Codex Guelferbytanus Weissenburgensis 64 folio 280 recto

Codex Carolinus is an

uncial Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. It is a palimpsest containing a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

text written over a Gothic one. The Gothic text is designated by siglum ''Car'', the Latin text is designated by siglum ''gue'' (traditional system) or by ''79'' (on the list of Beuron), it represents the

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical ), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. A member of the Italic languages, it descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

translation of the New Testament. It is housed in the Herzog August Library in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Germany. It is one of very few manuscripts of Wulfila's

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

. The manuscript is fragmentary. The four leaves of the codex were used as raw material for the production of another manuscript – ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''. It is a palimpsest, and its text has been reconstructed several times. Franz Anton Knittel was the first to examine it and decipher its text.

Description

The codex has survived to the present day in a very fragmentary condition. It contains only the text of 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 (Christianity), salvation is offered ...

11-15 on four parchment leaves (size 26.5 cm by 21.5 cm). The text is written in two parallel columns, 27 lines per column. The left column is in Gothic, the right in Latin. ; Contents : Romans 11:33-12:5; 12:17-13:5; 14:9-20; 15:3-13. The text of the codex is not divided into chapters. The nomina sacra are used both in Gothic and Latin texts (ihm and ihu for "Iesum" and "Iesu"). All the abbreviations are marked with the superscript bar. Its text has some value in Romans 14:14 for

Textual Criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...

. It is a palimpsest, the whole book is known as ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''. The upper text is in Latin, it contains

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

'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 th ...

'' and his six letters. The lower text of the codex belongs to several much earlier manuscripts, such as Codex Guelferbytanus A, Codex Guelferbytanus B, and ''Codex Carolinus''.

History

The manuscript is dated palaeographically to the 6th century or 7th century. According to Tischendorf it was written in the 6th century. Probably it was written in Italy. Nothing is known about its early history. In the 12th or 13th century four of its leaves were used as material for another book and they were overwritten by Latin text. Its later story is linked with the codices Guelferbytanus A and B. Formerly the manuscript was held in Bobbio, Weissenburg,

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, and

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. The Duke of Brunswick bought it in 1689. The manuscript became known to the scholars in the half of the 18th century, where it was found in the Ducal Library of Wolfenbüttel. The first description of the codex was made by Heusinger. Franz Anton Knittel (1721–1792) recognized two lower Greek texts of the New Testament in this palimpsest codex, and designated them by A and B, he recognized also the Gothic-Latin text (known later as ''Codex Carolinus''). F. A. Knittel deciphered Gothic-Latin text of the ''Codex Carolinus'' and published it in 1762 at Brunswick. In his edition all abbreviated forms, Gothic and Latin, are written in full. It was published in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

in 1763. It was published again by Theodor Zahn. Knittel made many errors, especially in Latin text, he also did not decipher every word and left several lacunae in the reconstructed text (e.g. Romans 11:35; 12:2; 15:8). Tischendorf made a new and more accurate

collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fi ...

for the Latin text and edited in 1855. Tischendorf used abbreviations for the nomina sacra, he did not leave any lacunae. The new collation of the Gothic text was given by Carla Falluomini in 1999. The codex is located at the Herzog August Bibliothek (no. 4148) in

Samples of reconstructed text (Romans 11:33-12:2)

Gothic text (folio 277 recto, 1 col.)

Latin text (folio 277 recto, 2 col.)

References

External links

; Text of the codex
Codex Carolinus
— with reconstructed text Gothic and Latin
Gothic text in Falluomini's reconstruction
at the ''Digitale Edition der Handschrift Cod. Guelf. 64 Weiss'' ; Sortable articles
Manuscripts of Gothic Bible
at the ''Wulfila Project'' * Digitalize
Codex Guelferbytanus Weissenburgensis 64
at the '' Herzog August Bibliothek'' — Images 505-508, 549-550, 555-556
More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carolinus Gothic Bible 6th-century biblical manuscripts Palimpsests Vetus Latina New Testament manuscripts Herzog August Library