the ill-formed character bred of want of skill and familiarity with the style of writing. On the back is a horoscope, which has been shown to be that of a person born in 95 A.D. It was at one time assumed that this was an addition written after the oration had been inscribed on the other face of the papyrus. But from the evidence of the material itself the contrary appears to be the fact ; and we may accordingly accept the theory that, as no work intended for sale would have b een so written, the text of the oration probably represents a student s exercise, a view which is also supported by the numerous faults in ortho graphy. This specimen of writing, then, may be assigned to the 2d century of our era. Lastly, among the discoveries in Egypt in Greek litera ture is the fragment of writings of the poet Alcman, now in the Louvre, which, however, appears to be not older than the 1st century B.C., the hand being light and rather sloping, and inclining in places to cursive forms. It is of interest as having scholia in a smaller hand, and a few accents and breathings added probably, as in the case of the fragment of Homer quoted above, by a teacher for the purpose of demonstration (N. et Extr., pi. 1.). It may be also added that some early documents are extant written in a set hand (e.g., N. et Extr., pi. xvii., Nos. 12, 13). Turning to the remains discovered at Herculaneum, it is to be regretted that there exist hardly any sufficiently trustworthy facsimiles. The so-called facsimiles engraved in the Herculanemia Volumina are of no palseographical value. They are mere lifeless representations, and only show us that the texts of the different papyri. are usually written in neatly-formed and regularly-spaced uncials. The character is better shown in two autotypes (Pal. Soc., pis. 151, 152) from the works of Philodemus and Metrodorus, although the blackening of the material by the action of the heated ashes threw great difficulty in the way of getting satisfactory reproductions by photography. In the first of these specimens the writing is very beauti fully formed and evenly spaced, in the second it is rougher. But it is well to remember, when we have facsimiles from the Herculaneum papyri before us, that in many cases the material will have shrunk under the heat of the destroying shower, and that the writing, as we see it, may be much smaller than it was originally, and so have a more delicate appearance than when first written. Very few waxen tablets inscribed with Greek uncial writing have survived. Two of them found at Memphis are preserved in the British Museum, and on one of them - Palajographical Society, Facsimiles, 1873-83.