ROMANCE OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 7

ROMANCE OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

■2 SOME SIDELIGHTS AND ADVENTURES

•■.- : .|'"*!: '"'-■'■" ■'"'-■ ■ • •-•■■•■■;• (Written, for ' ; |lt is a pleasure to learn that the conjecture hazarded by the writer in. a previous .article that probably only one ' library in tlio Dominion contains facsimiles of the world's most ancient ■ manuscripts, tho Codes Sinaiticus and I tjie Codes Aloxundrinus, has been dis-J ..proved by Dr. Scholefield's letter to //.The Post."' Possessors or custodians of literary treasures in their libraries : Jire modest in proclaiming thejact.' It ■ rifill be a still greater pleasure should it be found that the_ above facsimiles are not only companions, but members «of a yet.larger Dominion group. '-..'•:A few additional sidelights on'the romantic history of ;our "ancient sacred documents may be of interest:1- " - j ST. KATHERINE'S. . . ■■■'" ? The Sinaitieus and the Vatieanus manuscripts have both been associated with the name of Constantine, the.first Christian Emperor. With the Fathers of the' Churchy he venerated, the Scripture as a temple,of sacred truth which ' guarded for the world' "the divine treasure of the Gospel. He was also a g.reat builder ,bf churches, and the oldest" existing church in Christendom, that of Sit. Mary's of >the-Nativity at Bethlehem, whose pavement >has been trodden by fifty generations of pilgrims, was erected by him. Two centuries latex, one of his imperial successors, Justinian, more greatly distinguished himself as a builder of churches. He inaugurated the Byzafetinestyle'of .sa?red architecture, by .th"p';'erection'';.of' the Church of San Sop'hia^i^vhieli/ since' th 6 Moslem conquest . of; Constantinople ii 1453, has been a' Mo/hamrnedafi mosquei. It was the Emperor! ;Justin.ian who built oil the slopes of Mount* Sinai) ,tme:, of „ tlie world's most .sequestered and solitary places, the monastery.' of .St1. Katherine V This, probably, is his greatest benefaction to the world :of Christendom. Successive times of war and devastation, which swept over Palestine, Syria, Egypt, North! Africa, and the lands of Europe, left the quiet of this solitude unmolested. The ancient Writings, which were stored in its dark recesses, were therefore safe. ; But the monks of 'the nineteenth century were unaware of-the .priceless value of some of their treasures. .-And the now famous Codex was put. in peril by ignorant piety. What a tragedy^it ■would have been if, guarded for over a; millennium from the wrath of profane hands, it had_ ; .been .destroyed in a few moments by •friendly^hands using it to light a kitchen fire! Tisehendorf's advent saved lit from ."this. fate. "In •visiting the library of the-monastery in the month of May, 1844J?' he says, ■'.'I perceived in the • middle of the _ great hall a large and wide basket full of old parchments, and , the librarian, , who was a man o£ information, .told me that two heaps of papers like these, mouldered by time,: had been already committed to the flames. (What was

"The Post.") ? - : my surprise to find, amid this heap of papers a considerable.number of sheets of a copy of the' .Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient that I had ever seen. The authorities of the convent I allowed me to possess myself of a third | of .'these, or about 43 leaves, and the more readily as they were destined for the fire.'", .'/ -: When, on his third visit to St. Katherine's, in 1859,, the bulk of this manuscript was put into his hands, he suppressed the tides of emotion which flooded his soul till he had borne the Codex, with tho permission of the steward, to. his own room. Joy compelled him to keep vigil with his '■'. pearl."-.all that night. . "Thereby myself," he said, "I could give way to the transports of .jjojr. which I, felt. I knew that I held in my hand, the most precious Biblical ti'casure in existence —a document whose age and importance exceeds that of all the manuscripts ■ \yhich . I had ever examined'.-.'during-twenty years' study of the subject." 'It is interesting to note that Tischendo'rf 's full name was Lobegott Friendlich Constantin Tischendorf. Lobegott is German for "praise' God." It was given him when his mother discovered that her presentiment that he would be born blind was not fulfilled. No scholar of-modern, times has dedicated his eyes to nobler tasks, or used them to greater advantage. He-died in 1874 having earned "the gratitude of scholars of all lands." ■ • . THE SPOILS OF WAR. "•From the period of the Renaissance ancient manuscripts and fragments, of the .classics and the sacred writings were highly prized. Indeed, they were venerated almost to the degree of worship. They "constituted the aristocracy ■of literature. Princes and prelates, cities^and. universities, eagerly sought to, possess them. And pore than onco the- literary treasures of a city or nation have become the spoils' of -waV..'. This actually happened to" the' Codex. Vaticanus. When Napoleon conquered Rome in 1807 he bore back Mtti him to Paris this treasure of the Vatican. Paris already possessed many .ancient literary treasures,, including .%,'fifth century Codex, of the Bibte) known as the Ephraemi Rescriptus. And the posses-, sipn'of the Vatieanus was as a crown' -fit glory among many ancient documents' which gave renown to France's national •library. While in Paris the Roman, Catholic scholar Hirg" studied Codex, and appraised its priceless worthto the scholars of Europe. After. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo arid'exilp the authorities regarded the Codex as loot rather than the just spoils of conquest; and in 1815, after eight years' exile, the Codex was restored to ' the. Vatican. Tt has there, been guarded with extreme care, arid happily escaped, damage in the collapse of a wall of the Vatican Library, which took place a few years' ago. ■•-"-' ' - : In the first decade of this century,

under the auspices of Pope Pius X, a phototype facsimile was produced by Hoopli of Milan". ' It" is said to' liave been executed, with minutest caro and exquisite skill. Even tho colour of theparchment and tho shade of the ink have been faithfully reproduced. Codex A, tho Alexandrinus, has not been without its. adventures. In London it narrowly escaped destruction. Its first home in Englaifd was in the King's Library ,at Abingdon House, Westminster. One night Abingdon House took fire. Dr. Hichard Beritley, the custodian, entered the burning library in his nightgown and wig and bore the Codex to safety. The rescue of this treasure was solace to him,, if not- to the King, for the losses sustained in the destruction of other contents of the library. George II in 1753 presented the Codex to the nation, and since then its homo lias been the British Museum, . A PARISIAN TREASURE. The fate of a now famous manuscript of the fifth century known as'Codox C, the Ephraemi Rescriptus, illustrates tho foolish and" sometimes base uses to which ancient parchments were put. Rescriptus means written over again. It is a palimpsest. When a scribe was short of vellum on which to copy—it may be a play, or write a religious .treatise, he often used an old document the ink1 of which had paled-, or ho pumiced the writing till the face of the parchment-was sufficiently clear to take other characters. A cardinal of Florence in the sixteenth century possessed an old manuscript which contained pious tracts of Ephraem the Syrian, who died A.D. 370. This'passed into the hands of the famous Catherine de Medici, who later took it with her to Paris. A student when critically examining the manuscript found • traces of an underlying text upon which the writing of the tracts had been superimposed. It was like gold being Oyerlaid'"with brass! For many-years, attempts were made to decipher the:text, which- proved to be that of an ancient Greek Bible; but with only partial success. Through the skill of Zinzendorf, however, the whole of the original tnxt has been deciphered. Ephraem has .gained immortality not because of the value,- of. his writings, but because awitless scribe sought to degrade'a,Bible into a-series: of> tracts I- - ..-■■'• '[■' CAMBRIDGE'S TREASURE. •'■', ,Thp; University of- Cambridge .possesses : a Codex .which introduces scholars to a new element in ancient biblical manuscripts. It ( is bilingual,. •The' Greek text in ancient script in a' Single column is on: one page, and on' the Opposite; page a Latin translation. It contains the' four' Gospels, and the .Acts.of. the. Apostles. 'Its fate was dotermihed in?the sixteenth century ,by the fortune^ of war.: It was said to ■have-been taken by the Huguenots from ;the' cony.cut of St.'lrenaeus at Lyons ;>vhcn,they;,sacked the city. Beza^'a -French scholar of noble birth, and the 'friend and successor of Calvin at Geneva," became possessed -of it. -He presented it in 1581^ to the University ..of Cambridge. We may conjecture why. Erasmus. Ulider the patronage of Henry iVIH ha<T taught Greek at Cambridge. iAnd his edition of the Greek Testament; printed in 1516, following his ion the Gospels and Paul's

Epistles, had greatly influenced a group of Cambridge scholars, among whom wero Bilney, Kidley, Latimer, and supremely William Tyndale, the chief maker of our English Bible. Geneva Y?L% ?°yereigh ■ city, but it had only 12,000 inhabitants. And its existence t as a theocratic State, where a strict religious .code was rigidly enforced, Beza knew, was precarious. He doubtless felt that in charge of a great university, which was the chief intellectual centre of the reformed faith of a nation .which had embraced the Reformation, the Coaox would be safe. The text of this ' Codex is of great interest, and is highly appraised by scholars if the three first-named Codices are kings, Codices Ephraemi and Bozae are princes of high rank worthy to stand beside the royalty of Sacred Scripture.