Fão Simile of a Codex Rescriptus of Paint. Matthew's Gospel in the Library of Trinity College Dublin

Fac

The portions of the Gothic version of the Old and New Testament, printed by signors Maï and Castillionei, are, I. Nehemiah, chap. v. verses 13-18. chap. vi. 14-19. and vii. 1-3. II. A Fragment of Saint Matthew's Gospel, containing chap. xxv. 38-46. xxvi. 1—3. 65-75. and xxvii. 1.; this fragment contains the whole of the passages which are wanting in the Upsal MS. of the four Gospels. III. Part of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, chap. ii. 22-30. and iii. 1-16. IV. Saint Paul's Epistle to Titus, chap. i. 1-16. ii. 1.; and V. verses 11-23. of his Epistle to Philemon. The Gothic text is exhibited on the left hand page, and on the right hand page the editors have given a literal Latin translation of it, together with the Greek original. Those are succeeded by fragments of a Gothic Homily, and Calendar, with Latin translations, Gothie alphabet, and a glossary of new Gothic words which they have discovered in the passages which they have printed.

VI. A very valuable CODEX RESCRIPTUS was discovered about twenty-five years since by the (late) Rev. Dr. Barrett, senior fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. While he was examining different books in the library of that college, he accidentally met with a very antient Greek manuscript, on certain leaves of which he observed a two-fold writing, one antient and the other comparatively recent transcribed over the former. The original writing on these leaves had been greatly defaced, either by the injuries of time, or by art; on close examination he found, that this antient writing consisted of the three following fragments:-the Prophet Isaiah, the Evangelist Saint Matthew, and certain orations of Gregory Nazianzen. The fragment, containing Saint Matthew's Gospel, Dr. Barrett carefully transcribed; and the whole has been accurately engraved in fac-simile by the order and at the expense of the University, thus presenting to the reader a perfect resemblance of the original. The accompanying engraving is copied from Dr. B.'s first plate. It represents the 18th and 19th verses of the first chapter of Saint Matthew's Gospel. We have subjoined the same verses in ordinary Greek types, with a literal version in parallel columns.

V. 18. ΤΟΥ ΔΕΙ ΑΥΗΓΕΝΕΣΙΣΟΥ

ΤΩΣΗΝ ΜΝΗΣΤΕΥΘΕΙ

ΣΗΣΤΗΣ ΜΗΤΡΟΣΑΥΤΟ ...

ΜΑΡΙΑΣΤΩΙΩΣΗΦ ΠΡΙΝ
ΣΥΝΕΛΘΕΙΝ ΑΥΤΟΥΣΕΥ

ΡΗΘΗΕΝΓΑΣΤΡΙΕΧΟΥΣΑ

ΕΚΠΝΣΑΓΙΟΥ

V. 19. ΙΩΣΗΦ ΔΕ Ο ΑΝΗΡΑΥΤΗΣ

ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΩΝ Κ ΑΙΜΗΘΕΑ ...

ΑΥΤΗΝ ΔΕΙΓΜΑΤΕΙΣΑΙ

ΕΒΟΥΛΗΘΗ ΛΑΘΡΑΑΠΟΛΥ

ΣΑΙΑΥΤΗΝ.

V. 18. NOWTHEBIRTHOFJSCHTTH

USWAS BEINGESPOU

SEDHISMOTHER

MARYTOJOSEPHBEFORE

THEYCAMETOGETHERSHEWAS

FOUNDWITHCHILD

BYTHEHOLYSPT

V. 19. JOSEPHTHENHERHUSBAND

BEINGAJUSTMANANDNOTWILL...

TOMAKEHERAPUBLICEXAMPLE

WASMINDEDPRIVILYTOPUT

HERAWAY.

The title of this interesting (and comparatively little known) publication is as follows; "Evangelium Secundum Matthæum ex Codice Rescripto in Bibliotheca

Of the original writing of this manuscript, which Dr. Barrett calls the Codex Vetus, only sixty-four leaves remain, in a very mutilated state each page contains one column; and the columns in general consist of twenty-one lines, and sometimes (though rarely) of twentytwo or twenty-three; the lines are nearly of equal lengths, and consist, ordinarily, of eighteen or twenty square letters, written on vellum originally of a purple colour, but without any points. From these two circumstances, as well as from the division of the text, the orthography, mode of pointing, abbreviations, and from some other considerations, Dr. Barrett, with great probability, fixes its age to the sixth century. This manuscript follows the Alexandrine Recension. The Codex Recens, or later writing (which contains several tracts of some Greek Fathers), he attributes to a scribe of the thirteenth century: about which time it became a general practice to erase antient writings, and insert others in their place.1

VII. The Codex Laudianus 3, as it is noted by Dr. Mill, but noted by the letter E by Wetstein, and *E by Griesbach, is a GreekLatin manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles, in which the Latin text is one of those versions which differ from Jerome's edition, having been altered from the particular Greek text of this manuscript. It is defective from chap. xxvi. 29. to xxviii. 26.

This manuscript is erroneously supposed to have been the identical book used by the venerable Bede in the seventh century, because it has all those irregular readings which, in his Commentaries on the Acts, he says were in his book; and no other manuscript is now found to have them. There is an extraordinary coincidence between it and the old Syriac version of the Acts of the Apostles. Wetstein conjectures, from an edict of a Sardinian prince, Flavius Pancratius, written at the end of this manuscript, and from several other circumstances, that it was written in Sardinia in the seventh century. To this conjecture Michaelis is disposed to accede, though Dr. Woide supposed it to have been written in the East, because its orthography has several properties observable in the Codex Alexandrinus. But as these peculiarities are also found in other very antient manuscripts, Bishop Marsh considers them as insufficient to warrant the inference, especially when we reflect on the great improbability that a

Collegii SS. Trinitatis juxta Dublin: Descriptum Opera et Studio Johannis Barrett, S. T. P. Soc. Sen. Trin. Coll. Dublin. Cui adjungitur Appendix Collationem Codicis Montfortiani complectens. Dublini Ædibus Academicis excudebat R. E. Mercier, Academiæ Typographus. MDCCCI." 4to. The Prolegomena fill fifty-two pages, and comprise, I. A description of the manuscript itself, with an account of its age, and the mode of collating it adopted by the learned editor; and, 2. An elaborate dissertation reconciling the apparent discrepancies between the genealogies of Jesus Christ as recorded by the Evangelists Matthew and Luke. The fragments of the Codex Rescriptus are then exhibited in sixty-four fac-simile plates, and are also represented in as many pages in the common Greek small type. This truly elegant volume concludes with a collation of the Codex Montfortianus with Wetstein's edition of the New Testament, which occupies thirty-five pages. 1 Dr. Barrett's Prolegomena, pp. 2-9.

2 So called from Archbishop Laud, who gave this, among many other precious manuscripts, to the University of Oxford. It is now preserved in the Bodleian Library. F. 82. No. 1119.