In early times, as at the present day, inscriptions on monuments and public buildings were engraved in capital letters. This form of writing was also employed for books, especially those containing valuable or sacred writing. The letters were not joined together, but set down side by side.[21] They were called _litterae majusculae_, _capitales_, _unciales_, _i.e._ “inch-high,” as Jerome says with ridicule—_uncialibus ut vulgo aiunt litteris onera magis exarata quam codices_. Alongside of this there arose, even previous to the Christian era, a smaller Cursive form (_Minusculae_), for use in common life, in which the letters were joined.[22] This running hand found its way into manuscripts of the Bible in the course of the ninth century. In some cases, in Codex Λ _e.g._, both styles are found alongside or following each other.[23] The oldest Cursive manuscript of the New Testament, the exact date of which is known, is 481^{evv.}; it bears the date 835. The great majority of New Testament manuscripts belong to this later date, seeing that out of the 3829 manuscripts there are only 127 Uncials to 3702 Minuscules. Greek copyists not being accustomed to date their manuscripts exactly, it becomes the task of palæography to settle the criteria by which the date and place of a manuscript’s origin may be determined. These are the style of writing—whether angular or round, upright or sloping, the punctuation—whether simple or elaborate, and the different material and form of the book. These distinctions, however, are often very misleading. The following table will show the distribution of the manuscripts according to the centuries in which they were written, as given by Vollert, Scrivener, and von Gebhardt[24]:— Vollert. Scrivener. v. Gebhardt. IVth Century, 5 ... 2 Vth “ 4 10 15 VIth ” 18 22 24 VIIth “ 6 9 17 VIIIth ” 8 8 19 IXth “ 23 ... 31 Xth ” 4 ... 6 [Sidenote: Papyrus and parchment.] Manuscripts are distinguished according to the =material= on which they are written, which may be either parchment or paper.