Unpublished Sacred Monuments

“Found in the archives, he gave it to the most illustrious Knight John Fortescue Sir John Fortescue (c. 1531–1607) was a major figure in the court of Elizabeth I and a scholar of Greek., his instructor in Greek; who, looking out for the benefit of posterity, enriched the Cotton Library original: Thesaurum Cottonianum. The famous collection of Sir Robert Cotton, which formed one of the founding collections of the British Museum. with the same.”

Therefore, by this testimony, it becomes clear that even before the middle of the sixteenth century, the Cotton codex had been brought to London and given as a gift to Henry VIII: a fact also confirmed by a more recent note from the authority of the British Museum prefixed to the remains of the codex which still survive on the binding. For there it is written:

“British Museum, Cotton Library, Otho B. VI. Formerly of King Henry VIII.” original: Mus. Brit. bibl. Cotton. Otho B. VI. Olim R. Hen. VIII.

Likewise, James Likely referring to Richard James, the librarian for the Cotton family. testifies by what path that codex arrived in the library of the knight Robert Cotton. While it was there and held in the highest regard, it happened that it was most miserably affected by the disastrous fire that swept through the entire library in the year 1731. Henry Owen provides testimony of this matter on page XIII of the previously cited work in these words:

“This most precious Codex finally perished in the tragic fire that seized the Cotton Library in the year 1731, except for certain pages miserably damaged by the flames (but now lost).” original: Pretiosissimus hic Codex funesto tandem incendio... prorsus interiit.

From this, therefore, it is also understood that the pages rescued from the flames themselves, although damaged, were considered lost at the time Owen was publishing his booklet in the year 1778. Later, however, they were found: indeed, in the Holmes edition of the Pentateuch Robert Holmes (1748–1805) was a biblical scholar who began a massive project to collate all manuscripts of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. from the year 1798, in Chapter II under Section I of the preface, those words of Henry Owen in which he says the remains were lost are deliberately omitted, even though the rest is repeated. Once they were found, the most distinguished curators of the British Museum—in whose treasury the Cottonian manuscripts hold a place of no small importance—deemed them worthy of every care. For whatever remains they had found, they restored as best as could be done, enclosing them in paper frames to form a volume, the splendid appearance of which pleasantly deceives the viewer from the outside.

Yet when the volume is opened, it becomes entirely apparent how much damage the fire inflicted upon the Cottonian parchments. For now, not a single leaf is whole; of many, only tiny parts survive; and of those that do survive, the vast majority are eaten away on all sides by the flames. Because of this, many pages have taken on a charcoal-like color: for indeed, they were very nearly reduced to ashes. Some are torn, others shriveled, others distorted, and others corrupted in various ways. When I saw all these things in London at the beginning of the spring of 1855, although I was not unaware of how great the difficulty of reading them would be, I nevertheless thought it my duty to strain all my powers to accurately read, transcribe, and hand over to the learned world whatever of this so precious monument of sacred letters had escaped destruction. In this matter, I occupied myself for several weeks, laboring without any intermission every day except Sunday, from ten o'clock in the morning until four or, as was soon permitted, five in the afternoon.

Lest I seem to value my own labor more than is just, I must not pass over those who applied their efforts to examining the Cotton codex before it had experienced the ruin of the fire. First, to use the testimony of Holmes in particular, Bishop Walton ordered some part of it to be collated by a learned hand for the use of his London Polyglot Bible A "Polyglot" is a Bible containing the text in several languages, often arranged in parallel columns. Brian Walton published his famous version in 1657.. Then, variant readings excerpted from it—