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purchased wich che aid of
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and
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..1
INTER-COLLEGIA TE
LA TIN
SERIES
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF
HAROLD \V. JOHNSTON, PH. D.
PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA
LATIN 1\1ANUSCRIPTS
BY
HAROLD W. JOHNSTON
CHICAGO
SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO
IPANY
18 97
t
\
3:hc !ntcr-Qtollcgiate
atiu
CtiC5
LATIN
MANUSCRIPTS
AN ELE:\IE
TARY I
TRODUCTION TO THE
USE OF CRITICAL EDITIONS FOR
HIGH SCHOOL AKD COLLEGE CLASSES
BY
HAROLD "V. JOH
STON, PH. D.
PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF Il'DlANA
CHICAGO
SCOTT, FORESl\1AN & CO:\IPANY
18 97
Copyright, 1897, by
SCOTT, FORES:\IAN & CO.,
CHICAGO, ILL.
PRESS or RO
F.R'" .
"
ITII co" CHICACO.
...
TO
ED'" ARD B. CLAPP.
PROFESSOR OF GREEK
IN THE UNI\"ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
II<
PREFACE.
D DRING the last session of the Summer School of Indiana University
I gave a course of lectures to the Teachers' Class on Paleography,
Henneneutics and Criticism. My attention was then called to the fact
that even in secondary schools many questions relating to Paleography
and Criticism are asked by pupils who find different texts of the same
author used in the same class. Some of their text books, too, go so far
as to give and discuss various readings of difficult passages, as does Green-
ough's Cæsar, for example. A wish was therefore expressed by several
teachers of Latin that a manual might be published for the use of High
Schools, answering the more common questions of this sort. In response
to their wish I have prepared this volume. It gives a mere outline of
the subjects of which it treats in broad strokes, but contains. I hope, all
that students in High Schools and in the lower classes of Colleges will
need in order to understand the critical notes found in the text books
commonly used by these classes. For University use it should be supple-
mented by lectures upon the several authors of the sort admirably illus-
trated by 1\1r. \V. 1\1. Lindsay's Illtroductioll to Latill Textual Eme1ldation,
Based Oil the Text of Plautus (New York, (896).
The elementary nature of this manual excludes references to authorities,
but I must mention some of the most important which were used in the
preparation of the lectures from which these chapters are condensed. On
ancient books the standard work is Dirt's Das alltike Buc!n,Jese!l (Berlin,
1882). On the book trade in antiquity there are Haenny's Schriftstellcr
1l1ld Buchllälldler Ùll alten Rom (Leipzig, (885). and (to be used cautiously)
Putnam's Aut/LOrs alld their Public ill Allcient Timcs (New York, 1894). On
Paleography Thompson's Halldbook of Greek a1ld Latill Palaeograp/lY (New
7
8
PREFACE.
York, 18 93) is the best modern work; to supplement it the best collection
of fac-similes of Latin manuscripts IS, perhaps, Chatelain's Rlléograpltic dcs
Classiqllcs Latills (Paris, 1884, fol.). On Criticism there is a valuable article
by Friedrich Blass in Iwan l\IülIer's Halldbucll (Vol. I, Munich, 18 9 2 )., For
the use of young students teachers wiII find good material for parallel
reading in Gow's Compallion to School Classics (New York, 1888), from which
I have drawn several .paragraphs, and in the Dictionaries of Antiquities.
under the words charta, codex, liber, papyrus, 'i/olulllCll, etc.
The illustrations are from the works mentioned above, and from
Schreiber's Atlas and Baumeister's Dmkmälcr.
The pla
es are from Chatelain, except that of the Codex Romanus of
Catullus, which was furnished by its discoverer, Professor \Villiam Gardner
. Hale, of the University of Chicago.
Besides owing to Professor Hale the privilege of first publishing a
fac-simile of a page of the most important Latin manuscript discovered
in many years, I am under obligations to Professor Edouard BaiIIot and
1\1r. Charles H. Beeson, of this University, and to Dr. Edward Capps, of
the University of Chicago, for assistance generously given me.
INDJANA UNIVERSITY,
Feb. 5. 18
7.
H. W. ]OIIKSTOK.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. THE HISTORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS,
1- 8 9.
THE MAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS,
1-24 . 13
Writing Materials,
2. Paper and Vellum,
3. Papyrus, SS 4- 1 3. Pens
and Ink,
5. Rolls, S
6-8. Reading the Rolls,
9. Size of the Rolls,
S 10-1 I. Preservation of the Rolls,
12. Parchment,
S 13- 2 4. Instru-
ments for Writing,
15. Books (Codices),
16, 17. Odd Forms,
18.
Size of the Books,
19. Parchment vs. Papyrus, S
20, 2 I. Tardy Use of
Parchment, S 22. Age of Parchment Books,
24.
THE PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS, ;::S 25-4 1 27
The Authors,
25. Copyright,
26, 27. Plays,
28. Uncommercial
Publications,
29, 30. Commercial Publications,
31. Process of Publi-
cation,
32. Dictation,
33. Rapidity of Publication,
34. Cost of the
Books,
35. Stichometry,
3 6 . Correctors,
37-39. Titles, S
40, 41.
.,
THE TRAl':SMISSION OF THE BOOKS. S
4 2 - 6 7 35
Period Covered,
42. Period of the Decline, S 43. Public Libraries,
44.
Schools and Universities,
45. The Classics,
4 6 . Scholia,
S 47, 4 8 .
Glosses,
49. The Grammarians, S 50. Opposition to Christianity, S 5 I.
Subscriptions, S 52. Their Value, S 53. Summary, S 54. Lost Works,
55. The Dark .\ges, S 56. Indifference to Learning, S 57. The Church,
5 8 ,59. The Re....ival of Learning,
60,61. Invention of Printing,
62.
Summary,
63. Editiones Principes,
64. Ancient Manuscripts,
65-67.
THE KEEPING OF THE l\!Al':USCRIPTS,
68-89 4 8
Care of the Manuscripts,
68. Naming of the Manuscripts,
S 69, 70.
Descriptions,
71. Important Libraries,
72-80. Index to Collections,
7 8 - 80 . Symbols for the Manuscripts,
81-83. First and Second
Hands,
84, 85. Collation of the Manuscripts,
S 86- 8 7. Uncollated
Manuscripts, S 88. Critical Editions,
89.
II. THE SCIENCE OF PALEOGRAPHY,
9 0 - 1 49.
STYLES OF WRITING,
S 9 1 - 11 5 .
Scope of the Science,
;S 9 1 ,9 2 .
Forms of Letters,
;S 95, 9 6 .
61
Uses of Paleography, ;:
93,94. Ancient
National Hands,
97. The Majuscules,
9
10
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
98-107. Capitals,
100. Specimens: Square,
102. Rustic,
103.
Uncials and Half-uncials,
104, 105. Specimens: Uncials.
106. Half-
uncials,
107. The Minuscules,
S 108-114. Specimens,
113. Abbre-
viations,
114. Summary,
115.
THE ERRORS OF THE SCRIBES,
116- 1 49 79
The Codex,
116-118. Faulty Copies,
119. The Classification of
Errors,
120. Unavoidable Errors,
121-124. Intentional Errors,
S 12 5- 12 7. Accidental Errors,
128-146. Errors of the Eye,
129-
136. Dittography,
133. Lipography (Haplography),
134. Skipping,
135-136. Errors of the Memory,
137-141. Transposition,;::
138,
139. Substitution,
140. Omissions and Additions,
141. Errors of
the Judgment,
142-146. Wrong Division of Words,
143, 144. Wrong
Punctuation,
145. Interpolation,
146. Uncertain Sources of Errors,
147-149.
III. THE SCIENCE OF CRITICISM, S
150-208.
METHODS AND TERMINOLOGY OF CRITICISM,
S 150-160 . 95
Subdivisions of the Science,
151. The Critical Doubt,
15 2 , 153.
Causes of Doubt,
154-158. Kinds of Criticism,
159. Criterion,
160.
TEXTUAL CRITICISM,
161-193 . 100
Apparatus Criticus,
162. The l\lanuscripts,
163. Examination of the
Manuscripts,
164, 165. Possible Results,
166-169, Stemmata,
170-172. Uses of the Stemmata,
1]2 Ancient Translations,
173-
174. Ancient Commentaries, ß
175, 17 6 . Citations,
177. Imitations,
17 8 . Use of the Apparatus,
1]9-187. Relative Worth of Manuscripts,
183-185. Test of Worth,
186,187. Conjectural Emendation,
188-
193. Criticism and Conjecture,
190, 191. Limits of Emendation,
19 2 .
Opposing Views,
194.
o'
INDIVIDUAL CRITICISM,
194-208 1 q
Purpose of Individual Criticism,
195. External Evidence: Manuscripts,
19 6 . Ancient Writers,
197, 198. Internal Evidence: Historical,
199. Individuality,
200. Language and Style,
201, 202. For-
geries,
203. Tests of Proposed Authors,
204. Illustration of Proof,
205, 206. Summary,
207, 208.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES,
209-224 12 5
INDEX. 13 2
I.
THE HISTORY OF THE l\IANUSCRIPTS.
THE MAKING OF THE
IA
USCRIPTS.
THE PUBLICA TIO
A
D DISTRIBUTIO
OF BOOKS.
THE TRANSMISSION OF THE BOOKS.
THE KEEPI
G OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
THE HISTORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
THE MAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
M AXUSCRIPTS and books were formerly studied as a part of
Paleography, and were so treated by scholars until very
recent times. At the present time separate treatment is given to
this subject, although even now it may scarcely be regarded as a
distinct branch, or discipline, of Philology. Under this head we
have to consider the materials for writing, so far as these have to
do with works of formal literature, the manufacture, distribution
and sale of books, their destruction and preservation in the dark
ages, and their present condition and keeping.
\V RITIXG l\L-\. TERIALS.- \V e are concerned now with those mate-
rials only, by the aid of which the literature of classical antiquity,
chiefly Roman, was published to the world and afterwards trans-
mitted to us. Almost all the substances fQr receiving writing
known to the ancients were used at one time or another, for one
purpose or another. by the Romans. Some of these were merely
the makeshifts of rude antiquity and antedated all real literature,
as, e. g., bark and leaves of trees, skins or tanned hides of animals,
and pieces of linen cloth: all these are mentioned in works of lit-
erature, but none were used to receive them. Others, such as stone,
metal tablets, coins, etc., have presen"ed inscriptions of great im-
portance to the study of antiquity and therefore of great interest
to philologists, but belong rather to Epigraphy and Numismatics
than to our present subject. Of more general use than any of
these were the tablets covered with wax, which are mentioned so
.
frequently by Cicero. and were used as late as the fourteenth cen-
tury; even these are excluded, however. by our definition, as they
were at best used for merely the rough drafts of lite-rary composi-
tions. For the publication of works of literature in classical times
'3
1
2
14
LATIN MANUSCRIPTS.
the one recognized material was Papyrus, and for their further
transmission to our times Parchment alone need be considered.
3 PAPER AND VELLmI.-\Vhile parchment (vellum) was known
to the classical writers, and perhaps used to a limited extent
instead of the bulky tablets, and while papyrus (paper) was occa-
sionally used for works of literature until the seventh century and
for correspondence until the thirteenth century, their general rela-
tion to each other is correctly given above: papyrus was the stand-
ard commercial material at the time when the classics were written,
and the tough parchment, upon which these works were copied
centuries after their authors had passed away, has preserved these
works to us, and is the material of the manuscripts with which
modern scholars work. To Cæsar and Cicero, for example, a
parchment book would have been as great a curiosity as are to us
the papyrus rolls that have lived through the centuries. This
distinction is of great importance to the further stndy of this
subject.
4 P APYRUS.- The manufacture of papyrus from the reed of the
same name, which was known to the Egyptians from very ancient
times, reached its height in that country under the earlier Ptole-
mies (third century B. C.), and was improved and perfected in
Rome. Enllius (239-170 B. C.) is the earliest Roman writer to
mention the material and is supposed to have been the first to use
it for literary purposes. The papyrus reed has a jointed stem of
triangular shape, five or six inches in diameter, and grows to a
height of six or eight feet. The paper (clzarta) was made of the
pith by a process substantia11y as fo11ows: Strips of the pith as
long as the joints would permit were cut as thin as possible and
arranged side by side, as E:losely as possible, upon a board. Across
these at right angles other strips were laid in the same manner,
with perhaps.. a coating of paste or gum between the two layers.
The strips were then thoroughly soaked in water, and pressed or
THE l\IAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
15
hammered into a substance not unlike our paper. After this sub-
stance had been dried. and bleached in the SUll to a yellowish
color, the sheets were rid by scraping of any irregular or rough
places that remained, and were trimmed into uniform sizes depend-
ing, of course, upon the length of the strips of pith which com-
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PENS, PEN-CASE AXD CRAYON HOLDERS.
YARIOUS WRIT]
G MATERIALS FRO" \VALL PAINTING
FIG, 2. INSTRUMENTS UsED IN WRITING
THE :\IAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
17
facture, served to guide the pen of the writer. The pen (cala-
mus or calamlis scriþ/orius) was made of a reed, and was shaped
to a coarse point and cleft with a knife much as our quill-pens
used to be. Quill-pens are first mentioned by Isidorus (t 636 A.
D.), a bishop of Seville, and cannot have been known to the
classic writers. Uetal pens, of one piece with the holders, were
also used in ancient times. but cannot be accurately dated. The
ink (a/rameJllum) for papyrus was made of soot mixed with glue
and thinned with water or vinegar. It was more like paint than
ink, and was easily removed when fresh with a damp sponge
which the writer kept by him for the correction of mistakes.
Even when the ink had become dry and hard it could be washed
(not scraped) away sufficiently to fit the sheet for use a second
time. A sheet thus used a second time was called a palimpsest
(cf. liber þalÙJlþseslus below), but its use was a mark of poverty or
niggardliness (Cic. Fam. VII, 18). Of course the reverse side of
dzartæ, which had served their purpose, was often used for scratch
paper, as old letters and envelopes are used to-day, and rare
instances are known of the original writing covering both sides
of the sheet.
BOOKS.-A single sheet of papyrus might serve for a very 6
brief document, such as a short letter, but for literary purposes
many such sheets would be necessary. These were not fastened
side by side into a book, as are the separate sheets in our books,
or numbered and placed loosely together, as we arrange them in
our letters or manuscripts. The papyrus book was really a roll as
its Latin name (voltmzC1z) implies, made up of the necessary num-
ber of sheets glued together at the sides (not at the tops), with
the lines upon each sheet running parallel with the length of the
roll. and with each sheet forming a column perpendicular to the
length of the roll. It was necessary, therefore, to leave ou the
side of the sheet as it was written a broad margin, and these
18
L.\TIN l\IANUSCRIPTS.
margins overlapping each other and glued together made a thick
blank space (i. e., a double thickness of papyrus) between the
7 columns. \\Then the sheets had been securely glued together in
their proper order, a thin slip of wood was glued to the left edge,
or margin, of the first sheet, and a second like slip (umblhats)
was attached in the same way to the right edge of the last sheet,
much as a wall map is mouuted at the present time. The volu-
meu was then rolled tightly around the ".ood attaëhed to the
last sheet, the top and bottom (fr01ltes) of the roll were trimmed
smoothly and polished with pumice stone, and the roll was rubbed
with cedar oil to protect it from worms and moths. For purposes
of ornament the frontes were sometimes painted black, and knobs,
often painted or gilded, were added to the llJllbzlÙ:llS upon which
the volume was rolled, or the 11mbllÙ:us itself was made long
enough to project beyond the frontes and was carved at its
extremities into horns (cornua). Even illustrations were not
unknO\yn; at least a portrait of the author sometimes graced the
first page of the roll, and it is barely possible that the portraits
found in late manuscripts may be copies of these and entitled to
8 more respect than is usually paid them. To the top of the roll,
that is, to the top of one of the sheets (probably the last), was
attached a slip of parchment (tilulus) upon which was written the
title of the work with the name of the author. For
C!
.. '
' each roll a parchment case was made, cylindrical in
l_
form, into which the roll was slipped from the top,
and above which the IzlUlus was visible. If a work
FIG. 3, CASE FOR was divided into several volumes (see below) the rolls
ROLLS (CAPSA), were put together in bundles (fasces) in a cylindrical
wooden box (caþsa or scrilllimz) with a cover, like a modern hat
box, in such a way that the tituh were visible when the cover
was removed.
19
THE :'IIAKING OF THE MA
rSCRIPTS.
READJ
G THE ROLLS.- \Vhen a volume was consulted the roll
was held in both hands and unrolled column by column with the
right hand, while the left rolled up
upon the other slip of wood the part
that was already read. \Yhen the reader
had finished, it was customary to roll the
volume tightly upon the ltmbzlicus by
holding the roll beneath the chin and
turning with both hands. In the case
of a long roll this turning backwards
and forwards must have required much
time and patience, and at the same time
must have sadly worn the roll itself.
These considerations bring us naturally to the size of the rolls.
SIZE OF THE ROLLS.- Theoretically there was no necessary
limit to the number of sheets that could be glued together, and
consequently none to the size, or length, of the roll: all depended
upon the taste or caprice of the writer. \Ve should suppose that
the author would naturally take as many sheets as were necessary
to contain his work and make them into one roll, and this was
undoubtedly the early custom. So we find that in ancient Egypt
rolls were put together of more than one hundred and fifty feet
in lengt11, that in Greece the complete works of Homer and Thu-
cydides were written upon single rolls (that for Thucydides accord-
ing to careful calculation must have been fully two hundred and
forty feet long), and that in Rome the Odyssey of Livius Andro-
nicus (third century B. C.) was originally contained in one roll.
Such rolls were found in the course of time to be inconvenient
to read and liable to break and tear from their own bulk. The 1 t
Alexandrian scholars (about the third century B. C.) were the first
to devise a better plan, and introduced the fashion of dividing
literary works of considerable length into two or more parts, or
9
FIG. 4. READING A ROLL.
10
20
LA TIK l\IANUSCRIPTS.
., books," each of which was written upon a separate roll. So
sensible a plan was sure to be followed in time by authors gen-
eral1y, but its adoption was compelled, or at least hastened, by an
innovation on the part of the manufacturers of papyrus, who
began to sell their product not in single sheets, but in ready-
made rolls of convenient lengths. These rolls varied in length
according to the style of compositions for which they were
intended: roIls intended, e. g., for poems and collections of
letters were shorter than those intended to receive historical and
scientific works. Of the former the roll would receive about one
thousand lines, of the latter about twice as much. Authors had
now to adapt their works more or less to an arbitrary standard,
sometimes perhaps to the detriment of the quality of their writings
(Martial I, 16), and some ancient works were divided for republi-
cation into "books" which had not been so divided by their
authors, e. g., Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon among the
Greeks and Nævius (Suet. De Gram. 2) among the Romans.
12 PRESERVATION OF THE ROLLS.-The number of papyrus roIls
preserved to us is quite considerable, although none of them con-
tain any complete Latin work of importance and most of them
are in a badly damaged and fragmentary condition. There are
large collections, owned by the state, in London, Paris, Berlin,
Naples and Vienna. 1\1ost of them came from Egypt, but many
were found in 1752 in the ruins of Herculaneum so badly burned
that they were taken at first for charcoal and have not yet been
fully deciphered. Of all that are preserved to us the oldest is at
Paris, and was written fully twenty. five hundred years before
Christ, while the most important perhaps is one containing a copy
of Aristotle's Constitution of Athens, a work which l1ad been totally
lost for over a thousand years. This roll came into the posses-
sion of the British !\Iuseum in 1890, and contained the accounts
of a farm bailiff, or steward, in Egypt, rendered in the reign of
THE MAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
21
Vespasian, 78-79 A. D. On the back of this worthless document
some unknown scholar had written, or caused to be written, a
copy of this work of Aristotle for his own use. This recO\Tery
of a lost classic of such traditional fame is one of the most
notable events of the sort of the nineteenth century, and gives
new hope of regaining from the tombs of Egypt other works
of Greek and Roman writers, which scholars have given up as
lost forever. Should this hope be realized parchment may have
to yield to papyrus its claim to the honor of preserving to us the
literature of classical antiquity (% 3).
PARCH:\IENT OR VELLUM.-- It has been remarked above (
2) 13
that the use of skins or hides to receive writing was not unknown
to the Romans before the dawn of literature: we are told by
Dionysius (t 7 B. C.) that the treaty between Tarquinius Super-
bus and the people of Gabii (Li\'y I, 54) was written upon a
leather covered shield. The revival of this ancient material after
papyrus had been introduced was due to an improvement in the
treatment of the skins which made it possible to write on both
sides of them. Pliny (23-79 A. D.) asserts upon the authority of
Varro (II6-28 B. C.) that this improvement was made in the
reign of Eumenes II (197-159 B. C.), King of Pergamum in Asia
Uinor, and was due to the rivalry between the libraries at Alex-
andria and Pergamum. The King of Egypt, he says, tried to 14
embarrass the rival library by forbidding the exportation of papy-
rus, and the scholars of Pergamum were driven to invent a sub-
stitute. The story is untrue, but shows that in Varro's time
Pergamum was noted for its parchment (membra1la) and explains
the name by which the material came to be known in much later
times, þerga11le1la, from which our own word parchment (see \Veb-
ster) is deri\'ed. Parchment was known to the Romans at an
earlier date even than Varro's story would imply, but was used
merely for temporary purposes side by side with the wax-tablets,
22
LATIN
IANUSCRIPTS.
because the form (see below) was more convenient than the papy-
rus roll, and the writing conld be easily and repeatedly erased.
15 INSTRmlENTS FOR WRITING. - The parchment, unlike the
papyrus (
5), had to be ruled to insure straight lines. For this
purpose the position of the lines was marked
with a pair of dividers by means of punctures
on both sides of the page, and the lines were
drawn with the aid of a ruler and a bodkin
(stdus). Sufficient pressure was put upon the
FIG, s. DIVIDERS FRO
I stilus to cause the line to show through upon
POMPEII, the reverse side (where it would be raised above
the surface), and to save the trouble of repeated measurements
and rulings several sheets were often laid one upon another and
all ruled at once. The pen was the same as for papyrus, but
the smoother surface of the parchment made it possible to use
a sharper point, and as a result to make finer strokes and get
more letters into a line. The ink for papyrus was not suitable
for parchment, and recourse was had to gallnuts, which contain
tannin, and are still used for making inks and dyes. Vitriol was
added in later times and heat applied (encaustum, whence the
Italian Ùzdllostro. French ellqlte, e1lcre. and English ink). Various
colors were manufactured, of which black was nsed for ordinary
purposes. and for ornament red and gold. The parchment tzlltlz"
(
8) for papyrus rolls were in red.
16 PARCHMENT BOOKs.-As the parchment could be written upon
on both sides, the sheets were put together as are the sheets of
paper in modern books. This form resembled that of the wooden
tablets covered with wax, and hence the parchment book received
the same name, codex (originally, II a block of wood "). The
sheets were of various sizes, but the most common dimensions
were such as to give a page of what we now call quarto size,
being about as wide as long. As the flesh side of the parchment
. I
, \ '
.
'v1).pnueuo
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II. CICERO: Sdzt'dac Va!U"tl1UlC, Sae,. 1/"--1:
THE 2>L\KING OF THE 2>IA
USCRIPTS.
23
was almost white and the hair side a light yellow, care was used
in arranging the sheets. Ordinarily the book was made up of
quires of eight leaves (sixteen pages), composed of four folded
sheets. The first of the four sheets was laid with the flesh side
"' ;.0: 0 : a : 0.: CI : 0 : a
<0: Q:
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FIG. 4. BOOKCASE AND WRITII\;G IIIATERIALS
down, upon it the second with the hair side down, the third as
the first and the fourth as the second. These were then folded
down the middle, and the quire was ready for ruling as ex-
plained above. \Vhen a quire was arranged in this way the
colors of every two adjacent pages would be the same. no matter
24
LA TIN l\1.\NUSCIUPTS.
where the book was opened, and the loss of a sheet would
17 be at once detected by a difference in the color. The sheets
were sometimes arranged in quires of three, five and even ten
sheets. The quires composing a book were lettered consecutively
to assist their arrangement in tIle proper order, and sometimes
the pages of the several quires were numbered. The writing
was done after the quire was put together, vertical lines being
ruled upon the page to keep the horizontal lines of the same
length and to insure a uniform margin. The writing sometimes
ran across the full page, exclusive of these margins, but was more
frequently arranged in narrow columns, usually two to the page,
but sometimes three or even four. When the work was finished
the quires were stitched or glued together. and the book thus
formed, if intended to be preserved, was protected by a covering
of the same material, not unlike our own flexible bindings.
18 ODD FORl\Is.-l\Iention is made occasionally by good authori-
ties of parchment books put up in rolls like papyrus, and con-
versely we know that papyrus sheets were sometimes stitched
or glued together in codex form, strengthened in rare instances
by the insertion of parchment leaves. Such arrangements were
probably merely the caprice of the writer, and are not to be
considered even a passing fashion.
19 SIZE OF THE CODEx.-The parchment was so thin and light
that a single codex could contain the complete works of an author,
or even of several authors, that in papyrus form had to be divided
into several rolls: all of Vergil, e. g., made a codex of very con-
venient size. and Catullus is commonly joined with some other
author or authors.
20 PARCHME
T vs. PAPYRus.-The superiority of parchment over
papyrus is obvious: it was more durable and did not become
frayed at the edges; both sides were available; more words could
be written in a line of the same length; works of large compass
could be comprised within a codex of moderate size; the codex
could be read more easily and consulted more conveniently, with
THE
L\KING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
25
no time to be lost in rolling it up and restoring it to its cover;
besides, as it would lie open of itself, the hands of the reader
were free to copy from one codex to another, if he pleased. with-
out assistance.
Despite these numerous and manifest ad,-antages, parchment 21
was slow to supersede papyrus. In classical times it was used
merely for accounts, notes, letters. etc. l\Iartial (4o--I02 A. D.) is
the first to mention parchment copies of works of literature. and
even his words (XIV, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192) are not decisive
in the opinion of certain scholars. The fates seem to have
decreed that papyrus should be the perishable material for pagan
literature, and parchment reserved for the Christian world. \Ve
find, as a matter of fact, that Bibles were early written in the codex
form, and that the works of bishops and saints ,,-ere soon spread
upon the same material. The great la,,' books, following upon
the compilations of Theodosins and ] nstinian, demanded a more
convenient form than the volltJJlcll, and seem to haye been pub-
lished from the first as codices. The law and the gospel! Next
came what we call the great classics, that is, the choicest works
of Greek and Roman literature, and from the third century of our
era parchment was the favorite for current publications. By the
seventh century papyrus had practically retired from the field (
3).
TARDY USE.-The slowness of parchment to supplant papy- 22
rus is not satisfactorily accounted for by the natural conser-
vatism of the Romans. It can be explained, perhaps, by sup-
posing that parchment was much more expensive than papyrus,
but no proof can be adduced to support this supposition. In
fact, what little we know of the relative price of the two sub-
stances seems to indicate that papyrus was more expensive
than parchment. The real reason is yet to be discovered.
PALIl\IPSESTS.-The word palimpsest has been eXplained already 23
(
5). It has also been remarked (
14) that parchment was used
at first for note books and memoranda becanse the sheet could be
cleaned easily and used repeatedly by washing off the writing
26
LA TIN MANUSCRIPTS.
when it had served its purpose. This statement IS true only of
the inferior ink employed in earlier times. As the ink was
gradually improved in course of time (
IS), it became almost
indelible, especially when fixed by age, and even rubbing and
scraping, to say nothing of washing, failed to remove all traces
of the earlier writing. In such cases the second copy was some-
times written between the lines of the older copy, and both writ-
ings may now be read under favorable circumstances. This fact
is of great importance to scholars, as will be explained hereafter.
A book thus rewritten is called liber þali11lþseslus or codex
rescriþlus.
24 AGE OF PARCHMENT BOOKs.-From the history of the intro-
duction of parchment (
13) it will be understood that the oldest
parchment books (codices) which we possess are of a very late date
as compared with the papyrus rolls (volumÙza) which are still
extant (
12). Our very oldest codices do not go back beyond
the third or fourth century of our era, and very few are older
than the ninth. This will be considered more fully hereafter.
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24
THE PUBLICA TION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS.
THE AUTHORS.-The men whose names are famous in the 25
history of Roman literature may be divided into two classes.
Some were men of high position in society and in the state, to
whom literature was but one form of a many sided activity: such
men are Cæsar and Cicero and Sallust. Others are persons of
distinctly inferior station, freedmen perhaps, or sons of freedmen,
who won their bread by their pens: such persons are Terence
and Vergil and Horace. One fact in regard to the authors of the
second class forces itself at once upon our attention: Each is
attached to some powerful friend. to whom he seems to owe all
his material prosperity. This fact is the more striking, because
the works of many authors of this class, of all of those whom we
have directly mentioned, were widely read during their lifetime,
and must have had a ready sale and considerable market value
even then. \Ve should expect such poets as Horace and Vergil
to have had a generous income independent of the bounty of their
patrons. It seems to have been otherwise.
COPYRIGHT.- The natural inference is that the author had 26
little pecuniary interest in the sale of his works. There is no
direct evidence, z: e., no statement in the works of such authors,
to support this assertion, but there is none to contro\"ert it. As
each copy of a book was made by itself. page by page, with pen
and ink, as no costly plant was necessary to multiply these copies,
and no special skill, it is hard to see how the author could retain
any control over the reproduction of a work when it had once got
into circulation. Even in our day anyone may make a manu-
script copy, or any number of them. of any book which he is
unable to buy, whether the author likes it or not. This seems
2']
28
l. -\ TIN :\IANlJSCRIPTS.
to have been the case in Rome, and this state of helplessness
fully accounts for the dependence of the poet upon the patron,
and the absence of any feeling of shame or degradation, on the
27 part of the dependent. The first copy of his book he could sell.
or as many copies as he could make, or have made, before any
left his possession, but these would at best be very few. That
even this chance, poor as it was, was precarious is shown by the
theft of Cicero's De FÙllblts (Att. XIII, 2 I, 4 and 5) in advance
of publication. \V orse than this. the hapless author had not even
the privilege of deciding whether a book that he had written
should be published or not: at least Ovid declares (Trist. I, 7)
that he had intended to destroy his Metamorphoses, but the work
was published from copies taken by his friends without his con-
sent or knowledge. Cicero let the first draft of his Academica get
out of his possession while he was considering a different form for
the treatise, and the consequence was that two very different ver-
sions were circulated at the same time.
28 PLA YS.- The fact that a dramatist received pay when one
of his plays was presented at the public games has nothing to
do with the question of property rights in works of general
literature. As a matter of fact the attacks made upon Terence
by rival dramatists show that they were acquainted with his
plays before they were put upon the stage, and justify the
suggestion that they may have been in more or less general
circulation for the purpose of private reading.
29 UNCO:.\Il\IERCIAL PUBLICATION.-Every Roman of position kept
in his employ several trained scribes (llbranï) , usually slaves or
freedmen and often highly educated and accomplished, who served
him as amanuenses, secretaries, etc. r nder the Repu blic the
author must have had his book copied by these libranï, either
his own or his patron's. Many of these copies would be intended
for dedication or presentation purposes, but some would find their
way into the market. These were sold in book shops (tabenzæ
/z'branæ. Cic. Phil. II, 9, 21), which were set up in Rome long
THE PCBLICATION AND DISTRlRrTro
OF BOOKS. 29
before there was any organized publishing business. The first
impulse toward such an enterprise may haye been given by the
bringing to Rome by Sulla and Lucullus of whole libraries from
Greece and Asia "Minor. It at once became the fashion to make
large collections of books, and in Cicero's time no house was com-
plete without a spacious library fully stocked with books, although
the owner was often wholly ignorant of their contents. Cicero
had great numbers of books not only in his house at Rome, but
also at each of his half dozen country-seats. He was assisted in
collecting them by his friend T. Pomponius Atticus. a man noted as
much for his love of literature and learning as for his vast wealth 30
and far reaching business enterprises. He seems to have had a
commission from Cicero to buy for him every book that could be
bought. and to make copies of those that were valuable or rare.
Atticus had numerous hbrarii (Nepos XXV, 13. 3), and these he
employed also in making copies of Cicero's works and of such
othel"s as Cicero recommended to him. All these he sold to good
advantage (AU. XIII, 12, 2), but the gain was merely incidental
and by no means the object he had in view. His success, how-
ever, added to the constantly increasing demand for books, seems
to have led to the establishment of the business upon a commer-
cial basis, and in so far as this is true it is permissible, perhaps,
to speak of Atticus as the first of Roman publishers.
CO:\DIERCIAL PUBLICATION.-Under the Empire the business 31
seems to have reached large proportions almost at a stride. The
publishers were at the same time wholesale and retail dealers in
books. Their establishments were found in the most popular and
generally frequented parts of Rome, were distinguished by the
lists hanging by the door of books kept for sale, and soon became
the resort of men of culture as well as of those who sought merely
after the novel and the entertaining. Even under Augustus (29
B. C.-I4 .\. D.) the works of Roman authors were read not only
3 0
LATIN MANUSCRIPTS.
III Italy but also in the provinces, and even crossed the sea.
Public libraries were established in many places, and in the schools
the antiquated works that had been the text books for generations
(e. g., the Twelve Tables and the translation of Homer by
Andronicus) began to give place to those of contemporary authors.
32 PROCESS OF PUBLICATlON.-It is evident that the publisher had
no more control oyer works once in circulation than the author
had (
26), and he must therefore have relied upon the elegance,
correctness and cheapness of his editions of the classics to insure
their sale, and in the case of a new work upon the quickness
with which he could supply the demand. The general process
was something like this: The book to be copied, furnished by
the author if a new work, bought or borrowed or hired (see below)
if an old one, was read to the scribes, some of which were the
slaves of the publisher and others perhaps hired for the occasion,
but all trained copyists. Other slaves arranged the sheets in the
proper order as fast as they were written, pasted them together
(Cic. Att. IV, 4 b.), mounted them and supplied them with their
parchment tituli and cases (see
7). Errors were then corrected
and the book was ready for sale.
33 DICTATlON.-No ancient authority can be quoted in sup-
port of the statement that the books were copied from dicta-
tion, but this must have been the case in all large establish-
ments. To say nothing of the fact that even private letters
were usually dictated, and of the difficulty of managing the
roll, which served for copy, while writing {
20), the slowness
of the other method, if but few slaves were employed, and the
impracticability of furnishing copy to a large number without
great loss of time, seem enough to justify the statement. In
later times, especially during the middle ages, the scribes
worked independently.
34 RAPIDITY OF PUBLICATlON.-Cicero tells us (Pro. Sulla, XIV,
4 2 ) that Roman senators could write fast enough to take down
evidence verbatim, and the trained scribes must have far surpassed
them in speed. even if the system of shorthand often mentioned
THE Pl"BLIC.-\.TlON AND DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS. 31
by ancient authorities was not used for books intended for gen-
eral circulation. :\Iartial tells us (II, I, 5) that his second book
could be copied in an hour. It contains ninety-three epigrams
amounting to fixe hundred and forty verses, which would make
the scribe equal to nine verses to the minute. It is evident that
a small edition, one. that is, not many times larger than the num-
ber of scribes employed, could be put upon the market much
more quickly than it could be furnished now. \Vhen the demand
was great and the edition large (Pliny, Ep. IV, 7, 2, mentions
one of a thousand copies) the publisher would put none on sale
until all were ready, thus preventing rival houses from using one
of his books as copy. If he overestimated the demand, unsold
copies could still be sent to the provinces (Hor. Ep. I, 20, 13) or
as' a last resort be used for wrapping paper (Mart. III, 2).
COST OF THE BOOKS.- The cost of the books varied, of course, 35
with their size and with the style in which they were issued.
l\Iartial's first book, containing eight hundred and twenty lines
and coyering twenty-nine pages in Teubner's text, was sold
(l\Iart. I, 66; 117, 17) at thirty cents, fifty cents, and one dollar;
his Xenia, containing two hundred and seventy-four verses and
covering fourteen pages in Teubner's text, was sold (XIII. 3) at
twenty cents, but cost the publisher less than ten. Such prices
are hardly more than we pay now. l\Iuch would depend of course
upon the demand. and very high prices were put npon particular
copies. Gellius (II, 3, 5) mentions a copy of Vergil, supposed to
be by his own hand, which had cost the owner over one hundred
dollars, and copies whose correctness (see below) was attested by
some good authority were also highly valued. The same circum-
stances would increase the price of modern books materially.
STICHmIETRY.-The ancients did not measure their books, as 36
we do, by the pages, but by the verse in poetry and the line in
prose, and the number contained in the work was ,uitten at the
3 2
LATIN )IANUSCRIPTS.
end of the book. The Alexandrian librarians seem to have entered
the number along with the title of the work in their catalogues,
and to have marked the number of lines, at eyery fiftieth or hun-
dredth line, in their copy of the book. This system of measure-
ment was carefully employed by the publishers, and furnished an
accurate standard by which to fix the price of the book and the
wages of those scribes who were not slaves. For this purpose
they selected the hexameter verse as the unit for poetry, and as
its equivalent in prose a line of sixteen syllables or thirty-five
letters. This standard line, were it actually written, would require
one of the broader sheets mentioned above (
4), but such a sheet
was not necessary and perhaps not usual. It was merely neces-
sary to find the ratio of the line actually written to the stand-
ard line, for the scribes were careful to keep their lines of the
same length, and the number of lines on the page constant,
throughout the work upon ,,'hich they were engaged. Frequently
we find the number of lines written very much greater than the
number registered at the end of the roll, because the page was
too narrow to contain the standard line from which the registered
number was calculated. Vole do not know the price paid for
ordinary works of literature.
37 CORRECTORS.- The very rapidity with which the scribes worked
would lead us to look for many mistakes in their copies, and from
the earliest times authors and scholars have complained of their
blunders. Cicero says (Q. Fr. III, 5, 6) that he knows not where
to tum for books: they are written so badly and put upon the
market with so many imperfections. He took every precaution to
have his own books as free fro111 errors as possible. His famous
freedman, Tiro, read the copy carefully before it was sent to Atti-
cus, and Atticus had each book examined and corrected before it
passed out of his keeping. Even after the earlier copies were sent
out he introduced improvements in the later editions at Cicero's
snggestion.
THE PFBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS. 33
Similar precautions were taken by at least the best commercial 38
houses. They had competent correctors in their employ, but as
each copy had to be examined independently, the labor was far
greater than that of the modern proof-reader, and the results
much less satisfactory. Martial (II. 8) warns his readers that the
errors which they may detect in his books are to be ascribed to
the publisher, not to him, and elsewhere (VII, I I) he gives us to
understand that authors corrected with their own hands the copies
which they presented to their friends (cf. Gell. II, 3, 5). Quin-
tilian prefaces his Institutions with a letter to his publisher, beg-
ging him to issue the work as free from blunders as he can, and
Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, 177 A. D., urges that each copy of his
work be compared with the original.
Persons buying books sometimes had them examined first by 39
a competent critic (Gell. \Y, 4, 2), or corrected by comparison with
a copy known to be accurate. Such standard copies were not
always to be had, but were consulted if possible to decide disputed
readings (Gell. I, 7), and were sometimes hired for this purpose
(Gell. XVIII, 5, II) at large expense. It is beyond question that
errors in the codices of later times, which have descended to us,
are in some cases derived from blunders made at the time when
the books were first published.
TITLES.-As in the papyrus roll the title was no part of the 40
work itself, but rather of the mounting (
8), so in the later
parchment codex it was the ancient custom to write the title,
together with the number of the lines (
36), at the end, instead
of at the beginning where we should look for it. This must be
explained, of course, from the standpoint of the scribe, who was
concerned only with what he had written and how much, and left
the purchaser to mark the volume or leave it unmarked at his
pleasure. The manuscripts of the middle ages usually have the
title both at the beginning and at the end of the book, frequently
34
L
TIN l\1ANUSCRIPTS.
adding a word of good omen (felidter), or an expression of grati-
fication at the conclusion of the task (see Plate VIII). These
titles vary greatly in different manuscripts of the same work,
sometimes even in the same manuscript, and suggest that the
classic writers were far less anxious about getting good titles for
their works than modenl authors are, and may perhaps have pub-
41 lished them without any formal titles at all. Cicero refers to his
essay ou Old Age indifferently as the Cato :Maior (Off. I, 42, 151)
and De Senectute (Div. 2, 3). If Macrobius (Sat. I, 24, II) is to
be trusted, Vergil seems to have spoken of the Aeneid by its
hero's name Aeneas (cf. Hamlet, Ivanhoe, etc.). Sallust's mono-
graph on the Conspiracy of Catiline is called in the best manu-
script Bellum Cafl/IÙzarÙl1Iz at the beginning and Bellum CatilÙzae
at the end. Quintilian (35-100 A. D.) calls it Bellum Catilz1zae,
and so does Nonius (beginning of fourth cent.) j Servius (end of
fourth cent.) has the shorter title Catilina (cf. Aeneas and Cato
lI
azor above), Priscian (sixth cent.) has Belltem CatzlÙzan.u11l, and
in other ancient authorities we find Historia CatilÙzae. The best
form nowadays is Bellum CatzlÙzae, which is rapidly driving out
the De ConÙeralzolle Catililzae Lzoer of our school books, just as
Belli Gallid Liber I. (II., III., etc.) is displacing the Comme1ltarÙes
De Bello GallÙ:o Primus (SeClmdus, Tertius, etc.) familiar to us
alL No title is absolutely certain.
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THE TRANSMISSION OF THE BOOKS.
THE PERIOD COVERED.- The creative genius of the Ro- 42
mans ends, so far as literature is concerned, with the reign
of Trajan (97-117 A. D.). From this time until the invention of
printing the preparing and publication of books did not vary from
the methods described above, except so far as the parchment codex
differed in form from the papyrus rol1. During this period of
about thirteen centuries we have now to consider the fates of the
published works, or in other words of the manuscripts that con-
tained them: the means that were taken to preserve them, how
they were lost. and then after nearly a thousand years partially
recovered. This period may be naturally divided into three very
unequal portions: I. The Period of the Decline, extending roughly
to the Germanic invasions of about the fifth century; 2. The
Dark Ages, extending to about the thirteenth century; 3. The
Revival of Learning. It must be remembered that we are con-
cerned with the social, political and literary history of these times
so far only as it relates to tbe Transmission of the Manuscripts.
THE PERIOD OF THE DECLI
E.-It is a fact well known to all 43
students of literature that at the time when genius is least pro-
ductive and originality most torpid the masterpieces of an earlier
day will be most carefully studied and appreciated. This is emi-
nently true of Roman literature: its darkest period saw the estab-
lishment of public libraries, the growth of schools and universities
on humanistic lines, the rise of the grammarians, and the classics
made the last defense of paganism against Christianity. All these
agencies made for the preservation of literature. so far as it was
preselTed at all, and must be examined therefore in some detail.
35
3 b
1.A TIN MANVSCRIPTS.
44 PUBLIC LIBRARIEs.-The growth of private libraries (s 29)
steadily increased during the empire, for we read that the gram-
marian Serenus Sa11llllonicus (t 212 A. D.) left 62,000 volumes to
his son, but the largest of these collections are of little impor-
tance compared with the public libraries that were founded during
the same period. The first of these to be opened in Rome was
established by Asinius Pollio (t 4 A. D.) during the reign of
Augustus in the atriuJIl of Libertas. Augustus himself opened
two, and by his successors the number was gradually increased to
twenty-eight. Of these the most magnificent was the Biblz"otheca
Ulþia, founded by Trajan. Smaller cities had their libraries too.
Pliny, Trajan's governor of Bithynia, tells us (Ep. I, 8) of having
given one himself to his native town, Comum, supported by an
endowment yielding annually thirty thousand sesterces. The im-
portance, from our standpoint. of these public libraries lies in the
fact that such collections were universal in their character, while
private libraries are usually gathered ill a less catholic spirit. The
former would tend to preserve, therefore, the less popular and
attractive works that might otherwise have disappeared.
45 SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.-A still lllore important part in
the preservation of the literature of the past was taken by the
schools and universities. These had been established on Greek
lines in the city of Rome at least as early as the time of Cicero
and Varro, and had spread tluoughout the empire until in the
centuries just preceding the Germa
ic invasions all the intel-
lectual life of the Roman was connected with education. The
branches taught were grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geome-
try, astronomy. and music, but the central thing was the study
of the older and greater writers of Greece and Rome. Original
creation had virtually come to an end. and it seemed to all educated
persons that the study of the works of the past was the most
profitable of intellectual pursuits. Two facts in relation to the
schools affect the transmission of the manuscripts.
THE TRANS:\IISSION OF THE BOOKS.
37
THE "CLASSICS."-The choosing of materials for pupils to 46
study and imitate would lead gradually to the fixing with more
or less precision of the canon of the classics, those writers, that
is, whose works were regarded as the best of their kind in the
yarious lines of literature. Of some of these authors the complete
works were used in the schools; of others certain parts complete
in themselves (e. g., the first and third decades of Livy) were
carefully studied. while of other parts epitomes were made for
reference purposes; of others still selections ""ere made for specific
objects, as when, for example, the letters and speeches scattered
through the various works of Sallust were brought together in
one volume for rhetorical purposes. The result, so far as it affects
the transmission of the manuscripts is apparent: of some authors
the whole "orks would be in constant demand and copies would
be multiplied almost beyond numberiug; of others parts only
would be so treated; still others would be wholly neglected. It is
evident, also, that these school editions would be especially liable
to errors, and even to arbitrary changes for the purposes of
instruction.
SCHOLIA.- The needs of tbe pupils would lead, in the second 47
place, to the preparation of notes and commentaries upon those
authors whose language or matter was found to require such helps.
Such notes are added to the ,,'orks of English authors in our own
schools now, and must have been even more needed by Roman
school boys because no books were then written especially for the
young. These school commentaries, to distinguish them from the
works of modern scholars, are called schoha, and their authors, or
(more usually) their compilers, are called scholiasts. Some of
these notes were published separately, and haye come down to us
with the name of the author attached. as, e. g., the commentaries
of Asconius (first century) on some of Cicero's Orations, of Por-
phyrio (second century) on Horace, of Tiberius Claudius Donatus
3 8
LATIN MANUSCRIPTS.
(fourth century) on Vergil, and of Aelius Donatus (fourth century)
48 and Eugraphius (sixth century) on Terence. Other Scholiasts,
and by far the larger number, wrote their notes on the margins
and between the lines of their man uscripts of the authors they
explained, and of these as a rule inferior scholars we seldom know
the names. \Vhen it is necessary to distinguish them, they are
called by the name of the author ("Scholiast on Juvenal," etc.) or
even of the manuscript (
69) on which their scho/z"a are found.
These scho/z"a are chiefly valuable for the subject matter of the
author, but they give some help also in the text. In the first
place, those scholiasts whose commentaries were published sepa-
rately, frequently quote the passage of the text which they
explain, and thus give us the reading of the manuscripts they
used, in most cases older and therefore better than our own. In
the second place, they sometimes help us to fix the date of a
manuscript or its relations to others even when the sdlOlia are of
little value and the name of their author is not known.
49 GLOSSEs.-One sort of scholÙz is often mentioned in editions
of the classics. An unusual word was called glossa, and in the
course of time the definition or explanation of such a word was
called by the same name. Collections of these words and ex-
planations were made, called glossal', whence our words "gloss"
and "glossary." Now when the scholiast found in his text such
a word, for example a foreign or obsolete Latin word, he often
wrote the word of the same meaning which was current in his
time (Latin also, of course) directly above it in the text or
close to it in the margin. A later copyist was very apt to
take such a gloss for either a correction or an omitted word,
and accordingly to omit the original word froll his copy, or to
write both words together.
50 THE GRAJ\1MARIANS.-Close upon the writing of commentaries
to explain the subject matter of the classics followed the composi-
tion of scholarly works, dealing directly with the language itself,
the sounds, inflections, syntax, prosody, lexicography and so on.
The writers upon these subjects, differing widely in their learn-
THE TRAKSl\IISSION OF THE BOOKS.
39
ing and ability, are grouped together under the name of Gramma-
rians, as opposed to the Scholiasts, although many belong to the
one class as much as to the other. For the preservation of the
classics they are valuable, entirely apart from their scholarship,
in proportion to the number of quotations \\'hich they make in
illustration of the matters of which they treat. Among those help-
ful in this way may be mentioned Charisius (fourth century),
Diomedes (sixth century), l\Iacrobius (fifth century), Nonius
(fourth century), Priscianus (sixth century), Scaurus (second cen-
tury), and Victorinus (fourth century).
OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIAl';"ITY.-!t is well known that the 51
higher classes in Rome were the last to embrace Christianity.
For resisting the spread of the new faith they found the most
effective weapon to be the literature in which were embodied all
the beauty and power of pagan morality, culture and refinement.
l\Ien of the highest social standing, senators, statesmen, consuls,
devoted their energy and talent to fostering the ancient classics.
They succeeded in maintaining the old system of education, pre-
vented the establishment of separate schools for the benefit of
their opponents, and even endeavored to put the texts of the great
Roman writers upon a sounder basis. For this purpose they had
made or made with their own hands copies of manuscripts of
known excellence (see
39). or in default of these used their own
knowledge of the language to remove the more obvious errors due
to the carelessness or ignorance of successive copyists. Some of
these editions they attested by their own names, and these names
have occasionally come down to us in later copies.
SUBSCRIPTIONS.- These signatures, technically called subscrzþ- 52
Ilones, date mostly from the fourth to the sixth century, although
a few are earlier, and are known to us in copies hundreds of
years later. accompanied perhaps by the subscription of some later
reVIser. For example, many manuscripts of Terence, dating from
4 0
LA TIN MANUSCRIPTS.
the ninth to the twelfth century, have preserved an ancicnt sub-
scription in two forms:
CALLIOPIUS RECENSUI CALLIOPIUS RECENSUIT.
This shows that much as these manuscripts may differ from each
other, all are derived ultimately from a revision of the text of
Terence made by Calliopius, who is otherwise unknown, but is
believed for certain reasons to have lived in the third or fourth
century. Again, several manuscripts of Cæsar, dating from the
ninth and eleventh centuries, have the subscription:
JULIUS CELSUS CONSTANTIKUS YC LEG!.
We do not know anything more about this man of high posItIOn
(vc _ vir darz"ssiJlllts, see Harper's Dictionary, s. v. clarzes) , but the
name seems to show that he lived no earlier than the fourth
century.
53 V ALUE.-'Ve are able to test the value of these revisions,
because we have other manuscripts of Terence and Cæsar that
are independently derived. Of Terence we have but one manu-
script (Codex BeJllbÙzus, see Plate III) that has escaped the
corrections of Calliopins, but this shows us that he used either
inferior manuscripts as his gnide, or else relied upon his own
insufficient knowledge in correcting the text current in his
time. '''ith Cæsar the case is different. The manuscripts
derived from the revision of Celsus have been, until very re-
cently, regarded almost the only reliable authorities, and even
now Celsus is credited (see Kiibler, Teubner's text, p. ix) with
having nsed good copies in making his text, even if he did
rely sometimes too mnch upon his own guesses.
54 SmIMARv.-From the preceding paragraphs it ought to be
evident that in the period of the decline all conditions were favor-
able for the preservation in some form of the manuscripts. The
influence of the schools, however, and the well meant, but not
always successful, efforts of the revisers would lead us to expect
variations in the texts of the more popular authors, and the disap-
pearance of those thought less useful fC'r instruction and less
admirable in style.
.
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V. VERGIJ.: Schedae 1 at/amac. Sacco 1/ .
THE TRANS:\USSION OF THE BOOKS.
4 1
LOST \VoRKs.-It is well known that the works of certain 55
Roman authors have been entirely lost. that of others we possess
parts only, that there are few whose writings are wholly preserved.
\Ve should not regret this, if the works of inferior authors only
had been lost-but among the missing are some of the most
famous in the lines of history, oratory, philosophy, and poetry.
\Ve should expect it, if the works of early writers only had per-
ished-but whole volumes of Cicero, two-thirds of Tacitus. three-
fourths of Livy are gone, to mention those names only that are
as familiar to us as our own. No imperial library could have
lacked complete editions of their works, they must have been
included in hundreds of private collections, school boys must have
studied them, and teachers commented upon them, but they are
no more to be found. \Ve have therefore to explain how so much
has disappeared, and how so much has been preserved.
THE D.\.RK AGES.-It was at the very time when Roman lit- 56
erature was the center of all intellectual activity (
43) that the
catastrophe came that was to overwhelm learning. literature and
even Rome itself. In the fourth century the Roman empire was
divided j Valentinian took the eastern half with Constantinople for
his capital, leaving Rome and the west to his brother Valens.
The fifth century had only just begun when the hordes of the
north fell upon the western half and made havoc of it. First the
Vandals, turned from Italy. established themselves in Gaul. Then
the Visigoths sacked Rome, passed into Gaul, and drove the Van-
daIs into Spain. The Vandals, again, crossed over into Africa,
ravaged that province, and returned to Italy by the south. The
Tartar Huns came next and disappeared leaving desolation behind
them. The Franks attacked Gaul, the Saxons Britain. The Os-
trogoths disputed Italy with the Vandals, and both were dispos-
sessed by the eastern Emperor, Justinian (527-565)' He died and
the Lombards appeared. Then the Saracens came from the south
42
LATIN l\L\NUSCRIPTS.
and the Danes from the north. It was not until the time of
Charles the Great (Charlemagne), in the last part of the eighth
century, that order was restored in vVestern Europe. Cities had
been pillaged, provinces laid waste, empires overturned, a great
civilization overwhelmed, and a literature that antedated the cities,
provinces and empires, and had inspired the civilization, had prac-
tically disappeared.
57 INDIFFERENCE TO LEARNING.-The worst, perhaps, was yet to
come. These three cel.1turies of destruction were followed by five
centuries of indifference to learning. It is impossible to give
within our limits an adequate idea of the ignorance of the period:
the ninth chapter of Hallam's Middle Ages cannot be condensed
into a paragraph. During this time Latin ceased to be a spoken
language; inflections \,"ere neglected, syntax ignored, sounds modi-
fied, and Spanish, French and Italian began to be. There was not
even an educated class. The nobles could not sign their names:
until seals were brought into use they subscribed to their charters
with the sign of the cross. The ignorance of the church was the
subject of reproach in every council; in one held in 992 it was
asserted that not a single person in Rome knew the first elements
of letters. In the time of Charlemagne not one priest of the thou-
sand in Spain could address a common letter to another. In Eng-
land King Alfred said that he could not remember a single priest
south of the Thames, the most civilized part of his realm, that
knew the meaning of the common prayers. Alfred himself had
difficulty in translating a pastoral letter of Saint Gregory on
account of his ignorance of Latin, the one written language of the
time. Charlemagne could not write at all. If the ignorance of
nobles, priests and kings was so appalling, that of the commons
must have been sublime, and we are ready to find the loss of
Roman literature less surprising than its partial recovery.
"
THE TR <\NSl\IISSION OF THE BOOKS.
43
THE CHURCH.-The one preservative agency was the church. 58
In spite of the gross ignorance. the narrow-mindedness, the world-
liness of the priesthood, there were three influences in connection
with the church that made for the preservation of classical litera-
ture. These were the papal supremacy, the liturgy and the mo-
nastic establishments. For our present purpose we may pass over
the first two with the short statement that the liturgy was in
Latin, and that the need of the church of some one language as a
means of communication with its branches e,oerywhere served to
keep alive some faint knowledge of the Latin tongue, corrupted as
it became. The third must be more fully considered. Of the re- 59
1igious orders of \Vestern Europe one of the most ancient was that
founded in 529 on :\Ionte Cassino, near Naples, by Saint Benedict.
Its rule was less severe than that of the others. but it enjoined
upon its members frugality, soberness and above all industry.
From various kinds of manual labor the copying of manuscripts
was finally selected as the most likely to keep the mind from car-
nal thoughts, and so all over Italy, Switzerland, France, England
and Ireland the pious monks laboriously copied and recopied the
manuscripts of Latin authors amid all the destruction of barbaric
invasions, and the poverty of learning that follo,,"ed. It must be
clearly understood that these manuscripts were not copied for pub-
lication. The work was purely mechanical, a treadmill process.
The completed codices ""ere stored a"oay in the vaults of the abbeys
to molder and decay, until, in later times, when the very knowl-
edge of their meaning was lost, they were brought out to be
washed and scraped and made fit to receive other copies by other
generations of monks. It was from no love of learning, therefore,
that the Benedictines and the allied brethren saved the literature
of Rome, so much of it, that is, as did not rot in cellars and dun-
geons. or was not remorselessly rubbed a"oay to make room for
hymns and homilies and 1h'es of the saints and martyrs. For
44
LATIN MANUSCRIPTS.
such precious compositions as these were the parchments used that
a king's ransom would not now purchase.
60 THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.-It is impossible to give here an
intelligible account of the gradual revival of learning during the
period which we have described abo\"e as the Dark Ages. The
history of the five hundred years from 800 to 1300 comprises the
growth of schools, the planting of uni\Oersities, the cultivation espe-
cially of the more useful sciences of medicine, law and theology.
It was not until the fourteenth century that literature felt the new
movement, and that in Italy. Petrarch (1304-1374) and Boccaccio
(13 1 3- 1 375) were the first to turn for better models to the almost
forgotten classics of their countrymen of an earlier day, and the
finest minds of the next generations followed their guidance. The
last quarter of the fourteenth century sawall Italy permeated with
the new enthusiasm, and a positive fever was inspired for recov-
ering the lost literature of Rome. Then it was that the stores of
manuscripts buried in the monasteries were eagerly brought to
light. Vast quantities were found at l\1onte Cassino (see
59),
and at Bobbio in Italy, at St. Gallen and Einsiedeln in Switzer-
land, at Fulda and l\1ainz in Germany, and in far distant England
even, wherever the copying of manuscripts had been the employ-
61 ment of the monks. Petrarch was especially active in searching
for new treasures and protecting those that were discovered -for
the danger of losing them again was not over in the fourteenth
century. A treatise of Cicero De Gloria had been in his posses-
sion, but was afterwards irretrievably lost. He declares that in his
youth he had seen the works of Varro. but all his efforts to
recover these and the second decade of Livy were fruitless. He
did find in 1350 a copy of Quintilian, the only one known until
sixty-four years later another copy was found in a dungeon under
the monastery of St. Gallen. By this time the awakening' had
touched all classes. Princes and popes gathered scholars at their
..
THE TRAXS:\IISSION OF THE nOOKS.
45
courts as the surest means of obtaining fame for themselves. The
representatives of the popes in other countries sent to Italy all
the classical manuscripts of which they could possess themselves
by fair means or foul. Almost all the Latin manuscripts which
we now have were thus discovered between 1350 and 1450. Uany
very ancient manuscripts known at that time ha,.e since been lost,
but so many copies were made that, so far as we know, but one
entire work has disappeared, the Vidularia of Plautus.
INYE
TIO
OF PRINTING.- The fortunate im'ention of printing 62
about 1450 made secure what had been recm.ered. The first Latin
author to be sent abroad in the new form was Cicero. whose De
Officiis was printed in 1465. In less than twenty years from this
time the Yenetian printer, Aldus l\lanutius, had begun his great
,,'ork of giving to the ".orld almost the whole body of ancient lit-
erature in the form that has made his name a synonY111 for taste-
ful and convenient volumes.
SU:\DL\RY.- This sketch, short and colorless as it is, helps to 63
explain several important facts, often referred to in critical editions.
1. The largest collections of valuable manuscripts are in Italy.
2. The very oldest manuscripts are likely to be palimpsests.
3. The large majority of our manuscripts were written in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
4.
lany extant manuscripts are copies of an older manuscript,
also extant.
5. Some manuscripts were written by persons with little or no
knowledge of Latin.
6. The printed cditio þrÙlccþs of certain authors is valuable,
because it may have been derived from good manuscripts since
lost to us.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES.- The following list includes the prin- 64
cipal Latin authors: Apuleius, Rome, 1469; Cæsar, Rome,
1469; Catullus, Venice, 1472; Cicero, De Officiis, Rome, 1465,
Opera Omnia, 1498; Gellius, Rome, 1469; Horace, Venice, 1470;
4 6
LA TIN MANL'SCRIPTS.
]uvenal, Rome and Venice, 1470; Lactantius. Rome, 1465; Livy,
Rome, 1469; Lucan, Rome, 1469; Lucretius, Brescia, 1473;
Uartial, Rome, 1470; Nepos, Venice, 1471; Ovid, Rome and
Bonn, 1471; Persius, Rome, 1470; Plantns, Venice, 1472; Pliny
the Younger, Venice, 1485; Propertius, Venice, 1472; Quintilian,
Rome, 1470; Sallust, Venice, 1470; Seneca's Prose Works,
1475, Tragedies, Ferrara, 1484; Statius, Venice, 1472; Sneto-
nins, Rome, 1470; Tacitus. Venice, 1470; Terence. Strassburg,
1470; Tibullus, Venice, 1472; Valerius Flaccus, Bonn, 1474;
VelIeius Paterculns, Basle, 1520; Vergil, Rome. 1469.
Arranged chronologically: 1465-Cicero's De Officiis, Lac-
tantius; 1469-Apuleius, Cæsar, Gellius, Livy, Lucan, Vergil;
1470-Horace, ]uvenal, Martial, Persius, Quintilian, Sallust,
Suetonius, Tacitus, Terence; 1471-NepOS, Ovid; 1472-Catul-
Ins, Plautus, Propertins, Statins, Tibullus; 1473-Lucretius;
1474-Valerins Flaccus; 1475-Seneca's Prose Works; 1484-
Seneca's Tragedies; 1485-Pliny the Younger; 1498-Cicero's
Opera Omnia; 1520-VelIeius Paterculus.
65 ANCIENT UANUSCRIPTs.-The following list gives the dates of
all extant Latin manuscripts whicl]. are thought to be no later
than the sixth century. As will be eXplained hereafter (
1 15),
the dates are merely approximate, and any of the older parch-
ments may be later by a century than the date here assigned to
it. It is also possible that some may have been written at an
earlier time. FIRST CENTURY: Two papyrus fragments from Her-
culanenm containing selections from prose writers. A papyrus roll
from Herculaneum containing the Carmen De Bello Actiaco, a
specimen is given in
103. THIRD or FOURTH CENTURY: The
seven oldest manuscripts of Vergil, specimens of three, Plates I,
V and X. Three fragments of Sallust's Histories, at Berlin, Rome
and Naples, a specimen is given in
103. Palimpsest fragment
of ] uvenal and Persius at Rome. Palimpsest of Livy at Verona.
66 Fragment of Livy, Book XCI, at Rome. FOURTH or FIFTH CEN-
TURY: Fragments of a palimpsest of Lllcan at Vienna, Naples and
Rome. The Codex BembÙms (
53) of Terence at Rome, for speci-
men see Plate III. The palimpsest of Cicero De Re Publica at
THE TRANS:\lISSION OF THE BOOKS.
47
Rome, for specimen see
106 and Plate II. Palimpsest of Cicero's
Orations at Turin. :\Iilan and Rome (from Bobbio, see
60 above).
Palimpsest of Cicero's Orations against Verres at Rome. A few
leaves of a palimpsest of Livy at Turin. Palimpsest of Gaius at
Verona. Palimpsest of :\Ierobaudes (first half of the fifth century)
at St. Gallen. Fasti at Verona. FIFTH or SIXTH CE
TURY:
Palimpsest of Ulpian at Vienna. Palimpsest of Lactantius at St.
Gallen. Yatican fragments of the Jurists, Rome. Palimpsest of
Plautus at Milan (from Bobbio). Fragment. De Jure Fisci, at Ve-
rona. A few lea\'es of a palimpsest of Hyginus at Rome. Palimp-
sest of Gellius and fragments of Seneca at Rome. Manuscript of
the Grammarian Cledonius (fifth century) at Berne.
It will be noticed that of these twenty-four manuscripts, many 61
of which are badly mutilated, no less than fourteen are palimpsests,
but it must also be noticed that, valuable as these palimpsests are.
none has furnished us with the complete text of any work of any
author. Their testimony is usually decisive for such portions of a
given text as they contain, and, more than this, they often enable
us to select from later, more legible, and complete codices, the one
which is truest to the original.
THE KEEPING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
68 CARE OF THE l\IANUSCRIPTS.-The manuscripts recov-
ered as described above remained sometimes the property of
the abbeys in which they were fonnd, but more often passed by
purchase, gift or theft into the possession of individual owners, and
were at all times liable, as articles of ordinary commerce, to be
mntilated, lost, or destroyed. Those that have come down to mod-
ern times receive better treatment. All of any value are kept in
the great libraries of Europe, the property of the universities or
.. even of the various states. The rules governing their use vary
with their mlue and the spirit of the libraries where they are
kept. Some may be taken from the liQraries for the purpose of
study, others may be examined freely within the library itself, but
may not be removed from it, others still must be handled only by
an officer of the library, W110 finds the passage which the student
desires to examine, and reads or shows it to him. In general it
may be said that, when scholars are properly introduced to the
authorities, all reasonable facilities are given them for examining
and comparing even the most valuable manuscripts. The greatest
obstacle is the lack of complete descriptive catalogues to some of
the 1110st interesting and important collections.
69 NAl\IING OF THE MANUSCRIPTs.-Every library has its own sys-
tem of identifying its books and manuscripts by letters or nUlll-
bers, and by these letters or 11l11n bers added to the Latin name of
the library or city where they are kept the manuscripts are now
known and described. A malluscript that has passed from library
to library, as almost all have done, has borne of course the special
name and mark of each, and so has been known and described
differently at different times. Besides, many malluscripts were
4
THE KEEPING OF THE l\IANUSCRIPTS.
49
used by scholars when they were the property of individuals, and
were then called merely by the names of their owners. It follows,
therefore, that in using editions of an author separated by many
years we may find the name of a given manuscript varying with
the dates of the several editions. Owing to these changes in the 70
name it has sometimes happened that a manuscript has been sup-
posed to be lost which really existed but was disguised by a differ-
ent name, and also that readings from the same manuscript have
been quoted under its several names so as to lead to the belief
that the one manuscript was two or more. Such errors are sure
to be detected in the course of time by the identity of the quoted
readings, but they show how necessary it is to have a full history
and an accurate description of every ,'aluable manuscript.
DESCRIPTIONS.-As an example of the brief descriptions given 71
in modern critical editions the following is taken from Kübler's
edition of Cæsar's Gallic \Var (1893) in Teubner's series: "Codex
Amstelodamensis 81 saec. VIllI-X, olim Floriacensis, postea inter
libros Petri Danielis Aurelianensis, deinde Jacobi Bongarsii, inde
Bongarsianus primus dictus." The manuscript is number 8r in
the library of Amsterdam. was written in the ninth or tenth cen-
tury, was previously in the abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire (in France),
afterwards in the private library of Pierre Daniel of Orleans
(born 1530, died 1603), then in that of Jacques Bongars (born
1554, died 1612), and was consequently caned BOllgarsialllts þrÙlllts.
Critical editions usually add particulars as to the condition of the
manuscript. the size and number of pages, its style of writing, the
errors that occur most frequently. etc., etc. Examples are given
in connection with the plates. These descriptions are often hard
reading. because names of modern places and eyen persons are
Latinized, and these names are not given ill our dictionaries. Some
help in interpreting these names is given in the following para-
graphs, but completeness is not attempted.
50
LATII' :\IANUSCRIPTS.
72 hIPORTANT LIBRARIES.- The libraries with collections of clas-
sical manuscripts are too numerous to be described here, but the
most important are named in the following list in alphabetical
order by conntries. For further information see the article Li-
braries in the Encyclopædia Britannica, from wl1Ïch' this is con-
densed. There are no Latin manuscripts of any value in the
U llited States.
AUSTRIA: The Imperial Library at Vienna (VÙzdobolla),
founded in the fifteenth century, contains 500,000 volumes and
20,000 manuscripts (codices VÙzdoholleJlses). There are besides good
manuscripts in some of the monastic establishments, e. g., at
Saltzburg (SaIÙbztrgltlJl, codices SaIÙbllrgellSes). The University
Library of Prague contains 200,000 volumes with 3.800 manu-
scripts (C. Pragellses).
BELGIU:\I: The libraries of the universities at Ghent (Gallda-
um) and at Liège (LeodÙ:zt11z) have together over 3,000 manu-
scripts (c. Galldavellses and Leodicellses). The Royal Library at
Brussels (Bruxellae) contains 30,000 manuscripts (co Bntxellellses).
73 DENMARK: The Royal Library at Copenhagen (Hazmia),
founded in the sixteenth century, has 500,000 volumes and nu-
merous manuscripts (co HaunieltScs).
ENGLAND: At Cambridge (Calllabr
iria) the University Library
has 6,000 manuscripts (c. CalltabrigÙmscs), with many others of
great value in the library of Trinity College. At Oxford (OxonÙz)
the Bodleian Library, founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley,
contains 30,000 manuscripts (c. BodleÙ11li, or Oxolliellses) and a
valuable collection of first editions (see
64) of Greek and Latin
authors. At London (LOIldinizt11l) is the library of the British
Museum, one of the largest and most important in the world,
which was founded in 1753 and contains 1,600,000 volumes,
including more than 50,000 manuscripts (c. Brz"tan1llà' or Londz o -
llellses). These manuscripts are often further described by the
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THE KEEPIïo;G OF THE
L-\
WSCRIPTS.
51
names of previous owners, e. g., codÙ;cs Townláanz', from the col-
lection of Charles Townley (1737-1805) and codices HarláaJli, col-
lected by Robert Harley (1661-1724), Earl of Oxford, and his son. 74
FRANCE: At Paris (Lzetetia Pan"úorlt11l) the National Library
is the largest library in the world, founded in the fourteenth cen-
tury, containing 100,000 manuscripts (c. ParÙÙn", or Parisiaci).
i\Iany of these were formerly in the ancient Royal Library (c.
Regii) or less important collections e. g., at St. Germain (c. San-
ger11lallenses), and at Fontainebleau (c. Blialtd
fontaJn"). Some few
good manuscripts still remain in provincial towns, e. g., at l\Iont-
pellier (c. iJfollteþessltlani).
GER
IANY: Almost all the universities have large libraries
containing manuscripts of value. The Unh'ersity of Heidelberg
(HeÙlelberga), situated in the Palatinate, has over 400,000 vol-
mnes and many manuscripts (co PalatÙzz") , and the University of
Strassburg (Argelltoratltm) has 500,000 volumes and some good
manuscripts (c. Argelltoratellses). At Berlin (BeroIÙut11z) the Royal
Library contains 15,000 manuscripts (c. BeroIÙze1lses). At Dresden
(Dresdena) the Royal Library has about 500,000 volumes with
4,000 manuscripts (c. Dresdmses). At Gotha the Ducal Library has
more than 6.000 manuscripts (c. Gotham'). At Munich (lIIolla-
chÙt11z) the Royal Library, founded in the sixteenth century, is the
largest in the empire and contains 30,000 manuscripts (C. lIIolla-
ceJlses) , while the Unh'ersity Library has 1,800 more. The Royal
Public Library at Stuttgart (StuttgardÙz) has 3,800 manuscripts.
HOLLAND: At The Hague the Royal Library has 4.000 manu- 75
scripts. At Leyden (Lzegdltlllt1Jl Batavorlt11l) are 5,000 manuscripts
(c. Lddenses or Lugdwzenses Batavz O ). At Amsterdam (Amsteloda-
1Jllt1Jl) are some very valuable manuscripts (c. A1Jlstelodamellses) in
tIle library of the university.
ITALY: Of the numerous collections of manuscripts in Italy
(
63) only the most noteworthy can be mentioned here. At
')
:,-
LA TIN l\IANl'SCRIPTS.
Florence IS the Laurentian library attached to the church of St.
Lorenzo; it contains some 10,000 manuscripts, chiefly from the
library of San Marco, the collectious of the Medici and Leopoldo
families, and the library of John Ashburnham, of England, pur-
chased by the Italian government in 1884 (c. Floreutziu", LauYe1l-
tÙmz", ilIedÛ;ez', S. lVIarâ, LeoþoldÙu", Ash bu Y1Z ham z"i, etc.). The
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FIG 7. \'ATICAN LIßRARY
BibJioteca Riccardiana, founded by the Riccardi family and pur-
chased by the government in 1812, contains 3,800 manuscripts (C.
76 RÚ:cardz"ani). At Milan (lIIedlolalllt1Jl) the Ambrosian library has
8,000 manuscripts (C. lVIedlOlancllses or A11lbyoÚani), including some
famous palimpsests. At Naples there are 4,000 manuscripts in the
National library and museum (C. Neaþolitani) , some from the old
.
THE KEEPING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
53
Bourbon library (c. Borbonzf:z"). At Rome is the Vatican Library,
the most famous and magnificent but not the largest in the world,
containing some 23,000 manuscripts (c. Va/zeam. or R011la1ll").
Among these are most of the manuscripts brought from Bobbio
(
60), 3,500 taken from Heidelberg in 1623 (c. Pa/a/ini, see
above), many bequeathed to the library in 1600 by Fulvius Orsini
(UrsÙzus, c. UrsÙz Ùl1l i) , others purchased from Duke Federigo of
Urbino in 1655 (c. Urbina/es) , from Queen Christina of Sweden by
Pope Alexander YIII (c. RegÙzeJlses or Alexandrzlzz") , and from
Cardinal Mai, and many other only less famous collections. The
library is not fully catalogued and its management is far from lib-
eral. Two other libraries, the Bz"blzoteca Cosalla/ense and the Bib-
botcca VÜtono E11lallllelo, have recently been united and contain 77
more than 6,000 manuscripts, most of them from the important
collections of the Jesuits of the old Collcglo Romano. At Turin
(Augusta TaUrÙlOrU1Il) are some good manuscripts (c. TaurÙzenscs)
in the University Library. At Venice (lelletz"ae) the l\Iarcian
Library, founded in the fifteenth century, contains many valuable
manuscripts (c. Veneti, l1Iarcialll', or VCJleti MarcÙl1li) , and there
are others at Verona in the Cathedral Library (c. Veronl'1lses).
SWITZERLAND: There are good libraries with valuable manu-
scripts at Basle (c. BaszlÛ!1lses), at Berne (c. BerlleJlses) , at Ein-
siedeln (c. EÙzsidlC1lses) , at St. Gallen (c. Sangallcnses) , and at
Ziirich (c. TurÚ:nzscs).
INDEX TO COLLECTIONS.-In the following list are arranged 78
alphabetically the names of manuscripts mentioned above, with
a few others occurring in critical editions of school classics:
AlexandrÙÚ (Rome), AmbrosÙl1li (Milan), A msteloda11le1lses
(Amsterdam), A rgeJltora/enses (Strassburg), AshbuYlzha11lzani
(Florence), Baszlienses (Basle), BcmbÙzu.s (of Cardinal Pietro
Bembo, 1470-1547), Berlle1lses (Berne), BerolÙlenses (Berlin),
BlandÙzÙl1li (Blankenberg, Belgium). Blzaudifontmzz" (Fontaine-
bleau), Bodlezam. (Oxford), BongarSZallllS (
71), Borbomci (Na-
ples), Britannia" (London), Bruxcllenscs (Brussels), Budenses
54
LATIN MANLTSCRIPTS.
79
(Buda, Hungary), CantabrigÙnses (Cambridge), Carolz"rllhellses
(CarIsruhe), Colber/ziâ (of Jean Baptist Colbert, 1619-1683,
statesman, France), Colon lenses (Cologne), Corbàensis (of Cor-
vey, town with monastery, in Germany), CllÙzÚanlis (of Jacqnes
Cujas, 1522-1590, France), EÙISidlellses (Einsiedeln), Florelltilli
(Florence), FlorÚlællSzS (
71), Fuldenses (Fulda, Germany),
GudÙl1li (of :l\Iarquard Gude, 1619-1700, Germany), GraevÙl1llts
(of J. G. Greffe, 1632-1703, Netherlands), Guelferb}'/ani (Wol-
fenbüttel, Germany), Hazmlellses (Copenhagen), Laurell/iam'
(Florence), LeÚlellses (Leyden), LeoþoldÙzi (Florence), Liþszálses
(Leipzig), LondÙle1lSeS (London), lIfardam o (Venice), Ma/ri/ellst's
(l\Iadrid), MedÙ:à (Florence), lIIcdzOlancnses (Milan), MinoYll1t-
glenses (of Augia
Iinor, an ancient abbey in Anstria), MOlla-
CCllses (Munich), MOll/eþessll/alli (Montpellier), fi-foysÙlCe1lSeS (of
the abbey of l\Ioissac, France), Neaþo/zialll' (Naples). Oltobmzlalll'
(of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, 1668-1740, nephew of Pope Alex-
ander VIII, Vatican, Rome), OxonÙ?1lses (Oxford), Pa/a/Ùzz o
(Heidelberg, Rome), Parisiad, or better ParisÙzi (Paris), Petro-
þolitalli (St. Petersburg), Pragenses (Pragne), RegÙlellSeS (Rome),
RE'gÙ (Paris), RegÙJ1JlOll/a1ll" (Königsberg), RÚ:cardÙl1li (Flor-
ence), S. lIIard (Florence; to be carefully distinguished from
MarcÙllli aboye), Sangal/mses (St. Gallen), Sanger11lanellses (St.
Germain), Scaligeranlls (of J. C. Scaliger. 14 8 4- 1 55 8 , or J. J.
Scaliger, 1540-1609), SOrbOIlÙlm" (of the Sorbonne, a depart-
ment of the University of France), Tattrz1lellSeS (Tnrin), Thua-
1zeus (of Jacobus Augustus Thuaneus (De Thou), a statesman
and historian of France, 1553-1617), Tole/ani (at. Toledo, Spain),
Turiænsz"s (Zürich), Urbinates, UrsÙ
Ùl1li, Vaticaui (Rome),
Ve1leÚ and Vnzetz" lIfarcÙ11li (Venice), VCrmlCllSeS (Verona), VÙz-
dobollellses (Vienna), VOSSzll1lliS (of Isaac Voss, 1618-1689)'
Vratz"slavlenses (Breslau).
SYl\IBOLS FOR THE MANUSCRIPTS.-In editions of the classics
in which the manuscripts are frequently mentioned, it is custom-
ary for the editors to use in place of the name or names of each
manuscript, often long and unwieldy (
71), an arbitrary symbol,
usually a letter of the alphabet or a numeral. These symbols
are prefixed to the descriptions of the manuscripts where they are
first giyen, usually in the introduction or the critical appendix.
For example, to the description quoted above (
7 1) Kübler bas
80
81
THE KEEPING OF THE 1\IANUSCRIPTS.
55
prefixed the letter A, and by this symbol the given manuscript,
codex Amstelodameusis 81, is known throughout his edition of the
Gallic \Var. Scholars may therefore call this manuscript briefly
"Kübler's A." It happens unfortunately that there is no gener-
ally accepted system in accordance with which these symbols are
selected and used by scholars. Some editors arrange their manu-
scripts in the order of their supposed importance and letter them
A, B, C, etc. Others use for each manuscript the first letter of its
name or of some one of its several names. Others still, using 82
manuscripts quoted in some earlier standard edition,. retain the
symbols adopted by the earlier editor, as Kübler seems to have
done in the case just cited, adding new symbols, of course, for such
manuscripts used by them as the earlier editor did not quote. In
using at the same time different editions of the same author, the
student has, therefore, to be constantly on his guard against con-
founding these symbols. For example, in the three editions of
Cæsar's Gallic \Var by Holder (1882), Kübler (1893) and l\Ieusel
( 18 94), the symbols for the six most important manuscripts are
shown in the following table:
NA:\IE OF IIIANUSCRIPT.
Holder. Kübler. Meuse!.
Codex A11lste/oda11lCllsis,81 A A A
Codex ParzsÙllts LalÙllts, 5056 11/ 1\1 Q
Codex ParzsÙllts LatÙllts, 5763 B B B
Codex ROma1lllS Vaticau1ts, 3864 R R A:f
Codex ParzsÙllts La/iulls,5764 . T T a
Codex Vaticaults,3324 U U h
It will be seen at once that the three editors agree in the sym- 83
bols of but two manuscripts out of the six, and that, while Holder
and Kübler may be used together without confusion, great care
must be taken when the readings of Meusel are compared with
those of either of the others. Such changes of the symbols are,
of course, even more confusing when they are made in the same
,
56
LA TIN MANUSCRIPTS.
work. Thus, in the fourth edition of Orelli's Horace (1886- 188 9)
the codex Ambrosialllts is marked 0 in the first volume (Odes and
Epodes, by Hirschfelder), while in the second volume (Satires and
Epistles, by Mewes) it is marked a. No reason is given for the
change, except that Mewes adopted the symbols of Keller and
Holder (1864-70).
84 FIRST AND SECOND HANDS.-Mention has already been made
(
37) of the correction of errors in ancient manuscripts, and it is
hardly necessary to say that such errors and corrections are no
less frequent in those of later date. Sometimes the scribe himself
discovered his mistake and erased the wrong letters, inserting the
right ones in their place, or wrote the correct reading between the
lines above the blunder, or in the margin, in the last case indi-
cating by dots or other simple marks the place where the correc-
tion "Tas to be made. Sometimes a later reader introduced in the
same way corrections, or at least variations, derived from other
manuscripts or from his own sense of the appropriate. Now, it is
often important to distinguish these corrections from the original
reading and from each other, if they were made by different per-
85 sons. If some of the corrections are seen to be in the same writ-
ing as the text they are said to be by "the first hand;" others
are said to be by the second or third hand, according to their age.
These hands are indicated by the editors in several ways: some-
times by small figures written as indices after the symbol used
for the manuscript, e. g., A', A2, etc.; sometimes when the manu-
script is denoted by a capital letter, e. g., P, the correctors will
be marked p, p', etc. Here, too, there is a lack of agreement
among editors.
86 COLLATIONS OF THE l\fANUSCRIPTS.-It is no longer necessary,
as it once was, for a scholar engaged upon a given work to travel
all over Europe, from library to library, to examine the scattered
manuscripts of his author. Of all important manuscripts of the
-,.,..- - .
..' ..
,P"
.
.. I
. H" ,,'.. .. ..'
: ,.1'.
,
' ,. .
.' "" " J"'<\
,-(.
14
" f'
...
./ , · ,".... f )!'.
, ,.
. ,
utr: tf
'.-'
,
,&
'41uf
1'4M'H' ',' .
, '..-,
" . v." /I \ . ,.. II, t'
'
ad1r.
· M
Ab ..'
. - ....'..
M-e tuteú · '.,'
. , 1
=
-'
"
_.J1'. -
'Ç
mu1tt' Uk
., '.,. . III 't,.... .
..
(,onÿ
,
-,
1f"
:U\r ' ,.. 9
4cP '., J · . /' t""
-'
,<1l ",.. ,...' ,.
mu1nf
4
, J ,'",' " . j cork"
,
Ab'" ,. w" ."" "'.
!J . t' .
...... .,'
ptrþAm1f
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Ltd"ffnr
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. '1.ll ttá.--.,. ... , " 1W
/
I
," "#' a. '..L m f,\ftf-1
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ro ,
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tt\ -. '
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.... #f;
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4bW
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'rom.
trf .'" .
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....a' \ II L\III.
THE KEEPING OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
57
classics copies have been made, called collations, and published to
the world. These collations are not complete copies of the manu-
script, word by word, much less fac-similes, but give merely the
variations of the given manuscript from some other manuscript,
or better from some printed edition, of the author, which the col-
lator has taken as his standard. For example, take the third sen-
tence in Cæsar's Gallic \Var with Lowe and Ewing's text as the
standard: Gallos ab AquitanzS Garzllll1la ßU1JZcn, a Belgis l1fatrona
et Sequana dz"vÙIÜ. Now, if we wished to publish the reading of
the codex Vaticallus 3324, marked V by Kübler, a complete copy
would require eleven words. As it happens, however, U differs
but once from the text we have taken as our standard, and V's
reading of the whole sentence is sufficiently indicated by printing
this one word, preceded. of course, by the number of the line in
the standard text, in which the variation is found: 5, ganmna, V.
The saving of time, labor, and expense by these collations, to 87
say nothing of the wear and tear of the manuscripts, is very great,
but over against this advantage must be set the danger of errors,
owing in the first place to slips of the collator, and in the second
place to slips of the printers who reproduce his work. These
errors are being gradually removed by new collations made with
far greater care and skill than were formerly employed. Of some
very valuable manuscripts, however, which have been destroyed or
lost, or which by mutilation or decay have become illegible, editors
have still to depend upon early collations which are known to be
inaccurate and untrustworthy.
Of a very few manuscripts exact reproductions have been made,
either from type or by photography. The latter process may be
depended upon accurately to reproduce the original (see the Plates
in this book) when the ink is not too dim; the former (e. g.,
l\Ierkel's Aeschylus, Studemund's Plautus A) is exposed to the
same risks of error as the less elaborate collation.
58
LATIN MANUSCRIPTS.
88 UNCOLL 
