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Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus. 



But by the best authority of the present day, this manuscript 

 is thought to have been written about the middle of the fifth 

 century. 



Until the Sinaiticus was found, the Alexandrinus was pro- 

 nounced as the one of all the uncial manuscripts containing 

 the new Testament in by far the most entire condition, 

 none other having the book of Revelation complete. 



Bibliorum Codex Vaticanus. — This manuscript is in the 

 library of the Vatican at Rome, where it must have found a 

 place soon after the formation of that library by Pope Nicho- 

 las V. Early in the 16th century it was well known by 

 report amongst scholars, as being an extremely ancient 

 copy of the Scriptures. 



When Erasmus was censured for having departed in his 

 published Greek Testament from the common readings of 

 the vulgaie, he appealed to this manuscript as an authority 

 in his favor, because of its great antiquity. The Vaticanus 

 contains the Septuagint version of the Old Testament 

 (defective though through the greater part of Genesis as also 

 in portions of the Psalms), and it contains the New Testa- 

 ment as far as Hebrews ix. 14. 



The manuscript is on very thin vellum ; the letters are 

 uncials, small, but regularly formed ; three columns on 

 each page excepting in some of the Stichometrical or verse 

 parts of the Old Testament, where there is only room for two 

 columns. The manuscript is devoid of interpunction, and 

 the only approach to it is found in a small space being left 

 between the letters where a new section begins. 



The antiquity of the Codex Vaticanus is shown by its 

 paleographic peculiarities, the letters resembling, in many 

 respects, those found in the Herculaneum rolls. The form 

 of the book, the six columns at every opening, giving it a 

 close resemblance to a rolled book. This, with the unifor- 

 mity of the letters, and the absence of all punctuation, 

 have their united weight in pronouncing this, until the 

 Sinaiticus, older than any other manuscript known or avail- 

 able for New Testament criticism. And the examination 



