L Of the Constituent Parts of Books, and the ences of Editions.
The history of the Materials employed to make Books, of the arts of Writing and Printing upon these materials, and of the Forms and Sizes in which they have appeared, all belong to this head of inquiry.' Almost the whole of these particulars have fur nished topics for much elaborate research ; and some of them for speculations and disputes not yet likely to come to any satisfactory conclusion ; but as our • main object at present is, to indicate the inquiries which belong to the different departments of Bibliography, together with the best guides to information in each, our notices of these subjects here, must be limited to what is necessary for that purpose. Most of them, indeed, necessarily form the subjects of separate articles in other parts of an Encyclopaedia.
Much curious learning has been exercised in de scribing the various substances used for writing, previous to the important discovery of the art of making Paper from linen rags. The precise era of this discovery is not known, nor are authors agreed as to the country in which it was made; bui it seems to be ascertained, that this kind of paper was in general use in Europe before the end of the fourteenth century. Cotton paper had been in general use more than a century before ; and though of greatly inferior quality, its introduction was one of the most fortunate circumstances in the history of the arti; for parchment had become so scarce, that old writings were often erased, in order to apply the parchment to other purposes ; and thus, by a metamorphosis of a singular and fatal kind, a Classic was sometimes transformed into a vapid homily or monkish legend. In this way, it is sup posed, that some valuable works of antiquity have perished ; and, indeed, there can be little doubt of this, when we consider the number of manuscripts that have been discovered, evidently written upon erased parchments. Upon some of them both writ ings remain legible, and, in this guise, some fragments of Cicero have lately been discovered. These twofold manuscripts are called Codices Rescripti. We shall quote from Mr Horne's Introduction to Bibliogra phy (Vol. I. p. 115), an account of a Codes Re scriptus, discovered about twenty-five years since, at Dublin, by Dr Barret of Trinity College. " While
he was examining different books in the Library of that College, he accidently met with a very ancient Greek MS., on certain leaves of which he observed a twofold writing, one ancient, and the other com paratively recent, transcribed over the former. The original writing had been greatly defaced, but, on close examination, he found that it consisted of the three following fragments the Prophet Isaiah, the Evangelist St Mathew, and certain orations of Gre gory Nazianzen. The fregment containing St Ma thew's gospel, Dr Barret carefully transcribed, and it has been accurately engraved in facsimile, and pub lished by the order, and at the expence, of the University. The original writing, or Codes Vetus, Dr Barret, with great probability, assigns to the sixth century ; the Codes Recens, or later writing, be at tributes to the thirteenth." That part of the history of Books which regards the various substances upon which they have been written, is compendiously, but learnedly, treated in the first volume of that very valuable work, the Now. veau Trait‘. de Diplomatique, compiled by two Be nedictines of the celebrated Society of St Maur. This work was published at Paris in 1750, in six vo lumes quarto. M. Peignot gives a complete list of separate works on this subject, in the introduction to his Essai sur rhistoire du Parchemin et du Velin, published at Paris in 1812.
The inquiry as to the origin of Writing, is a purely philosophical speculation ; but the knowledge of the different kinds of writing peculiar to different ages, is a branch of the history of Books which belongs to the province of Bibliography, and upon which much information will be found in the learned work of the Benedictines of St Maur, just referred to. One of the best Books on this subject is Mr Astle's Origin and Progress of Writing ; the first edition of which was published at London in 1784, and the second, with some additions, in 1802, both in one volume quarto. The chapters on the Transcribers and Illuminators, and the instruments, inks, and other matters which they made use of in their operations, will be found peculiarly interesting to the Bibliographer.