many, if not in all, of these books. Several bearing this notice are now in the British Museum; several also are in the Vatican, as appears from the account given by J. S. Assemani-some belonging to the collection which he himself made, and others to that obtained by his cousin Elias; and one which was formerly the property of Abraham Ecchellensis, from which it appears that some manuscripts had been brought from

there are two copies of the same book, or where it is the translation of some Greek work still existing, this labor will be in some measure diminished; but in other instances nothing less than the most careful perusal of every leaf will render it possible to arrange the work, and make it complete. The number of volumes, as now collected, including both entire works and books made up of various fragments, amounts to three hundred and seventeen, this monastery into Europe previously to of which two hundred and forty-six are on the expedition of Elias Assemani, but by vellum, and seventy on paper, all in Syriac whom or when we have not been able to or Aramaic, with one volume of Coptic discover. Moreover, from various notices fragments. These, together with the forty- on the fly-leaves of several of these volumes, nine previously obtained, make an addition we gather that they once belonged to the to the national library of three hundred and convent of Amba-Bishoi, and were aftersixty-six volumes of manuscripts. As many wards transferred to that of St. Mary Deipaof these contain two, or even three or four, ra of the Syrians, by a person named Abradistinct works, written at different periods, ham, and incorporated into their library. but bound up together, and as several are Other similar notices record the benefacmade up of various fragments, it is perhaps tion of several volumes by various indivi-' not too much to affirm that there are con- duals, many of whom appear to have been tained in this collection parts of at least inhabitants of Tecrit in Mesopotamia ; one thousand manuscripts, written in dif- where indeed, and at Edessa, and in the ferent countries-in Mesopotamia, Syria, monasteries in the neighborhood, most of and Egypt—and at various times-from the them appear to have been written. Many beginning of the fifth to the end of the thir- of these presents seem to have been single ⚫ teenth century. The earliest is dated A. D. manuscripts offered for the salvation of the 411, the latest A. D. 1292. It would be soul of the donor; but one notice states very interesting, if the means were within that no less than eighteen volumes, the our reach, to trace the history of this most property of one individual, came into posremarkable collection, perhaps the largest session of the convent upon the death of that was ever possessed by any single mo- the owner. There are also records of the nastery, especially when we consider the purchase of several books for the use of the time and labor requisite to produce even monastery, and some doubtless were tranone copy, which could not have been less scribed within its walls. It is only from to the Oriental scribes than in the convents such incidental notices as these, written at of the West. A note at the end of one the beginning and end of some of the volcopy of the works of Dyonisius the Areo- umes, that we have any means of forming pagite, which seems to have been written in an estimate of the manner in which the the eighth century, states that the transcriber collection was increased to so great a numcompleted his task in the course of one ber. There is a note in one of the volumes year, which is doubtless intended to be a stating that the manuscripts belonging to record of more than ordinary diligence. the library were repaired in the year of the We have no means, as we have said, of tra- Greeks 1533 (A. D. 1222.) At no very cing the history of this collection, as indeed distant period subsequently to this they we have none either for that of the monas- were probably altogether neglected, the tery itself. It was most probably founded monks becoming too ignorant to make any in the earliest ages of asceticism, and ran- further use of them. The volume with sacked by the Arabs, with the rest of the the most recent date in the collection was convents, at the beginning of the ninth written seventy years later, and after this century. We have already stated that it time there seems to have been no effort in was again in a flourishing condition at the these monasteries either at composition or commencement of the tenth century, and translation into Syriac, or even to reproduce that Moses, its then abbot, brought to its any of their ancient literature by new tranlibrary from Mesopotamia two hundred scripts. Indeed the examination of this and fifty volumes, of which fact we are as collection brings conviction, that for two sured by the registry which he made in or three centuries at least previous to this

works, of which the Greek copies have been long since lost, and are now only known to us either by their titles which have come down to us, or by very short extracts preserved by other writers. Besides these there are many original works of Syriac authors.

time little had been done in the way of tran- most valuable, not only because many of scribing further than to copy liturgies, lives them, in all probability, were made during of saints, a few homilies, and such parts of the lifetime of the authors (we have the the Holy Scriptures as were needed by the means of proving certainly that some of monks in the daily services. These, of them were), but also because the manucourse, required to be periodically renewed, scripts in which these Syriac versions are as by constant use they necessarily became found are the oldest copies of these works torn and worn out. This circumstance has now extant, and were written some centubeen the cause of the destruction of some ries earlier than any of those in which the of the finest and most ancient manuscripts original Greek exists. Moreover, this colwhich the monks ever possessed. Almost lection contains several really important all the manuscripts of this class are palinpsest. When their service-books were worn out, the monks, unable perhaps to obtain vellum elsewhere, had recourse to the expedient of erasing the text of an old volume. In selecting manuscripts for this purpose they seem to have been guided chiefly by the fineness of the vellum, and Of biblical manuscripts of the Peshito consequently attacked those which were version there are nearly thirty volumes, the most ancient, and in every respect the containing various books of the Old Tesmost valuable. The Greek manuscripts tament, most of which were written about seem to have suffered first, probably because the sixth century; one copy of the Pentathey were unintelligible to the monks; for teuch dated A. D. 464. We find also the although there are several Greek palimpsests, as well as Syriac, among the manuscripts now in the British Museum, there is not found in the whole collection one single Greek book, but only a few very small fragments in some of the volumes, which have been pasted on to mend the leaves that were torn; but even these are sufficient to show that the Greek manuscripts which they did possess were of the finest class and of the greatest antiquity, closely resembling the famous Alexandrine Bible in substance and calligraphy. It is evident that the monks must have employed some chemical process of erasure, and this in most instances has been so successful as to leave scarcely any perceptible trace of the original writing, but at the same time it has been very injurious to the texture of the vellum: these manuscripts are consequently in the worst condition of any in the collection. Some, indeed, of the others look as fresh as if they had scarcely been used at all-even the original dressing of the vellum still remains; although they have been written more than a thousand years, they seem as if the transcriber had finished his task but yesterday.

The contents of these manuscripts are, as we should naturally expect, chiefly theological, and in this department they are most important. The copies of the Holy Scriptures are some of the oldest in existence, and the translations of the works of the great Fathers of the Church are

book of Exodus, written A. D. 697-the books of Numbers, Joshua, and the first book of Kings, transcribed about the same time-of the Hexaplar edition, with the asterisks, obelisks, &c., as corrected by Eusebius; together with part of Genesis, and of two copies of the Psalms, of this same edition, with short scholia by Athanasius and Hesychius of Jerusalem. Here are the first book of Samuel and the first book of Kings, in the version of Mar Jacob of Edessa, written A. D. 703; and a copy of Isaiah, written about the same time, probably translated by the same Mar Jacob. There are upwards of forty manuscripts containing parts of the Peshito version of the New Testament, many of which are of the sixth century, and some appear to be of the fifth and also a copy of the Gospels and of the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude, of the Philoxenan version, or, more properly speaking, of the edition corrected by Thomas of Heraclea.

Of the Apocrypha, these manuscripts contain the Book of Wisdom, Baruch, and Macabees; also the Book of Women, which comprises Esther, Judith, Susannah, Ruth, and the Life of the martyr Thecla. There are also copies of the Gospel of the Infancy; the History of the Holy Virgin, and her Departure from this world; the Doctrine of Peter which he taught at Rome; and a Letter of Pilate to Herod, and of Herod to Pilate.

Of the

To the copies of the Scriptures should century of the Christian era.* be added several Lectionaries, containing Apostolic Fathers there are found in this portions of Scripture appointed to be read collection two copies of the Recognitions in the churches. This class of manu- ascribed to St. Clement, one in the very scripts, for the reason which we have above ancient manuscript which we have spoken stated, is more recent than the copies of the of before, and the other in a copy which Scriptures some of them are dated in the seems to be of the sixth century; and ninth century, but most in the eleventh. three epistles of St. Ignatius, to St. PolyThere is a large collection of rituals and carp, to the Ephesians, and the Romans. service-books, with many ancient liturgies; To these we should add several copies of and these also are of the later class of the works ascribed to Dionysius the Aremanuscripts; here are found the liturgies opagite. Of other ecclesiastical writers, of the Apostles, of St. James, St. John, of the second and third centuries-beSt. Matthew, St. Clement, St. Ignatius, sides various fragments from their works Dionysius the Areopagite; of Celestinus, cited by other authors, we recover in this Julius, Xystus or Sixtus, bishops of Rome; Syriac collection an oration of Melito, of Basil, of Gregory Theologus; of Cyril bishop of Sardis, to the emperor Marcus and Dioscorus, bishops of Alexandria; of Antoninus; which, however, does not Eustathius, of Curiacus, and Severus, bish- agree with that cited by Eusebius in his ops of Antioch; of Philoxenus, bishop of Ecclesiastical History (Book iv. chap. 26): Mabug; of Jacob of Edessa, and Jacob-the entire Dialogue on Fate by Bardebishop of Serug; of Maruthas, Thomas of sanes, of which a fragment had been preHeraclea, Moses Bar Cepha, John Bar Sal-served by Eusebius in the 10th chapter of ibi, and others. Several collections of can- the 6th book of his 'Præparatio Evangelions of councils, the Collection of Apostol- ca;' and two or three treatises of Gregory ic canons made by Hippolytus; the Canons Thaumaturgus, which appear to have been of the councils of Nice, Ancyra, Neoca-hitherto unknown.

imperfect, and the last book lost; the Syriac version is complete, and was transcribed A. D. 411. In the same manuscript are contained, as we have seen above, two works of Eusebius, on the Divine Manifestation of our Lord, and on the Martyrs of Palestine. We find here also the five first books of his Ecclesiastical History, transcribed early in the sixth cen

sarea, Gangra, Laodicea, Constantinople, Of ecclesiastical writers of the fourth Ephesus, Chalcedon; the acts of the second century,-Titus, bishop of Bostra, against council of Ephesus, held under Dioscorus, the Manicheans. The original Greek is patriarch of Alexandria in the time of Theodosius and Valentinian, transcribed A. D. 535. These collections of canons appear to be very important, as they do not seem to have been always translated from the Greek, but to have been arranged and digested by some of the Syrian bishops who attended the councils. To these may be added the canons of several individual patriarchs and bishops for the especial government of their own churches, which may be of great value in tracing the ecclesias-mitted by the learned Cardinal, which, as it retical history of the East.

Of documents which are referred to apostolic times there is found in this collection a small tract bearing the title of the Doctrine of the Apostles. This has been published by the Cardinal Mai, in the tenth volume of his 'Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio;' but he assigns it to the thirteenth century. What pretensions it has to refer its origin to apostolic times, as its title indicates, we cannot discuss in this place; but we must observe that the Cardinal cannot have erred less than six centuries in the date which he fixes on; for there are two copies of this tract among these Syriac manuscripts, both of which were undoubtedly transcribed in the sixth

*There is another error less excusable com

lates to a matter of considerable interest, the tes ceived in the East, certainly not later than about timony to the antiquity of the British Church re the year 500, and probably much earlier (for this is the period of the transcript of the manuscript), we must take this opportunity of correcting. At the end of this work, professing to be the Doctrine of the Apostles,' there is an account of the different channels through which the sacerdotal office was transmitted to the various parts of the then Christian world. The passage to which we allude runs thus:-Rome, the whole of Italy, round about, received the hand of priesthood Spain, Britain, Gaul, and the other countries from Simon Cepha, who came from Antioch, and was ruler and governor of the church which he built there. This we have translated from the the Latin version runs thus: Accepit manum Syriac, as it is correctly printed at page 174. But sacerdotalem Roma civitas, et tota Italia, ac Hispania, Bythinia, et Gallia,' &c.—p. 7.

tury. Of Athanasius,-his Commentary | excepting a very few passages preserved in on the Psalms, Life of St. Anthony, and the catena on St. Luke. Some of Cyril's his Festal Letters, but not complete: of works were translated into Aramaic during these letters Athanasius wrote upwards of his life-time, by Rabulas, who was then forty-that is, one for every year of his pa- bishop of Edessa. triarchate-it having been a practice with In the beginning of the sixth century, a patriarchs of Alexandria to send a cyclical work of Timotheus, patriarch of Alexanletter at Christmas to all the bishops of dria, against the Council of Chalcedon, their province, to inform them on what transcribed A. D. 562-25 years after his day Easter was to be observed. These death; various letters of his successors, have all perished in the original Greek, Theodosius and Theodorus; numerous except a fragment of the 39th preserved writings of Severus (Patriarch of Antioch), by Theodorus Balsamon. Of Basil-the among which we would specify a volume Treatise on the Holy Spirit, transcribed of sermons, transcribed A. D. 569, or only A. D. 509, not 130 years after his death; about thirty years after his death many of his Regulæ fusius Tractatæ, Treatise on his works were translated into Syriac duVirginity, and various sermons. Of Greg-ring his life-time, in the year 528, at Edesory of Nyssa,-Homilies on the Lord's sa, by Paul, bishop of Callinicum. Prayer, on the Beatitudes, and other ser- these writers of the sixth century nothing mons, some written in the sixth century. more is preserved to us in the Greek than Of Gregory Theologus,-his works trans- the titles of their works, and not even the lated into Syriac by Paul, an abbot in the island of Cyprus, A. D. 624, with commentaries by Severus, bishop of Nisibis; one copy transcribed A. D. 790, another A. D. 840, and others which appear more ancient. Of Ephraem Syrus,-many sermons, metrical discourses, and hymns; hymns; among which are several things not comprised in Assemani's edition of his works-for example, his tract against Julian, supposed to have been lost; one of these manuscripts is dated A. D. 519, or about 150 years after the death of the author; others appear to be still more ancient.

Of

whole of these. This arises probably from their having been diligently suppressed by the emperor and the opposite party, by whom they had been condemned: they are, however, most important for throwing light upon the history of the first half of the sixth century, more especially on several important events consequent upon the Council of Chalcedon, concerning which we have little more at present than the statement of one party.

For ecclesiastical history we have in this collection-besides the five first books of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, and his Of Fathers at the end of the fourth cen- Martyrs of Palestine-a contemporary Ectury and the commencement of the fifth,- clesiastical History, by John, bishop of nearly all the works of John Chrysostom, Ephesus, from the year A. D. 571 to 583 in manuscripts of great antiquity; one co- (this manuscript must have been transcribpy of the Homilies on St. Matthew is da- ed about the same time as the last event it ted A. D. 557, about 150 years after his records); two imperfect Ecclesiastical death; another copy, without date, of the Chronicles; a considerable collection of same Homilies appears to be about a hun- Martyrologies, Lives of Saints, Fathers, dred years earlier. Several treatises of and eminent Bishops; which may supply Proclus, his successor on the patriarchal much matter hitherto unknown. In genthrone of Constantinople. The Historia eral theology there are several anonymous Lausiaca' of Palladius; also the account treatises on Christianity, and works against of the Egyptian monks, by Evagrius Pon- various heresies, together with some volticus, with other of his works; a short umes of miscellaneous sermons. treatise on heresies by Epiphanius, written A. D. 562, less than 160 years after his decease, together with extracts from his other works. Almost all the works of Cyril of Of original Syriac authors, besides EphAlexander, of very great antiquity; among raem, above spoken of, there are found which we would specify the treatise on Adoration in Spirit and Truth, transcribed A. D. 553, about 110 years after his death; his commentary on St. Luke, in two volumes, of which the original Greek is lost, VOL. VII.-No. III. 20

Of Ascetic writers,-numerous treatises of Ammonius, Macarius, Evagrius, Esaias, &c. &c.

among these manuscripts,-works of Mar Isaac, presbyter of Antioch; numerous writings of Mar Jacob, bishop of Serug, or Batna-among which one volume of sermons is said to have been purchased A. D

653, little more than 130 years subsequent- ford is well endowed. We have a few inly to his death, and probably was written different Arabic students; there are also much earlier; various works of Philoxe- chairs for Arabic, indifferently endowed, nus, bishop of Mabug, one volume of in both universities. The foundation of which is dated A. D. 569, or less than fifty the Sanscrit Chair and scholarships in Oxyears after his death; the treatise of Peter, ford has already engaged several in the stubishop of Antioch, against Damian; seve- dy of that language; and the additional ral works of Mar Jacob, bishop of Edessa, facilities afforded to obtain the means of and amongst these his valuable recension wealth and distinction in India, by the of the books of the Old and the New Tes- knowledge of the Persian, have produced tament, according to the Peshito version several eminent Persian scholars. But the and that of Thomas of Heraclea. We Syriac, a language which by every associamight have added many other Syriac au- tion would seem to call for our sympathies thors. more than any other, hardly excepting the Hebrew itself, has hitherto been in this country almost entirely neglected. There are no lectures read in this language in the university of London. There is no pro

To the above short list of writers purely theological, we should not omit to subjoin the categories of Aristotle, translated into Syriac by Sergius of Rhesina, in the sixth century; commentaries on Aristotle by fessorship of Syriac in Oxford or CamProbus and Severus bishop of Kenneserin; and a Syriac translation of Galen de Simplicibus. These manuscripts are of great antiquity, and touch upon the times at which the translations were made.

tius are the only works in that language, with the exception of the whole or parts of the Scripture, which, so far as our knowledge goes, have been published in this country. The glory of such Syriac literature as was brought to England by Huntington was taken from us by foreigners, who transcribed and published the valuable history of Gregory Bar Hebræus from the manuscripts in the Bodleian.

bridge; and while no less than three new theological chairs have been lately established in Oxford, the Syriac language, which would afford more light than any other for the critical explanation of the In closing a very brief notice of this text of the New Testament-perhaps of collection, we cannot refrain from con- the Old Testament also-which contains gratulating the learned of Europe general- much patristical theology and vast mately that these manuscripts have been res- rials for ecclesiastical history that cannot cued from perishing in a vault in the desert bc elsewhere obtained, has been left withof Africa; and we shall perhaps be forgiv- out a professor, and consequently, perhaps, en for indulging in a little national pride without a student. The Syriac Theophawhen we rejoice that they are deposited in nia of Eusebius and the Epistles of Ignathe British Museum. We are, however, constrained at the same time to confess that this our joy is much sobered down by the apprehension that these valuable works, although now safe from the danger of destruction, will still lie upon our shelves in almost as great neglect as they did in the oil-cellar of the monastery. There are but few Oriental scholars in England; and among those few the Syriac has found hardly any attention. The number of persons at present competent to make any use of this matchless collection is very limited, and even of those who may be competent, one is too far removed to be able to avail himself of it, a second too much pressed by other duties. Neither can we foresee any prospect of young scholars rising up to whom we may look forward as future explorers of this extensive mine. The mer-Herald reports that the workmen found a grave, cantile spirit pervades even our literary not of Caen stone, but of chalk, containing the unpursuits, and that is most studied which seems most likely to turn out to some material advantage, not that which most tends to intellectual profit. We have some Hetion, and ornamented with the De Warren arms. brew scholars: there are Hebrew professor- Also a doorway of a stone cell, the side stones ships in both the universities; that in Ox-perfect, and the stone foundation good.—Ath.

These are melancholy recollections; and our anticipations are shaded with their tints. But still we are pleased and proud that the Government and the Museum have done their duty as respected the Treasure of the Desert.

LEWES PRIORY.-On Monday, the Brighton

coffined bones of a full-sized human body. A pavement of Roman tile, also, has been found in another spot-its centre is plain, bordered with enamelled tiles, some in a fair state of preserva