breathings and accents, if such they be, we have spoken above (p. 47). Letters diminished at the end of a line do not lose their ancient shape, as in many later books: _compendia scribendi_ are rare, yet [symbol] stands for Ν at the end of a line no less than twenty-nine times in the London leaves alone, but [symbol] for αι only once. Ι at the beginning of a syllable has two dots over it, Υ but one. We have discussed above (pp. 32-39) the shape of the alphabet in Ν (for by that single letter Tischendorf denotes it), and compared it with others of nearly the same date; _alpha_, _omega_, _lambda_ look more ancient than _delta_ or _xi_ (_see_ Plate ii. No. 4). It exhibits strong Alexandrian forms, e.g. παραλήμψομε, ειχοσαν (the latter condemned _secundâ manu_), and not a few such itacisms as the changes of ι and ει, αι and ε. COD. Nb (Ib of Tischendorf’s N. T., eighth edition), MUSEI BRITANNICI (Addit. 17136), is a 12mo volume containing the hymns of Severus in Syriac, and is one of the books brought thither from the Nitrian desert. It is a palimpsest, with a second Syriac work written below the first, and, under both, _four_ leaves (117, 118, 127, 128) contain fragments of seventeen verses of St. John (xiii. 16; 17; 19; 20; 23; 24; 26; 27; xvi. 7; 8; 9 although only one word—περί—is preserved; 12; 13; 15; 16; 18; 19). These Tischendorf (and Tregelles about the same time) deciphered with great difficulty, as every one who has examined the manuscript would anticipate, and published in the second volume of his new collection of “Monumenta sacra inedita.” Each page contained two columns. We meet with the sections without the Eusebian canons, the earliest form of uncial characters, no capital letters (_see_ p. 51, note 2), and only the simplest kind of punctuation, although one rough breathing is legible. Tischendorf hesitates whether he shall assign the fragment to the fourth or fifth century. It agrees with Cod. A five or six times, with Cod. B five, with the two together six, and is against them both thrice.