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tfoly the seconB part or the chronological tables . Secondly , Jerome informs us , that he had taken on himself the duty of author , as well as translator , and had inserted numerous additions with the view of rendering the work more interesting to the Latin Christians . The liberties which he took with Eusebius his transcribers have taken with him ; and at the present day there exist not two manuscript copies which resemble each other . Scaliger , however , consulted with diligence all the Greek chronologists and historians
who wrote after Eusebius , extracted from their works every passage which they stated , or which he supposed to have been taken from the pages of Eusebius , translated other passages from the Latin version of Jerome , added a few improvements of his own , and then , having arranged his materials in order , produced a work which he persuaded himself to be a correct representation of the Greek text , and accordingly published under the modest title of Evo-sPiov i 8 UafAcptXe Xpovitcav \ 6 yoq wpfiroq , as if he were perusing the identical text of the Greek chronographer . The work of Eusebius has , however , at last been recovered , not indeed
in the Greek language , but in an almost entire and , as far as it is possible to judge , a faithful version . It was contained in an Armenian manuscript found in Jerusalem by Isaac , the Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch , a little before the close of the last century , and afterwards deposited by him in the library of the Armenian seminary in Constantinople . The monks of the isle of St . Lazarus , near Venice , have long been distinguished by the industry and success with which they have cultivated the antiquities and literature of their
eountry . Their curiosity was awakened by the fame of this discovery ; they requested a copy ; suspicious of its fidelity , they procured a second ; and in 1802 they sent Aucher of Ancyra , one of the fraternity , to Constantinople . During the seven years that he resided in the Turkish capital , he had numerous opportunities of correcting the two copies by the original , and of inquiring into the age and authenticity of the Armenian manuscript . With respect to its age , its appearance bore testimony to its antiquity , and the form of the characters resembled that which is known to have been in use in
the twelfth century . From the impression of a seal on one of the pages , it seems to have belonged to the patriarch Gregory . But Gregory was a favourite name among the Armenians , and no fewer than six prelates of that appellation sat in the patriarchal chair between the years 1065 and 1306 . Any one of these may have been the owner of the manuscript . In the year 406 , the Armenian characters were invented by the teacher Mesropes . The patriarch Isaac availed himself of this fortunate circumstance
to improve the education of his clergy . Of his disciples some were sent to Edessa , some to Alexandria , and some to Constantinople . They studied the languages of Syria and Greece ; they procured copies of the most serviceable works ; and they undertook the task of translating them into their vernacular tongue . The books of Scripture were the first object of their labours ; the decrees and canons of the councils followed ; to these were added a considerable number of treatises by theological authors ; and so extensive was the
benefit derived from their writings , that the national historians , in gratitude for their services , have denominated the fifth century " the age of the translators . " Now there is convincing evidence to shew that the Armenian version of Eusebius before us , was executed at this early period . Numerous quotations from it , some of them of considerable length , are to be found in the ancient Armenian writers : and among the eight cited by the editor in his preface are two , Lazarus Pharpensis , and Moyses Chpronensis , who were
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/12/
