o leaves of the gospel
by Matthew. They were edited, as far as legible, in 1801, by Dr.
John Barrett, Fellow of Trinity College. In 1853 Dr. Tregelles
made a new and thorough examination of the manuscript, and, by
the aid of a chemical process, brought all that exists of the
gospel text to a legible condition. This manuscript is assigned
to the sixth century. Its letters are written in a singularly
bold style, which unites the three qualities of ease, elegance,
and symmetry.

A celebrated _bilingual_ manuscript (in this case
_Graeco-Latin_, containing the Greek and Latin texts) is the
_Codex Bezae_, _Beza's manuscript_, called also _Codex
Cantabrigiensis_, _Cambridge manuscript_, from the place of its
deposit, which is the public library of the University of
Cambridge, England. It is designated by the letter D, and
contains the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles in Greek and
Latin on opposite pages, stichometrically written. The account
of Theodore Beza, its former possessor, was that he found it
during the French civil wars in 1562, in the monastery of St.
Irenaeus, at Lyons. In 1581 he sent it as a present to the
University of Cambridge. The interest felt in this manuscript
arises in great part from the very peculiar character of its
readings. "The text of this codex," says Bleek (Introduc. to New
Test., sec. 270), "presents much that is peculiar--many
additions and alterations that have even an apocryphal
character, but are yet not uninteresting. Its native country is
the West, and more definitely the south of Gaul." _See No. (5),
PLATE IV_.

Among the _fragments_ of manuscripts of high antiquity is one
called _Codex purpureus_, _Purple manuscript_. _Four_ leaves of
this are in the Cotton Library in the British Museum, _six_ in
the Vatican, _two_ in the Imperial Library at Vienna. The
manuscript to which they belonged was written in silver letters
(the names of God and Christ in gold) on purple vellum. The
writing is in two columns with large and round letters. It is
referred to the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh
century.

Many other uncial manuscripts, or fragments of manuscripts, some
of them of great critical value, might be described; but the
above brief notices must suffice. Of those which contain ancient
_versions_, a few of the mo