Codex Vercellensis

The title Codex Vercellensis Evangeliorum refers to two manuscript codices preserved in the cathedral library of Vercelli, in the Piedmont Region, Italy.

In its text of Matthew 3, before verse 16, there is a statement that a light suddenly shone when Jesus was baptized (Et cum baptizaretur, lumen ingens circumfulsit de aqua, ita ut timerent omnes qui advenerant).

The original final pages after Mark 15:15 have been lost, and the replacement-page resumes mid-sentence in 16:7 and includes the text to the end of verse 20, but in the Vulgate version.

According to a respectable tradition, this codex was written under the direction of bishop Eusebius of Vercelli, which would date it to the late fourth century.

Having been used for the taking of oaths in the early Middle Ages, much of it is either difficult to read or even destroyed, so that we are frequently dependent on the earlier editors for knowledge of its text.