Bibliotheca

On the designation Bibliotheca and Pandectes for Bible manuscripts, see Zahn, GK. i. 65. On τεῦχος, ibid. 67. He informs us that the earliest mention of a Christian bibliotheca and its armaria is in the heathen protocol of the year 304, in the Gesta apud Zenophilum given in Dupin after Optatus, p. 262. The next earliest notice is in Augustine. The custodians of the bibliothecae were probably the Readers. In Ruinart’s Acta Saturnini a certain Ampelius is mentioned as “custos legis, scripturarumque divinarum fidelissimus conservator.” From Irenaeus, iv. 33, 2 Lessing concluded that at that time the few existing copies of the Scriptures were in the custody of the clergy, and were only to be perused in their presence. (Zusätze zu einer nötigen Antwort. Works, ed. Maltzahn, xi. 2, 179.) On this point see Zahn, GK. i. 140.