The earliest surviving manuscripts of the Septuagint (abbreviated as LXX meaning 70), an ancient (first centuries BCE) translation of the ancient Hebrew Torah into Koine Greek, include three 2nd century BCE fragments from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957) and five 1st century BCE fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 802, 803, 805, 848, and 942), only. The vast majority of Septuagint manuscripts are late-antiquity and medieval manuscript versions of the Christian Greek Old Testament tradition.Sidney Jellicoe, The Septuagint and modern study, 1968, pp. 175, Ch. VII: "For the manuscripts the familiar threefold classification into (1) Uncials, (2) Cursives, and (3) Papyri and Fragments has been adopted, although (see p. 176, n. 1, infra) it is not entirely"Wolfgang Kraus, R. Glenn Wooden, Septuagint research: issues and challenges, 2006Natalio Fernández Marcos, The Septuagint in Context: Introduction to the Greek Version of the Bible, 2000, Ch. 15Cécile Dogniez, Bibliography of the Septuagint, 1995 [This volume is a successor to "A Classified Bibliography of the Septuagint (Brill, Leiden 1973), by S.P. Brock, C. T. Fritsch and S. Jellicoe, for the literature on the Septuagint published between 1970 and 1993."
Classification There are currently over 2,000 classified manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament. The first list of manuscripts was presented by theologians Arthur Holmes and Jacob Parsons, of which their edition (five volumes between 1798 and 1827) ends with a full list of manuscripts known to them. It enumerates 311 codes (marked with Roman numerals I–XIII and Arabic numerals 14–311), which are designated by their siglum I–XIII, 23, 27, 39, 43, 156, 188, 190, 258, 262.
The codices marked with Roman numerals signify given letters from A to Z. The current list of Septuagint manuscripts is according to the classification of biblical scholar Alfred Rahlfs, this being a list of all known manuscripts proposed by Alfred Rahlfs based on the census of Holmes and Parsons.
Division in classification by Rahlfs
The table of manuscripts is divided into ten parts:
Part I: A–Z (specific late antiquity codices in majuscule script). Part II: 13–311 (medieval manuscripts, numbering given by Holmes and Parsons) Part III: 312–800 (medieval manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament without the Psalms) Part IV: 801–1000 (antiquity small fragments of the Torah and late antiquity small fragments of the Greek Old Testament without the Psalms) Part V: 1001–1400 (psalms from the twelfth century) Part VI: 1401–2000 (medieval fragments psalms uncertain dating younger) Part VII: 2001–3000 (medieval small fragments psalter [to the eighth century]) Part VIII: 3001–5000 (medieval manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament without the Psalms) Part IX: 5001–7000 (medieval small fragments of the Greek Old Testament without the Psalms) Part X: 7001–xxxx (medieval psalter fragments )
Abbreviations Pent. – Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy) Hept. – Heptateuch (Genesis – Judges) Oct. – Octateuch (ἡ ὀκτάτευχος = Genesis – Ruth) IV Proph. – Four Major Prophets books. XII Proph. – Twelve Minor Prophets books. Most book names are not written in full. They are abbreviated from their Latin names which can be seen in the article Books of the Vulgate. Example: Book of Wisdom or, Wisdom of Solomon, is abbreviated as Sap.
Acronyms EBE - National Library of Greece
Latin terms aliquot – some catenae, catenarum – chain, chains (abbreviated as "cat."). Catena. ecloge – safeguard page excerpta – items graduales – Songs of Ascents (Ps 119-133 by the numbering in the LXX) inter alia – among others lacunae – missing words/lines/pages poenitentiales – Penitential Psalms sine – without
List of manuscripts List taken from Manuscripts of the Septuagint, published by Logos.
Part I: A–Z SymbolNameDateContentInstitutionCityCountry א Codex Sinaiticus 4th Century (after 325 CE); incl. the Greek text of the entire Bible and the Letter of Pseudo-Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas; missing Gen 1:1–46, 28; Ps 105:27–137:6; BL, Add. 43725;Leip. Uni., Gr. 1;RBN, Gr. 2; Gr. 259; Gr. 843; Fonds. d. Ges. f. alte Lit., Oct 156;Neus Slg. ΜΓ 1 London;Leipzig;Petersburg;Sinai U. Kingdom;Germany;RussiaEgypt A Codex Alexandrinus 5th Century the complete text of the entire Greek Bible (according to the Alexandrian canon) - leaving only five fragments - and 3 and 4 Maccabees, Odes of Solomon, Psalm 151, and two Epistles of Clement BL, Royal 1 D. VIII London U. Kingdom B Codex Vaticanus 4th Century; contains Gen 46:28 to Heb 9:14 Vat. Lib., Gr. 1209 Vatican City C Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus 5th Century fragments, Job, Pro, Ec, Ca, Wis, and Sirach survived; NT BnF, Gr. 9 Paris France D Codex Cottonianus 5th/6th century burned in 1731, kept a list of lessons from Genesis. BL, Otto B VI London U. Kingdom F Codex Ambrosiano A 147 5th century Genesis 31:15 - Joshua 12:12 Biblioteca Ambrosiana, A. 147 inf. Milan Italy G Codex Colberto-Sarravianus 4th/5th century Genesis 31: 5 - Judges 21:12 Bibl. Uniw., Voss. graec. in qu. 8;BnF, Grec 17;RBN, Gr. 3 Leiden;Paris;Petersburg Netherlands;France;Russia K Fragment of Leipzig 7th/8th century Numbers - Judges Bibl. Uni., Gr. 2;RBN Gr. 26 Leipzig;Petersburg Germany;Russia L Vienna Genesis 5th/6th century Genesis with gaps ÖNB, Theol. gr. 31 Vienna Austria M Codex Coislinianus 7th century 1, 2, 3 Kings BnF, Coisl. 1 Paris France Q Codex Marchalianus 7th century Prophets: contains minores and majores Vat. Lib., Gr. 2125 Vatican City R Codex Veronensis 6th century Ps. Odes Bibl. Capit., I Verona Italy T Codex Turicensis 7th century Ps. Odes with gaps Zentralbibl., RP 1 Zurich Switzerland U Fragments Londinensis 7th century Ps 10:2-18:6; 20:14-34:6 BL, P. Inv. Nr. 37 London U. Kingdom N / Vboth believed to form an entity as Henry Barclay Swete states in "An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Additional Notes": "...these two codices originally formed portions of a complete copy of the Greek Old Testament" http://biblehub.com/library/swete/an_introduction_to_the_old_testament_in_greek_additional_notes/chapter_v_manuscripts_of_the.htm] Codex Basiliano-Vaticanus + Codex Venetus 8th century Bible with gaps Vat. Lib., Vat. gr. 2106;Bibl. Marc., Gr. 1 Vatican City;Venice Italy W Codex Washingtonianus 3rd century Minor prophets with gaps SIL Freer Gall., Ms. V Washington, D.C. United States W Codex Freer Greek MS. V 5th century contains Deut 5:16–16:18; Joshua 3:3–4:10 SIL Freer Gall., Inv. Nr. 06.292 Washington, D.C. United States Z Fragment Tischendorfianus 4th through 8th centuries CE Jg 16:29-21:5 (with gaps); III Kings 2:19-8:33, 21:26-39; III Kings 8:58-9:1; Ps 8-37 (with gaps); Ez 1:9-2:5, 3:1-9:4, 22:7-26:11, 28:7-16, 35:5-48:3 (with gaps); Ez 36:20-37:14, 41:25-43:18, 47:19-48:4 (with gaps); Dan 3:2-15 Vat. Lib., Vat. syr. 162;BL, Add 14665;Z; Z; Z; Z; Z; Z Vatican City;London U. Kingdom
Part II: 13–311