Editing Codex Vaticanus (section)

== Description ==
[[File:Codex Vaticanus end or Luke.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ending of [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] and Beginning of [[Gospel of John|John]] on the same page]]
The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book) in [[quarto]] volume, written on 759 leaves of fine and thin [[vellum]] (sized {{×|27|27|cm}}, although originally bigger),{{r|Scrivener}} in [[Uncial script|uncial]] letters, arranged in [[Units of paper quantity#Quire|quires]] of five sheets or ten leaves each, similar to [[Codex Marchalianus]] or [[Codex Rossanensis]]; but unlike [[Codex Sinaiticus]] which has an arrangement of four or three sheets. The number of the quires is often found in the margin.<ref name="scriv-intro">{{Cite book | first=Frederick Henry Ambrose | last=Scrivener | author-link=Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener | author2=Edward Miller | title=A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament | volume=1 | edition=4 | pages=105–106 | year=1894 | publisher=[[George Bell & Sons]] | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924092355100/page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref> Originally it must have been composed of 830 parchment leaves, but it appears that 71 leaves have been lost.<ref name="Kenyon">{{Cite book | first=Frederic George | last=Kenyon | author-link=Frederic G. Kenyon | title=Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts | edition=4th | year=1939 | publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.1094/page/n3/mode/2up}}</ref> The Old Testament currently consists of 617 sheets and the New Testament of 142 sheets. The codex is written in three columns per page, with 40–44 lines per column, and 16–18 letters per line. In the poetical books of the Old Testament (OT) there are only two columns to a page. There are 44 lines in a column in the [[Pentateuch]] (first five books of the OT), Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and 1 Kings 1:1–19:11; in 2 Chronicles 10:16–26:13 there are 40 lines in a column; and in the New Testament always 42.{{r|Metzger|scriv-intro}}
The manuscript is one of the very few New Testament manuscripts to be written with three columns per page. The other two Greek codices written in that way are [[Codex Vaticanus 2061|Uncial 048]] and [[Uncial 053]].

The Greek [[calligraphy|lettering]] in the codex is written continuously in small and neat letters.<ref name="Gregory">{{Cite book | first=Caspar René | last=Gregory | author-link=Caspar René Gregory | title=Textkritik des Neuen Testaments | volume=1 | page=33 | year=1900 | publisher=J.C. Hinrichs | location=Leipzig | url=https://archive.org/stream/textkritikdesne00greggoog#page/n45/mode/2up }}</ref> All the letters are equally distant from each other; no word is separated from the other, with each line appearing to be one long word.<ref name="hug">{{Cite book | first1=John Leonard | last1=Hug | others=Daniel Guildford Wait (trans.) | title=An Introduction to the Writings of the New Testament | year=1827 | publisher=C. &. J. Rivington | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/anintroductiont02huggoog/page/n5/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|262–263}} Punctuation is rare (accents and breathings have been added by a later hand) except for some blank spaces, [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] on initial [[iota]]s and [[upsilon]]s, abbreviations of the ''[[nomina sacra]]'' (abbreviations of certain words and names considered sacred in Christianity) and markings of [[Old Testament|OT]] citations.{{r|Gregory}} The first letter of a new chapter sometimes protrudes a little from the column.{{r|Gregory}} The OT citations were marked by an inverted ''comma'' or ''diplai'' (>).{{r|Gregory}} There are no enlarged initials; no stops or accents; no divisions into chapters or sections such as are found in later manuscripts.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Caspar René | last=Gregory | author-link=Caspar René Gregory | title=Canon and Text of the New Testament | page=343 | year=1907 | publisher=Charles Scribner's sons | location=New York | url=https://archive.org/stream/canontextofnewte00greg#page/342/mode/2up}}</ref>

The text of the Gospels is not divided according to the Ammonian Sections with references to the [[Eusebian Canons]], but is divided into peculiar numbered sections: Matthew has 170, Mark 61, Luke 152, and John 80. This system is only found in two other manuscripts: [[Codex Zacynthius]] and [[Minuscule 579]].<ref name="Metzger">{{Cite book | first=Bruce Manning | last=Metzger | author-link=Bruce M. Metzger | title=Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography | page=74 | year=1991 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=New York; Oxford | isbn=978-0-19-502924-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/manuscriptsofgre0000metz | url-access=limited}}</ref> There are two system divisions in the Acts and the [[Catholic Epistles]] which differ from the [[Euthalian Apparatus]]. In [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]], these sections are 36 (the same system as [[Codex Sinaiticus]], [[Codex Amiatinus]], and [[Codex Fuldensis]]) and according to the other system 69 sections. The chapters in the Pauline epistles are numbered continuously as the Epistles were regarded as comprising one book.