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LITERATURE
62,000 volumes, which had been presented to him by his tutor.
300. The first public library in Constantinople, appears to have been founded by the emperor Constantius Chlorus. Julian added to it all the manuscripts he could collect. It amounted by degrees to 120,000 volumes, and seven Greek anJ Roman transcribers were attached to it, paid by the emperor, to write new copies and correct the old. Constantius died at York, July 25, 306.
309, Feb. 16. Z>te(l St. Pamphilus, presbyter of Cxsarea. He was of an eminent family, of great wealth, extensive learnings and was ardently de- voted to the scriptures, copies of which he lent to some, and gave to others, .several of them having been transcribed with his own hand. In him were united the philosopher and the Christian; he withdrew himself from the glare of temporal grandeur, and spent his life in the most disin- terested benevolence. He erected a library at Cesaiea, which contained 30,000 volumes. This collection was made only for the promotion of religion, and to lend out to religiously disposed people. Jerome particularly mentions his collect- ing books for the purpose of lending them to be read. " This," says Dr. Adam Clarke, " is, if I mistake not, the first notice we have of a circu- lating LIBRARY." Some traces of this library remain to this day, at Paris and elsewhere. The death of this eminent, holy, and useful man did not discredit his life. For when a persecution was raised against the Christians, and Urbanus, the Roman president of Ceesarea, an unfeeling and brutal man, required him to renounce his religion or his life; Pamphilus made the latter choice, and cheerfully submitted to imprisonment, to torture, and to death.
325, July. The first ecumenical council, t. e. a council of the whole habitable earth, assembled at Nice, (now Isnick) in Bytliinia, where 318 fathers of the church subscribed the ordinances regulating the festival of Easter, and establishing the godhead in opposition to the dogmas of Anus. At this council the writings of Anus were condemned to the flames, and Constantino the Great threatened with the punishment of death those who should conceal them. There were 200 varied versions of the adopted Evangelists, and fifty-four several Gospels preser>'ed in various Christian communities; but so scarce, that no Roman historian or writer appeared ever to have seen any of them.
360. The most ancient specimen of illuminated manuscripts, is the celebrated Codex Argmtetu of Ulphilas. It is written on vellum, and has received the name of Argenteiu from its silver letters : it is of a 4to size, and the vellum leaves are stained with a violet colour; and on this g^und the letters, which are all uncial or capitals, were afterwards painted in silver, excepting the initial characters and a few other passages, which are all in gold. From the deep impression of the strokes, Michaelishas conjectured that the letters were either imprinted with a warm iron, or cut with a graver, and afterwards coloured; but Mr. Coxe, after a very minute examination, was con-
vinced that each letter was painted, and not form- ed in the manner supposed by Michaelis. The translation by Ulphilas, of the scriptures was made from the Greek text, although from its fre- quent coincidence with the Latin, it has been sus- pected of having been interpolated since his time from the Vulgate; but, notwithstanding, its un- questionable antiquity and general fidelity, have procured for it a very high degree of estimation with biblical critics, and is deserving of particu- lar notice, for two reasons : first, it is the only specimen extant of the parent tongue, from which our own language, and the languages of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germanv, are derived; and, secondly, it was long supposed by many to exhibit a very near approach to printing, nearly 1,000 years before the art was invented.
This Codex was originally discovered in the year 1687, in the library of the Benedictine abbey of Werden in Westphalia, whence it was brought to Prague; and at the capture of that city in 1 W8, was sentas a valuable present to Christina, Queen of Sweden. It subsequently came into tjbe pos- session of Isaac Vossius, at whose decease it was bought by Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie for i!250, and was by him presented to the Uni- versity of Upsal. Three coitions of it hare been printed.
Bishop Ulphilas received his education in Greece, was held in high estimation by the em- peror Constantine the Great, who called him the Moses of his time. In the year 350, he assisted in the council of Constantinople, and in 378 he was dispatched on an embassy to the emperor Yalens, to solicit a settlement for the Goth in Thrace, after they had been expelled by the Huns. To accomplish this purpose, he is said to have em- braced.Arianism; and to have propagated Arian doctrines in his own country. In his translation he left out the Book nf Kings, lest they should have excited his savage countrymen to war.
361. Julian the apostate, was advanced to the empire, and immediately commanded that the writings of Christian authors should be destroyed, but that those of the profane authors should be preserved, in order to overthrow Christianity, and return to paganism. ■
362. In Antioch, there was a large public librarv in the temple of Trajan, which was des- troyed during the reign of the emperor Jovian. Jovian died Feb. 17, .364.
373. Died St. Athanatsius patriarch of Alexan- dria. In the British Museum there is preserved a celebrated manuscript of the Old and New Testament in Greek, called the Alexandrian Codex; in which is a passage that has thus been translated : " This book is dedicated to the patri- archal chamber in the fortified city of Alexandria. Whoso take thence, be he excommunicated, torn forcibly from the church and communion. Atha- nasius the Humble."
400. Vulgate edition of the Bible.
The Vulgate is a Latin translation of the Greek copies of ail the Books of the Old Testament by Jerome; and of the New Testament, as approved
VjOOQ IC
