The ‘First Chapters’ as Original to the Codex

Abstract

The majority position at present, at least among Anglophone scholars, is that the early chapter numeration in the codex, the Capitulatio Vaticana, is not the product of the original scribes but represents a system which is alien to the internal divisions of the books, and which was added by scribes later in the fourth or in the fifth century. This chapter establishes, on the contrary, that the CapVat numbers were supplied to the books as part of their original transcription, by two scribes, one a copier of the text (Scribe B; Numerator 2), the other a scribe who seems to have exercised a supervisory role (Numerator 1). New evidence for this conclusion is found in the characteristic letter forms of the scribes, the sets of books each scribe numerated, the coordination of numerators with quire beginnings, and certain peculiarities of the red ink used by Numerator 2.