Purple parchment

Purple parchment or purple vellum refers to parchment dyed purple; codex purpureus refers to manuscripts written entirely or mostly on such parchment. The lettering may be in gold or silver. Later^[when?] the practice was revived for some especially grand illuminated manuscripts produced for the emperors in Carolingian art and Ottonian art, in Anglo-Saxon England and elsewhere. Some just use purple parchment for sections of the work; the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Stockholm Codex Aureus alternates dyed and un-dyed pages.

It was at one point supposedly restricted for the use of Roman or Byzantine emperors, although in a letter of Saint Jerome of 384, he "writes scornfully of the wealthy Christian women whose books are written in gold on purple vellum, and clothed with gems".^[1]

The Purple Uncials or the Purple Codices is a well-known group of these manuscripts, all 6th-century New Testament Greek manuscripts:

• Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus N (022)
• Sinope Gospels O (023) (illuminated)
• Rossano Gospels Σ (042) (illuminated)
• Codex Beratinus Φ (043) (illuminated)
• Uncial 080

Two other purple New Testament Greek manuscripts are minuscules:

• Minuscule 565 known as the Empress Theodora's Codex
• Minuscule 1143 known as Beratinus 2

There is a 9th-century lectionary:

• Codex Neapolitanus, former Codex Vindobonensis 2

Another six New Testament purple manuscripts are in Latin (with corresponding sigla a, b, e, f, i, j). Besides some scattered fragments, they are held mainly in: Brescia, Naples, Sarezzano, Trent and Vienna. Three of these use Vetus Latina texts:

• Codex Vercellensis
• Codex Veronensis
• Codex Palatinus
• Codex Brixianus
• Codex Purpureus Sarzanensis
• Codex Vindobonensis Lat. 1235

There is also one Gothic purple codex – the Codex Argenteus (illuminated).

There is a purple manuscript of part of the Septuagint:

• Vienna Genesis (illuminated)

Other illuminated manuscripts include the Godescalc Evangelistary of 781–3, the Vienna Coronation Gospels (early 9th century) and a few pages of the 9th-century La Cava Bible from the Kingdom of Asturias. Anglo-Saxon examples include a lost 7th-century Gospels commissioned by Saint Wilfrid.

• Blue Qur'an
• Biblical manuscript
• Godescalc Evangelistary
• Black books of hours

• Needham, Paul (1979). Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400–1600. Pierpont Morgan Library/Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-192-11580-5.

• Media related to Purple parchments at Wikimedia Commons
• The World of Bede
• at the Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism

This article about a book related to Christianity is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e