''A Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels'', full title: ''A Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels: With a View to Prove Their Common Origin, and to Restore the Text of Their Archetype''. The book was published in 1877 by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott on behalf of his deceased colleague William Hugh Ferrar.

William Hugh Ferrar William Hugh Ferrar (1826–1871), a Latinist, was a classical Irish scholar at Trinity College Dublin. In 1868, Ferrar discovered that four medieval manuscripts. Namely minuscules 13, 69, 124, and 346, were closely related texts. They are des ...

(1826–1871) before his death collated four minuscules (Greek handwritten

cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functional ...

texts) to demonstrate that they shared a common provenance. The four collated minuscules are: 13, 69, 124,

346 Year 346 ( CCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Claudius (or, less frequently, year 109 ...

(known as

Family 13 Family 13, also known as the Ferrar Group (''ƒ'', von Soden calls the group I), is a group of Greek Gospel manuscripts, dating from the 11th to the 15th centuries, which share a distinctive pattern of variant readings — especially placing the pa ...

or ''Ferrar Family''). Ferrar intended to establish that these four codices are derived from a common archetype, and to exhibit as nearly as possible the actual text of this

archetype The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...

of these four minuscules, a text, therefore, more ancient and authoritative than of any of these manuscripts separately. The book was published in 1877 by T. K. Abbott on behalf of William Hugh Ferrar, who had died six years previous. ; Sigla : L – codex 69 : M – 346 : P – 13 : V – 124 : S – Stephanus' text edited by

Scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and adm ...

: L₁ – L prima manu : L₂ – L secunda manu

External links

*W. H. Ferrar
''A Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels''
at the Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels Biblical criticism 1877 non-fiction books Books about ancient Christianity Family 13 Books about the Bible

Further reading

External links