Colbert Manuscript

(CODEX COLBERTINUS), the latest critical designation of a beautiful cursive Greek MS. of the N.T., now deposited in the Royal or Imperial Library at Paris, of which it is No. 14 (Colbert. 2844); usually designated as 33 of the Gospels, 13 of the Acts and catholic Epistles, and 17 of the Pauline Epistles. It is very important in Biblical criticism, being styled by Eichhorn "the queen among the MSS. in cursive letters" (Einleit. ins N.T. v. 217). It contains all the Greek Test. except the Apocalypse, and includes a portion of the Sept. version of the Prophets. The order of the books is now much confused, but from the writing they appear once to have been arranged as usual. The edges of nearly all the leaves are torn, or cut away, or have otherwise decayed. The MS. has been much injured by exposure to dampness, and the ink has set off on the opposite page, especially in the Acts, so that it is very difficult to read (Tregelles, Account of the Printed Text of the Greek N.T., p. 162). In this way, however, by reading backward the parts thus transferred, many passages have been recovered of which the original writing has become totally effaced, or even the material containing it has perished. It is written on vellum, in folio form, with 42 long lines in each page, in a fine round hand (which undergoes a gradual change in the course of the work), the accents sometimes neglected. Larroque first collated it, but very negligently, and his readings, as communicated by Allix, were inserted in Mill's edition of the New Testament, whence they were transferred to Wetstein's. Griesbach re-examined it in part; then Begtrup to some extent; and Scholz fully, but it would seem cursorily; Tregelles carefully collated it in 1850. "Its text was published by Sabatier" (Davidson, Treatise on Biblical Criticism, 2:246). It evidently belongs to the eleventh century, and remarkably confirms the readings of the oldest codices, especially those known as B, D, and L, leaning chiefly to the Alexandrian recension. — Scrivener, Introduction to the Criticism of the N. Test., p. 145; Tregelles, in Horne's Introduction, new ed. 4:209. SEE MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL.