THE PRESERVATION OF LITERATURE
It is easier to find the beginning of writing than the beginning of
literature. Although we know for certain that the ancient nations of the
world had books and libraries, that they preserved traditions, stored
records and knowledge, and assisted memory by means of their tablets,
their monuments, and their papyri, we shall probably never know when the
art of writing was first applied to strictly literary purposes, and
still less likely is it that we shall ever discover when works of the
imagination were first recorded for the edification of mankind. It is
not very rash, however, to assume that as soon as the art had developed
the ancients put it to much the same uses as we do, except, perhaps,
that they did not vulgarise it, and no one wrote who had not something
to write about. But we are not without specimens of antique literatures.
Egypt has preserved for us many different specimens of her literary
produce of thousands of years ago--historical records, works of religion
and philosophy, fiction, magic, and funeral ritual. Assyria has
bequeathed to us hundreds of the clay books which formed the great royal
library at Nineveh, books of records, mythology, morals, grammar,
astronomy, astrology, magic; books of reference, such as geographical
tables, lists of temples, plants, birds, and other things. In the Old
Testament we have all that now remains of Israelitish writings, and the
early literatures of China and India are also partly known to us. After
these the writings of Greece and Rome are of comparatively recent
origin, and moreover, they are nearer to us in other respects besides
the merely chronological. The literature of Greece, dating from the far
Homeric age, grew up a strong and beautiful factor in Greek life, and
Rome, drawing first her alphabet and then her literature from the land
before which she stooped, even while she conquered it, passed them on as
an everlasting possession to the peoples of the western world. The fact
of the literary pre-eminence of Greece partly helps to explain why Greek
manuscripts form the bulk of the early writings now extant.
In considering how early literature has been preserved, therefore, we
are hardly concerned with Egyptian papyri or cuneiform tablets, but
with the writings of Greece and Rome, or writings produced under Greek
or Roman influence. And it is curious that while the libraries and books
of older nations have survived in comparatively large numbers, there
should be no Greek literary manuscripts older than about 160 B.C., and
even these are very fragmentary and scarce. The earliest Latin document
known is dated 55 A.D., and is an unimportant wax tablet from Pompeii.
For this lack of early documents many causes are responsible, and those
who remember that it is not human beings only who suffer from the
vicissitudes inseparable from existence will wonder, not that we have so
few ancient writings in our present possession, but that we have any.
The evidence of many curious and interesting discoveries of manuscripts
made from time to time goes to show that accident, rather than design,
has worked out their preservation, and that the civilised world owes its
present store of ancient literature more to good luck than good
management, to use a handy colloquialism. It is true, of course, that in
early days there were many who guarded books as very precious things,
but in times of wars and tumults people would naturally give little
thought to such superfluities. Fire and war have been the agencies most
destructive of books, in the opinion of the author of _Philobiblon_, but
carelessness and ignorance, wanton destruction and natural decay, are
also accountable for some part of the great losses which have wasted so
large a share of the literary heritage, and although we are deeply
indebted to monastic work for the transmission of classic lore as well
as of Christian compositions, we can hardly conclude that the monkish
scribes wrote solely for the benefit of posterity. Their immediate
purpose, no doubt, and naturally so, was much narrower, and identified
the service of God with the enrichment of their houses. Besides, they
did not hesitate to erase older writings in order that they might use
the parchment again for their own, whenever it suited them to do so.
Before noting some of the ways by which ancient literature has come down
to the present day, let us for a moment transport ourselves into the
past, and see how a wealthy Roman lover of letters would set about
gathering a collection of books. Having no lack of means, all that is
best in the literary world will be at his service. He will first take
care that the works of every Greek writer which can possibly be
obtained, as well as those of Roman authors, are represented in his
library by well-written papyrus rolls containing good, correct texts. If
he can obtain old manuscripts or original autographs of famous writers,
so much the better; but whereas ordinary volumes will cost him
comparatively little, on these he must expend large sums. If a book on
which he has set his heart is not to be purchased, he may be able to
obtain the loan of it, so that it may be transcribed for him by his
_librarius_ or writing-slave. If he can neither borrow nor purchase what
he desires, he may commission the bookseller to send for it to
Alexandria, where there is an unrivalled store of books and many skilled
scribes ready to make copies of them.
But it is not easy to estimate with any degree of certainty the quantity
of literary material available, say, at the time of the establishment of
the first public library in Rome, which was probably about 39 B.C. Books
were common and booksellers flourished. Greek and Roman writings were
preserved on papyrus, not neglected or lost, and the various parts of
what we now call the Old Testament probably existed in the Hebrew
synagogues. We may, perhaps, assume that the Roman book collector, did
he choose to take the necessary trouble, might add to his collection
some of the writings of ancient Egypt. But no doubt Greek and Latin
authors only are of value in his eyes. At this point it is dangerous to
speculate further, and we must leave the imaginary Roman, and, advancing
to our own time, where we are on surer ground, ask what remnants of old
records and literature have come down to us, and how have they been
preserved?
It will be disappointing news, perhaps, to those to whom the facts are
fresh, that no original manuscript of any classical author, and no
original manuscript of any part of the Bible, Old Testament or New, has
yet come to light. Nothing is known of any of these documents except
through the medium of copies, and in some cases very many copies indeed
intervene between us and the original. For instance, the oldest Homeric
manuscript known, with the exception of one or two fragments, is not
older than the first century B.C., and the most ancient Biblical
manuscript known, a fragment of a Psalter, is assigned to the late third
or early fourth century A.D. The earliest New Testament manuscript
extant, the first leaf of a book of St Matthew's Gospel, is also no
older than the third century. It is curious, too, that no ancient Greek
manuscripts have been found either in Greece or Italy excepting some
rolls discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum. One reason for this is no
doubt the fact that when Roman armies assailed Athens and other Greek
cities they despoiled them not only of their statues and works of art,
but of their books as well. These went to furnish the libraries of Rome,
though it is probable that certain of them found their way back to
Greece in company with some of Rome's own literary produce when
Constantine set up his capital and founded a library at Byzantium.
Another means by which Greek manuscripts left the country was afforded
by the eagerness of Ptolemy II. to extend the great library of
Alexandria, to which end he bought books in all parts of Greece, and
particularly in Athens and Rhodes.
The Roman libraries did not survive the onslaughts of the barbarians,
who seem to have carried out a very thorough work of destruction in the
Eternal City. But it is not unlikely that in some cases books, among
other portable treasures, were carried away when their owners sought
refuge in less troubled localities, such as Constantinople or
Alexandria. Still, the fact remains that the contents of the Roman
libraries have disappeared, and that for the ancient manuscripts now in
our possession we are indebted to the tombs, the temples, the
monasteries, and the sands of Egypt. Sometimes--to show the strange
adventures of some of these manuscripts--the cartonnage cases in which
mummies of the later period were enclosed, were made of papyrus
documents, which apparently had been treated as waste paper and put to
all sorts of undignified uses. The two oldest classical papyri known,
consisting of fragments of Plato's _Phoedo_ and of the _Antiope_ of
Euripides, were recovered from mummy-cases, and are supposed to date
from the third century B.C. Other important Greek texts which have been
preserved by Egypt are Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_, the _Mimes_
of Herodas, the _Odes_ of Bacchylides, the _Gospel_ and _Apocalypse_ of
Peter, the Book of Enoch, &c.
But here we have to take into consideration a new and important factor
in literary as in other matters--the spread of Christianity. With such
obvious exceptions as the cuneiform records, or the Egyptian writings,
and similar remains, the bulk of the manuscripts (as manuscripts, not as
compositions) is the work of (Christian) religious houses, and it is
easy to see that we owe much to the labours of the monks and
ecclesiastics who have transmitted to us not only the earliest and most
valuable works of the Church's own writers, but also the chief part of
the literature of Greece and Rome. As Mr Falconer Madan says in his
_Books in Manuscript_, "the number and importance of the MSS. of Virgil
and the four Gospels is greater than of any other ancient authors
whatever," and it is safe to assume that all these Gospel MSS., and
perhaps all the Virgil MSS. also, were the handiwork of churchmen.
As an example of the manuscript treasures yielded by Egypt may be
instanced the find at Behnesa, a village standing on the site of the
Roman city of Oxyrhynchus, one of the chief centres of early
Christianity in Egypt. Here, in 1896, Mr B. P. Grenfell and Mr A. S.
Hunt, searching for papyri on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund,
lighted upon one of the richest hunting-grounds yet discovered. The
result of their excavations was that about 270 boxes of manuscripts were
brought to England, while 150 of the best rolls were left at the Cairo
Museum. I am unable to give the size of the boxes, but Professor
Flinders Petrie's statement that "the publication of this great
collection of literature and documents will probably occupy a decade or
two, and will place our knowledge of the Roman and early Christian age
on a new footing," will testify to the extent and importance of the
find.
In this collection the document which excited most interest was a
papyrus leaf bearing some scraps of Greek, to which the name of +LOGIA
IÊSOU+, or Sayings of our Lord, has been given. This leaf is at present
assigned to a date between 150 and 300 A.D. The Logia are eight in
number, and while three of them are closely similar to certain passages
in the Gospels, the rest are new. Another valuable document was the
fragment of St Matthew's Gospel alluded to above, which, written in the
third century, is a hundred years older than any New Testament
manuscript hitherto known. Classical documents also were found in great
numbers, and included a new _Ode_ of Sappho, which, however, is
unfortunately imperfect. It was transcribed probably about the third
century A.D.
Many Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic manuscripts have been recovered from the
numerous monasteries of Palestine, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Several
travellers who have managed to overcome the suspicion of the monks and
their unwillingness to open their literary hoards to strangers, or to
part with any of the volumes, have found immense numbers of books hidden
under dust and rubbish in vaults and cellars or stowed away in chests,
where they were probably thrust at some time when danger threatened
them. Books written in these monasteries themselves in earlier days, or
brought thither from other monasteries further east, have thus lain
forgotten or neglected for centuries, or, if they were noticed at all,
it was only that they might be put to some ignoble use. Thus some were
found acting as covers to two large jars which had formerly held
preserves. "I was allowed to purchase these vellum manuscripts," says
the author of _Monasteries of the Levant_, "as they were considered to
be useless by the monks, principally, I believe, because there were no
more preserves in the jars." In another case some large volumes were
found in use as footstools to protect the bare feet of the monks from
the cold stone floor of their chapel.
As we have already seen, Christian scribes not only preserved the
writings of the Fathers of the Church, as well as the Holy Scriptures,
but also directed much of their attention to the classic works of poetry
and philosophy. In every monastery from Ireland to Asia Minor, from
Seville to Jerusalem, the work of transcribing and transmitting sacred
and secular literature was carried on, and had we at the present day one
half of the fruits of this labour we should be rich indeed. But we have
also seen that many causes have contributed to the destruction of old
writings, of which carelessness and ignorance are by no means the least.
The well-known story of Tischendorf's discovery of the oldest copy of
the New Testament in existence,[1] in a basket of fuel at a monastery
near Mount Sinai is but a single example, and that a modern one, of the
dangers to which these ancient books were liable, and to which they too
often fell victims. The danger was long ago recognised, however, and a
canon of the third Council of Constantinople, held in 719 A.D., enacted
"That nobody whatever be allowed to injure the book of the Old and New
Testament, or those of our holy preachers and doctors, nor to cut them
up, nor to give them to dealers in books, or perfumers, or any other
person to be erased, except they have been rendered useless by moths or
water or in some other way. He who shall do any such thing shall be
excommunicated for one year." The same Council also ordered the burning
of heretical books.
[1] The Codex Sinaiticus, now at St Petersburg.
With the revival of learning in the fourteenth century there came an
awakened interest in ancient writings. They were eagerly sought for in
the monasteries of Europe, and the learned of Italy were especially
instrumental in recovering the neglected classical works. It has been
said that almost all the classical authors were discovered or
rediscovered either in Italy or through the researches of Italians.
Petrarch, with whose name the Renaissance is inseparably associated, and
a contemporary of our Richard de Bury, took great pains to form a
collection of the works of Cicero, whose _Epistles_ he was fortunate
enough to rescue from destroying oblivion. He tells us that when he met
strangers, and they asked him what he desired from their country, he
would reply, "Nothing, but the works of Cicero." He also sent money to
France, Germany, Spain, Greece, and England that these books might be
bought for him, and if while travelling he came across any ancient
monastery he would turn aside and explore its book treasures.
Poggio Bracciolini, a learned Italian of the fifteenth century, has also
made himself famous by his ardent pursuit of the remains of classical
literature, and by aiding the interest in them which the Renaissance had
awakened. He searched Europe for manuscripts to such good purpose that
he unearthed a valuable text of Quintilian's _Institutes_, "almost
perishing at the bottom of a dark neglected tower," in the monastery of
St Gall, and recovered many other classical writings by his industry,
including some of the _Orations_ of Cicero; Lucretius; Manilius, and
others. He also rescued the writings of Tertullian.
We may perhaps believe that even by this time the surviving treasures of
the old storehouses of literature have not yet been all brought to
light. Renan discovered in the large collection of manuscripts still
preserved in the monastery of Monte Casino in Italy, some unpublished
pages of Abelard's _Theologia Christiana_, and other valuable finds
besides, and it is quite possible that many more surprises are awaiting
an enterprising and diligent searcher.
But although the monasteries had so large a share in the work of the
preservation of literature, the monks themselves wrought harm as well as
good, for in their zeal to record sacred compositions they frequently
destroyed older and often more valuable documents by scraping off the
original writing and substituting other. This was done for economy's
sake, when writing material was costly, and parchments thus treated are
known as palimpsests. Owing to this reprehensible practice, many
literary treasures have been irretrievably lost. Our Anglo-Saxon
literature, for instance, is not represented by any contemporary copies.
The Anglo-Norman writers had a contempt for the old English manuscripts,
and turned them into palimpsests without the slightest idea that there
could be any value in them, and attached far more importance to the
writing they themselves were about to make. Thus it happens that we are
in the same position with regard to Anglo-Saxon literature as with
regard to classical authors. No original documents exist, and it is
known to us solely through copies, single copies, in most cases.
Beowulf, for instance, is represented only by a manuscript of the first
half of the eleventh century, and Caedmon by a manuscript of the tenth
century.
With the invention and spread of the knowledge of printing, however, the
risk of loss was greatly reduced. Such ancient writings as came into the
printer's hands were given a fresh lease of life which in many cases was
of indefinite length, or rather, of practically eternal duration. But
the fact of being printed was not invariably a safeguard. Some of the
works of the early printers have disappeared completely, and many are
represented only by single copies. The strange history of the British
Museum copy of the famous _Book of St Albans_, will serve to show the
vicissitudes with which the relics of the past have to contend in their
journey down the ages.
At the end of the last century the library of an old Lincolnshire house
was overhauled by someone who disdainfully turned out of it all unbound
books, and had them destroyed. A few of the condemned books, however,
were begged by the gardener. Among them was the Book of St Albans. At
the gardener's death his son threw away some of the rescued volumes, but
kept the "Book." At the son's death, his widow sold such books as he had
left, to a pedlar, for the sum of ninepence. The pedlar re-sold them to
a chemist in Gainsborough for shop-paper, but observing the strange
wood-cuts in the "Book," the chemist offered it to a stationer for a
guinea. The stationer would not purchase, but said he would display it
in his window as a curiosity. Here it attracted attention, and five
pounds was offered for it by a gentleman in the neighbourhood. The
stationer, finding the volume an object of desire, gave the chemist two
pounds for it and eventually sold it to a bookseller for seven guineas.
Of this bookseller the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville bought it for seventy
pounds, and bequeathed it to the British Museum with the rest of his
magnificent library. This story I give on the authority of Mr Blades,
who also, to instance the way in which books travel about and turn up in
odd places, relates that a brother of Bishop Heber's, who had been for
years seeking for a book printed by Colard Mansion, but without success,
one day received a fine copy from the bishop, who had bought it from a
native on the banks of the Ganges.