Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 71:1 (NA 2020)
Article: Three Lost Miniatures In Codex Sinopensis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, supplément grec 1286; Gregory-Aland O/023)
Author: Elijah Hixson

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Three Lost Miniatures In Codex Sinopensis
(Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, supplément grec 1286; Gregory-Aland O/023)

Elijah Hixson

([email protected])

Summary

Codex Sinopensis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, supplément grec 1286; Gregory-Aland O/023) is one of the earliest examples of an illuminated gospel book. This article examines instances of transferred paint in the codex along with textual and paratextual features to identify three lost miniatures that once adorned the pages of Codex Sinopensis. Thus, our knowledge of one of the earliest cycles of miniatures in a gospel book can be extended with the addition of the three identifiable but now-lost miniatures: The Miracle of the Coin from the Mouth of the Fish (Matthew 17:24–18:4), the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Matthew 19:25–20:9), and Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:5–12).

1. Introduction

Codex Sinopensis is a sixth-century illuminated copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Forty-three surviving folios are kept in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) under the catalogue number supplément grec 1286. It is unclear whether the codex originally contained more than a single gospel. Captain Jean de la Taille, a French military officer, acquired forty-three folios of the codex in December 1899 from an elderly woman in what is now Sinop, Turkey.1 Shortly

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thereafter, the codex came into the custody of the BnF, and Henri Omont published its editio princeps, which includes a pseudo-facsimile of each page.2 Omont also published two shorter, earlier notices of the manuscript.3

Prof. D. Ainaloff of the University of Kazan later acquired a forty-fourth folio of Codex Sinopensis, which he donated to a gymnasium in Mariupol. Ainaloff sent photographs of this folio to Omont, who published its text with a pseudo-facsimile in the same manner as the rest of the manuscript.4 This folio comes directly between folios 21 and 22 at the BnF. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the Mariupol leaf are unknown as of the time of this writing. In 1961, Marcel Richard reported that it had disappeared.5 Kurt Treu confirmed the status of the Mariupol leaf as missing five years...