had the good sense to perceive that majesty could not be degraded by its homage to letters; "not so; this is the seat of the Muses, and those who are initiated in their mysteries have the best right to reign here." 33

In the midst of his pressing duties, Ximenes found time for the execution of another work, which would alone have been sufficient to render his name immortal in the republic of letters. This was his famous Bible, or Complutensian Polyglot, as usually termed, from the place where it was printed.34 It was on the plan, first conceived by Origen, of exhibiting in one view the Scriptures in their various ancient languages. It was a work of surpassing difficulty, demanding an extensive and critical acquaintance with the most ancient, and consequently the rarest, manuscripts. The character and station of the cardinal afforded him, it is true, uncommon facilities. The precious collection of the Vatican was liberally thrown open to him, especially under Leo the Tenth, whose munificent spirit delighted in the undertaking. He obtained copies,

33 Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 86.—The reader will readily call to mind the familiar anecdote of King Charles and Dr. Busby.

34 "Alcalá de Henares," says Martyr in one of his early letters, 'quæ dicitur esse Complutum. Sit, vel ne, nil mihi curæ." (Opus Epist., epist. 254.) These irreverent doubts were uttered before it had gained its literary celebrity. L. Marineo derives the name Complutum from the abundant fruitfulness of the soil,-" complumiento que tiene de cada cosa." Cosas memorables, fol. 13.

35 Ximenes acknowledges his obligations to his Holiness, in particular for the Greek MSS.: "Atque ex ipsis [exemplaribus] quidem Græca Sanctitati tuæ debemus; qui ex istâ Apostolicâ bibliothecâ antiquissimos tam Veteris quam Novi codices perquam humane ad nos misisti." Biblia Polyglotta (Compluti, 1514-17), Prólogo.

in like manner, of whatever was of value in the other libraries of Italy, and, indeed, of Europe generally; and Spain supplied him with editions of the Old Testament of great antiquity, which had been treasured up by the banished Israelites. Some idea may be formed of the lavish expenditure in this way, from the fact that four thousand gold crowns were paid for seven foreign manuscripts, which, however, came too late to be of use in the compilation."

The conduct of the work was intrusted to nine scholars, well skilled in the ancient tongues, as most of them had evinced by works of critical acuteness and erudition. After the labors of the day, these learned sages were accustomed to meet, in order to settle the doubts and difficulties which had arisen in the course of their researches, and, in short, to compare the results of their observations. Ximenes, who, however limited his attainments in general literature, was an excellent biblical critic, frequently presided, and took a prominent part in these deliberations. "Lose no

36" Maximam," says the cardinal in his Preface, "laboris nostri partem in eo præcipue fuisse versatam; ut et virorum in linguarum cognitione eminentissimorum operâ uteremur, et castigatissima omni ex parte vetustissimaque exemplaria pro archetypis haberemus; quorum quidem, tam Hebræorum quam Græcorum ac Latinorum, multiplicem copiam, variis ex locis, non sine summo labore conquisivimus." Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Prólogo.

37 Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 39.-Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.

38 Martyr speaks of Ximenes, in one of his epistles, as "doctrinâ singulari oppletum." (Opus Epist., epist. 108.) He speaks with more distrust in another: "Aiunt esse virum, si non literis, morum tamen sanctitate egregium." (Epist. 160.) This was written some years later, when he had better knowledge of him.

time, my friends," he would say, "in the prosecution of our glorious work; lest, in the casualties of life, you should lose your patron, or I have to lament the loss of those whose services are of more price in my eyes than wealth and worldly honors." "

The difficulties of the undertaking were sensibly increased by those of the printing. The art was then in its infancy, and there were no types in Spain, if indeed in any part of Europe, in the Oriental character. Ximenes, however, careful to have the whole executed under his own eye, imported artists from Germany, and had types cast in the various languages required, in his foundries at Alcalá.40

41

The work when completed occupied six volumes folio; the first four devoted to the Old Testament, the fifth to the New; the last containing a Hebrew and Chaldaic vocabulary, with other elementary treatises of singular labor and learning. It was not brought

39 Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.-Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 38.-The scholars employed in the compilation were the venerable Lebrija, the learned Nuñez, or Pinciano, of whom the reader has had some account, Lopez de Zuñiga, a controversialist of Erasmus, Bartholomeo de Castro, the famous Greek Demetrius Cretensis, and Juan de Vergara ;-all thorough linguists, especially in the Greek and Latin. To these were joined Paulo Coronel, Alfonso a physician, and Alfonso Zamora, converted Jews, and familiar with the Oriental languages. Zamora has the merit of the philological compilations relative to the Hebrew and Chaldaic, in the last volume. Iidem auct. ut supra; et Sima de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.

40 Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.

4 The work was originally put at the extremely low price of six ducats and a half a copy. (Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Præfix.) As only 600 copies, however, were struck off, it has become exceedingly rare and valuable. According to Brunet, it has been sold as high as

to an end till 1517, fifteen years after its comniencement, and a few months only before the death of its illustrious projector. Alvaro Gomez relates that he had often heard John Broccario, the son of the printer," say that, when the last sheet was struck off, he, then a child, was dressed in his best attire and sent with a copy to the cardinal. The latter, as he took it, raised his eyes to heaven, and devoutly offered up his thanks for being spared to the completion of this good work. Then, turning to his friends who were present, he said that "of all the acts which distinguished his administration, there was none, however arduous, better entitled to their congratulation than this."

This is not the place, if I were competent, to discuss the merits of this great work, the reputation of which is familiar to every scholar. Critics, indeed, have disputed the antiquity of the manuscripts used in the compilation, as well as the correctness and value of the emendations. Unfortunately, the destruction of

42" Industriâ et solertiâ honorabilis vtri Arnaldi Guillelmi de Brocario, artis impressoris Magistri. Anno Domini 1517. Julii die decimo." Biblia Polyglotta Compluti. Postscript to 4th and last part of Vetus Test.

43 Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 38.-The part devoted to the Old Testament contains the Hebrew original with the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint version, and the Chaldaic paraphrase, with Latin translations by the Spanish scholars. The New Testament was printed in the original Greek, with the Vulgate of Jerome. After the completion of this work, the cardinal projected an edition of Aristotle on the same scale, which was unfortunately defeated by his death. Ibid., fol. 39.

44 The principal controversy on this subject was carried on in Germany between Wetstein and Goeze; the former impugning, the latter defending, the Complutensian Bible. The cautious and candid Michaelis, whose prepossessions appear to have been on the side of

the original manuscripts, in a manner which forms one of the most whimsical anecdotes in literary history, makes it impossible to settle the question satisfactorily. Undoubtedly, many blemishes may be chargea on it, necessarily incident to an age when the science of criticism was imperfectly understood," and the Goeze, decides ultimately, after his own examination, in favor of Wetstein, as regards the value of the MSS. employed; not, however, as relates to the grave charge of wilfully accommodating the Greek text to the Vulgate. See the grounds and merits of the controversy, apud Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Marsh, vol. ii. part. 1, chap. 12, sec. 1; part. 2, notes.

45 Professor Moldenhauer, of Germany, visited Alcalá in 1784, for the interesting purpose of examining the MSS. used in the Complutensian Polyglot. He there learned that they had all been disposed of, as so much waste paper (membranas inutiles), by the librarian of that time, to a rocket-maker of the town, who soon worked them up in the regular way of his vocation! He assigns no reason for doubting the truth of the story. The name of the librarian, unfortunately, is not recorded. It would have been as imperishable as that of Omar. Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. part. 1, chap. 12, sec. I, note.

46 The celebrated text of "the three witnesses," formerly cited in the Trinitarian controversy, and which Porson so completely overturned, rests in part on what Gibbon calls "the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors." One of the three Greek manuscripts in which that text is found is a forgery from the Polyglot of Alcalá, according to Mr. Norton, in his recent work, "The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels" (Boston, 1837, vol. i., Additional Notes, p. xxxix.),—a work which few can be fully competent to criticise, but which no person can peruse without confessing the acuteness and strength of its reasoning, the nice discrimination of its criticism, and the precision and purity of its diction. Whatever difference of opinion may be formed as to some of its conclusions, no one will deny that the originality and importance of its views make it a substantial accession to theological science; and that, within the range permitted by the subject, it presents, on the whole, one of the noblest specimens of scholarship and elegance of composition to be found in our youthful literature.