According to the present textual critics its text is not very important, but it is cited in all modern editions of the Greek New Testament.

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), containing the text of the four Gospels on 204 parchment leaves (sized 28.5 × 22 cm (11.2 × 8.7 in)), with numerous gaps.

[5]: 4  The letters Δ, Ε, Θ, Ο, and especially Ψ in cruciform, are of the form characteristic for the late uncial script.

There is no division according to the chapters (known as κεφαλαια / kephalia), however the titles (known as τιτλοι / titloi) are given at the top of the pages, sometimes also at the bottom.

[7] The manuscript employs the nomina sacra (sacred names; an early Christian abbreviation system for names/titles considered sacred) for the following words: ΘΣ / θεος / theos (God), ΙΣ / Ιησους / Iesous (Jesus), ΧΣ / χριστος / christos (Christ), ΚΣ / κυριος / kyrios (Lord), ΥΣ / υιος / huios (Son), ΣΗΡ / σωτηρ / soter (saviour), ΟΥΝΟΣ / ουρανος / ouranos (heaven), ΠΝΑ / πνευμα / pneuma (Spirit), ΠΗΡ / πατηρ / pater (Father), ΜΗΡ / μητηρ / meter (mother), ΑΝΟΣ / ανθρωπος / anthropos (Man), ΣΤΡΣ / σταυρος / stauros (cross), ΔΑΔ / δαυιδ / Dauid (David), ΙΗΛ / ισραηλ / Israel, ΙΛΗΜ / ιερουσαλημ / Ierousalem (Jerusalem).

[5]: 6 The Greek text of this codex is considered a representative of the Byzantine text-type, but with a number of singular readings.

Hermann von Soden classified it as Ki (it is now classed as one of the manuscripts comprising textual Family E).

The codex is named after Johann Boreel (1577–1629), Dutch Ambassador at the Court of James I of England.

There is no record of when Boreel obtained the codex, but it is generally believed that he brought it to the Netherlands from one of his travels to the Middle East.

[9] The connection to Boreel is indicated by textual critic Johann Jakob Wettstein, who was given a partial collation of the codex in 1730.

The collation was made by Izaak Verburg, rector of the Amsterdam gymnasium, and contained text from Matthew 7:2 to Luke 11.

[2] Wettstein cited the codex in his Novum Testamentum Graecum (1751), also in these parts, which do not survive to the present day (e.g. Matthew 7:9).

Fil: Disputatio de codice Boreeliano, nunc Rheno-Trajectino ab ipso in lucem protracto, which includes a "full and exact" collation of the text.

[6] Though initially having some difficulty gaining permission, textual critic Samuel Prideaux Tregelles examined the codex in 1850.

[6] Biblical scholar Philipp Schaff in the Introduction to the American Edition of Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881) wrote that it is "not an important manuscript.

[16] Despite these opinions, the codex continues to be cited in critical editions of Novum Testamentum Graece.

[1][18] In March 2007, scholar David Trobisch visited Utrecht and viewed the manuscript with a number of colleagues.