Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/163

 PALEOGRAPHY 147 are traced some verses in large roughly-formed letters, the date of which can only be conjectured to fall in the 1st century ( Verhandl. d. Philologen- Versamml. zu Wurzburg, 1869, p. 244). Another set of five tablets is in the Cabinet des Me dailles at Paris, containing scribbled alphabets, and a contractor s accounts in a later and more current hand (Rev. ArcheoL, viji. p. 461). A tablet from which the wax has worn, and which is inscribed with ink upon the wood, in characters of the 4th century, as is thought, is described in Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit., 2d ser., vol. x. With the introduction of vellum as a writing material, the uncial characters entered on a new phase. As already observed, the firmer and smoother ground offered by the surface of the vellum to the pen of the scribe would lead to a more exact and firmer style in the writing. 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. Of such MSS., however, none have survived which are attributed to a higher antiquity than the 4th century. 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 con jectural. It is not till the beginning of the 6th century that we meet with a 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. 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 llth 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., pi. 104). The Codex Sinaiticus (Pal. Soc., pi. 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, how ever, a comparison of the writing of the two MSS. leads to the conclusion that he was wrong. 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 unfolded roll. The Codex Alexandrinus 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 ascer tain the rules which guided the scribes in their work, we find simplicity and regularity the leading features ; the round letters formed in symmetrical curves ; and C, &c., finishing off in a hair-line sometimes thickened. at the end into a dot; horizontal strokes fine, those of e, H, and O being either in the middle or high in the letter ; the base of A and the cross-stroke of II 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., A, JLL, alpha and mu) in the titles of books, &c., confirmatory of the tradition of the Egyptian origin of the MS. nne i&amp;lt; KI &amp;lt;JU M C ovrre r TTTX.TO Y K* Tv^ce i^ixxMoei Greek Uncial (Cod. Alex. ), 5th century. (rfKvtav &amp;lt;rov irepiirarovv TOS sv a.t)6fia. KaQias tvro -rjv tafio/j.fv euro TOV ir[ar]p[o]s. 2 John 4.) In the 5th century also falls the illustrated Homer of the Ambrosian Library, sadly -mutilated. Some fifty frag ments remain, cut out for the sake of the pictures which they contain ; and all the text that is preserved is that which happened to be on the backs of these pictures. Here the writing shows differences from that of the three codices just noticed, being taller ; and, to instance particu lar letters, the cross-stroke of is abnormally low down, and the shape of A and P (the latter not produced below the line) and the large bows of B are also points of difference. It has been suggested that the MS. was written in the south of Italy by a Latin scribe (Pal. Soc., pis. 39, 40, 50, 51). 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, whose extant leaves are divided between Paris, Leyden, and St Petersburg both of which MSS. are prob ably of Egyptian origin. 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. pi. 8). And to about the same time belong the Dio Cassius of the Vatican (Silvestre, pi. 60) and the Pentateuch of the Bibliotheque Nationale (Id., pi. 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 A, II, T) are lengthened and finished off with heavy points or finials. The earliest ex ample of this period which has to be noticed is the Dios- corides of Vienna, which is of particular value for the study of the palaeography of early vellum MSS. It is the earliest 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 Flavins Anicius Olybrius, emperor of the West in 472. Here we already notice the characteristics of uncial writing 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. pi. 9); its companion volume, used by the same, Syrian scribe, in which are fragments of St Luke s Gospel (Ibid., pi. 10); the Dublin palimpsest fragments of St Matthew and Isaiah (T. K. Abbot, Par Palimpsest. Dull.), written in Egypt; the fragments of the Pauline epistles from Mount Athos, some of which are at Paris and others at Moscow (Silvestre,