SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
The Codex Alexandrinus in Reduced Facsimile. (British Museum. 30s.)—This manuscript, which came to England as a New ear's gift to Charles I. from Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople, belongs probably to the first half of the fifth century. It contains the Old and New Testament, lees some lost portions, of which St. Matthew as far as xxv. 6 is the most considerable, and the Clementine Epistles. The facsimile before us contains the New Testament and the Clementines on a reduced scale (8 in. by 61 in. as com- pared with 121 in. by 8t in., working out at nearly a half). Mr. F. G. Kenyon gives an account of the MS., which appears to have been the work of five strikes, with various interesting particulars as to number of lines, ruling, initial letters, and the condition of the vellum and the ink. Of these details perhaps the most important is that referring to corrections. These seem to have been made by the original scribes and by two hands, distinguish- able from the five, but not materially later in date. There are.some restorations of faded ink—inks varied in quality then as now—in comparatively recent times. There is something enlightening in the aspect of the volume. One gets an idea of what is meant by " painful learning."
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