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on all of which Mr . Taylor gives interesting and general information , and to which he adds observations on the mode in which MSS . were preserved and propagated , on the degree of correctness , identity , or variation , which they exhibit on ^ towards the othe r , and on the causes to which various readings are generally attributable .
Secondly , he proceeds to consider the history and evidence of ancient works as collected from the quotations and references of contemporary and succeeding writers , whether the quotations be literal or by accidental allusion , or whether ( as is the case with many works ) they have been the Subjects of explicit description and criticism . Controversies have-been the most fruitful sources of reference , and consequent evidence of the authenticity of the books to which they refer , and original works axe still further established when made the subjects of actual translation .
Thirdly , the history of the language in which a work is found is often the least fallible of all proofs . A poem or a history may have been forged , but not a language ; and there is scarcely an aera in which we cannot , with caie , know and point out the language which an author of the time would have adopted , and as to which it is next to impossible to practise a deception . Every language , of which copious specimens are extant , contains a latent history of the people through whose lips it has passed , and furnishes to the scholar his data by which literary remains may almost with certainty be assigned to their true age . ,
Mr . Taylor ' s next chapter is devoted to a more minute detail of facts illustrative of the history of Manuscripts , in which he describes historically ( chiefly from the learned dissertations of Montfaucon ) the materials used for ancient books ; the instruments and inks from time to time used for writing ; the changes introduced from age to age in the forms of letters , and the
general character of writing , which alone furnish to the experienced almost unerring means of judgment ; the modes from time to time used in forming books , compacting the sheets , covering , dividing into columns , punctuation and decoration ; the character of copyists , and the places most celebrated for the transmission of books ; and particularly the extent to which the world is
indebted to the inhabitants of monasteries , during the middle ages , for the preservation and multiplication of the records of profane ana scriptural learning . The next head of inquiry is into the indications of the existence of the remains of ancient literature , from the decline of learning in the seventh century to its restoration in the fifteenth , in which Mr . Taylor very properly exposes the sweeping declamations by which we are so fond of talking of " the dark ages , " " the period of intellectual night , " " the season of winter
in , the history of man , " and many other exaggerated expressions used only hy those who choose not to give themselves the trouble to inquire or be just A vague impression that all was night , darkness , and ignorance , reckoning backwards tor more than 800 years , from the perioa in which literature emerged , coupled with the fact that almost all the Manuscripts on which the emerged , coupled with the fact , that almost all the Manuscripts on wnich . the
world reh > s for the treasures of , antiquity , must , if genuine , have been the wor , k of that season of darkness , either involves us in .. . contradictions , or > reser \ ts a considerable difficulty in the way of out copyictipn s , Mr , Tayr Jqr ' s . object , in a rapid suryey of the literary history , of this period , is to sheyr , t $ at , t ^ e lamp of learnjngg , truth , and phil o sophy , always was to pome extent kept trimmed and burning , and that ( as the multiplication of Jx > pkji would ; indicate ) there wer ^ persons for whose use , and to gratifyjvliqs appetite , they were so multiplied . .
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Review . * - * Taylor on the Transmission of Ancient Books . 621
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VOL . I . 2 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/49/
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