Codex Purpureus Rossanensis

The Rossano Gospels, designated by 042 or ? (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ? 18 (Soden), at the cathedral of Rossano in Italy, is a 6th century illuminated manuscript Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Empire. Also known as Codex purpureus Rossanensis due to the reddish (purpureus in Latin) appearance of its pages, the codex is one of the oldest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the New Testament. The manuscript is famous for its prefatory cycle of miniatures of subjects from the Life of Christ, arranged in two tiers on the page, sometimes with small evangelist portraits below, pointing up to events they describe in their gospels.The now incomplete codex has the text of the Gospel of Matthew and the majority of the Gospel of Mark, with only one lacuna (Mark 16:14-20). A second volume is apparently missing. Like the Vienna Genesis and the Sinope Gospels, the Rossano Gospels are written in silver ink on purple dyed parchment. The large (300 mm by 250 mm) book has text written in a 215 mm square block with two columns of twenty lines each. There is a prefatory cycle of illustrations which are also on purple dyed parchment.It contains the Epistula ad Carpianum, tables of the ???????? (tables of contents) before each Gospel, ?????? (titles) at the top of the pages, numbers of Ammonian Sections, and references to the Eusebian Canons.The codex was discovered in 1879 in the Italian city of Rossano by Oskar von Gebhardt and Adolf Harnack, in the sacristy of Rossano Cathedral.