Codex Purpureus. Patmos, Monastery of St. John the Theologian, codex 67, fol. 22v-23r.

Codex Purpureus, a 6th century Greek New Testament codex gospel book, is a work of immense historical, archaeological, theological and artistic value. The Library of the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian holds 33 leaves, with passages from the Gospel of Mark. The rest of the codex is found in the National Library of Russia (182 leaves), the Vatican Library (6 leaves), the British Library (4 leaves), the National Library of Austria (2 leaves), the Morgan Library in New York (1 leaf), the Byzantine Museum in Athens (1 leaf), the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki (1 leaf) and the private collection of Marquis А. Spinola in Lerma (1 leaf). It has been thought that the manuscript originated in the imperial scriptorium of Constantinople and was dismembered by Crusaders in the 12th century. It is written in majuscules on 231 parchment leaves. The letters are very large and regular in form, in silver ink on vellum dyed purple, with gold ink for nomina sacra. The contents of the codex are of great importance, as the codex is one of the sources for the New Testament texts.