Everything about The Codex Vaticanus totally explained
The
Codex Vaticanus (
The Vatican,
Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; Gregory-Aland no.
B or
03) is one of the oldest extant
manuscripts of the Bible. Probably it's slightly older than
Codex Sinaiticus, both of which were probably transcribed in the
4th century. It is written in
Greek, on
vellum, with
uncial letters.
Contents
Vaticanus originally contained a complete copy of the
Septuagint ("LXX") except for 1-4
Maccabees and the
Prayer of Manasseh.
Genesis 1:1 - 46:28a (31 leaves) and
Psalm 105:27 — 137:6b (10 leaves) are lost and have been filled by a recent hand.
2 Kings 2:5-7, 10-13 are also lost due to a tear in one of the pages. The order of the Old Testament books is as follows: Genesis to
2 Chronicles as normal,
1 Esdras,
2 Esdras (which includes
Nehemias), the
Psalms,
Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes,
Song of Songs,
Job,
Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus,
Esther,
Judith,
Tobit, the minor prophets from
Hosea to
Malachi,
Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
Baruch,
Lamentations and the
Epistle of Jeremiah,
Ezekiel and
Daniel.
The extant
New Testament of Vaticanus contains the
Gospels,
Acts, the
General Epistles, the
Pauline Epistles and the
Epistle to the Hebrews (up to Heb 9:14, καθα[ριει);thus it lacks
1 and
2 Timothy,
Titus,
Philemon and
Revelation. These missing pages were replaced by a 15th century minuscule supplement (no. 1957).
The Greek is written continuously with small neat writing, later retraced by an 10th (or 11th) century scribe. Punctuation is rare (accents and breathings have been added by a later hand) except for some blank spaces,
diaeresis on initial
iotas and
upsilons, abbreviations of the
nomina sacra and markings of OT citations.
The manuscript contains mysterious double dots (so called "
umlauts") in the margin of the New Testament, which seem to mark places of textual uncertainty. There are 795 of these in the text and around another 40 that are uncertain. The date of these markings are disputed among scholars and are discussed in a link below.
On page 1512, next to Hebrews 1:3, the text contains an interesting marginal note,
"Fool and knave, can't you leave the old reading alone and not alter it!" which suggests that inaccurate copying, either intentional or unintentional, was a known problem in scriptoriums.
Also note that the yellow page on this page is the exact same page where the textcritical remark is located! (In the middle of the page, between 1st and 2nd column)
Provenance
Its place of origin and the history of the manuscript is uncertain, with
Rome, southern Italy, Alexandria, and Caesarea (T.C. Skeat) all having been suggested. There has been speculation that it had previously been in the possession of Cardinal
Bessarion because the minuscule supplement has a text similar to one of Bessarion's manuscripts. According to
Paul Canart's introduction to the recent facsimile edition, p. 5, the decorative initials added to the manuscript in the middle ages are reminiscent of Constantinopolitan decoration of the 10th century, but poorly executed, giving the impression that they were added in the
11th or
12th century.
T. C. Skeat, a
paleographer at the
British Museum, first argued that Codex Vaticanus was among the 50 Bibles that the Emperor
Constantine I ordered
Eusebius of Caesarea to produce. The similarity of the text with the papyri and Coptic version (including some letter formation), parallels with Athanasius' canon of
367 suggest an Egyptian or Alexandrian origin.
The manuscript has been housed in the
Vatican Library (founded by
Pope Nicholas V in
1448) for as long as it has been known, appearing in its earliest catalog of
1475 and in the
1481 catalogue.
Before the 19th century no scholar was allowed to study or edit it. In
1809 Napoleon brought it as a victory trophy to
Paris, but in
1815 it was returned to the
Vatican Library. In that time, in Paris, German scholar Johann Leonhard Hug (1765-1846) saw it. In
1843 Tischendorf was permitted to make a facsimile of a few verses, in
1844 — Edward de Muralt saw it, and in
1845 — S.P. Tregelles was allowed to observe several points which Muralt had overlooked. In
1889 a complete photographic facsimile was published, and codex became commonly available.
Importance
Codex Vaticanus is one of the most important manuscripts for
Textual criticism and is a leading member of the
Alexandrian text-type. It was heavily used by
Westcott and
Hort in their edition,
The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881). In Gospels it's most important witness of the text, in Acts and Letters equal to Codex Sinaiticus. Unfortunatelly manuscript isn't complete.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Codex Vaticanus'.
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