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lame in point of chronology , since , according to it , the books containing Pythagoras ' s philosophy were deposited ia King Numa ' s coffin at least a century before their author was in existence . '• The same story had been cooked up with variations by other authors besides Hemina ; and if the reader hath not already had enough of this
fable , he may gratify his appetite for fiction , absurdity , and contradiction , even ' ad nauseam , by referring to Plin . Hist . Nat ., lib . xiii . cap . xi . xiii ., and Liv . Hist ., lib . xi . cap . xxix . But however irreconcileable or fabulous these accounts may be , still the important fact is established , that paper was in use , not only in the days of Pliny and Livy , but also in the time of Hemina , who is distinguished by Pliny by the title " Vetustissimus Auctor Annalium , " Most Ancient Annalist .
There is , however , upon this subject , a much higher authority than either of the above ; I allude to Herodotus , the father of Grecian history , who died 445 years before Christ , and who informs us , ( lib . v . cap . lviii ., ) that in times which even he deemed ancient , paper , and not paper only , but skins of goats as well as of sheep , were used for writing upon . Therefore Varro ' s
account of the first invention of paper and parchment is positively disproved by an authority which is unquestionable ; and it is presumed to be sufficiently apparent , that although the MSS . made use of in the Ximenian Polyglot were written on paper , it is very possible that they may have been of competent antiquity , inasmuch as paper was not only in use at the time when the events occurred , which are narrated m those MSS ., but had been
so for many centuries before . The remark of Dr . Marsh , therefore , which hath been adopted in disparagement of the MSS , in question , falls entirely to the ground . The zeal and learning of Cardinal Ximenes were so great as to favour the presumption that no MSS . were admitted which were not of competent authority in point of antiquity ; and so unlimited was his munificence , that he is
stated to have expended , of his own money , in collecting Hebrew and Greek MSS ., and other costs , not less than fifty thousand ducats . It is certain , however , that a literary controversy soon arose as to the genuine value of those MSS . In Germany , Semler denied and Goeze maintained their worth ; and with the former agree Griesbach and Dr . Marsh . Other charges were , however , made to diminish the reputation of the Ximenian Polyglot . It was
imputed to the editors that they had introduced into the text readings of the Vulgate , which they did not find in the Greek MSS ., and that they had altered the Greek according to the Hebrew ; but see those charges disproved , the former by Michaelis , Orient , und Exeget . Biblioth . Vol . IX . p . 162 , Vol . XII . p . 120 ; the latter by Eichhorn , Einleitung ins Alt . Test . Vol . I . p . 351 . Whether the error into which Dr . Marsh fell , in concluding so precipitately that no MSS . could be of competent antiquity if written on paper ,
was occasioned by his having identified in his mind at the moment the original invention of paper with the first manufacture of it from linen rags , more than 1600 years after , or from what other inadvertence , that learned divine himself alone can tell ; but certainly the error is a glaring one , and ought to be detected ; and not less certain is it , that the value and authenticity of the MSS . in question are in no degree depreciated by the attack which has been made upon them .
Before I conclude , you will , Sir , perhaps , allow me to add a few observations respecting the first introduction of linen-rag paper , abstaining as much as possible from going over already beaten ground .
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4 § 6 AmtQuify of Paper MSS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 496, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/24/
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