Manuscript
Codex Amiatinus
Also known as Amiatinus · Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1 · A
translationslatinvulgatewhole-bible
Summary
The oldest complete Latin Bible in Jerome's translation — made in the north of England and carried toward Rome.
- Copied c. AD 692–716.
- Written in latin on parchment.
- Kept at Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (Amiatino 1).
- Contains The complete Bible in Latin (Vulgate).
- Named in 15 of the places your Bible carries a footnote.
Sources (2)
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (holder of Amiatino 1) · accessed 2026-08-06The holding institution.
- H. A. G. Houghton, The Latin New Testament: A Guide to Its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts (Oxford University Press, 2016) · accessed 2026-08-06The standard modern guide. Open access.
What it is
It was written at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria, in the years around AD 700, under Abbot Ceolfrith. Three complete Bibles were made; this is the one that survives.
Ceolfrith set out in 716 to give it to the Pope and died on the way. The book reached Italy anyway, spent centuries at the abbey of Monte Amiata — hence the name — and is now in Florence.
It is enormous: over 1,000 leaves of parchment, weighing around 34 kilograms, requiring the skins of a very large herd.
Manuscript details
- Date
- c. AD 692–716
- Language
- Latin
- Script
- Uncial
- Material
- Parchment
- Held at
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (Amiatino 1)
- Found at
- Written at Wearmouth–Jarrow, Northumbria; taken to Italy in 716
- Contains
- The complete Bible in Latin (Vulgate)
Why it matters
The best single witness to what Jerome's Latin Bible actually said, because it was copied early and copied carefully from good exemplars. The Vulgate was the Bible of western Europe for a thousand years, so its text is the ancestor of most European translation before the Reformation.
Where this witness is read
The words used here: uncial
- uncial
- a book hand of Greek capital letters, used for the oldest whole Bibles.
The KJV and the ASV translate the Hebrew Masoretic Text. Where Codex Amiatinus reads differently, the footnote in your Bible is pointing here.
- Mark 16:9-20The Ending of Mark
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus (א) (c. AD 330-360).Ends the Gospel at 16:8, with no long ending of any kind.
- John 7:53 - 8:11The Woman Caught in Adultery
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Papyrus 66 (P66) (c. AD 200).Does not contain the passage. John 8:12 follows directly on John 7:52.
- 1 John 5:7-8The Three Heavenly Witnesses
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Every Greek manuscript before roughly the 14th century (2nd-13th century).Reads only the earthly witnesses: "there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." The heavenly witnesses are absent from all of them, without exception.
- Matthew 17:21Prayer and fasting, a verse that is missing from Matthew
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (4th century).No verse 21 at all, the text runs straight from verse 20 to verse 22.
- Matthew 18:11"The Son of man is come to save that which was lost"
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (4th century).No verse 11, verse 10 is followed directly by the parable in verse 12.
- Acts 8:37The Ethiopian's confession, "If thou believest with all thine heart"
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The earliest Greek manuscripts of Acts, including Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus (4th–5th centuries).No verse 37. Verse 36 is followed immediately by verse 38 and the descent into the water.
- Matthew 6:13"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory"
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The earliest Greek manuscripts, including Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Bezae (4th–5th centuries).The prayer ends at "deliver us from evil."
- Luke 22:43-44The angel in Gethsemane and the sweat like drops of blood
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- An early Luke papyrus (P75) and Codex Vaticanus (3rd–4th centuries).Without the two verses, the prayer is followed directly by Jesus rising and coming to the disciples.
- John 5:4The angel who troubled the water at Bethesda
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The earliest papyrus copies of John (P66, P75) (about AD 200 – 3rd century).No angel, no troubling of the water, the explanation is simply absent.
- Mark 1:41Compassion or anger? Jesus and the leper
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and the Byzantine majority (4th–15th centuries).*splanchnistheis*, "moved with compassion."
- Romans 8:1"No condemnation" — with a condition, or without one?
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, original hands (4th century)."...no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." The sentence ends there.
- 1 Timothy 3:16"God was manifest in the flesh" — two letters apart
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus, original hand (4th century).ΟΣ, "who was manifested in the flesh." A later corrector changed it to ΘΣ.
- Revelation 22:19"Book of life" or "tree of life" — and the missing last page
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The Greek manuscripts of Revelation (4th–15th centuries, all of them)."the tree of life" — without known exception in Greek.
- Isaiah 53:11"He shall see light": the word the Dead Sea Scrolls restored
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaᵃ) (roughly the second century BC)."he shall see light" — the extra word present in the Hebrew.
- The Hebrew your King James Old Testament renders
- The Masoretic Hebrew text (the Aleppo Codex, about AD 930; the Leningrad Codex, AD 1008).יִרְאֶה יִשְׂבָּע“he shall see, he shall be satisfied”Quoted from Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), at Isaiah 53:11.The King James and American Standard Old Testaments translate this reading.
One word changes. The teaching of Isaiah 53 holds either way, and the chapter reads the same in Hebrew and in Greek.
- Psalm 22:16"They pierced my hands and my feet", or "like a lion"?
- What Codex Amiatinus reads
- The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) (translated in the last centuries BC).ὤρυξαν χεῖράς μου καὶ πόδας“they dug my hands and my feet”Quoted from Rahlfs and Hanhart, Septuaginta (2006), at Psalm 21:17.The Greek translators read a verb in their Hebrew, which puts that reading in the last centuries BC.
- The Hebrew your King James Old Testament renders
- The Masoretic Hebrew text (the Leningrad Codex, AD 1008).כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי“like a lion, my hands and my feet”Quoted from Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), at Psalm 22:17.The King James works from this Hebrew and here departs from it, printing "they pierced my hands and my feet" with the ancient versions. The American Standard margin gives "like a lion".
One Hebrew letter changes. The crucifixion rests on the Gospels and on Paul, and the New Testament never quotes this verse.