Beginning of the Gospel of Matthiew

Codex Purpureus Rossanensis.

Beginning of the Gospel of Matthiew. An example of uncial writing in uppercase. The letters are pened in silver, but the first three lines are in gold.

The Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, also known as the Rossano Gospels, is a Greek uncial manuscript from the 5th-6th centuries containing the gospels of Matthew and Mark and kept in the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art in Rossano, Italy. It’s known worldwide for the peculiar reddish color of its pages, written in silver and gold inks, and series of 14 illuminations illustrating the life and teachings of Christ. The superb miniatures make it one of the oldest illuminated manuscripts of the New Testament. The Codex is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and a symbol of the Calabria region, which has always been a crossroad between the east and the west.