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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CIRCULARS Published with the approbation of the Board of Trustees VOL. V.—No. 46.] BALTIMORE, JANUARY, 1886. [PRICE, 10 CENTS. RECENT PUBLICATIONS. Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made Reproduction in Phototype of a Syriac Manuscript by PROFESSOR H. A. ROWLAND. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1886). (Williams MS.) with the Antilegomena Epistles. Edited by IsAAC H. HALL. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1886). [Froma letter to Science, New York, December 18, 1885]. The photographic map of the spectrum, upon which Professor Rowland [Froman article by I. H. Hall in the Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and has expended so much hard work during the past three years, is nearly Exegesis for 1885, with additions]. ready for publication. The map is issued in a series of seven plates, cover- In September last (1884) I announced in The Independent the discovery ing the region from wave-length 3100 to 5790. Each plate is three feet of a manuscript of the Acts and Epistles, among which occur also the long and one foot wide, and contains two strips of the spectrum, except Epistles that were antilegomena among the Syrians; namely the Second plate No. 2, which contains three. Most of the plates are on a scalethree Epistle of Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of John, and the Epistle of times that of Angstrdm’s map, and in definition are more than equal to any Jude, in the version usually printed with our Peshitto New Testaments. It map yet published, at least to wave-length 5325. The 1474 line is widely is well known that the printed copies of these Epistles in that version all double, as also are b rest upon one manuscriptonly, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England, 3 and b4, while E may be recognized as double by the from which they were first published by Edward Pococke (Leyden, Elzevirs) expert. In the region of the H line these photographs show even more in 1630. That edition, with various editorial conjectures, is the parent of than Lockyer’s map of that region. Negatives have also been prepared all the printed texts. In a former article in the Journal of the Society of down to and including the B group, and they may be made ready for Biblical Exegesis and Literature I have already expressed my opinion that publication, one of which shows eleven lines between the D lines. A they actually belong to the Philoxenian version. scale of wave-lengths is printed on each plate, and in no case does the By hunting over the catalogues of manuscript.s in the European libraries, error due to displacement of the scale amount to one part in fifty thousand. I found that the Pococke MS., though tIme only one practically known to the The wave-lengths of over 200 lines have been determined to within one critics, is not absolutely the only other known MS. copy containing that part in five hundred thousand, and these serve as reference lines to cor- version of these epistles. All that are known at present are about six or rect any small error in the adjustment of the scale: The great value seven in number, and are of values greatly varying; some being copies of of such a map lies not only in the fact that it gives greater detail and others, and one being nothin, more than a copy of the printed text of the is more exact than any other map in existence, but that it actually repre- Paris Polyglott. But this one found by me is the second one likely to be sents the real appearance of the spectrum in givin, the relative intensities available to the critics. and shading of groups of lines so that they are readily recognizable. The The manuscript was obtained some fifteen years ago by the late Rev. photographs were taken with a concave grating six inches in diameter, and William Frederic Williams, then missionary to Mardin, by whom it was having a radius of curvature of 21±feet, and the photographs were taken sent to his brother, Robert S. Williams, Esq, of Utica, New York, who is when the plate was placed directly opposite the grating; both the sensitive its present owner. Mr. Williams kindly placed the MS. at my service for plate and grating being perpendicular to a line joining their centres, and examination and study; when I discovered the nature of its contents. Just placed at a distance apart equal to the radius of curvature of the grating, where the MS. was obtained it is now impossible to say, as Mr. Williams’ the slit being on the circumference of the circle, whose diameter is the missionary work kept him on continual journeys. It was obtained from an distance between the grating and plate. With this arrangement, the spec- aged priest, who probably parted with it only because he was unable to read it. trum is photographed normal for wave-lengths without the intervention of The MS. is written on cotton paper, charta damascena., in a rather western any telescopes or lens systems; and a suitable scale of equal parts applied Syrian hand, in two columns to the page, and regularly twenty-five lines to such a photograph at once gives relative wave-lengths. to the column. One leaf, the first, is now gone; but it origi~ially contained Few persons have any idea of the perseverance and patience required to 150 leaves (of its proper matter), and two leaves more for a poem at the bring such a task to a successful issue. More than a year was devoted to end. The size of the leaf is 10±by 7±inches; of the columns, 8±by 5 preliminary experiments designed to discover the best mode of preparing inches. The quires are quisciones in the first part of the book, but in the the plates for the particular regions to be photo,raphed. Hundreds of latter part they are quaternioaes, except the last, which is a ternio. While preparations were tested to find their influence on the sensitized plate, and most of the manuscript is written on paper of double thickness, some por- the whole literature of photography was ransacked, and every method tested tions are written on paper of single thickness, which, probably from the to the utmost, before the work of taking the negatives could begin. glazing, has a darker color than the rest, and allows the ink to show through. The prices of the plates have been fixed as follows: But all is of the same age, as appears by many proofs. A later hand has For the set of seven plates unmounted, $10; mounted on cloth, $12. numbered the folios, in Syriac numerals. The MS. appears to be in its Single plates, $2 each; mounted on cloth, $2.25. A prospectus will be sent original binding (except a new back), leather, with a flap the board within on application. (See p. 39 of Oircmdar 45). the leather being composed of older Syriac MSS. 42 JOHNS HOPKINS [No. 46. The contents of the MS. are as follows: Tables to find the movable feasts, church-lesson titles and numbers within these books show also that the and also of the church-lessons from the Acts and Epistles; then the Acts antilegomena were read in church, by those who used the system here given. and Catholic Epistles, and the Pauline Epistles, in the usual order, ending It may be added for the sake of those who wish to know the space occupied with Hebrews. At the end of the Epistles is a colophon which says that it by these Epistles in the MS., that 2 Peter begins on fol. 57, b, col. 2, at the was finished at noon on Thursday, the fonrth of the sultry month Tammuz, middle, and ends at fol. 60, 6, col. 2, near the top; 2 John begins at fol. 64, in the year of the Greeks 1782; which answers to our July 4th, 1471; b, col. 1, one-third of tIme way down; 3 John begins at fol. 65, a, col. 1, one- which day indeed fell on a Thursday. After the colophon follows a poem fourth of the way down; Jude at fol 65, b, one-third of the way down, and of 128 lines, all ending with the same syllable (but hardly rhyming accord- ends at fol. 66, 6, one-third of the way down the page, its writing on this ing to our ideas), consisting of a hymn to the Trinity, and a narrative of the last page not running in columns, but carrying the lines across the page. construction of the manuscript. The scribe conceals his own name, but The titles and subscriptions to these Epistles are generally quite simple; shows himself to be a stranger in the land where it was written. The poem that of 2 John hem,, merely: “End. Verses forty.” is worth quoting at length for its matter. * * * * With regard to the text of these epistles, it is far better than that of the From various internal reasons I have been inclined to suppose that the Pococke Epistles, or of the (rather poor) manuscript which he used. Almost scribe was one of the St. Thomas, or Malabar Syriac Christians, on a visit all the places where Pococke saw error and lied to emend, or to suggest to his western brethren; one of a set like those later comers, who wrote the emendation, conjecturally, are right in this MS. Sometimes, however, it Leiden Apocalypse and a few other MSS.