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ment in these words: Verè dolemus, plurimos libros, qui notis Tironianis scripti in bibliothecis latent, non nisi psalteria, scripta 'de rebus sacris, opera Patrum, aliaque hujus generis, continere, 'quæ cognoscere haud multum interest virorum doctorum.' It is consolatory, however, to reflect that his inquiries were not extensive; they were principally made in the libraries at Paris: we may hope, therefore, that a more comprehensive search will detect works, the study of which will be more interesting to learned men. Kopp has certainly done much towards facilitating these studies; but scarcely so much, perhaps, as he would have his readers believe. He says of himself and his work that he proceeded throughout incredibili opera, summa diligentia, et, paucis ut complectar, Germanica assiduitate atque industria ;' but with such great qualities, and such ample materials, we think he might have composed a better dictionary. If he had received the advice of the learned Benedictines with humility, and followed it with attention, his work would have been more useful. Nevertheless, he has done good service to the cause of learning, and deserves no vulgar praise. The utilities of this study are so great, as he plainly shows, that it may be fit to resume the consideration of the subject on another occasion, or in another place. If we may judge from the demeanour of its votaries, it appears, like all studies that are far removed from ordinary pursuits, to be very fascinating, and capable of inspiring an extraordinary zeal. From this singular source it is plain, that we may still look for valuable additions to classical literature. Orations and jurisprudence appear to be the most likely kinds of composition to exist in this form, because they have a certain connexion with the use of short-hand. It is supposed that the Book of Psalms was copied by learners as an exercise in the art; but we may hope that some also took their first lessons in transcribing profane literature. It is evident that the lives of the saints and homilies were written in these notes, because the writers were of opinion that they best deserved to be preserved, and were best suited to their peculiar turn of mind; but we cannot doubt, that amongst the various students of the Tironian mystery, scribes might be found who employed their pens on human lore, and chose less edifying, but more instructive subjects.

The Fourth and last source is infinitely more important than the three which we have already examined; and it is only inferior in singularity to that which has been opened by the carbonated Papyri-a source that has but lately been discovered, and hitherto explored to a very trifling extent, but that holds forth promises of gains without limit. To overrate its importance is impossible and it is needless, therefore, to offer any apology

for examining fully into the general nature of it, and explaining the benefits which it has afforded, and which we may hope it is still likely to afford.

We allude to the Palimpsest manuscripts, the origin of which was briefly and plainly described, nearly a century ago, by a man of remarkable erudition, in a curious and interesting Essay, of which the title is, Dissertation sur la plante appellée Papy'rus, sur le papier d'Egypte, sur le papier de coton, et sur celuy 'dont on se sert aujourd'huy; par le R. P. D. Bernard de Mont'faucon.-Mémoires de Littérature tirez des Régistres de l'Aca'démie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome 6me. 4to. 'Paris, 1729.' His words are as follow:

Cela (le papier bombycin) vint fort à propos dans un temps, où il paroit qu'il y avoit grande disette de parchemin; ce qui nous a fait perdre plusieurs anciens auteurs: voicy comment. Depuis le 12e siècle, les Grecs, plongez dans l'ignorance, s'avisèrent de racler les écritures des anciens MSS. en parchemin, et d'en ôter, autant qu'ils pouvoient, toutes les traces, pour y écrire des livres d'Eglise : ce fut ainsi qu'au grand préjudice de la république des lettres, les Polybes, les Dions, les Diodores de Sicile, et d'autres auteurs que nous n'avons plus, furent métamorphosez en Triodions, en Pentecostaires, en Homélies, et en d'autres livres d'Eglise. Après une exacte recherche, je puis assurer que des livres écrits sur du parchemin depuis le 12e siècle, j'en ay plus trouvé dont on avoit raclé l'ancienne écriture, que d'autres. Mais comme tous les copistes n'estoient pas également habiles à effacer ainsi ces premiers auteurs, il s'en trouve quelques-uns où l'on peut lire au moins une partie de ce qu'on avoit voulu raturer.'

Before we proceed farther, we have three remarks to make on this extract; first, that it is to be regretted, as will presently be manifest, that the learned Dom. does not inform us where those manuscripts, in which the traces of the ancient writing were most visible, are to be found. Secondly, that the number of erased manuscripts must be prodigious; since an antiquary, who had examined such a host of manuscripts written since the twelfth century, asserts that the greater part of them bore evident marks of having been subjected to erasure. Thirdly, If we suppose that the practice, of which Montfaucon speaks, commenced in the twelfth century, although possibly it might be most frequent at that time, we shall be mistaken; for there is satisfactory evidence that it was much more ancient: it subsisted for fifteen hundred years at the least; we know that it was in existence in the time of Cicero, and Trithemius tells us, in the passage before cited, that he found it in full force in his days; Decreverunt enim,' he says, pergameni amore, raden'dum.' The practice, indeed, of erasing the whole contents of a

skin of parchment was far more universal than is commonly supposed; and the farther we extend our inquiries, the more satisfactory and full do we find the evidence of its long duration; but of this hereafter.

The ink which the ancients generally used was composed of lamp-black mixed with gum, as we are informed by Dioscorides and others, who give the receipt for making it. Ink of this kind may be called carbonic: it possesses the advantages of extreme blackness and great durability, the writing remaining fresh so long as the substance on which it is written exists; but, as it does not sink into the paper, it is liable to the great inconvenience of being easily and entirely removed; for, if a wet sponge be applied to it, the writing may be washed away, and no traces whatever of the characters will remain. The facility with which documents might thus be obliterated gave occasion to fraud; as an artful forger was able to remove such portions of the original writing as he might desire to get rid of, and thus profit by the absence of material words, or insert in the blanks which he had made such interpolations as might serve his turn. Many common accidents, whereby books and writings were exposed to wet, or even to damp, were also fatal, or at least highly injurious, to compositions and muniments of great value: various expedients were therefore attempted to remedy an imperfection from which many must have suffered severely. Pliny informs us that it was usual, in his time, to mix vinegar with the ink to make it strike into the paper or parchment, and that it, in some degree, answered the purpose. It should seem that vitriolic ink, such as we use at present, was also adopted soon afterwards, which possesses, in perfection, the quality that was desired of sinking instantly into the paper, so as to make it far more difficult to discharge it without destroying the texture on which it is written, and of being perfectly secure against water, by which Indian and other carbonic inks are so easily effaced. It is not, however, equally secure against the effects of time; for vitriolic ink gradually fades away, becomes paler by degrees, turns brown and yellow, and is scarcely legible; and sometimes, as the parchment grows yellow and brown with age, disappears altogether. A compound kind of ink came next into use, which united the advantages and avoided the defects of the two simple sorts; such a mixed ink was generally used for several centuries, and with this the manuscripts that are now most fresh and legible appear to have been written. It is evident that the ink with which the original works contained in the Palimpsest manuscripts that have been deciphered were written, was at least in part vitriolic; for the letters which had been rubbed out were rendered legible

by the application of the infusion of galls. In order to remove the original writing, the parchments on which the mixed ink had been used were, probably, first washed to take off the carbon, and thus partially to efface the characters, and were afterwards scraped or rubbed with pumice, or some other suitable substance, to complete the process of destruction, by taking away mechanically the colour that the vitriolic portion of the ink still preserved. It is but too probable that many manuscripts, the characters of which were entirely formed of the more ancient carbonic ink, have been entirely destroyed, the letters having been washed off as completely, and by the same simple means, as the writing of a schoolboy on a slate; whilst the parchment still remains in our libraries, and is covered with more modern compositions which have sacrilegiously and too successfully usurped the place of more ancient and more valuable matter: the tirades of Cyril or of Jerome, or the tawdry eloquence of Chrysostom, are perhaps firmly established in quarters from whence the Margites of Homer, or the comedies of Menander, were miserably dislodged.

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A manuscript is called Palimpsest, from the adjective αautaisos, or Taxiuros, signifying twice rubbed; not, as the glossary of Du Cange (membrana iterum abrasa-charta deletilis) would seem to denote, because the parchment had twice undergone erasure, or the writing been twice obliterated, but because it had been twice prepared for writing, which was principally effected by rubbing it with pumice, first in the course of manufacture, after the skin had been cured, and again by the same process, after the original writing had been taken away by washing, or in any other manner. The strict and precise sense of Palimpsest is, therefore, twice prepared for writing;' the repetition of such preparation being the prevailing idea in the etymology, and not erasure, as some have erroneously supposed. It is said to be easy to remove from modern parchment, especially if what is written be of some standing, all traces of writing, by rubbing it with pumice, or similar substances; and if the surface be afterwards polished, no one, by merely looking on it, will suppose that it had ever been written upon; but if it be washed with the infusion of galls, the letters will be so far restored, particularly if it be suffered to remain some time in the light, that it may be copied by a patient and practised person, who is gifted with good eyes-so deeply had the iron entered into the soul of the parchment! If the erased letters were written in a bold large hand, the task of deciphering them will of course be less troublesome, and the results more sure. And such are the characters of the more ancient manuscripts; for the older the

manuscript, the better and more legible is the writing, as approaching more nearly to the ages of civility and refinement. The method of writing in old times is also favourable, it is said, to the restoration of works apparently obliterated. The scribe did not use a thin flowing ink, nor a finely pointed pen, as modern writers are wont; nor was a small quantity applied so lightly and sparingly as to dry almost as fast as it touches the paper. The ancient ink was thick with gum, and was supplied copiously by a pen with a broad point, usually made of a reed, and the characters were painted rather than written; the ink rather resembling paint or varnish than our thin liquor. As they rarely wrote in books, it was not necessary that the page should dry speedily, or be dried by means of sand or blottingpaper, in order to prevent loss of time, and that the penman might turn over the leaf immediately; the loose sheets or leaves, on the contrary, which were only to be bound up when the whole was completed, were left to dry slowly, so that the pools of ink that formed the letters stood long on the surface of the parchment, and that part of the fluid which was of a penetrating nature was gradually absorbed, and sunk deeply into the substance of the skin; so as to preserve to us, as we may venture to hope, if we be not wanting to ourselves in diligence, many precious relics of ancient lore. The restoration of the original writing in a Palimpsest manuscript will be best explained by referring to one of the many kinds of sympathetic ink, which is, in truth, making common ink ex post facto, or uniting the ingredients of which it is composed after the fact of writing. If we write with water, in which copperas has been dissolved, the letters will be invisible; but when the paper is washed over with an infusion of galls, they will appear gradually, and will in time become tolerably legible; the ink thus being formed upon the paper, although much less perfectly, than in the ordinary maceration.

Examples are the most satisfactory and the most brief instructors. We will therefore select some remarkable instances of the discovery of Palimpsests, but will avoid entering into minute details, which are always tedious, and in the present discourse unnecessary, as our object is only to give an outline of the subject, and to animate all persons who have the opportunities of pursuing these inquiries to make a diligent search, by pointing out to them the vast importance of this source of hope. Monsignore Angelo Maio, who at present fills the important office of principal Librarian of the Vatican library at Rome, has been the principal operator in this line; and may truly be called the hero of Palimpsests, the discoverer and Columbus of

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