si 6 MANUS 
“ What methods learned men have taken, in order to 
inform themfelves of the different ages of MSS. I know 
not; but my own has been this, viz. I have been careful 
to get all the dates I could, when it was faid that fuch an 
individual MS. was written, at fuch a time, or by fuch a 
particular perfon ; every book with a date being as a 
ftandard by which to know the age of thofe books of the 
fame or a like hand, and of thofe that are not very much 
older or newer. Where dates have been wanting in fome 
books, perhaps they have had fome fucceflion of emperors, 
kings, popes, bilhops, or other officers; and, fetting down 
the continuance of their predeceffors for fo many years, 
months, and days, if there be only the naked name of 
him who is the lalt in order, all other circumlfances con¬ 
curring, I then judge the book to have been written dur¬ 
ing the life or reign of fuch a perfon ; efpecially if that 
fucceflion be afterwards continued by a more recent hand, 
or that there be two fuch fucceffions, as of kings and bi- 
ffiops, and the laft of each happen to be cotemporaries. 
I have made other obfervations from hiftorical notes and 
ecclefiaflical tables, in fome books. At other times 1 
light upon fome authentic charter, or original writing, in 
the fame hand with fuch a book as I have remembered to 
have formerly (een, but without any guefs at its age. The 
age of the charter being known, that of the book is then 
known alfo ; for I never entertained any notion, or re¬ 
lied on any obfervation, but as I found it confirmed by 
the fuffrage of concurring circumflances, and fufficient 
authority. 
“ But even in dates, I have found that a man ought 
to be very cautious; for fome have been altered by later 
hands for corrupt and bafe ends. Some are fo worded, 
as, when one thinks that the time they mention is the 
time when the MS. was finifhed by the copifte, or book- 
writer, it is meant only as to the time when the author 
finifhed his compofition. Other books are poll-dated, 
that they might be accounted new. Of this laft kind, is 
a Greek MS. I faw in the univerfity-library at Cambridge, 
which, as appears by an annotation written in it, was 
bought fuch a year at Rome, for fo much ; and yet the 
date pretends that the book was written at Rome in fuch 
a year, which happens to be two years after it was bought 
and paid for. The rpafon of thefe pofl-dates was, be- 
caufe, before printing came up, a book was fo much the 
more valuable as it was newer. An old book might be 
bought for an old fong, as we fay ; but he that tranfcribed 
a frefli copy, mutt be paid for his pains. And, therefore, 
I have found in fome catalogues of the MSS. formerly 
extant in our abbey-libraries, that, when they faid fuch a 
book was liber vetus, (an old book,) they would often add, 
et inutilis, (and tifelefs ;) but liber novus, (a new book,) was 
nitidus, ekganter fcriptus, le£lu facilu, (neat, elegantly writ¬ 
ten, eafy to be read,) See. which mean opinion of the an¬ 
cient copies, by the bye, may have been the occafion of 
the lofs of many a good author. 
“ The librarii , or book-writers, were from the time of 
the Romans a particular company of men, and their buli- 
nefs a trade ; but, though book-writing was their profef- 
fion, yet they afterwards had but a third part of the bu- 
fjnefs. Learning, after the ereftion of monafteries, was 
chiefly in the hands of the clergy ; and they were for the 
molt part regulars, and lived in monafteries: among thefe 
were always many induflrious men, who w'rote continually 
new copies of old books, for their own ufe, or for the mo- 
naltery, or for both ; which feems to have fwallowed up 
above half the bufinefs. Then, if an extraordinary book 
was to be written, for the ltanding and more particular 
ufe of the church or monaftery, the antiquarius muft be 
fent for, to write it in large chambers, after the old man¬ 
ner, and fuch a copy they knew would laft for many ages, 
without renovation. Between thefe two forts of people, 
the writing-monks and antiquarii, the poor librarii, or com¬ 
mon feriptores, who had iamilies to maintain, could hardly 
earn their bread. This put them upon a quicker way of 
difpatch, that fo they might underfeil each other; and, in 
C R I P T. 
order to this difpatch, they would employ feveral perfons 
at one time, in writing the fame book, each perfon, ex¬ 
cept him who wrote the firft fkin, beginning where his 
fellow was to leave off; or elfe they would form the let¬ 
ters fmaller and leaner, and make ufe of more jugations 
and abbreviations than ufually others did. And this is 
the only account that I can give, for that variety of hands 
which in former ages was commonly ufed, at the fame 
time, and in the fame country, throughout thefe weftern 
parts of Europe. An inftance of this may be given from 
the hands of England, which, about the year of our Lord 
730, were of three forts. 1. The Roman capitals, Hill re¬ 
tained, and kept up by the antiquarii, in fome books and 
charters. 2. The more fet Saxon letters, (which have a near 
affinity with the more ancient Irifh characters,as being with 
them derived from the Roman,) which were ufed as the 
common hand of the age, by the monks in their books, and 
fome charters of their dictating and writing. 3. The 
running Saxon letters, fuller of abbreviations, and fome- 
thing of kin to the Longbardic and Franco-Gallic, (both 
which, with this third fort, were alfo of Roman origin,) 
and was ufed by thefe librarii in their books and in the 
charters ; as alfo by fome authors who wrote much, as 
Bede, See. But there was another fort of book-writers 
ffill in ufe, namely, the notarii, whofe bufinefs it was to 
take trials and pleadings at courts of judicature ; to write 
as amanuenfes from the mouth of an author; and to take 
homilies and fermons at church, from the mouth of the 
preacher. Thefe notarii made ttfe of notes, or marks, in- 
itead of letters; but when, in procefs of time, letters were 
ufually written fmall and quick, and abbreviations grew 
common, the notarii were turned off, unlefs they would 
write books in long hand, as other librarii did, and their 
notae grew out of ufe ; and moft of their performances in 
notes or marks have been fince deftroyed. 
“ Suppofe, then, that a man had one Latin book of 
each of the four forts above-mentioned laid before him, 
written all at a time, and without any date or note of the 
age ; would not he be ready to fay that the firlt three were 
older than each other? that in capitals older than that in 
the middling hand ; and this again older than that in the 
running and fmaller hand ? and that fuch a book, written 
in the notte, being all full of marks, was not Latin, but 
of fome other unknown language ? But to come down 
later; luppofe that a perfon fhould have fome more re¬ 
cent books or charters laid before him in the pipe, text, 
exchequer, chancery, court, and common, hands, all writ¬ 
ten at the fame time, would he not be apt to fay, that one 
feemed to him to be older than another, and that they were 
the hands of feveral nations ? If it be difficult then for an 
inquifitive perfon to be a perfect matter in all the fuccef¬ 
fions of hands that have been ufed even in his own coun¬ 
try, fo far as he may be guided by the monuments extant 
in it, (and I never heard of any man that was Inch a mat¬ 
ter,) furely it mult be more difficult to pronounce the age 
of thofe books from the hand, which were written in 
other countries, in an unknown language. 
“As to the great facility of finding out an author, and 
the time he lived in, by his ttyle and phrafe, people have 
learned the knack of changing their ttyle, upon occafion, 
fo artificially, as not to be difeovered, but when they them¬ 
felves withed to be known. Who would have thought 
that Erafmus wrote the Epittolae oblcurorum Virorum ? 
or that fome of the moft eminent modern critics could 
have been impofed on by their familiar and near acquaint¬ 
ance, who trumped upon them their own recent perform¬ 
ances tor invaluable fragments of the ancients, whole 
other works thefe very critics had lying before them ? It 
has been a frequent practice, in all ages, for poor ferib- 
blers to father their wretched offspring upon illultrious 
perlons ; and the difparity between the genuine works of 
the one and the fpurious pieces of the other being evi¬ 
dent enough, it has been eafy to dillinguilh between the 
gold and the bra fs. But I would humbly a Ik this quel- 
tipn ; Is all jliat is even now by learned men afcribed 
to 
