Purple parchment or purple vellum refers to

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

dyed purple; codex purpureus refers to manuscripts written entirely or mostly on such parchment. The lettering may be in gold or silver. Later the practice was revived for some especially grand

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

s produced for the emperors in Carolingian art and Ottonian art, in Anglo-Saxon England and elsewhere. Some just use purple parchment for sections of the work; the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Stockholm Codex Aureus alternates dyed and un-dyed pages. It was at one point supposedly restricted for the use of Roman or Byzantine emperors, although in a letter of

Saint Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known for his translation of the Bible ...

of 384, he "writes scornfully of the wealthy Christian women whose books are written in gold on purple vellum, and clothed with gems".Needham, 21

Examples

The ''Purple Uncials'' or the ''Purple Codices'' is a well-known group of these manuscripts, all 6th-century New Testament Greek manuscripts: * Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus N (022) * Sinope Gospels O (023) (illuminated) * Rossano Gospels Σ (042) (illuminated) * Codex Beratinus Φ (043) (illuminated) * Uncial 080 Two other purple New Testament Greek manuscripts are minuscules: * Minuscule 565 known as the ''Empress Theodora's Codex'' * Minuscule 1143 known as ''Beratinus 2'' There is a 9th-century

lectionary A lectionary () is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christianity, Christian or Judaism, Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, ...

: * Codex Neapolitanus, former ''Codex Vindobonensis 2'' Another six New Testament purple manuscripts are in Latin (with corresponding

sigla Scribal abbreviations, or sigla (grammatical number, singular: siglum), are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek language, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern Textua ...

''a'', ''b'', ''e'', ''f'', ''i'', ''j''). Besides some scattered fragments, they are held mainly in:

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Sarezzano, Trent and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Three of these use

Vetus Latina The ''Vetus Latina'' ("Old Latin" in Latin), also known as ''Vetus Itala'' ("Old Italian"), ''Itala'' ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum \mathfrak, are the Latin Bible translations, translations of biblical texts (both Old T ...

texts: * Codex Vercellensis * Codex Veronensis * Codex Palatinus * Codex Brixianus * Codex Purpureus Sarzanensis * Codex Vindobonensis Lat. 1235 There is also one Gothic purple codex – the

Codex Argenteus The (Latin for "Silver Book/Codex") is a 6th century, 6th-century illuminated manuscript, originally containing Gospel#Canonical gospels, part of the Gothic Bible, 4th-century translation of the Christian Bible into the Gothic language. Trad ...

(illuminated). There is a purple manuscript of part of the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

: * Vienna Genesis (illuminated) Other illuminated manuscripts include the

Godescalc Evangelistary The Godescalc Evangelistary, Godescalc Sacramentary, Godescalc Gospels, or Godescalc Gospel Lectionary (Paris, BNF. acquisitions nouvelles lat.1203) is an illuminated manuscript in Latin made by the Franks, Frankish scribe Godescalc and today kept ...

of 781–3, the Vienna Coronation Gospels (early 9th century) and a few pages of the 9th-century La Cava Bible from the

Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the nobleman Pelagius who traditionally has been described as being of Visigothic stock. Modern research is leaning towards the view that Pelagius was of Hispano-Roman ...

. Anglo-Saxon examples include a lost 7th-century ''Gospels'' commissioned by Saint Wilfrid.

Notes

References

External links

*
The World of Bede

Illuminated manuscripts {{Christian-book-stub

Examples

See also

Notes

References

External links