Writing

i. The Antiquity of Writing. — The practice of writing in the countries of the nearer East goes back to a remote and indefinite antiquity. Looking only at the nations connected in some measure with Palestine, we find evidence of tlie use of \\Titten characters at a date far earlier than the beginnings of anything tliat can be called definite Hebrew history.

In Egypt, in- scriptions have been found containing the name of Menes, the first king in tlie first dynasty known to subsequent ECTptian chroniclers, whose date cannot be much later (and may be earlier) th;in B.C. 5000, while other inscriptions are believed to belong to yet earlier rulers. Tliese are inscribed upon stone : the earliest extant e.\ample of writ- ing upon papyrus is one found at Sakkara in 1893, containing accounts dated in the reign of As.sa, the last king of theStli dynasty (c.

35SU-3530 B.C.) To the same date purports to belong the first recorded literary composition in Egypt, the Pro- verbs of Ptah, hotep, preserved in tlie Papyrus Prisse, though the papyrus itself is of a much later date (c. 2500 B.C.) In Babylonia, inscrijitions are extant of Sargonl., who flourished about B.C. 3750 ; while the thousands of tablets found at Telloh prove the free use of writing among the Sumerian • This word may be a denom. from p^N ' dust/ and mean ' get dusty ' (cf.

xiue, Mvfttt), or may be ft dialectical variant of p;g clasp,' embrace. inhabitants of Babylonia at an even earlier date, wliich cannot be placed lower than B.C. 4000. From Palestine itself we liave no remains of so early a period; but the tablets of Tel el-Amarna (see I iii.) include several letters written by the governors of cities in Palestine to their masters in Egypt in the 15th cent. B.C.

; and recent excava- tions at Knossos in Crete liave brought to light a large quantity of inscribed tablets, partly hiero- glyphic, but mainly linear in script, in characters as yet undociphered, which must also be assigned to about the middle of the second millennium B.C.

How far tliese are to be regarded as the ancestors of Greek writing is a point stiU undeter- mined ; but they complete the proof that in the countries surrounding Palestine, and probably also in Palestine itself, writing was an art well known and familiarly practised for many centuries before the earliest examples of Hebrew writing at present extant. 1;ITKR.\TURE. — Arts. Babvlonu, Eotpt, above; Petrie. Royai Toinbn of the First Dynasty at Abydos, 1900, Hist, of Egypt, L 81 ; L. \'V.

King, Enci/c. Bibl. i. 439-442 ; A. J. Evans, Annual of the British iSchool at Athens, 1899-1000, pp. 65-63. ii. Materials. — Many materials were used in Palestine and the adjoining countries for the reception of writing at various times, (a) Stone is almost everywliere the earliest material on which writing has come down to us. The earliest inscrip- tions in Egj'pt and Babylonia are on stone.

Stone is also used for the Hittite inscriptions in northern Syria and Asia Minor ; and in Palestine itself the earliest considerable examples of ^vriting are the Moabite Stone and the Siloam inscription (see § iii.) The Hebrew books, moreover, mention the use of stone in the earliest periods of their history. The Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai is said to have been written on 'tables of stone' (Ex 31" 3-l'-^).

Moses commanded the people, when they passed over Jordan, to set up great stones, covered with plaster, and to WTite the Law upon them (Dt 27" ^ cf. Jos 8"^). Job desires that his words might be graven in the rock for ever with an iron pen and lead (Job 19-^). In Phoenicia and Greece, similarly, the earliest extant examples of writing are inscriptions upon stone.

(6) Clay was nsed predominantly in Assyria and Babylonia, the records and literature of which countries have come down to us mainly in the form of tablets of clay, on which characters in cuneiform writing have been inscribed while it was soft (see Babylonia). The discovery at Tel el-Amama, in Upper E"ypt, of similar tablets, containing the correspondence of the governors of the Syrian provinces and others with their Egyptian masters (see § iii.)

, shows that this kind of writing was the normal form of otiicial correspondence between Egypt and Syria, at any rate in the time of the 18th dynasty (c. 1400 B.C.) Tlie Knossian tablets also are of sun-baked clay. In Ezk 4' the prophet, in captivity in Assyria, is directed to draw a plan of Jerusalem upon a tile (Heb. Ubhendh, LXX Tr\li/Bo^). (c) Wood was largely used in many countries, in the form of tablets.

In Greece it appears to have been the principal material in use before the introduction of papyrus, and to have continued to be employed for special purposes long after that date. The earliest men- tion of writing in Greek literature (Homer, II. vL 109) describes a message written iv irivaKi irrvKrif. The laws of Solon were ^vritten upon wooden tablets (dtovcs and Kup^ea, Arist. Birds, 1354 ; Plut. Sol. 25).

Tablets, whitewashed in order to receive ink better, were employed for official notices in Athens in the 4th cent. B.C. (ypan/iareta \(\evKu/Uya, TtfdKwy XeXevKwiUnv, Ar. 'A$. IIoX. 47, 48) ; a set of such tablets, used for private purposes at Panopolia in Upper Egypt about the 7th cent, after Christ, is now in the British Museum (Add, MS 33300).

WRITING WRITING 945 Wooden boards, inscribed in tlie one case with lines from Homer, in another witli part of tlie Phtenissie of Euripides and the IhrnU of Calli- iiiachus, are in the British Museum and the Rainer Collection at Vienna resi)ectively, both having been found in Egypt. Many wooden tablets witii Egyjitian writing are also in existence, and Egyp- tian monuments represent scribes in the act of using such tablets. In Is 30' and Hab 2' the 'tablet' or 'table' [Heb.

li'm/i, LXX nviiof] is no aoubt wooden. The ' tables [same Ileb.] of the heart,' metaphorically spoken of in Pr 3', may be regarded either as wood or, in the light of Jer 17', more probably as stone. It is not always possible to tell whether the writing upon tablets mentioned by ancient authors is upon the wood itself or upon wax or some similar material with which the wood was covered.

Wax was certaiulv used sometimes, and in later periodswax tablets were the commonest form of note-books in Greece and Italy. Herodotus mentions such a tablet (vii. 23',)), and Cicero, Martial, and other authors refer to them very freiiuently. Many examples of them are still extant, notably those discovered at Pompeii.* (d) Bark is sjiid by Pliny {EN xiii.

11) to have been used for writing before pajiyrus was known, and it continued to be used in the AVest, though rarely, as late as the 5th cent, after Christ (M.ar- tianus Capella, ii. 136 ; though it is not quite clear that the books so described are intended to be con- temporary productions). From its name, liber, comes the Latin word for 'book.' (c) Linen also was used in Italy in amient times {libri lintci, Livy, iv. 7, x. 38).

The largest extant example of Etruscan writing is upon linen (in the museum at Agram). Linen was also used by the Egj-ptians for this purpose. (/) Lead was used in Greece and Italy, and probably elsewhere. P.iusanias (ix. 31. 4) mentions a leaden plate which he saw at Helicon, inscribed with the Worlcs and Days of Hesiod ; but the principal use to which le.ad (and other metals) was put as writing material seems to have been to receive magical incantations and charms.

Such tablets have l)een found, and men- tion of them is frequently made in magical pai)yri. ((?) Potsherds (Jffrpaito) were used at Alliens to receive the names of persons on whom sentence of banishment {ostracism) was to be pronounced. In Egypt they were very plentifully u.

sed for accounts, and especially for tax receipts ; in the Coptic period passages of Scripture and quasi, literary pieces were also inscribed upon potsherds, (/t) Leather plays a far more important jiart in the history of writing, especially of the Uible. It was used in Egypt ; leather rolls are extant from about B.C. 2000, and papyri of later date refer to docu- ments written on skins as far back as the 4th dynasty.

On the Assyrian monuments scribes are shown holding rolls which appear to be of this material. The I'ersians used leather to contain the royal records (;3a<ri\iica! ii(pOipai, Ctesias, ap. Uiod. II. xxxii. 4). Similarly, Herodotus states that the lonians of Asia Minor formerly used skins of sheep and goats, and that many barbarous peoples continued to do the s.anie in his own time.

In the OT, leather or skins are not expressly mentioned, but it is practically certain that this material was largely used, and was, in fact, the principal vehicle of Hebrew literature in historical times. The use of books in roll form is mentioned • Sir H. M. Stanle.v (Camhill Magazint, Jan. 1901, pp.

60, 01) recoffls that on hit) flrst visit to I'^andu, in IbTfi, portions of tlie NT, trttnsl:ilc<l or iHtmphnmcd bv him and hia companions, were written on ' tliiii and polJHhcd boards of wliito wood, aliout 10 by 12 inches. . DurinR the three months I remaine<l with Mtes.*!, the translations which we made from the Gospuls were very ropious, and the principal events from the Creation to llic Crucifixion wore also fairly written out, forming quite a hullty library' of hoards.' VOL. IV.

— 6o in I's 40', Jer 36- * etc., Ezk 2» ; and the roll form implies the use of either leather or papyrus (vellum not having been yet invented, and bark, so far as is known, never having been employed in Pales- tine). Papyrus might, no doubt, have been intro- duced into Palestine from Egypt, and there is a recorded case of its being sent to Phu;nicia in the \\i\\ cent. {Zeitsch. f. dgiipt. Uprac/ie, 1900, p. 11); but there is no evidence of its general use at this date.

On the other hand, the mention of the 'scribe's knife' {ta'ar hassuphcr, LXX tv ivpi} toO -/pan- ixariu^) in Jer 36 (43)^ probably indicates that the roll destroyed by Jehoiakim was of leather; since a knife (for the purpose of erasures) was p.art of the equipment of a scribe writing upon leather or vellum, but could not be used on so delicate a material as papyrus.

In Nu S^ it is implied that writing could be washed off with water ; but this was the practice in the case of papyrus as well as leather, so that the p;is.sageis imonclusive. Clearer evidence is given by later writers. In the Letter of Aristeas the copy of the Law sent from Jeru- salem to Egj'pt for the purpose of the version of the LXX is expressly said to have been written on di(p0^pai.

Further, tlie Talmud requires all copies of tlie Law to be written on skins, and in roll form ; and this regulation, which still remains in force for volumes intended for use in the synagogue, no doubt jioints back to an ancient tradition. All the evidence, in fact, seems to go to show that the OT Scriptures were habitually written on prepared skins, for which, in course of time, vellum was probably substituted in the case of ordinary copies (as distinct from synagogue rolls).

It is not im- Ijrobable that in St. Paul's request (2 Ti 4") for t4 /3t/3Xta, fidXicTTa Tcts fiffM^pdvas, the latter word refers to copies of parts of the OT.* (() Papyrus.— If skins probably played the most imjiortant part in the early history of the Hebrew Scriptures, the iiapyrus plant certainly did so in the case of the Greek.

The papyrus plant {ci/perus pap;/rus), which formerly grew in great profusion in the Nile (though now confined to the higher part of its course), was used from a very early date in Egypt as a material for writing. The earliest extant jjapyrus MS dates from the 5th dynasty (see § i.),and from about the 12th dynasty onwards many such volumes are known, with writings in all tiie varieties of Egyptian script — hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. From Egj'pt the use of papyrus spre.

ad into the neighbouring countries, and it was the iiniver.sal material for book-production in Greece and Italy during the most ilourishing periods of their literature. The LXX veisicm of the or was produced in Egypt under the Ptolemies, and there can be no doubt that it was written upon papyrus, like the hundre<ls of Greek documents of that period which recent dis/;overies in that country have brought to light. So, too, with the books of the NT.

These were written in Greek, in various parts of the Greek-speaking world — in Asia Minor, in Greece, in Rome, etc. ; and there is no reason to doubt that they were written on papyrus in the ordinary way. The only books wliicii may have been originally written in Palestine are St. Matthew and St. James ; but these, it must be remembered, would not at first bo written as sacred books, «o that the rules applying to the OT would not apply to them.

They, too, must almost certainly have been written on ]ia]iyrus; and on this material the Greek OT and the NT must have circulated habitually, if not exclusively, until the 4th cent, of our era. — The method of manufacture of papy- rus is described by Pliny [JJA xiii. 11-13).

The • The sugpestions that the fuf3/iiit»i were blank sheetA of vclluni, or note-books (which were sometimes made of velluni at that date), or accuunt-1x>oks, seem inconsistent with the im- ixirtance evidently attAuhed to them. 946 WRITING WRITIXG pith of the stem of tlie plant was cut into thin striiis, which were Uiid siiie by side to form a sheet.

Anotlier hiyer of strips was then luiil upon the first, at right angles to it, so that the wliole sheet was composed of two layers, in one of whicli the fibres ran horizontally, in the other perpendicularly. The two layers were attached to one another by moisture and pressure, with or without the addition of glue.t The sheets (KoWii/xaro, schedce) so formed were dried and polished, and were tlien ready for use.

They could be used singly, as for letters, accounts, and the like ; or a numuer of them could be joined together, so as to form a roll. According to rliny, the manufacturers prepared rolls (scapi) consisting of not more than 20 sckedoe ; but a scnbe who required more to contain the work lie was copying could attach a second roll to the first, and cut ofl' so much of it as might not be needed. The length of papyrus rolls, as actually used, varies greatly.

In ancient Egypt, when books were largely used for ceremonial and ritual purposes, they were often of excessive length ; the longest at present known measures 144 ft. IBut for prac- tical use much more moderate dimensions were necessary, and no Greek literary papyrus is known which exceeds 30 ft. The height varies from 15J to about 5 in. ; about 9 or 10 in. is a common height for a literary papyrus. The writing is nor- mally on that side of the papyrus on which the fibres lie horizontally, i.e.

parallel to the lengtli of the roll {recto) ; the verso is only used either when the scribe's matter exceeds the papyrus at his dis- posal, so that after filling the recto he is forced to continue on the verso, or (a commoner case) when the recto has already been used to receive some other writing. A roll of tlie first description (whether its material be leather or papyrus) is that men- tioned in Ezk 2'" (cf.

Rev 5'), which was ' written within and without ; and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.' The multi- tude of calamities is indicated by the writing ex- tending over both sides of the roll. An example of a roll so written occurs in a magical papyrus in the British Museum (Pap. cxxi.) Opisthograph rolls of the second description imply that the writer employed papyrus alre.

-idy once used, either because he was too poor to get any other, or too remote from a town where it might be obtained, or that the matter he wished to write was too unim- portant to justify the use of fresh papyrus.

Thus rough accounts are frequently written on the back of used papyrus ; or schoolboys' copies, as in the case of the ])apyrus which bears on its verso the Funeral Oration of ilyporides, roughly written in a school- boy's hand ; or we may have a literary work, WTitten for the private use of an individual, not for sale or for a public library, as in the case of the 'ASr}i'aluiv IIoXiTfia of Aristotle, which is written on the back of farm accounts.

Such literary MSS might, no doubt, occasionally come into the market as cheap copies, but they would form no part of the regular • Dziatzko (Wntersuchungen, pp. 31, 32) sugfcsts that in ancient Egj-pt the Bbres of the bark were used as well as the pith, the exclusive use of the latter being introduced after the Greek occupation ; but there is no authority tor this distinc- tion, and an examination of early Ej^yptian papjTi does not reven!

any essential difference in the method of "their manu- facture. Moreover, since Pliny states that even that part of the pith which was nearest the bark made material too coarse tor writing' purposes, the hark itself nuist have been still more unsuitable, and could not produce such excellent material as the papyri of the 18th and even earlier dynasties.

t Pliny's words, 'turbidus liquor vim (jlutinis pnebet,' are variously interpreted to mean that the muddy water (of the Nile) 'gives strength to the glue' (fitulinu, dat. plur.) or •answers the puri>ose of glue ' {f^tutimg, gen. sing.) Dziatzko (fip. cit. pp. 84, 85) states that a chemical examination of some fragments of papyrus disclosed no trace of glue between the layers, but showed that it had been applied to the surface, presunialjly to smooth and strengthen it.

Certainly it is not always possible to discern glue, but Bometimes it appears to be present. book trade. That the h.abitual use of tbem im- plied poverty, appears from Lucian (Vit. Auct. c 9), where it is one of the signs of the poverty- stricken disciple of Diogenes. The writing on papyrus was disposed in columns (ireMoes), the width of which, if not dictated by necessity, aa ip the verses of a poem, is generally from 2 to 3i in in thecaseof literary MSS of good quality.

In copies written without regard to appearances (like the 'A8. lIoX.), it might be considerably more. The title of a work was normally written at the end. The inner edge of the roll, or both edges, might be pro- vided with a wooden roller {dfupaXds), and volumes which claimed elegance of appearance were prob- ably always provided with them. Commoner copies were not so provided, but the edges were tlien generally strengthened by an extra strip of papyrus, to prevent tearing.

A <riX\iijSos, or thin strip of papyrus or vellum, was attached to the outside of the roll, bearing the title of the work ; such a fflWv^os, bearing the title of Sopliron's Miines, has been discovered at Oxyrhynchus (Ox. Pap. 301, now Brit. Mus. Pap. 801). The roll might be enclosed in a cover (^airiXT/s), to protect it from damage, and stored in a wooden ease (capsa) with several others. — The roll form of book con- tinued in common, if not universal, use until the 3rd cent.

; but from that date onwards (under the influence, no doubt, of the increasing use of vellum) papyrus books in codex form (like modern books) begin to be found, and the roll form gradu- ally drops out of use. The earliest fragments of the Greek Bible are written in the codex form, which seems to have been preferred by the Chris- tian converts. Vellum superseded panyrus as the material for the best books in the 4tli cent.

, but papyrus continued to be employed for inferior copies until the 7th cent. In 640, however, the Arabs conquered Egypt, and, by stopping the ex- port of papyrus, struclc the death-blow to its use as a vehicle of Greek and Latin literature. It continued to be used in Egypt to some extent for accounts and for Coptic documents ; but its literary importance was at an end. (^•) Parchment or vellum.

— This material may be regarded as a special development from the use of skins, described above ; but it occupies a far more important place in the histoi-y of literature than its parent. According to Varro {ap. Pliny, Elf xiii. 11), it originated at Perganium under Eumenea II. (B.C. 197-158), when tlie kinfj of Egj'pt, anxious to cripple his rival's growing library, forbade the export of papyrus.

The king of rergamum accord- ingly reverted to the use of skins, which had for- merly been general in .\»ia .Minor (st-e above; ; but the skins were made more suitable for literary pur- poses by a special preparation, and the material thus produced received from its place of origin the name of Trepya/i-nv/j, whence our parchment.

Parch- ment differs from leather in not being taniied ; the skins are merely stretched and dried, the hairs being removed from the one side and the flesh from the other, and the whole being smoothed with pumice. In modem usage the flesh side is also dressed with chalk ; the special methods, if any, of preparing ancient parchment are unknown.

"The skins used are principally those of sheep, lambs, and calves, but those of goats, asses, and swine may also be used ; and specially fine vellum is provided by antelopes. Strictly speaking, vellum denotes the material mamifactured from calves (and antelopes), and parchment that provided by sheep, etc. ; but prac- tically no distinction is made between them, and the term vellum is applied to all kinds of dressed skins used for the purposes of writing.

Of the character of the vellum SISS of Perganium nothing is known ; but it is certain that the material did not come into general use for literary purposes, in WRITING AVRITIXG 947 other countries, until a much later period. At Kome, in the 1st cent. B.C. and the 1st and 2nd cents, after Christ, there is evidence of the use of vellum, but only for note-books and for rough drafts or inferior copies of literary works (Cic. ad Aft .\iii. 2i ; Hor. Sit. ii. 3; Martial, .\iv. 7. 184, etc.

; Quintiiian, x. 3. 31). A fragment of a vellum MS, which may belong to this period, ia preserved in Brit. Mus. Add. MS 34473, consisting of two leaves of Demosthenes, de Fals. Leg., in a small hand, which appears to be of the 2nd century. The u.

se of vellum for note-books, which would be shaped according to the analogj' of wax tablets, the form of note-book previously existing, natur- allj' led to the evolution of the codex, or modern book form ; and the rise of vellum into favour for literary purposes is also the rise of the codex. Tliis appears to have taken place during the 3rd cent. , tlie final victory of vellum and the codex form being achieved in the early part of tlie 4th century.

When Constantine founded his new capital, he instructed Eusebius to have hfty MSS on vellum (<ru^Tia iv Si<p6tp(ui) prepared by skilled calligraiphers for the churches in it (Vit. Const, iv. 36, A.u. 331); and about the middle of the century the library of Pamphilus at Csesarea (consisting largely of the works of Origen), which had fallen into decay, was restored by Acacius and Euzoius, who had the damaged volumes rejilaced by vellum ('in niembranis instaurare conati sunt, Jerome, Ep. cxli. ).

The s^jread of Christianity probably had much to do with the change, by creating a demand for complete copies of the Scriptures. No papyrus roU of ordinary dimensions could hold more than one of the longer books of the NT, and a set of some 30 or 40 rolls would be necessary for the entire Ilible ; while the whole could be gathered into a single codex of not immoderate size.

Ex- amples of such codi('es from this very period re- niam in the celebrated Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, and probably also in the earliest copies of Virgil. The vellum of these early MSS ranks with the verj'linest in quality. For special magni- ficence, the vellum was sometimes dyed purple, with letters of silver or gold. The existence of such MSS in the 4th cent, is proved by Jerome's denunciation of them ('in niembranis purpureis auro argentonue descriptos,' Pr(rf.

in Job ; ' in- ficiuMtur memuranie colore purpureo, aurum liqucs- cit in litteras, gemmis codices vestiuntur, ad Eustochium de custud, virg.) To this period may perhaps be attributed the Codex Vcronensis of the Old Latin (jospela ; but oiost of the purjtte M^S now extant are of later dat«. Tliose of the Creek Gosjtcls are al] attnbittai)1e to theflth cent, (tlie codirea known OA Evann.

N, N», 2, +, and one recently broupht from Sinope to Paris, the latter and N» being written in gold letters, the others in silver, with gold only for the sacred name*). Other pun>le M.SS are the Coflices Palatinus and Saretianus (fith cent.), Vindo- bonensis and Hrixianus (<;th rent.) of the Old Latin Gospels, the Vienna (ienesis (oth cent.), which also has painted miniatures. the Gothic Gospels at Upsula (0th cent.), the .MeLz Gosnels and Psalter of St. Gennanus at F'aris (flth cent.)

, the Ziirich Greek Psalter (7th cent.), the Vulgate Gospels written by Godesciilc for Charlemagne (a.d. 781), the Hamilton Gospels, now in America, and two other copies of the Gospels at Paris (3th cent.) _ The last four, all written in the time of Charletn.igne (to which more of the same ami subsequent periods might be added), have letters of gold ; the earlitr MSS are in silver.

Among special curiosities of ornamentation may be mentioned two leaves gilded all over, with lettering in blue, containitig the tables of Eusebiat] Canons, from a copy of the Greek Gos- pels, of the 6th cent., in the British Museuin, and two books of prayers written on black vellum in gold and silver letters, of the 16tb to loth cent«., at Vienna. The sheet of vellum having been pre[)ared for use, it wa.

s folded into quires, a process nliicli causes hair-side to face hair-side, ami flesh-side flesh-side throughout the volume. Quires are found of various sizes, eight le.avcs being the commonest numher. In Greek MSS the tlesli-side normally begins the quire in Latin MSS the hair-side. Lines were ruled on the vellum with a blunt-pointed instrument, generally on the hair-side, making a furrow on that side and a rid"e on the flesh-side.

After the use of vellum had liecome well estab- lished, the writing was generally arranged in two columns to tlie page, sometimes less, but very rarely more. Tlie earliest MSS, however, show a larger number, the Cod. Sinaiticus having four columns to the page, and the Codd. Vaticanus and Patiriensia (5lh cent.) three.

It is probable that the use of narrowcolumns which this involves is a reminiscence of the narrow columns habitually found in i)apyri, from which these MSS were almost certainly cojued. A revival of this practice is occasionally lound in later MSS, as in Brit. Mus. Hoyal MS 1 D ii, con- taining part of the LXX, of which four quires are written with three columns to the page ; or the great Bibles containing Theodulfs recension of the Vulgate, which also have triple columns.

(/) Paper, the ultimate survivor in the competi- tion between the various vehicles of literature, is of much less importance for the history of writing than either papyrtis or vellum, on account of the lateness of its appearance in Europe and Western Asia. The date of its invention is unknown, but there seems to be no doubt that it was first manu- factured in China. About the middle of the 8th cent, it became known to the Arabs, perhaps as a result of their conquest of Sam.

ircand, in 704, and factories were established in Baghdad and else- where. Specimens of their workmanship have been found in Egypt, dating from an early period in the Arab occupation of that country. To this paper the names charta (often with the epithet Dinwisccna) and papyrus were applied, since it served to take the place of the material formerly known by those names. From the Arabs the knowledge of paper passed, after a considerable lapse of time, to the Spaniards and Italians.

The earliest known specimens are of the 12th cent., but it was only slowly that the new material made headway against the supremacy of vellum for literary purposes. Towards the end of tlio 14tli cent, it began to be used with some freedom in the book trade, and during the 15th cent, it was coming to supersede vellum for ordinary purposes, even before the invention of printing dealt the fatal blow to the older material.

It was formerly supposed that the earliest ptipcr, introduced into Europe from the East, was made from cotton wool, and a distinction was drawn between cotton paper and linen ]japer. Microscoiiic examination, however, shows that this is a delusion, and that no such thing as paper made wholly ol cotton has ever existed.

The name bomhyrina, which is used to describe the Oriental paper, has jirobably notliing to do with the material out of which it was made, but is a corruption of banihycinn, from liamliyce, in Syria, where it was manufactured. The materials out of which it was usually manu- factured were hemp or Hax, for which woollen cloth was subsequently substituted, and eventually (in the 14tli cent.) linen rtigs.

Water -marks, which do not occur in Oriental paper, were inlro- duced by Eiirojiean manufacturers in the 13tli cent. Tlie earliest known siiucimen is on paper used in the district of Ancona in 12'.I3. (m) The implements of wi-itinij have iiaturttlly dill'ered according to tlie various materials on wliich they had to be employed. A sharp, pointed metal instrument, known to the Greeks as (ttCXos, Lat. stilus, was u.sed for wriliiig on clay or wax tablets (cf. Job \'.)'

-*, Jer 17')- On papyrus the reed (xiXa^s, calamus) wiis used (cf. 3 Jn " 6i4 /lAarat Kal KaXd/xoi'), and pos.sibIy also on leathei (cf. Ps 4,5', whore the LXX has xdNa^os ypaixnaTiut). MetJil jiens in the form of a reed or iiuill hitve been found in the'so-callcd Grave of Ari.-.lotle at Eretrio^ 948 WKITING WRITING and (of the Roman period) in Italy and Britain. The quill pen is tirst mentioned by an anonymous biocia])her of Theodoric the Goth (c. 500) and by Isidore of Seville (c. 600).

— The earliest form of ink {ptiXav, atramentum, lyKavarov, incaustum, whence ink) appears to have been either the juice dis- charged by the cuttle-fish (I'ersius, iii. 13) or a mixture of soot and gum. This often gives excel- lent results, the ink of the Greek papyri, even from the earliest times (3rd and 2nd cent. B.C.), being often admirably black.

This kind of ink did not sink deeply into the material on which it was laid, and could be washed off without much dilficulty ; on papjTus this was the ordinary method of deletion on a large scale. Gall-apples are not mentioned until the 5th cent. (Martianus Capella, iii. 2-25), but were probably used con- siderably earlier. Metallic inks were not used with papyrus, but must have been adopted early in the history of writing upon vellum ; it is to the Hebrews.

The uncertaintj- which attends ths dating of the earlier books of the OT and of the materials upon which they are based, makes it dangerous to draw any conclusions from the references in them to the practice of writing. The discovery (in 1887) of the Tel el-Amarna tablets (Fig. 1), near the site of the capital of Amenophis IV.

, containing correspondence, in cuneiform characters and in Babylonian dialect, between the Egj'ptian governors or vassal princes in Palestine and Syria and the king and his minis- ters in Egj-pt, proves that writing was practised in Palestine at a date either a century before the Exodvis (if that event be assigned to the reign of Merenptah, as commonly held), or contemporary with tiie Hebrew entry intj tlie Promised Land, according to the alternative chronology.

There is also no difficulty in believing that Moses, having been brought up in the Egyptian court (cf. Ac 7-), was acquainted with the art of writing ; tbough, of <rf// r^ ^ n«. 1.— cnsKiroRM n (Brit. Mu8. BU. 88-10-13, 75.) this element that the erosion seen in so many early vellum MSS {e.<j. the Codex Vaticanus and the Coilex Alexandrinus) is due. In the Middle Ages a less corrosive ink is generally used. Some beautiful specimens remain from about the begin- ning of the 8th cent., e.g.

the Codex Amiatinus and the Lindisfarne Gospels. Many recipes for ink are recorded in mediaeval MSS ; the principal ingredients are gall-apples, vitriol, and gum. LlTEliATiniB.— Birt, Dasantikr Bxichmsm, 1882 ; Gardthttusen, GriechuKhe Paltwijraphie, 1879; Thoni)>son, Uandbouk it/dra-k and Latin Pa/ceajraphti, cc.

ii-iv, 1803; Dziatzko, Untersrtch- ungen uber awiijcwuhlle KapUel dea aniiken BuchueKem, 1900 ; Piet«chmann, Leder uitd Unlz als Schreibmatmai hex den Aeijupten (SaTmnlinig bibliothekTOissenscliaftlichcn Ar- ntiU'n, Hft. 8), 1S95 ; Karabacek and Wiesner, Vas arabisclte Paiwr (Mitth. aiis d. Saminluni; d. I'apvrus Erzherzog Rainer, II. 87 9), 1887; Buhl, Caium and Text o/ the OT, EnK. tr. i 74, 1892; Kenjon, Palceoqraphy of Greek Papiiri, ch. U.

1899 ; W'attenbach, Dot Schriftwetm xm MiUelaUer^, 189«. iii. Hebrew Writing.— It is impossible to fix with any precision the beginning of writing among course, this fact in itself proves nothing as to his actual and immediate autliorship of the books ascribed to him. The name Kinath-sepher (.Jos 15'") is held by Sayce and some others (but see Moore, Judges, 26 f.)

to mean 'city of books,' which might indicate even the existence of a library (perhaps such a one as that of Ashur- bani-pal at Mneveh) or record -oflice ; and one interpretation of shfbet sopher in Jg 5" (LXX B if fiajibif SnjYqffCiiis ypafiuanu^, AV ' the pen of the writer,' RVm ' the stall' of the scribe ' ; but IIV ' the m.arshal's statV) finds a reference to writing in what is universally admitted to be a very ancient document.

It is not until much later, however, that indubitable evidence of Hebrew writing is found. The earliest extant specimens are on the bowU of Baal Lebanon (see Alphabet, vol. i. p. 73), the earliest of which may date from c. 1000 B.C., and the Moa/nte Stone, erected by Me.siia, king of Moab, about 850 B.C., to com niemorate his o^vn revolt against Jehoram.

This WRITING WRITING 9-19 In written in a dialect scarcely diflfering from Hebrew, and in the ancient Hebrew characters, which were a development from the original I'hoe- nician alphabet (Alphabet ; for facsimile see MoAU). It is followed by the Silonm inscription, attributed to the reign of Hezekiah (c. 700 B.C.) or Manasseh (c. 650 B.C.), the characters of which are a modification of those on the Moabite Stone.

Somewhat later still, probably, are the inscriptions on the iar-handles found by Dr. Bliss at Tell ej- Judeiden, which are assigned approximately to 650-500 B.C. {PEFSt, 1900, pp. '2u7, 341). Of actual Hebrew writing in the old characters we have no remains, since our earliest extant MSS belong to a period lung after the adoption of the square characters ; but their appearance may be learnt from the MS.

S of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, the Samaritans having retained the ancient alphabet when the Jews abandoned it, after the Captivity, in favour of the Aranuuan characters, which ^epre^ented a dirt'erent line of descent from the original Phoenician alphabet. which were to be used in the services of the syna- gogue. These must always be leather rolls, not in modern book form ; and they must be written with the most scrupulous care.

'A sj-napofue roll must be written on the ekins of clean aninmlij, prepared for the particular use of the syno^o^e by a Jew. These must be fastened to^'ether with Btrin^fstaken from clean animals. Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, etjual throughout the entire codex. The length of each column must not extend over less than 48 or more than 6u lines ; and the breadth must consist of tliirty letters.

The whole copy must be first lined ; and if three words be written in it without a line, it is worthless. The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other colour, and be prepared according to a definite receipt. An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least to deviate. No word or letter, not even a ynd, must be written from memor}', the scribe not having looked at the codex before him. .

Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must inten'ene ; between every word the breadth of a narrow consonant ; between every new parriahdh, or section, the breadth of nine consonants ; lietween every book, three lines. The fifth book of .Moses must terminate exactly with a line ; but the rest need not do so. Besides Uiis.

the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, wash his whole body, not begin to write the name of Qod with a pen newly dipped in ink, and X T" ^«iS*|»fi i> ^w-w i»3T»T> ^p I 'mn >» irti -ftj.-. vv« lii tiHi WB -1} I? TiWt3TV7^t>3^Jn 'P. fit K. f fio. 2. — ntrriRKW msTATKrcn cooKx, Oni cent. (Brit. Mus. MS Or. M46, reduced). The old characters remained In use on coins of the Maccab.

t"an jieriod, but they had fallen out of use for literar>' jmrposcs long before the time of our Lord, and there can be no doubt th.at the book.s read by Him (e.g. Lk 4") were written in the square alphabet, in which the smallness of the letter ytid justilied the metaphor of Mt 5".* The square characters of the earliest period were not identical in form with those of the MSS now extant, but they were their direct ancestors. So far we have very little light a.

s to the appearance of the MSS in which the Hebrew Scriptures were prestjrved ; it is only when we reach the period of the Talmud (c. 300-.500) that we find those principles being laid down which, stereotyped by the Massoretes, have fiven us the MSS now extant (l''ig. 2).

Minute irections are given for the copying of the Scrip- tures, especially of those volumes of the Law • An Isolated survival of the old alphal»et occurs In the case of A(|iiila, in whose Greek OT the name Jehovah was regularly written in these characters. Origen's stateniont to this effect has been conflrmed by the fragments of Aouila recently dis- covered at Cairo, and nowat Canibridge (fturliitt. /''ra^m*nfs qf AqvUa, 18B7, ct. Taylor, Omizah FragmimU, p. 20 f.)

should a king address Mm while writing that name he most take no notice of him' (S. Davidson. Text of the OT '', p. H»). Vowel-points are never added in synagogue rolls. Originally absent from Hel)icw writing altogether, vowels were first represented, wlien some special need required their indication, by the semi-vowels 1, ', n, and sometimes n, technically known as matrts lectioni.i. The insertion of these signs gives what is known as the scriptio plena, their omission the srriptio drfrrtivn.

The date of the introduction of tliis device is uncertain, but it must be later than the production of the LXX. The more complete and satisfactory .system of vowel-points was introduced about the 7th century. An alternative .system, in which the |M)iiits are supraliniar instead of infralinear, is found in the oldest dated MS (the St. Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, A.D.

1)16), and in some others : this is sup- posed to have been practised at IJabylon (but not exclusively even there), but never gained general acceptance. Vowel-points are habitually inserted in MSS other than synagogue rolls, but it was a rule that the consonautal text should be written 950 WRITI^^G WRITING independently, and the points added by a different scribe. — Acceiituation was probably introduced into Hebrew writin" at about the same date as vowel-points (5th-7th cents.)

, and used to denote the logical interrelation of the several words in the sentence, as well as their vocal modulation in pub- lic reading. — Separation of words is effected in the Moabite and Siloam inscriptions by the insertion of a dot ; but the frequent mistakes in the division of words in the LXX, and the subsequent intro- duction of the ' linal letters,' show that in early MSS Hebrew writing, like Greek and Latin to a much later period, was undivided.

The use of the five ' final letters,' to indicate the ends of words, belongs to a date intermediate between the version of the LXX and the Talmud, a period in which most of the minuticB in the practice of the scribes probably originated. — Divi.iions of the text in Hebrew MSS are of various kinds. The larger divisions, corresponding roughly to our chapters, are the ' open ' and ' closed sections.

Open sections begin a new line in the MSS ; and if the previous section has ended at the end of a line, a whole line is left blank before the new section begins. Closed sections follow on in the same line as the end of the previous section, a blank space only being left between ; or, if the previous section ends too near the end of a line to admit of this, the next line is indented.

Late MSS sometimes insert the letters s or o in the blank space, to indicate an open or a closed section re- spectively. In the Law the MSS agree generally in their distribution of open and closed sections, but in the Prophets and Hagiogiapha there is considerable divergence, indicating difierence of tradition in diflerent Massoretic schools. This section-system was certainly introduced before the time of Jerome, and probably before the period of the Mishna.

— Another form of division was into sedarim, or lections suited to a three-years' cycle of the reading of the Law. The Pentateuch is divided into 167 sedarim, while of the other books, which were similarly divided, the Former Projihets have 77, the Later Prophets 107, and the Hagio- grapha 81. Side by side with this was a one-year cycle of the reading of the Law, which was in use in Habj'Ionia, involving a di\-ision of the Law into 5i pCird.ihiij6th.

These are indicated in the MSS, with a mnemonic mark to show the number of verses in each parasha. Verse-division is rarely found in synagogue rolls ; in MSS in book form having accents and vowel-points it is regularly practised. The earliest method of indicating the end of averse is by placing a sUluk (■') beneath the final letter ; subsequently the double point or colon (soph paiiik) was introduced.

The verses were carefully numbered by the Massoretes, as a pre- caution against interpolation ; but the systems of division practised by the Babylonian and Pales- tinian Jews respectively differed considerably, and the one now in use differs from both of these, being apparently due to the Massoretes. The margins of Hebrew MSS play an important part in their cliaracter, since they generally con- tain the Massorah and certain kinds of various readings.

The Massorah, or body of traditional commentary on textual matters, is of two kinds — the Greater and the Lesser Massorah. The Greater Massorah generally occupies the upper and lower margin of the page, whde the Lesser is placed in the outer side margin. Between the columns come the various readings known as the fCM and ^emrin (see Text of OT). The places of the Lesser Massorah and the various readings are, however, sometimes interchanged.

Often, too, the Hebrew text is accompanied by an Aramaic paraphrase, either in parallel columns or between the unes. — On the paleography of Hebrew MSS it is not necessary to dwell. Changes in tha manner of writing between the 9th cent, (the date of our earliest MS) and the invention of printing were slight, and the best authorities differ con- siderably in . their attribution of dates on tha handwriting alone.

Moreover, in view of tha stereotyped character of the text preserved in all extant MSS, not so much depends on the precise assignment of dates as in the case of Greek MSS. LiTERATrRE. — Ginsburgr, fntrod. to th* Ma^scrreti^o-CriHeeX Etiitioii of the Uebrew Bible, 1S!)7 ; S. Davidson. Text o/ tha 0T-, lSa9; Buhl, Canon and Text of the 0T-, Eng. tr. 1892; Wickes, Accentuatwn of the so-called Prone Jlooka, lth7; Driver, Notes on the Ueb. Text of the Books of Samuel, ISilO, pp.

ix- XXXV, see also p. 957 ; Weir, Short Hist, of the Ueb. Text, 1899. iv. Greek Writing on Papyrus.

— We are far better situated with regard to knowledge of the manner in which the Greek Bible was written than is the case with the Hebrew Bible ; for, whereas the earliest extant Hebrew MS is separated by more than a thousand years from the date of composition of the latest Hebrew book of the OT, we have (thanks to the discoveries made in Egypt within the last twelve years) Greek MSS as early as the date at which Greek first began to be used as a vehicle for the Scriptures.

From the first half of the 3rd cent. B.C. onwards we have a continuous stream of Greek MSS (not indeed biblical, liut showing how the biblical MSS must have been written), at first exclusively on papyrus, but from the 4th cent, after Christ also on vellum.

Greek writing upon papyrus falls into two cate- gories, literary and doeumentary, the former being used primarily for works of literature, but at times also for documents of special importance, such as petitions to the great magistrates ; while the latter, primarily used for all sorts of non-literary docu- ments (receipts, contracts, accounts, letters, etc.), was also occasionally employed for private copies of literary works.

Both classes have therefore to be taken into consideration with regard to the transmission of the sacred text. So far as the LXX is concerned, indeed, the non-literary hand is not of much importance, since there is no reason to suppose that the version circulated to any great extent among other than literary classes.

Copies were, no doubt, occasionally made in the common hand for poor people or for private use ; but it is not likely that this happened to such an extent as materially to atlect the textual tradition. With regard to the NT the case is different, as will he shown below. The literary hand of the Srd cent. B.C., at the time of the pro- duntion of the LXX, is known from the paji.vri extracled by Prof.

Petrie from the cartonna^'e of some mummy cases found by him at Gurob in 18S9, of which the best, from a palsogrophio point of view, are the fraffinenta of the Phoedo of Plato and the Avtiope of Euripides. These are written in a very small uncial hand, neat and firm, in columns about 6 in. high and 2J in, wide. According to a rough calculation, two rolls of about :i5 ft.

each would be required to contain the Book of Genesis in the style of writing employed in the Phoedo SIS ; and, even with a taller column and greater economy of space between the lines, it !• certain that such a book could not have been contained in a single roll of normal length. The uncial hand on papynis admits of occasional ligatures between the letters, so that the distinction between uncial and cursive hands is less sharply marked on papyrjis than on vellum.

Besides the sii'all literary hand Just mentioned, the early Ptolemaic pap^vri show a largnl and rougher uncial hand, hkewise used tor literary purposiB, but probably for cheaper and less carefully executed copi-s. The non-literary hands of the period are various, but for the most part are very cursive, with broad letters freely spaced out and large ligatures. In the 2nd cent. B.C.

two forms of literary hand are again found in existence (and it must be remembered that the extant evidence is still scanty, so that no description is likely to be exhaustive)— one (exemplified by the papyrus of H.vperides in Atherwijenem at the Louvre) being a square, flmi hand, larger than that of the Petrie Phcedo, while the other (conUined in « rhetorical papyrus, also at the Louvre) is smaller, weaker, and more sloping.

The non-literary hand is generally less straggling than in the previous century, the larger fonns of it being often very handsome, and the smaller neat and flowing. The 1st cent. B.C. is a period of transition, the Roman conquest of Ggjlit WIUTi:XG WRITING 951 leading pnuiuolly to a marked change of hand. Of literary iMipyh, few can be quite certainly attributed to this century, Iiut there are strong grounds for placing' tite llerculaiieuni rofld here, with a few othera from Eg^•pt.

Tlie lleruulaiieum papyri ahow a number of rather small, business-like hands, without much ornament, written iu narrow columns on papyrus of moderate hei;^ht, and from these a good idea may l)e formed of the appearance of a MS of the LX\ lu the generation preced- ing the birth of our Lord. For the 1st cent, of the Christian era, and especially for the second half of it, durinj; wliidi the books of the NT were written, we have f.airly good evidence a.

s to the current literary hand, and ample for the non • literary hand. The literary hand is rather larger than was usual in the I'tole- luaic period, with well-rounded curves and not infrequent ligatures ; a graceful style of writing, and, at its best (as in a papyrus of the 0</i/sscy in the British Museum), very handsome. It is not likely, however, that the authors and early copyists of the books of the NT often had writing of this excellence at their disposal.

A better example of the style in which the autographs of the NT may forthcoming. Under these circumstances, the NT Scriptures must have circulated much in privately written copies. A good example of such a copy of a literary work in a non, literary hand is provided by the papyrus of Aristotle's ' ABrjuaiwv lloXireia, written at the end of the 1st cent, on the back of used papyrus, in four diflerent hands, of which three are cursive and one a rou"h uncial.

The cursive hands use abbre\ iations treely for common words and terminations {e.g. j = iart, y' = y<ip, K' = KaL, K'^Kard, t =Ti]v, t' = 7-^s, t' = tCiv), and the possibility must be reckoned with that similarly wTitten JISS enter, to some extent, into the textual history of the NT.

The common hands of the Koman period are small and very cursive, and errors in transcription would consecjuently be easy ; to say nothing of the probable want of liabita of literary exactiiess among many of the copyists. No doubt, many well-written copies were also jjro- duccd, especially in tlie great towns where Christian communities were strong ; ami these would have a good chance of preserving a pure tradition, since :VTVtC2aTXKCTn C r ^ f ON rtZOYCl N >^'; r I 1 i — »_- — -■ ', •• ' FTO. 3.

— ORERK PAPTRrS ROLL, T. A ' r. (Brit. Mufl. Pap. ILI, Hyperides, jrro Euxenippo) have been written is provided by a MS of Hyperides in the HritiMh .Museum, written in the latter part of the 1st cent, in a hand akin to the best con- tem|>orary non-literary MSS (Fig. 3).

Even, how- ever, when the author's autograph or the first transcripts were produced by competent scribes, the conditions of circulation among the Christian community make it practically certain that the Scriptures must often have been copied by private persons, unHkillcd in the art of writing, and think- ing, not of producing a volume fit for the book market, but of reading for themselves, or trans- mitting to their friends, the all-important narrative of the Ma^iter's life.

Throughout the first three centuries of the Christian era the books of the NT must have circulateil mainly in channels out- side the ordinary book trade.

Public libraries did Dot require them; churches must often have lost their copies in times of |)ersecution ; proffssional scribes, unless they happened to bo Christians, would not be em])loyed to transcribe them ; and in nountry places skilled calligraphy would not be the literary hand of the 1st and 2nd cents, is clear and good, increasing in size, and perhaps in showi- ness, as time goes on. The most calligrnphically elal)orate l)ariyri extant (two copies of the Hind, bk. ii.

, at Oxford and in the British Museum) probably belong to the 2nd centurj'. In the 3rd cent, a new element enters into con- sideration, namely the adopti<m of the codex form, the roll form continuing alongside of it for a period which cannot be exactly defined. At first the codex form was inferior, as a style of book pro- duction, to the roll form, being an adaptation to literary purposes of a form which had hitherto been adopted mainly for memoranda and rough drafts.

There are signs, however, that it was early taken into use among the Christians for their private copies of the Scriptures. The evidence at present available is too scanty to justify dogmatism, but it certainly is the case tliat several of the earliest examples of the codex form contain Chris- tian writings, and that the majority of papyri of the 3rd cent, containing Christian writings axe in 952 WEITING WRITING the codex form.

Of the NT, two fraj,'iiients are extant which are assigned to the 3rd cent., and three of tlie 4th ; all these are in codex form. Of the OT there are three fragments of the 3rd cent., of which one is certainly from a codex, and one is uncertain. In addition, the Oxyrhynchus frag^ment containing alleged sayings of our Lord is a leaf from a codex of the 3rd century.

It appears, therefore, that the codex form was generally used among Christians at an earlier date than among people in general; for of 21 non, Christian papyri assigned to the 3rd cent, only two are written in this form. These early Christian codices are not showy specimens of the calligrapher's art; on the con- trary, they are somewhat roughly written, unoriia- mental productions, generally of small size, suitable, it may be thought, for easy conveyance and easy concealment.

This fits in with what has been said above as to the character of the MSS in which the books of the NT circulated before the recogni- tion of Christianity by the Stale. I'rof. Hort has observed (liitrud. to Ai', § 352) that the Codex middle of the line, that of a comma ; and at the foot of the line, thai of a semicolon. In a few extant papyri these distinction! are obser\'ed ; but oftener they are Dej,'lected, and the dot ia placed above the line to denote all values.

— Accentxiation ia not unknown, as it is in the eiirliest vellum uncials, but is rarely and sporadically applied- No papyrus MS has accents fully and systematically supplied, biit some of the best-written of them (notably the Bacchylides SIS) have them fairly plentifully. Leae well-written MSS liave fewer of them, and MSS in non-literary hands practically do not have them at all.

— Si'paratwn of word8 is not found, except in a few cases where ambiguity might result : here a single point is sometimes used to indicate th« correct division. This is again especially the case in carefully written MSS, which are always more fully suppUed with aids to comprehension than their commoner kindrecf. It is not at tU likely that any of the early copies of the books of the NT were supplied with accents or punctuation, or harl an,v indication of the division of words.

— The use of abhreviatutm in non-literary hands has been mentioned above. In addition to the symbola there described, a common method of abbreviation is to drop the tei-uiination of a word, writing the last letter which la retained above the Une : e.g. etv"^ or awT* for auric or auTAv, yoo." for yptifjtuec or ypxc^fxaTtui, Toiitff^ for ^onliriiatt and 80 On. Abbreviation by the omission of letters from the middle of a word is not practised, except in the common theological com> pendia (%.'

, (/;, ;tf . trfi^ X.T.X.), which are found from the 3rd cenL onwards. •^]•^•-KI X>)'|C>^'CC-Nil KKK UJNl : k; xiC)'Nif-r|i, IKii ■" fXKi xrrtn n'cii"ii>i loV "■ » I Ik: U- KH-lirt- MircJUKJ tJt'KK'rXJXK KCI JKlC'I'fl TtOK-KI IICCXJJlsl I IKK rXt^ Kr KIIXKJ Xtl >M k'XIC- f IHOI IXIOCKXIII It-XI INJI KKH- IXCt^M- CDfH M->tKI K I OtJOt "l-^v t- Vt»|'t )^HX^'"l'H>Kl>f or • V I ■ I H >j • I C) I • € : r )• X M M 1 • jj: Kll>Mt:i| JKIK KIO^'TO',' •'?- I" ■^'«.)C »*)'!

•: K'Xlf-CI'HO IIKIOfKVI KM tt>M'l-T' 1 IC)|'l"-^'l" t OlUX-^ ■^^»-' I- I f'l t- Kt Jl-| IMC'I'XfM I X C':K'XH>'>)'K:f-rc ■- M<? r c I « I D'^'t-sc ri I Kii? XJ"^;^fK' KXI l-v|>->'li>K!0 It-K.' I Xt-? lt>')"ro IK- VlfvX'l K r >,' K I i t"X M I- 1 f I t > «."1 ••• XXIOM ltlll«.M.K'HXx K XI Kl I n IIC-XI I ICI >| V XCMOMTi-Ct-YI-HNlrw 0 1 1 B X C I K t- 1 (" U < • I-.' I -I' ' iKl t- Kl t> U- M r Cl > 0 1 1 M ' AXl tl> rtlJlNlMXKI IX> K' XI « ■ n rt h4 1 i" K- VK I c x.' r« X H »<.)•<)'«."

M «.- 1 " X K tl ^t <•> iK'ioMx ro'^'ci I J I XXU))'K'KIK- VrXC'f!" r X r t- c -T fx v I ■<->^' '^ '^ xi, rt>-)'*j>")'xxft :c-3K3t'i ix.> 1 r M K- K i C- K- X r X..V.S 4 8 .^ K-QKi I c'c-oam:oj'i ti> FIB. 4. — GREEK CTJCIAIj COPET, STH CR.NT. (Codex Sarravianus, Leyden University Library, reduced.) Ephraemi in the Apocalypse must have been copied from a M.

S composed of small leaves; and it is possible that it was such a one as those which we have been describing, — a private copy, without beauty of workmanship, and perhaps witliout much attention to precise accuracy of transcription. From this predilection for the codex form even on papyrus, the Christian Church was well prepared to make use of it when vellum began to come to the front as the material for book production.

Before considerinij, however, the progress of paleography upon vellum, it will be as well to say something as to the minutiip of Greek writing upon papyrus. In ordinary literary papyri, the writing is arranged in narrow columns, often leaning to the right, in \mcial characters of medium size (smaller than is nmial upon vellum), admitting of ligatures between them to a limited extent. Enlarged initials are not used.

Pauses in the sense are indicated (if at all) by small blank spaces in the text, often accompanied by a paragraphm^ or short horizontal stroke below the first letters of the line in which ft sentence ends. — Punctuation in the ordinary- sense is veri' rarely found in prose MSS, but it occurs sponviically in a few MSS. In one or two very early MSS a double dot, like a colon, is used to separate sentences; but usually only a single dot is employed.

According to the strict system, developed by the Alexandrian grammarians, a dot placed above the line has the value of a full stop ; in the LiTERATFRE. — Thompson, Kenyon, Birt, Qardthausen, opp, eitt. ; Ulass, art. * Palaographie,' in Miiller's Handbuch d«r ktasMltchen Alterthumswis&enschaft (1S92) ; Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhrjnchus Papyri, pts. i. ii. (1899-1900). V. Greek Uncial Writino on Vellum. — The .supersession of papyrus by vellum has been de- scribed in § ii.

The supersession, however, was not immediate and absolute ; for it is clear that copies of the Scriptures continued occa.sionally to be inscribed on papyrus as long as the material itself was accessible. Frajjments of such MSS are in existence (such as a P.s.alter in the British Museum, and the Books of Zechariah and Malachi in a MS at Heidelberg) which are attributable to the 7tli cent.

; and much later than this no Greek MS on papjTus can be, on account of the Arab con- quest, which closed Egypt to the Christian world. But from the 4th cent, onwards papyrus takes a secondary place. From that century we have the Vatican and Sinaitic Codices, and we know by tradition of the 50 volumes prepared for the churches of Constantinople ; and it is not likely that any papyrus MS, extant or hereafter to be WRITING WEITING 953 discovered, can be put into successful comparison with these.

I'rom this time forward, iimreover, there was nothiuj; to prevent the free multiplica- tion of copies of the Scriptures, with all the resources of trained penniansliip.

The textual tradition of the NT henceforth runs, not through private copies, but through the great churclies and libraries ; and if Constantinople and Ciesarea used vellum, there is no reason to doubt that their ex- ample was followed in Kome and Antioch and even Alexandria ; indeed there is good reason for believ- ing, on palajographical grounds, that the Vatican and Sinaitic Codices, and still more the Codex Alexandrinus, were produced in Egj-pt.

It is therefore to vellum MSS that we nmst look for the custodians of the sacred text from about the date of the Council of Nicaea. The palsography of vellum MSS has been studied much longer than that of papyri, and rests on a far wider consensus of com- petent opinion. It may therefore be treated the more briefly here. The earliest vellum MSS show a resemblance to the papyri, not only in the use of narrow columns (see § ii.), hut in the liandwrit- in^ themselves.

It appears that, when vellum was taken into use begins in the middle of a line, the first letter of the first com- plete line) not only iirujicts into the margin, but is considerably enlarged. In later .MSS still these enlarged initials become the subject of ornamentation, until we reach the magniflcent illu- minated initials of the -Middle .\yes. In the Cth cent, the style of writing grows generally heavier, and there is more distinc- tion between the thick and thin strokes of a letter.

In many MSS, too, the characters are larger, espcciallv in the purple MSS, which ore a notable feature of this period. In Egyptian .MSS of this period (^,17. the Codex Slarchalianus of the Prophets) a somewhat stiff and angular style is wiopted, which is akin to the hand found in Coptic .MSS. After the Cth cent, the best age of uncial writing is past.

In the "th cent, the writing began to assume a sloping form, — always a sign of degeneracy,— and to compensate for its loss of natural strength and tirinness by excrescences in the shape of exaggerated knobe and bars at the extremities of the letters. Added to this a tendency to lateral compression is found, which culminates in the soK^led 'Slavonic' uncials which dominate the Sth and 9th centuries.

In these, whether upright or sloping, the letters are heavy and angular, and tall in proportion to their width. A letter like O, instead of being a circle, is compressed into an oval, or even a diamond shape ; while T, K, r, and other letters have large bars at the ends of their projecting limbs. A reaction occurs in the 10th cent.

, when a return to the S(|uare and well- rounded characters of the 4th to 6th cents, is seen ; but by this time the da)' for uncial writing was past, and ita place waa to be taken by a smaller and less cumbrous style. KH =«nj e n E ptij T H c ^-MT cjl5 M._ — *^. ■iT' \piCMUJN-. O I cl-^ oL^ (far TD UTXi-nrou GAu^u o <j . oLi •-xxr<'&r^^~ti-f< C(cr oltlfv-uj -rtnjj-rTT6-p » yy^ fXU mJ'Tra-yrajc-T-oLP, lin lLj-oc&rcn-n\c' I 'C cLi -r I Tl_p S-UjcLlo ujj OUJ-tTl M .

\* u ou M-O JJ o ^^ aj4a3 y-T-cU -TO u Lp dUcctr&tlLo o -xrou I H-«J-H o u cuj-To V ' X^dUo'crot !a "T "^^-f^ ° <6xo -fy-M crcL>-i • 6poax»^^i;XPMrprt.y.y.ou-i-cC'ctca-t KH no. 6.— ORKEK MnroSCtTLE COPRX, lOm < (Brit. MuB. Add. MS 11300). for the best copies of literary works, the scribes, abandoned the ■lopiny and somewhat ineleg-ant writing which is characteristic of the papyri of the 3r<i cent., and cast back to the better moflels of an earlier period.

The uncial* characters of the Vatican and Sinaitic Cwlico« appear to be modelled on the best papynis MSS of the Ist and 2nd cents., a square, upri^'ht uncial of medium size, written with m\]ch simplicity of style. Liga- tures betwet-n letters are entirely e8<:he\ved, and no cun-ivo element apjK-ars in the writinp at all. The Cod. Vatinanns ha.

s no punctuation or accents by the first hand, no st-jtaration of worris, no enlarged initials, no projoftion of lett*;r3 into the margin to denote a new paragraph. The same is the ca«e with thr- Cod. Sarravinnus (Fig. 4) of the Pent., probably of the early Sth century. The Co<!. Sinoiticus differs only in the lost detail, the first letter of a new paragmi>h projecting vcr>' slightly into the margin, hut witliout enlargement. In the Cod.

Alexandrinus, aHsitjiietl to the first half of the fith cent., the hand is larger and henner, the number of columns on a page is reduced to two, and the first letter of a new paragraph (or, if the paragraph • The terra la derived from an expression of Jerome's (prtnf. ttd Ji'b.\ 'unciallbus (* inch -long"), ut vulgo aiunt, litleris,' and is applied to writing in capital letters, each formed fcpnr- atfly, OS distinct from the smaller minuscule style, introduced in the 9th cent.

, which lent itself easily to cursive writing. In Tcllum MSS the distinction between uncial and mituiscule is clearly marked ; but on pap>TU» It Is leas evident, and uncial writinff on papyrus, as stated abore, admitted not infrequently a cursive elemeoL LrrKRATruK. — Thompson, typ. cit. ; Oardthausen, op. eCt. ; Pttlatoqraphiral Society, facsimiles of MSS; Oniont, Facgimil^s den pbiJi anciens manuacriis ;irri-ii . . de la Bibl. Nat. 1802; Kenyon, FacsiviUes of liiblical MSS in the Brit. Mus.

1900. vi. Greek Minuscule Writing. — The great defect of uncial writing n*^ a vehicle of literature wan its cunihrousness. Written witliout ligatures, in large, hcavily-fornicti letters, it occupied more time and more space than its predecessor on papyrus, and could not be adapted to the produc- tion of cheap or handy volumes.

Up to the 7th cent, tliis need was su]iplied, as has been shown above, by co])ics upon pa])yrus: and the failure of the snpjily of this nuiterial drove iha scribes ulti- mately to the production of a sulistitute. Further, as uncial writmg degenerated, it lost its sole re- commendation^the beauty of the vohimes written in that style ; and the way was open to a successor. Both these wants were supplied by an adaptation of the cursive style of common writing to the purposes of literature.

It is not to l)e supposed that uncials were ever the sole manner of writing in existence. From the earliest point at which 954 WRITING WRITING we nave extant remains of Greek writing (3rd cent. B.C.), cursive writing is found in existenoe side by side with uncial ; and coniuion-sense tells us that this tuust always have been the case, such writing being reqviired for ordinary use, quite apart from the needs of book production. We now have plentiful e.

\aniples of Greek cursive writing from the 3rd cent. B.C. to the 7th cent, after Christ, with a few specimens from the 8th cent. ; and it is only through tlie accident of the Arab conquest of Egypt that we are unable to trace its develop- ment on into the 9th cent.

Tlie extant evidence, however, is enough to show that the minuscule hand wliicli was taken into use for literary pur- I)oses in the 9th cent, is the direct descendant of that which is found in the Byzantine pap3'ri of the 6th and 7th centuries. The forms of nearly all the letters are the same ; only the exuberances of the Byzantine style are repressed, the size of the characters (which is often considerable) reduced, and the whole made far more calligi'aphic.

Tlie Greek minuscule MSS of the 9th and lOtli cents, are, in fact, as beautiful examples of wTiting as exist anywhere ; and at the same time the economy in space and labour, as compared with the coarse Slavonic iincials which preceded them, is very con- sider.able(Fig. 5). The effectof the reformation upon the textiial tradition of the Greek Bible was very great.

The multiplication of copies \\as rendered infinitely easier, the possession of them was platted within the reach of a much wider circle, and the consultation of the Scriptures was greatly facilitated.

The extant uncial MSS of the NT number less than 200, the extant minuscules are nearlj' 3000 ; and tliough much must be allowed for tlie greater antiquity of the former style (and consequently greater certainty of the destniction of MSS), very much of the disparity must be due to tlie increased ease with which the minuscule could be produced. Into the details of Greek minuscule writing from the 9th cent, to the 15th it is not necessary to enter here.

When all are so far removed from the original autograjihs, little turns on the precise date of a minuscule MS of the Bible. It is the character of the text contained in them, and the evidence thence derivable as to the archetypes from which they are descended, that make them valuable or the reverse.

Moreover, it is not possible to describe the successive styles of minuscule writing, with the slight variations by which the typical hand of one century can (more or less pre- cariously) be distinguished from that of another, without a copious use of facsimiles. For these the reader may be referred to the publications of the Palajograjiliical Society or the series of facsimiles of dated IVISS in the Bibliothfeque Nationale issued by M. Omont. These illustrate at once the pre- dominant h.'

inds of the successive centuries, and the uncertainty which must always attend the precise fixing of undated MSS, owing to the sporadic reajipcarances of the various liands at considerable intervals of time. The earliest extant dated minuscule MS is dated in a.d, 835 (the Uspcnsky Gospels) ; and in the course of this century, ttiough the uncial style was by no means yet extinct, the miniiKciile hand wsis perfected into a style of great beauty.

It is a firm, uiiri(,'lit hand, rather square in character, ami some- times leanintr Hlii;htly backward-^. The letters are fr'-'quently linked totrether, but only in small groups. Tlie breathings are angular (,- h t j), the accents small and inconspicuous. The characters are pure minuscule, without intermixture of uncial forms. The writing stands upon the lines ruled in the vellum.

Towards the end of the 10th cent, a change is nia^ie in this respect, and the writing frequently depends from the ruled lines. Uncial forms of certain letters (such as ,j, , ) creep in again among the minuscules. A looser style of writing is adopted, the letters being less firm and square, and more freely spaced out. This is especially characteristic of a number of MSS of classical authors written about the Uth cent., and the same tt.

i lencies continue progressively in the succeeding cen- turies, lu the 11th cent., too, the rounded breathing makes its appearance, and in the 12th it is definitely established as tlM usual form. In the 12th cent, the minuscule hand is often largt and somewhat handsome, though without the compactness ol the earlier style ; but from this point it degenerates more de- cisively.

The foiTus of the letters become more irregular, accents are larger and more conspicuous, the practice of con- traction is introduced, which in later MSS increases to such on extent as to render them unintelligible except after a special .study of the various marks of abbreviation. Accents also are fretiuently formed in one stroke with the letters, and in every resi>ect the tendency to cursiveness increases.

The Uenaissance, with its revival of interest in Greek in the West, and the in- creased demand for handsome specimens of Greek writing which it produced, led to some improvement in calligraphy ; but here the invention of printing stepped in, and the handiwork of the scribe was superseded by the mechanical precision of the press. LrrERATURE. — The authorities cited in S v.

: Omont, Foe- similes des ■nianuscrits grecs daUs rff la Bibliothhque NatioimU du ixe au xive si^xle, IbOt), and FacsimiUs rfej* iiianwtcrity grpct des xve et xvU siicles^ 1887 ; Wattenbach and von Velsen, I'^xempla Codicum (jh^cecorum littei'is minwiculia scriptorum^ 1873. vii. Latin Writing.

— It does not come within the scope of this article to consider all the forms of writing in which the Bible has circulated ; but the Latin version holds such a unique position, as the Bible of the West, and one of such special interest to us, that a short description of Latin writing may be useful.

Of its early stages, before the general adoption of vellum, we have much less knowledge than in the case of Greek ; for the papyri found in Egypt, which are our chief source of information of the pre-vellum period, contain but very few examples of Latin writing.

Even the papj-ri of Herculaneum are almost wholly Greek ; and though we know that papyrus was the main material of book production throughout the whole of the most productive period of Roman literature, and continued to be employed for liter- ary purposes as late as the 7th cent., and for certain official purposes (notably papal rescripts) down to the beginning of the 11th cent.

, we have no literary works of any substantial size now ex- tant on this material, with the exception of a few papyrus codices of the 6th and 7th cents., long alter the victory of vellum had been accomplished. We have nothing to show us what the lirst editions of Cicero and Cresar, of Virgil and Horace, or even of Tacitus and Pliny, were like. The history of the Latin literary hand begins, where the history of the Greek literary hand began until recently, with the rise of vellum.

Of the early non-literary hand we have rather more evidence, in the shape of a few papj'ri and a considerable number of wax tablets ; and this may have been u.sed, like the Greek non-literarj- hand, for the dissemination of the Scriptures in very early times. On this point, however, there is at present no evidence. On vellum the history of Latin writing follows substantially the same course as the Greek.

It begins with an elaborately- written majuscule hand, in which all the letters are separate ; and this is ultimatelv superseded by a minuscule band, which from the 9th cent, to the 10th is the universal vehicle of litera- ture. In the majuscule type ol hand, however, distinctions are introduced which find no place in Greek. The earliest phase is that of writing in capitals, in which rounded forms of ktlersare rare, the general character being the s.ame as that of inscriptions upon stone.

These, again, are subdivided into sqitarf capitals, in which the letters are even in height and square in build, and n(*-/ic, in which the horizontal strokes are very short in propor- tion to the perjiendicular. Of square capitals verj' few speci- mens now remain (notably two fragmentar>- MSS of Virgil), and it seems clear that they were used only fur MUions de luxe, and never were the form of writing exclusively in use.

Tlie shapes of the letters are essentially the same as in rustic capitals, only thev arc increased in breadth. The two styles ore contempor- aneous, and of the two the rustic style is unquestionably that which was in common use. It is also the earlier in date, going back to the papyrus period (e.g. a Roman military roll of a.d. 156, Pal. Soc. ii. Ifi.'i): while the heavier square capitals can hardly have been written except on vellum.

Rustic capitals are found in the great early MSS of Virgil, the Romanus and Palatinus of the 4th cent., and the Mediceus of the 6th ; also in the Btinbino Terence (4th-5th cent.), the Paris Prudcntius (0th cent), and even as late as the Psalter falsely attributed to St. Augustine, but really of the early 8th cent., and the Utrecht Psalter of the 9tli cent. Commoner, however, than the rustic hand, — at any rate from the 4th cent, onwards, — ia the other form of the •WRITI^'0 WRITING 955 lrrd?

are°r.?d^°'^o"f^e3a„ave^ aUv carried above or below '"« ''"L ,,, ,he .Stin Bible, such JS>d^und in the '""^f -"'^.'J^^^^'ronenris and I'ahltinus a, the Codd. Y'^r^^ "!""■« <?|^,!^t"hcentTana other fnHnneut^ {4th-6lh eent.),.Bobb.en8iB(olh-othcen^^). o.^varOs it It the Old Latm yeremn, and fro. the oi „„ tion ot a It the Old Latin ;.X("rirthe fled, ^vith the e:.ception ot a OU8W the capital ">i'^''S,„ those mentioned above. At first ,ew isolated exanyU.

s™rt,^h°^^^ ^^^^ pretension to rather a piall """i ■;'^^f;'",|"Vitv firmness, and handsomeness beauty. It improves >"/,'=,^'''JL"^J^„" . the MSS ot that period, up to the beifiiminn ot the bth ^'''^- ^'j.,^ Amialinns. beinR silchaatheLindisfarne Gospels ajidte^K. ^^ .^ probably ">t,T„whr^^r" was a uf.idency to interna min- ex sttnca. Meanwhile " tre w^ ^ . [ character, ziv^^^^ =5 nS« Sr^ '^^^ thus comes by »" ^-f '" ""'\ '^.'^fi th™ majuso.ile style had been case of Greek.

On the one ''»"', •Jy.'o,i^,,,iial to uncial, from grailually t<.ned down «>'<=';'-,»'^„f,-//X"Sve hand in daily Sncial to halt-uncial; on the other, the J^'™, ^„„„3 . „„ional ' use lor common punioseswM """^ '^J^„?° ja,,, which, though han<ls, Lombardic. % ■'''1?°' f^ J^^hands of a kind. By the Sth inelegant 7™KVA';,l^'^Vad been broken up, and their place cent, the old^''terar> hanOB n«J nee ^^^^ ^.,^^^^ , ^a t.-.

ken by- these vanous ^^u'cu^e nor the ease and simplicity neither the Uaul> »' ^6 nm)u.cui callisniphy was ol the cursive, trom th'» sWlf "' V "" ^ under the rescued by the reforms "f «'""^.^'„,V^| /,", ,™, a<-co.nplislied inspiration ol «<"'<''"^"f-T J'!" u^der the direction ol Alcuin principally at the ^^hoof"! Tours under the ^^ ^^^^ of York, evolved a style o'. """9» " "' "l which was destined and cleir, easy both to ''"'«.™'^ u'^Xthcrin existence, and to supersede the various n?

,''°°f„^Jc^e hand which was the form the loundation ° ,/he m>n»^cule »»";;„ ^o the vehicle of M'-™"i^«"",'jV'^o'n'"tt7eBibl°B containing the re- Caroline minuscule "'> '^^f '?"SX!in him.sell and by Theortulf censinnsol the \ukate text Alcim-n ^^^^ contem- of Orleans; ,wl"e^ the beautiful uncia so ,„,,ehoo i it was different. Tl.e tou^Uer "J^'jt.^i'^l/^dj^lj^f, and n.an^ instances =;[« l^^;^, °4 J^^f „ Vl'hed ^usts the capital ">l%Xsthose mentioned alove. At first ^iu) ; and, since tl.e .

°"f "' " ' ;^^^V°to decipher °rUin^ is Greek, in tbe two otliersSyn. Other ^rT%^i^ ^^: V^ the Gospels M I Cof the A'cts,\i of the i;auhne Lpis UeM of the Old Latin Gospels, « otl>eU^ Act y,^ feaves at V'en'ia of the OL Km s ^^^.^^^ ^^^^ various dates. ^^^ Introd. to the OT in Greek. Pow) ^u=fed primarily to ™ean a ine o .Hence it comes to denote a length ot , tne ueve ^...~ -.., :,. I VritinK equal to an average line of P°«t;y' ^^^^^ ,z::,^:;'i^^t^-i'^^^^:i^^r^'t m. s?n^ is used -_«, .

-ilr-w'^r^^i^ bf carried on. ^,.^.^.-...., ^7 deUU'; i^the con pressed hand ot the Text perhaps the most ""^."^^'^B^'JiJf are "till exunt. CominiC ?S'l=S=^£St J.e .^nd ^^^X very thin vellum then in use "lab cs mm to p _^^ ^,^._^ a comparatively small «"»P»S?- '.' '' "lUplviiiB copies ol the activity on the part of 'he scribes mmuluplMnB^ ^^ ^^^^ Bible with the activity »' "^^;^™"'°i'„tercot^^.ing its text ; the ". 'h« «r-.,P!."°^ '° "c Z!d'?ntere"t i'^the'reading ot as a mill' "* "•" .....

, , ', iff,nU-s are described as possess- literary purposes. ^^^fl^^l^^J.^^,^ ,,aid according "LlTKKATCB..^ompj«n,.^ dt^ i;5^«i^f-i,SS,!;; toc-imiles ; Marini, / '<^^/'-^^v «na^«^^^^^^ j.„^^, „ „„. and Zangemeiswr,/ Jjmp'a ''^'' ^ ^^ ^,^„,„ paUoararhujM. ^'?; •Srn':"i-a^tii^" 0/ i^^^"- ^^^ " "^ "'" Jlweui/i, 1900. viii. PALiMr.'KSTS.-A few special «»^i^f « ™g n^r-to be noticed. One pej^u^arda^^of^^l^ ..ripinal xvnting l.as »««"/«;'=" ^yi^, ,,,.^,,9 evi.len.cs of its use are less ^^]l\^^^!

^}'±,.„Z,M.,„nn. riginal writing has been removed m order th.^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^j the works f Cyi mn n ,^,, X _^^__^,,^,^ contents of the worKs ... v.,1.., -^.- ■■■ ;p,, „„,„i,er ^l^S:iS::^^i;ust>!:s of tJ^ Bible is stated : :^ i;r U;;'^;st Instknce oonlin^d t., one 1 ';^^^"^{i;Zo^^^<^'i^^ '-'■). a Ust in an 80. to have been usual or possible to go. w an vein. 956 WEITING WRITING Greek, p. 346 ; Scliolz, Prolegomena to the NT, vol. i. p. xxviii ; Turner, Journ. Theol. Stud. ii. 230.

Tlie division into ittIxoi, which is purely mechanical, must be distinguished from the division of texts into (tiSXo and /tiju^noTa, which is a division into clauses according to tfcj sense. Some MSS are thus written, not continuously, hut in short sense- lines of varying length, presumably in the first instance to facilitate reading aloud.

Such colo- metry was a special feature of the edition of the Acts and Epistles by Euthalius, and appears now in the chief MS of that edition, H of the Pauline Epistles. It is also nsed in the bilingual MSS, D Dj Ej, in order to keep the two versions more exactly parallel than they would be in continuous script, and to facilitate comparison between them. Between xiXo and KiiiiiaTo. there is no clear dis- tinction, but the latter denotes somewhat shorter clauses than the former. LiTKttiTURS.

— Graux, Revue de Philologie, 1878, p. 97 ; Diels, BtriMt, xvii, 1882; J. Eendel Harris, Stiehomelry, 1893; Thuiupeun, op. cit. ch. vL X. Libraries. — In conclusion, it may be useful to give some account of the manner in which books were preserved in ancient and medijeval times. The most ancient library of which we have precise knowledge is that of Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria (B.C. 668-626), the contents of which have actually come down en masse to the present day.

Il was not founded by Ashur-bani-pal, having existed under his predecessors, Sargon, Senna- cherib, and Esarhaddon ; but it was under his patronage that it assumed its great proportion-s. He set himself deliberately to collect books, send- ing scribes to make copies of works in other libraries, and instructing scholars to compile vocabularies of the Sumerian and Assyrian lan- guages. In 1850 this library was disinterred by Sir H.

Layard from the mounds of Kouyunjik, and its contents, amounting to over 20,000 tablets, are now in the British Museum. The tablets appear to have been laid on shelves, grouped in classes, and labelled. They included historical, literary, theological, magical, and scientific works, as well as letters, contracts, and other business documents ; and the library was apparently access- ible to the people in general.

— In Egypt there must have been depositories of the papj'rus rolls, ■which were produced in large numbers from very early times ; probably, the literature being almost wholly theological, they were preserved in or about the teniples. Diodoms Siculus (i. 58) states that O.symandyas, who has been identified with Kamses I., possessed a large library ; and two officials of his time are described as librarians. But no details are known of these early Egyptian libraries.

— Nor have we express mention of libraries in Palestine in pre-Christian times,* though the references in the Books of Samuel and Kings to other books suggest the probability of the exist- ence of some repository where these works might be consulted (2 S l'», 1 K U" 14i»-'» IS^ etc.) ^In the early history of Greece, even when her literature was at its height, libraries (as dis- tinct from public record offices, which certainly existed in Athens and presumably elsewhere) play but a small part.

Pisistratus is stated to have formed a library, which was taken to Persia by Xerxes, and restored long after by Seleucus Nicator (Aid. Gell. vi. 17). Athen.-Eus (i. 4) mentions libraries belonging to Polycrates of Samos, Nico- crates of Cyprus, the archon Euclides, the poet Euripides, and Aristotle.

The latter is said by Strabo to Iiave been the first person to collect books ; and indeed it is evident that his works could not • Little importance attaches to the statement In 2 Mac 2*3 ftbout Mebenuah founding a library (ju»rs,^«XA«^i«r ^i^Xi«^»i]»). have been produced without a library. After hia death his librarj-was preserved at Scepsis; and, after having been sold to Apellicon of Teos and brought to Athens, it was ultimately taken by Sulla to Rome.

The two most famous libraries of the Greek world, however, were those of I'ergamum and Alexandria. The former, founded by Attains I. and Eumenes II. at the end of the 3rd cent, and beginning of the 2nd cent. B.C., flourished greatly for a century and a half, but ultimately was transported by Mark Antony to Alexandria to replace that which had been destroyed by fire in Cresar's wars. It is said to have consisted of 200,000 rolls at that time.

The library of Alexandria, founded perhaps by Ptolemy I. , was especially encouraged by Ptolemy II. (Philadelpiius). It was a department of the great Museum, and every efl'ort was made to gather into it all extant literature, and to attract the best scholars to accept posts in connexion with it.

According to the well-known story embodied in the letter of Aristeas, it was in connexion with the establishment of the Alexandrian library, and at the express desire of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that the production of the LXX was undertaken. The main library, in the Museum, is stated to have been destroyed during the siege of Cicsar in Alexandria, and thenceforth the principal Alex- andrian library was that of the Serapeum, which previously had held a secondary place.

This in turn suH'ered greatly at the sack of the Serapeum by Bishop TheophOus in 390, so that it is doubtful if much was left to be destroyed by the Arabs in 641. From the date of the foundation of these two great libraries, public libraries, pre\'iously almost unknown in Greece, seem to have become common. Polybius (xii. 27) in the 2nd cent. B.C. s]ic,'iks as if they would naturally be found in most liirge towns. At Rome they were of later growth.

Private collections of books must certainly have been known to Varro, and Cicero's library was an extensive one for those days. iEmUius PauUus and LucuUus brought back libraries from their wars in the East. CiEsar planned the establish- ment of a public library ; but the execution of it was left to Augustus, who, however, had been slightly anticipated by Asinius Pollio. From this point public libraries, often in connexion with temples, became common in Rome, as elsewhere.

A concrete example of a library, thoujjh on a small scale, is provided by that at Hereulaneura, in which the papyrus rolls, now in the Naples Museum, were found. It was a very small room, with shelves round the walls, on which lay the rolls (1756 in number); and a cabinet, also con- taining rolls, stood in the middle of the room. Commg to Christian times and Christian litera- ture, it must have been long before anything in the iKiture of a library was required.

The only books « ith which Christians, as such, had to deal were those of the OT and NT, and the few books which for a time hovered on the border of the Canon, such as the Epistles of Clement and Bar- nabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Gospel of Peter, and the like. These would either be in private possession or the property of a Church, which would also, in time, require something in the nature of service books.

The earliest Christian libraries, therefore, apart from the small collections which an individual might have, were attached to churches ; but even these could not attain to any considerable size, so long as they were liable to dispersion in the days of persecution. The earliest of which we have individual knowledge is that which Pamphilus (t A.D. 308) established atCa?sarea, consisting primarily of the works of Origen.

Her* the great scholar's Hexapla and Tetrapla were pre- served, and the colophons of several MSS (not- ably the Codd. Sinaiticus and Marchailianas, and WRITIXG WRITING 957 Cod. H of the Pauline Epistles) testify to the use of these autographs for the purposes of revision. On the adoption of Christianity as the religion of the State, a library was founded by Constantino in his new caijital, which was greatly increased by his successors.

With the institution of monasticism, monasteries as well as churches became the homes of libraries. Pachomius, the founiler of monasticism in Egypt, required his monks to study the Scriptures, and his rules (Migne, Patr. Grcuc. xl. ) clearly imply ready access to manuscripts. Throughout the Eastern empire, though learnin" was never so exclusively the possession of the clergy as it became in the West, the large majority of scribes were con- nected with churches or monasteries.

Naturally, this is especi.illy the case with MSS of the Bible or theological works ; but in the list of scribes of Greek MSS of all kinds, whose names are on record, bj- far the most are monks or clerics (Gardt- hausen, Griech. Pal. p. 302 ti'. ).

In the West, so long as the old Roman civilization remained, private and public libraries continued to exist throughout the empire, and the "rreat provincial mansions of the nooility were well stocked with books, literary culture being one of the marks of that leisured and luxurious section of society.* The irruptions of the barbarians swept this civi- lization awaj'.

The pagan institutions for the preservation and multiplication of literature went to the ground, and the sole libraries which con- tinued to exist were those of cliurches, and especially of monasteries. Benedict, like Pach- omius in the East, prescribed reading as one of the special duties of his monks, thereby establishing a tradition which became an honourable charac- teristic of monasticism in general, and of the Benedictines in particular.

In the early part of the Middle Ages, learning flourished most in the north of England, which was made famous by the scliolarsliip of Bede and by the excellent schools of Wearmouth and J arrow. From tlie north of Enj;- land proceeded what are perhaps the most beauti- fully written MSS that Latin scribes ever pro- duced— the Codex Aniiatinus and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Tlie history of these MSS establishes a point of some importance, namely the ease with which books were transferred from one ]iart of Europe to another. The Lindisfarne Gospels was certamly transcriljed from an exemplar brought from Naples ; and the Codex Aniiatinus, which must have been copied from the same or a similar volume, was itself (though it is one of the largest MSS in existence) convejed from England to Rome as a gift to the Pone.

Piom England learning spread southward to France and Switzerland ; and while Alcuin founded the famous scliool of Tours, from which a new tradition of calligraphy came forth to inlluence all Europe, Irish monks founded (and to a large extent peopled) St. Gall, which became the centre of learning and of writing in the Rhone valley and the adjacent countries. As monasticism grew and the mona-steries became rich, so did their libraries increase.

Monte Gas- sino, Bobbio, Grotta Ferrata, in Italy ; Fleury, Cluny, Corbie, St. Germain des Pr6s, in France ; Fulda, Reichenau, in Geniiany ; St. Gall, in Swit- zerland ; Canterbury (both St. Augustine's and Christ Church), Rochester, St. Albans, York, Durham, in England, — these are only a few of the most famous monasteries whose libraries were * Sic, C!7., Kill, Itoman Socitty in th» latt Century qf tin Weium Jimpiret p. IM ff.

special liomes of literature in the ages preceding tlie invention of printing. The accommodation for books was at first neither large nor luxurious. The early buildings of monasteries show no place for a library. Tlie books (apart from such precious ones as were jilaccd in the shrine of the patron saint) were stored in cupboards (armaria) along the sides of the cloister, or in recesses in its walls ; and in the cloister the monks read and copied them.

In course of time the cloister windows adjoining the books were glazed as a protection, and the elder monks, at least, had 'carrells' or Eews in which they could sit at their work. As ooks multiplied, increased provision had to be made for tliem. In the Cistercian houses, small cupboard-like rooms were introduced, in which the books lay upon shelves round the walls, much after the fashion of the Roman library at Hercul- aneum.

In the 14th and 15th centuries larger rooms were provided, generally above some earlier building ; and here the books could be arranged in regular bookcases. Libraries are pro^aded for also in the statutes of the earliest colleges at the univer- sities ; and the manner of them can be realized from examples still extant, as in the Laurentian library at Florence.

Sometimes the books lay on desks, sometimes they stood on shelves, with desks below or above on wliich they could be placed for consultation. In either case they were normally attached to their place by chains, so that they could not be carried away without permission. For the copying of MSS special scriptoria were provided in the great monasteries, and monks with a turn for literature were told oil' for this duty ; so that in many i)laces (as at Grotta Ferrata or St.

Albans) distinct traditions of penmanship were established, and special styles, whether of historical chronicles or of illuminated miniatures, were culti- vated. For a long time these were practically confined to monasteries. Only with tlie revival of learning did literature and art issue out to the world in general ; and then the end of the reign of nianu.scripts was at hand.

In the 15th and 16th centuries we find many scribes (especially the Greek scribes in Italj-) and many miniaturists wlio were certainly laymen ; and so, before the decline of monasticism was .accomplished, its special work as the exclusive guardian of literature was done, and the secular world was ready to take into its own keeping the heritage of learning wliich the monks bad been so largely instrumental in hand- ing down to it. LiTKRATURE.

— Guidf to the Babylonian and Assyrian An- tiquitifs in tlie liritish Museum, IDOO, pp. ^4-78; Dziatzko, art. ' Bibliothelten' in Pauly-Wissowa. Ji?^ ; Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries, 1859, Libraries and Founders of Libraries, 18C5 ; S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages^, 188fl ; F. A. Gasquet, Som« Notes on Mediaeval Monastic Libraries, 1891 ; J. W. Clark, The Care o/ Books, 1901. On Heb. (also Phcon., I'alinyr., Aram., etc.) pala30;;raphy, with facsimiles of penis, seals, inscriptions, etc.

, see, fiirUicr, refer- ences and illustrations under artt. ^ioNRY and Wrigiits and Mrascrbs; M. A. Levy, Siegel u. Grmme mil aram. phun. altheb., etc, Inschri/trn(l^iMi); Lidzl>.irski, Ildh. drr nordsein, Kjngr. nebst ausfjewuhlten Inschri/ten (ISOS, with plates ; in- dispensable for further study of subject, with full biblioprnphy, pp. 4-ii8, 493-99); ilordtmann u. Miiller, Sabdisclie Denkunthr, 1883; D. II. Mullcr, Kpiqr. Denkmaler aus Arabicn, 1889; Ilommel, SUdarab.

Chrestomathie, 1893; C/S (Ph.cn., Aram., Ilimyar. insf.'riptions, with facsimiles); Cleniiont-Ganneau, Jifc' d'Arch^ol, orient.; the collection of fine l-'acsiniHe.i t>t' MSS and Inscriptions, pub. by the Palieopraph. Society ((JrientjU series); the atlas of facsimiles of Heb. MSS acconi- piinyinp Neubaucr's Cataloijue of Heb. MSS in the Bmtl. Libran/. See also the recently established periodicals : Lid/,, barski's lipfietneris /Ur sem. Ejtitjraphik (I. I.

1900); and lUperUrirt d' Epigrapltie tin. [iuppl. to CIS] (1. 1. 1900). F. G. Kknyom 958 XANTHICUS YOKEFELLOW X