380 Clarence Russell Williams, 



the vermilioned flourishes which indicate that the Gospel proper 

 of Mark is ended. Verse 9 however is begun on the next line, and 

 the whole twelve verses are completed in the same large uncials 

 as the rest of the Gospels. As it were by an afterthought the scribe 

 adds the title Arision Eritzou just above the flourishes mentioned, 

 and within the columnar space. It is written in vermilioned 

 smaller uncials identical in character with those which at the foot 

 of each column denote the Ammonian canons, and also with those 

 which the scribe uses to complete a word at the end of a line, 

 thereby preserving the symmetry of the lines, and avoiding the 

 necessity of placing the last one or two letters of a word by them- 

 selves at the beginning of a fresh line. The title therefore was added 

 by the first hand; or, if not by him, at least by the BiopQ-wTr.c. In 

 any case it is contemporary, and must have stood in the older copy 

 transcribed, from which also were perhaps transferred the fifth 

 century full-page illustrations included in the existing codex. At 

 first it was intended to omit the title, but on second thoughts it was 

 added. If the scribe had from the first meant to keep it, he would 

 have left room for it, instead of cramping it in above the terminal 

 flourishes. That he regarded Mark proper as ending with verse 8, 

 is further shown by the large circular boss consisting of concentric 

 circles of color added against the end of verse 8 between the columns. 

 The paler tints in the photograph correspond to vermilion in the 

 codex ; and the vermilioned lettering of the title was so faint in the 

 positive sent to Mr. Conybeare from Edschmiadzin in 1895, that 

 he has strengthened it with ink for the preparation of the present 

 facsimile." 



This rubric could not indicate the copjdst, whose name the codex 

 gives as Johannes, nor the translator of these verses, since Ariston 

 is not an Armenian name, but must mean the original author of these 

 verses. This alone, declares Conybeare, explains the genitive case 

 "Oj the presbyter" used here, [note that the name Ariston is not 

 in the genitive] and "the dignity accorded to the words 'Ariston 

 Eritzou/ which are in minioned uncials, as are the titles ' of ]\Iatthew ' 

 etc. ... at the heads of their respective Gospels." 



But reference to the facsimile to us seems to infer not the dignity of 

 these words, but rather lack of it, since they are not even given a 

 separate line but crowded in between the lines in a much smaller hand 

 than the rest of the text. Since the facsimile docs not give the title 

 of the Gospel, we can make no comparison with it. We must take 

 exception however to the inference that Ariston "must in the scribe's 

 mind have been a writer of almost the same importance as Mark him- 



