The ''Codex Grandior'' ("Larger Codex") was a large single-volume copy of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

in an

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 that was made for or by

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

in the early 500s. It was one of a number of works held at his monastic foundation Vivarium, near

Squillace Squillace (; ; ) is an ancient town and in the Province of Catanzaro, part of Calabria, Southern Italy. Squillace is situated near the east coast of Calabria, facing the shores of the eponymous Gulf of Squillace (), which indents the coast of ...

, Italy. This

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

was probably acquired in Italy by

Benedict Biscop Benedict Biscop ( – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory (where he also founded the famous library) and was considered a saint after his death. It has been suggested that B ...

or Ceolfrith in 678 for the library of the new monastery at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey in

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

, where

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

eventually realized it was the ''Codex Grandior'', due the presence of certain illustrations. It seems that a pandect (a single codex with all the Biblical books), was regarded as a novelty by the monks, but Coelfrith as abbot and founder of several monasteries wanted a pandect in each in a public area accessible by any of the monks. The book no longer exists, but it is believed to have been the model used by the scribes at Jarrow to create the enormous Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving

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 complete Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

and two other pandects.Richard Barrie Dobson
''Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages''
Routledge, 2000, Volume 2, p. 179.

References

External links

* John Chapman
''The Codex Amiatinus and the Codex grandior''
in: ''Notes on the early history of the Vulgate Gospels'',

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Oxford 1908, pp. 2–8. Grandior 6th-century biblical manuscripts {{latin-stub