The Codex Beneventanus (British Library, Add MS 5463) is an 8th-century

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also * Illuminate (disambi ...

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

containing a

Gospel Book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels (Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazar ...

. According to a subscription on folio 239 verso, the

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

was written by a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

named Lupus for one Ato, who was probably Ato,

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

(736{{En dash760) of the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

San Vincenzo al Volturno San Vincenzo al Volturno is a historic Benedictine monastery located in the territories of the Comunes of Castel San Vincenzo and Rocchetta a Volturno, in the Province of Isernia, near the source of the river Volturno in Italy. The current monast ...

('' Saint Vincent on the

Volturnus The VolturnUS is a floating concrete structure that supports a wind turbine, designed by University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center and deployed by DeepCwind Consortium in 2013. The VolturnUS can support wind turbines in water ...

''), near

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

. The unusual odd number of

Canon Tables Eusebian canons, Eusebian sections or Eusebian apparatus, also known as Ammonian sections, are the system of dividing the four Gospels used between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The divisions into chapters and verses used in modern texts ...

suggests these seven folios were prepared as much as two centuries earlier than the rest of the codex. The

contains the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

version of the four

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

s, the canon tables of

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christia ...

, the

letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus The Epistle of Jerome to Pope Damasus I (), written in 376 or 377 AD, is a response of Jerome to Pope Damasus I's letter urging him to make a new Latin translation of the four gospels, to replace the ''Vetus Latina'' translation. The letter preda ...

(''

Novum opus Novum (Latin for ''new thing'') is a term used by science fiction scholar Darko Suvin and others to describe the scientifically plausible innovations used by science fiction narratives. Origin Suvin learned the term from Ernst Bloch, whose wor ...

''), the prologue of St. Jerome to the Gospels ('' Plures fuisse''), and prologues and chapter lists for each of the Gospels. The text is written on

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...

in two columns in

uncial script Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library, p. 494. script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th t ...

with no division between words. The running titles are in small uncials while the

incipit The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it beg ...

s and explicits are in capitals. The incipits and explicits are written in alternating lines of red and black ink. The subscription of Lupus is written in uncials, and also has alternating lines of red and black ink. The text contains additional punctuation and annotations in a 10th-century Beneventuan hand. There are 240 folios of 355 by 275 mm. The folios are generally gathered into quires of eight folios each. There are a few gatherings of ten folios and a few gatherings are lacking one or more folios. The rear flyleaf (folio 240) is a piece of vellum from another manuscript and contains a fragment of a commentary on the

Epistle to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...

written in a 9th-century

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...

that has 10th century Beneventan punctuation. The manuscript has decorated canon tables, initials, and incipits and explicits. The canon tables are underneath

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

es decorated with gold, red and blue. Both sides of folio 4 have decorated arches, but are otherwise blank. Each of the Gospels begins with an initial which is decorated in green, red, and gold. The incipits and explicits are decorated with green red and black ivy leaves. The manuscript was owned in the 8th century by the monastery of St. Vincent on the Voturno, and may have been produced there. By the 13th century it was associated with St. Peter's convent in Benevento. In the first half of the 18th century it was owned by

Richard Mead Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

, and was used by Richard Bentley in his collation of New Testament texts. Dr. Mead may have acquired the manuscript in the 1690s when he traveled to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, however, the manuscript did not appear in the catalog of the sale of his library in 1754–55. The manuscript was later owned by

Anthony Askew Anthony Askew (1722–1774) was an English physician and is best known for having been a book collector Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maint ...

(d. 1754). It was purchased by John Jackson in 1785 at the sale of Askew's manuscripts. The

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

purchased it in 1794 at the sale of Jackson's manuscripts.

References

British Library catalogue entryDigitized manuscript in the British Library

Gallery

Image:CodexBeneventanusFolio1vBlankCanonTable.jpg, Folio 1 verso, a blank canon table. Image:CodexBeneventanusCanonTable.jpg, Canon Table Image:CodexBeneventanusFolio5rJeromeLetter.jpg, Folio 5r, Letter of

St. Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is com ...

to Pope Damasus Beneventanus 8th-century biblical manuscripts British Library additional manuscripts 8th-century illuminated manuscripts Vulgate manuscripts