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plored the curious collection of Greek manufcripts in the library of the Holy Synod,the greater part of which had, at the fuggeftion of the Patriarch Nicon, been collectedby the monk Arfenius from the monaftery of Mount Athos .
As a catalogue of thefe manufcripts, publifhed by Athanafius Schida, at the commandof Peter the Great, was exceedingly inaccurate, Matth;pi * was encouraged by PrincePotemkin, the great patron of antient literature, who defrayed the expence of the pub-lication, to undertake this work upon a more extenfive plan. Accordingly, in 1776, thelearned editor gave to the public the firft part, in which he has laid down an accurateand circumftar.tial detail of fifty-one manufcripts, accompanied with judicious remarksand critical inquiries. He deferibes the materials upon which each manufeript is writ-ten ; fpecines the age, contents, and author, the number of pages, and the firft and laftwords : he points out alfo the different proprietors. The author propofes to cohtinuethe publication at different intervals, until he has fmifhed the account. But as it wouldrequire many years thus minutely to deferibe all the manufcripts, which amount to five,hundred and two; the learned author has, in the mean while, favoured the public witha complete catalogue in a lefs circumftantial manner f. To this index is prefixed afatisfaftory and comprehenfive introdudlion; in which, after informing us that he com-piled it for the ufe of Prince Yufapof, an enthufiaft in Greek literature, he gives a briefaccount of the principal manufcripts. Pie enumerates feveral of the Septuagint, and onein particular of the Books of Kings , which is of the ninth century, and contains, in fomeplaces, many various, readings, materially differing from the printed editions. He men-tions alfo feveral of the New Teftament; fome accompanied with antient commentaries,■which have'never been publifhed, and which the ingenious author has tranferibed, col-lated, and prepared for the prefs. The moft antient of thefe was written at differentperiods ; the firft part fo early as the feventh or eighth century, and the remainder inthe twelfth or thirteenth. This colledion he adds, though chiefly confined to theolo-gical fubjefts, is by no means deficient in the daffies; among which he notices Homer ,JEfchylus, Sophocles, Demofthenes, JEfchines, Hefiod,Paufanius, Plutarch , and a moftbeautiful Strabo , which he has collated for the new edition of that author, preparing forthe Clarendon prefs by Mr. Falkener of Oxford {.
In this library of the Holy Synod Matthasi difeovered an antient hymn to Ceres in amanufeript of Homer , written about the conclusion of the fourteenth century, but whichhe fuppofes a tranfeript from an ancient and valuable copy; this manufeript, befide afragment of the Iliad, contained the fixteen hymns ufually attributed to Homer , in thefame order as they are generally printed. At the end of the fixteenth he found twelveverfes of a hymn to Bacchus, and a hymn to Ceres, which, excepting the laft part, wasentire. Matthaei, well acquainted with the delays which would attend the publicationat Mofcow, fent a copy of the hymn to the celebrated Runkenius, of the univerfity ofLeyden, who gave it to the public in 1780 ; and twenty lines being omitted by miftake,he put forth a fecond edition in the following year §.
* Harris has enumerated the editions publifhed by Matthtei. Philof. Inquiries, p/564.
t “ Index codicum manuferiptorum GraeCorum Bibliothecarum Mofquenfium fan&iffimae Synodi eccle-fiae otthodoxae. Graeco-Rufficae ; edidit Chriftianus Fredericus Matthaei. Pretopoli, typis Academia 6Scientiarum, 1780,” 4to.
f It was a confiderable difappointment to me, that Mr. Matthaei was abfent from Mofcow during n >7continuance in that city, as 1 fhould have derived great information from his acquaintance. I have likewifcto regret, that, on account of his abfence, I could not obtain a fight of thefe manufcripts.
§ Homeri Hymnus in Cererem nunc primura editus a Davide Runkenio.
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