MANUSCRIPTS. 



673 



mid rivers, abounding with organic remains of 

 fish, shells, and rotten plants. Before being laid 

 upon land, it usually requires being well turned up 

 and exposed to the air for some time ; but as soon as 

 it is spread, it should be ploughed in, to prevent loss 

 by evaporation. As to the depth below the surface 

 of the ground, to which it should be deposited, it may 

 be remarked, that this should never be below the 

 reach of the roots of the plants it is intended to 

 nourish ; for, in proportion as it is dissolved and 

 liquefied, it will naturally descend. And it is better 

 to manure lands in the spring than in autumn, lest 

 the winter rains should dissolve it too much, and 

 endanger its sinking betow the. roots of the crop. 

 With regard to the quantity of manure, it is a com- 

 modity so scarce, that it is not likely to be employed 

 in excess. This occurs, however, sometimes in gar- 

 den culture, and it produces a strong and disagree- 

 able flavour in the vegetables. But the stock of 

 manure is generally so limited, that it has been the 

 study of agriculturists to discover some means of 

 compensation for a deficiency, rather than to appre- 

 hend danger from excess. This compensation has 

 been found in a judicious system of crops. See Ro- 

 tation of Crops. 



MANUSCRIPTS are a principal subject of diplo- 

 matics. All the existing ancient manuscripts are 

 written on parchment or on paper. The paper is 

 sometimes Egyptian (prepared from the real papyrus 

 shrub), sometimes cotton or silk paper (c/iarta bom- 

 bycina), which was invented in the East, about the 

 year 706, and used till the introduction of linen 

 paper, and in common with this till the middle of 

 the fourteenth century ; sometimes linen paper, the 

 date of the invention of which, though ascribed to the 

 first half of the thirteenth century, on the authority 

 of a document of the year 1243, written on such 

 paper, is, nevertheless, exceedingly doubtful. The 

 earliest mention of pens is found in the seventh cen- 

 tury. The most common ink is the black, which is 

 very old : the oldest, however, was not mixed with 

 vitriol, like ours, but generally consisted of soot, 

 lamp-black, burnt ivory, pulverized charcoal, &c. 

 Red ink is also found, in ancient times, in manu- 

 scripts, of a dazzling beauty. With it were written 

 the initial letters, the first lines, and the titles, which 

 were thence called rubrics, and the writer rubricator. 

 More rarely, but still quite frequently, blue ink is 

 found in ancient manuscripts ; yet more rarely green 

 nd yellow. Gold and silver were also used for writ- 

 ing either whole manuscripts (which, from their cost- 

 liness, are great rarities), or for adorning the initial 

 letters of books. With respect to external form, 

 manuscripts are divided into rolls (volumina, the 

 most ancient way, in which the Troubadours in France 

 wrote their poems at a much later period), and 

 into stitched books, or volumes (properly codices). 

 Among the ancients, the writers of manuscripts were 

 mainly freedmen or slaves (scribee librarii). Sub- 

 sequently, the monks, among whom the Benedictines 

 in particular, were bound to this employment, by the 

 rules of their order. Manuscripts were afterwards 

 improved and embellished by correctors and rubrica- 

 tors. But of much greater importance, for estimat- 

 ing the age, value, &c., of a manuscript, than these 

 external circumstances and marks, are the internal, 

 particularly the character of the writing and of the 

 letters. It is more difficult to form a correct judg- 

 ment respecting the age of Greek manuscripts from 

 the character of the writing than it is respecting that 

 of Latin manuscripts. In general, it is to be remark- 

 ed, that, in a Greek manuscript, the strokes are 

 lighter, easier, and more flowing, the older it is ; 

 and that they become stiffer in the progress of time. 

 The absence or presence, of the Greek accents is in 

 IT. 



no respect decisive. Moreover, few Greek manu- 

 scripts are found of an earlier date than the seventh, 

 or, at most, the sixth century. The characters in 

 Latin manuscripts have been classified partly accor- 

 ding to their size (majuscula, minusculd), partly 

 according to the various shapes and characters which 

 they assumed among different nations, or in various 

 periods (scriptura Romano, antigua, Merovingica, 

 Longobardica, Carolingica, 8fc. ; to which has been 

 added, since the twelfth century, the Got/tic, so called, 

 which is an artificially pointed and angular charac- 

 ter) ; and for all of those species of writing, parti- 

 cular rules have been established, affording the means 

 of estimating the age of a manuscript. Before the 

 eighth century, interpunctions rarely occur : even 

 after the introduction of punctuation, manuscripts 

 may be met with destitute of interpunctions, but with 

 the words separate. Manuscripts which have no 

 capital or other divisions, are always old. The 

 catch-word, as it is termed, or the repetition of the 

 first word of the following page at the end of the 

 preceding, belongs to the twelfth or subsequent cen- 

 turies. The fewer and easier the abbreviations of a 

 manuscript are, the older it is. Finally, in the oldest 

 manuscripts, the words commonly join each other 

 without break or separation. The division of words 

 first became general in the ninth century. The form 

 of the Arabic ciphers, which are seldom found in 

 manuscripts earlier than the first half of the thir- 

 teenth century, also assists in deciding the age of a 

 manuscript. Some manuscripts have at the end a 

 statement when, and, commonly, also, by whom, they 

 were written (dated codices). But this signature 

 often denotes merely the time when the book was 

 composed, or refers merely to a part of the manu- 

 script, or is entirely spurious. Since we have had 

 the evidence of the Herculanean manuscripts, we 

 can determine with certainty that none of our manu- 

 scripts are older than the Christian era. In 1825, a 

 fragment of the Iliad, written on papyrus, was dis- 

 covered on the Island of Elephantina, in Upper 

 Egypt, by a French gentleman, travelling in the 

 employment of Mr Bankes. It contains from 800 to 

 900 verses, beginning at the 160th, and is hand- 

 somely written in capital letters, and is in a good 

 state of preservation, unquestionably the oldest of all 

 classical manuscripts, and probably of the times of 

 the Ptolemies. It was the custom, in the middle ages, 

 wholly to obliterate and erase writings on parchment, 

 for the purpose of writing on the materials anew. 

 These codices rescripti, rasi, are thought great curio- 

 sities. This custom ceased in the fourteenth century, 

 probably because paper came then more into use. 

 See Codex. 



MANUSCRIPTS, ILLUMINATED ; those manu- 

 scripts which are adorned with paintings illustrating 

 the text, or in which the initial letters were decorat- 

 ed with flourishes or gilding. This kind of biblio- 

 graphical luxury was not unknown to the ancients, 

 and the art of illumination was much practised by the 

 monks. Their vignettes are, in some instances, of 

 considerable historical importance. The specimens 

 from the period between the fifth and tenth centuries 

 are superior to those produced during the succeed- 

 ing centuries. The term illuminated is derived 

 from the use of minium, for a red colour, by the 

 artists ; hence called miniatores, or illuminator 'et. 

 An example of Anglo-Saxon illumination of the 

 eighth century is preserved in the British museum 

 (Cottonian MSS.), which employed the skill of four 

 distinguished theologians of the day. Eadfrid, bishop 

 of Durham, wrote the text (the four Gospels) ; 

 Ethelwold, his successor, illuminated the volume ; 

 Bilfrid, the anachoret, covered it richly with gold and 

 silver plates, and precious stones ; and Aldred added 

 2 u 



