Minuscule 486 is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament that is catalogued in the Gregory‑Aland numbering system, which is used by scholars to classify New Testament Greek manuscripts.
Description
- Script: The manuscript is written in the minuscule Greek script that developed from the 9th century onward.
- Material: Like most medieval New Testament minuscules, it is composed of parchment leaves; the exact number of folios is recorded in specialized catalogues.
- Date: Palaeographic analysis assigns the manuscript to the medieval period, generally within the range of the 10th to 14th centuries. The precise dating varies among scholars and is not uniformly agreed upon.
Contents
- The codex contains portions of the New Testament. The specific books or passages it includes (e.g., the Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles) are listed in detailed manuscript inventories, but such information is not consistently reproduced in general reference works.
Physical Characteristics
- Layout: Typical of Byzantine minuscule codices, the text is arranged in one column per page with a modest number of lines per column (often 20–30).
- Divisions: The manuscript incorporates the traditional chapter divisions (κεφαλαια) and may include marginalia such as lectionary markings, liturgical notes, or colophons.
Textual Character
- The text of Minuscule 486 is considered to belong to the Byzantine text‑type, which predominates among later Greek manuscripts. This classification is based on comparative textual analysis performed by scholars cataloguing the manuscript.
History and Provenance
- The early provenance of Minuscule 486 is not exhaustively documented in publicly available sources.
- It entered modern scholarly awareness through the cataloguing efforts of Caspar René Gregory, Kurt Aland, and the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF).
Current Location
- The present repository of Minuscule 486 is recorded in specialist manuscript databases. The specific library or collection (e.g., a national library, a cathedral archive, or a university collection) is identified in those catalogues, but this information is not uniformly reproduced in general encyclopedic entries.
Scholarly References
- Gregory, C. R., Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments (1908).
- Aland, K., Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments (1994).
- Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF), Kurzbeschreibung of Minuscule 486.
Notes on Available Information
Detailed descriptions of Minuscule 486—including precise codicological data, complete contents, decorative elements, and a full history of its ownership—are contained within specialized manuscript catalogues and scholarly publications. Such sources are not always accessible in open‑access reference works, resulting in limited publicly available detail. Consequently, while the existence and general classification of Minuscule 486 are well established, many specific attributes remain documented only in specialized academic literature.