![]() ![]() The deciphering of a palimpsest may at times be accomplished merely by soaking it in clear water generally speaking, some chemical reagent is required, in order to bring back the original writing. That such destruction was not wholesale, but had to do with only worn or damaged manuscripts, is in like manner clear enough from the significant fact that as yet no complete work of any kind has been found on a palimpsest. 691, which forbade the use of palimpsest manuscripts either of the Bible or of the Fathers, unless they were utterly unserviceable (see Wattenbach, "Das Schriftwessen im Mittelalter", 1896, p. That there was some such destruction is clear enough from the decree of a Greek synod of A.D. The discovery of palimpsests led to the reckless of bigoted charge of wholesale destruction of Biblical manuscripts by the monks of old. ![]() palimpsestos, "scraped again"), that is, they were long ago scraped a second time with pumice-stone and written upon anew. Some vellum manuscripts of the greatest importance are palimpsests (from Lat. To the fourth century belong the earliest extant Biblical manuscripts of anything but fragmentary size. When Constantine founded his capital of the Byzantine Empire, he ordered Eusebius to have fifty manuscripts of the Bible made on vellum ( somatia en diphtherais) for use in the churches of Byzantium (Vita Constant., IV, 36). In the third century, it began, outside of Egypt, to supersede papyrus in the early part of the fourth century vellum and the codex, or book-form, gained complete victory over papyrus and the roll-form. ![]() Pliny, "Historia Naturalis", xiii, 11), and during the time of the Apostles ( 2 Timothy 4:13). Vellum had been used before the time of Christ (cf. Vellum manuscriptsĮgypt clung to her papyrus rolls until the eighth century and even later. A significant proof of the early loss of the autograph copies of the New Testament is the fact that Irenæus never appeals to the original writings but only to all the painstaking and ancient copies ( en pasi tois spoudaiois kaiarchaiois antigraphois), to the witness of those that saw John face to face ( kaimartyrounton auton ekeinon ton katopsin ton Ioannen heorakoton), and to the internal evidence of the written word ( kai tou logou didaskontos hemas). We find no trace of them in either the Apostolic or the apologetic Fathers, unless we except Tertullian's words, "the authentic letters of the Apostles themselves", which are now generally set aside as rhetorical. These original manuscripts probably perished towards the end of the first or the opening of the second century. It is more than likely that the New Testament sacred writers or their scribes used ink and rolls of fragile papyrus for their autographa ( 2 Corinthians 3:3 2 John 12). Egyptian excavators now prevent such destruction and keep on adding to our very considerable collections of papyri. Here the ignorant fellaheen at one time wantonly destroyed vast quantities of papyrus manuscripts. ![]() All papyrus manuscripts of every sort are lost to us save such as were buried in exceedingly dry soil, like that of Upper and Middle Egypt. Made out of strips of pith taken from the stem of the Egyptian water-plant of the same name, papyrus was very fragile, became brittle in air, crumbled with use, could not resist the disintegrating force of moisture and was quite impracticable for book-form. In the Roman Empire of the first three centuries of our era, papyrus was the ordinary writing material. Manuscripts may be conveniently divided into papyrus and vellum manuscripts. After introductory remarks on manuscripts in general, we shall take up in detail the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic manuscripts of the Bible manuscripts of other versions are not important enough to come within the scope of this article. Manuscripts are written, as opposed to printed, copies of the original text or of a version either of the whole Bible or of a part thereof. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99. Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. ![]()
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