VOLUME XII
Reading edition
PAGE
Javanese Manuscript (Colored Plate) Frontispiece
The Alexandrine Manuscript (Fac-simile) xii
Old Black-Letter Quarto (Fac-simile) 4726
"Charles I. Going to Execution" (Photogravure) 4730
"The Skater of the Zuyder Zee" (Photogravure) 4758
African Arabic Manuscript (Fac-simile) 4870
John Dryden (Portrait) 4920
Alexandre Dumas (Portrait) 4958
Alexandre Dumas, Fils (Portrait) 5002
VIGNETTE PORTRAITS
Denis Diderot Joseph Rodman Drake
Franz von Dingelstedt John William Draper
Isaac D'Israeli Michael Drayton
Austin Dobson Gustav Droz
Mary Mapes Dodge Henry Drummond
John Donne William Drummond
Feodor Dostoévsky Maxime Du Camp
A. Conan Doyle George du Maurier
Holger Drachmann Jean Victor Duruy
CODEX ALEXANDRINUS.
Fifth Century. British Museum.
The Alexandrine Manuscript of the Christian Scriptures is almost complete in both Testaments, the Septuagint version of the Old and the original Greek of the New. It consists of 773 sheets, 12¾ by 10¾ inches, of very thin gray goatskin vellum, written on both sides in two columns of faint but clear characters. It was made in the early part of the fifth century, under the supervision of Thecla, a noble Christian lady of Alexandria, in the fifth century. It was brought from Alexandria to Constantinople by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, who in 1624 gave it into the charge of the English Ambassador for presentation to King James I.; but owing to James' death before the presentation could be made, it was presented instead to Charles I. It remained in the possession of the English sovereigns until the Royal Library was presented to the nation by George II. in 1753. With the exception of the greater part of Matthew to Chapter xxv., two leaves of John, and three of Second Corinthians, it contains the whole Greek Bible, including the two Epistles of Clement of Rome, which in early times ranked among the inspired books. Its table of contents shows that it once included also the "Psalms of Solomon," though, from their position and title in the index, it is evident that they were regarded as standing apart from the other books. The Museum has bound the leaves of this precious manuscript in four volumes, and has had photographic copies made of each page for the use of students. The accompanying reproduction is from the last chapter of the First Epistle of John, from "His Son," in verse 9, to the end.
