Purple parchment

Some just use purple parchment for sections of the work; the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Stockholm Codex Aureus alternates dyed and un-dyed pages.

It was at one point supposedly restricted for the use of Roman or Byzantine emperors, although in a letter of Saint Jerome of 384, he "writes scornfully of the wealthy Christian women whose books are written in gold on purple vellum, and clothed with gems".

Besides some scattered fragments, they are held mainly in: Brescia, Naples, Sarezzano, Trent and Vienna.

There is a purple manuscript of part of the Septuagint: Other illuminated manuscripts include the Godescalc Evangelistary of 781–3, the Vienna Coronation Gospels (early 9th century) and a few pages of the 9th-century La Cava Bible from the Kingdom of Asturias.

Anglo-Saxon examples include a lost 7th-century Gospels commissioned by Saint Wilfrid.

Page from the Rossano Gospels
A page of the 6th-century Codex Argenteus , in silver and gold ink on purple