Christian epigraphy, however, was not altogether neglected during the Middle Ages. A manuscript collection of epitaphs found at Einsiedlen, and attributed to the ninth century, is partly Christian; and another, found at Kloster Newburg, is exclusively so. A manuscript in St. Mark’s Library at Venice contains about a hundred and fifty early Christian epitaphs. The first collection after the revival of letters was made by Pietro Sabini, and another was published by Onofrio Panvini. Leo X. commanded Raphael, the _capo architetto_ of St. Peter’s, to preserve from injury the inscriptions--_res lapidaria_--of the older structure; but no systematic attempt at their preservation was made till Benedict XIV. appointed Francesco Brambini to that task. He collected a large number in the long gallery of the Vatican; but they were not arranged till the close of the last century, when they were classified by the distinguished archæologist Geatano Marini at 400 the command of Pius VI. A new collection was begun in the Lateran Museum by Padre Marchi, which has been greatly enlarged and admirably classified and arranged by Cavaliere De Rossi. There are also other collections in the Collegio Romano, and in the Kircherian and other Museums. Many sepulchral slabs are also affixed to the walls or inserted in the pavement of the churches of St. Paul, St. Gregory, St. Laurence, St. Mark, St. Maria in Trastevere, and in a few others in Rome.[671] That distinguished scholar and epigraphist, De Rossi, has passed through the crucible of his critical examination all the extant inscriptions of the first six centuries found in the neighbourhood of Rome. In the first volume of his _Inscriptiones Christianæ_ he gives all those with consular dates, thirteen hundred and seventy-four in number. He designs giving in future volumes the remainder of the series, classified according to their doctrinal, historical, or other characteristics. He treats the subject with the utmost candour and moderation, and illustrates these frequently obscure topics with exhaustive and various scholarship. There are now over eleven thousand of these epitaphs extant, which number is being continually increased by the progressive exploration of the Catacombs. From an analysis of their general characteristics and appearance the following results are derived. The inscriptions are generally engraved on marble slabs from one to three feet long and one foot high, which are used to close the graves of the dead; many, however, are mere scratches on the soft surface of the plaster, hardened in drying; and some are written with red or 401 black paint, or, more rarely, with charcoal. The letters vary from half an inch to four inches in height, and the incised surface is frequently coloured with a reddish pigment. Prudentius, alluding to this practice of chiseling the letters in stone, calls upon the faithful to “wash with their tears the furrows of those marble slabs.”[672]