SINGULAR CAREER OF A LEAF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5758, 1 May 1880, Page 7

SINGULAR CAREER OF A LEAF.

In lanuary, 1847, the late Rev. Dr Todd, Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, gave an account to the Royal Irish Academy of a fragment of an ancient purple manuscript of the Gospels, in Latin, which he hadpurchased in Dublin. This fragment was but a single leaf, containing a portion of the Gospel according to St. Matth-.w. Dr. Todd at the time adduced proofs of its great antiquity. From the character in which it was written and the form of the letters it seemed to agree with those manuscripts that are known to bo of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century, such as the Codex Vercellensis and the Codex Veronensis, the former is generally believed to be the autograph of Eusebius, first Bishop of Vercelli, in the diocese of Milan, who died a.d. 371. The latter is a purple manuscript written in letters of gold and silver, and is assigned by Bianohini to the beginning of the fifth century. From a' critical comparison with these Dr. Todd concluded that this leaf belonged to a manuscript of the fourth or early part of the fifth century, of the Eusebian revision, one of those which were in use before the HicronyVulgate and from which Jerome made the recension now known as the Latin Vulgate. In the Academy of the Ist of March, 1879, Mr. Graves Law stated that the fragment in question was without doubt a missing leaf of the Codex Palatinus, in the Imperial Library of Vienna, which was edited by Tischendorf in 1847 ; but it would appear that one more vicissitude had happened to the leaf itself which for more than a quarter of a century had not been forthcoming when asked for at the manuscript room of the Library of Trinity College. On the recent appointment of Dr. • .Ingram to the librarianship, he made every inquiry for the leaf, but without success until the other day, when, through the zeal and energy of .the assistant-librarian, Mr. French, it was found. An examination at once established the correctness of Mr. Law's statement that it is a fragment of the Codex Palatinus, and Terified the judgment of Dr. Todd as to its antiquity, as Tischendorf: pronounces this codex to belong to the fourth or fifth century. How the leaf became detached from the codex will probably always .remain a mystery. It is not known, apparently; how the codex was acquired' 'by the Vienna Library. It was not there before the 'year 1800, and it appears to have been first mentioned. as being there in 1829 by ithat eminent ' Schlavonian scholar Kopiiar. • It may; therefore, never be determined whether the lost leaf came from Vienna to Lrelahdl or the codex went froin Ireland to Vienna, j The foregoing facts were laid»by 'Dr. Ingram before the Koyal Irish Academy at theit last meeting." : ' •