A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger / A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved / in the Pierpont Morgan Library New York

by E. A. Lowe; Edward Kennard Rand

10. St. Gall, 1394.—Gospels (n).

Traube, l.c., No. 60; Old Latin Biblical Texts, Vol. II, Oxford 1886; Palaeographical Society, II. pl. 50; Steffens¹, pl. 15; E. Chatelain, Uncialis scriptura, pl. I, 1; A. Chroust, Monumenta Palaeographica, XVII, pl. 3.

[Characteristics of the oldest uncial manuscripts] The main characteristics of the manuscripts included in the above list, which is by no means complete, may briefly be described thus:

1. General effect of compactness. This is the result of scriptura continua, which knows no separation of words and no punctuation. See the facsimiles cited above.

2. Precision in the mode of shading. The alternation of stressed and unstressed strokes is very regular. The two arcs of

are shaded not in the middle, as in Greek uncials, but in the lower left and upper right parts of the letter, so that the space enclosed by the two arcs resembles an ellipse leaning to the left at an angle of about 45°, thus

. What is true of the