S66 Mr. Pickering on the Pronunciation 



not write in large or capital letters, but in small oneSy fashioned 

 after the ancient capitals^ hut still with some slight differences : 



and thus, io transcribing, they would by lengthening and widen- 

 ing the V before a y, make it resemble the latter so much as to be 



L 



mistaken for it."* He then informs the reader, that in a very old 

 MS. of St. Paul's Epistles, which was written in capitalsf he 



had seen the following words written with a v instead of a y: 

 ANFEAOS, ANKTPA, ANKAAH. 



However ingenious this conjecture of JBeza may appear, and 

 however well supported it may seem to be, yet it is all over- 



thrown by the evidence now in possession of the learned, to 

 which I have just alluded ; that is, the Herculanean Manuscripts f 

 which, as Dr. Burney justly observes of one of them, are "un- 

 doubtedly the most curious publication^ on the whole, which has 

 appeared since the revival of letters."! I shall make no apolo- 

 gy for introducing in this place a translation of the entire note of 

 the learned editor on the pronunciation of the letter now under 

 consideration. It is taken from the second volume of the Man- 



* Beza, De gcrmana pronuuciatione Grsec. Ling, ap. Ilavercamp. Syllog. 

 torn. i. p. 314, 315. 



t See Sees'' Cyclopmdiay art. Philodemi de Musica. Dr. Burney states, 

 that no copies of this work had reached England till I80I, (though it had been then 

 published several years,) when «Dr. C>ftc/ieroJe procu red possession of two co- 

 pies." It is hor.ourable to our country, that we now have in this vicinity three 

 copies, at least, of this interesting publication ; one of which is in the Library 

 of the University at Cambridge, and another in that valuable repository of lite- 

 rature, the Boston Mlienceum. This institution, indeed, is the only one, I be- 

 lieve, that possesses the second volume of these MSS. containing part of the 



printed till 1 809. 



fragments of a Latin poem. This volume was not 



