ends of the strokes dilated, and slender in the middle; the letters occasionally introduced within one another, or pearled; and with a mixture of uncials. It is to be read:

IN NOE [nomine] DNI [Domini] INCIPIT PARS QUARTA. LIBER XVII. A LOCO UBI DICIT, N[on] SIT IN RECORDATIONE,

SED CONTERATUR QUASI LIGNUM INFRUCTUOSUM;

the latter words being written in small ordinary Caroline capitals, mingled with two or three uncials.

The remainder of the fac-simile contains the Commentary of St. Gregory on the above text. It is to be read:

QUOTIES IN SCI [Sancti] VIRI historia per novu[m] volumen enodare mysteriu[m] typice expositionis aggredimur, oportet ut ex ejusde[m] viri v[e]l nomine v[e]l passione, significatione[m] mystica[m] principalit[er] p[ro]feramus, etc.

Notwithstanding the mysticism apparent in this work of Pope Gregory, or rather on this very account, it has been translated into French, under the title, "Les Morales de Saint Grégoire, Pape, sur le Livre de Job," by De Laval, Paris, 1666, in 3 vols., 4to. An abridgment of this translation was published in 1697, intitled "Morale Pratique de Saint Grégoire," Paris, 2 vols., 12mo. The name of De Laval is pseudonymous, the real translator of the work being Louis Charles Albert, Duc de Luynes, who, after much military service, devoted himself to piety, composed a considerable number of ascetical works, and died in 1690.

The Latin text of the Morals on Job is printed in the Benedictine edition of the Works of St. Gregory. It is probable, that the manuscript of La Cava was not unknown to them.

2 Б

VOL. I.

PLATE CXXXIV.

CAROLINE MINUSCULE WRITING.

XTH CENTURY.

THE LATIN BIBLE OF THE MARECHAL DE NOAILLES.

AT the period of the commencement of the second race of the Frankish monarchs, the Latin characters which had been generally used in France during the preceding dynasty, and thence called Merovingian, were gradually replaced by others, more analogous to the ancient types, named Caroline, or renovated minuscule, characters.

History has preserved undoubted evidence of the influence exercised by the genius of Charlemagne in effecting this reformation, notwithstanding the efforts made by various learned Italians to deny that the restoration of the ancient Roman characters was effected in France, and thence transmitted to Italy. On the other hand, the Marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, p. 377) asserts, that the French borrowed this renovated minuscule from Italy, the first specimens of which might have been furnished them by the manuscripts sent by Pope Paul I. to Pepin, the father of Charlemagne ; moreover, observes the same author (Opusc. Eccles., p. 60), Charlemagne carried the Gallican writing from Rome into France.

An impartial consideration of the facts connected with the subject will alone determine this question of national pretensions. It is certain, that there exist manuscripts written in France, as well as in Italy, in Roman minuscule characters, anterior to the time of Charlemagne; and it is not less certain, that in the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne the Lombardic character was usually employed in Italy; in the ninth century, the Latin minus

cule, renovated in France, came into general use in England, Germany, and other countries, (where it was called Gallican,) and even at Rome, as is proved by the Bible of the monastery of St. Paul, written during the lifetime of Charlemagne, and various other volumes in the Vatican library executed in Italy, written in the beautiful Caroline character. From these facts is derived the judgment pronounced by Mabillon, that Charlemagne was not the inventor of the renovated minuscule character, but that the reformation introduced by the general use of the small renovated Roman minuscule is to be attributed to that prince, after whom it was termed Caroline writing. The example set by France in this respect was followed by every other nation subject to the Latin rule.

Subsequent to the eighth century, the Caroline writing became very common among the French scribes; it is, indeed, true, that at first it was somewhat intermingled with the Merovingian forms, but it became more regular and fixed during the reign of Charlemagne, and arrived at its highest state of elegance and perfection under his successors, in proportion as it lost all traces of the Merovingian style. We may hence deduce the pala ographic axiom, that the age of a manuscript, written in Caroline minuscules, is in inverse proportion to the perfection of this kind of writing which it exhibits.

Applied to the manuscript which has furnished the present fac-simile, this rule does not admit an earlier date to be assigned to it than the tenth century. The small Roman writing is exhibited in it in perfection, without any mixture, and in two sizes. It contains the entire Latin Bible, written on vellum, with two columns in a page, and is ornamented with a great number of outline drawings, some of which are

*No proof at all, since there is every reason to believe that the Bible of St. Paul's monastery was executed in France. See some account of this Bible in an article in the Gentleman's Magazine, for October, 1836, vol. ii., p. 581.-ED.

colored. The initial D is a very fine, large Franco-gallic capital, the upright portion of which is embroidered, with its extremities knotted, and terminating in heads of animals, united by an interlaced pattern; the curved part of the letter is also embroidered and knotted. The detached letters B and S are in the same style. The D is the first letter of the words, DESIDERII MEI DESIDERATAS accepi epistolas; the letters ESIDE being alternately red+ and black, the first being an uncial, and the others Roman capitals. The line following is in small rustic narrow capitals, alternately black and red; the transverse strokes being circumflexed, whilst the middle bar of the A is omitted.

The subjects figured in the Plate are accompanied by legends in a small, detached, round, and well-proportioned Caroline hand. The first legend is to be read, "Ubi Dns [Dominus] plasmat Adam." Here the Lord forms Adam. The other figures are also taken from the first chapters of the Old Testament.

A Bull of Pope Innocent II., of the year 1130, inserted in the third volume of this Bible, confirming the privileges of the monastery of St. Peter de Rodis, would lead us to infer that this manuscript formerly belonged to the Abbey of San Pedro de Rosas, in the ancient territory of the Ampurdan, in Catalonia. It passed from the library of the Maréchal de Noailles into the Bibliothèque Royale at Paris. (Fond Latin, No. 6.)

* From a comparison of these drawings with those in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, particularly in the Cadmon (Archæologia, vol. xxiv.), it would appear probable, that this volume is the work of an Anglo-Saxon artist and scribe, and, consequently, out of place here.-ED.

In the French text they are, erroneously, said to be white and black. -ED.

END OF VOL. 1.

LONDON PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SON, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.