Codex Alexandrinus
The Alexandrinus: Codex Alexandrinus (A) (c. 450)
It dates from the middle of the fifth century. Evidently it came from Alexandria to Constantinople. In 1627, it came to England from Constantinople, and it lies next to the Sinaiticus in the British Museum. Originally it contained all of the OT (in Greek) and the NT, together with 1-2 Clement and The Psalms of Solomon. However, most of Matthew is missing. It has two columns per page and is written on vellum with black ink. It was the first great uncial made accessible to scholars and so got the letter ‘A.’
It ranks second only to B and א as representative of the New Testament text. Though some have dated this manuscript in the late fourth century, it is probably the result of fifth-century scribes of Alexandria, Egypt. In 1078 this codex was presented to the Patriarch of Alexandria, then in 1621 it was taken to Constantinople by Cyril Lucar, who was transferred to patriarchal duties there. Lucar gave it to Sir Thomas Roe, English ambassador to Turkey in 1624, to present to King James I. James died before it reached England, and the manuscript was given to Charles I in 1627, too late for use in the King James Version of 1611. In 1757, George II presented it to the National Library of the British Museum.
The manuscript contains 773 leaves, 639 of the Old Testament and 134 of the New. The page size is 10¼ by 12 inches, and is written in two columns of fifty or fifty-one lines per page. The large square uncials are written on very thin vellum, and are divided into sections marked by large letters. The gospels are the oldest example of the Byzantine text, the remainder of the New Testament, which was probably copied from a different source, ranks with א and B as a representative of the Alexandrian type of text.
