Cotton Genesis
The Cotton Genesis (London,
Description
The manuscript contains the text of the Book of Genesis on 35 parchment leaves (size about 27 x 22 cm), with numerous lacunae.[2][3] The original
The miniatures were executed in a late antique style, retaining classical illusionistic qualities. Herbert L. Kessler and Kurt Weitzmann argue that the manuscript was produced in Alexandria, as it exhibits stylistic similarities to other Alexandrian works such as the Charioteer Papyrus.
History of the codex
According to Tischendorf it was written in the 5th century.[5] The Cotton Genesis appears to have been used in the 1220s as the basis for the design of 110 mosaic panels in the atrium of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, presumably after it was brought to Venice following the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
It was brought from Philippi by two Greek bishops, who presented it to King Henry VIII, whom they informed that tradition reported it to have been the identical copy which had belonged to Origen.[4] The manuscript was acquired by Sir Robert Cotton in the 17th century. His collection passed to the British Museum.
In 1731, while the codex was at Ashburnham House with the rest of the collection, it was reduced by fire to a heap of charred and shrivelled leaves.[1] Afterwards the rest of the codex was divided in two parts. One part of it (29 folios) was moved to the British Museum, another to the Bodleian Library.
Until the middle of the 19th century it was thought to be the oldest manuscript of the Septuagint. According to Thomas Hartwell Horne it was not only the most ancient but the most correct manuscript that is extant.[6] According to Swete the manuscript even before the fire had been imperfect.[3]
Most of the London fragments of the codex were deciphered and published by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1857;[7] the rest of the codex with the Bristol fragments were deciphered by F. W. Gotch in 1881.[8]
See also
- Vienna Genesis – another illuminated Greek manuscript of the Book of Genesis
- Early Christian art and architecture
References
- ^ a b Würthwein, Ernst (1988). Der Text des Alten Testaments. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. p. 85.
- ^ Alfred Rahlfs, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, für das Septuaginta-Unternehmen, Göttingen 1914, pp. 107-108.
- ^ a b Swete, Henry Barclay (1902). An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Cambridge. pp. 109–110.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Thomas Hartwell Horne, An introduction to the critical study of the Holy Scriptures (New York 1852), Volume 1, p. 226.
- ^ Tischendorf, K.v., Monumenta sacra inedita (Leipzig 1857), XIII.
- ^ Th. H. Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge if the Holy Scriptures (New York 1852), p. 236
- ^ Tischendorf, Kv., Monumenta sacra inedita (Leipzig 1857), nov. coll. II.
- ^ F. W. Gotch, Supplement to Tischendorf's Reliquiae cod. Cotton. (London 1881)
Further reading
- Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
- Alfred Rahlfs, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, für das Septuaginta-Unternehmen, Göttingen 1914, p. 107-108.
- Constantin von Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita (Leipzig 1857), XIII, XXII-XXXVI.
- ISBN 9780870991790
- Weitzmann, Kurt. Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination. New York: George Braziller, 1977.
- Weitzmann, Kurt and Herbert L. Kessler. The Cotton Genesis: British Library, Codex Cotton Otho B VI. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.