Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/139

MANURES MANUSCRIPT 131 lows : The owner brought his slave before the magistrate, and stated the grounds on which he intended his manumission. The lictor laid a rod on the head of the slave, and declared him free by right of the Quirites; the master, who in the mean time held the slave, pronouncing the words, "I wish this man to be free," turned him round, and let him go (emisit e manu, whence the term). The magistrate then declared him to be free. The manumission by census was effected by the slaves giving in their names at the lustra! cen- sus at the bidding of their masters. By will a slave could be made free conditionally or un- conditionally, or free and an heir to the tes- tator. Laws at different periods enacted re- strictions, such as limiting the proportion of slaves a man might manumit in his will and preventing manumission to defraud creditors. The act of manumission established the rela- tion of patron and freedman between the manumittor and the manumitted ; and if the former was a citizen, the latter became a mem- be? of his gens, and assumed his family as well as personal name, to which he added some other as surname, commonly that by which he was previously known. MANURES. See AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, vol. i., p. 197. MANUSCRIPT (Lat. manu scriptum, written with the hand), in bibliography, a written book or document, in distinction from a printed one. (For the various materials that have been used for this purpose, see BOOK, PAPER, and PAPYRUS.) In form, ancient manuscripts were either rolls (volumina) or flat pages like our printed books (codices). The Egyptian papyri are usually in rolls of an indefinite length, according to the subject matter, but some of the smaller ones are flat. Leaves of parchment were sometimes interspersed with papyrus leaves to strengthen the latter. Parch- ment and vellum manuscripts also were origi- nally in rolls, but codices were made as early as the 3d and 4th centuries. The pages of the latter are usually quarto, rarely folio or octavo. Some of the oldest are square, but they are generally a little higher than broad. The manuscripts of the Mexicans were sometimes in rolls, but more generally in book form, the paper, which was continuous, being folded like a chart, with a tablet or cover of wood at each end. As the writing was on one side only, each page could thus be referred to sepa- rately, as in a modern book. The transcribing of manuscripts was committed by the Greeks and Romans principally to slaves, who were esteemed of great value when they excelled in the art. They are called by Horace scriptores librarii, and in later times antiquarii. Becker thinks that the latter term was applied, after the cursive writing came into use, to those who copied books in the old uncial characters. There were also at Rome professional copyists, some of whom were women. About the 5th century associations of scribes, who worked under stringent rules, were formed. In the middle ages copying was almost exclusively in the hands of ecclesiastics, who were called clerks (clerici). In all the principal monasteries a room called scriptorium was devoted to the scribes or scriptores, where they could pursue their work in quiet. The text was sometimes read aloud by a dictator. The manuscript when finished was corrected by one appoint- ed for the purpose, and it then passed into the hands of the miniator, who added the or- namental capitals and other embellishments. The earliest form of illumination was the use of different colored inks. The Egyptian papyri are generally written in red and black, but some are ornamented with other colors and with gilding, and some with vignettes, many of which are remarkable for the delicacy and beauty of their execution. In the vellum manuscripts of the 4th and 5th centuries the initial letters, the first words, or the first three or four lines of books are often in red ink, while the body of the work is in black. Other colors, as purple, blue, green, and cinnabar, were used early, and sometimes the entire manuscript was written in gold or silver let- ters on purple, blue, or rose-colored parch- ment. One of the most interesting examples of this is the Argenteus Codex in the library of the university of Upsal, written in silver letters, with the initials in gold, on violet-col- ored vellum. (See ARGENTEUS CODEX.) The Codex Aureus of the royal library at Stock- holm is a Latin manuscript of the Gospels, written in Gothic characters of gold on leaves of vellum alternately white and violet ; it be- longs to the 6th century. In the earlier Greek and Latin manuscripts there was no distinc- tion of initial letters, but after the 4th cen- tury the first letters of books and chapters, and sometimes of each page, were made lar- ger than the body of the letters, and were fre- quently profusely ornamented in design and color. In the 6th and 7th centuries initial let- ters were one or two inches high, and from the 7th to the 10th century were often a foot high, covering nearly the whole page. The Irish manuscripts of this period exhibit some of the most extraordinary work of this kind, the ini- tials being formed of complicated interlaced patterns, and ornamented with figures of men, birds, animals, and grotesque deformities. One of the finest specimens of this class is the copy of the Gospels known as the Book of Kells, in the library of Trinity college, Dublin ; it dates from the 7th century. The early Franco-Gallic manuscripts show a distinct style of illumina- tion of initial letters in arabesque patterns with elegant foliage. In the middle ages colored and gilded designs and illustrations were so com- mon that it was said : Hodie scriptores non sunt scriptores, sed pictores. Miniatures and pic- tures were early introduced into manuscripts. Pliny says that physicians painted represen- tations of medicinal plants in their treatises, and that Varro illustrated his biography of