BOOK III, GROUP OF Platt's Journal; abridged, as above. favourite methods of negotiation much resembled those of Mr. CURZON. The Archdeacon soon returned,' says Miss PLATT, followed by MAHOMMED and one of the Bedouins, bearing a large sack full of splendid Syriac MSS. on vellum. They were safely deposited in the tent.' At Amba-Bischoi a successful bargain was struck for an old Pentateuch in Coptic and Arabic, and a beautiful Coptic Evangeliary. On the next day, 'Mahommed brought from the priests a Soriana, a stupendous volume, beautifully written in the Syriac characters, with a very old wormeaten copy of the Pentateuch from Amba-Bischoi, exceedingly valuable, but not quite perfect.' The remainder of the story, or rather the greater part of what remains, must here be more concisely told than in the words of the reviewer. The manuscripts which Mr. TATTAM has thus obtained, in due time arrived in England. Such of them as were in the Syriac language were disposed of to the Trustees of the British Museum. . . Forty-nine manuscripts of extreme antiquity, containing some valuable works long since supposed to have perished, and versions of others written several centuries earlier than any copies of the original texts now known to exist, constituted such an addition as has been rarely, if ever, made at one time to any Library. The collection of Syriac MSS. procured by Mr. RICH had already made the Library of the British Museum conspicuous for this class of literature; but the treasure of manuscripts from Egypt rendered it superior to any in Europe. From the accounts which Lord PRUDHOE, Mr. CURZON, and Mr. TATTAM had given of their visits to the Monastery of the Syrians, it was evident that but few of the manuscripts belonging to it had been removed since the time of ASSEMANI; and probable that no less a number than Chap. IV. GISTS AND EXPLORERS. nearly two hundred volumes must be still remaining in the BOOK III, hands of the monks. Moreover, from several notes in the manuscripts. . already brought to England, it was certain that most of them must be of very considerable antiquity In several of these notices, MOSES of Tecrit states that, in the year 932, he brought into the convent from Mesopotamia about two hundred and fifty volumes. As there was no evidence whatever to show that even so many as one hundred of these MSS. had ever been taken away (for those which were procured for the Papal Library by the two ASSEMANI, added to those which Mr. CURZON and Mr. TATTAM had brought to England, do not amount to that number), there was sufficient ground for supposing that the Convent of the Syrians still possessed not fewer than about one hundred and fifty volumes, which, at the latest, must have been written before the tenth century. Application, accordingly, was made by the Trustees to the Treasury; a sum was granted to enable them to send TREASURY again into Egypt, and Mr. TATTAM readily undertook the 1841, FOR commission. The time was most opportune. Had much more SEARCHES. delay been interposed, these manuscripts, which, perhaps, constitute the greatest accession of valuable literature which has been brought from the East into Europe since the taking of Constantinople, would, in all probability, have Quart been now the pride of the Imperial Library at Paris. GRANT, IN FURTHER RE Review, as before. TATTAM'S IN 1842. Mr. TATTAM thought he could work most effectively MR. through the influence of a neighbouring Sheikh with the superior of the convent. By which means he obtained, after some delays, a promise that all the Syriac MSS. should be taken to the Sheikh's house, and there bargained for. My servant,' he says, 'had taken ten men and eight donkeys from the village; had conveyed them, and already bargained for them, which bargain I confirmed. That night BOOK III, Chap. IV. ANOTHER GROUP OF GISTS AND TISCHEN DORF'S VISIT PACHO'S NEGOTIA TION FOR VERY OF THE MSS. WITH HELD BY THE .... way to we carried our boxes, paper, and string, and packed them all. Before ten in the morning they were on their Alexandria.' But, as will be seen in the sequel, the monks were too crafty for Mr. TATTAM to cope with. In 1844, TISCHENDORF visited the monasteries already explored by CURZON and TATTAM. His account reproduces the old characteristics: Manuscripts heaped indiscriminately together, lying on the ground, or thrown into large baskets, beneath masses of dust. . . . . The excessive suspicion of these monks renders it extremely difficult to induce them to produce their MSS., in spite of the extreme penury which surrounds them. But much might yet be found to reward the labour of the searcher.' In truth, the monks, poor and simple as they sometimes seemed to be, had taken very sufficient care to keep enough of literary treasures in their hands to reward 'further researches.' Nearly half of their collection seems to have been withheld. A certain clever Mr. PACHO now entered on the scene as a negotiator for the obtainment or recovery of the missing 'treasures of the tombs.' They had been virtually purchased before, but the Lords of the Treasury very wisely re-opened the public purse, and at length secured for the Nation an inestimable possession. The new accession completed, or went far towards completing, many MSS. which before See page 622, were tantalizingly imperfect. It supplied a second ancient of the famous Ignatian Epistles (to St. Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the Romans); many fragments of palimpsest manuscripts of great antiquity, and among them the greater part of St. Luke's Gospel in Greek; and about four thousand lines of the Iliad, written in a fine square uncial letter, apparently not later than the sixth century. The total number of volumes thus added to the in this Chapter. copy previous Nitrian Collections were calculated, roundly, to be BOOK III. from a hundred and forty to a hundred and fifty. Chap. IV. ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHEOLO EXPLORERS. WILLIAM AND HIS ORIENTAL That the rich accession to our sacred literature, thus GISTS AND made amidst many obstacles, should be turned speedily to public advantage, two conditions had to be fulfilled. CURETON Skilful labour had first to be employed in the arrangement of a mass of fragments. Scholars competently prepared, by previous studies in Oriental literature and more especially in Syriac, must then get to work on their transcription, their gloss, and their publication. It could scarcely have been expected, beforehand, that any one man would be able to undertake both tasks, and to keep them, for some years to come, well abreast. The fact, however, proved to be so. The right man was already in the right place for the work that was to be done. The late William CURETON had entered the service of the Trustees of the British Museum in 1837, at the age of twenty-nine, when he had been already for about eight years in holy orders. He was a native of Westbury, in Shropshire. His education, begun at Newport School, had been matured at Christ-Church, Oxford. He had been just about to enter himself at Christ-Church in the ordinary way, when his father died, suddenly, leaving the family fortunes under considerable embarrassment. CURETON, and a brother of his, showed the metal they were both made of, by instantly changing their youthful plans. That the whole of the diminished patrimony might be at their mother's sole disposal, William CURETON went to Oxford as a servitor. His brother, instead of waiting for his expected commission in the Army, enlisted as a private dragoon. And certainly, in the issue, neither of these young men lost any 'dignity'—in any sense of that word— Book III, Chap. IV. ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHEOLO GISTS AND CURETON'S INTO THE on account of the step so unselfishly taken at their start in life. he William CURETON began his literary labours as a Coadjutor-Under-Librarian in old Bodley. Dr. GAISFORD introduced him to Dr. BANDINEL, in 1834, with the words: -'I bring you a good son. He will make a good librarian.' It was at Oxford that he laid the substantial foundation of his Oriental studies. After three years, followed the fashion already set him by some of the best and ablest officers the Bodleian has ever had-ELLIS, BABER, and H. O. CoxE, for example-by transferring, for a time, his services from the great Library of Oxford to that of London. His first (or nearly his first) Museum task was to set to work on the cataloguing of the Arabic and Persian MSS. In 1842, he began his earliest Oriental publication (undertaken for the 'Oriental Text Society,' to be mentioned presently), namely, AL SHARASTANI'S Book of Religious and of Philosophical Sects.' At the British Museum, he became quite as notable for the amiability of his character, and the genial frankness of his manners, as for his scholarly attainments and his power of authorship. I have a vivid recollection of my own introduction to him, in the February of 1839, and of the impression made on me by his kindly and cordial greeting. When I noted that pleasant face, which beamed with good nature as well as with intellect, I instantly appreciated the force of the words used by my introducer: Let me make you known,' said he, to my father-confessor.' I thought the choice to be obviously a felicitous one. Not less vivid is my memory of the delight Mr. CURETON manifested on receiving, within the Museum vaults, the first importation from the Nitrian Desert. The sight of such a mass of torn, disorderly, and dirty fragments, would have appalled many |