I don't know how long this wonderful resource has been available. Robert Greaves (aka Bingley) just told me about The Schøyen Collection, which is a repository of manuscripts from the last 5000 years. Many of the mss have been scanned and so are available for an online peak. Among the most intriguing is an ancient Greek alphabet from 800 B.C. See if you can find what appears to be the alphabet:

MS 108 The Earliest Greek Alphabet
"MS in Greek on copper, Cyprus, ca. 800 BC, 2 tablets, 21x13 cm, single column, (19x10 cm), 20-23 lines in archaic Greek capitals with some North Semitic (Phoenician) letter forms by 2 or more scribes.
Binding: Greece, ca. 800 BC, strung together on both sides so as to fold in concertina fashion with holes in all 4 corners of both tablets.
Context: This is the oldest European alphabet, the oldest writing tablets extant, and part of the world's oldest book in codex form."

• The Greek Alphabet

On this day in A.D. 430, St. Augustine of Hippo died.

St. Augustine was an important figure in the history of Christianity. He wrote about topics like predestination and original sin. Some of his doctrines separate Western and Eastern Christianity, with St. Augustine defining some doctrines of Western Christianity. He lived in Africa during the time of the attack of the Vandals.

Read more about St. Augustine.

Picture Gallery of St. Augustine

Botticelli painting of Augustine, c. 1480. In the Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.