The Codex Sinaiticus is 13-½ inches in length by 14-7/8 inches high, and consists of 346-½ leaves of the same beautiful vellum as the Cod. Friderico-Augustanus which is really a part of it whereof 199 contain portions of the Septuagint version, 147-½ the whole New Testament, Barnabas’ Epistle, and a considerable fragment of Hermas’ Shepherd. It has subsequently appeared that the Russian Archimandrite (afterwards Bishop) Porphyry had brought with him from Sinai in 1845 some pieces of Genesis xxiii, xxiv, and of Numbers v, vi, and vii, which had been applied long before to the binding of other books(113). Each page comprises four columns (_see_ p. 27), with forty-eight lines in each column, of those continuous, noble, simple uncials (_compare_ Plate iv. 11 a _with_ 11 b). The poetical books of the Old Testament, however, being written in στίχοι, admit of only two columns on a page (_above_, p. 52). “In the Catholic Epistles the scribe has frequently contented himself with a column of forty-seven lines(114).” The order of the sacred books is remarkable, though by no means unprecedented. St. Paul’s Epistles precede the Acts, and amongst them, that to the Hebrews follows 2 Thess., standing on the same page with it (p. 74). Although this manuscript has hitherto been inspected by few Englishmen (Tregelles, however, and Dean Stanley were among the number), yet its general aspect has grown familiar to us by the means of photographs of its most important pages taken for the use of private scholars(115), as well as from the facsimiles contained in Tischendorf’s several editions. Breathings and accents there are none except in Tobit vi. 9, and Gal. v. 21, as has been already mentioned: the apostrophus and the single point for punctuation are entirely absent for pages together, yet occasionally are rather thickly studded, not only in places where a later hand has been unusually busy (e.g. Isaiah i. 1-iii. 2, two pages), but in some others (e.g. in 2 Cor. xii. 20 there are eight stops). Even words very usually abridged (except _θσ_, _κσ_, _ισ_, _χσ_, _πνα_ which are constant) are here written in full though the practice varies, πατηρ, υιος, ουρανος, ανθρωπος, δαυειδ: we find ϊσραηλ´, ισλ or _ιηλ_: ϊερουσαλημ´, _ιημ_, _ιλμ_, _ιηλμ´_. Tischendorf considers the two points over iota and upsilon (which are sometimes wanting) as seldom from the first hand: the mark >, besides its rather rare marginal use in citations (_see_ p. 64, note 4), we notice in the text oftener in the Old Testament than in the New. Words are divided at the end of a line: thus Κ in ΟΥΚ, and Χ in ΟΥΧ are separated(116). Small letters, of the most perfect shape, freely occur in all places, especially at the end of lines, where the _superscript_ (_see_ p. 50) is almost always made to represent Ν (e.g. seventeen times in Mark i. 1-35). Other _compendia scribendi_ are Κ for και, and ΗΝ written as in Plate i. No. 2(117). Numerals are represented by letters, with a straight line placed over them, e.g. _μ_ Mark i. 13. Although there are no capitals, the initial letter of a line which begins a paragraph generally (not always) stands out from the rank of the rest, as in the Old Testament portion of Cod. Vaticanus, and less frequently in the New, after the fashion of certain earlier pieces on papyrus. The titles and subscriptions of the several books are as short as possible (_see_ p. 65). The τίτλοι or κεφάλαια _majora_ are absent; the margin contains the so-called Ammonian sections and Eusebian canons, but Tischendorf is positive that neither they nor such notes as στιχων _ρπ_ (_see_ p. 53, note 3) appended to 2 Thessalonians, are by the original scribe, although they may possibly be due to a contemporary hand. From the number of ὁμοιοτέλευτα and other errors, one cannot affirm that it is very carefully written. Its itacisms are of the oldest type, and those not constant; chiefly ι for ει, and δε and ε, and much more rarely η and υ and οι interchanged. The grammatical forms commonly termed Alexandrian occur, pretty much as in other manuscripts of the earliest date. The whole manuscript is disfigured by corrections, a few by the original scribe, or by the usual comparer or διορθώτης (_see_ p. 55); very many by an ancient and elegant hand of the sixth century (אa), whose emendations are of great importance; some again by a hand but little later (אb); far the greatest number by a scholar of the seventh century (אc), who often cancels the changes introduced by (אa); others by as many as eight several later writers, whose varying styles Tischendorf has carefully discriminated and illustrated by facsimiles(118).