Golden codices
Posted on | October 16, 2008 |
In describing Codex Gigas, the website of the National Library of Sweden refers to another impressive and important Latin codex in the Stockholm collection known as the Codex Aureus (Golden Codex) (SKB catalogue no. A 135), which contains the Four Gospels.
Codex Gigas is well known for preserving Old Latin versions of Acts and Revelation, whereas the rest of the codex has Vulgate texts with an admixture of Old Latin readings. According to the website, in the Gospels the textual variants often correspond to readings in Codex Aureus.
Codex Aureus had an eventful history. Written in Britain (at Canterbury?), it was seized by Danish invaders (Vikings) but ransomed and returned to Canterbury. It later turned up in Spain, and was acquired by a Swedish dealer; hence it arrived in Stockholm, where it remains. The codex has purple and plain parchment folios interleaved, and part of the text is written in gold ink. The first page of the Gospel of Matthew, which has an annotation recording the presentation of the codex to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, can be seen on the website of the University of Southampton, in connection with the study of Old English texts (’The Canterbury ‘Codex Aureus’ inscription‘).
The term ‘codex aureus’ has been applied to a number of codices in which gold ink was used. Similarly one finds the term ‘codex purpureus’ used of various manuscripts with purple-dyed parchment.
The Norwegian scholar Johannes Belsheim (1829-1909) produced an edition of the Stockholm Codex Aureus in 1878: Codex aureus, sive quattuor evangelia ante Hieronymum Latine translata codice membranaceo partim purpureo ac litteris aureis inter extremum quintum et iniens septimum saeculum, ut videtur, scripto, qui in Regia Bibliotheca Holmiensi asservatur, Christiania [Oslo]. The Leuven Database of Ancient Books lists the codex as no. 9079, with some further bibliography.
The next year saw publication of Belsheim’s edition of the texts of Acts and Revelation in Codex Gigas, which are important for knowledge of the Old Latin textual tradition: Die Apostelgeschichte und die Offenbarung Johannis in einer alten lateinischen Uebersetzung aus dem “Gigas librorum” auf der königlichen Bibliothek zu Stockholm (Theologisk tidsskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske kirke i Norge), Christiania, 1879.
A few years later he produced an edition of the Gospel of Mark in another ‘codex aureus’ (and collations for the other Gospels), this time a Greek manuscript of the four Gospels in the Royal Library of St. Petersburg (Muralt, Catalogue, St. Petersburg, 1864, no. 53), now referred to as minuscule 565: Das Evangelium des Marcus nach dem griechischen Codex aureus Theodorae Imperatricis purpureus Petropolitanus aus dem 9ten Jahrhundert, nebst einer Vergleichung der übrigen 3 Evangelien in demselben Codex mit dem Textus receptus (vorgelegt in der Sitzung der historisch-philosophischen Klasse am 27ten Februar durch Herrn Prof. Dr. Caspari), in Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger, 1885, 9, pp. 1-51. This work is available online via the Internet Archive. Belsheim (p. 1) tells the story of the acquisition of the codex and how it became associated with an ‘Empress Theodora’.
Tags: Codex Aureus > Codex Gigas > Johannes Belsheim > NT minuscule 565 > St. Petersburg > Stockholm
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