ALE 



Alexandria, Patriarch of, in Ecchjiajlical ir^Qary. See 

 Patriarch. 



ALEXANDRIAN, in a particular renfc-, is applied to 

 sjll tliofe who profclftd or taught the fciciicts in the fchool 

 of Alexandria. 



Thus, Clemens is called yflfxnndrinus, or the Alexandrian, 

 tluHigh fomc fay lie was born at Athens : the fame epithet 

 is applied to Apioii, born at Oafis; and to Ariftarchus, by 

 • birth a Samolhratian. The chief Alexandrian philofoplu-rs 

 were Euclid, the famous geometer, the two ancient allrono- 

 mers, Ariftillus and Timocharis, EratoiUicnes, Apollonius 

 •Pergxus,Conon, Hipparcluis, Cttfibius, Heron, Polfidonius, 

 Pappus, Thcon, Hypathia the daughter of Tlieon, i^tolemy ; 

 and Philoponusand Didymus, the lafl mathematicians of this 

 fchool. To thefe we may add Ammonius, Plotinus, Origen, 

 Porphyrj-, Jamblichus, Sopater, Maxiinus and Dcxippuj. 



ALfXASDRiAN is more particularly underllood ot a col- 

 lege of priells, confecratcd to the fervice of Alexander Se- 

 verus, after his deification. 



AuKXANDRiAN- 6'o/>v, is E manufcript, oonfiftiug of four 

 volumes, in a large quarto, or ratiier a folio fize; which 

 contains tlie whole Bible in Greek, including the Old and 

 New Teftament, with the Apocr)'pha, and fome fmallcr 

 pieces, but not quite complete. This manufcript is now 

 prefened in the Britifli Mufeum, where it was depofited in 

 175-5. It was fent as a prefent to King Cliarles I. from 

 Cyrillus linearis, a native of Crete, and patriarch of Con- 

 llantinople, by Sir Thomas Rowe, anibaffador from England 

 to the Grand Seignior, in the year 1628. Cyrillus brought 

 it with him from Alexandria, where, probably, it w.is w-rit- 

 ten. In a fchedule annexed to it, he gives this accijunt ; 

 that it was written, as tradition informed them, by Thecla, 

 a noble Egyptian ladv, about thirteen hundred years ago, 

 a little after the council of Nice. He adds, that the name 

 of Thecla, at the end of the book, was erafed ; but that this 

 was the cafe with other books of the Chrillians, after Chrif- 

 tianity was extinguifhed in Egypt by the Maliometans : and 

 that recent tradition records the fact of the laceration and 

 crafure of Thecla's name. The proprietor of this manu- 

 Icript, before it came into the hands of Cyrillus Lucaris, 

 had written an Arabic fubfcription, exprcffing that this book 

 \yas faid to have been written with the pen of Thecla the 

 martyr. Various difputcs have arifen with regard to the 

 place \vhence it was brought, and where it was written, to 

 ,jts antiquity, and of courle to its real yalue. Some critics 

 have bellowed upon it the highell commendation, whilft it 

 has been equally depreciated by others. Of its moil ftrenu- 

 ous advcrfaries, Wetftein feems to have been the principal. 

 The place from which it was fent to England was, witiiout 

 doubt, Alexandria, and hence it has been called Cock:: Akx- 

 andrinvs. As to the place where it was written, there is a 

 confiderable difference of opinion. Matthxus Muttis, who 

 ■was a contemporary, friend and deacon of Cyrillus, and who 

 afterwartis inllrufted in the Greek language Jolm Rudolph 

 Wetftein, uncle of the celebrated editor of the Greek Teila- 

 ment, bears tellimony, in a letter, written to Martin Bogdan, 

 a phy fician in Bern, dated January 1 4, 1 664, that it had been 

 brought from one of the 22 monafteries in Mount Athos, 

 which the Turks never deftroyed, but allowed to continue 

 upon the payment of tribute. Woide endeavours to weaken 

 the evidence of Mnitis, and to render the teftimony of the 

 elder Wetilein fufpicious: but Spohn, in his edition of the 

 «' Notitia Codicis Alexandrini," p. 10 — 13, (hews, that the 

 objeftions of Woide are ungrounded. Allow ing their reality, 

 \\t cannot infer, that Cyrillus found this manufcript in Alex- 

 andria. Before he went to Alexandria he fpent fome time 

 <.n Mount Athos, the repofitory and manufaftory of manu- 



A L E 



fcripts of the New Teftament, whence a great number have 

 been brought into the V.'eft of Europe, ar.d a ilill greater 

 nmnber has been fent to Mofcow. It is therefore probable, 

 independently of the evidence of Muttis, that Cyrillus pro- 

 cured it there either by purchafe or by prefent, took it with ' 

 him to Alexandria, and V.rought it thence on his return to 

 Conftantinople. But the queftion recurs, where was thii 

 copy written ? The Arabic fubfcription above cited clearly 

 proves, that it had been in Egypt, at fome period or other, 

 before it fell into the hands of Cyrillus. This fubfcription 

 fliews that it once beh)nged to an Egyptian, or that during 

 fome time it was preferved in Egypt, where Arabic has been ' 

 fpoken fince the feventh centur)-. Befides, it is well known 

 that a great number of manufcripts of the Greek Bible have 

 been written in Egypt. Woide has alfo pointed out a re- 

 markable coincidence between the Cod. Alex, and the writ- 

 ings of the Copts. Michaelis alledges another c-ircumflance 

 as a probable argument of its having been written in Egypt. 

 In Ezekicl xxvii. iS. both in the Hebrew and Greek text, 

 the Tyiians are faid to have fetched their wine from Chel- 

 bon, or, according to Bochart, Chalybon. But as Chaly- 

 bon, though celebrated for its wine, was unknown to the 

 writer of this manufcript ; he has altered it by a fanciful con- 

 jefture to cuo/ ;/. ;)^'/Sfiv, wine from Hebron. This alteration 

 was probably made by an Egyptian copyift, bccaufe Egypt 

 was fomierly fupplied with wine from Hebron. The fub-* 

 fcription, before mentioned, afcribes the writing of it to 

 Thecla, an Egyptian lady of high rank, who could not 

 have been, as Michaelis fuppofes, the niartyrefs Thecla, 

 placed in the time of St. Paul : but Woide replies, that 

 a diftinftion muil be made between Thecla martyr and 

 Thecla proto-martyr. With regard to thefe lubferiptions 

 we may obferve, with a leariied writer (Marfti), that the true 

 ilate of the cafe appears to be as follows : " Some centuries 

 after the Codex Alexandrinus had been written, and the 

 Greek fubferiptions, and perhjips thofe other parts where it 

 is more defetlive already loft, it fell into the hands of a Chrif- 

 tian inhabitant of Egypt, who not finding the ufual Greek 

 fubfcription of the copyift, added in Arabic, his native lan- 

 guage, the tradition either true or falfe, which had been pre- 

 ferved in the family or families to which the manufcript had 

 belonged, " Mcmorant hunc codicem fcriptum efle calamo 

 Thecls martyris." In the 17th century, when oral tradi- 

 tion refpefting tliis manufcript had probably ceafed, it be- 

 came the property of Cyrillus Lucaris ; but whether in 

 Alexandria, or Mount Athos, is of no importance to the 

 prefent inquiry. On examining the manutcript he finds, 

 that the Greek fubfcription is loll, but that there is a tradi- 

 tion recorded in Arabic by a former proprietor, which fimply 

 related that it was written by one Thecla a martyrefs, which 

 is what he means by " memoria et traditio recens." Taking 

 therefore upon truit, that one Thecla the martyrefs was really 

 the copyift, he confuks the annals of the church to difeover in 

 whatage and country a perfon of this name and charafter exiil- 

 ed, finds that an Egyptian lady of rank, called Thecla, fuffered 

 martyrdom between tlie-time of lioldiirg the council ofNicKa 

 and the clofe of the fourth century; and concludes, without 

 further ceremony, that the was the vei-y identical copyiil. 

 Not fatisfied with this dlfcovery, he attempts to account for 

 the lofsof the Greek fubfcription, and afcribes it to the ma- 

 lice of the Saracens ; being weak enough to believe that the 

 enemies of C'lriiiianity would exert their vengeance on the 

 name of a poor tranfcrlbcr, and leave the four foho volumes 

 themfclves unhurt." The learned Woide, who has him- 

 felf tranfcribed and publlftied this manufcript, and muil 

 be better acquainted v-ith it than any other perfon, 

 afferts, that it was written by two different copyifts; 



for 



