PALEOGRAPHY. 385 



PALEOGRAPHY. 



Loew, E. A., Oxford, England. Continuation and completion of researches 

 and publication of the "Scriptura Beneventana." (For previous reports 

 see Year Books Nos. 9-13.) 



The outbreak of the European war found me in France, where I had 

 just begun to make a transcript of the celebrated Bobbio missal, mention 

 of which was made in my previous report. The manuscript is preserved 

 in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, and it was my intention therefore 

 to stay in Paris long enough to make a careful study of all those points 

 requiring examination of the original. OAving to the very unsettled 

 conditions then prevailing, this plan was abandoned. I returned to 

 Oxford, where I stayed and continued my work until May 1915. 

 The war is also responsible for two other disappointing changes of 

 plan. My Wiirzburg studies had to be shelved, since their continu- 

 ation depended upon a second visit to Wiirzburg. The collection of 

 plates supplementing my book on the Beneventan script was to have 

 been published by the Clarendon Press some time during the current 

 year; but owing to the fact that the sale of this costly collection would 

 have been confined to the large European libraries, it was naturally 

 decided to wait for more propitious times. 



The major portion of the year was spent in work on the Bobbio 

 missal. A transcript of its 600 pages, some of them almost unde- 

 cipherable, accompanied by paleographical notes, was sent to the 

 printer before I left Oxford. Although it is one of the oldest and most 

 interesting liturgical books in our possession, liturgiologists are puzzled 

 as to its origin ; nor has the student of Romance languages been more 

 fortunate in locating its home. The barbarous spelUng in which the 

 scribe indulges, as well as the additions entered on blank pages in low 

 Latin, render this volume a rich mine of vulgar Latin and early Romance 

 forms. It remains to be seen what light may be obtained from the 

 combined results of history, liturgy, philology, and paleography. 

 Considerable time was also devoted to preparing a study on the 

 famous biblical manuscript known as the Codex Bobbiensis (k) of the 

 Gospels. Material has also been collected for an article on critical 

 signs in Latin manuscripts. 



In the autumn of 1914 four lectures were given at Cambridge. 

 During these visits I took the opportunity of examining manuscripts in 

 the University Library, in Trinity Hall, and in the libraries of Corpus 

 Christi, Pembroke, and Trinity Colleges. During the spring vacation 

 I worked at the British Museum. After reaching America in June, I 

 had the privilege of visiting J. P. Morgan's library. Mj^ attention 

 was particularly drawn to the two oldest manuscripts of this splendid 

 collection. Photographs of these were furnished me and permission 

 given to publish the results of my observations. The lectures on old 



