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We have hitherto only proposed doubts: Let us now see if we can ascertain some truths. The Roman history tells us, that under the reign of the emperor Valens, Ulphilas[1], bishop of those Goths who
- ↑ In the year 369.
Vid. Socrat. Hist. Eccles.
lib. iv. and Sozomen. lib.
vi. 36.
In the following account of Ulphilas and the Gothic letters, our ingenious author has committed several mistakes; occasioned by his too closely following Wormius in his Literatur. Run. not considering that since the time of Wormius some very important discoveries have been made, and great light thrown upon this subject.
When Wormius wrote, the translation of Ulphilas was supposed to be irrecoverably lost, and therefore Wormius having nothing to guide him but conjecture, supposed the Runic character and that of Ulphilas to be the same. ——— But some years after, there was found in the abbey of Werden in Westphalia, a very curious fragment of what is believed to have been the identical version of Ulphilas; written in the language of the Mœso-Goths, and exhibiting the characters which that prelate made use of: These are so very remote from the Runic, that we may now safely allow the Gothic bishop the honour of their invention, without in the least derogating from the antiquity of the Runic letters. This fragment is now preserved in the library at Upsal in Sweden, and is famous among all the northern literati, under the name of the Codex argenteus, or Silver Book: for which reason a short account of it may not be unacceptable.
The Codex argenteus contains at present only the four Gospels, though somewhat mutilated; and is believed to be a relic of the Gothic Bible, all or the greater part of
