THE GREEK BIBLE OF THE VATICAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 456, 6 January 1882, Page 21

THE GREEK BIBLE OF THE VATICAN.

(Special Correspondence of the Pilot.)

The Rome correspondent of the Pilot writes : Amongst the treasures of the Vatican is a Codex of the Greek Bible, which, in the opinion of the learned, surpasses in antiquity and value all the other codices of the Sacred Scriptures which are known. It was written in Alexandria, in Egypt, probably in the 4th century, and was destined for public use in the Liturgy of the Church. It is believed that it is one of the copies which Constantine the Great, with royal munificence, caused to be made in Alexandria upon choice parchment by the best caligraphers, and which he presented to the principal churches of the East. The writing in this Codex has a resemblance to that in the papyri of Herculaneum, now in the Museum of Naples. All the letters are capitals, and very few words are abbreviated, bat for purity and simplicity of the characters employed, the Vatican Codex is greatly superior to the Herculaneum papyri. The material on which it is written is the skin of the antelope, which abounds in Egypt and Lybia. These exceedingly fine skins have been prepared with exquisite perfection, and the entire skin of the animal forms two folios of the Codex.

It comprehends the Old and the New Testaments, mutilated, however, here and there, especially at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. The missing parts are supplied in vulgar characters, by a hand certainly of ancient date, but much later than the 4th century. The Codex, on account of its authority, was consulted in every age by the learned, who frequently manifested their wish that it should be printed. And this desire has been fulfilled in the late tempestuous yeais of the Pontificate of Pius IX., and in those like* wise of Leo XIII.

In former years Pope Leo XII. had urged the celebrated Cardinal Angelo Mai to undertake this heavy task, and in 1828 the Cardinal took the work in hand and completed it in ten years. Nevertheless he would not publish the five large volumes compiled by him, because he desired to collate and diligently compare them with the Codex, leaf by leaf, and he continued this labour until his death in 1854. The Barnabite Carlo Vercellone was then charged with this task, and began it in 1857, and finally published the volume of the New Testament, which was printed in Rome, and shortly after republished in London, Leipzic, Hamburg, and Berlin. But Pius IX. desired that the whole Codex should be published, and entrusted the task to Father Vercellone and Giuseppe Cozza, monk of Grottaferrata. The first volume of the Codex appeared in 1868, and on the 25th of July of that year Pius IX. took occasion to pass encomiums on the work of these two priests. But Father Vercellone died in 1867, and his place was filled by Father Gaetano Sergio, one of the most learned members of the Barnabite Congregation. In 1869 another volume of the Vatican Codex was published, and then from time to time the other four, until the last, published under the direction of the learned Canon Enrico Fabiani and the Abbot Giuseppe Cozza, of Grottaferrata, which completes the new Roman edition of the Greek Codex. Leo XIII. has addressed a laudatory Latin letter to the two learned men who have carried out this great task to its completion, remarking that "it is proper to the Holy Roman See to favonr all that which can serve to promote the study of true wisdom and Catholic science." The work is published at the polyglot printing office of Propaganda Fide, and reflects high honour on that institution.