26 RESTORATION OF MSS. 



of the same saint, so that the writing had been erased twice 

 from the parchment.* 



FREDERICK. 



Are these the writings which I have heard called pa- 

 limpsests? 



MRS. F. 



Yes, the term is derived from the Greek palin, again, and 

 psao, scrape. 



FREDERICK. 



Aunt, since you were telling us of the value of manu- 

 scripts, I have just recollected that Ptolemy Physcon, at the 

 time of the famine, refused to furnish the Athenians with 

 corn, unless they gave him the original copies of Sophocles, 

 ./Eschylus, and Euripides. 



MRS. F. 



Well remembered, Frederick. Books have often been the 

 price of conquest, particularly in Italy. A copy of Cresar's 

 Commentaries was the spoils of a victory of the Genoese 

 fleet over the king of Arragon, in 1435. The Pandects of 

 Justinian were the price of the surrender of Pisa; and, even 

 in modern times, the cession of 500 MSS. of the Vatican was 

 one of the articles of the treaty at Tolentino. 



FREDERICK. 



I beg your pardon for interrupting you, aunt, but where 

 are the Pandects now? 



MRS. F. 



At Florence : their history is singular. Discovered at 

 Amalfi, they were taken at the siege of that city in 1 135, by 

 the Pisans. Many think it was a copy sent into Italy by 

 Justinian himself: be that as it may, it is the oldest in exist- 

 ence. Gino Capponi having forced Pisa to surrender by 



* Valery, Voyages en Italie, t. i. p. 302. This last palimpsest is 

 at Verona. 



