nd which I have not deciphered. The MS. is assigned to the
Thirteenth Century. The title of the First Book is interesting,
because it contains the description of Cassiodorus' official rank, 'Ex
Magistri Officii,' which Mommsen seems to have looked for in the MSS.
in vain. The MS. contains the first Three Books complete, but only 39
letters of the Fourth. Letters 40-51 of the Fourth Book, and the whole
of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Books, are missing. It then goes on
to the Eighth Book (which it calls the Fifth), but omits the first
five letters. The remaining 28 appear to be copied satisfactorily. The
Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Books, which the transcriber calls
the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, seem to be on the whole
correctly copied.

There seems to be a certain degree of correspondence between the
readings of this MS. and those of the Leyden MS. of the Twelfth
Century (formerly at Fulda) which are described by Ludwig Tross in his
'Symbolae Criticae' (Hammone, 1853).

(2) 8 B. XIX. is a MS. also of the Thirteenth Century, in a smaller
hand than the foregoing. The margins are very large, but the Codex
measures only 6-3/4 inches by 4-1/4. The rubricated titles are of
somewhat later date than the body of the text. The initial letters are
elaborately illuminated. This MS. contains, in a mutilated state and
in a peculiar order, the books from the Eighth to the Twelfth. The
following is the order in which the books are placed:

IX. 8-25, folios 1-14.
X. " 14-33.
XI. " 33-63.
XII. " 63-83.
VIII. " 83-126.
IX. 1-7, " 126-134.

The amanuensis, who has evidently been a thoroughly dishonest worker,
constantly omits whole letters, from which however he sometimes
extracts a sentence or two, which he tacks on to the end of some
preceding letter without regard to the sense. This process makes it
exceedingly difficult to collate the MS. with the printed text. Owing
to the Eighth Book being inserted after the Twelfth, it is erroneously
labelled on the back, 'Cassiodori Senatoris Epistolae, Lib. X-XIII.'

(3) 10 B. IV. (also of the Thirteenth Century, and measuring 11 inches
by 8) contains, in a tolerably complete state, the first Three Books
of the 'Variae,' Book IV. 5-39, Book VIII. 1-12, and Books X-XII. The
order, however, is transposed, Books IV. and VIII. coming after Book
XII. These excerpts from