Lectionary 59, designated by siglum ℓ 59 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), is a Greek manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 of the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically

Palaeography

Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 it has been assigned to the 12th century.
Formerly it was labelled as Apost. 13.

Description

The codex contains lessons from the Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

 and Epistles. It is a lectionary

Lectionary

A Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.-History:...

 (Apostolos). It is written in Greek minuscule letters, on 311 parchment leaves . Written in two columns per page, in 23 lines per page.

It contains verse of Acts 8:37.

History

The manuscript once belonged to the Iviron monastery

Iviron monastery

Holy Monastery of Iviron is an Eastern Orthodox monastery at the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece...

 at Athos

Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...

. It was renovated by Joakim, a monk, in A. D.
1525. It was brought to Moscow in 1655. The manuscript was examined by Matthaei

Christian Frederick Matthaei

Christian Frederick Matthaei , a Thuringian, palaeographer, classical philolog, professor first at Wittenberg and then at Moscow.- Life :...

, cited by Tregelles

Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Samuel Prideaux Tregelles was an English biblical scholar, textual critic, and theologian.- Life :Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but he himself for many years was in communion with the Plymouth Brethren and then later in life became a Presbyterian...

 as Frag. Mosq.

The manuscript is cited in the critical editions of the Greek New Testament (UBS3).

Currently the codex is located in the State Historical Museum

State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...

, (V. 21, S. 4) in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

See also

• List of New Testament lectionaries
• Biblical manuscript
  Biblical manuscript
  A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblia ; manuscript comes from Latin manu and scriptum...
  
  
• Textual criticism
  Textual criticism
  Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
  
  

Further reading

• C. F. Matthaei, Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine (Riga, 1782-1788).