FOOTNOTE:

[1] The amount of nitrogen thus deposited annually was found at

Rothamsted to be 7.21 lb. per acre.

MANUSCRIPT, a term applied to any document written by the human hand

(Lat. _manû scriptum_) with the aid of pen, pencil or other instrument

which can be used with cursive facility, as distinguished from an

inscription engraved with chisel or graver, worked laboriously. By usage

the word has come to be employed in a special sense to indicate a

written work of the ancient world or of the middle ages; collections of

such "ancient manuscripts" being highly prized and being stored for

preservation in public libraries. Down to the time of the invention of

printing, and until the printed book had driven it out of the field, the

manuscript was the vehicle for the conservation and dissemination of

literature, and discharged all the functions of the modern book. In the

present article a description is given of the development of the ancient

manuscript, particularly among the Greeks and Romans, leading on to the

medieval manuscripts of Europe, and bringing down the history of the

latter to the invention of printing; the history of the printed volume

is dealt with in the article BOOK (q.v.).

_Materials._--The handbooks on palaeography describe in full the

different materials which have been employed from remote time to

receive writing, and may be referred to for minuter details. To

dispose, in the first place, of the harder materials that have been

put under requisition, we find metals both referred to by writers and

actually represented by surviving examples. Thin leaves of gold or

silver were recommended for the inscription of charms in particular.

Leaden plates were in common use for incantations; the material was

cheap and was supposed to be durable. On such plates were scratched

the _dirae_ or solemn devotions of obnoxious persons to the infernal

deities; many examples have survived. As an instance of the use of

soft substance afterwards hardened may be cited the practice by the

Babylonians and Assyrians of writing, or rather of puncturing, their

cuneiform characters on clay tablets while moist, which were

afterwards dried in the heat of the sun or baked in the oven.

Potsherds, or _ostraka_, were employed for all kinds of temporary

purposes. Thousands of them have been found in Egypt inscribed with

tax receipts and ephemeral drafts and memoranda, children's dictation

lessons, &c. Analogous to the clay documents of western Asia are the

tablets coated with wax in vogue among the Greeks and Romans, offering

a surface not to be inscribed with the pen but to be scratched with

the sharp pointed _stilus_. These will be described more fully below.

With them we class the wooden boards, generally whitened with a

coating of paint or composition and adapted for the pen, which were

common in Egypt, and were specially used for educational purposes.

Such boards were also employed for official notices in Athens in the

4th century B.C.

Of the more pliant, and therefore generally more convenient,

substances there were many, such as animal skins and vegetable

growths. Practically we might confine our attention to three of them:

papyrus, parchment or vellum, and paper, the employment of which, each

in turn, as a writing material became almost universal. But there are

also others which must be mentioned.

In a primitive state of society leaves of plants and trees strong

enough for the purpose might be taken as a ready-made material to

receive writing. Palm leaves are used for this purpose to the present

day in parts of India; and the references in classical authors to

leaves as early writing material among the Greeks and Romans cannot be

dismissed as entirely fanciful.

The bark of trees, and particularly the inner bark of the lime-tree,

[Greek: philyra,] _tilia_, was employed. The fact that the Latin word

_liber_, bark, eventually meant also a book, would be sufficient proof

that that material was once in common literary use, even if it were

not referred to by writers.

Linen, too, was a writing material among the early Romans, as it was

also among the Etruscans, and as it had been to some extent among the

Egyptians.

Skins of animals, tanned, have doubtless served as a writing material

from the very earliest period of the use of letters. The Egyptians

occasionally employed this material. Instances of the use of leather

in western Asia are recorded by ancient authors, and from Herodotus we

learn that the Ionian Greeks applied to the rolls of the

later-imported papyrus the title [Greek: diphtherai], skins, by which

they had designated their writing material of leather. The Jews, also,

to the present day hold to the ancient Eastern custom and inscribe the

law upon skin rolls.

But generally these materials were superseded in the old world by the

famous Egyptian writing material manufactured from the papyrus plant,

which gradually passed beyond the boundaries of its native land and

was imported at a remote period into other countries. Into Greece and

into Rome it was introduced at so early a time that practically it was

the vehicle for classical literature throughout its course. A

description of the manufacture and use of this material will be found

under PAPYRUS. Here it need only be noted that papyrus is associated

in Greek and Roman literature with the roll form of the ancient

manuscript, as will be more fully explained below, and that it was the

supersession of this material by parchment or vellum which led to the

change of shape to the book form.

The introduction of the new material, parchment or vellum, was not a

revival of the use of animal skins as followed by the old world. The

skins were now not tanned into leather, but were prepared by a new

process to provide a material, thin, strong, flexible, and smooth of

surface on both faces. This improved process was the secret of the

success of the new material in ousting the time-honoured papyrus from

its high position. The common story, as told by Pliny, that Eumenes

II. of Pergamum (197-158 B.C.), seeking to extend the library of his

capital, was opposed by the jealousy of the Ptolemies, who forbade the

export of papyrus, hoping thus to check the growth of a rival library,

and that he was thus compelled to have recourse to skins as a writing

material, at all events points to Pergamum as the chief centre of

trade in the material, [Greek: pergamênê,] _charta pergamena_. The old

terms [Greek: diphtherai], _membranae_, applied originally to the

older leather, were transferred to the newly improved substance. In

describing MSS. written on, this material, by common consent the term

parchment has in modern times given place to that of vellum, properly

applicable only to calfskin, but now generally used in reference to a

medieval skin-book of any kind. Parchment is a title now usually

reserved for the hard sheepskin or other skin material on which law

deeds are engrossed. (See PARCHMENT.)

Vellum had a long career as a writing material for the literature of

the early centuries of our era and of the middle ages. But in its turn

it eventually gave place to paper (q.v.). As early as the 13th century

paper, an Asiatic invention, was making its way into Europe and was

adopted in the Eastern Empire as a material for Greek literature side

by side with vellum. It soon afterwards began to appear in the

countries of southern Europe. In the course of the 14th century the

use of it became fairly established, and in the middle of the century

a number of paper manuscripts were produced along with those on

vellum, particularly in Italy. Finally, in the 15th century paper

became the common material for the manuscript book. The new paper,

however, made no further change in the form of the manuscript. It

possessed exactly the same qualities, as a writing material, as

vellum: it could be inscribed on both sides; it could be made up into

quires and bound in the codex form; and it had the further advantage

of being easily manufactured in large quantities, and therefore of

being comparatively cheap.

_The Forms of the Manuscript Book._--In describing the development of

the manuscript book in the ancient world, and subsequently in the middle

ages, we have to deal with it in two forms. The common form of the book

of the ancient world was the _roll_, composed of one continuous sheet of

material and inscribed only on one side. This form had a long career. In

Egyptian literature it can be traced back for thousands of years. In

Greek literature it may he assumed to have been in vogue from the

earliest times; actual examples have survived of the latter part of the

4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries B.C. As to its early use in Latin

literature we cannot speak so definitely; but Rome followed the example

of Greece in letters, and therefore no doubt also in the material shape

of literary productions. Both in Greek and Latin literature the roll

lasted down to the early centuries of the Christian era. It was

superseded by the _codex_, the manuscript in book form (in the modern

sense of the word book), composed of separate leaves stitched together

into quires and made available to receive writing on both sides of the

material. This form is still in vogue as the modern printed book, and

probably will never be superseded. But the codex in this developed shape

was only an evolution from the early waxen tablets of the Greeks and

Romans, two or more of which, hinged together, formed the primitive

codex which suggested the later form. Therefore it will be necessary to

include the description of the tablets with that of the later codex.

The Roll.

The ordinary terms in use among the Greeks for a book (that is, a roll)

were [Greek: biblos] (another form of [Greek: bublos], papyrus) and its

diminutive [Greek: biblion], which included the idea of a written book.

The corresponding Latin terms were _liber_ and _libellus_; _volumen_ was

a rolled-up roll. A roll of material uninscribed was [Greek: chàrtês],

_charta_, or [Greek: tomos] (originally a _cutting_ of papyrus),

applicable also to a roll containing a portion or division of a large

work which extended to more than one roll. A work contained within the

compass of a single roll was a [Greek: monobiblos], or [Greek:

monobiblon]. The term [Greek: teuchos] seems also to have meant a single

roll, but it was also applied at a later time to indicate a work

contained in several rolls.

In writing the text of a work, the scribe might choose to make use of

separate sheets of papyrus, [Greek: kollêmata], _schedae_, and then join

them to one another consecutively so as to make up the roll; or he might

purchase from the stationers a _scapus_, or ready-made roll of twenty

sheets at most; and if this length were not sufficient, he might add

other sheets or _scapi_, and thus make a roll of indefinite length. But

proverbially a great book was a great evil, and, considering the

inconvenience of unrolling a long roll, not only for perusal, but, still

more so, for occasional reference, the practice of subdividing lengthy

works into divisions of convenient size, adapted to the capacity of

moderate-sized rolls, must have come into vogue at a very early period.

It was the practice to write on one side only of the papyrus; to write

on both front and back of a roll would obviously be a clumsy and

irritating method. Works intended for the market were never

_opisthograph_. Of course the blank backs of written rolls which had

become obsolete might be turned to account for personal or temporary

purposes, as we learn not only from references in classical authors but

also from actual examples. The most interesting extant case of an

opisthograph papyrus is the copy of Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_

in the British Museum, which is written on the back of a farmer's

accounts, of the end of the 1st century--but only for private use. It

being the rule, then, to confine the writing to one side of the

material, that is, to the inner surface of the made-up roll, that

surface was more carefully prepared and smoothed than the other; and,

further, the joints of the several sheets were so well made that they

offered no obstacle to the action of the pen. Still further, care was

taken that this, the _recto_ surface of the material, should be that in

which the shreds of papyrus of which it was composed lay horizontally,

so that the pen might move freely along the fibres; the shreds of the

_verso_ side, on the other hand, being in vertical position. This point

is of some importance, as, in cases where two different handwritings are

found on the two sides of a papyrus, it may be usually assumed that the

one on the _recto_ surface is the earlier.

The text was written in columns, [Greek: selides], _paginae_, the width

of which seems not to have been prescribed, but which for calligraphic

effect were by preference made narrow, sufficient margins being left at

head and foot. The average width of the columns in the best extant

papyri ranges from two to three-and-a-half inches. The written lines

were parallel with the length of the roll, so that the columns stood, so

to say, with the height of the rolled-up roll, and were disclosed

consecutively as the roll was unwound. Ruling with lead to guide the

writing is mentioned by writers, but it does not appear that the

practice was generally followed. The number of lines in the several

columns of extant papyri is not constant, nor is the marginal boundary

of the beginnings of the lines, for the accuracy of which a ruled

vertical line would have proved useful, ordinarily kept even. No doubt

in practice the horizontal fibres of the material were found to afford a

sufficient guide for the lines of writing.

If the title of the work was to be given, the scribe appears to have

written it ordinarily at the end of the text. But something more was

needed. To be obliged to unroll a text to the end, in order to ascertain

the name of the author, would be the height of inconvenience. Its title

was therefore sometimes written at the head of the text. It appears also

that at an early period it was inscribed on the outside of the roll, so

as to be visible as the roll lay in a chest or on the shelf. But a more

general practice was to attach to the top edge of the roll a label or

ticket, [Greek: sillubos], or [Greek: sittubos], _titulus_, _index_,

which hung down if the roll lay on the shelf, or was conveniently read

if the roll stood along with others in the ordinary cylindrical

roll-box, [Greek: kistê], [Greek: kibotos], _cista_, _capsa_. One such

label made of papyrus has survived and is in the British Museum.

The scribe would not commence his text at the very beginning, nor would

he carry it quite down to the end, of the roll. He would leave blank a

sufficient length of material at either extremity, where the roll would

naturally be most exposed to wear and tear by handling in unrolling and

re-rolling; and, further, the extreme vertical edges might each be

strengthened by the addition of a strip of papyrus so as to form a

double thickness of material.

According to the particulars given by classical authors, the roll would

be finished off somewhat elaborately; but the details described by them

must be taken to apply to the more expensive productions of the book

trade, corresponding with the full-bound volumes of our days. In

practice, a large proportion of working copies and ordinary editions

must have been dealt with more simply. Firstly, the roll should be

rolled up round a central stick, of wood or bone, called the [Greek:

omphalos], _umbilicus_, to which the last sheet of the papyrus may or

may not have been attached. But as a matter of fact no rolling-sticks

have been found in company with extant papyri, and it has therefore been

suggested that they were not attached to the material but were rolled in

loose, and were therefore liable to drop out. In some instances, as in

the rolls found at Herculaneum, a central core of papyrus instead of a

stick was thought sufficient. The edges, _frontes_, of the roll, after

it had been rolled up, were shorn and were rubbed smooth with pumice,

and they were sometimes coloured. A valuable roll might be protected

with a vellum wrapper, [Greek: phainolês], _paenula_, stained with

colour; and, further, it might be secured with ornamental thongs. The

central stick might also be adorned with knobs or "horns," plain or

coloured. This seems to be the natural explanation of the [Greek:

kerata], or _cornua_, mentioned by the ancient writers. Finally, the

title-label described above was attached to the completed roll, now

ready for the book-market.

In the perusal of a work the reader held the roll upright and unrolled

it gradually with the right hand; with the left hand he rolled up in the

reverse direction what he had read. Thus, when he had finished, the roll

had become reversed, the beginning of the text being now in the centre

of the roll and the end of it being outside. The roll was "explicitus ad

umbilicum," or "ad sua cornua." It had therefore now to be unrolled

afresh and to be re-rolled into its normal shape--a troublesome process

which the lazy man shirked, and which the careful man accomplished by

making the revolutions with his two hands while he held the revolving

material steady under his chin.

Although the codex or manuscript in book-form began to make its way in

Greek and Roman literature as early as the 1st century of our era, the

roll maintained its position as the recognized type of literary document

down to the 3rd, and even into the 4th, century, when it was altogether

superseded. We shall proceed to describe the codex after giving some

account of the waxen, or, to speak more correctly, the waxed, tablet,

its precursor in the book-form.

The Waxen Tablet.

The ordinary waxen tablet in use among the Greeks and Romans was a small

oblong slab of wood, beech, fir, and especially box, the surface of

which on one or both sides, with the exception of the surrounding

margins which were left intact in order to form a frame, was sunk to a

slight depth and was therein coated with a thin layer of wax, usually

black. The tablet thus presented the appearance of a child's

school-slate of the present day. Such tablets were single, double,

triple, or of several pieces or leaves. In Greek they were called

[Greek: pinax], [Greek: pinakis], [Greek: déltos], [Greek: deltion].: in

Latin _cera_, _tabula_, _tabella_, &c. Two or more put together and held

together by rings or thongs acting as hinges formed a _caudex_ or

_codex_, literally a stock of wood, which a set of tablets might

resemble, and from which they might actually be made by cleaving the

wood. A codex of two leaves was called [Greek: dithuroi], [Greek:

diptucha], _diptycha_; of three, [Greek: triptucha], _triptycha_: and so

on. The triptych appears to have been most generally used. A general

term was also _libellus_.

Tablets served for the ordinary minor affairs of life: for memoranda,

literary and other notes and drafts, school exercises, accounts, &c. The

writing incised with the stilus could be easily obliterated by smoothing

the wax, and the _tabula rasa_ was thus rendered available for a fresh

inscription. But tablets were also employed for official purposes, when

documents had to be protected from unauthorized scrutiny or from injury.

Thus they were the receptacles for wills, conveyances, and other legal

transactions; and in such cases they were closed against inspection by

being bound round with threads which were covered by the witnesses'

seals.

Small tablets, _codicilli_, _pugillares_, often of more valuable

material, such as ivory, served for correspondence among other purposes;

very small specimens are mentioned as _vitelliani_, for the exchange of

love-letters.

A certain number of Greek waxen tablets have been recovered, chiefly

from Egypt, but none of them is very early. They are generally of the

3rd century, and are mostly inscribed with school exercises. The largest

and most perfect extant codex is one in the British Museum (Add. MS.

33,270), perhaps of the 3rd century, being made up of nine leaves,

measuring nearly 9 by 7 in., and inscribed with documents in shorthand.

Of Latin tablets we are fortunate in having a fairly large number of

examples. Exclusive of a few isolated specimens, they are the result of

two important finds. Twenty-four tablets containing the records of a

burial club, A.D. 131-167, were recovered between 1786 and 1855 from

some ancient mining works in Dacia. In 1875 as many as 127 tablets,

containing deeds connected with sales by auction and payment of taxes,

A.D. 15-62, were found in the ruins of Pompeii. These specimens have

afforded the means of ascertaining the mechanical arrangement of waxen

tablets when adopted for legal instruments among the Romans. Most of

them are triptychs, severally cloven from single blocks of wood. Subject

to some variations, the triptych was usually arranged as follows. Of the

six sides or pages of the codex, pages 1 and 6 (the outside pages) were

of plain wood; pages 2, 3, 5 were waxed; and page 4, which had a groove

cut across the middle was sometimes of plain wood, sometimes waxed. The

authentic deed was inscribed with the stilus on the waxed pages 2 and 3;

and the first two leaves were then bound round with three twisted

threads which passed down the groove so as to close the deed from

inspection. On page 4 the witnesses' names were then inscribed (in ink

if the page was plain; with the stilus if waxed), and their seals were

impressed in the groove, thus securing the threads. In addition to the

protection afforded to the seals from casual injury by their position in

the groove, the third leaf acted as a cover to them. On page 5 an

abstract or duplicate of the deed, as required by law, was inscribed.

The arrangement of the Dacian tablets differed in this respect, that

page 4 was waxed, and that the duplicate copy was begun on that page in

the space on the left of the groove, that on the right being reserved

for the names of the witnesses. In the case of one of the Pompeian

tablets the threads and seals still remain.

The survival of the use of tablets to a late time should be noted. St

Augustine refers to his tablets, and St Hilary of Arles also mentions

their employment for the purpose of correspondence; there is a record of

a letter written _in tabellâ_ as late as A.D. 1148. They were very

commonly used throughout the middle ages in all the west of Europe.

Specimens inscribed with money accounts of the 13th and 14th centuries

have survived in France, and similar documents of the 14th and 15th

centuries are to be found in several of the municipal archives of

Germany. Reference to their use in England occurs in literature, and

specimens of the 14th or 15th century are said to have been dug up in

Ireland. In Italy their employment is both recorded and proved by actual

examples of the 13th and 14th centuries. With the beginning of the 16th

century they seem to have practically come to an end, although a few

survivals of the custom of writing on wax have lingered to modern times.

The Codex.

As already stated, the _codex_, or MS. in book-form, owed its existence

to the substitution of vellum for papyrus as the common writing material

for Greek and Roman literature. The fact that vellum was a tough

material capable of being inscribed on both sides, that writing,

particularly if freshly written, could be easily washed off or erased

from it, and that the material could thus be made available for second

use, no doubt contributed largely to its ready adoption. In Rome in the

1st century B.C. it was used, like the waxen tablets for notes, drafts,

memoranda, &c.; and vellum tablets began to take the place of the

_cerae_. References are not wanting in the classical writers to its

employment for such temporary purposes. To what extent it was at first

pressed into the service of literature and used in the preparation of

books for the market must remain uncertain. But in the first three

centuries of our era it may be assumed that vellum codices were not

numerous. The papyrus roll still held its position as the _liber_ or

book of literature. Yet we learn from the poems of Martial that in his

day the works of some of the best classical authors were to be had on

vellum. From the way in which, in his _Apophoreta_, he has contrasted as

exchangeable gifts certain works written respectively on papyrus and on

vellum, it has been argued that vellum at that time was a cheap

material, inferior to papyrus, and only used for roughly written copies.

Up to a certain point this may be true, but the fact that the earliest

great vellum Greek codices of the Bible and of Latin classical authors,

dating back to the 4th century, are composed of very finely prepared

material would indicate a perfection of manufacture of long standing.

But, apart from the references of writers, we have the results of recent

excavations in Egypt to enable us to form a more correct judgment on the

early history of the vellum codex. There have been found a certain

number of inscribed leaves and fragments of vellum of early date which

without doubt originally formed part of codices or MSS. in book-form. It

is true that they are not numerous, but from the character of the

writing certain of them can be individually assigned to the 3rd, to the

2nd, and even to the 1st century. We may then take it for an established

fact that the codex form of MS. was gradually thrusting its way into use

in the first centuries of our era.

The convenience of the codex form for easy reference was also a special

recommendation in its favour. There can be little doubt that such

compilations as public registers must at once have been drawn up in the

new form. The jurists also were quick to adopt it, and the very title

"codex" has been attached to great legal compilations, such as those of

Theodosius and Justinian. Again, the book-form was favoured by the early

Christians. The Bible, the book which before all others became the great

work of reference in their hands, could only be consulted with

convenience and despatch in the new form. A single codex could hold the

contents of a work which formerly must have been distributed through

many volumes in roll-form. The term [Greek: sômation], which was one of

the names given to a codex, was expressive of its capacity. Turning

again to discoveries in Egypt, it appears that in the early centuries

the codex-form had become so usual among the Christians in that land

that even the native material, papyrus, the recognized material for the

roll, was now also made up by them into leaved books. The greater number

of papyri of the 3rd century containing Christian writings, fragments of

the Scriptures, the "Sayings of Our Lord," and the like, are in

book-form. On the other hand, the large majority of the non-Christian

papyri of the same period keep to the old roll-form. Thus the codex

becomes at once identified with the new religion, while the papyrus roll

to the last is the chosen vehicle of pagan literature.

In the 4th century the struggle between the roll and the codex for

supremacy in the literary field was finished, and the victory of the

codex was achieved. Henceforward the roll-form remained in use for

records and legal documents, and in certain instances for liturgies; and

for such purposes it survives to the present day. But so completely was

it superseded in literature by the codex that even when papyrus, the

material once identified with the roll-form, was used as it sometimes

was down to the 6th and 7th centuries and later, it was made up into the

leaved codex, not only in Egypt but also in western Europe.

Quires.

The shape which the codex usually assumed in the early centuries of the

middle ages was the broad quarto. The quires or gatherings of which the

book was formed generally consisted, in the earliest examples, of four

sheets folded to make eight leaves ([Greek: tetrás] or [Greek:

tetrádion], _quaternio_), although occasionally quinterns, or quires of

five sheets (ten leaves), were adopted. Sexterns, or quires of six

sheets (twelve leaves), came into use at a later period. In making up

the quires, care was generally taken to lay the sheets of vellum in such

a way that hair-side faced hair-side, and flesh-side faced flesh-side;

so that, when the book was opened, the two pages before the reader had

the same appearance, either the yellow tinge of the hair-side, or the

fresh whiteness of the flesh-side. In Greek MSS. the arrangement of the

sheets was afterwards reduced to a system; the first sheet was laid with

the flesh-side downwards, so that that side began the quire; yet in so

early an example as the Codex Alexandrinus the first page of a quire is

the hair-side. In Latin MSS. also the hair-side appears generally to

have formed the first page. When paper came into general use for codices

in the 15th century, it was not an uncommon practice to give the paper

quires additional strength by an admixture of vellum, a sheet of the

latter material forming the outer leaves, and sometimes the middle

leaves also, of the quire. The quire mark, or "signature," was usually

written at the foot of the last page, but in some early instances (e.g.

the Codex Alexandrinus) it appears at the head of the first page of each

quire. The numbering of the separate leaves in a quire, in the fashion

followed by early printers, came in in the 14th century. Catch-words to

connect the quires appear first in the 11th century and are not uncommon

in the 12th century.

Ruling.

No exact system was followed in ruling the guiding lines on the pages of

the codex. In the case of papyri it was enough to mark with the pencil

the vertical marginal lines to bound the text, if indeed even this was

considered needful (see above); the fibres of the papyrus were a

sufficient guide for the lines of writing. On vellum it became necessary

to rule lines to keep the writing even. These lines were at first drawn

with a blunt point, almost invariably on the hair (or outer) side of the

skin, and strongly enough to be in relief on the flesh (or inner) side.

Marginal lines were drawn to bound the text laterally; but the ruled

lines which guided the writing were not infrequently drawn right across

the sheet. Each sheet should be ruled separately; but two or more sheets

were often laid and ruled together, the lines being drawn with so much

force that the lower sheets also received the impressions. In rare

instances lines are found ruled on both sides of the leaf, as in some

parts of the Codex Alexandrinus. In this same MS. and in other early

codices the ruling was not always drawn for every line of writing, but

was occasionally spaced so that the writing ran between the ruled lines

as well as on them. The lines were evenly spaced by means of guiding

pricks made at measured intervals with a compass or rotary instrument

down the margins; in some early MSS. these pricks run down the middle of

the page. Ruling with the plummet or lead-point is found in the 11th

century and came into ordinary use in the 12th century; coloured inks,

e.g. red and violet, were used for ornamental ruling in the 15th

century.

Columns.

_Mechanical Arrangement of Writing in MSS._--It has already been stated

above that in the papyrus rolls the text was written in columns. They

stood with convenient intervals between them and with fair margins at

top and bottom. The length of the lines was to some extent governed by

the nature of the text. If it was a poetical work, the metrical line was

naturally the line of the column, unless, as sometimes was the case, the

verse was written continuously as prose. For prose works a narrow column

was preferred. It is noticeable that the columns in papyri have a

tendency to lean to the right instead of being perpendicular--an

indication that it was not the practice to rule marginal lines. In

codices the columnar arrangement was also largely followed, and the

number of columns in a page was commonly two. There are instances,

however, of a larger number. The Codex Sinaiticus of the Bible has four

columns to the page; and the Codex Vaticanus, three columns. And the

tricolumnar arrangement occurs every now and then in later MSS.

Text without separation of Words.

In both Greek and Latin literary MSS. of early date the writing runs on

continuously without separation of words. This practice however, may be

regarded as rather artificial, as in papyri written in non-literary

hands and in Latin deeds also, contemporary with these early literary

MSS., there is a tendency to separation. In a text thus continuously

written occasional ambiguities necessarily occurred, and then a dot or

apostrophe might be inserted between words to aid the reader. Following

the system of separation of words which appears in ancient inscriptions,

wherein the several words are marked off by single, double, or treble

dots or points, the words of the fragmentary poem on the battle of

Actium found at Herculaneum are separated by single points, probably to

facilitate reading aloud; monosyllables or short prepositions and

conjunctions, however, being left unseparated from the words immediately

following them--a system which is found in practice at a later time. But

such marks of separation are not to be confounded with similar marks of

punctuation whereby sentences are marked off and the sense of the text

is made clear. Throughout the career of the uncial codices down to the

6th century, continuity of text was maintained. In the 7th century there

is some evidence of separation of words, but without system. In early

Latin minuscule codices partial separation in an uncertain and

hesitating manner went on to the time of the Carolingian reform. In

early Irish and English MSS., however, separation is more consistently

practised. In the 9th and 10th centuries long words tend to separation,

but short words, prepositions and conjunctions, still cling to the

following word. It was not till the 11th century that the smaller words

at length stood apart, and systematic separation of words was

established. In Greek minuscule codices of the 10th century a certain

degree of separation takes place; yet a large proportion of words remain

linked together, and they are even incorrectly divided. Indeed a correct

system of distinct separation of words in Greek texts was never

thoroughly established even as late as the 15th century.

Paragraphs.

But while distinction of words was disregarded in early literary texts,

distinction of important pauses in the sense was recognized from the

first. The papyrus of the _Persae_ of Timotheus of Miletus, the oldest

MS. of a Greek classic in existence, of the end of the 4th century B.C.,

is written in independent paragraphs. This is a natural system, the

simplicity of which has caused it to be the system of modern times. But,

in addition, the Greek scribe also separated paragraphs by inserting a

short horizontal stroke, [Greek: parágraphos], between them at the

commencement of the lines of writing. It should be noted that this

stroke indicated the close of a passage, and therefore belonged to the

paragraph just concluded, and did not stand for an initial sign for the

new paragraph which followed. The dividing stroke was also used to mark

off the different speeches of a play. Besides the stroke, a wedge-shaped

sign or tick might be used. But to make every paragraph stand distinctly

by itself would have entailed a certain loss of space. If the concluding

line were short, there would remain a long space unfilled. Therefore,

when this occurred, it became customary to leave only a short space

blank to mark the termination of the paragraph, and then to proceed with

the new paragraph in the same line, the [Greek: parágraphos] at the same

time preventing possible ambiguity. The next step was to project the

first letter of the first full line of the new paragraph slightly into

the margin, as a still further distinction; and lastly to enlarge it.

The enlargement of the letter gave it so much prominence that the

dividing stroke could then be dispensed with, and in this form the new

paragraph was henceforward indicated in Greek MSS., it being immaterial

whether the enlarged letter was the initial or a medial letter of a

word. As early as the 5th century there is evidence that the [Greek:

parágraphos] was losing its meaning with the scribes, for in the Codex

Alexandrinus of the Bible it is not infrequently found in anomalous

positions, particularly above the initial letters of different books, as

if it were a mere ornament.

In Latin MSS. there was no such fixed system of marking off paragraphs

as that just described. A new paragraph began with a new line, or a

brief space in a line separated the conclusion of a paragraph from the

beginning of the next one. It was only by the ultimate introduction of

large letters, as the initial letters of the several sentences and

paragraphs, and by the establishment of a system of punctuation, in the

modern sense of the word, that a complete arrangement of the text was

possible into sentences and paragraphs in accordance with its sense.

Punctuation.

From the earliest times an elementary system of punctuation by points is

found in papyri. Thus the papyrus of the _Curse of Artemisia_, at

Vienna, which is at least as early as the 3rd century B.C., and in one

or two other ancient examples, a double point, resembling the modern

colon, separates sentences. But more commonly a single point, placed

high in the line of writing, is employed. This single punctuation was

reduced to a system by the Alexandrian grammarians, its invention being

ascribed to Aristophanes of Byzantium, 260 B.C. The point placed high on

a level with the top of the letters had the value of a full-stop; in the

middle of the line of writing, of a comma; and low down on the line, of

a semicolon. But these distinctions were not observed in the MSS. In the

early vellum codices both the high and the middle point are found. In

medieval MSS. other signs, coming nearer to our modern system, make

their appearance. In Latin MSS. by the 7th century the high point has

the value of the modern comma, the semicolon appears with its present

value, and a point emphasized with additional signs, such as a second

point or point and dash, marks a full-stop. In the Carolingian period

the comma appears, as well as the inverted semicolon holding a position

between our comma and semicolon.

Division of Words at the End of a Line.

Another detail which required the scribe's attention in writing his text

was the division of the last word in a line, when for want of room a

portion of it had to be carried over into the next line. It was

preferable, indeed, to avoid such division, and in the papyri as well as

in the codices letters might be reduced in size and huddled together at

the end of the line with this view. In the early codices too it was a

common practice to link letters together in monogrammatic form, such as

the common verbal terminations _ur_, _unt_, and thus save space. But

when the division of a word was necessary, it was subject to certain

rules. According to the Greek practice the division was ordinarily made

after a vowel, as [Greek: etu|chon] (even monosyllables might be so

treated, as [Greek: ou|k]). But in the case of double consonants the

division fell after the first of them, as [Greek: ip|pos]: and, when the

first of two or more consonants was a liquid or nasal the division

followed it, as [Greek: ophthal|mos], [Greek: man|thanô]. When a word

was compounded with a preposition, the division usually followed the

preposition, as [Greek: pros|eipon], but not infrequently the normal

practice of dividing after a vowel prevailed, as [Greek: pro|seipon]. In

Latin the true syllabic division was followed, but occasionally the

scribes adopted the Greek system and divided after a vowel.

Colometry.

A modification of the practice of writing the text continuously was

allowed in the case of certain works. Rhetorical texts, such as the

orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and the text of the Bible, might be

broken up into short clauses or sense-lines, apparently with the view of

assisting reading aloud. Instances of MSS. so written are still extant.

This system, to which the name of "colometry" has been given, is the

arrangement by _cola_ and _commata_ referred to by St Jerome in his

preface to Isaiah. It will be found more fully explained under the

heading of STICHOMETRY; where also is described the mechanical

computation of the length of a text by measured lines, for the purpose

of calculating the pay of the scribe.

Titles and Colophons.

Quotations.

The title of a MS., both in roll-form and in codex-form, was frequently

written at the end of the text, but even at an early date it stood in

some instances at the beginning; and the latter practice in course of

time prevailed, although even in the 15th century the title was

sometimes reserved for the close of the MS. In this latter position it

might stand alone or be accompanied by other particulars concerning the

MS., such as the length of the work, the date of writing, the name of

the scribe, &c., all combined in a final paragraph called the colophon.

For distinction, title and colophon might be written in red, as might

also the first few lines of the text. This method of rubrication was a

very early practice, appearing even in ancient Egyptian papyri. Such

rubrics and titles and colophons were at first written in the same

character as the text; afterwards, when the admixture of different kinds

of writing was allowed, capitals and uncials were used at discretion.

Running titles or head-lines are found in some of the earliest Latin

MSS. in the same characters as the text, but of a small size. Quotations

were usually indicated by ticks or arrow-heads in the margin, serving

the purpose of the modern inverted commas. Sometimes the quoted words

were arranged as a sub-paragraph or indented passage. In commentaries of

later date, the quotations from the work commented upon were often

written in a different style from the text of the commentary itself.

_Accentuation, &c._--Accentuation was not systematically applied to

Greek MSS. before the 7th century, but even in the literary papyri it

appears occasionally. In the latter instances accents were applied

specially to assist the reader, and they seem to have been used more

frequently in texts which may have presented greater difficulties than

usual. For example, they are found fairly plentifully in the papyrus

of Bacchylides of the 1st century B.C. In the less well-written papyri

they are fewer in number; and papyri written in non-literary hands are

practically devoid of them. Accents have been frequently added to the

ancient texts of Homer, as in the Harris and Bankes papyri, but

apparently long after the date of the writing. They were not used in

the early uncial MSS. Breathings also appear occasionally in the

papyri. The rough and the smooth breathings are found in the form of

the two halves of the H (|- -|) in the Bacchylides papyrus; in other

papyri they are in rectangular form, never rounded like an apostrophe;

in fact rounded breathings do not come into general use until the 12th

century. Other signs resembling accents are used occasionally in Greek

MSS. For example, a short accent or horizontal stroke was employed to

indicate a single-letter word, and an apostrophe was sometimes used to

separate words in order to prevent ambiguity and was placed after

words ending in [kappa], [chi], [xi], [rho], and after proper names

not having a Greek termination.

Accents were seldom employed by Latin scribes. In early Irish and

English MSS., in particular, an acute accent is occasionally found

over a monosyllabic word or one consisting of a single letter. In the

9th and 10th centuries a curious occasional practice obtained among

the correctors of the texts of expressing the aspirate by the Greek

half-eta symbol |-, instead of writing the letter _h_ in the ordinary

way--perhaps only an affectation.

_Corrections._--For obliteration or removing pen strokes from the

surface of the material the sponge was used in ancient times. While

the writing was still fresh, the scribe could easily wash off the ink

by this means; and for a fragile material, such as papyrus, he could

well use no other. On vellum he might use sponge or knife. But after a

MS. had left his hands it would undergo revision at the hands of a

corrector, who had to deal with the text in a different manner. He

could no longer conveniently apply the sponge. On hard material he

might still use the knife to erase letters or words or sentences. But

he could also use his pen for such purposes. Thus we find that a very

early system of indicating erasure was the placing of dots or minute

strokes above the letters to be thus "expunged." The same marks were

also (and generally at later periods) placed under the letters; in

rare instances they stood inside them. It need scarcely be said that

letters were also struck out with strokes of the pen or altered into

others, and that letters and words were interlined. A long sentence,

however, which could not be admitted between the lines, was entered in

the margin, and its place in the text indicated by corresponding

reference marks, such as _hd._, _hs._ = _hic deest_, _hoc supra_ or

_hic scribas_, &c.

_Abbreviations and Contractions._--The practice of shortening words in

writing has played an important part in the history of the ancient and

the medieval manuscript. Two reasons have disposed men to follow this

practice: firstly, the desire to avoid the labour of writing over and

over again words or portions of words of common occurrence which can

be readily understood in a shortened form as when written in full;

and, secondly, the necessity of saving space at a time when it was an

object to make the most of the writing material to hand. To meet the

former requirement, a simple and limited method alone was needed; to

satisfy the second, a more elaborate system was necessary. The most

natural method of reducing the length of a word is to suppress as much

as possible of its termination, consistently with intelligibility,

that is, by simple _abbreviation_. But if space of any appreciable

value is to be saved in a page of writing, a system is necessary for

eliminating letters from the body of the word as well as curtailing

the termination, that is, a system of _contraction_ as well as

abbreviation; and, in addition, the employment of arbitrary signs,

analogous to shorthand, will serve still further to condense the text.

An elaborate system of contraction of this nature was naturally only

fully developed after very long practice. Both in Greek and in Latin

MSS. from the 9th to the 15th century such a system was in full force.

Different kinds of literature were, according to their nature, more or

less abbreviated and contracted. From early times such curtailment was

more freely employed in works written in technical language, such as

works on law or grammar or mathematics, wherein particular words are

more liable to repetition, than in MSS. of general literature. The

oldest system of abbreviation is that in which a single letter (nearly

always the initial letter) or at most two or three letters represent

the whole word. This system we know was in common use among both Greek

and Latin writers, and ancient inscriptions afford plentiful examples.

It is well adapted for the brief expression of the common words and

phrases in works of a technical nature (as for example such a phrase

as C D E R N E = _cujus de ea re notio est_); but for general

literature it is of little use, and practically has been restricted to

express proper names and numerals.

Abbreviation in Greek MSS.

When abbreviations were employed only with the view of speed in

writing, it is obvious that they would occur more frequently in the

ephemeral documents of daily life than in carefully written literary

works intended for the book-market. Hence they are not to be found in

Greek papyri of the latter class. On the other hand in literary papyri

written in non-literary script they naturally occur just as they would

in contemporary common documents. As early as the 3rd and 2nd

centuries B.C. the ordinary method of abbreviation was to omit the

termination or latter portion of the word and to mark the omission by

a short horizontal stroke or dash; or the letter which immediately

preceded the omission was written above the line as a key to the

reading, as [Greek: te^l] for [Greek: télos]. Such a system obviously

might be extended indefinitely at the discretion of the writer. But in

addition, at quite an early period, symbols and monogrammatic forms

for particular words must have been developed, for they are found in

common use in cursive papyri. A notable instance of their employment

in a full degree occurs in the papyrus of Aristotle's _Constitution of

Athens_, of the 1st century.

Like the well-written literary papyri, the early vellum uncial codices

of the Bible, being inscribed with calligraphic formality, avoided in

principle the use of abbreviations. But by the 4th to the 6th century,

the period when they were chiefly produced, the contraction or

abbreviation of certain words and terminations had, it seems, become

so fixed by usage that the contracted forms were adopted in the texts.

They are [Greek: ThS] = [Greek: theos], [Greek: IS] = [Greek: iêsous],

[Greek: ChS] = [Greek: christos], [Greek: PNA] = [Greek: pneuma],

[Greek: SÊR] = [Greek: sôtêr], [Greek: KS] = [Greek: kurios], [Greek:

STROS] = [Greek: stauros], [Greek: PÊR] = [Greek: pater], [Greek: MÊR]

= [Greek: mêtêr], [Greek: US] = [Greek: huios], [Greek: ANOS] =

[Greek: anthrôpos], [Greek: OUNOS] = [Greek: ouranos], [Greek: K] =

[Greek: kai], [Greek: T] = [Greek: tai], [Greek: M] = [Greek: mou],

[Greek: moi], &c. Final N, especially at the end of a line, was

dropped, and its place occupied by the horizontal stroke, as [Greek:

TO ].

But while this limited system was used in biblical, and also in

liturgical MSS., in profane literature a greater licence was

recognized. For example, in a fragment of a mathematical work at

Milan, of the 7th century, we find instances of abbreviation by

dropping terminations, just as in the earlier papyri, and, in

addition, contracted particles and prepositions are numerous.

Technical works, in fact, inherited the system instituted in the early

papyri written in non-literary or cursive hands; and this system,

undergoing continual development, had a larger scope when the cursive

writing was cast into a literary form and became the literary

minuscule script of the middle ages. From the 9th century onwards a

fully developed system of abbreviation and contraction was practised

in Greek MSS., comprising the early system of the papyri, the special

contractions of the early biblical MSS., and also a large number of

special symbols, derived in great measure from tachygraphical signs.

In the early Greek minuscule MSS. contractions are not very frequent

in the texts; but in the marginal glosses, where it was an object to

save space, they are found in great numbers as early as the 10th

century. The MS. of Nonnus, of A.D. 972, in the British Museum

(Wattenb. and Von Vels., _Exempla_, 7) is an instance of a text

contracted to a degree that almost amounts to tachygraphy. In the

12th, 13th and 14th centuries texts were fully contracted; and as the

writing became more cursive contraction-marks were more carelessly

applied, until, in the 15th century, they degenerated into mere

flourishes.

Abbreviations in Latin MSS.

As far back as material is available for comparison, it appears that

abbreviations and contractions in Latin MSS. followed the same lines

as those in Greek MSS. We have no very early papyri written in Latin

as we have in Greek to show us what the practice of Roman writers was

in the 3rd and 2nd and early 1st centuries B.C.; but there can be

little doubt that in that remote time there was followed in Latin

writing a system of abbreviation similar to that in Greek, that is, by

curtailment of terminations, and that in ephemeral documents written

in cursive characters such abbreviation was allowed more freely than

in carefully written literary works. The early system of representing

words by their initial letters has already been referred to. It was in

common use, as we know, in the inscriptions on coins and monuments,

and to some extent in the texts of Roman writers. But the ambiguity

which must have always accompanied such a system of single-letter

abbreviations, or _sigla_, naturally induced an improvement by

expressing a word by two or more of its letters. Hence was developed

the more regular syllabic system of the Romans, by which the leading

letters of the several syllables were written, as EG = _ergo_, HR =

_heres_, ST = _satis_. At a later time Christian writers secured

greater exactness by expressing the final letter of a contracted word,

as _ds_ = _deus_, _do_ = _deo_, _scs_ = _sanctus_. Further, certain

marks and signs, many derived from shorthand symbols, came into use to

indicate inflections and terminations; or the terminating letter or a

leading letter to indicate the termination might be written above the

line, as Q^o = _quo_, V^m = _verum_, N^o = _noster_, S^i = _sint_.

This practice became capable of greater development later on. Among

the special signs are c = _est_, [symbol] = _vel_, _n_ = _non_, p´ =

_pre_, [symbol] = _per_, [symbol] = _pro_, [symbol] = termination

_us_. The letter _q_ with distinctive strokes applied in different

positions represented the often recurring relative and other short

words, as _quod_, _quia_.

In Latin Biblical uncial MSS. the same restrictions on abbreviations

were exercised as in the Greek. The sacred names and titles DS =

_deus_, DMS, DNS = _dominus_, SCS = _sanctus_, SPS = _spiritus_, and

others appear in the oldest codices. The contracted terminations Q· =

_que_, B· = _bus_, and the omission of final _m_, or (more rarely)

final _n_, are common to all Latin MSS. of the earliest period. There

is a peculiarity about the contracted form of our Saviour's name that

it is always written by the Latin scribes in letters imitating the

Greek IHC, XPC, _ihc_, _xpc_, and _ihs_, _xps_.

The full development of the medieval system of abbreviation and

contraction was effected at the time when the Carolingian schools were

compelling the reform of the handwriting of western Europe. Then came

a freer practice of abbreviation by suppression of terminations and

the latter portions of words, the omission of which was indicated by

the ordinary signs, the horizontal or oblique stroke or the

apostrophe; then came also a freer practice of contraction by omitting

letters and syllables from the middle as well as the end of words, as

oio, _omnino_, prb, _presbyter_; and then from the practice of writing

above the line a leading letter of an omitted syllable, as int^a =

_intra_, t^r = _tur_, conventional signs, with special significations,

were also gradually developed. Such growths are well illustrated in

the change undergone by the semicolon, which was attached to the end

of a word to indicate the omission of the termination, as b; = _bus_,

q; = _que_, deb; = _debet_, and which in course of time became

converted into a z, a form which survives in our ordinary

abbreviation, viz. (i.e. vi; = _videlicet_). The different forms of

contraction were common to all the nations of western Europe. The

Spanish scribes, however, attached different values to certain of

them. For example, in Visigothic MSS., _qm_, which elsewhere

represented _quoniam_, may be read as _quum_; and [symbol], which

elsewhere = _pro_, is here = _per_. Nor must the use of arbitrary

symbols for special words be forgotten. These are generally

adaptations of the shorthand signs known as Tironian notes. Such are

[symbol] = _autem_, [symbol] = _est_, [symbol] = _ejus_, [symbol] =

_enim_, [symbol] = _et_, v and u = _ut_, which were employed

particularly in early MSS. of English and Irish origin.

By the 11th century the system of Latin contractions had been reduced

to exact rules; and from this time onwards it was universally

practised. It reached its culminating point in the 13th century, the

period of increasing demand for MSS., when it became more than ever

necessary to economize space. After this date the exact formation of

the signs of contractions was less strictly observed, and the system

deteriorated together with the decline of handwriting. In conclusion,

it may be noticed that in MSS. written in the vernacular tongues

contractions are more rarely used than in Latin texts. A system suited

to the inflexions and terminations of this language could not be

readily adapted to other languages so different in grammatical

structure.

_Palimpsests, &c._--Palimpsest MSS., that is, MSS. written upon

material from which older writing has been previously removed by

washing or scraping, are described in a separate article (PALIMPSEST).

The ornamentation of MSS. is fully dealt with under the headings

ILLUMINATED MSS., and MINIATURES.

_Writing Implements._--In conclusion, a few words may be added

respecting the writing implements employed in the production of MSS.

The reed, [Greek: kalamos], _calamus_, was adapted for tracing

characters either on papyrus or vellum. By the ancient Egyptians, and

also probably by the early Greek scribes in Egypt, it was used with a

soft brush-like point, rather as a paint-brush than as a pen. The

Greek and Roman scribes used the reed cut to a point and slit like the

quill-pen; and it survived as a writing implement into the middle

ages. For scratching letters on the waxen tablet the sharp pointed

bodkin, [Greek: stylos], [Greek: grapheion], _stilus_, _graphium_, was

necessary, made of iron, bronze, ivory, or other suitable material,

with a knobbed or flattened butt-end wherewith corrections could be

made by smoothening the wax surface (hence _vertere stilum_, to

correct). Although there is no very early record of the use of quills

as pens, it is obvious that, well adapted as they are for the purpose

and to be had everywhere, they must have been in request even in

ancient times as they afterwards were in the middle ages. Bronze pens,

fashioned exactly on the model of the quill-pen, that is in form of a

tube ending in a slit nib (sometimes even with a nib at each end), of

late Roman manufacture, are still in existence. A score of them are to

be found scattered among public and private museums. The ruler for

guiding ruled lines was the [Greek: kanôn], _canon_, _regula_; the

pencil was the [Greek: molubdos], _plumbum_, the plummet; the pricker

for marking the spacing out of the ruled lines was the [Greek:

diabatês], _circinus_, _punctorium_; the pen-knife, [Greek:

glyphanon], [Greek: smilê], _scalprum_; the erasing-knife, _rasorium_,

_novacula_.

_Inks._--Inks of various colours were employed from early times. The

ink of the early papyri is a deep glossy black; in the Byzantine

period it deteriorates. In the middle ages black ink is generally of

excellent quality; it tends to deteriorate from the 14th century. But

its quality varies in different countries at different periods. Red

ink, besides being used for titles and colophons, also served for

contrast, as, for example, in glosses. In the Carolingian period

entire MSS. were occasionally written in red ink. Other coloured

inks--green, violet and yellow--are also found, at an early date. Gold

and silver writing fluids were used in the texts of the ancient purple

vellum MSS., and writing in gold was reintroduced under Charlemagne

for codices of ordinary white vellum. It was introduced into English

MSS. in the 10th century.

AUTHORITIES.--H. Geraud, _Essai sur les livres dans l'antiquité_

(1840); E. Egger, _Histoire du livre depuis ses origines jusqu'à nos

jours_ (1880); T. Birt, _Das antike Buchwesen_ (1882) and _Die

Buchrolle in der Kunst_ (1907); W. Wattenbach, _Das Schriftwesen im

Mittelalter_ (1896); K. Dziatzko, _Untersuchungen über ausgewählte

Kapitel des antiken Buchwesens_ (1900); J. W. Clark, _The Care of

Books_ (1901); W. Schubart, _Das Buch bei den Griechen und Römern_

(1907); and generally the authorities quoted in the article

PALAEOGRAPHY. See also TEXTUAL CRITICISM. (E. M. T.)

MANUTIUS, the Latin name of an Italian family (Mannucci, Manuzio),

famous in the history of printing as organizers of the Aldine press.

1. ALDUS MANUTIUS (1450-1515). Teobaldo Mannucci, better known as Aldo

Manuzio, the founder of the Aldine press, was born in 1450 at Sermoneta

in the Papal States. He received a scholar's training, studying Latin at

Rome under Gasparino da Verona, and Greek at Ferrara under Guarino da

Verona. In 1482 he went to reside at Mirandola with his old friend and

fellow-student, the illustrious Giovanni Pico. There he stayed two

years, prosecuting his studies in Greek literature. Before Pico removed

to Florence, he procured for Aldo the post of tutor to his nephews

Alberto and Lionello Pio, princes of Carpi. Alberto Pio supplied Aldo

with funds for starting his printing press, and gave him lands at Carpi.

It was Aldo's ambition to secure the literature of Greece from further

accident by committing its chief masterpieces to type. Before his time

four Italian towns had won the honours of Greek publications: Milan,

with the grammar of Lascaris, Aesop, Theocritus, a Greek Psalter, and

Isocrates, between 1476 and 1493; Venice, with the _Erotemala_ of

Chrysoloras in 1484; Vicenza, with reprints of Lascaris's grammar and

the _Erolemata_, in 1488 and 1490; Florence, with Alopa's Homer, in

1488. Of these works, only three, the Milanese Theocritus and Isocrates

and the Florentine Homer, were classics. Aldo selected Venice as the

most appropriate station for his labours. He settled there in 1490, and

soon afterwards gave to the world editions of the _Hero and Leander_ of

Musaeus, the _Galeomyomachia_, and the Greek Psalter. These have no

date; but they are the earliest tracts issued from his press, and are

called by him "Precursors of the Greek Library."

At Venice Aldo gathered an army of Greek scholars and compositors around

him. His trade was carried on by Greeks, and Greek was the language of

his household. Instructions to type-setters and binders were given in

Greek. The prefaces to his editions were written in Greek. Greeks from

Crete collated MSS., read proofs, and gave models of calligraphy for

casts of Greek type. Not counting the craftsmen employed in merely

manual labour, Aldo entertained as many as thirty of these Greek

assistants in his family. His own industry and energy were unremitting.

In 1495 he issued the first volume of his Aristotle. Four more volumes

completed the work in 1497-1498. Nine comedies of Aristophanes appeared

in 1498. Thucydides, Sophocles and Herodotus followed in 1502;

Xenophon's _Hellenics_ and Euripides in 1503; Demosthenes in 1504. The

troubles of Italy, which pressed heavily on Venice at this epoch,

suspended Aldo's labours for a while. But in 1508 he resumed his series

with an edition of the minor Greek orators; and in 1509 appeared the

lesser works of Plutarch. Then came another stoppage. The league of

Cambray had driven Venice back to her lagoons, and all the forces of the

republic were concentrated on a struggle to the death with the allied

powers of Europe. In 1513 Aldo reappeared with Plato, which he dedicated

to Leo X. in a preface eloquently and earnestly comparing the miseries

of warfare and the woes of Italy with the sublime and tranquil objects

of the student's life. Pindar, Hesychius, and Athenaeus followed in

1514.

These complete the list of Aldo's prime services to Greek literature.

But it may be well in this place to observe that his successors

continued his work by giving Pausanias, Strabo, Aeschylus, Galen,

Hippocrates and Longinus to the world in first editions. Omission has

been made of Aldo's reprints, in order that the attention of the reader

might be concentrated on his labours in editing Greek classics from MSS.

Other presses were at work in Italy; and, as the classics issued from

Florence, Rome or Milan, Aldo took them up, bestowing in each case fresh

industry upon the collation of codices and the correction of texts. Nor

was the Aldine press idle in regard to Latin and Italian classics. The

_Asolani_ of Bembo, the collected writings of Poliziano, the

_Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, Dante's _Divine Comedy_, Petrarch's poems,

a collection of early Latin poets of the Christian era, the letters of

the younger Pliny, the poems of Pontanus, Sannazzaro's _Arcadia_,

Quintilian, Valerius Maximus, and the _Adagia_ of Erasmus were printed,

either in first editions, or with a beauty of type and paper never

reached before, between the years 1495 and 1514. For these Italian and

Latin editions Aldo had the elegant type struck which bears his name. It

is said to have been copied from Petrarch's handwriting, and was cast

under the direction of Francesco da Bologna, who has been identified by

Panizzi with Francia the painter.

Aldo's enthusiasm for Greek literature was not confined to the

printing-room. Whatever the students of this century may think of his

scholarship, they must allow that only vast erudition and thorough

familiarity with the Greek language could have enabled him to accomplish

what he did. In his own days Aldo's learning won the hearty

acknowledgment of ripe scholars. To his fellow workers he was uniformly

generous, free from jealousy, and prodigal of praise. While aiming at

that excellence of typography which renders his editions the treasures

of the book-collector, he strove at the same time to make them cheap. We

may perhaps roughly estimate the current price of his pocket series of

Greek, Latin and Italian classics, begun in 1501, at 2s. per volume of

our present money. The five volumes of the Aristotle cost about £8. His

great undertaking was carried on under continual difficulties, arising

from strikes among his workmen, the piracies of rivals, and the

interruptions of war. When he died, bequeathing Greek literature as an

inalienable possession to the world, he was a poor man. In order to

promote Greek studies, Aldo founded an academy of Hellenists in 1500

under the title of the New Academy. Its rules were written in Greek. Its

members were obliged to speak Greek. Their names were Hellenized, and

their official titles were Greek. The biographies of all the famous men

who were enrolled in this academy must be sought in the pages of Didot's

_Alde Manuce_. It is enough here to mention that they included Erasmus

and the English Linacre.

In 1499 Aldo married Maria, daughter of Andrea Torresano of Asola.

Andrea had already bought the press established by Nicholas Jenson at

Venice. Therefore Aldo's marriage combined two important publishing

firms. Henceforth the names Aldus and Asolanus were associated on the

title pages of the Aldine publications; and after Aldo's death in 1515,

Andrea and his two sons carried on the business during the minority of

Aldo's children. The device of the dolphin and the anchor, and the motto

_festina lente_, which indicated quickness combined with firmness in the

execution of a great scheme, were never wholly abandoned by the Aldines

until the expiration of their firm in the third generation.

2. PAULUS MANUTIUS (1512-1574). By his marriage with Maria Torresano,

Aldo had three sons, the youngest of whom, Paolo, was born in 1512. He

had the misfortune to lose his father at the age of two. After this

event his grandfather and two uncles, the three Asolani, carried on the

Aldine press, while Paolo prosecuted his early studies at Venice.

Excessive application hurt his health, which remained weak during the

rest of his life. At the age of twenty-one he had acquired a solid

reputation for scholarship and learning. In 1533 Paolo undertook the

conduct of his father's business, which had latterly been much neglected

by his uncles. In the interregnum between Aldo's death and Paolo's

succession (1514-1533) the Asolani continued to issue books, the best of

which were Latin classics. But, though their publications count a large

number of first editions, and some are works of considerable magnitude,

they were not brought out with the scholarly perfection at which Aldo

aimed. The Asolani attempted to perform the whole duties of editing, and

to reserve all its honours for themselves, dispensing with the service

of competent collaborators. The result was that some of their editions,

especially their Aeschylus of 1518, are singularly bad. Paolo determined

to restore the glories of the house, and in 1540 he separated from his

uncles. The field of Greek literature having been well-nigh exhausted,

he devoted himself principally to the Latin classics. He was a

passionate Ciceronian, and perhaps his chief contributions to

scholarship are the corrected editions of Cicero's letters and orations,

his own epistles in a Ciceronian style, and his Latin version of

Demosthenes. Throughout his life he combined the occupations of a

student and a printer, winning an even higher celebrity in the former

field than his father had done. Four treatises from his pen on Roman

antiquities deserve to be commemorated for their erudition no less than

for the elegance of their Latinity. Several Italian cities contended for

the possession of so rare a man; and he received tempting offers from

the Spanish court. Yet his life was a long struggle with pecuniary

difficulties. To prepare correct editions of the classics, and to print

them in a splendid style, has always been a costly undertaking. And,

though Paolo's publications were highly esteemed, their sale was slow.

In 1556 he received for a time external support from the Venetian

Academy, founded by Federigo Badoaro. But Badoaro failed disgracefully

in 1559, and the academy was extinct in 1562. Meanwhile Paolo had

established his brother, Antonio, a man of good parts but indifferent

conduct, in a printing office and book shop at Bologna. Antonio died in

1559, having been a source of trouble and expense to Paolo during the

last four years of his life. Other pecuniary embarrassments arose from a

contract for supplying fish to Venice, into which Paolo had somewhat

strangely entered with the government. In 1561 pope Pius IV. invited him

to Rome, offering him a yearly stipend of 500 ducats, and undertaking to

establish and maintain his press there. The profits on publications were

to be divided between Paolo Manuzio and the Apostolic camera. Paolo

accepted the invitation, and spent the larger portion of his life, under

three papacies, with varying fortunes, in the city of Rome. Ill-health,

the commercial interests he had left behind at Venice, and the coldness

shown him by pope Pius V., induced him at various times and for several

reasons to leave Rome. As was natural, his editions after his removal to

Rome were mostly Latin works of theology and Biblical or patristic

literature.

Paolo married Caterina Odoni in 1546. She brought him three sons and one

daughter. His eldest son, the younger Aldus, succeeded him in the

management of the Venetian printing house when his father settled at

Rome in 1561. Paolo had never been a strong man, and his health was

overtaxed with studies and commercial worries. Yet he lived into his

sixty-second year, and died at Rome in 1574.

3. ALDUS MANUTIUS, JUNIOR (1547-1597). The younger Aldo born in the year

after his father Paolo's marriage, proved what is called an infant

prodigy. When he was nine years old his name was placed upon the title

page of the famous _Eleganze della lingua Toscana e Latina_. The

_Eleganze_ was probably a book made for his instruction and in his

company by his father. In 1561, at the age of fourteen, he produced a

work upon Latin spelling, called _Orthographiae ratio_. During a visit

to his father at Rome in the next year he was able to improve this

treatise by the study of inscriptions, and in 1575 he completed his

labours in the same field by the publication of an _Epitome

orthographiae_. Whether Aldo was the sole composer of the work on

spelling, in its first edition, may be doubted; but he appropriated the

subject and made it his own. Probably his greatest service to

scholarship is this analysis of the principles of orthography in Latin.

Aldo remained at Venice, studying literature and superintending the

Aldine press. In 1572 he married Francesca Lucrezia daughter of

Bartolommeo Giunta, and great-grandchild of the first Giunta, who

founded the famous printing house in Venice. This was an alliance which

augured well of the Giunta for the future of the Aldines, especially as

Aldo had recently found time to publish a new revised edition of

Velleius Paterculus. Two years later the death of his father at Rome

placed Aldo at the head of the firm. In concert with the Giunta, he now

edited an extensive collection of Italian letters, and in 1576 he

published his commentary upon the _Ars poetica_ of Horace. About the

same time, that is to say, about the year 1576, he was appointed

professor of literature to the Cancelleria at Venice. The Aldine press

continued through this period to issue books, but none of signal merit;

and in 1585 Aldo determined to quit his native city for Bologna, where

he occupied the chair of eloquence for a few months. In 1587 he left

Bologna for Pisa, and there, in his quality of professor, he made the

curious mistake of printing Alberti's comedy _Philodoxius_ as a work of

the classic Lepidus. Sixtus V. drew him in 1588 from Tuscany to Rome;

and at Rome he hoped to make a permanent settlement as lecturer. But his

public lessons were ill attended, and he soon fell back upon his old

vocation of publisher under the patronage of a new pope, Clement VIII.

In 1597 he died, leaving children, but none who cared or had capacity to

carry on the Aldine press. Aldo himself, though a precocious student, a

scholar of no mean ability, and a publisher of some distinction, was the

least remarkable of the three men who gave books to the public under the

old Aldine ensign. This does not of necessity mean that we should adopt

Scaliger's critique of the younger Aldo without reservation. Scaliger

called him "a poverty-stricken talent, slow in operation; his work is

very commonplace; he aped his father." What is true in this remark lies

partly in the fact that scholarship in Aldo's days had flown beyond the

Alps, where a new growth of erudition, on a basis different from that of

the Italian Renaissance, had begun.

See Renouard's _Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes_ (Paris, 1834);

Didot's _Alde Manuce_ (Paris, 1873); Omont's _Catalogue_ of Aldine

publications (Paris, 1892). (J. A. S.)

MANWARING, ROBERT, English 18th-century furniture designer and cabinet

maker. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was a

contemporary and imitator of Chippendale, and not the least considerable

of his rivals. He prided himself upon work which he described as

"genteel," and his speciality was chairs. He manifests the same

surprising variations of quality that are noticed in the work of nearly

all the English cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th century,

and while his best had an undeniable elegance his worst was exceedingly

bad--squat, ill-proportioned and confused. Some of his chairbacks are so

nearly identical with Chippendale's that it is difficult to suppose that

the one did not copy from the other, and most of the designs of the

greater man enjoyed priority of date. During a portion of his career

Manwaring was a devotee of the Chinese taste; he likewise practised in

the Gothic manner. He appears to have introduced the small bracket

between the front rail of the seat and the top of the chair leg, or at

all events to have made such constant use of it that it has come to be

regarded as characteristic of his work. Manwaring described certain of

his own work as "elegant and superb," and as possessing "grandeur and

magnificence." He did not confine himself to furniture but produced many

designs for rustic gates and railings, often very extravagant. One of

his most absurd rural chairs has rock-work with a waterfall in the back.

Among Manwaring's writings were _The Cabinet and Chair Makers' Real

Friend and Companion, or the Whole System of Chairmaking Made Plain

and Easy_ (1765); _The Carpenters' Compleat Guide to Gothic Railing_

(1765); and _The Chair-makers' Guide_ (1766).

MANYCH, a river and depression in S. Russia, stretching between the

lower river Don and the Caspian Sea, through the Don Cossacks territory

and between the government of Astrakhan on the N. and that of Stavropol

on the S. During the greater part of the year it is either dry or

occupied in part by a string of saline lakes (_limans_ or _ilmens_); but

in spring when the streams swell which empty into it, the water flows in

two opposite directions from the highest point (near Shara-Khulusun).

The western stream flows westwards, with an inclination northwards,

until it reaches the Don, though when the latter river is running high,

its water penetrates some 60 miles up the Manych. The eastern stream

dies away in the sandy steppe about 25 miles from the Caspian, though it

is said sometimes to reach the Kuma through the Huiduk, a tributary of

the Kuma. Total length of the depression, 330 m. For its significance as

a former (geologic) connexion between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian

Sea, see CASPIAN SEA. By some authorities the Manych depression is taken

as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.

MANYEMA (_Una-Ma-Nyema_, eaters of flesh), a powerful and warlike

Bantu-Negroid people in the south-east of the Congo basin. Physically

they are of a light colour, with well formed noses and not over-full

lips, the women being described as singularly pretty and graceful.

Manyemaland was for the greater part of the 19th century an Eldorado of

the Arab slave raiders.

MANZANARES, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, on the

river Azuer, a large sub-tributary of the Záncara, and on the railways

from Madrid to Ciudad Real and Lináres. Pop. (1900), 11,229. Manzanares

is one of the chief towns of La Mancha, and thus in the centre of the

district described by Cervantes in _Don Quixote_. Its citadel was

founded as a Christian fortress after the defeat of the Moors at Las

Navas de Tolosa (1212). Bull-fights were formerly held in the main

_plaza_, where galleries to accommodate spectators were built between

the buttresses of an ancient parish church. Manzanares has manufactures

of soap, bricks and pottery, and an active trade in wheat, wine,

spirits, aniseed and saffron.

MANZANILLO, a town and port on the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the state

of Colima, 52 m. by rail W.S.W. of the city of that name. It is situated

on a large harbour partly formed and sheltered by a long island

extending southwards parallel with the coast. Southward also, and in the

vicinity of the town, is the large stagnant, shallow lagoon of Cayutlán

which renders the town unhealthy. Manzanillo is a commercial town of

comparatively recent creation. Its new harbour works, the construction

of which was begun in 1899, and its railway connexion with central

Mexico, promise to make it one of the chief Pacific ports of the

republic. These works include a breakwater 1300 ft. long, with a depth

of 12 to 70 ft. and a maximum breadth of 320 ft. at the base and 25 ft.

on top, and all the necessary berthing and mechanical facilities for the

handling of cargoes. A narrow-gauge railway was built between Colima and

Manzanillo toward the end of the nineteenth century, but the traffic was

only sufficient for a tri-weekly service up to 1908, when the gauge was

widened and the railway became part of the Mexican Central branch,

completed in that year from Irapuato through Guadalajara to Colima. The

exports include hides and skins, palm leaf hats, Indian corn, coffee,

palm oil, fruit, lumber and minerals.

MANZANILLO, an important commercial city of Cuba, in Santiago province,

on the gulf of Guacanabo, about 17 m. S. of the mouth of the Rio Cauto,

on the shore of Manzanillo Bay. Pop. (1907), 15,819. It is shut off to

the east and south by the Sierra Maestra. Besides the Cauto, the rivers

Yara and Buey are near the city. Manzanillo is the only coast town of

importance between Trinidad and Santiago. It exports large quantities of

sugar, hides, tobacco, and bees-wax; also some cedar and mahogany. The

history of the settlement begins in 1784, but the port was already

important at that time for a trade in woods and fruits; French and

English corsairs resorted thither for shipbuilding woods. The settlement

was sacked by the French in 1792, and in the following year a fort was

built for its protection. In 1833 it received an _ayuntamiento_

(council) and in 1837, for its "loyalty" in not following the lead of

Santiago in proclaiming the Spanish Constitution, received from the

crown the title of _Fiel_. In 1827 the port was opened to commerce,

national and foreign.

MANZOLLI, PIER ANGELO, Italian author, was born about the end of the

fifteenth century at La Stellata, near Ferrara. He wrote a poem entitled

_Zodiacus vitae_, published at Basel in 1543, and dedicated to Hercules

II. of Ferrara. The poem is full of didactic writing on the subject of

human happiness in connexion with scientific knowledge, and combines

metaphysical speculation with satirical attacks on ecclesiastical

hypocrisy, and especially on the Pope and on Luther. It was translated

into several languages, but fell under the ban of the Inquisition on the

ground of its rationalizing tendencies.

MANZONI, ALESSANDRO FRANCESCO TOMMASO ANTONIO (1785-1873), Italian poet

and novelist, was born at Milan on the 7th of March 1785. Don Pietro,

his father, then about fifty, represented an old family settled near

Lecco, but originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina, where

the memory of their violence is still perpetuated in a local proverb,

comparing it to that of the mountain torrent. The poet's maternal

grandfather, Cesare Beccaria, was a well-known author, and his mother

Giulia a woman of some literary ability. Manzoni's intellect was slow in

maturing, and at the various colleges where his school days were passed

he ranked among the dunces. At fifteen, however, he developed a passion

for poetry, and wrote two sonnets of considerable merit. On the death of

his father in 1805, he joined his mother at Auteuil, and spent two years

there, mixing in the literary set of the so-called "ideologues,"

philosophers of the 18th century school, among whom he made many

friends, notably Claude Fauriel. There too he imbibed the negative creed

of Voltairianism, and only after his marriage, and under the influence

of his wife, did he exchange it for that fervent Catholicism which

coloured his later life. In 1806-1807, while at Auteuil, he first

appeared before the public as a poet, with two pieces, one entitled

_Urania_, in the classical style, of which he became later the most

conspicuous adversary, the other an elegy in blank verse, on the death

of Count Carlo Imbonati, from whom, through his mother, he inherited

considerable property, including the villa of Brusuglio, thenceforward

his principal residence.

Manzoni's marriage in 1808 to Henriette Blondel, daughter of a Genevese

banker, proved a most happy one, and he led for many years a retired

domestic life, divided between literature and the picturesque husbandry

of Lombardy. His intellectual energy at this period was devoted to the

composition of the _Inni sacri_, a series of sacred lyrics, and a

treatise on Catholic morality, forming a task undertaken under religious

guidance, in reparation for his early lapse from faith. In 1818 he had

to sell his paternal inheritance, as his affairs had gone to ruin in the

hands of a dishonest agent. His characteristic generosity was shown on

this occasion in his dealings with his peasants, who were heavily

indebted to him. He not only cancelled on the spot the record of all

sums owing to him, but bade them keep for themselves the whole of the

coming maize harvest.

In 1819 Manzoni published his first tragedy, _Il Conte di Carmagnola_,

which, boldly violating all classical conventionalisms, excited a lively

controversy. It was severely criticized in the _Quarterly Review_, in an

article to which Goethe replied in its defence, "one genius," as Count

de Gubernatis remarks, "having divined the other." The death of Napoleon

in 1821 inspired Manzoni's powerful stanzas _Il Cinque maggio_, the most

popular lyric in the Italian language. The political events of that

year, and the imprisonment of many of his friends, weighed much on

Manzoni's mind, and the historical studies in which he sought

distraction during his subsequent retirement at Brusuglio suggested his

great work. Round the episode of the _Innominato_, historically

identified with Bernardino Visconti, the novel _I Promessi sposi_ began

to grow into shape, and was completed in September 1822. The work when

published, after revision by friends in 1825-1827, at the rate of a

volume a year, at once raised its author to the first rank of literary

fame. In 1822, Manzoni published his second tragedy _Adelchi_, turning

on the overthrow by Charlemagne of the Lombard domination in Italy, and

containing many veiled allusions to the existing Austrian rule. With

these works Manzoni's literary career was practically closed. But he

laboriously revised _I Promessi sposi_ in the Tuscan idiom, and in 1840

republished it in that form, with a sort of sequel, _La Storia della

Colonna infame_, of very inferior interest. He also wrote a small

treatise on the Italian language.

The end of the poet's long life was saddened by domestic sorrows. The

loss of his wife in 1833 was followed by that of several of his

children, and of his mother. In 1837 he married his second wife, Teresa

Borri, widow of Count Stampa, whom he also survived, while of nine

children born to him in his two marriages all but two preceded him to

the grave. The death of his eldest son, Pier Luigi, on the 28th of April

1873, was the final blow which hastened his end; he fell ill

immediately, and died of cerebral meningitis, on the 22nd of May. His

country mourned him with almost royal pomp, and his remains, after lying

in state for some days, were followed to the cemetery of Milan by a vast

cortège, including the royal princes and all the great officers of

state. But his noblest monument was Verdi's _Requiem_, specially written

to honour his memory.

Biographical sketches of Manzoni have been published by Cesare Cantù

(1885), Angelo de Gubernatis (1879), Arturo Graf (1898). Some of his

letters have been published by Giovanni Sforza (1882).

MAORI (pronounced "Mowri"; a Polynesian word meaning "native,"

"indigenous"; the word occurs in distinction from _pakeha_, "stranger,"

in other parts of Polynesia in the forms _Maoi_ and _Maoli_), the name

of the race inhabiting New Zealand when first visited by Tasman in 1642.

That they were not indigenous, but had displaced an earlier Melanesian

or Papuan race, the true aborigines, is certain. The Maoris are

Polynesians, and, in common with the majority of their kinsfolk

throughout the Pacific, they have traditions which point to Savaii,

originally Savaiki, the largest island of the Samoan group, as their

cradleland. They say they came to New Zealand from "Hawaiki," and they

appear to distinguish between a large and small, or a nearer and

farther, "Hawaiki." "The seed of our coming is from Hawaiki; the seed of

our nourishing, the seed of mankind." Their great chief, Te Kupe, first

landed, they say, on Aotearoa, as they called the north island, and,

pleased with his discovery, returned to Hawaiki to tell his

fellow-countrymen. Thereafter he returned with seven war canoes, each

holding a hundred warriors, priests, stone idols and sacred weapons, as

well as native plants and animals. Hawaiki, the name of Te Kupe's

traditional home, is identical with several other Polynesian

place-names, e.g. Hawaii, Apai in the Tonga Islands, Evava in the

Marquesas, all of which are held to be derived from Savii or Savaiki. Dr

Thomson, in his _Story of New Zealand_, quotes a Maori tradition,

published by Sir George Grey, that certain islands, among which it names

Rarotonga, Parima and Manono, are islands near Hawaiki. The Rarotongas

call themselves Maori, and state that their ancestors came from Hawaiki,

and Parima and Manono are the native names of two islands in the Samoan

group. The almost identical languages of the Rarotongas and the Maoris

strengthen the theory that the two peoples are descended from

Polynesians migrating, possibly at widely different dates, from Samoa.

The distance from Rarotonga to New Zealand is about 2000 m., and, with

the aid of the trade wind, large canoes could traverse the distance

within a month. Moreover the fauna and flora of New Zealand in many ways

resemble those of Samoa. Thus it would seem certain that the Maoris,

starting from "further Hawaiki," or Samoa, first touched at Rarotonga,

"nearer Hawaiki," whence, after forming a settlement, they journeyed on

to New Zealand. Maori tradition is explicit as to the cause of the

exodus from Samoa, gives the names of the canoes in which the journey

was made and the time of year at which the coast of New Zealand was

sighted. On the question of the date a comparison of genealogies of

Maori chiefs shows that, up to the beginning of the 20th century, about

eighteen generations or probably not much more than five centuries had

passed since the first Maori arrivals. There is some evidence that the

"tradition of the six canoes" does not represent the first contact of

the Polynesian race with New Zealand. If earlier immigrants from Samoa

or other eastern Pacific islands arrived they must have become absorbed

into the native Papuan population--arguing from the absence of any

distinct tradition earlier than that "of the six canoes." Some have

sought to find in the Morioris of Chatham Island the remnants of this

Papuan-Polynesian population, expelled by Te Kupe and his followers. The

extraordinary ruined fortifications found, and the knowledge of the

higher art of war displayed by the Maoris, suggest (what is no doubt the

fact) that there was a hard fight for them when they first arrived, but

the greatest resistance must have been from the purer Papuan

inhabitants, and not from the half-castes who were probably easily

overwhelmed. The shell heaps found on the coasts and elsewhere dispose

of the theory that New Zealand was uninhabited or practically so six

centuries back.

Any description of the Maoris, who in recent years have come more and

more under the influence of white civilization, must necessarily refer

rather to what they have been than what they are. Physically the Maoris

are true Polynesians, tall, well-built, with straight or slightly curved

noses, high foreheads and oval faces. Their colour is usually a darker

brown than that of their kinsfolk of the eastern Pacific, but

light-complexioned Maoris, almost European in features, are met with.

Their hair is black and straight or wavy, scarcely ever curly. They have

long been celebrated for their tattooing, the designs being most

elaborate.

Among the most industrious of Polynesian races, they have always been

famed for wood-carving; and in building, weaving and dyeing they had

made great advances before the whites arrived. They are also good

farmers and bold seamen. In the Maori wars they showed much strategic

skill, and their knowledge of fortification was very remarkable.

Politically the Maoris have always been democratic. No approach to a

monarchy ever existed. Each tribe under its chief was autonomous. Tribal

lands were held in common and each man was entitled to a share in the

products. They had slaves, but so few as not to alter the social

conditions. Every Maori was a soldier, and war was the chief business

and joy of his life. Tribal wars were incessant. The weapons were wooden

spears, clubs and stone tomahawks. Cannibalism, which earned them in

earlier years a terrible name, was generally restricted to the

bloodthirsty banquets which always followed a victory. The Maoris ate

their enemies' hearts to gain their courage, but to whatever degree

animistic beliefs may have once contributed to their cannibalism, it is

certain that long before Captain Cook's visit religious sanction for the

custom had long given place to mere gluttonous enjoyment.

The Maoris had no regular marriage ceremony. Polygamy was universal, and

even to-day they are not strictly monogamous. The power of the husband

over the wife was absolute, but women took their meals with the men,

were allowed a voice in the tribe's affairs, and sometimes accompanied

the men into battle. Some tribes were endogamic, and there matriarchy

was the rule, descent being traced through the female line. Ferocious as

they were in war, the Maoris are generally hospitable and affectionate

in their home-life, and a pleasant characteristic, noticed by Captain

Cook, is their respect and care of the old. The Maoris buried their

dead, the cemeteries being ornamented with carved posts. Their religion

was a nature-worship intimately connected with the veneration of

ancestors. There was a belief in the soul, which was supposed to dwell

in the left eye. They had no doubt as to a future state, but no definite

idea of a supreme being. They had no places of worship, nor, though they

had sacred wooden figures, is there any reason to consider that they

were idolaters in the strict sense of the word. The custom of taboo was

very fully developed. Nowadays they are all nominally Christians. While

they had no written language, a considerable oral literature of songs,

legends and traditions existed. Their priesthood was a highly trained

profession, and they had schools which taught a knowledge of the stars

and constellations, for many of which they had names. All Maoris are

natural orators and poets, and a chief was expected to add these

accomplishments to his prowess as a warrior or his skill as a seaman.

The Maoris of to-day are law-abiding, peaceable and indolent. They have

been called the Britons of the south, and their courage in defending

their country and their intelligence amply justify the compliment. By

the New Zealanders they are cordially liked. At the census of 1906 they

numbered 47,731, as against 45,470 in 1874; and there were 6516

half-castes. See also POLYNESIA and SAMOA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Sir G. Grey, _Polynesian Mythology and Maori Legends_

(Wellington, 1885); A. de Quatrefages, _Les Polynésiens et leurs

migrations_ (Paris, 1866); Abraham Fornander, _An Account of the

Polynesian Race_ (1877-1885); Henri Mager, _Le Monde polynésien_

(Paris, 1902); Pierre Adolphe Lesson, _Les Polynésiens, leur origine,

&c._ (Paris, 1880-1884); W. Pember Reeves, _New Zealand_; A. R.

Wallace, _Australasia_ (Stanford's Compendium, 1894); G. W. Rusden,

_History of New Zealand_ (1895); Alfred Saunders, _History of New

Zealand_ (1896); James Cowan, _The Maoris of New Zealand_ (1909).

MAP (or MAPES), WALTER (d. c. 1208/9), medieval ecclesiastic, author and

wit, to whose authority the main body of prose Arthurian literature has,

at one time or another, been assigned, flourished in the latter part of

the 12th and early years of the 13th centuries. Concerning the date of

his birth and his parentage nothing definite is known, but as he

ascribes his position at court to the merits of his parents they were

probably people of some importance. He studied at Paris under Girard la

Pucelle, who began to teach in or about 1160, but as he states in his

book _De nugis curialium_ that he was at the court of Henry II. before

1162, his residence at Paris must have been practically comprised in the

decade 1150-1160.

Map's career was an active and varied one; he was clerk of the royal

household and justice itinerant; in 1179 he was present at the Lateran

council at Rome, on his way thither being entertained by the count of

Champagne; at this time he apparently held a plurality of ecclesiastical

benefices, being a prebend of St Paul's, canon and precentor of Lincoln

and parson of Westbury, Gloucestershire. There seems to be no record of

his ordination, but as he was a candidate for the see of Hereford in

1199 it is most probable that he was in priest's orders. The last

reference to him, as living, is in 1208, when an order for payment to

him is on record, but Giraldus Cambrensis, in the second edition of his

_Hibernica_, redacted in 1210, utters a prayer for his soul, "cujus

animae propitietur Deus," a proof that he was no longer alive.

The special interest of Map lies in the perplexing question of his

relation to the Arthurian legend and literature. He is invariably cited

as the author of the _Lancelot_ proper (consisting of two parts), the

_Queste_ and the _Mort Artus_, all three of which are now generally

found in one manuscript under the title of _Lancelot_. The _Mort Artus_,

however, we know to be the prose working over of an earlier and

independent poem. Sundry manuscripts of the yet more extensive

compilation which begins with the _Grand Saint Graal_ also refer to Map

as having composed the cycle in conjunction with Robert de Borron, to

whom, as a rule, the _Grand Saint Graal_ and _Merlin_ are exclusively

assigned. The curious _Merlin_ text, Bibl. Nat. 337 (fonds Français),

refers throughout to Map as authority; and the enormous _Lancelot_

codex, B. N. 112, a combination of the _Lancelot_ and the _Tristan_,

also couples his name with that of Robert de Borron. In fact it may

safely be said that, with the exception of the prose _Tristan_, always

attributed either to Luces de Gast, or Hélie de Borron, the authority of

Map has been invoked for the entire vast mass of Arthurian prose

romantic literature. Now it is practically impossible that one man, and

that one an occupier of court and public offices, constantly employed in

royal and public business, very frequently travelling abroad (e.g. we

know he was at Limoges in 1173; at Rome in 1179; in Anjou in 1183; and

at Angers in 1199), could have found the necessary leisure. On this

point we have the testimony of his one undoubted work, _De nugis

curialium_, which he tells us he composed "by snatches" during his

residence at court. _De nugis_ is a comparatively small book; if it were

difficult to find leisure for that, much more would it have been

difficult to find the time requisite for the composition of one only of

the many long-winded romances which have been fathered on Map. Giraldus

Cambrensis, with whom he was on most friendly terms, and who frequently

refers to and quotes him, records a speech in which Map contrasted

Giraldus' labours with his own, apparently to the disadvantage of the

latter, "vos scripta dedistis, et nos verba"--a phrase which has been

interpreted as meaning that Map himself had produced no literary work.

But inasmuch as the _De nugis_ is undoubtedly, and certain satirical

poems directed against the loose life of the clergy of the day most

probably, his work, the speech must not be taken too literally. It seems

difficult also to believe that Map's name should be so constantly

connected with our Arthurian tradition without any ground whatever;

though it must be admitted that he himself never makes any such

claim--the references in the romances are all couched in the third

person, and bear no sign of being other than the record by the copyist

of a traditional attribution.

A different and very interesting piece of evidence is afforded by the

_Ipomedon_ of Hue de Rotelande; in relating how his hero appeared at a

tournament three days running, in three different suits of armour, red,

black and white, the author remarks,

_Sul ne sai pas de mentir l'art_

_Walter Map reset ben sa part._

This apparently indicated that Map, also, had made himself responsible

for a similar story. Now this incident of the "Three Days' Tournament"

is found alike in the prose _Lancelot_ and in the German _Lanzelet_,

this latter translated from a French poem which, in 1194, was in the

possession of Hugo de Morville. The _Ipomedon_ was written somewhere in

the decade 1180-1190, and there is no evidence of the prose romance

having then been in existence. We have no manuscript of any prose

Arthurian romance earlier than the 13th century, to which period Gaston

Paris assigned them; they are certainly posterior to the verse romances.

Chrétien de Troyes, in his _Cligés_ (the date of which falls somewhere

in the decade 1160-1170), knew and utilized the story of the "Three

Days' Tournament," and moreover makes Lancelot take part in it. Map was,

as we have seen, frequently in France; Chrétien had for patroness Marie,

countess of Champagne, step-daughter to Henry II., Map's patron; Map's

position was distinctly superior to that of Chrétien. Taking all the

evidence into consideration it seems more probable that Map had, at a

comparatively early date, before he became so important an official,

composed a poem on the subject of Lancelot, which was the direct source

of the German version, and which Chrétien also knew and followed.

The form in which certain of the references to him are couched favours

the above view; the compiler of _Guiron le Cortois_ says in his

prologue that "_maistre Gautier Map qui fu clers au roi Henry--devisa

cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que d'autre chose ne

parla il mie gramment en son livre_"; and in another place he refers

to Map, "_qui fit lou propre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac_."

Now only during the early part of his career could Map fairly be

referred to as simple "_clers au roi Henry_," and both extracts

emphasize the fact that his work dealt, almost exclusively, with

Lancelot. Neither of these passages would fit the prose romance, as we

know it, but both might well suit the lost French source of the

_Lanzelet_; where we are in a position to compare the German versions

of French romances with their originals we find, as a rule, that the

translators have followed their source faithfully.

One of the references to Map's works in the _Merlin_ manuscript above

referred to (B.N. 337) has an interesting touch not found elsewhere.

After saying how Map translated the romance from the Latin at the

bidding of King Henry, the usual statement, the scribe adds "_qui

riche loier l'en dona_." It is of course possible that Map's rise at

court may have been due to his having hit the literary taste of the

monarch, who, we know, was interested in the Arthurian tradition, but

it must be admitted that direct evidence on the subject is practically

nil, and that in the present condition of our knowledge we can only

advance possible hypotheses.

See art. "Map" in _Dict. Nat. Biog. De nugis curialium_ and the

_Latin Poems attributed to Map_ have been edited for the Camden

Society by T. Wright (1841). For discussion of his authorship of the

_Lancelot_ cf. _The Three Days' Tournament_, Grimm Library XV. See

also under LANCELOT. The passages relating to Map cited above have

been frequently quoted by scholars, e.g. Hucher, _Le Grand Saint

Graal_; Paulin Paris, _Romans de la Table Ronde_; Alfred Nutt,

_Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail_. (J. L. W.)