Codex Guelferbytanus A designated by P
e or 024 (in the
Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 33 (
von Soden), is a Greek
uncial
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
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...
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 ...
of the
Gospels
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 ...
, dated
palaeographically to the 6th century. The manuscript is very lacunose.
Description
The codex contains the text of the four Gospels in a very fragmentary condition on 44 leaves (). Written in two columns per page, 24 lines per column.
It does not contain ''in genere'' breathings and accents. Sometimes it uses breathings, but often wrongly. It has errors of
iotacism
Iotacism ( el, ιωτακισμός, ''iotakismos'') or itacism is the process of vowel shift by which a number of vowels and diphthongs converged towards the pronunciation in post-classical Greek and Modern Greek. The term "iotacism" refers to ...
in the Alexandrian way.
; Contents
: Matthew 1:11-21; 3:13-4:19; 10:7-19; 10:42-11:11; 13:40-50; 14:15-15:3.29-39;
: Mark 1:2-11; 3:5-17; 14:13-24.48-61; 15:12-37;
: Luke 1:1-13; 2:9-20; 6:21-42; 7:32-8:2; 8:31-50; 9:26-36; 10:36-11:4; 12:34-45; 14:14-25; 15:13-16:22; 18:13-39; 20:21-21:3; 22:3-16; 23:20-33; 23:45-24:1; 24:14-37;
: John 1:29-40; 2:13-25; 21:1-11.
[
The notation of the Ammonian Sections is given in the margin of text, but without reference to the ]Eusebian Canons
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 d ...
. The nomina sacra attested in this uncial fragment are ΙΣ (''Iesous'', Jesus) ΧΣ (''Christos'', Christ), ΚΣ (''Kurios'', Lord) ΘΣ, ΥΣ, ΠΗΡ, ΠΝΑ, ΙΛΗΜ, ΑΝΟΣ, and ΔΑΔ. The number "forty" is also written with an abbreviation — Μ. All the abbreviations are marked with the superscript bar.[
It is a ]palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...
. The whole book is known as ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''. The upper text is in Latin and contains Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
's ''Origines
(, "Origins") is the title of a lost work on Roman and Italian history by Cato the Elder, composed in the early-2nd centuryBC.
Contents
According to Cato's biographer Cornelius Nepos, the ''Origins'' consisted of seven books. Book I was the hi ...
''.
Text
The Greek text of this 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 ...
is a representative of the Byzantine text-type
In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form fou ...
. Aland placed it in Category V.[ According to the ]Claremont Profile Method
The Claremont Profile Method is a method for classifying ancient manuscripts of the Bible. It was elaborated by Ernest Cadman Colwell and his students. Professor Frederik Wisse attempted to establish an accurate and rapid procedure for the classif ...
in Luke 20 it has mixed text.
According to Scrivener the codex agrees with A B united 50 times, sides with B against A 29 times, and accords with A against B in 102 places.F. H. A. Scrivener
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (September 29, 1813, Bermondsey, Surrey – October 30, 1891, Hendon, Middlesex) was a New Testament textual critic and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version ...
, "A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament
''A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament: For the Use of Biblical Students'' is one of the books of Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (1813–1891), biblical scholar and textual critic. In this book Scrivener listed over 3,0 ...
" (George Bell & Sons
George Bell & Sons was a book publishing house located in London, United Kingdom, from 1839 to 1986.
History
George Bell & Sons was founded by George Bell as an educational bookseller, with the intention of selling the output of London univ ...
: London 1894), Vol. 1, p. 144.
History
Formerly the manuscript was held in Bobbio
Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a dioc ...
, Weissenburg, Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, and Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. The Duke of Brunswick
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...
bought it in 1689.[
The manuscript became known to scholars in the latter half of the 18th century. ]Franz Anton Knittel Franz Anton Knittel (April 3, 1721 – December 10, 1792) was a German, Lutheran orthodox theologian, priest, and palaeographer. He examined palimpsests' text of the ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis'' and deciphered text of Codex Ca ...
(1721–1792) discovered it in the Ducal Library of Wolfenbüttel.F. H. A. Scrivener
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (September 29, 1813, Bermondsey, Surrey – October 30, 1891, Hendon, Middlesex) was a New Testament textual critic and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version ...
, "A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament
''A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament: For the Use of Biblical Students'' is one of the books of Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (1813–1891), biblical scholar and textual critic. In this book Scrivener listed over 3,0 ...
" (George Bell & Sons
George Bell & Sons was a book publishing house located in London, United Kingdom, from 1839 to 1986.
History
George Bell & Sons was founded by George Bell as an educational bookseller, with the intention of selling the output of London univ ...
: London 1894), Vol. 1, pp. 143-144. Knittel recognized two palimpsest Greek texts of the New Testament in the codex and designated them by A and B. F. A. He published the 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 ...
text of the codex (''Codex Carolinus
Codex Carolinus is an uncial manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. It is a palimpsest containing a Latin text written over a Gothic one. The Gothic text is designated by siglum ''Car'', the Latin text is d ...
'') at Brunswick in 1762.[Knittel, ''Ulphilae versionem Gothicam nonnullorum capitum epistolae Pauli ad Romanos e litura MS. rescript Bibliothecae Guelferbytanae, cum variis monumentis ineditis eruit, commentatus est, detitque foras'', Brunovici 1762] The lower Greek text was collated and edited by Tischendorf Tischendorf is a German surname
Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname'').
The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usu ...
in 1860.
The codex is located at the Herzog August Bibliothek
The Herzog August Library (german: link=no, Herzog August Bibliothek — "HAB"), in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, known also as ''Bibliotheca Augusta'', is a library of international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and ear ...
(Weissenburg 64) in Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...
.
See also
* List of New Testament uncials
A New Testament uncial is a section of the New Testament in Greek or Latin majuscule letters, written on parchment or vellum. This style of writing is called ''Biblical Uncial'' or ''Biblical Majuscule''.
New Testament uncials are distinct fro ...
* Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...
References
Further reading
* Constantin von Tischendorf
''Monumenta Sacra inedita VI''
(Leipzig, 1869), pp. XIII-XV, XVII, XVIII, 249-338.
* G. Cavallo, "Ricerche sulla maiuscola biblica" (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1967), p. 92.
* U. B. Schmid, D. C. Parker, W. J. Elliott
''The Gospel according to St. John: The majuscules''
(Brill 2007), pp. 39–44. ext of the codex in the Gospel of John
External links
* Digitalize
''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''
at the ''Herzog August Bibliothek
The Herzog August Library (german: link=no, Herzog August Bibliothek — "HAB"), in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, known also as ''Bibliotheca Augusta'', is a library of international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and ear ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guelferbytanus A
Greek New Testament uncials
6th-century biblical manuscripts
Palimpsests
Herzog August Library