b o o k Confpicuous are count Magnus de laGardie, and Sparwenfieldt,
i . ' . the learned traveller % whofe curious colledlion, confiding^
among others, o f many rare Arabian, Syriac, and Coptic
manulcripts, has been thought worthy o f a feparate publi-
* cation.
Among the moft valuable pieces o f literary curiofity is a
manufcript of the Four Gofpels, called, from its filver letters,
the Codex A r g e n te u sand which is fuppofed to be a copy of
the Gothick tranilation made by Ulphilas, the apoftle o f the
<Joths in the fourth century. I examined this curious volume
with great attention. It is of a quarto fiz e ; the leaves,
which I fcarcely know whether to call vellum, parchment,
o f papyrus -f, are ftained with a violet colour ; and upon this
ground the letters, which are all capitals, were afterwards
painted in filver, excepting the initial characters and a few
paffages in gold. I was convinced, from a clofe infpection,
that each letter was painted, and not formed f, as fome authors
have afferted, by a hot iron upon leaves o f gold and
filver. Moft o f the golden characters were become green
by time; but the filver letters are ftill in good prefervation.
The codex is mutilated in feveral places ; but what remains
is, for the moft part, perfectly legible.
This manufcript was, in 159 7 , firft difcovered in the library
of the BenediCtine Abbey o f Werden in Weftphalia, by
Anthony Marillon, who extracted from it a few paffages
■which were inferted in a Commentary on the Gothick alpha-
* Ca ta logus , C e n tu r ia L ib . R a r iff. & c .
f L e L o n g B ib . S a e .cw b e re it ìs ca lled
•by different perfons C o d e x Memhranaceus ,
t^odicèm in pergameno, -Codex in papyro
e x a ra tu s . In th è Bib U p . C o d e x memb
r a n a rubra , p . 1 1 6 . B y M ich a elis , a .ma*
nu fc ript on v ellum , p . .160..
J T h e y appeared to me to b e drawn, or
pa inted, in the fame manner as the initial
letters in feveral o f th e fineft Miffals, and
not ftamp.ed, as .the learned M r . Ihre conje
ctu res , o r imprinted on the vellum with
•hot metal typ e s , in the lik e manner as the
bookbinders at .prefent le tte r the backs of
b o o k s . See N o r th . A n t . V o l. I . p . 367.
bet
Bet piiblifhed by Bonaventura Vulcanius;- Soon afterwards CHAP-
Arnold Mercator obferved it in the fame library, and tran- * ^ -
fcribed alfo a few verfes which Gruter ® gave to the world in
his Infcriptiones Antique. From the Abbey of Werden it
was transferred to Prague during the fhort period in which
that town was occupied by Frederick EleCtor Palatine. In
1.648, Prague being ftormed by the Swedes, it was found
among the literary fpoils by count Konigfmark, and fent as a
moft valuable prefent to Chriftina. The queen is faid to have;
given it to Ifaae Voffius; but i t is moft probable that the
crafty Dutchman took it without permiffion, among many
other rare books and. manulcripts, when he pillaged t her
majefty’s-library during the confufion which preceded her
abdication. Upon the death o f Voffius it was purchafed from:
his executor, by count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie for about
¿250, and prefented, by him. ta the univerftty o f Upfala,
where it now remains.
Three editions o f this Codex Argentdus have been given
to the publick, the firft printed at Dort, the fecond at Stockholm,
and the third at Oxford. The firft was iifued at Dort
m 1665, by Francis J.unius,;.who borrowed the- manufcripts-
from Voffius,. and was accompanied with Obfervations and a;
Gloflary, by. Thomas Marihall. In this edition the. text was
a.fac.-Jlmile of. the original §,.
* G ru te r In f . A n t . p.- 146 ;.. H e ca lls i t
Goth ica v el G erman ica. T h e curious reader,. ,
who compares the te x t in G ru te r w ith that
o f the fimilar- paffages in L y e , ,w ill obferve
confidei.able inaccuracies in the former.
t Mémoires d e C h r ift in e , vol I . p . 30.8.
It» the lib ra ry at Le yden is ftill preferved a
curious collection, ca lled F u r ta VoJJiana.,
which.he .is. fuppofed to h a ve pillaged from
CliriftlnaV library^..
§ A n o th e r impreffibn o f this-work is flip—
pofed to have been p rin ted at Amfte rdam in
1672 ; bu t this, is in re a lity th e lame,as th e
form e r , .with- no th in g more than ^another
title p a g e , affixing a new d a te and pU ce o f
impreffion, ac co rd in g to a fra u d n o t u n fro - -
qu en t among book fellers .
T t e