Minuscule 536 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 264 (in Soden's numbering), is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

minuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...

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. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 13th century. Scrivener labeled it by number 549. Several pages of the manuscript were lost. There are incomplete

marginalia Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...

. The manuscript is available in a digital form on the internet.

Description

It is "a very curious volume in ancient binding with two metal plates on the covers much resembling that of B-C. I. 7". The codex contains a complete text of the ''

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s,'' ''

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

,'' and ''

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...

'' on 174 parchment leaves (size ) with some additional material. It has only one

lacuna Lacuna (plural lacunas or lacunae) may refer to: Related to the meaning "gap" * Lacuna (manuscripts), a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or musical work **Great Lacuna, a lacuna of eight leaves in the ''Codex Regius'' where there ...

(Acts 26:24-28:31). The lacking material was supplemented by another, but contemporary hand. The leaf after 63 is not numbered. The pages 127 recto and 127 verso are accompanied by horizontal lines in margin. The leaves 146-147 are written vertically. The text is written one column per page, 26–31 lines per page, in a very minute hand. The large initial letters are decorated and in colours, the small initials are in red. It has decorated headpieces before each biblical book. The

iota subscript The iota subscript is a diacritic mark in the Greek alphabet shaped like a small vertical stroke or miniature iota placed below the letter. It can occur with the vowel letters eta , omega , and alpha . It represents the former presence of an ...

is found twice only, and the error of

itacism Iotacism (, ''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 the letter iota, the orig ...

is quite rare. The writing being unusually full of abbreviations. The Old Testament quotations are marked by inverted comma (>). It contains Prolegomena to the ''Acts of the Apostles'', the tables of the (''tables of contents'') are placed before Gospel of Matthew, Luke and John, numbers of the (''chapters'') are given at the margin, with their (''titles'') at the head and foot of the pages. There is also a division according to the smaller Ammonian Sections, but there are no references 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 of the Bible, chapters ...

. It contains subscriptions at the end of each book and numbers of (only in ''Luke''). References to the Eusebian Canons are noted only on one page of the codex. Lectionary markings and (''lessons''), are given only to ''Matthew'', and they were added by a later hand. It has some ''

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

'' on ''Matthew 5'' (folio 11 verso and folio 12 recto). It contains seven pages with Gregory Nazianzen's heroic verses on the Lord's genealogy, and other erses?on His miracles and Parables, partly in red, precede tables of to ''Matthew.'' Other verses of Gregory precede ''Mark'' and ''Luke,'' and follow ''John.'' There are no chapter divisions in the ''Acts'', but a few capitals in red. Each book is preceded by decorated headpieces.

Text

The Greek text of the ''Gospels'' has many of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

readings but its text is not entirely Byzantine.

Hermann von Soden Baron Hermann von Soden (16 August 1852 – 15 January 1914) was a German Biblical scholar, minister, professor of divinity, and textual theorist. Life Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 16, 1852, Soden was educated at the University of Tübinge ...

classified it as part of the textual family K^r, but it was not confirmed by Aland and Wisse. Aland did not place it in any

category Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...

. 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 classi ...

it has an eclectic text in ''

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...

''. In ''

Luke 1 Luke 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. With 80 verses, it is one of the longest chapters in the New Testament. This chapter describes the birth of John the Baptist and the events leading up ...

'' it has mixed Byzantine text, in ''

Luke 10 Luke 10 is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christianity, Christian Bible. It records the sending of seventy disciples by Jesus, Parable of the Good Samaritan, the famous parable about the Good Samaritan, and his ...

'' it represents textual cluster

Family Π Family Π is a group of New Testament manuscripts, and is one of the textual families which belongs to the majority Byzantine text-type. The name of the family, "Π" (pronounced in English as "pie"), is drawn from the symbol used for the manuscript ...

200 Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 200 for this y ...

, and in ''

Luke 20 Luke 20 is the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the teaching of Jesus Christ in the temple in Jerusalem, especially his responses to questions raised by the Pharisees and Sadducees.Hal ...

'' it belongs to the textual family K^x. In the ''Acts'' its text is very close to the textual family

1739 Events January–March * January 1 – Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, in the South Atlantic Ocean. * January 3 – A 7.6 earthquake shakes the Ningxia Hui Autonomou ...

. According to Scrivener the variations from the text of majority are not numerous or remarkable. Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts

History

Of the history of the codex 536 nothing is known until the year 1864. In 1864, the manuscript was purchased from a dealer at

Janina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

, by

Angela Burdett-Coutts Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts ( Burdett; 21 April 1814 – 30 December 1906) was a British philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and Sophia, formerly Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Co ...

(1814–1906),. a philanthropist, together with other Greek manuscripts (among them codices

532 __NOTOC__ Year 532 ( DXXXII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year after the Consulship of Lampadius and Probus (or, less frequently, year 1285 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denom ...

–

546 __NOTOC__ Year 546 ( DXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 546 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe f ...

). They were transported to England in 1870/71. The manuscript was presented by Burdett-Coutts to Sir Roger Cholmely's School, and was housed at the Highgate (Burdett-Coutts II. 7), in London. It was examined and collated by Scrivener. In 1922 it was purchased for the library of the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. The manuscript was described by K. W. Clark in 1937.Kenneth W. Clark, ''A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America'' (Chicago, 1937), p. 295. It was added to the list of the New Testament minuscule manuscripts by F. H. A. Scrivener (549) and

C. R. Gregory C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Letter C, the third letter in the alphabet. * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of man ...

(536). Gregory saw it in 1883. It is currently housed at the University of Michigan (Ms. Inv. No. 24) in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

Gallery

File:Minuscule_536_(GA)_0008a.JPG, Folio 8 recto with the beginning of Matthew File:GA 536 0012a.jpg, Folio 12 recto with a marginal commentary File:Minuscule 536 GA 0039a.JPG, Folio 39 recto, the first page of Mark File:Minuscule 536 GA 0061a.JPG, Folio 61 recto, the first page of Luke

References

External links

Images of the minuscule 536
at the CSNTM

at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Minuscule 0536 Greek New Testament minuscules 13th-century biblical manuscripts Illuminated biblical manuscripts University of Michigan