PALEOGRAPHY. 



Lowe, E. A., Oxford, England. Associate in paloeography. (For previous 

 reports see Year Books 9-16, 19-21.) 



During the past year considerable advance has been made in the investiga- 

 tion of both the uncial and the half-uncial script. The exhaustive material 

 made available by the collection of negatives renders it possible to distinguish 

 certain groups or classes of script heretofore unrecognized. The compre- 

 hensive study on this subject, however, must not be expected till conditions in 

 Europe become more favorable. In the meantime, the best results can be 

 obtained by focusing attention upon important single centers of writing, and 

 one of the most important of these (Lyons) will have a special publication 

 devoted to it during the coming year. It is pleasant to report that the instiga- 

 tion to such an undertaking has come from the authorities of the Library of 

 Lyons, under whose auspices and at whose expense the work is to be done. 

 Owing to the unsettled condition of Germany, the intended visits to the 

 libraries of Fulda, Cassel, Cologne, and Berlin, which contain manuscripts of 

 singular importance to the investigation in hand, have been postponed. 



Traube's published list of uncial manuscripts has been considerably aug- 

 mented, and a provisional list of half-uncial manuscripts, accompanied by 

 references to published fascimiles, has been drawn up. It will be published, 

 together with certain palseographical observations, in the Melanges Ehrle. 



During the winter the library of Orleans was visited and its ancient frag- 

 ments carefully studied. In Paris the uncial and half-uncial manuscripts 

 were re-examined and the occasion employed to inspect all the Visigothic 

 manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale, which possesses the largest col- 

 lection of ancient Spanish manuscript outside of Spain, not excluding that at 

 the British Museum, which had been previously examined. Among the 

 Visigothic manuscripts examined, peculiar interest attaches to a fragment 

 which shows evidence of having been copied from an original written by an 

 Englishman. It contains a commentary of St. Matthew still unpublished, 

 and through the courteous cooperation of the learned Benedictine Dom 

 DeBruyne it has been possible to discover both the ancestor and the descend- 

 ant of this fragment. The fragment is interesting both because it has never 

 been published and because it suggests literary relations between Spain and 

 some English center on the Continent, and also for the light it throws on 

 the methods of scribes when confronted with foreign scripts. An article on 

 the subject of this fragment, properly illustrated, will also appear in the 

 Revue Benedictine. 



The preface to the Bobbio Missal will soon go to press; and the letter-press 

 to accompany the 100 plates of the Scriptiira Beneventana is being prepared for 

 publication as soon as possible. Besides reviews in the English Historical 

 Review and the Classical Review, a short note appeared in the latter periodical 

 on the genuineness of the Berlin Plautus fragment. 



It is gratifying to report that the authorities of the Bodleian Library have 

 formally entered into an agreement whereby they become the temporary 

 custodians of the collection of negatives, thus assuming a maximum amount of 

 safety and accessibility to schools. The collection has been increased by acces- 

 sions from the libraries of Rome, Florence, Bologna, Verona, Milan, Vercelli, 



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