The Gothic Bible survived religious persecution, imperial plunder, a shipwreck and a dramatic twentieth-century theft. John Gallagher traces the turbulent journey of one of the most remarkable manuscripts to emerge from the early medieval world.
By John Gallagher
Many medieval manuscripts have led eventful afterlives and owe their survival purely to accidents of fate. The Gothic Bible is one such manuscript that has endured a particularly turbulent history.
The Creation of the Gothic Bible
Wulfila Translates the Bible by Willhelm Lindenschmit, 1879
The Gothic Bible was a translation used by the Goths – a people from central-southern Europe, with northern Germanic origins – who spoke a Germanic language and who followed their own unique brand of Christianity called Arianism. They were regarded as heretics by other Christians at this time because they believed that Jesus Christ was created by God the Father.
In the 4th century, Wulfila – a cleric and scholar – decided to translate the Greek Bible into the language of the Gothic people. In the late 5th century, when Gothic tribes invaded the declining Roman Empire and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy under Theodoric in Ravenna, Gothic Christianity became an official religion of the Roman Empire. With this change of power, Wulfila’s Gothic Bible was galvanised as an official biblical version of a politically prominent people, elevating it from its previous status as a niche translation.
One of the greatest artistic and cultural productions of Theodoric’s Ostrogothic Kingdom is a copy of the Gothic Bible known as “Codex Argenteus” or the “Silver Codex” – a lavishly decorated Gospel book containing the Gothic versions of Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark in the old western order. It is a sumptuously produced copy of the Gospels made in silver ink on rich purple parchment, emulating the high-status purple books of Roman Late Antiquity.
The Silver Bible was either created as a gift for Theodoric or was commissioned by the king himself. Overall, it is the most elaborate and beautiful manuscript to survive from sixth-century Italy. Today it is included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. However, it survives completely by chance and was nearly lost on several occasions.
How the Silver Bible Survived
The cover of the manuscript – photo by Ninara / Flickr
Following the decline of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths and their Arian version of Christianity, many Gothic biblical manuscripts were deliberately destroyed. Acts of extreme bibliographic censorship were encouraged because the Arian religious beliefs of the Goths were regarded as heretical by Christians who accepted the Nicene Creed.
Today, the surviving manuscript record for the Gothic Bible is extremely limited and highly fragmentary. Most manuscript witnesses to the Gothic New Testament are palimpsests, meaning that the original Gothic text has been erased, scraped away, and replaced, and is readable today only through the use of advanced technological aids such as multispectral imaging, which captures details that are not visible to the naked eye. It is entirely by chance that Codex Argenteus and, indeed, any Gothic manuscripts have survived to the present day.
At a turbulent time in sixth-century Italy, when many Gothic manuscripts were being destroyed, one individual clearly realised the artistic, linguistic, and cultural value of Codex Argenteus, and decided to preserve the manuscript by taking it into hiding. At this time, the Silver Bible manuscript fell into complete obscurity. It is unclear what happened to Codex Argenteus or what its fate was until it reappeared in the sixteenth century.
Wulfila’s Gothic version is an invaluable monument of biblical translation: it is the earliest translation of the Bible into a Germanic language and the earliest translation of the Greek Bible into any European language outside of Latin. The medieval Codex Argenteus is the most important and stunning manuscript containing any part of this biblical translation.
Rediscovered at Werden Abbey
Werden Abbey and the town of Essen depicted in 1581 – Wikimedia Commons
The Silver Bible next enters the historical record in 1554 at Werden Abbey – a Benedictine monastery located on the banks of the River Ruhr near Essen in present-day Germany. There it was rediscovered by the Flemish antiquarian and theologian Georg Cassander. Antiquarians were early modern scholars with a passion for rare books and long-forgotten languages. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England and Europe, antiquarians like John Leland and Georg Cassander went from monastery to monastery in search of rare manuscripts like Codex Argenteus. It was during this era that Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German were rediscovered and studied once again, and these efforts were spearheaded by enthusiastic antiquarians such as Cassander. How Codex Argenteus found its way to Germany remains a mystery, but the history of Werden Abbey offers some tantalising clues.
The monastery was founded by the Dutch-born monk Saint Ludger (c 742–809), a missionary with a keen interest in books and learning. A dedicated scholar with an interest especially in biblical manuscripts, Ludger travelled to York in England to study and even copied scriptural manuscripts by hand during his stay there. He later spent time in Italy, including a stint at Monte Cassino in the Latin Valley outside Rome – the home of Benedictine monasticism. During his time there, he continued to study and copy texts, including the Rule of Saint Benedict, a foundational monastic text used by monastic communities across Europe at this time. He undoubtedly acquired further books for his private collection, one of which might have been Codex Argenteus. As a Germanic speaker (Dutch is a Germanic language), he may well have been struck by the Silver Codex as an early biblical translation into a Germanic vernacular and acquired it for his personal use and interest. Of course, we cannot know exactly how or when Codex Argenteus came to Werden, but it was likely to have been through a figure like Ludger or someone with a similar appreciation for the manuscript’s importance.
Cassander’s discovery caused a stir among fellow antiquarians, such as Cornelius Wouters, who were thrilled that a Germanic Bible translation of such antiquity had been discovered. The very existence of vernacular Bible translations in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages carried real polemical weight for supporters of the Protestant Reformation who argued that the word of God should be available in the vernacular. Similar motivations spurred antiquarians in England to look at the works of figures such as Bede and Ælfric in an effort to uncover earlier forms of Christian belief and practice that might align with the concerns of the Reformation.
From Imperial Treasure to Swedish War Booty
Folio of the Codex Argenteus
Following initial interest from the scholarly antiquarian circles, the manuscript next surfaces in the seventeenth century in the rarefied library collection of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II. An avid collector of precious manuscripts, expensive artwork, esoteric knowledge, and other curiosities, Rudolf assembled one of the most remarkable collections in early modern Europe at Prague Castle where his court was based. Once the Gothic Bible had been studied by antiquarians, it was sold – undoubtedly for a handsome sum – to the Emperor and it took its place among the treasures of the imperial library.
In 1648, Swedish forces defeated the Catholic-Habsburg Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Prague, bringing the long and devastating Thirty Years’ War to a close. Following this defeat, the Emperor’s priceless collection of manuscripts and art were looted and carried off by the victors in cartloads. Among the vast plunder was Codex Argenteus, packed into one of many barrels along with other precious books and artwork destined for Sweden. The scale of the war booty was so great that the barrels containing Rudolf’s prized treasures were stored in a warehouse in Germany over the winter of 1648–1649, before finally being shipped across the Baltic Sea to Sweden in the spring of 1649.
The Swedish monarch at the time was the young Queen Christina, aged just 21 and already a prominent patron of learning, antiquarianism, and scholarship. A passionate bibliophile and scholar in her own right, she had keen interests in ancient and medieval languages. Her ever-expanding royal library was transferred from Stockholm to the University of Uppsala, and in 1650 the barrels of books and artwork seized in Germany were sent there too. They were unpacked by Isaac Vossius, the queen’s personal tutor and royal librarian, and his team at Uppsala. One can easily imagine the excitement of these antiquarians as they sifted through Rudolf II’s books and found Codex Argenteus – a Bible written in an ancient Germanic language – tucked away at the bottom of a barrel!
Christina, Queen of Sweden,, by David Beck in the 1650s – Wikimedia Commons
In Sweden, the Silver Bible carried extra significance since the Goths were believed to have originated in Scandinavia and were seen as the ancestors of the Swedes and their neighbours. The ancestral importance of the Goths is reflected in royal titles across the region: Danish monarchs (up until Queen Margrethe II) styled themselves “King of the Wends and Goths,” while Swedish rulers were titled “King of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Wends.”
Much like Rudolf II, Queen Christina was more interested in rare books and old languages than the running of the country, such that her spending on arts, culture, and learning bankrupted the Swedish state treasury. When senior advisors tried to manoeuvre the young bookish Christina into marriage, she decided to abdicate, convert to Roman Catholicism, and live out the rest of her days in Rome where she led a similarly cultured lifestyle, much to the chagrin of the Pope.
When Christina abdicated, she left behind substantial national and personal debts. She had not paid her personal tutor and librarian in months, and in remuneration for his tutelage, Vossius was told to take whatever he wanted from her collection before the debtors arrived. The Dutch antiquarian was a shrewd man and selected Codex Argenteus, among other prized items, as part-payment for his services.
In 1654, Codex Argenteus once again set off across the Baltic Sea, this time in the direction of the Netherlands where it was sent to be studied by Vossius’s uncle, the antiquarian Francis Junius the younger. Junius produced an edition based on the manuscript, which was published in the 1660s.
Much like its other movements across early modern Europe, the manuscript’s sojourn in the Netherlands was similarly brief. Once Junius had finished his edition of the text, Vossius sold the manuscript. Codex Argenteus came to the attention of Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden and head of the regency government, who saw the Silver Bible as essential to the Swedish nationalist project. After all, the Goths were thought to be their ancestors.
Shipwreck, Theft and Survival
Codex Argenteus was sold back to the Swedes for an enormous sum of money and the manuscript once again set off across the seas. However, the ship carrying it ran aground near the Frisian Islands and the precious cargo was nearly lost to the North Sea. The crew and the manuscript were rescued by another vessel and the Gothic Bible was eventually conveyed safely back to Uppsala where it remained. De la Gardie commissioned a beautiful silver case to be made for Codex Argenteus by prominent Swedish artists and smiths of the day.
For over three hundred years, the Silver Bible remained safely in Uppsala. However, in 1995, some leaves of Codex Argenteus – along with its artisanal silver cover – were stolen from an exhibition at the Carolina Rediviva Building at Uppsala University Library. Two men in gas masks entered the exhibition hall, smashed the glass display case, set off tear gas, and made off with these parts of the Gothic Bible. The parts were recovered months later in a suitcase inside a storage box in Stockholm Central Station and the thieves were prosecuted.
The Codex Argenteus experienced a more turbulent biography than most medieval manuscripts. Against all odds, however, it survived. The Silver Bible is proof that the treasures that have come down to us from the Middle Ages endure not only because of dutiful care and stewardship, but also thanks to sheer chance and good luck in the face of deliberate destruction, loss, and theft.
John Gallagher is a Post-doctoral Mellon Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, which is part of the University of Toronto
The Gothic Bible survived religious persecution, imperial plunder, a shipwreck and a dramatic twentieth-century theft. John Gallagher traces the turbulent journey of one of the most remarkable manuscripts to emerge from the early medieval world.
By John Gallagher
Many medieval manuscripts have led eventful afterlives and owe their survival purely to accidents of fate. The Gothic Bible is one such manuscript that has endured a particularly turbulent history.
The Creation of the Gothic Bible
The Gothic Bible was a translation used by the Goths – a people from central-southern Europe, with northern Germanic origins – who spoke a Germanic language and who followed their own unique brand of Christianity called Arianism. They were regarded as heretics by other Christians at this time because they believed that Jesus Christ was created by God the Father.
In the 4th century, Wulfila – a cleric and scholar – decided to translate the Greek Bible into the language of the Gothic people. In the late 5th century, when Gothic tribes invaded the declining Roman Empire and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy under Theodoric in Ravenna, Gothic Christianity became an official religion of the Roman Empire. With this change of power, Wulfila’s Gothic Bible was galvanised as an official biblical version of a politically prominent people, elevating it from its previous status as a niche translation.
One of the greatest artistic and cultural productions of Theodoric’s Ostrogothic Kingdom is a copy of the Gothic Bible known as “Codex Argenteus” or the “Silver Codex” – a lavishly decorated Gospel book containing the Gothic versions of Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark in the old western order. It is a sumptuously produced copy of the Gospels made in silver ink on rich purple parchment, emulating the high-status purple books of Roman Late Antiquity.
The Silver Bible was either created as a gift for Theodoric or was commissioned by the king himself. Overall, it is the most elaborate and beautiful manuscript to survive from sixth-century Italy. Today it is included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. However, it survives completely by chance and was nearly lost on several occasions.
How the Silver Bible Survived
Following the decline of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths and their Arian version of Christianity, many Gothic biblical manuscripts were deliberately destroyed. Acts of extreme bibliographic censorship were encouraged because the Arian religious beliefs of the Goths were regarded as heretical by Christians who accepted the Nicene Creed.
Today, the surviving manuscript record for the Gothic Bible is extremely limited and highly fragmentary. Most manuscript witnesses to the Gothic New Testament are palimpsests, meaning that the original Gothic text has been erased, scraped away, and replaced, and is readable today only through the use of advanced technological aids such as multispectral imaging, which captures details that are not visible to the naked eye. It is entirely by chance that Codex Argenteus and, indeed, any Gothic manuscripts have survived to the present day.
At a turbulent time in sixth-century Italy, when many Gothic manuscripts were being destroyed, one individual clearly realised the artistic, linguistic, and cultural value of Codex Argenteus, and decided to preserve the manuscript by taking it into hiding. At this time, the Silver Bible manuscript fell into complete obscurity. It is unclear what happened to Codex Argenteus or what its fate was until it reappeared in the sixteenth century.
Wulfila’s Gothic version is an invaluable monument of biblical translation: it is the earliest translation of the Bible into a Germanic language and the earliest translation of the Greek Bible into any European language outside of Latin. The medieval Codex Argenteus is the most important and stunning manuscript containing any part of this biblical translation.
Rediscovered at Werden Abbey
The Silver Bible next enters the historical record in 1554 at Werden Abbey – a Benedictine monastery located on the banks of the River Ruhr near Essen in present-day Germany. There it was rediscovered by the Flemish antiquarian and theologian Georg Cassander. Antiquarians were early modern scholars with a passion for rare books and long-forgotten languages. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England and Europe, antiquarians like John Leland and Georg Cassander went from monastery to monastery in search of rare manuscripts like Codex Argenteus. It was during this era that Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German were rediscovered and studied once again, and these efforts were spearheaded by enthusiastic antiquarians such as Cassander. How Codex Argenteus found its way to Germany remains a mystery, but the history of Werden Abbey offers some tantalising clues.
The monastery was founded by the Dutch-born monk Saint Ludger (c 742–809), a missionary with a keen interest in books and learning. A dedicated scholar with an interest especially in biblical manuscripts, Ludger travelled to York in England to study and even copied scriptural manuscripts by hand during his stay there. He later spent time in Italy, including a stint at Monte Cassino in the Latin Valley outside Rome – the home of Benedictine monasticism. During his time there, he continued to study and copy texts, including the Rule of Saint Benedict, a foundational monastic text used by monastic communities across Europe at this time. He undoubtedly acquired further books for his private collection, one of which might have been Codex Argenteus. As a Germanic speaker (Dutch is a Germanic language), he may well have been struck by the Silver Codex as an early biblical translation into a Germanic vernacular and acquired it for his personal use and interest. Of course, we cannot know exactly how or when Codex Argenteus came to Werden, but it was likely to have been through a figure like Ludger or someone with a similar appreciation for the manuscript’s importance.
Cassander’s discovery caused a stir among fellow antiquarians, such as Cornelius Wouters, who were thrilled that a Germanic Bible translation of such antiquity had been discovered. The very existence of vernacular Bible translations in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages carried real polemical weight for supporters of the Protestant Reformation who argued that the word of God should be available in the vernacular. Similar motivations spurred antiquarians in England to look at the works of figures such as Bede and Ælfric in an effort to uncover earlier forms of Christian belief and practice that might align with the concerns of the Reformation.
From Imperial Treasure to Swedish War Booty
Following initial interest from the scholarly antiquarian circles, the manuscript next surfaces in the seventeenth century in the rarefied library collection of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II. An avid collector of precious manuscripts, expensive artwork, esoteric knowledge, and other curiosities, Rudolf assembled one of the most remarkable collections in early modern Europe at Prague Castle where his court was based. Once the Gothic Bible had been studied by antiquarians, it was sold – undoubtedly for a handsome sum – to the Emperor and it took its place among the treasures of the imperial library.
In 1648, Swedish forces defeated the Catholic-Habsburg Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Prague, bringing the long and devastating Thirty Years’ War to a close. Following this defeat, the Emperor’s priceless collection of manuscripts and art were looted and carried off by the victors in cartloads. Among the vast plunder was Codex Argenteus, packed into one of many barrels along with other precious books and artwork destined for Sweden. The scale of the war booty was so great that the barrels containing Rudolf’s prized treasures were stored in a warehouse in Germany over the winter of 1648–1649, before finally being shipped across the Baltic Sea to Sweden in the spring of 1649.
The Swedish monarch at the time was the young Queen Christina, aged just 21 and already a prominent patron of learning, antiquarianism, and scholarship. A passionate bibliophile and scholar in her own right, she had keen interests in ancient and medieval languages. Her ever-expanding royal library was transferred from Stockholm to the University of Uppsala, and in 1650 the barrels of books and artwork seized in Germany were sent there too. They were unpacked by Isaac Vossius, the queen’s personal tutor and royal librarian, and his team at Uppsala. One can easily imagine the excitement of these antiquarians as they sifted through Rudolf II’s books and found Codex Argenteus – a Bible written in an ancient Germanic language – tucked away at the bottom of a barrel!
In Sweden, the Silver Bible carried extra significance since the Goths were believed to have originated in Scandinavia and were seen as the ancestors of the Swedes and their neighbours. The ancestral importance of the Goths is reflected in royal titles across the region: Danish monarchs (up until Queen Margrethe II) styled themselves “King of the Wends and Goths,” while Swedish rulers were titled “King of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Wends.”
Much like Rudolf II, Queen Christina was more interested in rare books and old languages than the running of the country, such that her spending on arts, culture, and learning bankrupted the Swedish state treasury. When senior advisors tried to manoeuvre the young bookish Christina into marriage, she decided to abdicate, convert to Roman Catholicism, and live out the rest of her days in Rome where she led a similarly cultured lifestyle, much to the chagrin of the Pope.
When Christina abdicated, she left behind substantial national and personal debts. She had not paid her personal tutor and librarian in months, and in remuneration for his tutelage, Vossius was told to take whatever he wanted from her collection before the debtors arrived. The Dutch antiquarian was a shrewd man and selected Codex Argenteus, among other prized items, as part-payment for his services.
In 1654, Codex Argenteus once again set off across the Baltic Sea, this time in the direction of the Netherlands where it was sent to be studied by Vossius’s uncle, the antiquarian Francis Junius the younger. Junius produced an edition based on the manuscript, which was published in the 1660s.
Much like its other movements across early modern Europe, the manuscript’s sojourn in the Netherlands was similarly brief. Once Junius had finished his edition of the text, Vossius sold the manuscript. Codex Argenteus came to the attention of Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden and head of the regency government, who saw the Silver Bible as essential to the Swedish nationalist project. After all, the Goths were thought to be their ancestors.
Shipwreck, Theft and Survival
Codex Argenteus was sold back to the Swedes for an enormous sum of money and the manuscript once again set off across the seas. However, the ship carrying it ran aground near the Frisian Islands and the precious cargo was nearly lost to the North Sea. The crew and the manuscript were rescued by another vessel and the Gothic Bible was eventually conveyed safely back to Uppsala where it remained. De la Gardie commissioned a beautiful silver case to be made for Codex Argenteus by prominent Swedish artists and smiths of the day.
For over three hundred years, the Silver Bible remained safely in Uppsala. However, in 1995, some leaves of Codex Argenteus – along with its artisanal silver cover – were stolen from an exhibition at the Carolina Rediviva Building at Uppsala University Library. Two men in gas masks entered the exhibition hall, smashed the glass display case, set off tear gas, and made off with these parts of the Gothic Bible. The parts were recovered months later in a suitcase inside a storage box in Stockholm Central Station and the thieves were prosecuted.
The Codex Argenteus experienced a more turbulent biography than most medieval manuscripts. Against all odds, however, it survived. The Silver Bible is proof that the treasures that have come down to us from the Middle Ages endure not only because of dutiful care and stewardship, but also thanks to sheer chance and good luck in the face of deliberate destruction, loss, and theft.
John Gallagher is a Post-doctoral Mellon Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, which is part of the University of Toronto
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