Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

1009/1096 (page 989)

$When parchment was scarce, one work was ^ften eH'aced to make way for another. This may have been dictated here and there by re- ligious prejudice : but in general what was least wanted at the time made way for what was most. The Scriptures themselves, or the works of the Areopagite—then regarded with almost equal reverence—were written over sometimes, as well as works like the Republic of Cicero— “ Latent hodie,” says Knittel (quoted by Mone, de Libr. Falimp. p. 2) in palimpsestis libris codices Novi Testament! remotissimae aiftiqui- tatis : haec est prima ratio, cur magnae sint uti- litatis codices rescripti.” We must never forget, in estimating their practices or productions, that Christian tran- scribei’s were of all ranks and capacities. “ The highest dignitaries of the church and princes even, says Mr. Taylor {Transmission of Ancient Books, c. ii. § 5), “ thought themselves well employed in transcribing the Gospels and Epistles, the Psalter, or the Homilies and Meditations of the Fathers: nor were the classical authors... .neglected by these gratui- tous copyists.” And again : “ Every church and every convent and monastery had its library, its librarian and other officers employed in the conservation of books ” (fb. c. 1, § 1). Then, further, as Mr. Taylor observes, “ The property of each establishment—and the literary property of each establishment was always highly prized —passed down from age to age, as if under the hand of a proprietor: and was therefore subjected to fewer dispersions and destructions than the mutability of human affairs ordin- arily permits ” (c. i. § 1). And again: “The places in which the remains of ancient literature were preserved during the middle ages were too many, and too distant from each other, and too little connected by any kind of intercourse, to admit of a combination oi* conspiracy for any supposed purposes of interpolation or corruption. Possessing, therefore, as we do, copies of the same author, some of which were drawn from the' monasteries of England, others from Spain, and others collected in Egypt, Palestine, or Asia Minor, if, on comparing them, we find that they accord except in variations of little moment, we have an incontestable proof of the care and in- tegrity with which the business of transcription was generally conducted ” (i6.).... Transcribers were frequently concealed under other names, from being attached to some special office, or else from their art having come to be divided into different branches. They were the notaries, chancellors, clerks, readers, amanuenses, of most convents, as Mabillon shews {Dipl. i. 13). St. Isidore tells us of another distinction which is still more to the point. “Librarii,” he says, “ idem et antiquarii vocantur : sed librarii sunt, qui et nova et vetera scribunt: antiquarii, qui tantummodo vetera, unde et nomen sumpserunt ” {Etym. vi. 14). If this be true, and other authorities might be cited for it, there was a class of copyists whose labours were confined to re-transcribing old MSS. Illuminators, again, formed another branch of the profession. They designed the initial letters, laid on the gold, or painted the minia- tures. Under this last word, again, we have the record of another class: miniatores, who filled in the ‘rubrics.’ In general, the tran- scriber left blanks both for the rubrics and illuminations, as we see from many MSS. whose blank spaces have been but partially filled, or left altogether untouched. Sometimes it hap- pened that there were transcribers who ‘did all for themselves. Otherwise, we may occasionally find the dates of the handwriting and of the decorations separated by a wide interval. [Miniature.] After a MS. had been transcribed, it passed through other hands to be corrected (Mabill. Suppl. c. xiii. 29): and the corrections in many cases not being erasures, we see what was judged erroneous, and what was judged right at the time. They are perhaps oftener corrections of spelling, or of words omitted, than of any- thing else : while numerous errors of grammar are left untouched. Handwriting, of course, varied with the age, though two or more were almost always in full use at the same time. The handwriting of the 13th century, for instance, was always liable to be imitated by transcribers who lived much later, but it was unknown to tran- scribers who lived much earlier. Antiquaries could reproduce obsolete styles, but could not anticipate styles as yet unborn. Consequently, the rise of the different styles may be fixed with some accuracy; not so their duration after they had become current. ‘‘ The instruments,” say the authors of the Nouv. Trait. Diplom. (p. ii. § i. c. 10), “with which antiquity required that the work-room of a transcriber should be provided, were the ruler, compass, lead, scissors, penknife, hone, sponge, style, brush, quill or reed, inkstand or inkhorn, writing table, desk, vial with liquid for thinning ink become too thick, vial with vermilion for writing titles of books or chapters, and a box of pounce. Each of these instruments had its own special use.” Their materials were more limited. “ Parch- ment,” says Mr. Taylor (c. ii. § 1), “ so called, long after the time of its first use from Per- gamus, a city of Mysia, where the manufacture was improved ... is mentioned by Herodotus and Ctesias as a material that had been from time immemorial used for books.” Almost all the early MSS. we possess are written on this. “ In the east, leaves of the mallow or palm were used in remote times . . . and the inner bark of the linden or teil tree . . . called by the Romans ‘liber,’ and by the Greeks ‘biblos,’ was so generally used as a material for writing as to have given its name to a book in both lan- guages. . . . Tables of solid wood called codices, whence the term ‘ codex ’ for a MS. on any mate- rial . . . were also employed . . . leaves or tablets of lead or ivory are mentioned . . . and still oftener ‘tablets covered with a thin coat of coloured wax,’ removable ‘ by an iron needle called a style.’ Paper made from the papyrus in Egypt was in considerable demand at one time, but it was found to be less durable than parchment. Cotton paper, ‘ charta bom- bacina,’ which began to be used in the west about the 10th century, led to the introduction of paper from rags, as at present, about two cen- turies later. “Transcribers frequently subscribed their names at the end of a MS., with the year in which it was written, accompanied by a pious$