Bibliorum Codex Sinaitieus. 



233 



to his larger work, and it is this which has just been pub- 

 lished, and which fully justifies the high expectation with 

 which it has been looked for. It is a handsome quarto, 

 and excepting the Old Testament text and the splendid 

 plates of the larger work, contains all of the excellence of 

 that great fac-simile. 



In it there is a fac-simile in lithograph of the last 28 

 verses of the epistle to the Hebrews, which enables one 

 to form a correct idea of the general appearance of the 

 manuscript in its whole extent. 



The text, though not in initials, appears in a bold, clear 

 Greek type, and is so printed as to correspond as nearly 

 as possible to the form of the manuscript and its fac-simile 

 edition. 



Thus every opening of the volume presents eight col- 

 umns of text, four to a page, the lines of which exactly cor- 

 respond with those of the Codex. 



The Sinai manuscript — the original — is a large volume 

 of quarto size, the width of the pages being somewhat 

 greater than their length. Originally it was larger than 

 at present, the upper and side margins having been trim- 

 med. The material of which it is made is the dressed 

 skins of animals, chiefly of that kind of antelope which is 

 found in the Arabian and African deserts. Every dou- 

 bled leaf of the quarto required a separate skin, and to 

 prepare the hides for the stylus, required the best skill of 

 the times. 



As the manuscript now is, it consists of 345} skins, of 

 which 199 belong to the Old Testanaent, and the remain- 

 ing 147} to the New. On every page there are four nar- 

 row and very regular columns of writing about 9} inches 

 long, and 2 \ broad, each containing 48 lines of text. In 

 respect to the number of its page columns, four, this 

 Sinai manuscript is unique. The Vatican manuscript has 

 only three page columns. 



