NOTE.
The following Note as to the MSS. at the British Museum may save a future enquirer a little trouble.
(1) 10 B. XV. is a MS. about 11 inches by 8, written in a fine bold hand, and fills 157 folios, of which 134 belong to the 'Variae' and 23 to the 'Institutiones Divinarum Litterarum.' There are also two folios at the end which I have not deciphered. The MS. is assigned to the Thirteenth Century. The title of the [First] Book is interesting, because it contains the description of Cassiodorus' official rank, 'Ex Magistri Officii,' which Mommsen seems to have looked for in the MSS. in vain. The MS. contains the first Three Books complete, but only 39 letters of the [Fourth]. Letters [40]-51 of the [Fourth Book], and the whole of the [Fifth], [Sixth], and [Seventh] Books, are missing. It then goes on to the [Eighth] Book (which it calls the Fifth), but omits the first five letters. The remaining 28 appear to be copied satisfactorily. The [Ninth], [Tenth], [Eleventh], and [Twelfth] Books, which the transcriber calls the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, seem to be on the whole correctly copied.
There seems to be a certain degree of correspondence between the readings of this MS. and those of the Leyden MS. of the Twelfth Century (formerly at Fulda) which are described by Ludwig Tross in his 'Symbolae Criticae' (Hammone, 1853).
(2) 8 B. XIX. is a MS. also of the Thirteenth Century, in a smaller hand than the foregoing. The margins are very large, but the Codex measures only 6-3/4 inches by 4-1/4. The rubricated titles are of somewhat later date than the body of the text. The initial letters are elaborately illuminated. This MS. contains, in a mutilated state and in a peculiar order, the books from the [Eighth] to the [Twelfth]. The following is the order in which the books are placed:
| [IX.] | [8]-25, | folios | 1-14. |
| [X.] | " | 14-33. | |
| [XI.] | " | 33-63. | |
| [XII.] | " | 63-83. | |
| [VIII.] | " | 83-126. | |
| [IX.] | [1]-7, | " | 126-134. |
The amanuensis, who has evidently been a thoroughly dishonest worker, constantly omits whole letters, from which however he sometimes extracts a sentence or two, which he tacks on to the end of some preceding letter without regard to the sense. This process makes it exceedingly difficult to collate the MS. with the printed text. Owing to the [Eighth] Book being inserted after the [Twelfth], it is erroneously labelled on the back, 'Cassiodori Senatoris Epistolae, Lib. X-XIII.'
(3) 10 B. IV. (also of the Thirteenth Century, and measuring 11 inches by 8) contains, in a tolerably complete state, the first Three Books of the 'Variae,' [Book IV.] [5]-39, [Book VIII.] [1]-12, and Books [X]-XII. The order, however, is transposed, Books [IV.] and [VIII.] coming after Book [XII.] These excerpts from Cassiodorus, which occupy folios 66 to 134 of the MS., are preceded by some collections relative to the Civil and Canon Law. The letters which are copied seem to be carefully and conscientiously done.
These three MSS. are all in the King's Library.