K ΚΑΙ ΕΓΕΝΕΤΟ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΤΡΙΑ ΙΕΡΕΛΕΝΗΧΑΛΔΑΙΩΝΕ 3. ACCOUNT OF manuscripts (entire or in part) CONTAINING THE SEPTUAGINt or greek VERSION Of the old TESTAMENT. I. The Codex Cottonianus. - II. The Codex Sarravianus. III. The Codex Colbertinus. - IV. The Codex Cæsareus, Argenteus, or Argenteo-Purpureus.-V. The Codex Ambrosianus. —VI. The Codex Coislinianus.-VII. The Codex Basilio-Vaticanus. — VIII. The Codex Turicensis. IT is not precisely known what number of manuscripts of the Greek version of the Old Testament are extant. The highest number of those collated by the late Rev. Dr. Holmes, for his splendid edition of this version is one hundred and thirty-five. Nine of them are described, as being written in uncial characters, and as having furnished him with the most important of the various readings, with which his first volume is enriched: besides these he has noticed sixty-three others, written in cursive or small characters, and which have likewise furnished him with various lections. Of these manuscripts the following are more particularly worthy of notice, on account of their rarity and value.1 I. The CODEX COTTONIANUS is not only the most antient but the most correct manuscript that is extant. It was originally brought from Philippi by two Greek bishops, who presented it to King Henry VIII. whom they informed that tradition reported it to have been the identical copy, which had belonged to the celebrated Origen, who lived in the former half of the third century. Queen Elizabeth gave it to Sir John Fortescue, her preceptor in Greek, who, desirous of preserving it for posterity, placed it in the Cottonian Library. This precious manuscript was almost destroyed by the calamitous fire which consumed Cotton House at Westminster, in the year 1731. Eighteen fragments are all that now remain, and of these, both the leaves, and consequently the writing in a just proportion, are contracted into a less compass; so that what were large are now small capitals. These fragments are at present deposited in the British Museum.2 In its original state, the Codex Cottonianus contained one hundred and sixty-five leaves, in the quarto size; it is written on vellum, in uncial characters, the line running along the whole width of the page, and each line consisting, in general, of twenty-seven, rarely of thirty letters. These letters are almost every where of the same length, excepting that at the end of a line they are occasionally somewhat 1 Our descriptions are chiefly abridged from Dr. Holmes's Præfatio ad Pentateuchum, cap. ii. prefixed to the first volume of his critical edition of the Septua gint version, published at Oxford, in 1798, folio. 2 Catalogus Bibliotheca Cottonianæ, p. 365. (folio, 1802.) Casley's Catalogue of MSS. in the King's Library, pp. viii. ix. ΘΣ, ON, for Certain consonants, The coherence of less, and in some instances are interlined or written over the line. Like all other very antient manuscripts, it has no accents or spirits, nor any distinction of words, verses, or chapters. The words are, for the most part, written at full length, with the exception of the well known and frequent abbreviations of KC KN, ez, Kugios and Kugiov, Lord, and Osos, Eov, God. vowels, and diphthongs are also interchanged. the Greek text is very close, except where it is divided by the interposition of the very curious paintings or illuminations with which this manuscript is decorated. These pictures were two hundred and fifty in number, and consist of compositions within square frames, of one or of several figures, in general not exceeding two inches in height; and these frames, which are four inches square, are occasionally divided into two compartments. The heads are perhaps too large, but the attitudes and draperies have considerable merit: and they are by competent judges preferred to the miniatures that adorn the Vienna manuscript, which is noticed in p. 81. infra. Twenty-one fragments of these illuminations were engraved, in 1744, on two large folio plates, at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries of London. It is observed by Mr. Planta, the present principal librarian of the British Museum, that more fragments must have been preserved than the eighteen which now remain; because none of those engraved are now to be met with.2 On an examination of the Codex Cottonianus, with a view to take a fac-simile of some one of its fragments for this work, they were found in a nearly pulverised and carbonised state, so that no accurate copy could be taken. The annexed engraving therefore is copied from that of the Antiquarian Society.3 The subject on the right-hand of Plate 2. is Jacob delivering his son Benjamin to his brethren, that they may go a second time into Egypt and buy corn for himself and his family. The passage of Genesis, which it is intended to illustrate, is ch. xliii. 13, 14., of which the following is a representation in ordinary Greek characters: the words preserved being in capital letters. 1 These permutations were a fruitful source of errors in manuscripts. Some instances of them are given infra, Chap. VIII. 2 Catalogus Bibliothecæ Cottonian, p. 365. 3 Vetusta Monumenta, quæ ad Rerum Britannicarum memoriam conservandam Societas Antiquariorum sumptu suo edenda curavit. Londini, 1747, folio, tom. i. pl. LXVII. Nos. VI. et VII. |