HISTORY
OF
THE TRANSMISSION OF ANCIENT BOOKS
TO MODERN TIMES;
TOGETHER WITH
THE PROCESS OF HISTORICAL PROOF;
OR,
A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF THE MEANS
BY WHICH THE GENUINENESS OF ANCIENT LITERATURE GENERALLY,
AND THE AUTHENTICITY OF HISTORICAL WORKS ESPECIALLY,
ARE ASCERTAINED;
INCLUDING INCIDENTAL REMARKS
UPON THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE USUALLY ADDUCED
IN BEHALF OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
BY ISAAC TAYLOR.
VERI SCIENTIA VINDEX.
A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
LONDON:
JACKSON AND WALFORD,
18, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.
1859.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY RICHARD CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL.
PREFACE.
Two books which appeared more than thirty years ago, and which have
been long out of print, are brought into one in this volume. The second
of them--the “Process of Historical Proof,” was, in fact, a sequel to
the first--the “History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern
Times.” In now reprinting the two, as one, it has not been difficult
to give continuity to the whole: this has been effected, partly by
removing from each volume portions which seemed to be of secondary
importance, and to be not closely related to the principal intention
of the work; and partly by introducing several entire chapters of new
material; and by the insertion of additional paragraphs throughout.
What is new in this volume occurs chiefly in the mid portions of it,
and at the end.
In the course of this thirty years, the labours of critics, combined
with the researches of learned travellers, have thrown much light upon
all parts of the subject which is compendiously treated in this volume.
No reader who is fully informed in this department will need to be told
that, within the limits of a volume such as this, nothing more than the
most concise mention of these recent labours and researches could be
attempted: they are referred to only in the way of suggestion and of
sample. At the first, the two books above mentioned were intended to
find a place in a course of general educational reading; and it is only
as coming within the range of a purpose such as this, that the Reprint
is now offered to the public.
In excluding from the Reprint some chapters of the two volumes which
related expressly to the Biblical argument, or “Christian Evidences,”
I have been influenced by several reasons--such as these: The first
of them is this, that what may be regarded as the _religious_ aspect
of the general subject has no direct claim to be included in the
treatment of it. In the next place, I have believed--and think so
decisively--that, for the very purpose of bringing the Biblical
argument home, with the greatest force, to the convictions of
intelligent young persons, the subject should be fully understood
in its broadest aspect. When it is thus presented, and when it is
thus understood, well-informed and ingenuous persons will see and
feel, irresistibly, that, as compared with any other mass of facts
belonging to literary antiquarianism, and to historic evidence, the
Biblical evidence is many times more ample, and various, and is more
unquestionably certain, than even the best and the surest of those
masses of facts.
There is yet another reason that has induced me to retrench, in
this Reprint, much that, thirty years ago, might seem proper to the
treatment of the subject. In this course of time a great change has
had place upon the field of argument touching Christianity and its
origin. Although disbelief may have spread widely of late, the argument
concerning Christianity has been narrowed on every side of it. Much
that, a while ago, was thought to need the production of proof, has,
within a few years, quite ceased to be spoken of as questionable.
Several elaborate and ingenious endeavours to bring, first, the
_documents_ of Christianity, and then, the _historic import_ of
those documents, into doubt, have signally failed, and in fact they
are abandoned as nugatory and hopeless. It would, therefore, be a
superfluous labour at this time to defend positions which have ceased
to be assailed.
The course of adverse thought, at this time, in relation to the
religion of Christ--the only religion concerning which any question can
be raised--has this tendency, namely, to divert attention by all means,
and as much as possible, from _the past_; and to engage all attention,
and to concentrate it, upon the _present moment_, and upon its tangible
and secular interests. This is now the aim of those writers, in the
departments of Philosophy--physical and abstract, who would subvert
Christianity, and who labour to do so by drawing the thoughts of the
educated classes away from it--away from its neighbourhood. If it be
so, then it must be well for those who take the other side, to do what
they may for calling back the same classes, and for challenging them to
acquaint themselves anew with History, and to assure themselves of its
incontestible certainty.
STANFORD RIVERS,
_February, 1859_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTENTION OF THE PRESENT ARGUMENT 1
CHAPTER II.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE, AS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF ANCIENT BOOKS 9
CHAPTER III.
THE DATE OF ANCIENT WORKS, INFERRED FROM THE QUOTATIONS
AND REFERENCES OF CONTEMPORARY AND SUCCEEDING WRITERS 28
CHAPTER IV.
THE ANTIQUITY AND GENUINENESS OF ANCIENT BOOKS MAY BE INFERRED FROM
THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGES IN WHICH THEY ARE EXTANT 36
CHAPTER V.
ANCIENT METHODS OF WRITING, AND THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS 41
CHAPTER VI.
CHANGES INTRODUCED IN THE COURSE OF TIME IN THE FORMS OF LETTERS,
AND IN THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF WRITING 52
CHAPTER VII.
THE COPYISTS; AND THE PRINCIPAL CENTRES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS 61
CHAPTER VIII.
INDICATIONS OF THE SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATURE, THROUGH A PERIOD
EXTENDING FROM THE DECLINE OF LEARNING IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY, TO ITS
RESTORATION IN THE FIFTEENTH 77
CHAPTER IX.
THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 97
CHAPTER X.
SEVERAL METHODS AVAILABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE CREDIBILITY
OF ANCIENT HISTORICAL WORKS 102
CHAPTER XI.
EXCEPTIONS TO WHICH THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORIANS, ON PARTICULAR
POINTS, MAY BE LIABLE 119
CHAPTER XII.
CONFIRMATIONS OF THE EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS, DERIVABLE
FROM INDEPENDENT SOURCES 132
CHAPTER XIII.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES, APPLICABLE TO QUESTIONS OF THE GENUINENESS
AND AUTHENTICITY OF ANCIENT RECORDS 160
CHAPTER XIV.
RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE WHICH SUPPORTS THE GENUINENESS
AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 177
CHAPTER XV.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS:--A MORNING AT
THE BRITISH MUSEUM 204
CHAPTER XVI.
FACTS RELATING TO THE CONSERVATION, AND LATE RECOVERY, OF
SOME ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 226
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PROCESS OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE EXEMPLIFIED IN THE INSTANCE
OF HERODOTUS 267
CHAPTER XVIII.
METHOD OF ARGUING FROM THE GENUINENESS, TO THE AUTHENTICITY
OF THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS 306
CHAPTER XIX.
EXAMPLES OF IMPERFECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE:--HERODOTUS 336
CHAPTER XX.
RECENT EXPLORATIONS, CONFIRMATORY OF THE TRUTH OF ANCIENT
HISTORY: HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS 358
CHAPTER XXI.
INFERENTIAL HISTORIC MATERIALS 371
CHAPTER XXII.
THE MODERN JERUSALEM--A VOUCHER FOR THE LITERATURE OF ITS
ANCIENT OCCUPANTS 399
HISTORY
OF THE
TRANSMISSION OF ANCIENT BOOKS.
CHAPTER I.
INTENTION OF THE PRESENT ARGUMENT.
The credit of ancient literature, the certainty of history, and the
truth of religion, are all involved in the secure transmission of
ancient books to modern times. Many of the facts connected with the
history of this transmission are to be found, more or less distinctly
mentioned, in every work in which the claims of the Holy Scriptures are
advocated. But these facts are open to much misapprehension when they
are brought together to subserve the purposes of a single argument. It
is the intention of this volume therefore to lay them before general
readers, as they stand apart from controversy, and as if no interests
more important than those of literature were implicated in the result
of the statements we have to make.
Nothing can be more equitable than that the genuineness and
authenticity of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures should be judged
of by the rules that are applied to all other ancient books; nor is
anything more likely to produce a firm and intelligent conviction
of the validity of the claims advanced for the Holy Scriptures,
than a clear understanding of the relative value of the evidence
which supports them. To furnish the means therefore of instituting a
comparison, so just in itself, and so necessary to a fair examination
of the most important of all questions, is the design of these pages.
As this volume makes no pretension to communicate information to those
who are already conversant with matters of antiquity, literary or
historical, whatever might seem recondite, or what is still involved
in controversy, has been avoided. Nor will these pages be encumbered
with numerous references, which, though easily amassed, would increase
the size of the volume without being serviceable to the class of
readers for whom the author now writes. No facts are adduced which
may not readily be substantiated by any one who has access to a
library of moderate extent. But a few works, not often met with in
private collections, are named at the foot of the page where special
information has been derived from them.
The principal facts of ancient history, and the authenticity of the
works from which chiefly our knowledge of antiquity is derived, are now
freely admitted, after a few exceptive instances have been set off,
which are unproved, or doubtful.
Yet on this subject, as well as upon some others, there often exists,
at the same time, too much faith, and too little; for, from a want
of acquaintance with the details on which-a rational conviction of
the genuineness and validity of ancient records may be founded, many
persons, even though otherwise well informed, feel that they have
hardly an alternative between a simple acceptance of the entire mass of
ancient history, or an equally indiscriminate suspicion of the whole.
And when it happens that a particular fact comes to be questioned, or
when the genuineness of some ancient book is argued, such persons,
conscious that they are little familiar with the nature of the evidence
on the strength of which the question turns, and perceiving that the
controversy involves many recondite and uninteresting researches, or
that it rests upon the validity of minute criticisms, either recoil
altogether from the argument, or they accept an opinion, without
inquiry, from that party on whose judgment they think they may most
safely rely.
And it is true that such controversies may, for the most part, very
properly be left in the hands of critics and antiquarians, whose tastes
and acquirements qualify them for investigations that can scarcely be
made intelligible to the mass of readers. Nor are the facts involved
in these controversies often of any importance to the general student
of history; for they do not extensively affect the integrity of that
department of literature to which they belong. Yet it must be allowed
that the _principles_ on which such questions are argued, and the
facts connected with the transmission of ancient literature to modern
times, are in themselves highly important; and that they well deserve
more attention than they often receive. Nor are these facts, when
separated from particular controversies, at all abstruse, or difficult
of apprehension. Indeed much of the information that bears upon the
subject is in itself curious and highly interesting, as well as
important.
Even in relation to those works of genius, the value of which consists
in their intrinsic merits, and which would not be robbed of their
beauties, though they were discovered to be spurious, an assurance
of their genuineness is felt by every reader to conduce greatly to
the pleasure they impart. But a much stronger feeling naturally leads
us to demand this assurance in the perusal of works which profess
to have reality only for their matter:--Truth is the very subject
of History:--the adducing of satisfactory evidence, therefore, of
the integrity of its records may well be deemed an indispensable
preliminary to a course of study in that department of knowledge.
Besides its peculiar propriety in connexion with the study of history,
the argument in support of the genuineness and authenticity of the
existing remains of ancient literature is singularly fitted to afford
a useful exercise to the reasoning faculties; and perhaps, better
than any other subject, it calls into combined action those powers of
the mind that are separately employed in mathematical, physical, or
legal pursuits, and which, in the actual occasions of common life, can
subserve our welfare only so far as they move in unison.
But reasons of still greater moment recommend the subject of the
following pages to the attention of the reader; for it is certain that
every one, whether or not he is contented to admit, without inquiry,
the authenticity of _profane_ history, has the highest personal concern
in the truth of that particular portion of ancient history with which
the Christian religion is connected; and, therefore, every one should
think himself bound to convince himself of the genuineness of the books
in which its principles are contained. And as the facts on which this
proof depends are precisely of the same kind in profane, as in sacred
literature, and as the same principles of evidence are applicable
to all questions relating to the genuineness of ancient books, it
is highly desirable that the proof of the genuineness of the Sacred
Writings should be viewed--in _its place_, as forming a part only of a
general argument, which bears equally upon the entire literary remains
of antiquity. For it is only when so viewed, that the comparative
strength and completeness of the proof which belongs to this particular
case, can be duly estimated. When exhibited in this light it will
be seen that the integrity of the records of the Christian faith
is substantiated by evidence in a tenfold proportion more various,
copious, and conclusive, than that which can be adduced in support of
any other ancient writings. If, therefore, the question had no other
importance belonging to it than what may attach to a purely literary
inquiry, or if only the strict justice of the case were regarded, the
authenticity of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures could never come to
be controverted, till the entire body of classical literature had been
proved to be spurious.
Many--perhaps most persons, in perusing works on the evidences of
revealed religion, are apt to suppose that the sacred books only, or
that these books, more than any others, stand in need of laboured
argumentation in support of their authenticity; while, in truth,
these books, less than any other ancient writings, need a careful
investigation of their claims; for the proof that establishes them
is on all points obvious and redundant. Indeed this very redundancy
and variety of evidence--especially if it be unskilfully adduced, may
actually produce confusion and hesitancy, rather than an affirmed
conviction, in unpractised minds; and this perplexity is likely to be
increased by the very idea of the serious importance of the subject.
Thus it may happen that those very facts which, if compared with others
of a similar kind, are susceptible of the most complete proof, are
actually regarded with the most distrust.
In presenting to the reader, what might be called--the History of the
records of History, we shall put him in position for tracing the extant
works of ancient authors _retrogressively_, from modern times, up to
the age to which they are usually attributed; and then it will be seen
on what grounds--under certain limitations--the contents of these works
are admitted to be authentic, and worthy of credit. In attending to the
facts which we have to adduce it will appear that we are well warranted
in accepting certain works as having been written in the age to which
they are usually assigned, and by the authors to whom they are commonly
attributed; and also in believing that they have not suffered material
corruption in the course of transcription.
Further than this we may advance, and go on to show the grounds of
our belief that such or such an author wrote what he believed to be
true, and that he possessed authentic information on the subject of
which he treats. The proof in this case must be drawn from the style
and character of the work itself; from the circumstances that attended
its first publication; from the corroborative evidence of contemporary
writers; and from the agreement of the narrative in particular
instances with existing relics of antiquity.
Evidence in support of the first part of this assumption will prove
that the works in question are not _forgeries_:--evidence establishing
the _second_, will show that they are not _fictions_.
It is obvious that these assumptions are not only distinct, but
that they are independent of each other:--for one of them may be
conclusively established, while the other is either disproved, or may
remain questionable. A book may contain a true narrative of events,
though not written by the author, or in the age, that has commonly been
supposed. Or, on the other hand, it may undoubtedly be the production
of the alleged author, but may deserve little credit as a professed
record of facts. Thus, for example, the Cyropædia is, on good evidence,
attributed to Xenophon; but there is little reason to suppose that it
deserves to be considered as better than an historical romance:--the
_genuineness_ of the work is certain; but its authenticity as a history
is, at the best, questionable. Yet the first of these propositions is
more independent of the second, than the second can be of the first.
For when the antiquity and genuineness of an historical work has
been clearly demonstrated, it is seldom difficult to fix the degree
of credit that is due to the author; or to discover those particular
points on which there may be reason to suspect his veracity, or to
question the soundness of his judgment, or to doubt the accuracy of his
information.
It is then for the purpose of rendering these arguments and inferences
intelligible, and more satisfactory also, than otherwise they would be,
that, after giving a brief statement of this argument, we shall proceed
to bring forward what relates to the manipulative and mechanical
methods of multiplying copies of books, and to the diffusion, and
preservation of these copies, in ancient times;--that is to say, in all
times anterior to the invention of Printing, in the fifteenth century.