Codex Guelferbytanus Weissenburgensis 64 folio 280 recto

Codex Carolinus is an

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, p. 494. script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to ...

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 printed or reproduced in ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. 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 ...

containing a

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 ...

text written over 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 ...

one. The Gothic text is designated by

siglum Scribal abbreviations or sigla ( singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechani ...

''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 Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

translation of the New Testament. It is housed in the

Herzog August Library 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 ...

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 ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, Germany. It is one of very few manuscripts of

Wulfila 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 missionar ...

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

. 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 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 ...

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 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 In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: ''nomen sacrum'' from Latin ''sacred name'') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A nomen sacrum consists ...

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 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 da ...

. It is a

, the whole book is known as ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''. The upper text is in Latin, it contains Isidore of Seville'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 ...

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

Codex Guelferbytanus A Codex Guelferbytanus A designated by Pe or 024 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 33 ( von Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. The manuscript is very lacunose. Description The ...

Codex Guelferbytanus B Codex Guelferbytanus B designated by Q or 026 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 4 ( von Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 5th century. It is a palimpsest. Contents Gospel of Luke 4:34-5:4, ...

, and ''Codex Carolinus''.

History

Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis, page 00507

The manuscript is dated palaeographically to the 6th century or 7th century. According to

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 ...

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 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 di ...

, 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 joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. 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.

(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 (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

in 1763. It was published again by

Theodor Zahn Theodor Zahn or Theodor von Zahn (10 October 1838 in Moers – 5 March 1933 in Erlangen) was a German Protestant theologian, a biblical scholar. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Career Zahn was born in Moers of the ...

. 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 filin ...

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 Carla Falluomini (born 1970) is an Italian philologist who specializes on Gothic and Lombardic palaeography, languages and cultures. She is currently professor at the University of Perugia. Biography Carla Falluomini was born in 1970 in Ferrara ...

in 1999. 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 ...

(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.)

Codex Carolinus Tischendorf (Monumenta p

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 ''

'' — 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