The matter is, of course, quite a simple one, when by good fortune the author’s own manuscript, his =autograph=, is extant. The abstract possibility of this being so in the case of the New Testament writings cannot be denied. Thanks to the dryness of the climate of Egypt and the excellence of ancient writing material, we have documents more than twice the age that the New Testament autographs would be to-day did we possess them. Now and again we find a report circulated in the newspapers that such an original document has been found,—of Peter, _e.g._, or some other Apostle. About the year 489 it was asserted that the original copy of Matthew had been discovered in the grave of Barnabas in Cyprus. And to the eyes of the devout there are still exhibited not only the Inscription from the Cross, but works from the artist hand of Luke. In reality, however, we have no longer the autograph of a single New Testament book. Their disappearance is readily understood when we consider that the greater portion of the New Testament, viz. the Epistles, are occasional writings never intended for publication, while others were meant to have only a limited circulation. Even in the early ages of the Christian Church, when there must have been frequent occasion to appeal to them, the autographs were no longer in existence. Tertullian (_De Praescriptione Haereticorum_, 36) mentions Thessalonica among the cities in which he believed the letters of the Apostles that were addressed there were still read from autograph copies.[18] “Percurre ecclesias apostolicas, apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae apostolorum suis locis praesident, apud quas ipsae authenticae literae eorum recitantur, sonantes vocem et repraesentantes faciem uniuscuiusque.” But when the same author, in his _De Monogamia_, speaks of “Graecum authenticum,” he refers not to the autograph, but to the original text as distinguished from a version. On the copy of Matthew’s Gospel found in the grave of Barnabas in Cyprus, _vide_ Theodorus Lector (Migne, 86, 189); Severus of Antioch in Assemani, _Bibliotheca Orientalis_, ii. 81; _Vitae omnium 13 Apostolorum_: Βαρνάβας ὁ καὶ Ἰωσῆς ... οὗτος τὸ κατὰ Ματθαῖον εὐαγγέλιον οἰκειοχείρως γράψας ἐν τῇ τῆς Κύπρου νήσῳ τελειοῦται.[19] In the Imperial Court Chapel the lessons were read from this copy on Holy Thursday of every year. _Vide_ Fabricius, _Evv. Apocr._, 341. On the supposed autograph of Mark in Venice see Jos. Dobrowsky, _Fragmentum Pragense Ev. S. Marci, vulgo autographi_, Prague, 1778. It is really a fragment of a Latin manuscript of the Vulgate, dating from the seventh century, of which other fragments exist in Prague.