ed and honest Barnabite under whose editorial
auspices it appeared was obliged to append a formidable list of
errata, and to make a gentle apology in his preface for his friend's
inaccuracies. But, with all its defects, the five quarto volumes of
the cardinal's reprint has added largely to our critical knowledge of
the Codex; and it derives a special interest from the circumstance
that it was the first time the Greek Scriptures had ever been
published in Rome.

Since then Tischendorf, during his second visit to the Eternal City,
had an audience of Pope Pius IX., and offered to bring out at his own
expense an edition of the Vatican Codex similar to that which he had
prepared, under the auspices of the Russian emperor, of the Sinaitic
Codex. This request the Pope refused, under the old pretext that he
wished to publish such an edition himself. Tischendorf, however, was
allowed to use the manuscript more freely than on the former occasion;
though several times it was taken away from him, and his labours
interrupted, because of alleged breaches of faith on his part. The
result of this unusual privilege was that the great Textuary has
issued by far the most accurate and satisfactory edition which we
possess at present. Pius IX. carried out his intention of publishing a
Roman edition in five volumes, printed by the famous press of the
Propaganda. The New Testament instalment appeared under the editorship
of Vercellone and Cozza in 1868; but Vercellone dying soon after, the
subsequent volumes were prepared under less able supervision. The
famous manuscript therefore labours under the disadvantage of
uncertainty, there being no guarantee that any reading is really that
of the original. And while the Alexandrine Codex has been reproduced
by photography, and the Sinaitic Codex has been faithfully published,
the exact palaeography, or the genuine text as it stands, of the
Vatican Codex is still a desideratum among scholars.

The total disappearance of all manuscripts previous to the Vatican
Codex is a matter of surprise, for it has been calculated on
sufficient evidence that many thousands of copies of the Gospels were
circulated among Christians at the end of the second century. The loss
may be attributed to the fact that the older manuscripts were written
on less enduring materials. Previous to the second century the
principal writing material was paper made of papyrus, a plant found at
one time not only in Egypt, but also in