Vienna Genesis

The Vienna Genesis (Vienna, Austrian National Library, cod. Theol. Gr 31) is an illuminated manuscript, which was probably made ​​in Syria in the first half of the 6th century. It is among the oldest well-preserved illustrated biblical codices.

The text is a fragment of the book of Genesis in the Greek Septuagint translation. The text is repeated abbreviated. 24 sheets with a total of 48 full miniatures (partly double row ) are each below the text are obtained. It is believed that there about 96 pages with 192 illustrations were originally. The code is written with silver ink in uncial on dyed with purple vellum. Nomina sacra are written in gold ink. Purple dye was also used for dyeing the imperial robes.

The illustrations are painted in a naturalistic style, which is typical of Roman painting this time. The format of the illustrations is a transition between the small, unframed frames as they were common in scrolls and later images of the codes. There are both framed as well as unframed illustrations. The illustrations contain incidents and people that do not occur in the biblical text. These are believed to date from popular elaborations of the story or from Jewish paraphrases of the text.

The Vienna Genesis could have been made ​​in the same period and at the same place as the Codex and the Codex Sinopensis Rossanensis.