CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS (CONTINUED).
DESTRUCTION OF THE PERGAMUS LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA--
SOME OBSERVATIONS BY SIR THOMAS ASTLE
--COMPARISON OF HIS STATEMENTS WITH THOSE OF
PROFESSOR ANTHON RELATIVE TO FRAGMENTS OF
ANTIQUITY WHICH REMAIN--AUTHENTICITY OF
THEM NOT DISTURBED IF THEY ARE OF PROPER AGE
--TAYLOR'S VIEWS ON THIS SUBJECT.
THE storming of Alexandria and the destruction of
the Pergamus library, composed largely of ink-written
volumes, by the Saracens, A. D. 642, has already been
reverted to. Astle observes:
"Thus perished by fanatical madness, the inestimable
Alexandrian library, which is said to have
contained at that time upwards of five hundred
thousand volumes; and from this period, barbarity
and ignorance prevailed for several centuries. In
Italy and all over the west of Europe learning was
in a measure extinguished, except some small remains
which were preserved in Constantinople.
"Theodosious, the younger, was very assiduous
in augmenting this library, by whom, in the latter
end of the fourth century, it was enlarged to one
hundred thousand volumes, above one-half of
which were burnt in the fifth century by the Emperor
Leo the First, so famous for his hatred to
images.
"The inhabitants of Constantinople had not lost
their taste for literature in the beginning of the
thirteenth century, when this city was sacked by
the Crusaders, in the year 1205; the depredations
then committed are related in Mr. Harris's posthumous
works, vol. ii, p. 301, from Nicetas the
Choniate, who was present at the sacking of this
place. His account of the statues, bustos, bronzes,
manuscripts, and other exquisite remains
of antiquity, which then perished, cannot be read
by any lover of arts and learning without emotion.
"The ravages committed by the Turks who
plundered Constantinople, in the year 1453, are
related by Philelphus, who was a man of learning,
and was tutor to aeneas Sylvius (afterwards pope,
under the name of Pius the Second) and was an
eye-witness to what passed at that time. This
tutor says, that the persons of quality, especially
the women, still preserved the Greek language
uncorrupted. He observes, that though the city
had been taken before, it never suffered so much
as at that time; and adds, that, till that period,
the remembrance of ancient wisdom remained at
Constantinople, and that no one among the Latins
was deemed sufficiently learned, who had riot
studied for some time at that place; he expressed
his fear that all the works of the ancients would
be destroyed.
"Still, however, there are the remains of three
libraries at Constantinople: the first is called that
of Constantine the Great; the second is for all
ranks of people without distinction; the third is in
the palace, and is called the Ottoman library; but
a fire consumed a great part of the palace, and
almost the whole library, when as is supposed,
Livy and a great many valuable works of the ancients
perished. Father Possevius has given an
account of the libraries at Constantinople, and in
other parts of the Turkish dominions, in his excellent
work entitled, Apparatus Sacer. (He calls
attention to no less than six thousand authors.)
Many other losses of the writings of the ancients
have been attributed to the zeal of the Christians,
who at different periods made great havock
amongst the Heathen authors. Not a single copy
of the work of Celsus is now to be found, and
what we know of that work is from Origen, his
opponent. The venerable fathers, who employed
themselves in erasing the best works of the most
eminent Greek or Latin authors, in order to transcribe
the lives of saints or legendary tales upon the
obliterated vellum, possible mistook these lamentable
depredations for works of piety. The ancient
fragment of the 91st book of Livy, discovered by
Mr. Bruns, in the Vatican, in 1772, was much defaced
by the pious labours of some well-intentioned
divine. The Monks made war on books as the
Goths had done before them. Great numbers of
manuscripts have also been destroyed in this kingdom
(Great Britain) by its invaders, the Pagan
Danes, and the Normans, by the civil commotions
raised by the barons, by the bloody contests between
the houses of York and Lancaster, and especially
by the general plunder and devastations of monasteries
and religious houses in the reign of Henry
the Eighth; by the ravages committed in the civil
war in the time of Charles the First, and by the
fire that happened in the Cottonian library, October
23, 1731."
Mr. Astle's comments on the volumes or remnants
of volumes which remain to us, becomes most interesting
in the lights thrown on them by Professor
Anthon in his "Classical Dictionary," 1841, which are
quoted in part following those of Mr. Astle.
Mr. Astle remarks:
"The history of Phoenicia by Sanconiatho, who
was a contemporary with Solomon, would have
been entirely lost to us, had it not been for the
valuable fragments preserved by Eusebius."
Says Prof. Anthon:
"Sanchoniathon, a Phoenician author, who if the
fragments of his works that have reached us be
genuine, and if such a person ever existed, must
be regarded as the most ancient writer of whom we
have any knowledge after Moses. As to the period
when be flourished, all is uncertain. He is the
author of three principal works, which were written
in Phoenician. They were translated into the Greek
language by Herennius Philo, who lived in the
second century of our era. It is from this translation
which we obtain all the fragments of Sanchoniathon
that have reached our times. Philo had
divided his translation into nine books, of which
Porphyry made use in his diatribe against the Christians.
It is from the fourth book of this lost work
that Eusebius took, for an end directly opposite to
this, the passages which have come down to us.
And thus we have those documents relating to the
mythology and history of the Phoenicians from the
fourth hand."
Mr. Astle continues:
"Manetho's History of Egypt, and the History
of Chaldea, by Berosus, have nearly met with the
same fate."
From Anthon:
"Berosus; a Babylonian historian. He was a
priest of the temple of Belus in the time of Alexander.
The ancients mention three books of his
of which Josephus and Eusebius have preserved
fragments. Annius of Viterbo published a work
under the name of Berosus, which was soon discovered
to be a forgery."
By Astle:
"The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus consisted
likewise of forty books, but only fifteen are
now extant; that is, five between the fifth and the
eleventh, and the last ten, with some fragments
collected out of Photius and others."
By Anthon:
"Diodorus, surnamed Siculus, a contemporary
of Julius Caesar and Agustus. He published a
general history in forty books, under the title
'Historical Library,' which covered a period of
1138 years. We have only a small part remaining
of this vast compilation. These rescued portions
we owe to Eusebius, to John Malala and other
writers of the lower empire, who have cited them
in the course of their works. He is the reputed
author of the famous sophism against motion. 'If
any body be moved, it is moved in the place where
it is, or in a place where it is not, for nothing can
act or suffer where it is not, and therefore there is
no such thing as motion.' "
By Astle:
"The General History of Polybius originally
contained forty books; but the first five only, with
some extracts or fragments, are transmitted to us."
By Anthon:
"Polybius, an eminent Greek historian, born
about, B. C. 203. Polybius gave to the world various
historical writings, which are entirely lost with
the exception of his General History. It embraced
a period of 53 years. Of the forty books which it
originally comprehended, time has spared only the
first five entire. Of the rest, as far as the seventeenth,
we have merely fragments though of considerable
size. Of the remaining books we have
nothing left except what is found in two merger
abridgments which the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
in the tenth century caused to be
made of the whole work."
From Astle:
"Dionysius Halicarnassensis wrote twenty books
of Roman antiquities, extending from the siege of
Troy, to the Punic war A. U. C. 488; but only
eleven of them are now remaining, which reach no
further than the year of Rome 312."
From Anthon:
"He was born in the first century B. C. His
principal work was 'Roman Antiquities.' It originally
consisted of twenty books, of which the first
ten remain entire. Dionysius wrote for the Greeks,
and his object was to relieve them from the mortification
which they felt at being conquered by a race
of barbarians, as they considered the Romans to be.
And this he endeavored to effect by twisting and
forging testimonies, and botching up the old legends,
so as to make out a prima facie proof of the Greek
origin of the city of Rome. Valuable additions
were made in 1816, by Mai, from an old MSS."
By Astle:
"Appian is said to have written the Roman
History in twenty-four books; but the greatest
part of the works of that author is lost."
By Anthon:
"He was the author of a Roman History in
twenty-four books which no longer exist entire;
the parts missing have been supplied but was not
written by Appian but is a mere compilation from
Plutarch's Lives of Crassus and Antony."
By Astle:
"Dion Cassius wrote eighty books of history,
but only twenty-five are remaining, with some
fragments, and an epitome of the last twenty by
Xiphilinus."
By Anthon:
"His true name was Cassius, born A. D. 155;
--we have fragments remaining of the first thirty-
six books, they comprehend a period from B. C. 65
to B. C. 10;--they were found by Mai in two Vatican
MSS., which contain a sylloge or collection
made by Maximus Planudes (who lived in the
fourteenth century. He was the first Greek that
made use of the Arabic numerals as they are
called)."
Mr. Astle further observes:
"The Emperor Tacitus ordered ten copies of the
works of his relation, the historian, to be made
every year which he sent into the different provinces
of the empire; and yet, notwithstanding his
endeavours to perpetuate these inestimable works,
they were buried in oblivion for many centuries.
Since the restoration of learning an ancient MSS.
was discovered in a monastery in Westphalia,
which contained the most valuable part of his annals;
but in this unique manuscript, part of the
fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth books are deficient,
as are part of the eleventh, and the latter part of the
sixteenth. This MSS. was procured by that great
restorer of learning Pope Leo X., under whose patronage
it was printed at Rome in 1515; he afterwards
deposited it in the Vatican library, where it
is still preserved. Thus posterity is probably indebted
to the above magnificent Pontiff, for the
most valuable part of the works of this inimitable
historian."
Accounts which differentiate in their descriptive details
of questioned ink-written fragments of antiquity
and on the genuineness or authenticity of which rests
the truth or falsity of ancient history or other literature,
serve to taint such remains with a certain degree
of suspicion and doubt. When, however, in the light
of investigation, the materials of which they are composed
are found to approach closely the age they
purport to represent, then it is that such fragments
can be said to have fairly established their own identity.
Taylor asserts:
"The remote antiquity of a manuscript is of ten
established by the peculiar circumstance of
its existing BENEATH another writing. Some invaluable
manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, and
not a few precious fragments of classic literature,
have been thus brought to light.
"The age of a manuscript may often be ascertained
with little chance of error, by some such
indications as the following:--the quality or
appearance of the INK, the nature of the material;
that is to say, whether it be soft leather, or parchment,
or the papyrus of Egypt, or the bombycine
paper; for these materials succeeded each other, in
common use, at periods that are well known;--
the peculiar form, size, and character of the writing;
for a regular progression in the modes of writing
may be traced by abundant evidence through every
age from the remotest times;--the style of the ornaments
or illuminations, as they are termed, often
serves to indicate the age of the book which they decorate.
"From such indications as these, more or less
definite and certain, ancient manuscripts, now extant,
are assigned to various periods, extending
from the sixteenth, to the fourth century of the
Christian era; or perhaps, in one or two instances,
to the third or second. Very few can claim an antiquity
so high as the fourth century; but not a few
are safely attributed to the seventh; and a great
proportion of those extant were unquestionably
executed in the tenth; while many belong to the
following four hundred years. It is, however, to
be observed, that some manuscripts, executed at so
late a time as the thirteenth, or even the fifteenth
century, afford clear internal evidence that, by a
single remove only, the text they contain claims a
REAL antiquity, higher than that even of the oldest
existing copy of the same work. For these older
copies sometimes prove, by the peculiar nature of
the corruptions which have crept into the text, that
they have been derived through a long series of
copies; while perhaps the text of the more modern
manuscripts possesses such a degree of purity and
freedom from all the usual consequences of frequent
transcription, as to make it manifest that the copy
from which it was taken, was so ancient as not to
be far distant from the time of the first publication
of the work."