Codex Amiatinus

The Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving complete manuscript

of the Latin Vulgate version[1] of the Christian Bible. It was
produced around 700 in the north-east of England, at the
Benedictine monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in the Anglo-
Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria and taken to Italy as a gift for Pope
Gregory II in 716. It was one of three giant single-volume Bibles
then made at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, and is the earliest complete
one-volume Latin Bible to survive, only the León palimpsest being
older; and the oldest bible where all the Books of the Bible present
what would be their Vulgate texts.

It is named after the location in which it was found in modern times,

Mount Amiata in Tuscany, at the Abbazia di San Salvatore and is
now kept at Florence in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana[2]
(Amiatino 1).

Designated by siglum A, it is commonly considered to provide the

most reliable surviving representation of Jerome's Vulgate text for
the books of the New Testament, and most of the Old Testament. As Portrait of Ezra, from folio 5r at the
was standard in all Vulgate bibles until the 9th century,[3] the Book start of Old Testament
of Baruch is absent as is the Letter of Jeremiah, the text of the Book
of Lamentations following on from the end of Jeremiah without a
break.[4][2] Ezra is presented as a single book, the texts of the later canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah
being continuous. Similarly the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are each presented as a single book.[5]

In 2018 the Codex Amiatinus was loaned to the British Library for an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts,
returning to England for the first time in 1,300 years.[6]

Contents
Description
History
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Description
The symbol for it is written am or A (Wordsworth). It is preserved in an immense tome, measuring 191 ⁄4
inches (49 cm) high, 133 ⁄8 inches (34 cm) in breadth, and 7 inches (18 cm) thick, and weighs over 75 pounds
(34 kg) – so impressive, as Hort says, as to fill the beholder with a feeling akin to awe.[7][8][2]
 The Book of Psalms is
provided in Jerome's third
version, translated from the
Hebrew, rather than in the
pre-Jerome Roman Psalter
then standard in English
bibles, or in Jerome's
second, Gallican version,
that was to supplant his
Hebraic Psalms in most
The bulk of the Codex
Vulgate bibles from the 9th
century onwards. By
contrast with case in most
of the rest of the Old Testament, the Amiatinus psalms text is
commonly considered an inferior witness of Jerome's Versio juxta
Hebraicum; the presence of the 'Columba' series of psalm headings,
also found in the Cathach of St. Columba, demonstrates that an Irish
psalter must have been its source; but the text differs in many places
from the best Irish manuscripts. The New Testament is preceded by
the Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum, Prolegomena to the four Maiestas Domini (Christ in Majesty)
Gospels. with the Four Evangelists and their
symbols, at the start of the New
The Codex Amiatinus qualifies as an illuminated manuscript as it Testament (fol. 796v)
has some decoration including two full-page miniatures, but these
show little sign of the usual insular style of Northumbrian art and are
clearly copied from Late Antique originals. It contains 1,040 leaves of strong, smooth vellum, fresh-looking
today despite their great antiquity, arranged in quires of four sheets, or quaternions. It is written in uncial
characters, large, clear, regular, and beautiful, two columns to a page, and 43 or 44 lines to a column. A little
space is often left between words, but the writing is in general continuous. The text is divided into sections,
which in the Gospels correspond closely to the Ammonian Sections. There are no marks of punctuation, but
the skilled reader was guided into the sense by stichometric, or verse-like, arrangement into cola and commata,
which correspond roughly to the principal and dependent clauses of a sentence. From this manner of writing
the script is believed to have been modeled upon the Codex Grandior of Cassiodorus,[9] but it may go back,
perhaps, even to St. Jerome.[2]

History
Originally three copies of the Bible were commissioned by Abbot Ceolfrid in 692.[1] This date has been
established as the double monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow secured a grant of additional land to raise the
2,000 head of cattle needed to produce the vellum. Bede was most likely involved in the compilation. In 716,
Ceolfrid accompanied one copy, the Codex Amiatinus, intended as a gift to Pope Gregory II, but he died en
route to Rome on 29 September 716 at Langres, Burgundy.[10][1] The book later appears in the 9th century in
Abbey of the Saviour, Mount Amiata in Tuscany (hence the description "Amiatinus"), where it is recorded in
a list of the Abbey's relics dated 1036, describing it as being an Old and New Testament 'written in the hand of
the blessed Pope Gregory' [citation needed]. It remained in the San Salvatore Monastery until 1786 when it
passed to the Laurentian Library in Florence. The dedication page had been altered and the principal librarian
to the Laurentian, Angelo Maria Bandini suggested that the author was Servandus, a follower of St. Benedict,
and that it had been produced at Monte Cassino around the 540s. This claim was accepted for the next
hundred years, establishing it as the oldest copy of the Vulgate, but scholars in Germany noted the similarity to
9th-century texts. In 1888, Giovanni Battista de Rossi established that the Codex was related to the Bibles
mentioned by Bede. This also established that Amiatinus was related
to the Greenleaf Bible fragment in the British Library. Although de
Rossi's attribution removed 150 years from the age of the Codex, it
remains the oldest version of the Vulgate.

As the primary source of the Vulgate, the manuscript was of particular

importance to the Catholics during the Counter-Reformation.
Protestant translations derived from the original language of the
Scriptures, but the Latin text of the Amiatinus was earlier than any
then-known Hebrew manuscript, making it a "major piece of
propaganda in the battle for textual precedence". In 1587 Pope Sixtus
V demanded the book be sent to Rome where it was consulted for a
new papal edition of the Bible, the Sixtine Vulgate;[11] although in the
event, little or no use was made of its readings in either the Sistine or
subsequent Sixto-Clementine official Vulgate editions, whose editors
rather preferred later medieval Vulgate texts and editions now known
to have been heavily corrupted by non-Vulgate readings.

In view of the many accumulated corruptions in all published editions

of the Vulgate so far, the Oxford University Press accepted in 1878 a Page with dedication; "Ceolfrith of
proposal from classicist John Wordsworth (later Bishop of Salisbury) the English" was altered into "Peter
to produce a new critical edition of the Vulgate New of the Lombards"
Testament. [12][13] This was eventually published as Nouum
Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem
sancti Hieronymi in three volumes between 1889 and 1954;[14] the Codex Amiatinus being a primary source
for the entire text; which also followed this manuscript in presenting the text in sense lines, cola et commata
without any other indication of punctuation. In 1907 Pope Pius X commissioned the Benedictine monks in
Rome to prepare a critical edition of Jerome's Vulgate, entitled Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem,
which eventually emerged as a counterpart Old Testament to the Oxford New Testament, following largely the
same critical principles, and according similar primary status to the Codex Amiatinus text (other than for the
Psalms); and similarly deriving its layout, cola et commata from Amiatinus.[15]

See also
List of New Testament Latin manuscripts
Celt (tool) – a famous mistake in most Vulgates, not found in this copy
Ceolfrid Bible – almost certainly a surviving portion of one of the other two single-volume
Bibles ordered made by Ceolfrid for the double monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow.

References
1. Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (Oxford University Press 2005), p. 106.
2. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain: Fenlon, John Francis (1908). "Codex Amiatinus". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
Catholic Encyclopedia. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
3. Bogaert, Pierre-Maurice (2005). "Le livre de Baruch dans les manuscrits de la Bible latine.
Disparition et réintégration". Revue Bénédictine. 115 (2): 286–342. doi:10.1484/J.RB.5.100598
(https://doi.org/10.1484%2FJ.RB.5.100598).
4. Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. Robert Weber, Roger Gryson (eds.) (5 ed.). Stuttgart:
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. 2007. ISBN 978-3-438-05303-9.
 5. The Biblical Canon Lists of Early Christianity. Edmon. L. Gallagher, John. D. Meade. Oxford:
OUP. 2017. p. 258.
6. "Behemoth Bible returns to England for first time in 1,300 years" (https://www.theguardian.com/
books/2018/oct/18/behemoth-bible-returns-to-england-for-first-time-in-1300-years-codex-amiati
nus-british-library-anglo-saxon-exhibition). The Guardian. London. 18 October 2018.
7. H. J. White, The Codex Amiatinus and its Birthplace, in: Studia Biblica et Ecclesiasctica
(Oxford 1890), Vol. II, p. 273.
8. Richard Marsden, Amiatinus, Codex (https://books.google.com/books?id=f65VUNvxQjkC&pg=
PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=Amiatinus+%22Old+Testament%22&source=bl&ots=bf_Zj6lVuj&sig=Yp
7tDvCzf0pllRvnRzJb9siYq5o&hl=pl&ei=FlJPTpHYDfHU4QSp273lBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&
ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Amiatinus%20%22Old%20Testa
ment%22&f=false), in: Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael
Lapidge,John Blair, Simon Keynes, Wiley-Blackwell, 2001, s. 31.
9. Dom John Chapman, The Codex Amiatinus and the Codex grandior (https://archive.org/stream/
notesontheearlyh00chapuoft#page/2/mode/2up) in: Notes on the early history of the Vulgate
Gospels, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1908, pp. 2–8.
10. Hind, George. "St. Ceolfrid." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1908. 17 May 2013 (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03536a.htm)
11. De Hamel, p.64
12. Wordsworth, John (1883). The Oxford Critical Edition of the Vulgate New Testament (http://catal
og.hathitrust.org/Record/008730879). Oxford. p. 4.
13. Watson, E.W. (1915). Life of Bishop John Wordsworth (https://archive.org/details/a613342800w
atsuoft). London: Longmans, Green.
14. Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi.
John Wordsworth, Henry Julian White (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1889–1954. 3 vols,
15. Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem. Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City (ed.).
Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 1926–1995. ISBN 978-8820921286. 18 vols.

Further reading
Chapman, John (1908). Notes on the early history of the Vulgate Gospels (https://archive.org/d
etails/notesontheearlyh00chapuoft). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
Chazelle, Celia (2003). "Ceolfrid's gift to St Peter: the first quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the
evidence of its Roman destination". Early Medieval Europe. 12 (2): 129–157.
doi:10.1111/j.0963-9462.2004.00124.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.0963-9462.2004.00124.x).
ISSN 1468-0254 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1468-0254).
Chazelle, Celia (2006). "Christ and the vision of God: the Biblical diagrams of the Codex
Amiatinus". In Jeffrey F. Hamburger; Anne-Marie Bouché (eds.). The mind's eye: art and
theological argument in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 84–
111. ISBN 978-0-691-12475-9.
Corsano, Karen (1987). "The First Quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the Institutiones of
Cassiodorus". Scriptorium. 41 (1): 3–34. doi:10.3406/scrip.1987.1462 (https://doi.org/10.3406%
2Fscrip.1987.1462). ISSN 0036-9772 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0036-9772).
Meyvaert, Paul (1996). "Bede, Cassiodorus, and the Codex Amiatinus". Speculum. 71 (4):
827–883. doi:10.2307/2865722 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2865722). ISSN 0038-7134 (https://
www.worldcat.org/issn/0038-7134). JSTOR 2865722 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2865722).
Meyvaert, Paul (2005). "The date of Bede's In Ezram and his image of Ezra in the Codex
Amiatinus" (http://journals.cambridge.org/article_S0038713400001366). Speculum. 80 (4):
1087–1133. doi:10.1017/S0038713400001366 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS00387134000013
66). ISSN 2040-8072 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2040-8072). Retrieved 2015-12-04.
 Sanday, W. (1890). "On the Italian origin of the Codex Amiatinus and the localizing of Italian
MSS." (https://archive.org/details/studiabiblicaete02oxfouoft). Studia Biblica et ecclesiastica:
essays chiefly in Biblical and patristic criticism. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 309–324.
Tischendorf, Constantinus von (1850). Novum Testamentum Latine interprete Hieronymo: ex
celeberrimo Codice Amiatino (https://archive.org/details/novumtestamentu02tiscgoog). Leipzig:
Avenarius et Mendelssohn. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
White, H.J. (1890). "The Codex Amiatinus and its birthplace" (https://archive.org/details/studiabi
blicaete02oxfouoft). Studia Biblica et ecclesiastica: essays chiefly in Biblical and patristic
criticism. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 273–308.
The City and the Book: International Conference Proceedings (http://www.florin.ms/aleph.html),
Florence, 2001.
Alphabet and Bible: From the Margins to the Centre. Paper at Monte Amiata, 2009.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090803165921/http://www.florin.ms/AlphabetBible.html
Makepeace, Maria. "The 1,300 year pilgrimage of the Codex Amiatinus" (http://www.umilta.net/
pandect.html). Umilta Website. Retrieved 2006-06-07. Contains link to facsimile project, as
well.
de Hamel, Christopher (2016). Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-
0-241-00304-6.

External links
Codex Amiatinus (https://www.wdl.org/en/item/20150/): Complete images through the World
Digital Library
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiat. 1 (http://opac.bmlonline.it/Record.htm?recor
d=120012494829), bibliography
Image of the codex, folio 950 (http://www.biblical-data.org/LATIN_Resources/Amiatinus_GSD.j
pg)
British Library blogpost (http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/06/the-first-voyage-of-code
x-amiatinus.html)
David Dimbleby. "Age of Conquest" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn322). Seven
Ages of Britain. 33:38 minutes in. BBC 1. Retrieved 21 Nov 2010.
The Cambridge History of the Bible (https://www.scribd.com/doc/29198994/2/BIBLE-ILLUSTRA
TION-IN-MEDIEVAL-MANUSCRIPTS), Cambridge University Press 2008, pp. 117–119, 130.
More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts (https://elmss.nuigalway.ie/catalogue/631).

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