New Testament minuscule


A New Testament minuscule is a copy of a portion of the New Testament written in a small, cursive Greek script. Most of the minuscules are still written on parchment. Paper was used since the 12th century.
New Testament minuscules are distinct from:
Minuscules codices contain commentaries and other additional matter, like, Prolegomena to the four Gospels, the Epistula ad Carpianum, the treatise of Pseudo-Dorotheus on the Seventy disciples and twelve apostles, List of Lord's miracles, List of Parables of Jesus, short biographies of the Apostles, or summaries of the journeys of St. Paul. Since the 9th century some manuscripts have notes with the date and place of the composition of the different NT books. Some manuscripts informed about name of scribe and date of composition of the manuscript, but date usually reckoning from the creation of the world. It was the Byzantine manner. Only in a few minuscule codices is the date reckoned from the birth of Christ.

Classification of minuscules

Since the time of J. J. Wettstein the minuscules manuscripts have been indicated by Arabic numerals, but the numbers in each of the four groups of the books of the New Testament began with 1, and thus "1" might indicate a book in any of the manuscripts. Different parts of the same manuscript had different numbers. Only the first manuscript situation was simple, because it had number 1 in Gospels, in Acts and Catholic epistles, and in Pauline epistles. This system was complicated.
Scrivener, for instance, enumerated known for him minuscule codices:
It did not mean that the total number of minuscules was 1460, because some of them belonged to the same manuscripts.
Wettstein's system was improved and corrected by F. H. A. Scrivener, C. R. Gregory, and other scholars. Aland renumbered minuscule manuscripts, and now every minuscule manuscript has a different catalogue number.
Renumbered minuscules:
Wettstein knew 112 minuscule codices of the Gospels, 58 of the Acts, 60 of St. Paul, and 28 of the Apocalypse. Manuscripts of the Gospels with number 260–469 were added to the list by Scholz. Gregory in 1908 knew 2292 all minuscule manuscripts of the New Testament. Now we have 2911 minuscule codices catalogued by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster.

Lists of New Testament minuscules