Codex Argenteus (the Silver Bible)

Early sixth century AD

A luxury copy of the four Gospels in Gothic, written in silver and gold ink on purple parchment in Italy in the early sixth century. The library that holds it calls it the longest surviving text in Gothic. The translation is attributed to Ulfilas.

The manuscript was made in Italy under Gothic rule; the library that holds it thinks it was probably copied at Ravenna, possibly for King Theoderic. It originally had at least 336 leaves, of which 187 are at Uppsala and one more, found in 1970, is at Speyer. It was in the abbey of Werden in the sixteenth century, was taken from Prague by Swedish troops in 1648, and was given to Uppsala University in 1669.

The codex is not the translator’s own copy. It was written about a century and a half after Ulfilas, for Goths in Italy, and it contains only the Gospels. What it shows is that a Gothic version of the Gospels, written in the alphabet that ancient writers say Ulfilas devised, was in church use among the Goths. The attribution of the translation to him rests on the historians Philostorgius and Socrates.

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