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- Sep 27, 2002
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I just saw a piece about this book on the telly, quite amazing.
It is the Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate bible, now kept in Florence, Italy.
The pics here really don't do it justice.
It is an immense volume, 19 1/4" in height and weighing 75 pounds. It has over 1,000 pages, each pair made from a complete calf skin. Not only the oldest Bible in the world, but the original from which virtually every other extant Bible in the world was copied, either directly or indirectly. The Pope's personal Bible is a 9th Century direct copy of the Codex Amiatinus.
It was written at the beginning of the 8th century - that makes it 1,300 years old! And the pages are still in perfect condition.
The amazing thing is, that although it has spent all that time in Italy, it was made far away on the edge of Christendom, at a little monastery at Jarrow, in north-Eastern England - a fact which was only recognised relatively recently.
It is one of a set of 3 Bibles commissioned by Ceolfrith, Abbot of Jarrow, in the year 692. Extra land was secured in that year to raise the 2,000 head of cattle needed to provide the pages for the 3 volumes.
Ceolfrith took one volume to Italy, intending to give it to the Pope but he died before reaching Rome.
Jarrow monastery was the home of the venerable Bede, author of the first English history, who probably oversaw the production of the codex.
There have been many changes at Jarrow but the west wall of the church, and the little porch through which Ceolfrith and Bede walked into the building, are still there today
It is the Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate bible, now kept in Florence, Italy.
The pics here really don't do it justice.
It is an immense volume, 19 1/4" in height and weighing 75 pounds. It has over 1,000 pages, each pair made from a complete calf skin. Not only the oldest Bible in the world, but the original from which virtually every other extant Bible in the world was copied, either directly or indirectly. The Pope's personal Bible is a 9th Century direct copy of the Codex Amiatinus.
It was written at the beginning of the 8th century - that makes it 1,300 years old! And the pages are still in perfect condition.
The amazing thing is, that although it has spent all that time in Italy, it was made far away on the edge of Christendom, at a little monastery at Jarrow, in north-Eastern England - a fact which was only recognised relatively recently.
It is one of a set of 3 Bibles commissioned by Ceolfrith, Abbot of Jarrow, in the year 692. Extra land was secured in that year to raise the 2,000 head of cattle needed to provide the pages for the 3 volumes.
Ceolfrith took one volume to Italy, intending to give it to the Pope but he died before reaching Rome.
Jarrow monastery was the home of the venerable Bede, author of the first English history, who probably oversaw the production of the codex.
There have been many changes at Jarrow but the west wall of the church, and the little porch through which Ceolfrith and Bede walked into the building, are still there today
Lot of codicology on the boards today.
