• The Bible in a Single Volume
    The Watchtower—2001 | May 1

    • In 678 C.E., the Anglo-Saxon abbot Ceolfrith brought the codex with him to the British Isles on his return from a stay in Rome. It thus came to the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, which were directed by Ceolfrith, in what is now Northumbria, England.

      Cassiodorus’ single-volume Bible must have fascinated Ceolfrith and his monks, who were likely attracted by its ease of use. Thus, within just a few decades, they produced three other complete Bibles as single volumes. The only surviving copy of these is an enormous manuscript called the Codex Amiatinus. It has 2,060 calfskin pages, each about 20 by 13 inches. [51 x 33 cm] With its covers it is 10 inches [25 cm] thick and weighs over 75 pounds [34 kg]. It is the oldest complete single-volume Latin Bible still in existence. Eminent 19th-century Biblicist Fenton J. A. Hort identified the codex in 1887. Hort commented: “Even on a modern spectator this prodigy of a [manuscript] leaves an impression not far removed from awe.”

      Return to Italy

      The original Codex Grandior commissioned by Cassiodorus is now lost. But its Anglo-Saxon descendant, the Codex Amiatinus, began a return journey to Italy soon after its completion. Shortly before he died, Ceolfrith decided to return to Rome. He took along one of his three Latin Bible manuscripts as a gift for Pope Gregory II. Ceolfrith died along the way, in 716 C.E., at Langres, France. But his Bible continued on the journey with the party of travelers. The codex was eventually included in the library of the monastery of Mount Amiata, central Italy, from which place it takes the name Codex Amiatinus. In 1782 the manuscript was moved to the Medicean-Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy, where it remains one of the library’s most treasured possessions.