Codex Nanianus - History

History

Andreas Birch dated the manuscript to the 10 or 11th century. Scholz dated it to the 10th century. Scrivener writes that it dates "scarcely before the tenth century, although the letters are in general an imitation of those used before the introduction of compressed uncials". The present palaeographers dated the manuscript to the 9th century. Tregelles and Gregory dated it to the 9th or 10th century.

The codex is named after its last owner, Giovanni Nanni (1432–1502). The codex was described by Ferdinand Mingarelli.

The first collator of the codex was Friedrich Münter (1761–1830), who sent some extracts from the text of the codex to Andreas Birch. Birch used these extracts in his edition of the text of the four Gospels in Greek. Then Birch examined the manuscript himself and gave its description in 1801:

In Bibliotheca Equitis Nanii codex asservatur charactere unciali exaratus Seculo X vel XI, complectens Qvattuor Evangelia cum Eusebii Canonibus. De hoc plura vide in Catalogo Codd. graecorum, qvi apud Nanios asservantur, studio et opera Mingarelli publicatam. Excerpta hujus codicis in adnotationibus hinc inde obvia, mecum communicavit Vir. Cl. Münter, cui etiam debeo notitiam duorum codicum qvi seqvuntur.

It was slightly examined by Scholz. Thomas Hartwell Horne gave this description of the codex:

The Codex Nanianus I., in the library of St. Mark, at Venice, contains the four Gospels with the Eusebian canons. It is nearly entire, and for the most part agrees with the Constantinopolitan recension. Dr. Birch, by whom it was first collated, refers it to the tenth of eleventh century; Dr. Scholz, to the tenth century.

The text of the manuscript was collated by Tischendorf in 1843 and by Tregelles in 1846, thoroughly and independently. They compared their work at Leipzig for the purpose of mutual correction. Tischendorf cited often the manuscript in his Editio Octava Critica Maior. Gregory saw the manuscript in 1886.

William Hatch published one page of the codex as photographic facsimile in 1939.

Bruce M. Metzger did not describe the manuscript in his The Text of the New Testament… or in Manuscripts of the Greek Bible…, and it one of the very few uncial manuscripts with sigla (01-045) did not described by Metzger. It means according to him it has low textual importance. The manuscript is rarely cited in critical editions of the Greek New Testament NA27/UBS4. It is not mentioned in Introduction to the 26th edition of Novum Testamentum Graece of Nestle-Aland. It is often cited in The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition (2007).

The codex currently is located, in Venice, the Biblioteca Marciana, 1397 (1, 8).