BEZAE CODEX CANTABRIGIENSIS, BEING AN EXACT COPY, IN ORDINARY TYPE, OF THE CELEBRATED UNCIAL GRAECO-LATIN MANUSCRIPT OF THE FOUR GOSPELS AND ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, WRITTEN EARLY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY, AND PRESENTED TO THE EDITED WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION, ANNOTATIONS, AND FACSIMILES BY FREDERICK H. SCRIVENER, M.A. RECTOR OF S. GERRANS, CORNWALL. Cambridge: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. LONDON: BELL AND DALDY. 1864 Quantch 3-26-40 41263 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND EDWARD HAROLD, LORD BISHOP OF ELY. MY LORD, WHEN I first projected a new Edition of Codex Bezae, you were so good as to recommend my design to the Syndics of the Cambridge Press as one worthy of aid from the funds at their disposal; you have encouraged me throughout my task with kind interest and ready sympathy: yet I am so deeply conscious of the faults of this Volume that I should be ashamed to inscribe it to your Lordship had I not unsparingly devoted to it time and pains and the best faculties of my mind. My work, indeed, has proved far harder than I expected, but its diligent prosecution has brought with it such real delight that I cannot part from the companion of many laborious hours without some loving regret, not unmingled (I would trust) with reverent thankfulness that life and heart have been vouchsafed to me to make one poor contribution more to the critical study of Holy Scripture. My Lord, may it please Him whose Providence has called you to your high office to prosper therein all that your hand findeth to do: may His blessing especially rest on your godly endeavour to restore to our dear Cambridge her ancient glory of being the school and home of true divinity, by persuading her most promising sons to consecrate their fresh strength to the ministry of Christ's Church in England, at this time of no common need. I am, my LORD, Your obliged and dutiful servant, F. H. SCRIVENER. |