Codex Argenteus

The Codex Argenteus (or "Silver Bible") is a 6th century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas's 4th century translation of the bible into the Gothic language. Of the original 336 folia, 188 (including the Speyer fragment discovered in 1970) have been preserved, containing the translation of the greater part of the four gospels. A part of it is at permanent display at the Carolina Rediviva library in Uppsala, Sweden.

Script and decoration

The manuscript is written in an uncial script in the alphabet created by Ulfilas for the Gothic language. 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 decoration 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.

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