The Codex Gissensis ( Universitätsbibliothek Giessen, Handschrift 651/20) was a fragmentary

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

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 ...

, a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

–

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

diglot A polyglot is a book that contains Parallel text, side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the Hebrew language, Hebrew and Greek language, Greek origina ...

containing texts of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

in Gothic on the left and Latin on the right.D. Gary Miller, ''The Oxford Gothic Grammar'' (Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 11. The manuscript was made in the 6th century AD. Brian Murdoch, "Gothic", in Brian Murdoch and Malcolm Read (eds.), ''

Early Germanic Literature and Culture ''Early Germanic Literature and Culture'' is a book edited by Brian O. Murdoch and Malcolm Read. The book was published by Camden House in 2004. It covers anthropological, archaeological and philological aspects of the study on early Germanic cu ...

'' (Boydell & Brewer, 2004), p. 158. Only a double-folio single leaf was known. It was discovered in Antinoë in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and in 1907 brought to the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

town

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

, from which it gets is common name. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the manuscript was placed in the vault of the

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG was a German bank and was based in Frankfurt. It was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009. History 19th century The Dresdner Bank was established on 12 Novemb ...

branch in Giessen to protect it from air raids. In 1945, the river

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

flooded the vault and the manuscript was destroyed. The manuscript can be studied today only from photographs taken in 1910.E. A. Ebbinghaus, "Some Observations on Codex Gissensis", ''General Linguistics'' 29.4 (1989): 276. The Gothic column contain the text from ''

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

'' 23:11–14 and 24:13–17, while the Latin contains some from ''Luke'' 23:3–6, 24:5–9. The

Gothic Bible The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible in the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic (Goths, Gothic) tribes in the early Middle Ages. The translation was allegedly made by the Arianism, Arian bishop and missionary U ...

is the 4th-century translation of

Ulfilas Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary ...

, while the Latin is the ''

Vetus Latina ''Vetus Latina'' ("Old Latin" in Latin), also known as ''Vetus Itala'' ("Old Italian"), ''Itala'' ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum \mathfrak, is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts (both ...

'' with some readings from 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 ...

References

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References

Further reading