Codex Alexandrinus

Uncial 02

New Testament manuscript papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries
Folio 41v from the Codex Alexandrinus contains the end of the Gospel of Luke with the decorative tailpiece found at the end of each book
Name	Alexandrinus
Sign	A
Text	New Testament, Old Testament†
Date	400-440
Script	Greek
Now at	British Library
Size	32 × 26 cm (12.6 × 10.4 in)
Type	Byzantine text-type in Gospels, alexandrian in rest of NT
Category	III (in Gospels), I (in rest of NT)
Hand	elegantly written but with errors
Note	close to ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$74 in Acts, and to ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$47 in Rev

The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, MS Royal 1. D. V-VIII; Gregory-Aland no. A or 02, Soden δ 4) is a fifth-century manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Septuagint and the New Testament. It is one of the four Great uncial codices. Along with the Codex Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible. Brian Walton assigned Alexandrinus the capital Latin letter A in the Polyglot Bible of 1657. This designation was maintained when the system was standardized by Wettstein in 1751. Thus, Alexandrinus held the first position in the manuscript list.

It derives its name from Alexandria where it resided for a number of years before it was brought by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople. Then it was given to Charles I of England in the 17th century. Until the later purchase of Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible deposited in Britain. Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Ritblat Gallery of the British Library. A full photographic reproduction of the New Testament volume (Royal MS 1 D. viii) is available on the British Library's website. As the text came from several different traditions, different parts of the codex are not of equal textual value. The text has been edited several times since the 18th century.

The codex is in quarto, and now consists of 773 vellum folios (630 in the Old Testament and 143 in the New Testament), bound in four volumes (279 + 238 + 118 + 144 folios). Three volumes contain the Septuagint, Greek version of the Old Testament, with the complete loss of only ten leaves. The fourth volume contains the New Testament with 31 NT leaves lost. In the fourth volume 1 and 2 Clement are also missing leaves, perhaps 3.