Steven Avery
Administrator
p. 70-86
From the standpoint of Biblical studies, the details which follow may at first sight appear superfluous, but in the present unsatisfactory state of Greek palaeography any scrap of evidence may eventually prove of use for determining the age, or still better, the provenance, of the book. If no conclusion can as yet be drawn from these statistics, the cause lies in the dearth of
comparative material, for with the exception of the Freer group, no such information is available concerning other early Biblical
manuscripts.
I . NATURE OF THE MATERIAL
There
is no noticeable difference between the vellum of the Sinaiticus
and the modern product, for methods of preparation have not
changed materially.3
3 Cf. the recipes quoted by D. V. Thompson, 'Medieval Parchment-making', in The
Library, xvi, 1935, pp. 113-17.
2. STATE OF PRESERVATION
The vellum is generally in good condition, retaining its 'life' and
toughness except where, as on some of the edges of the leaves, it has
been wet. In those places it is brittle and liable to crack. On most
of the edges there were numerous short slits, and the inner margins
of many leaves were badly slit and damaged.
Nearly all the inner Causes of
margins had been contracted by the application of hot glue to the damage
back in the course of successive bindings. A good many leaves
were rather badly cockled all over, and some were locally contracted
where spots of water appear to have fallen on them; where
these spots fell on the writing, the ink has run. There are also
a number of brown stains, perhaps due to drops of oil or grease
from the lamps and candles of pious readers in the past. The
occasional flaying-marks, i.e. accidental punctures in the skin,
which develop into oval or circular holes in the process of manufacture,
have as a rule been covered over with thin vellum shavings.
3. DIMENSIONS
...
The original size of the vellum sheets is unknown, as the edges Original
have been much reduced in binding; it is certain that at least \ in. Sl&
has been cropped off the fore-edge, and probably as much from the
head and tail as well
Since in the latest binding the fore-edge was hacked roughly square after the spine had been crudely rounded, the leaves near the centre are now broader than those at the beginning and end; the breadth in fact varies from 13-? to nearly 14 in., the Present size height being fairly constant at about 15 in.
4. MAKE-UP OF QUIRES
5. PRICKING
6. RULING
7. STATISTICS OF PRICKING AND RULING
8. POUNCING
9. INK
Little can be said of the nature of the ink, as analysis cannot be carried out without damage to the manuscript. It is, however, certain from the way in which the vellum has been eaten away in many places3 that the ink was in the main an iron compound, and not the old carbon-and-gum ink which is found almost universally
on papyri. So far as the evidence goes at present, it seems clear
that this chemical ink came into use with the adoption of vellum
as a writing material; a carbon ink would not stick to the surface
of the vellum, whereas a chemical ink held, often only too well.
The difference between the two can be clearly seen in a microscope,
under which chemical ink appears as a stain, causing a kind of
granulated effect on the vellum, whereas a carbon ink appears as
a mass of individual specks of carbon resting on the surface. In
the Sinaiticus, the ink, though mainly a chemical compound, must
have contained a certain amount of carbon, as offsets are frequent,
and the ink has run where damp has reached it.
Colour
The colour of the ink varies a good deal, from
from a warm yellow-brown
to nearly black, though it never shows the jet-black of
pure carbon inks. A good deal of the variation may be due simply
to the amount of ink on the pen, or to differences in the quality of
the vellum, but in some of the coronis designs in the New Testament,
and in the superscriptions, running titles, and enumeration
of o-rixoi in A's very small hand (cf. pp. 32, 39), the ink seems to
have been deliberately thinned to give a difference of shade.
The inks used by all three scribes yield the same range of shades,
and colour cannot be used to identify the writers. It was clearly a
matter of chance whether, when a scribe replenished his supply of
Changes of ink, the shade matched; a good instance of a change of this kind is
colour provided by the Prophetic books of the Old Testament, the early
part of which is written in a much darker ink; the exact place
where the change takes place is O.T. 8ob, col. 3.
3 The destruction of the vellum is not due to the ink itself, but to sulphuric acid
liberated by chemical changes in it.
10. QUIRE SIGNATURES
11. MARKERS
12. PARTIAL DESTRUCTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Little fresh evidence for the external history of the manuscript MS.
has come to light. The latest desultory scribblings to which any neglected
approximate date can be assigned seem to belong to the twelfth aJte* '
century; its complete neglect after that date is not surprising, as
the manuscript could be deciphered only with difficulty by a reader
accustomed to minuscule script with accents, breathings, and other
lectional aids. The state of the last few extant leaves of Hermas,
which are worn, dirty, and dishevelled, shows that the manuscript
existed for some time without covers, but even so only a score of
leaves have actually disappeared here (cf. p. 17), and if the beginning
was in no worse state it must still have been substantially
complete. The dissolution of the manuscript was accelerated by
the use of odd leaves for binding; these seem to have been pulled
at random, for the Genesis fragments certainly came from
f. 11 of the original manuscript, the Numbers from somewhere
about ff. 72-4, while the Judith fragment comes from the middle
of a well-preserved part. Subsequently the volume seems to have
become separated into two parts, Psalms to Hermas being hidden
away or forgotten, while what remained of the rest of the Old
Testament was eventually put out for burning. Probably much
of this had already been consumed before Tischendorf arrived
................. shows no signs of dirt or
wear and is in practically as good condition as the succeeding
leaves. The seven missing quires in the Prophetic books doubtless
shared the same fate
CONTINUES
13. EARLIER BINDINGS
14. THE NEW BINDING
From the standpoint of Biblical studies, the details which follow may at first sight appear superfluous, but in the present unsatisfactory state of Greek palaeography any scrap of evidence may eventually prove of use for determining the age, or still better, the provenance, of the book. If no conclusion can as yet be drawn from these statistics, the cause lies in the dearth of
comparative material, for with the exception of the Freer group, no such information is available concerning other early Biblical
manuscripts.
I . NATURE OF THE MATERIAL
There
is no noticeable difference between the vellum of the Sinaiticus
and the modern product, for methods of preparation have not
changed materially.3
3 Cf. the recipes quoted by D. V. Thompson, 'Medieval Parchment-making', in The
Library, xvi, 1935, pp. 113-17.
2. STATE OF PRESERVATION
The vellum is generally in good condition, retaining its 'life' and
toughness except where, as on some of the edges of the leaves, it has
been wet. In those places it is brittle and liable to crack. On most
of the edges there were numerous short slits, and the inner margins
of many leaves were badly slit and damaged.
Nearly all the inner Causes of
margins had been contracted by the application of hot glue to the damage
back in the course of successive bindings. A good many leaves
were rather badly cockled all over, and some were locally contracted
where spots of water appear to have fallen on them; where
these spots fell on the writing, the ink has run. There are also
a number of brown stains, perhaps due to drops of oil or grease
from the lamps and candles of pious readers in the past. The
occasional flaying-marks, i.e. accidental punctures in the skin,
which develop into oval or circular holes in the process of manufacture,
have as a rule been covered over with thin vellum shavings.
3. DIMENSIONS
...
The original size of the vellum sheets is unknown, as the edges Original
have been much reduced in binding; it is certain that at least \ in. Sl&
has been cropped off the fore-edge, and probably as much from the
head and tail as well
Since in the latest binding the fore-edge was hacked roughly square after the spine had been crudely rounded, the leaves near the centre are now broader than those at the beginning and end; the breadth in fact varies from 13-? to nearly 14 in., the Present size height being fairly constant at about 15 in.
4. MAKE-UP OF QUIRES
5. PRICKING
6. RULING
7. STATISTICS OF PRICKING AND RULING
8. POUNCING
9. INK
Little can be said of the nature of the ink, as analysis cannot be carried out without damage to the manuscript. It is, however, certain from the way in which the vellum has been eaten away in many places3 that the ink was in the main an iron compound, and not the old carbon-and-gum ink which is found almost universally
on papyri. So far as the evidence goes at present, it seems clear
that this chemical ink came into use with the adoption of vellum
as a writing material; a carbon ink would not stick to the surface
of the vellum, whereas a chemical ink held, often only too well.
The difference between the two can be clearly seen in a microscope,
under which chemical ink appears as a stain, causing a kind of
granulated effect on the vellum, whereas a carbon ink appears as
a mass of individual specks of carbon resting on the surface. In
the Sinaiticus, the ink, though mainly a chemical compound, must
have contained a certain amount of carbon, as offsets are frequent,
and the ink has run where damp has reached it.
Colour
The colour of the ink varies a good deal, from
from a warm yellow-brown
to nearly black, though it never shows the jet-black of
pure carbon inks. A good deal of the variation may be due simply
to the amount of ink on the pen, or to differences in the quality of
the vellum, but in some of the coronis designs in the New Testament,
and in the superscriptions, running titles, and enumeration
of o-rixoi in A's very small hand (cf. pp. 32, 39), the ink seems to
have been deliberately thinned to give a difference of shade.
The inks used by all three scribes yield the same range of shades,
and colour cannot be used to identify the writers. It was clearly a
matter of chance whether, when a scribe replenished his supply of
Changes of ink, the shade matched; a good instance of a change of this kind is
colour provided by the Prophetic books of the Old Testament, the early
part of which is written in a much darker ink; the exact place
where the change takes place is O.T. 8ob, col. 3.
3 The destruction of the vellum is not due to the ink itself, but to sulphuric acid
liberated by chemical changes in it.
10. QUIRE SIGNATURES
11. MARKERS
12. PARTIAL DESTRUCTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Little fresh evidence for the external history of the manuscript MS.
has come to light. The latest desultory scribblings to which any neglected
approximate date can be assigned seem to belong to the twelfth aJte* '
century; its complete neglect after that date is not surprising, as
the manuscript could be deciphered only with difficulty by a reader
accustomed to minuscule script with accents, breathings, and other
lectional aids. The state of the last few extant leaves of Hermas,
which are worn, dirty, and dishevelled, shows that the manuscript
existed for some time without covers, but even so only a score of
leaves have actually disappeared here (cf. p. 17), and if the beginning
was in no worse state it must still have been substantially
complete. The dissolution of the manuscript was accelerated by
the use of odd leaves for binding; these seem to have been pulled
at random, for the Genesis fragments certainly came from
f. 11 of the original manuscript, the Numbers from somewhere
about ff. 72-4, while the Judith fragment comes from the middle
of a well-preserved part. Subsequently the volume seems to have
become separated into two parts, Psalms to Hermas being hidden
away or forgotten, while what remained of the rest of the Old
Testament was eventually put out for burning. Probably much
of this had already been consumed before Tischendorf arrived
................. shows no signs of dirt or
wear and is in practically as good condition as the succeeding
leaves. The seven missing quires in the Prophetic books doubtless
shared the same fate
CONTINUES
13. EARLIER BINDINGS
14. THE NEW BINDING
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