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First. It is written, as will appear from the fpecimen an- 

 PLATE. nexed, in round and fquare uncials. And this with fo much 

 exadnefs, that no variation from the round and fquare figure is 

 to be perceived any where. Now, as antiquarians agree that the 

 change in the capitals commenced in the eighth century, and all 

 the fpecimens I have feen prove the fame, and as this argument 

 is built on that which conftitutes the effential diftindion between 

 the two fpecies of writing, and which aifedts not a few but all 

 the letters, it appears to me to put it beyond doubt that it pre- 

 cedes the eighth century. 



Secondly. What has been proved before, from the form of 

 all the letters in general, will alfo be confirmed from the figures 

 of particular letters. Alontfaiicon lays it down as a mark of dif- 

 tindion between the two kinds of manufcripts, that in the latter 

 A and 0, to which wc might alfo add feveral other letters, have 

 altered their figure in the more ancient manufcripts, confiderably. 

 No inftance of this change is here perceivable. The letters in 

 the fecond clafs of manufcripts are loaded with a variety of 

 Gothic ornaments ; and, to ufe Wetjiein'^ words, " funt pinguiores 

 " et habent apices, et bafibus infiftunt." VideSpecimina in Palasog. 

 p. 219, 229, 232 & 234. Nothing fimilar is here perceivable. 

 The larger capitals in thefe manufcripts are made, even from the 

 eighth century (Palaeog. p. 254) in the form of pidures of 

 remarkable events, and loaded with a variety of fuperfluous 

 lines. Palaeog. p. 229 & 234. And the figure of the crofs is to 

 be met with at the ends of fentences. ' Vide Palseog. p. 229, 

 234 & 514. et Catal. Bibl. Laurentio Mediceas, Tom. ii. Tab. iii. 

 Specimina vi. et viii. And Mr. AJik^ Tab. ii. Spec. x. and xi. 



In 



