Rossano Gospels
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The Rossano Gospels (Cathedral of Rossano, Calabria, Italy, Archepiscopal Treasury) is a 6th century Byzantine Gospel Book. It is probably the oldest surviving illustrated New Testament manuscript. The now incomplete manuscript codex has the text of Matthew and the majority of Mark. A second volume is apparently missing. Like the Vienna Genesis and the Sinope Gospels, the Rossano Gospels are written in silver ink on purple dyed parchment. The large (300 mm by 250 mm) book has text written in a 215 mm square block with two columns of twenty lines each. There is a prefatory cycle of illustrations which are also on purple dyed parchment.
See also Early Christian art and architecture.