Cotton Genesis

Most of the manuscript was destroyed in the Cotton library fire in 1731, leaving only eighteen charred, shrunken scraps of vellum.

The manuscript contains the text of the Book of Genesis on 35 parchment leaves (size about 27 x 22 cm), with numerous lacunae.

The nomina sacra usually are written in an abbreviated forms: ΚΣ, ΚΝ, ΘΣ, ΘΝ, for κυριος, κυριον, θεος, θεον.

Herbert L. Kessler and Kurt Weitzmann argue that the manuscript was produced in Alexandria, as it exhibits stylistic similarities to other Alexandrian works such as the Charioteer Papyrus.

It was brought from Philippi by two Greek bishops, who presented it to King Henry VIII, whom they informed that tradition reported it to have been the identical copy which had belonged to Origen.