INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. lix
from 1775 to 1806 mark the beginning of a really critical text, based upon fixed rules. Among these are, that a read- ing must be supported by ancient testimony ; that the short- er reading is preferable to the longer, the more difficult to the easy, the unusual to the usual. lie sifted Wetstein's apparatus with scrupulous care ; enlarged it by collecting the citations of Origen, and utilizing the Old Latin texts, published by Bianchini and Sabatier ; improved and devel- oped Bcngel's system of recensions, classifying the author- ities under three heads the Western (D, Latin versions, fathers), the Alexandrian (B, C, L, etc., a recension of the corrupt Western text), and the Constantinopolitan (A, flow- ing from both) ; but recognised also mixed and transitional texts, decided for the readings of the largest relative ex- tent, but departed from the Elzevir text only for clear and urgent reasons. His critical canons are well-considered and sound ; but he was too much fettered by his recension theory, which was ably criticised and modified by Hug, a Roman Catholic scholar (1765-1846).
Principal editions, Halle and London, 1775-77, 1796- 1806, 2 torn. 8vo; reprinted, London, 1809 and 1818 (a very fine edition) ; an improved third edition of the Gos- pels by David Schulz, 1827, with Prolegomena and an en- larged apparatus. Griesbach's text is the basis of many manual editions by Schott, Knapp, Tittmann, Halm, Theilc, and of several English and American editions.
While Griesbach was engaged in his work, several scholars made valuable additions to the critical appa- ratus, the results of which be incorporated in his last edi- tion.
C. F. MATTHAEI (professor at Wittenberg, then at Mos- cow; d. 1811), Griesbach's opponent, ridiculed the svstem
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