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113-534: The manuscript became known to Western scholars as a result of correspondence between textual critic Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (known usually as Erasmus) and the prefects of the Vatican Library. Portions of the codex were collated by several scholars, but numerous errors were made during this process. The codex's relationship to the Latin Vulgate and the value Jerome placed on it is unclear. In

226-409: A "passionate attachment" ( Latin : fervidos amores ), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of love letters in which he called Rogerus "half my soul", writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you." This correspondence contrasts with

339-544: A Christian Knight , On Civility in Children , Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and many other popular and pedagogical works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious reformations . He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated the religious and civil necessity both of peaceable concord and of pastoral tolerance on matters of indifference . He remained

452-580: A Western or Latin influence. A second argument was the chapter division in Acts, similar to the ones in Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, is not found in any other Greek manuscript, but is present in several manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate . Robinson cautiously suggests however, the system of chapter divisions was introduced into the Vulgate by Jerome himself, due to his studies at Caesarea. Hort also postulated

565-700: A collation from Vaticanus. The text of the collation was irreconcilable with Codex Alexandrinus and he abandoned the project. A further collation was made by scholar Andrew Birch , who, in 1798, in Copenhagen, edited some textual variants of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, in 1800 for the Book of Revelation, in 1801 for the Gospels. They were incomplete and included together with the textual variants from

678-668: A deep aversion to exclusive or excessive Aristotelianism and Scholasticism and started finding work as a tutor/chaperone to visiting English and Scottish aristocrats. There is no record of him graduating. Patrons : William Blount  • William Warham  • John Fisher  • John Longland  • Margaret Beaufort  • Catherine of Aragon Erasmus stayed in England at least three times. In between he had periods studying in Paris, Orléans, Leuven and other cities. In 1499 he

791-411: A disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood. He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly established St Paul's School and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512 Convocation sermon which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs. At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work on De copia . In 1511,

904-501: A full purse from his generous friends, to allow him to complete his studies. However, he had been provided with bad legal advice by his friends: the English Customs officials confiscated all the gold and silver, leaving him with nothing except a night fever that lasted several months. Opponents : Noël Béda (or Bédier) Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile

1017-536: A given time as any other man he had ever met. In 1507, according to his letters, he studied advanced Greek in Padua with the Venetian natural philosopher, Giulio Camillo . He found employment tutoring and escorting Scottish nobleman Alexander Stewart , the 24-year old Archbishop of St Andrews, through Padua, Florence, and Siena Erasmus made it to Rome in 1509, visiting some notable libraries and cardinals, but having

1130-591: A kind of conversion experience, and introduced him to Origen . In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formal panegyric for the Philip "the Fair" , Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but

1243-542: A later hand in the 15th century. 2 Kings 2:5–7, 10–13 are also lost due to a tear to one of the pages. The order of the Old Testament books in the codex is as follows: Genesis to 2 Chronicles as normal; 1 Esdras ; 2 Esdras ( Ezra–Nehemiah ); the Psalms ; Proverbs ; Ecclesiastes ; Song of Songs ; Job ; Wisdom ; Ecclesiasticus ; Esther ; Judith ; Tobit ; the minor prophets from Hosea to Malachi (but in

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1356-403: A later scribe (usually dated to the 10th or 11th century), and the beauty of the original script was spoiled. Accents, breathing marks, and punctuation were added by a later hand. There are no enlarged initials, no divisions into chapters or sections such as are found in later manuscripts, but a different system of division peculiar to this manuscript. There are plenty itacistic faults, especially

1469-458: A less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected. In 1509, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Mountjoy lured him back to England, now ruled by what was hoped would be a wise and benevolent king ( Henry VIII ) educated by humanists. Warham and Mountjoy sent Erasmus £10 to cover his expenses on the journey. On his trip over the Alps via Splügen Pass, and down

1582-637: A list of places at which the Epistles were thought to be written, and the names associated with Paul in the headings to the Epistles. The quotations from the Old Testament cited in the Pauline epistles are numbered and catalogued in a list. Overall, the Apparatus is a collection of varied aids for the reader. The Euthalian Apparatus is contained in numerous manuscripts: Codex Mutinensis , Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2 , Codex Argenteus , Minuscule 3 , 5 , 6 , 35 , 38 , and many other medieval manuscripts of

1695-575: A member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the church from within. He promoted the traditional doctrine of synergism , which some prominent reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism . His influential middle-road approach disappointed, and even angered, partisans in both camps. Erasmus's almost 70 years may be divided into quarters. Desiderius Erasmus

1808-622: A new chapter sometimes protrudes a little from the column. The OT citations were marked by an inverted comma or diplai (>). There are no enlarged initials; no stops or accents; no divisions into chapters or sections such as are found in later manuscripts. 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

1921-615: 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. 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 Uncial 048 and Uncial 053 . The Greek lettering in

2034-457: A reasonable degree of confidence between the early fourth century and the early fifth century. According to Tischendorf the manuscript was written by three scribes (A, B, C), two of whom appear to have written the Old Testament and one the entire New Testament. Tischendorf's view was accepted by Frederic G. Kenyon , but contested by T. C. Skeat , who examined the codex more thoroughly. Skeat and other paleographers contested Tischendorf's theory of

2147-624: A representative of the Alexandrian text-type . It has been found to agree very closely with the text of Bodmer 𝔓 in the Gospels of Luke and John. 𝔓 has been dated to the beginning of the 3rd century, and hence is at least 100 years older than the Codex Vaticanus itself. This is purported to demonstrate (by recourse to a postulated earlier exemplar from which both 𝔓 and B descend) that Vaticanus accurately reproduces an earlier text from these two biblical books, which reinforces

2260-762: A spontaneous, copious and natural Latin style. As a Catholic priest developing humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared pioneering new Latin and Greek scholarly editions of the New Testament and of the Church Fathers , with annotations and commentary that were immediately and vitally influential in both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation . He also wrote On Free Will , The Praise of Folly , The Complaint of Peace , Handbook of

2373-633: A stipend, Erasmus went on to study at the University of Paris in the Collège de Montaigu , a centre of reforming zeal, under the direction of the ascetic Jan Standonck , of whose rigors he complained. The university was then the chief seat of Scholastic learning but already coming under the influence of Renaissance humanism. For instance, Erasmus became an intimate friend of an Italian humanist Publio Fausto Andrelini , poet and "professor of humanity" in Paris. During this time, Erasmus developed

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2486-466: A strange incapacity for making themselves the proper use of a treasure they scarcely permit others more than to gaze upon". It (...) "is so jealously guarded by the Papal authorities that ordinary visitors see nothing of it but the red Morocco binding". Thomas Law Montefiore (1862): "The history of the Codex Vaticanus B, No. 1209, is the history in miniature of Romish jealousy and exclusiveness." Burgon

2599-459: A third (C) scribe, instead asserting two scribes worked on the Old Testament (A and B) and one of them (B) wrote the New Testament. Scribe A wrote: Scribe B wrote: Two correctors have been suggested as working on the manuscript, one (B) was contemporary with the scribes, the other (B) worked in about the 10th or 11th century. The theory of a first corrector, B, proposed by Tischendorf was rejected by later scholars. According to Tischendorf, one of

2712-482: A year staying at recently married Thomas More 's house, now a lawyer and Member of Parliament, honing his translation skills. Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his individual freedom. In England Erasmus was approached with prominent offices but he declined them all, until the King himself offered his support. He

2825-514: A year. Eventually Erasmus moved to the same abbey as a postulant in or before 1487, around the age of 16 (or 19.) Poverty had forced the sickly, bookish, teenaged orphan Erasmus into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487 at the canonry at rural Stein , very near Gouda, South Holland : the Chapter of Sion community largely borrowed its rule from the larger monkish Congregation of Windesheim who had historical associations with

2938-466: Is also possible that Revelation was not included. The text of the New Testament lacks several passages: Gospel of Matthew 27:49 The provenance and early history of the codex are uncertain; Rome ( Hort ), southern Italy , Alexandria ( Kenyon ,), and Caesarea ( T. C. Skeat ; Burkitt ) have been suggested as possible origins. Hort based his argument for Rome mainly on certain spellings of proper names, such as Ισακ and Ιστραηλ , which show

3051-536: Is attributed to one Euthalius. He was identified as Bishop of Sulci in Sardinia , but according to Tregelles he was a Bishop of Sulca in Egypt. According to Wake and L. A. Zacagni Euthalius was a Bishop of Sulce, near Syene . It was suggested that the name of the real author of the Apparatus was Evagrius. According to John Mill it was Theodore of Mopsuestia . Hermann von Soden thought, that Euthalius lived in

3164-560: Is only found in two other manuscripts: Codex Zacynthius and Minuscule 579 . There are two system divisions in the Acts and the Catholic Epistles which differ from the Euthalian Apparatus . In 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

3277-474: Is probably the oldest large vellum manuscript in existence, and is the glory of the great Vatican Library in Rome. To these legitimate sources of deep interest must be added the almost romantic curiosity which has been excited by the jealous watchfulness of its official guardians, with whom an honest zeal for its safe preservation seems to have now degenerated into a species of capricious wilfulness, and who have shewn

3390-602: Is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 27 or 28 October ("the vigil of Simon and Jude") in the late 1460s. He was named after Erasmus of Formiae , whom Erasmus' father Gerard (Gerardus Helye) personally favored. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards. The year of Erasmus' birth is unclear: in later life he calculated his age as if born in 1466, but frequently his remembered age at major events actually implies 1469. (This article currently gives 1466 as

3503-476: Is signed by friend and Polish religious reformer Jan Łaski . By this time More was a judge on the poorman's equity court ( Master of Requests ) and a Privy Counsellor . Opponents : Latomus  • Edward Lee  • Ulrich von Hutten  • Nicolaas Baechem (Egmondanus) Euthalian Apparatus The Euthalian Apparatus is a collection of additional editorial material, such as divisions of text, lists, and summaries, to

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3616-421: Is where he began learning it. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection; then his father. Following the death of his parents, as well as 20 fellow students at his school, he moved back to his patria (Rotterdam?) where he was supported by Berthe de Heyden, a compassionate widow. In 1484, around

3729-820: The Adagio for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Bertin at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of the Enchiridion ( Handbook of the Christian Knight .) A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus' thoughts against excessive valorization of monasticism, ceremonialism and fasting in

3842-776: The Brethren of the Common Life , but also with the notable pastoral, mystical and anti-speculative post-scholastic theologians Jean Gerson and Gabriel Biel : positions associated also with Erasmus. In 1488–1490, the surrounding region was plundered badly by armies fighting the Squire Francis War of succession and then suffered a famine. Erasmus professed his vows as a Canon regular of St. Augustine there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22). Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for

3955-551: The Council of Florence (1438–1445). The manuscript has been housed in the Vatican Library (founded by Pope Nicholas V in 1448) for as long as it has been known, possibly appearing in the library's earliest catalog of 1475 (with shelf number 1209), but definitely appearing in the 1481 catalog. In the catalog from 1481 it was described as a "Biblia in tribus columnis ex membranis in rubeo" (three-column vellum Bible). In

4068-422: The New Testament 's Book of Acts , Catholic epistles , and Pauline epistles . This additional material appears at the beginnings of books, in the margin of the text, and at the ends of books, as well as in line and paragraph separations. This material is traditionally associated with the name of Euthalius . Euthalius divided the text of the Acts and catholic epistles into chapters, with a summary of contents at

4181-520: The University of Cambridge 's chancellor, John Fisher , arranged for Erasmus to be (or to study to prepare to be) the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity , though whether he actually was accepted for it or took it up is contested by historians. He studied and taught Greek and researched and lectured on Jerome . Erasmus mainly stayed at Queens' College while lecturing at the university, between 1511 and 1515. Erasmus' rooms were located in

4294-454: The sweating sickness plague (to Orléans ), employment (to England ), searching libraries for manuscripts, writing ( Brabant ), royal counsel ( Cologne ), patronage, tutoring and chaperoning (North Italy ), networking ( Rome ), seeing books through printing in person ( Paris , Venice , Louvain , Basel ), and avoiding the persecution of religious fanatics (to Freiburg ). He enjoyed horseback riding. In 1495 with Bishop Henry's consent and

4407-437: The " I " staircase of Old Court. Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught by Thomas Linacre , continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers. Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about

4520-415: The "two false witnesses" of Matthew 26:60. In 1861, Henry Alford collated and verified doubtful passages (in several imperfect collations), which he published in facsimile editions complete with errors. Until he began his work he met unexpected hindrances. He received a special order from Cardinal Antonelli "per verificare", to verify passages, but this license was interpreted by the librarian to mean that he

4633-672: The 16th century, Western scholars became aware of the manuscript as a consequence of the correspondence between Erasmus and the prefects of the Vatican Library, successively Paulus Bombasius , and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda . In 1521, Bombasius was consulted by Erasmus as to whether the Codex Vaticanus contained the Comma Johanneum , and Bombasius supplied a transcript of 1 John 4:1–3 and 1 John 5:7–11 to show that it did not. Sepúlveda in 1533 cross-checked all places where Erasmus's New Testament (the Textus Receptus ) differed from

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4746-580: The 19th century transcriptions of the full codex were completed. It was at that point that scholars became more familiar with the text and how it differed from the more common Textus Receptus (a critical edition of the Greek New Testament based on earlier editions by Erasmus). Most current scholars consider Codex Vaticanus to be one of the most important Greek witnesses to the Greek text of the New Testament , followed by Codex Sinaiticus . Until

4859-591: The Coptic versions and with Greek papyri, and the style of writing (notably the Coptic forms used in some of the titles) point rather to Egypt and Alexandria". It has been postulated the codex was at one time in the possession of Cardinal Bessarion , because the minuscule supplement has a text similar to one of Bessarion's manuscripts. T. C. Skeat believed Bessarion's mentor, the patriarchal notary in Constantinople John Chortasmenos , had

4972-579: The Epistles were regarded as comprising one book. In the Old Testament, the type of text varies, with a received text in Ezekiel and a rejected one in the Book of Isaiah . In Judges the text differs substantially from that of the majority of manuscripts, but agrees with the Old Latin , Sahidic version and Cyril of Alexandria . In Job, it has the additional 400 half-verses from Theodotion , which are not in

5085-452: The Gouda region. In 1505, Pope Julius II granted a dispensation from the vow of poverty to the extent of allowing Erasmus to hold certain benefices, and from the control and habit of his order , though he remained a priest and, formally, an Augustinian canon regular the rest his life. In 1517, Pope Leo X granted legal dispensations for Erasmus' defects of natality and confirmed

5198-494: The Greek language, which would enable him to study theology on a more profound level. Erasmus also became fast friends with Thomas More , a young law student considering becoming a monk, whose thought (e.g., on conscience and equity) had been influenced by 14th century French theologian Jean Gerson , and whose intellect had been developed by his powerful patron Cardinal John Morton (d. 1500) who had famously attempted reforms of English monasteries. Erasmus left London with

5311-472: The Hebrews (up to Hebrews 9:14, καθα[ριει); it is lacking 1 and 2 Timothy , Titus , Philemon , and Revelation . The missing part of Hebrews and Revelation were supplemented by a 15th-century minuscule hand (folios 760–768), and are catalogued separately as minuscule 1957. It is possible some apocryphal books from the New Testament were included at the end (as in codices Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus ). It

5424-514: The New Testament. The Euthalian apparatus has variously been dated to between the 4th and 7th centuries. James Marchand argued that the Euthalian apparatus probably dated to the first half of the 4th century, arguing that the original must precede its incorporation into Gothic , Armenian , and Syriac translations. The Greek texts do not include the Euthalian apparatus until relatively late, but Armenian and Syriac texts incorporated it by

5537-468: The Old Latin and Sahidic versions. The text of the Old Testament was considered by critics, such as Hort and Cornill, to be substantially that which underlies Origen's Hexapla edition, completed by him at Caesarea and issued as an independent work (apart from the other versions with which Origen associated it) by Eusebius and Pamphilus . In the New Testament, the Greek text of the codex is considered

5650-615: The Rhine toward England, Erasmus began to compose The Praise of Folly . In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wrote The Praise of Folly , which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time the undersheriff of the City of London . After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless, with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on

5763-567: The Sahidic version." Kenyon also suggested the order of the Pauline epistles indicates a connection with Egypt, and as in Codex Alexandrinus , the titles of some of the books contain letters of a distinctively Coptic character, particularly the Coptic mu (which was also frequently seen at the ends of lines where space has to be economized). According to Metzger, "the similarity of its text in significant portions of both Testaments with

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5876-717: The Stein house and take up the post of Latin Secretary to the ambitious Bishop of Cambrai , Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood either on 25 April 1492, or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28.) Either way, he did not actively work as a choir priest for very long, though his many works on confession and penance suggests experience of dispensing them. From 1500, he avoided returning to

5989-753: The Vulgate and the Textus Receptus – a text that could also be found in other known early Greek manuscripts, such as the Codex Regius (L), housed in the French Royal Library (now Bibliothèque nationale de France ). Giulio Bartolocci , librarian of the Vatican, produced a collation in 1669 which was not published; it was never used until a copy of it was found in the Royal Library at Paris by Scholz in 1819. This collation

6102-403: The Vulgate, and supplied Erasmus with 365 readings where the Codex Vaticanus supported the latter, although the list of these 365 readings has been lost. Consequently, the Codex Vaticanus acquired the reputation of being an old Greek manuscript that agreed with the Vulgate rather than with the Textus Receptus. Not until much later would scholars realise it conformed to a text that differed from both

6215-542: The age 14 (or 17), he and his brother went to a cheaper grammar school or seminary at 's-Hertogenbosch run by the Brethren of the Common Life : Erasmus' Epistle to Grunnius satirizes them as the "Collationary Brethren" who select and sort boys for monkhood. He was exposed there to the Devotio moderna movement and the Brethren's famous book The Imitation of Christ but resented the harsh rules and strict methods of

6328-564: The age of 6 (or 9), his family moved to Gouda and he started at the school of Pieter Winckel, who later became his guardian (and, perhaps, squandered Erasmus and Peter's inheritance.) Historians who date his birth in 1466 have Erasmus in Utrecht at the choir school at this period. In 1478, at the age of 9 (or 12), he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located at Deventer and owned by

6441-421: The birth year. To handle this disagreement, ages are given first based on 1469, then in parentheses based on 1466: e.g., "20 (or 23)".) Furthermore, many details of his early life must be gleaned from a fictionalized third-person account he wrote in 1516 (published in 1529) in a letter to a fictitious Papal secretary, Lambertus Grunnius ("Mr. Grunt"). His parents could not be legally married: his father, Gerard,

6554-529: The book brought to Rome from Constantinople around the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire . Paul Canart argued the decorative initials added to the manuscript in the Middle Ages are reminiscent of Constantinopolitan decoration found in the 10th century, but the poor execution gives the impression they were added in the 11th or 12th century, and likely not before the 12th century in light of

6667-406: The book out of my hand". Tregelles left Rome after five months without accomplishing his purpose. During a large part of the 19th century, the authorities of the Vatican Library obstructed scholars who wished to study the codex in detail. Henry Alford in 1849 wrote: "It has never been published in facsimile (!) nor even thoroughly collated (!!)." Scrivener in 1861 commented: "Codex Vaticanus 1209

6780-412: The bubonic plague in 1483. His only sibling Peter might have been born in 1463, and some writers suggest Margaret was a widow and Peter was the half-brother of Erasmus; Erasmus on the other hand called him his brother. There were legal and social restrictions on the careers and opportunities open to the children of unwed parents. Erasmus' own story, in the possibly forged 1524 Compendium vitae Erasmi

6893-447: The canonry at Stein even insisting the diet and hours would kill him, though he did stay with other Augustinian communities and at monasteries of other orders in his travels. Rogerus, who became prior at Stein in 1504, and Erasmus corresponded over the years, with Rogerus demanding Erasmus return after his studies were complete. Nevertheless, the library of the canonry ended up with by far the largest collection of Erasmus' publications in

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7006-519: The chapter clergy of the Lebuïnuskerk (St. Lebuin's Church). A notable previous student was Thomas à Kempis . Towards the end of his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the new principal of the school, Alexander Hegius , a correspondent of pioneering rhetorician Rudolphus Agricola . For the first time in Europe north of the Alps, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university and this

7119-433: The codex Vaticanus 1761 , the whole text of Revelation from Vaticanus 2066 , and the text of Mark 16:8–20 from Vaticanus Palatinus 220 . Verses not included by codex as Matthew 12:47 ; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:43–44; 23:17.34; John 5:3.4; 7:53–8:11; 1 Peter 5:3; 1 John 5:7 were supplemented from popular Greek printed editions. The number of errors was extraordinarily high, and also no attention was paid to distinguish readings of

7232-578: The codex is written continuously in small and neat letters. 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. 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 (abbreviations of certain words and names considered sacred in Christianity) and markings of OT citations. The first letter of

7345-415: The codex on the basis of Mai's edition. It was the "most perfect edition of the manuscript which had yet appeared". In 1868–1881 C. Vercellone , Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi , and G. Sergio published an edition of the entire codex in 6 volumes (New Testament in volume V; Prolegomena in volume VI). A typographical facsimile appeared between 1868 and 1872. In 1889–1890 a photographic facsimile of the entire manuscript

7458-658: The codex was copied from a manuscript whose line length was 12–14 letters per line, as when the codex's scribe made large omissions, they were typically 12–14 letters long. Kenyon suggested the manuscript originated in Alexandria : "It is noteworthy that the section numeration of the Pauline Epistles in B shows that it was copied from a manuscript in which the Epistle to the Hebrews was placed between Galatians and Ephesians—an arrangement which elsewhere occurs only in

7571-682: The codex. He suggested that distigmai indicate lines where another textual variant was known to the person who wrote the umlauts. Therefore, the distigmai mark places of textual uncertainty. The same distigmai were observed in Codex Fuldensis , especially in the section containing 1 Cor 14:34–35. The distigme of two codices indicate a variant of the Western manuscripts, which placed 1 Cor 14:34–35 after 1 Cor 14:40 (manuscripts: Claromontanus , Augiensis , Boernerianus , 88 , it, and some manuscripts of Vulgate). On page 1512, next to Hebrews 1:3 ,

7684-432: The continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions; he shared lodgings with his friend Andrea Ammonio (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII) provided at the London Austin Friars ' compound, skipping out after

7797-418: The degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology ( Sacra Theologia ) from the University of Turin per saltum at age 37 (or 40.) Erasmus stayed tutoring in Bologna for a year; in the winter, Erasmus was present when Pope Julius II entered victorious into the conquered Bologna which he had besieged before. Erasmus travelled on to Venice, working on an expanded version of his Adagia at the Aldine Press of

7910-405: The discovery by Tischendorf of Sinaiticus, Vaticanus was considered to be unrivalled. It was extensively used by textual critics Brooke F. Westcott and Fenton J. A. Hort in their edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881. The most widely sold editions of the Greek New Testament are largely based on the text of the Codex Vaticanus. Codex Vaticanus "is rightly considered to be

8023-405: The discovery of Codex Sinaiticus (designated by א). Griesbach produced a list of nine manuscripts which were to be assigned to the Alexandrian text: C , L , K , 1 , 13 , 33 , 69 , 106 , and 118 . Codex Vaticanus was not in this list. In the second (1796) edition of his Greek NT, Griesbach added Codex Vaticanus as a witness to the Alexandrian text in Mark, Luke, and John. He still believed

8136-554: The draughtiness of English buildings. He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered). As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, Queens' College Old Library still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which

8249-626: The early text, presumably the original text, which has not been preserved in its purity in any one manuscript." The codex originally contained a virtually complete copy of the Greek Old Testament (known as the Septuagint / LXX), lacking only 1-4 Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasseh . The original 20 leaves containing Genesis 1:1–46:28a (31 leaves) and Psalm 105:27–137:6b have been lost. These were replaced by pages transcribed by

8362-445: The exception of Hermann von Soden 's editions which are closer to Sinaiticus. All editions of Nestle-Aland remain close in textual character to the text of Westcott-Hort. According to the commonly accepted opinion of the textual critics, it is the most important witness of the text of the Gospels, in the Acts and Catholic epistles, with a stature equal to Codex Sinaiticus, although in the Pauline epistles it includes Western readings and

8475-441: The famous printer Aldus Manutius , advised him which manuscripts to publish, and was an honorary member of the graecophone Aldine "New Academy" ( Greek : Neakadêmia (Νεακαδημία) ). From Aldus he learned the in-person workflow that made him productive at Froben: making last-minute changes, and immediately checking and correcting printed page proofs as soon as the ink had dried. Aldus wrote that Erasmus could do twice as much work in

8588-468: The first half of Matthew represented the Western text-type. In 1799, as a result of the Treaty of Tolentino , the manuscript was sent to Paris as a victory trophy for Napoleon , but in 1815 it was returned to the Vatican Library . During that time, German scholar Johann Leonhard Hug (1765–1846) saw it in Paris. Together with other worthy treasures of the Vatican, Hug examined it, but he did not perceive

8701-409: The first hand versus correctors. There was no detailed examination of the manuscript's characteristics. As a consequence, this edition was deemed inadequate for critical purposes. An improved edition was published in 1859, which became the source of Bultmann's 1860 NT. In 1843 Tischendorf was permitted to make a facsimile of a few verses, in 1844 Eduard de Muralt saw it, and in 1845 S. P. Tregelles

8814-419: The generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships, such as with More , Colet, and Ammonio. No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notably praise moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women. In 1493, his prior arranged for him to leave

8927-464: The interchange of ει for ι and αι for ε. The exchange of ο for ω is less frequent. The manuscript contains unusual small horizontally aligned double dots (so called " distigmai ", formerly called "umlauts") in the column margins and are scattered throughout the New Testament. There are 795 of these clearly seen in the text, and perhaps another 40 that are undetermined. The date of these markings are disputed among scholars. Two such distigmai can be seen in

9040-474: The late 5th or early 6th century, with Gothic texts including it by the early/mid 6th century. The Greek Codex Coislinianus includes it in the 6th century. James Marchand argued that either Wulfila/Ulfilas had incorporated the Euthalian matter into the Gothic text in the mid 4th century, or Sunnia and Frethela had done so in the early 5th century, with Wulfila/Ulfilas being more likely. The authorship usually

9153-459: The left margin of the first column (top image). Tischendorf reflected upon their meaning, but without any resolution. He pointed on several places where these distigmai were used: at the ending of the Gospel of Mark, 1 Thess 2:14; 5:28; Heb 4:16; 8:1. The meaning of these distigmai was recognized in 1995 by Philip Payne . Payne discovered the first distigme while studying the section 1 Cor 14.34–35 of

9266-505: The need of a new and full collation. Cardinal Angelo Mai prepared the first typographical facsimile edition between 1828 and 1838, which did not appear until 1857, three years after his death, and which was considered unsatisfactory. It was issued in 5 volumes (1–4 volumes for the Old Testament, 5 volume for the New Testament). All lacunae of the codex were supplemented. Lacunae in the Acts and Pauline epistles were supplemented from

9379-640: The oldest extant copy of the Bible." The codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library , where it has been kept since at least the 15th century. The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book) in quarto volume, written on 759 leaves of fine and thin vellum (sized 27 cm by 27 cm, although originally bigger), in uncial letters, arranged in 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

9492-573: The order: Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi); Isaiah ; Jeremiah ; Baruch ; Lamentations and the Epistle of Jeremiah ; Ezekiel and Daniel . This order differs from that followed in Codex Alexandrinus . The extant New Testament portion contains the Gospels , Acts , the general epistles , the Pauline epistles , and the Epistle to

9605-401: The other manuscripts. Many of them were false. Andrew Birch reproached Mill and Wettstein, that they falso citatur Vaticanus (cite Vaticanus incorrectly), and gave as an example Luke 2:38 – Ισραηλ [Israel] instead of Ιερουσαλημ [Jerusalem]. The reading Ισραηλ could be found in the codex 130 , housed at the Vatican Library, under shelf number Vat. gr. 359. Before the 19th century, no scholar

9718-484: The previous dispensation, allowing the 48-(or 51-)year-old his independence but still, as a canon, capable of holding office as a prior or abbot. In 1525, Pope Clement VII granted, for health reasons, a dispensation to eat meat and dairy in Lent and on fast days. Erasmus traveled widely and regularly, for reasons of poverty, "escape" from his Stein canonry (to Cambrai ), education (to Paris , Turin ), escape from

9831-420: The quires is often found in the margin. Originally it must have been composed of 830 parchment leaves, but it appears that 71 leaves have been lost. 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

9944-480: The readings of the codex, but not because he thought that they could have been of any help to him for difficult textual decisions. According to him, this codex had no authority whatsoever ( sed ut vel hoc constaret, Codicem nullus esse auctoris ). In 1751 Wettstein produced the first list of the New Testament manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus received symbol B (because of its age) and took second position on this list (Alexandrinus received A, Ephraemi – C, Bezae – D, etc.) until

10057-610: The religious brothers and educators. The two brothers made an agreement that they would resist the clergy but attend the university; Erasmus longed to study in Italy, the birthplace of Latin, and have a degree from an Italian university. Instead, Peter left for the Augustinian canonry in Stein , which left Erasmus feeling betrayed. Around this time he wrote forlornly to his friend Elizabeth de Heyden "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'." He suffered Quartan fever for over

10170-924: The religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably." But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery. Certain abuses in religious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalized account in the Letter to Grunnius calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour- bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation. While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus fell in unrequited love, forming what he called

10283-520: The reputation the codex held amongst Biblical scholars. It also strongly suggests that it may have been copied in Egypt . In the Pauline epistles there is a distinctly Western element. Textual critic Kurt Aland placed it in Category I of his New Testament manuscript classification system. Category 1 manuscripts are described as "of a very special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a very high proportion of

10396-408: The scribes is identical to (and may have been) one of the scribes of Codex Sinaiticus (scribe D), but there is insufficient evidence for his assertion. Skeat agreed that the writing style is very similar to that of Codex Sinaiticus, but there is not enough evidence to accept the scribes were identical: "the identity of the scribal tradition stands beyond dispute". The original writing was retraced by

10509-402: The second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and concilliation (with the neighbours France and England), and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc. This was later published as Panegyricus . Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504. For Erasmus' second visit, he spent over

10622-527: The text contains a marginal note, "Fool and knave, leave the old reading and do not change it!" – " ἀμαθέστατε καὶ κακέ, ἄφες τὸν παλαιόν, μὴ μεταποίει " which may suggest unauthorised correcting was a recognized problem in scriptoriums . The manuscript is believed to have been housed in Caesarea in the 6th century, together with Codex Sinaiticus , as they have the same unique division of chapters in Acts. It came to Italy, probably from Constantinople, after

10735-544: The text of the Septuagint and Greek New Testament . It is a leading example of the Alexandrian text-type . It was used by Westcott and Hort in their edition, The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881), and it was the basis for their text. All critical editions of the New Testament published after Westcott and Hort were closer in the Gospels to the Codex Vaticanus text than to the Sinaiticus, with only

10848-531: The top of each chapter. To Euthalius were also referred a division of the Acts into 16 αναγνωσεις ( lessons ) and of the Pauline epistles into 31 sections. But these lessons are quite different. Euthalius prepared also the text of the Acts and Epistles in which text is written stichometrically . To the Euthalian Apparatus belong: a chronology of the Apostle Paul , the martyrdom of Paul,

10961-849: The value of the text is somewhat less than the Codex Sinaiticus. The manuscript is not complete. Aland notes: "B is by far the most significant of the uncials". For more bibliographies see: J. K. Elliott, A Bibliography of Greek New Testament Manuscripts (Cambridge University Press: 1989), pp. 34–36. Digitised copy Typographical facsimile (1868) Documenta Catholica Omnia Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( / ˌ d ɛ z ɪ ˈ d ɪər i ə s ɪ ˈ r æ z m ə s / DEZ -i- DEER -ee-əs irr- AZ -məs ; Dutch: [ˌdeːziˈdeːrijʏs eːˈrɑsmʏs] ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus ,

11074-401: The very form of the pages of the original manuscript, complete with the distinctive individual shape of each page, including holes in the vellum. It has an additional Prolegomena volume with gold and silver impressions of 74 pages. As of 2015, a digitised copy of the codex is available online from the Vatican Library. Codex Vaticanus is considered as one of the most important manuscripts for

11187-492: The way they appear in connection with notes in a minuscule hand at the beginning of the book of Daniel. T. C. Skeat first argued that Codex Vaticanus was among the 50 Bibles that the Emperor Constantine I ordered Eusebius of Caesarea to produce. The codex is generally assigned to the middle of the fourth century and considered contemporary or slightly earlier than Codex Sinaiticus , which can be dated with

11300-602: The world". Bentley understood the necessity to use manuscripts if he were to reconstruct an older form than that apparent in Codex Alexandrinus. He assumed that by supplementing this manuscript with readings from other Greek manuscripts, and from the Latin Vulgate, he could triangulate back to a single recension which he presumed existed at the time of the First Council of Nicaea . He therefore required

11413-433: Was a Catholic priest who may have spent up to six years in the 1450s or 60s in Italy as a scribe and scholar. His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers), the daughter of a doctor from Zevenbergen . She may have been Gerard's housekeeper. Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents, with a loving household and the best education, until their early deaths from

11526-485: Was a Dutch Christian humanist , Catholic priest and theologian , educationalist , satirist , and philosopher . Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture. Erasmus was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in

11639-411: Was alive; many scholars dispute this account. In 1471 his father became the vice-curate of the small town of Woerden (where young Erasmus may have attended the local vernacular school to learn to read and write) and in 1476 was promoted to vice-curate of Gouda . Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1476, at

11752-432: Was allowed to observe several points which Muralt had overlooked. He often saw the codex, but "it was under such restrictions that it was impossible to do more than examine particular readings". "They would not let me open it without searching my pockets, and depriving me of pen, ink, and paper; and at the same time two prelati kept me in constant conversation in Latin, and if I looked at a passage too long, they would snatch

11865-508: Was allowed to study or edit the Codex Vaticanus, and scholars did not ascribe any value to it; in fact, it was suspected to have been interpolated by the Latin textual tradition. John Mill wrote in his Prolegomena (1707): "in Occidentalium gratiam a Latino scriba exaratum" ( written by a Latin scribe for the western world ). He did not believe there was value to having a collation for the manuscript. Wettstein would have liked to know

11978-404: Was along the lines that his parents were engaged, with the formal marriage blocked by his relatives (presumably a young widow or unmarried mother with a child was not an advantageous match); his father went to Italy to study Latin and Greek, and the relatives misled Gerard that Margaretha had died, on which news grieving Gerard romantically took Holy Orders, only to find on his return that Margaretha

12091-413: Was imperfect and revised in 1862. Another collation was made in 1720 for Bentley by Mico, then revised by Rulotta, which was not published until 1799. Bentley was stirred by Mill's claim of 30,000 variants in the New Testament and he wanted to reconstruct the text of the New Testament in its early form. He felt that among the manuscripts of the New Testament, Codex Alexandrinus was "the oldest and best in

12204-549: Was inclined, but eventually did not accept and longed for a stay in Italy. Opponents : Alberto Pío , Sepúlveda In 1506 he was able to accompany and tutor the sons of the personal physician of the English King through Italy to Bologna. His discovery en route of Lorenzo Valla 's New Testament Notes was a major event in his career and prompted Erasmus to study the New Testament using philology . In 1506 they passed through Turin and he arranged to be awarded

12317-409: Was invited to England by William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy , who offered to accompany him on his trip to England. His time in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of King Henry VIII . During his first visit to England in 1499, he studied or taught at the University of Oxford . There is no record of him gaining any degree. Erasmus

12430-607: Was made and published by Cozza-Luzi, in three volumes. Another facsimile of the New Testament text was published in 1904–1907 in Milan. As a result, the codex became widely available. In 1999, the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome (the Italian State Printing House and Mint) published a limited edition, full-color, exact scale facsimile of Codex Vaticanus. The facsimile reproduces

12543-565: Was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of John Colet , who pursued a style more akin to the church fathers than the Scholastics . Through the influence of the humanist John Colet, his interests turned towards theology. Other distinctive features of Colet's thought that may have influenced Erasmus are his pacifism, reform-mindedness, anti-Scholasticism and pastoral esteem for the sacrament of Confession. This prompted him, upon his return from England to Paris, to intensively study

12656-531: Was permitted to examine the codex for an hour and a half in 1860, consulting 16 different passages. Burgon was a defender of the Traditional Text and for him Codex Vaticanus, as well as codices Sinaiticus and Bezae, were the most corrupt documents extant. He felt that each of these three codices "clearly exhibits a fabricated text – is the result of arbitrary and reckless recension." The two most widely respected of these three codices, א and B, he likens to

12769-405: Was to see the book, but not to use it. In 1862, secretary of Alford, Mr. Cure, continued Alford's work. For some reason which does not clearly appear, the authorities of the Vatican Library put continual obstacles in the way of all who wished to study it in detail, one of which was the Vatican Library was only opened for three hours a day. In 1867 Tischendorf published the text of the New Testament of

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