Columbanus, in Bobio, iu the alilanese territory, having been pur chased by Pins V., who appears to have been acquainted with its value as a palimpsest; yet no attempt was made to decipher it till two and a half centuries later, when Cardinal Mai brought out his famous edition at Rome in 1821. Tide manuscript, which contains 300 pages, is in double columns, each consisting of fifteen lines. The writing is in fine, large, 'lomat) uncials, the words not divided. It is clearly ono of the earliest palimpsest MSS. yet discovered, and is referred by Cardinal Mai to the 2nd or 3rd century of our era. Above the treatise was a copy of St. Augustine's Comment:try ou the Psalms, in a handwriting earlier than that of the lath century.
These researches of Cardinal Mai gave a new zest to the study of palimpsest writingn, and shortly after Niebuhr examined several of tho manuscripts in tho library of the chapter at Verona, one of which was discovered by him to contain a palimpsest of some ancient jurisconsult, which he suggested to be the Institutions of Gains, a conjecture which was verified by the Berlin Academy of Sciences, under whose auspices the first edition of this work appeared in 1920, scarcely a ninth of the whole book having been found illegible. This palimpsest is more titularly interesting in a palreographical point of view from having been twice rescribed. The uppermost of the three writings, com prising 26 Epistles of St. Jerome, is in the uncial character. As to the age of the original manuscript, Niebuhr, who is supported by Kopp, conjectures it to be anterior to the time of Justinian.
The greater number of -the very ancient palimpsest manuscripts which are preservedin the Vatican, and in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, as well as those at Turin, in which remains of the classical authors have been found, were originally brought from the monastery of St. Columbanus at Bobio, founded by the famous Irish saint, and are inscribed Liber Sancti Columbani de Bobio.' Numerous examina tions have lately been made of the Latin and Greek manuscripts at Paris, and many palimpsests have been discovered, but none containing texts of importance.
In the British Museum is a palimpsest of the Mad, written on vellum, in fine, square, Greek uncials with accents and breathings, not later than the 6th century ; it contains about 4000 lines, the upper most text being Syriac, probably of the 9th century.
To another Syriac manuscript contained in the same library, we likewise owe the important addition to classical literature of portions of the annals of Gains Granius Licinianus. In the year 1847, the authorities of the British Museum purchased from M. Pacho a number of Syriac manuscripts, and fragments of manuscripts, which had formerly belonged to the monastery of S. Maria Dcipara, in Nitria (the valley of the lake of Nitron). Amongst these was one containing fragments of sermons of St. Chrysostom, written in Syriac, probably about the 9th century, or rather later. On examination, several leaves of this manuscript proved to be palimpsest ; and closer research revealed the fact, that prior to these Syriac sermons, the vellum had already received two earlier texts. The most ancient of these texts written in an uncial character, probably of the 4th century, was found to contain portions of the Annals of Licinianus. These were edited in 1857 by Dr. Karl Fertz, under the title,' Gai Grani Liciniani Annalium qua) supersunt, ex codiee ter scripto /flusei Britannici Londinensis.' In the following year the text, as furnished by Pertz, was more carefully re-edited by seven scholars of the University of Bonn, under the title, Omni Liciniani qua) supersunt emendatiora edidit Philolo gorum Bonnensium Heptas.' The later of the two texts appears to be a-grammatical treatise written in a cursive hand of the 7th or 8th century. It is much to be regretted that the chemical agency applied to this palimpsest for the purpose of rendering it more easily read, though successful for the moment, has ultimately caused many of the originally faint traces of letters to become absolutely illegible. This should act as a warning of the extreme caution necessary in employ ing powerful re-agents in similar cases.