46
LITERATURE
813. Cyphers, dip^ts, or figures in arithmetic invented by the Arabic moors.
813. The second council of Rheims,he1d under the auspices of Charlemagne, in which it wa.s enjoinea, " that the bishops and abbots should have the poor and indigent with thero at their tables ; there read aloud the scriptures ; and take their food with thanksgiving and praise.
814, January 28. Died the Emperor Charle- magne, after a reign of forty-seven or forty-eight years, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was interred at Aix-la-Chapelle, with all the pomp of imperial magnificence. His body was embalmed, and deposited in a vault, where it was seated on a throne of gold, and clothed in imperial habits, over the sackcloth which he usually wore. By his side hung a sword, of which the hilt and the ornaments of the scabbard were of gold, and a pilgrim's purse, that he used to carry in his journeys to Rome. In his hands he held the hooks of the Gospels, written in letters of gold ; his heai was ornamented vrith a chain of gold in the form of a diadem, in which was enclosed a piece of the wood of the true cross ; and his face was wound with a winding sheet. His sceptre and buckler, formed entirely of gold, and which had been consecrated by Pope Leo III. were suspended before him, and his sepulchre was closed and sealed, after being filled with various treasures and perfumes. A gilded arcade was erected over the place with th^ following translation in Latin.
" Beneath tliis tomb, is placed the body of the orthodox Emperor .Charles the Great, who valourously extended the kingdom of the Franks, and happily governed it xlvii. years. He died a Septuagenarian, January 28, 814." Pope Otho III. ordered the tomb to be opened, when the body was stripped of its royal ornaments, which had not been in the least injured by the hand of time. The Book of the Gospels, w'ritten on purple vellum, in characters of gold, found in the sepulchre, continues to be kept at Aix-la- Chapelle. With this volume, the imperial sword and hunting horn were also found. The copy of the Gospels interred with this "illustrious" sovereign of the Franks, appears to have been one of those executed by his order, and corrected according to the Greek and Syriac. In the library of the Church of St Germain-des-Prez, atParis, a Latin bible, in 2 vols, folio, is still kept, written on vellum, which bears the date of 814.
820. The writing, and many of the pictures and illuminations in our Saxon manuscripts were executed by the priests. A book of the Gospels, preserved in the Cotton library, is a fine specimen of Saxon calligraphy and decorations. It was written by Eadfrid, bishop of Durham, in the most exquisite manner. Ethel wold, his successor, did the illuminations, the capital letters, the pic- ture of the cross, and the evangelists, with infinite labour and elegance; and Bilfrid, the anchorete, covered the book, thus writtenand adorned, with gold and silver plates, and precious stones. All this is related by Aldred, the Saxon glossator, at the end of St. John's gospel.
The Jews practised the business of copying, and ffreatly excelled in fine and regular writing. But they confined their labours chiefly to the Old Testament, and their own religious boob. In some of the Hebrew manuscripts, executed by them, the letters are so equal, that they seem to have been printed. Even at present, as Mr. Butler remarks, " those who have not seen the rolls used in the synagogues, can have no con- ception of the exquisite beauty, correctness, and equality of the writing."
824. Louis the Meek, the son and successor ol Charlemagne, was, like his father, studious in the scriptures and the patron of biblical scholars. Louis died this year, and, when dving, bequeathed to his son Lothaire, his crown, his sword, and a book of the gospels, richly ornamented with gold and precious stones. — Noserii Hist. Dvgneat.
850. A supreme judge of the Roman empire could not subscribe his" name. It was usual for persons who could not write to make the sign of the cross, in confirmation of a charter. Several of these remain where kings and persons of great eminence affix " Signum crusit manu pro pira pro itfnordtione liherarum." From this is derived the phrase of signing instead of subscribing a paper.
858. Nicholas I. was consecrated Pope. Until his time, the Greek and Latin churches were united, but in consequence of his excommunicat- ing Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, that schism took place between the two churches which endures to the present day.
880. Pope John VIII. first granted to the Sclavonians the privilege of performing divine service in their own tongue.
887. Books, in the present form, were invented by Attalus, King of Pergaraus.
890. The bible first translated into the Saxon language by order of Alfred the Great. He undertook the versions of the psalms himself, but did not live to complete it.
853. The following curious instances given by Lupus, abbot of Ferrieris, of the extreme scarcity of classical manuscripts in the middle of the ninth century : he was much dev'oted to litera- ture ; and, from his letters, appears to have been indefatigable in his endeavours to find out such manuscripts, in order to borrow and copy them. In a letter to the Pope, he earnestly requests of him a copy of Cicero de Oratore and Quintiliaa^ Institutes, for, he adds,' though we have some fragments of them, a complete copy is not to be found in France. In two other of his letters, he requests of a brother abbot the loan of several manuscripts, which he assures him shall be copied and returned an soon as possible by a faithful mes.senger. Another time he sent a special mes- senger to borrow a manuscript, promising they would take very great care of it, and return it by a safe opportumty, and requesting the person who lent it to him, if he were asked to whom he had lent it, to reply, to some near relations of his own, who had been very urgent to borrow it. Another manuscript, which he seems to have prized much, and a loan of which had been so frequently re-
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