Cover of Codex Argenteus.
Open manuscript pages showing Gothic text.
Codex Argenteus : silver binding covers (left) and open manuscript pages showing Gothic text (right).

The Codex argenteus (Latin for "Silver Book/Codex") is a 6th-century illuminated manuscript originally containing part of the 4th-century translation of the Christian Bible into the Gothic language traditionally attributed to the Gothic Bishop Wulfila. A part of it is on permanent display at the Carolina Rediviva building in Uppsala, Sweden, under the name "Silverbibeln" (i.e. "The Silver Bible").[1] Since 2011, the Codex Argenteus has been included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

History

Origin

A facsimile of the Codex argenteus

The Codex argenteus (literally: "Silver Book") was probably written for the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, either at his royal seat in Ravenna, or in the Po valley or at Brescia; it was made as a special and impressive book written with gold and silver ink on high-quality thin vellum stained a regal purple, with an ornate treasure binding. Under Theodoric's reign, manuscripts of the Gothic Bible were recopied.[2] After Theodoric's death in 526, the "Silver Bible" is not mentioned in inventories or book lists for a thousand years.

Discovery

187 leaves of the original 336 parchment folios were preserved at the former Benedictine abbey of Werden (near Essen, Rhineland). The abbots at Werden were imperial princes and had a seat in the Imperial Diet. While the precise date of the "Silver Bible" is unknown, it was discovered at Werden in the 16th century.[3]

The remaining part of the codex came to rest in the library of Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II at his imperial seat in Prague.[4] In 1648, after the Battle of Prague from the end of the Thirty Years' War, it was taken as war booty to Stockholm, Sweden, to the library of Queen Christina of Sweden. In 1654, after her conversion to Catholicism and her abdication, the codex went to the Netherlands among the property of Isaac Vossius, her former librarian. In the 1660s it was bought and taken to Uppsala University by Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, who also provided its present lavishly decorated binding.[3]

The codex remains at the Uppsala University Library in the Carolina Rediviva building. On 5 April 1995, parts of the codex which were on public display in Carolina Rediviva were stolen. The stolen parts were recovered one month later, in a storage box at the Stockholm Central Railway Station.[5][6]

The details of the codex's wanderings for a thousand years remain a mystery; it is unknown whether the other half of the book may have survived.[3]

In 1998 the codex was subjected to carbon-14 analysis, and was dated to the 6th century.[7] It was also determined the codex had been bound at least once during the 16th century.[8]

The Speyer fragment

The final leaf of the codex, fol. 336, was discovered in October 1970 in the Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany. During the renovation of the Saint Afra chapel of the cathedral, the leaf was found in a box with non-authentic relics that was hidden in 1859 by immuring it.[9] The leaf with text on both sides contains the final verses of the Gospel of Mark (16:12-20).[10]

Publications

The earliest mention of the Gothic manuscript, in 1569, by Goropius Becanus, appears in his book Origines Antwerpianae:

Script and illumination

Detail of the Codex argenteus, Matthew 5:34, a scan of the 1927 facsimile edition. The highlighted section is an abbreviation of the Gothic cognate of "God".

The manuscript is written in an uncial script in the Gothic alphabet, reportedly created by Ulfilas. The script is very uniform, so much so that it has been suggested that it was made with stamps. However, two hands have been identified: one hand in the Gospels of Matthew and John and another in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. The illumination is limited to a few large, framed initials and, at the bottom of each page, a silver arcade which encloses the monograms of the four evangelists.

In the 1920s, German conservator Hugo Ibscher worked on the conservation of the Codex.[14]

Contents

  • Gospel of Matthew: Matthew 5:15-48; 6:1-32; 7:12-29; 8:1-34; 9:1-38; 10:1,23-42; 11:1-25; 26:70-75; 27:1-19,42-66.
  • Gospel of John: 5:45-47; 6:1-71; 7:1-53; 8:12-59; 9:1-41; 10:1-42; 11:1-47; 12:1-49; 13:11-38; 14:1-31; 15:1-27; 16:1-33; 17:1-26; 18:1-40; 19:1-13.
  • Gospel of Luke 1:1-80; 2:2-52; 3:1-38; 4:1-44; 5:1-39; 6:1-49; 7:1-50; 8:1-56; 9:1-62; 10:1-30; 14:9-35; 15:1-32; 16:1-24; 17:3-37; 18:1-43; 19:1-48; 20:1-47.
  • Gospel of Mark: 1:1-45; 2:1-28; 3:1-35; 4:1-41; 5:1-5; 5-43; 6:1-56; 7:1-37; 8:1-38; 9:1-50; 10:1-52; 11:1-33; 12:1-38; 13:16-29; 14:4-72; 15:1-47; 16:1-12 (+ 16:13-20).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Metzger, Bruce M. (1977). The Early Versions of the New Testament. Oxford University Press. p. 378.
  2. ↑ Miller, D. Gary (2019). "The Goths and Gothic". The Oxford Gothic Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 4. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198813590.003.0001. ISBN 9780198813590. LCCN 2018956032. S2CID 198009307.
  3. 1 2 3 "The history of Codex argenteus - Uppsala University". www.uu.se. Uppsala University Library. August 8, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  4. ↑ Uppsala University Library Archived 2004-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Totte, Thomas. "Kuppen mot Silverbibeln" (PDF) (in Swedish). National Library of Sweden. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 19, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ Köster, Lena (July 15, 2012). "Mysterier kring Silverbibeln". Upsala Nya Tidning (in Swedish). Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Silverbibeln daterad med kol-14-metoden" [Codex argenteus carbon date determined]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Uppsala. TT. April 7, 1998. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Silver Bindings carbon dated". Archived from the original on March 19, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
  9. ↑ Fotografie "Speyer-Fragment des Codex argenteus", rlp.museum-digital.de
  10. ↑ Stutz, Elfiede: "Ein gotisches Evangelienfragment in Speyer" in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 85, volume 1 (1971), pp. 85-95.
  11. ↑ Origines Antwerpianae, Liber VII. Gotodanica: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1569, p. 740.
  12. ↑ De literis et lingua Getarum, 1597, p.4. Note that according to this Vulcanius did not himself invent the epithet 'Argenteus' but found it in the notes of an unidentified precursor.
  13. ↑ De literis et lingua Getarum, 1597, p.3
  14. ↑ Rolf Ibscher: Hugo Ibscher zum Gedächtnis. In: Das Altertum, Volume 5 (1959), pp. 183–189.

Further reading

  • Codex argenteus Upsalensis jussu Senatus Universitatis phototypice editus. Uppsala: Officina Almqvist & Wiksell. 1927.
  • James W. Marchand (1973). The Sounds and Phonemes of Wulfila's Gothic. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 97-89027924-32-2.
  • Tönnes Kleberg (1984). The Silver Bible at Uppsala. Uppsala: Uppsala University Library. ISBN 91-85092-20-7.
  • Bologna, Giulia (1995). Illuminated Manuscripts: The Book before Gutenberg. New York: Crescent Books. p. 50.
  • Munkhammar, Lars (2011). The Silver Bible: Origins and History of the Codex Argenteus. Uppsala.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Argenteus