*

the Scholia of Jacob of Edessa, and Mr. Bensley of Cambridge on the Fourth Book of Maccabees.

There is one rather remarkable feature which distinguishes the Syriac MSS. from those of Greek and Latin works. It is seldom that we can ascertain with precision the exact date of a classical or Biblical MS. It is usually only by comparing the different characters, and judging by some manuscripts whose age happens to be known, that an approximation is made to the true date in other cases; and men like Sir F. Madden and Mr. Coxe of the Bodleian, attain to an astonishing degree of accuracy and certainty in these guesses. But the Syriac scribes are determined that no such difficulties shall occur in their case, for they usually add a Colophon to their labours to state the month and year in which those labours came to an end, and occasionally they even inform posterity of the very hour of the termination of their task. Thus in a MS. (Add. MSS., No. 14,489) the scribe closes his labours thus: :

"This Synaxarion of the Lessons and Gospels, according to the order of the Greeks, is written and finished. For the honour and praise and to the magnifying of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the year one thousand and three hundred and fifty-seven, according to the reckoning of the Greeks (A.D. 1046), in the month Canun-the first Canun-on the sixth day of that month, on the Sabbath day (Saturday), at three o'clock in the day, in the Holy Convent of Mar Elias.'

This Colophon has been given in facsimile by Dr. Land, plate xi. Sometimes these Colophons exhibit a tendency to enigmatical methods of expression, as in the colophon found in the 'Cyril' published by Mr. Payne Smith, which runs thus:—

'Lord, let not the five pairs (fingers) be defrauded of their reward, which have laboured to sow thy seed by means of pigments in the field of a beast (parchment), by the wings of a bird (pens), and the help of God.'

The following, which occurs in a Syriac version of the Psalms, is of a similar character, but rather more elegant :

'Lord, refuse not the reward of the five sisters which have wrought in thy vineyard, but may they be in joy with the five virgins who have entered into the marriage-chamber. Amen.'

Occasionally the scribes give their own character, and it cannot be said of them that they are guilty of flattery to themselves, e. g. :

*This work has been published since these remarks were written. The text is carefully edited, but we have not had an opportunity of examining the translation.

'The

The scribe who wrote this is a poor paralytic sinner, mere filth and offscouring, and the dung of dung-heaps, and the dirt of every one's feet, and unworthy to have his name recorded.'

(Which, however, he takes care to add, viz. Salibi.)

The following is of a different class of Colophon:

'As the sailor is glad when he comes to a place of tranquillity, so the scribe is glad when he comes to the end of the book.'

As we hope the reader may not follow the example of this last scribe, we will be very brief in our concluding words. We must not, however, conclude these observations on the Syriac literature of our own day without expressing our grief for the heavy loss which the world has sustained in the death of Dr. Cureton. His place in that department of literature it will not be easy to supply. With a wide and accurate knowledge of the language he united a practical experience, which rendered that knowledge doubly valuable. He was always considered to stand at the head of the Syriac scholars of this country, a position to which both his acquirements and his publications justly entitled him. Even while these sheets are passing through the press another noble monument of Dr. Cureton's learning and zeal in his favourite pursuit has been given to the world in a posthumous work. It is entitled 'Ancient Syriac Documents, relative to the earliest establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the neighbouring countries, from the year of our Lord's Ascension to the fourth century.' It is a volume of the deepest interest to every student of early Church History. As the Syriac text only occupies about one-third of the volume, while the rest (about 200 pages) contains an English translation and notes, this work is available to every reader of Ecclesiastical History. When we state that its publication was far advanced under Dr. Cureton's own superintendence, and completed under that of Dr. Wright, we have said enough to prove that the volume deserves a place in every library in England which recognises Ecclesiastical History as an important branch of study.

We cannot help thinking that the statements which we have now made are calculated to show that the Nitrian relics have found a resting-place, in which they have been fully appreciated. Paris is rich in Syriac MSS.; but they are comparatively little known, because they are not arranged and catalogued so as to be easily accessible. We have shown that in this respect the Trustees of the Museum have made great exertions, and that if the good work is carried on for a few years and Dr. Wright's Catalogue is published in a manner worthy of its importance, a new era for Syriac studies will have commenced. It is gratifying also to think that Vol. 117.-No. 233.

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a very

a very large proportion of the works rescued from the darkness of oblivion have been given to the world by our own countrymen. We hope that the consideration of the honour which may be gained for England, if she still continues in the van of this honourable rivalry, and the disgrace, which must be her portion, if, with the advantages of such a collection as this in her metropolis, she lags behind other nations, may give a new impulse to the study of a language, which is probably the nearest representative of the dialect of Palestine in the time of our Saviour. When the importance of these studies in a Biblical point of view is better known, there may be a little more encouragement given to them in high quarters. A great deal remains to be done for Syriac. There are many works still awaiting an editor in this collection.* The laws of construction have to be more fully ascertained, and a Lexicon, adequate to the present wants of scholars, must be supplied. With regard to the translations of Greek authors, which are found in Syriac, we are inclined to believe that the mode of translation of the Syriac writers was loose and inaccurate, and that in many instances they abridged and curtailed the text of the authors on whom they operated. But every fresh publication gives us a better hope of judging of their general character, and we must be content to suspend our judgment for a time. There is also another desideratum, which is a critical edition of the Peshito version of the Bible. present the text is in a most unsatisfactory state, and it is difficult to find materials for a true judgment on the point.f Here, again, we must be content to wait; but as England led the way to a critical edition of the Hebrew Scriptures, we will hope that she may still keep her place in this honourable struggle. Germany is alive to its importance; we will hope that the possessors of the rich stores from the Desert of Scete will not be behind the scholars of that country. The researches which have already been made have thrown considerable light upon the reign of Justin II. and Tiberius; they have revealed circumstances hitherto unknown regarding the most important Council ever held, the Council of Nicæa; they have restored to us one lost treatise of Eusebius; a series of Epistles from Athanasius, hitherto known only in minute fragments; and they have given to us the greatest work of Titus of Bostra in its full proportions; not to mention a vast variety of smaller treatises by the

At

* Dr. Wright is printing in the Journal of Sacred Literature' the 'Transitus Beatæ Virginis;' and intends to publish all the Apocryphal Books of the N.T. †There is a very valuable brochure by an Hungarian Jew on this subject. 'Meletemata Peschitthoniana,' &c., auctor Josephus Perles. Vratislaviæ, 1859.

great

great men of old, and many translations of the great works of antiquity. Where results so great as these have been achieved in twenty years, we will earnestly hope that the next few years will put the finishing touches to this large redemption of literary treasures from the neglect and oblivion of their former abode.

ART. VII.-1. Servia and the Servians. By the Rev. W. Denton, M.A. London, 1863.

2. Treaties and Hatti-Sheriff's relating to Servia. Presented to both Houses of Parliament.

3. Treaty of Paris, 1856.

4. The Condition of Turkey and her Dependencies. Speech in the House of Commons, May 29, 1863. By A. H. Layard, Esq., M.P.

F the mixed elements of which the population of Turkey

numerous and the most important. The origin and early history of this people is involved in much obscurity, but there is no doubt that they made their first appearance on the borders of the Roman empire about the year 527, when they invaded the Greek provinces, defeated the imperial legions, and devastated the country extending from the Ionian Sea to the walls of Constantinople. They besieged the capital itself; and Belisarius succeeded, rather by presents than by force, in removing them to a distance from the seat of empire. We find them shortly afterwards extensively settled on the banks of the Danube, sometimes enlisting in the Roman armies, but more frequently ravaging the provinces and alarming by their inroads even the Byzantine court. In the seventh century, having entered into an alliance with the Emperors of Constantinople, they entered Illyria and founded the colonies of Slavonia, Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, and Dalmatia; and, by the end of the eighth century, large numbers had become established in Thrace and in Mosia. Meanwhile, many remained in the North. The nationality of the Slavonians has not been destroyed either by dispersion, subjection, or by time. The various dialects still preserve so strong an affinity that it has been said a Slavonian residing on the shores of the Frozen Sea can understand the language of one living on the coasts of the Adriatic; but on the borders of the Baltic and on the banks of the Elbe the Slavonian language has been long superseded by the German. At some remote period the whole Slavonic race doubtless spoke the same language, which separated into different dialects after the nation had split into tribes and commenced that migratory process by which their territories

N 2

territories became so greatly enlarged. The language is supposed to have had an Indian origin from the great number of Sanscrit words which it contains. It is considered by Niebuhr almost perfect in its grammatical structure, but it has been considerably modified in the south of Europe by an admixture with Italian, Turkish, and Greek.

About the middle of the seventh century a Slavonic tribe settled in the Roman province of Mosia and gave its name to the country which afterwards became the kingdom of Servia. The boundaries were gradually extended until a kingdom grew into an empire; for, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the sovereignty of the Servian kings was acknowledged from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, Slavonia Proper, Bulgaria, and Dalmatia were all subject to their rule. The empire had been even more extensive, for in the tenth century the Magyars drove the Servians from Hungary and erected there a kingdom of their own.

The enmity which for some time existed between the Greeks of the lower empire and the Servian people, although they professed a common Christianity, greatly facilitated the progress of the Turks in Europe. So commanding was the power of Stephen Dushan, the greatest of the Servian monarchs, whose banners bore the Imperial double eagle, that he even entertained the design of putting himself at the head of an army of eighty thousand men and of marching on Constantinople to put an end to the effete Byzantine Empire. Political jealousies and theological animosities undoubtedly prevented that alliance between the Greek and Servian empires which might have presented an invincible barrier to the progress of the Ottoman armies, and perhaps have eventually compelled them to recross the Hellespont. Although the great Servian emperor once meditated giving the deathblow to the palsied Greek empire, and extending his vigorous sway over the whole of Eastern Europe, his successors had to look to their own kingdom, and to protect it against an enemy which had been heedlessly overlooked. A Greek emperor, harassed by provincial insurrections and distracted by religious and political strife, invited a Mahomedan caliph encamped on the slopes of the Caucasus to come to the support of his tottering throne, but only to find that instead of to an ally he had opened the gates of his distracted dominions to a conqueror.

The Slavonian countries which were subject to the ancient emperors of Servia are now somewhat unequally divided between Austria and Turkey. Aspirations for a revival of Slavonian nationality have frequently manifested themselves with more or

less