[ IJ7 ] 



more reafonable to fuppofe it that original itfelf. We miift add 

 to this the great refemblance between it and the Alexandrian in 

 many of ifs letters ; thus we have in an Ainmonian fedion, a 

 figure of the Epifemon Bau, perfectly hke to that which Mont- 

 faucoji obferved in a Greek coin of GalUenus and of his fuc- 

 ceffor Claudius^ and on other monuments of the fame age, the 

 third century, PalcEOg. p. 128, which figure alfo nearly occurs in 

 the Alexandrian. In the letter T it perfedly refemblcs the Cotto- 

 nian Genejls^ whereas both Beza's Teftament and the manufcript 

 of Bede give a very different form to this letter. We lliould add 

 to this, that it has a form of A which probably has not yet been 

 met with in any manufcript. That moft like it may be found 

 in the Cottonian Genejis, which is different from the A of all the 

 manufcripts, and differs from this chiefly in the inclination of 

 the principal line, which is here perpendicular. It has alfo the 

 redilineal H of the Colbertine, No. 3084, and of Ephrem. The want 

 of the Eufehian numbers, when it has the Ammonian fedions, will 

 be another great argument, and the more efpecially when we con- 

 fider that both Ephrem and the Alexandrian have them, and Beza's 

 Teftament only wants them. I cannot alfo pafs over my fufpicion 

 that this manufcript has been originally written on purple parch- 

 ment, a pradice of the higheft antiquity; for St. Jerom, in the fourth 

 century, defcribes the ancient manufcripts as written on purple 

 parchment ; and many of the ancient authors mention the cuftom 

 of ftaining the parchment on which they wrote. The fame fubftance 

 which was ufed to difcharge the writing has in a great meafure dif- 

 charged the colour of the parchment ; notwithftanding which it 

 in many places appears plainly ftained with a colour, and this 



(S ) colour 



