Since then Tischendorf, during his second visit to the Eternal City, had an audience of Pope Pius IX., and offered to bring out at his own expense an edition of the Vatican Codex similar to that which he had prepared, under the auspices of the Russian emperor, of the Sinaitic Codex.  This request the Pope refused, under the old pretext that he wished to publish such an edition himself.  Tischendorf, however, was allowed to use the manuscript more freely than on the former occasion; though several times it was taken away from him, and his labours interrupted, because of alleged breaches of faith on his part.  The result of this unusual privilege was that the great Textuary has issued by far the most accurate and satisfactory edition which we possess at present.  Pius IX. carried out his intention of publishing a Roman edition in five volumes, printed by the famous press of the Propaganda.  The New Testament instalment appeared under the editorship of Vercellone and Cozza in 1868; but Vercellone dying soon after, the subsequent volumes were prepared under less able supervision.  The famous manuscript therefore labours under the disadvantage of uncertainty, there being no guarantee that any reading is really that of the original.  And while the Alexandrine Codex has been reproduced by photography, and the Sinaitic Codex has been faithfully published, the exact palaeography, or the genuine text as it stands, of the Vatican Codex is still a desideratum among scholars.

The total disappearance of all manuscripts previous to the Vatican Codex is a matter of surprise, for it has been calculated on sufficient evidence that many thousands of copies of the Gospels were circulated among Christians at the end of the second century.  The loss may be attributed to the fact that the older manuscripts were written on less enduring materials.  Previous to the second century the principal writing material was paper made of papyrus, a plant found at one time not only in Egypt, but also in the north of Palestine and various parts of southern Italy and Sicily, although now almost extirpated; and we have reason to believe, from one or two incidental notices in St. John’s writings, that it was the material employed by the apostles themselves.  This papyrus paper was of a very perishable nature, and manuscripts written on it, apart from the wear and tear of continual use, would succumb to the process of decay in a comparatively short period.  We are indebted for the preservation of all the papyrus manuscripts that have come down to us from a remote antiquity to the fact of their having been kept in exceptionally favourable circumstances, as in the hermetically-sealed interiors of Egyptian tombs.  Those exposed to the air have all disappeared ages ago.  In the second century parchment was brought into common use as a writing material, and papyrus paper gradually fell into disuse.  And with the change of material the shape of manuscripts was changed; the ancient form of the papyrus-roll