VERSE
r58
VERSE
of Martianay. Epiphaniiis {De Orth. Fid. iv) adds the two books of Wisdom to the poetical books thus arranged.
3. We have seen that Jerome imitates tlie mode of writing tlie works of Demosthenes and C'ieero in his divisions of Chronicles. This custom of writing /card (TriYOOt; appears to have been usual among profane writers. Josephus observes that his own Antiquities consisted of sixty thousand cnxoi. although in Itlig's edition there are onU' forty thousand broken lines. l)i<igenes Laertins, in his Lices of the I'hilosophers, re- counts the number of sticiis which their works con- tained. There have, however, existed doubts as to what the arixoi really were; some supposing Ihem to be simply lines, or lines consisting of a certain number of words or lettx>rs, as in our printed books, while others have maintained them to be lines of varied length reg- ulated by the sense, like the cola and cominuta of Je- rome. The fact is that there are MS8. written in both kinds of verses or stichs, with the number of the stichs pliced at the end of each book; and this is what is called stichometri), or the enumeration of lines. The introduction of lines regulated by the sense into the New Test, is supposed to have been a rude substitute for punctuation. The second mode, resembling our |)rinted books, is also common ; it is that adopted in the Charlemagne Bible, at the close of each book of which will be found the number of verses — that is, lines of eipial length — but without any regard to the inmiber of worsts or letters.
We are not aware at what time or by whom stichom- etry was adapted to the Gospels, but not long after the time of Euthalius we find it in common use. The ("od. Bezw ( C) and the Clermont ISIS. (D) are thus writ- ten. The following is from C (John i):
Ek apx^ '1" ° Xo7oc Kai o Xotoi ij" Tpot tov ©eoK
Ktii Hf oc 1)1' <> Ao709. ouTor rj" tr apx'/ fpof toi Qtov
Wavra bt avrov e7ei'eTo Kai x^P^^' i^vtov
E7ei't7o ovSe tv 6 YcYoiei'' ei' au-no
Zajxj tiv Kat i} ^ton t]v TO </»(09 Ttoy av^ptairuyv
Kat TO ^o}? ev rrj OKOTta (paivet
Kui r, anoTia avTO ov KuTe\n/3ei' E^eieTO ai/^pioTTov aTrea-raX/j.nw:
Hapa Seov, ofojica aVTov lit>ai'vriK.
The following is from Acts xiii, IG, in Greek and Lat- in (Kipling, p. 747) :
Ai/ao-Taf d€ 6 itai/Xor — Cum suvrexisset P.iuhis
Km Karaaeiaat rr) X^'P' ciTtv— Et sileulium Uianu postu-
lasset, dixit, AiiSpe? IffTputiAiTai, Kat o\ (pofiovfieioi tov Otuv — Viri Istra-
heliti, et qui tiinelis Deum >Koi><raTe — Audiie. 'o eeo? TOK \aou tovtov, k. t. X. — Deus populi hujup, etc.
Afterwards, in order to save parchment, it became usual to write the stichometrical books continuously, separating tlie stichs by a point, but still ]ilacing their inimbers at the end of each book. Tlie following is a specimen frorn the Cod. C\'pr. :
'O de e7ef*-e(9. napeXa/^e to Tratdiov. Kut rtii' fir^repa avrov. Kai tjX^^v €(? 7^^ l(Tpat]\. uKOV(Ta\- Se. on Apxt]^ciu^ fittaiXettere enc r»]9 [ovdaiai\ uni Hpwduu tov iraTpo^ avrov. e<po^3r)^tj tKei ane\ieiv.
Sometimes, instead of the point, the stichs commenced with a capital, as in the Cod. Boerner., which, however, seems to liave been written by an ignorant Irish scribe, unacquainted with the languages in which the JNIS. was written :
Ut nou quasi ex necessitate t era boiinm tiinni sit.
li>a. flti ci)9 KaTal'a7Ktil' to a^a^ol- aov »).
Sed voluutiirinm forsitau enim ideo t propterea.
AAAa KaTiKovafioii. 'l"xa fap. Aia tovto.
horam t iid tempus ut feternum
voluutiirinm
KaTiKovaitov.
Ad
Exwp'ff^'I. TTpo^ wpa
illimi t eiim recipias nou
auTOi' a7rtx»l? oi'K
frntrem dilectiim innxhne AoeX^ov. A7a7r»jTin'. Ma\A((TTa
jam
tT(l
mihl c/io<
qnajii
qnanto noco).
seiviun doi-Aoi^.
tibi aot
tiWov
;itur t ergo ovv
et in Ciirne
Kat. €1'. aapKet
ne habes soeium
»e tX^'f KJivuivov
et
dno
accipe
l\poc\a/3ot
sicnt ine. 77. Si aufem aliquid nocuit t laesit te
wf (ij.ai. El de .T(. t)6ti- K>i<rt:i' at
nut debet hoc mibi iniputa ego ))!\uhis
n. o^eiAtirai. Tiiuto /uoi eAAo7a t.7uj jrui'Aoi. scripsi niea nianu ego reddam ut nou
ejpa^a Tti. e/jLti X'ft'- LT^ uTTOTeiow. Iia ;li>i
dicam tibi qnod et te ip.^^um milii dcbes
Ac7(0 aot. oTt Kat oe uutoi'. ^ot. •npoaotpiXti'^.
ita t utique fr;iter ego te fiiiar in dfio.
Nui, Hal atieA^e. E7U) aov. otat^nv. et. kcu.
[Phi I em. 14-20.]
The stichs were sometimes very short, as in Cod. Laud. (K), in which there is seldom above one word in each. The Clermont JIS. (D) contains a list of the stichs in all the (Jreek books of the Old and New Tests., and the Stichometiij of Nicephorus contains a similar einmieration of the canonical books — tiie antilegomena of the 01<i and New Tests. — and of the Apocryphal books, as Enoch, the Testaments of the Patriarchs, etc.
Hug {Iiitrod.') observes that the Cod. Alex, might be easily mistaken for the copy of a stichometrical man- uscript, from the resemblance of its divisions to the <JTi\oi. as, i]K0i'(ja ct (pu)vi]<^ \tyov(n]g ^un. ovaarnt; rifrpf. ^vc!ov Kill (j)ayi., but these occur only in occa- sional passages.
Instances occur in other !M.SS. in which the stanzas are numbered in the margin, as in the Song of Moses, in Greek and Latin in the Psalter of Sedulius of Ireland, who flourished in the 9th century. The song consists of forty-two commas or stichs, comprised in seven co- lons or stanzas, with a Koman numeral prefixed to each — all in the handwriting of Sedulius. The Latin is Ante-Hieronymian (Montfaucon, Palnoyr. Grcec; also Christian Remembrancer, ut sup., p. G87).