Editing Codex Amiatinus

{{Short description|Anglo-Saxon copy of c. 700 of the Vulgate Bible}}
[[File:CodxAmiatinusFolio5rEzra.jpg|thumb|230px|Portrait of [[Ezra]], from folio 5r at the start of [[Old Testament]] is "the oldest English painting to which an absolute date can be assigned (i.e. not after 716)."{{r|MWRM}}]]

The '''Codex Amiatinus''' (also known as the '''Jarrow Codex''') is considered the best-preserved [[Vulgate manuscripts|manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version]]<ref name="Metzger">{{Cite book | first1=Bruce Manning | last1=Metzger | author-link1=Bruce M. Metzger | first2=Bart D. | last2=Ehrman | author-link2=Bart D. Ehrman | title=The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration | edition=4th | page=106 | year=2005 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | isbn=0-19-516667-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/textofnewtestame0000metz_k4t1 | url-access=registration}}</ref> of the [[Christian Bible]]. It was produced around 700 in the northeast of England, at the [[Benedictine]] [[Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey]] in the [[Kingdom of Northumbria]], now [[South Tyneside]]. 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. It is the oldest Bible where all the [[biblical canon]] present what would be their Vulgate texts. In 716 it was taken to Italy as a gift for [[Pope Gregory II]].

It is named after the location in which it was found in modern times, [[Monte Amiata]] in [[Tuscany]], at the [[Abbazia di San Salvatore]] and is now kept at [[Florence]] in the [[Laurentian Library|Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana  (Laurentian Library)]].{{r|CE}}

Designated by [[scribal abbreviation|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 was standard in all Vulgate Bibles until the ninth century,<ref>{{Cite journal | first=Pierre-Maurice | last=Bogaert | title=Le livre de Baruch dans les Manuscrits de la Bible Latine: Disparition et Réintégration | trans-title=The Book of Baruch in the Latin Bible Manuscripts: Disappearance and Reintegration | journal=Revue Bénédictine | volume=115 | issue=2 | year=2005 | pages=286–342 | doi=10.1484/J.RB.5.100598}}</ref> the ''[[Book of Baruch]]'' is absent as is the ''[[Letter of Jeremiah]]'', the text of the [[Book of Lamentations]] following the end of ''Jeremiah'' without a break.<ref name="Stuttgart">{{ Cite book | editor1-first=Robert | editor1-last=Weber | editor2-first=Roger | editor2-last=Gryson | title=Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem | trans-title=The Holy Bible: Latin Vulgate Version | edition=5 | year=2007 | publisher=Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft | location=Stuttgart | isbn=978-3-438-05303-9 | lang=Latin}}</ref><ref name="CE">{{Catholic Encyclopedia | wstitle=Codex Amiatinus | volume=4 | first=John Francis | last=Fenlon | inline=1}}</ref> [[Ezra–Nehemiah]] is presented as a single book, the texts of the canonical [[Book of Ezra]] and [[Book of Nehemiah]] being continuous. Similarly the books of [[Books of Samuel|Samuel]], [[Books of Kings|Kings]] and [[Books of Chronicles|Chronicles]] are each presented as a single book.<ref>{{ Cite book | editor1-first=Edmon L. | editor1-last=Gallagher | author1-link=Edmon L. Gallagher | editor2-first=John. D. | editor2-last=Meade | title=The Biblical Canon Lists of Early Christianity | pages=258 | year=2017 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford}}</ref>

==Description==
[[File:Codex Amiatinus 03.jpg|left|thumb|The bulk of the Codex]]
[[File:Amiatinus Maiestas Domini.jpg|thumb|230px|''Maiestas Domini'' ([[Christ in Majesty]]) with the [[Four Evangelists]] and their symbols, at the start of the [[New Testament]] (fol. 796v)]]

The symbol for it is written am or A (Wordsworth). It is preserved in an immense tome, measuring {{convert|19+1/4|in|cm}} high, {{convert|13+3/8|in|cm}} in breadth, and {{convert|7|in|cm}} thick, and weighs over {{convert|75|lb|kg}} &ndash; so impressive, as biblical scholar [[F. J. A. Hort|Fenton J. A. Hort]] says, as to fill the beholder with a feeling akin to awe.<ref>[[Henry Julian White|H. J. White]], ''The Codex Amiatinus and its Birthplace'', in: Studia Biblica et Ecclesiasctica (Oxford 1890), Vol. II, p. 273.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first1=Richard | last1=Marsden | editor-first1=Michael | editor-last1=Lapidge | editor-first2=John | editor-last2=Blair | editor-first3=Simon | editor-last3=Keynes | editor-first4=Donald | editor-last4=Scragg | chapter=Amiatinus, Codex | title=The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England | edition=1st | page=31 | year=2001 | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | location=West Sussex | isbn=978-0-47065632-7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f65VUNvxQjkC&dq=Amiatinus+%22Old+Testament%22&pg=PA31}}</ref>{{r|CE}}

The ''[[Book of Psalms]]'' is provided in Jerome's third version, [[Latin Psalters#Versio juxta Hebraicum|translated from the Hebrew]], rather than in the pre-Jerome [[Latin Psalters#Versio Romana|Roman Psalter]] then standard in English bibles, or in Jerome's second, [[Latin Psalters#Versio Gallicana|Gallican version]], that was to supplant his Hebraic Psalms in most Vulgate bibles from the 9th century onwards. By contrast with most of the Old Testament, the Amiatinus psalms text is commonly considered an inferior [[Textual criticism|witness]] to Jerome's ''Versio iuxta Hebraicum'' (''Translation according to the Hebrew''); 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|Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus]], and the Prolegomena to the four Gospels.

The Codex Amiatinus qualifies as an [[illuminated manuscript]] as it has some decoration including two full-page [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]], but these show little sign of the usual [[insular art|insular style]] of Northumbrian art and are clearly [[Copying#In literature|copied]] from [[Late antique literature|late antique originals]]. It contains 1,040 [[Recto and verso|leaves]] of strong, smooth [[vellum]], fresh-looking today despite their great antiquity, arranged in [[paper quire|quires]] of four sheets, or [[Section (bookbinding)|quaternions]]. As noted by scholar Christopher de Hamel, "[t]he 1030 leaves of the Codex Amitianus would have utilized the skins of 515 cattle."<ref name="MWRM">{{Cite book | first=Christopher | last=De Hamel | title=Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts | pages=68, 82, 61 | year=2017 | publisher=Penguin | isbn=978-1594206115}}</ref> 

The script is written in [[uncial]] characters, large, clear, and regular, 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 [[Stichometry|stichometric]], or [[Verse (poetry)|verse]]-like, arrangement into [[colon (rhetoric)|cola]] and [[Comma (rhetoric)|commata]], which correspond roughly to the principal and [[dependent clause]]s of a sentence. From this manner of writing the script is believed to have been modeled upon the (''vetus latina'') [[Codex Grandior]] of [[Cassiodorus]],<ref>[[John Chapman (priest)|John Chapman]], [https://archive.org/stream/notesontheearlyh00chapuoft#page/2/mode/2up ''The Codex Amiatinus and the Codex grandior''] in: ''Notes on the early history of the Vulgate Gospels'', [[Clarendon Press]], Oxford 1908, pp. 2–8.</ref> which Jarrow monastery possessed and may have been a model for illustrations and arrangement as well,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meyvaert |first1=Paul |title=Bede, Cassiodorus, and the Codex Amiatinus |journal=Speculum |date=1996 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=827–883 |doi=10.2307/2865722 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2865722? |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription }}</ref> but it may go back, perhaps, even to St. Jerome.{{r|CE}}

==History==
[[File:Codex Amiatinus (dedication page).jpg|thumb|right|Page with dedication; "Ceolfrith of the English" was altered into "Peter of the Lombards"]]
Three copies of the Bible were originally commissioned by Abbot [[Ceolfrith]] in 692.{{r|Metzger}} This date has been established as the [[double monastery]] of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow secured a grant of additional land to raise the 2000 head of cattle needed to produce the [[vellum]]. [[Bede]] was most likely involved in the compilation. De Hamel suggests that the [[Digest (Roman law)|pandects]] were prepared, possibly partly inscribed, and potentially corrected in a few places by Bede himself.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Christopher | last=de Hamel | title=Meetings with Medieval Manuscripts | pages=91–93}}</ref> Bede's handwriting may be present.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/16/bible-margin-father-english-history-venerable-bede-manuscript A smoking quill? Notes in Bible margin could be handwriting of the Venerable Bede] - Tim Dowling, The Guardian Newspaper</ref> In 716, Ceolfrith 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.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03536a.htm Hind, George. "St. Ceolfrid." ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 17 May 2013]</ref>{{r|Metzger}} The book later appears in the ninth century in [[Abbazia di San Salvatore]], Monte Amiata, in the [[March of 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".{{r|MWRM}} 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 [[Benedict of Nursia|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 [[Ceolfrid Bible|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 complete text 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]];{{r|MWRM|p=64}} although in the event, little or no use was made of its readings in either the Sistine or subsequent [[Sixto-Clementine Vulgate|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 [[Corruption (linguistics)|corruptions]] in all published editions of the Vulgate so far, the [[Oxford University Press]] accepted in 1878 a proposal from classicist [[John Wordsworth]] (later [[Bishop of Salisbury]]) to produce a new critical edition of the Vulgate New Testament.<ref>{{Cite book | first=John | last=Wordsworth | title=The Oxford Critical Edition of the Vulgate New Testament | page=4 | year=1883 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008730879}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first=E.W. | last=Watson | title=Life of Bishop John Wordsworth | year=1915 | publisher=Green Longmans | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/a613342800watsuoft}}</ref> This was eventually published as ''Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi'' (''The Latin New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the version of Saint Jerome'') in three volumes between 1889 and 1954;<ref>{{Cite book | editor1-first=John | editor1-last=Wordsworth | editor2-first=Henry Julian | editor2-last=White | title=Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi | trans-title=The Latin New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the version of Saint Jerome | date=1889–1954 | publisher=Clarendon Press | location=Oxford | lang=Latin}} 3 vols,</ref> 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 ''{{lang|la|Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem}}'' (''The Holy Bible according to the Latin Vulgate Version''), 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.<ref>{{Cite book | author=Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City | title=Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem | trans-title=The Holy Bible: Latin Vulgate Version| date=1926–1995 | publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana | location=Rome | isbn=978-8820921286 | lang=Latin}} 18 vols.</ref> It is now kept at the Laurentian Library (shelf number Amiatino 1).{{r|CE}}

== Textual characteristics ==
''Codex Amiatinus Novum Testamentum Latine'' (''Codex Amiatinus: Latin New Testament''), prepared by [[Constantin von Tischendorf|Tischendorf]], does not contain the [[Johannine Comma]] (1 John 5.7).<ref>{{Cite book | first=Constantin | last=von Tischendorf | title=Codex Amiatinus Novum Testamentum Latine | trans-title=Codex Amiatinus: Latin New Testament | pages=391 | year=1854 | publisher=Avenarius et Mendelssohn | location=Leipzig | lang=Latin | url=https://archive.org/details/codexamiatinusno00tsch}}</ref>

==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
* [[Codex Fuldensis]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book | first=John | last=Chapman | title=Notes on the early history of the Vulgate Gospels | year=1908 | publisher=Clarendon Press | location=Oxford | url=https://archive.org/details/notesontheearlyh00chapuoft | access-date=2015-12-13}}
* {{Cite journal | first=Celia | last=Chazelle | title=Ceolfrid's gift to St Peter: the First Quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the Evidence of its Roman Destination | journal=Early Medieval Europe | volume=12 | issue=2 | year=2003 | pages=129–157 | doi=10.1111/j.0963-9462.2004.00124.x | issn=1468-0254 | s2cid=161636760}}
* {{Cite book | first=Celia | last=Chazelle | editor-first1=Jeffrey F. | editor-last1=Hamburger | editor-first2=Anne-Marie | editor-last2=Bouché | title=The Mind's Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages | chapter=Christ and the Vision of God: the Biblical Diagrams of the Codex Amiatinus | pages=84–111 | year=2006 | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, NJ | isbn=978-0-691-12475-9}}
* {{Cite journal | doi=10.3406/scrip.1987.1462 | issn=0036-9772 | volume=41 | issue=1 | pages=3–34 | last=Corsano | first=Karen | title=The First Quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the ''Institutiones'' of Cassiodorus | journal=Scriptorium | year=1987}}
* {{Cite journal | doi=10.2307/2865722 | issn=0038-7134 | volume=71 | issue=4 | pages=827–883 | last=Meyvaert | first=Paul | title=Bede, Cassiodorus, and the Codex Amiatinus | journal=Speculum | year=1996 | jstor=2865722 | s2cid=162009695}}
* {{Cite journal | doi=10.1017/S0038713400001366 | issn=2040-8072 | volume=80 | issue=4 | pages=1087–1133 | last=Meyvaert | first=Paul | title=The date of Bede's ''In Ezram'' and his image of Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus | journal=Speculum | access-date=2015-12-04 | year=2005 | s2cid=162822236 | url=http://journals.cambridge.org/article_S0038713400001366| url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite book | publisher=Clarendon Press | volume=2 | pages=309–324 | last=Sanday | first=W. | title=Studia Biblica et ecclesiastica: Essays Chiefly in Biblical and Patristic Criticism | chapter=On the Italian Origin of the Codex Amiatinus and the Localizing of Italian MSS. | location=Oxford | year=1890 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/studiabiblicaete02oxfouoft}}
* {{Cite book | publisher=Avenarius et Mendelssohn | last=Tischendorf | first=Constantinus von | title=Novum Testamentum Latine interprete Hieronymo: ex celeberrimo Codice Amiatino | trans-title=The Latin New Testament, translated by Jerome: From the most famous Codex Amiatinus | year=1850 | location=Leipzig | lang=Latin | url=https://archive.org/details/novumtestamentu02tiscgoog | access-date=2015-12-04}}
* {{Cite book | publisher=Clarendon Press | volume=2 | pages=273–308 | last=White | first=H.J. | title=Studia Biblica et ecclesiastica: essays chiefly in Biblical and patristic criticism | chapter=The Codex Amiatinus and its birthplace | location=Oxford | date=1890 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/studiabiblicaete02oxfouoft}}
* [http://www.florin.ms/aleph.html The City and the Book: International Conference Proceedings], 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
* {{cite web | author=Makepeace, Maria | title=The 1,300 year pilgrimage of the Codex Amiatinus | work=Umilta Website | url=http://www.umilta.net/pandect.html | access-date=2006-06-07}} Contains link to facsimile project, as well.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Codex Amiatinus}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668243/ Codex Amiatinus]: Complete images through the [[World Digital Library]]
* [https://tecabml.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/amiatino/id/0/rec/1 Codex Amiatinus]: Complete images from the [[Laurentian Library]] (BML / Biblioteca Medicea Laurenzina) Online Digital Library
* [http://opac.bmlonline.it/Record.htm?record=120012494829 Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiat. 1], bibliography
* [http://www.biblical-data.org/LATIN_Resources/Amiatinus_GSD.jpg Image of the codex, folio 950]
* [http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/06/the-first-voyage-of-codex-amiatinus.html British Library blogpost]
* {{Cite episode| title = Age of Conquest | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn322| access-date = 21 Nov 2010| series = Seven Ages of Britain | series-link = Seven Ages of Britain (BBC series) | credits = David Dimbleby| network = BBC 1| minutes = 33:38}}
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/29198994/2/BIBLE-ILLUSTRATION-IN-MEDIEVAL-MANUSCRIPTS The Cambridge History of the Bible] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109014802/http://www.scribd.com/doc/29198994/2/BIBLE-ILLUSTRATION-IN-MEDIEVAL-MANUSCRIPTS |date=2012-11-09 }}, Cambridge University Press 2008, pp.&nbsp;117–119, 130.
* [https://elmss.nuigalway.ie/catalogue/631 More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amiatinus}}
[[Category:Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts]]
[[Category:Illuminated biblical manuscripts]]
[[Category:Vulgate manuscripts]]
[[Category:8th-century biblical manuscripts]]