The mode of compacting the sheets of their books remained the same among
the Greeks during a long course of time. The sheets were folded three or
four together, and separately stitched: these parcels were then
connected nearly in the same mode as is at present practised. Books were
covered with linen, silk, or leather.
The page was sometimes undivided; sometimes it contained two, and in a
few instances of very ancient MSS., three columns. A peculiarity which
attracts the eye in many Greek manuscripts, consists in the occurrence
of capitals on the margin, some way in advance of the line to which they
belong; and this capital sometimes happens to be the middle letter of a
word. For when a sentence finishes in the middle of a line, the initial
of the next is not distinguished, that honour being conferred upon the
incipient letter of the next line; thus--
THEGREEKSENTERING
THEREGIONOFTHEMA
CRONESFORMEDANAL
LIANCEWITHTHEM.AS
T HEPLEDGEOFTHEIR
FAITHTHEBARBARIANS
GAVEASPEAR.
The Greeks, especially in the earliest times, divided their compositions
into verses, or such short portions of sentences as we mark by a comma,
each verse occupying a line; and the number of these verses is often set
down at the beginning or end of a book.
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