The codex contains a complete text of the four Gospels on 299 parchment leaves (31.2 cm by 21.5 cm). The text is written in one column per page, in 22 lines per page.[2]
The text is divided according to the κεφαλαια (chapters) whose numerals are given at the margin, and the τιτλοι (titles of chapters) at the top of the pages.[3]
It contains lists of the κεφαλαια (tables of contents) before each Gospel, subscriptions at the end of each Gospel, and very beautiful pictures.[3][4] It is clearly but unskilfully written.[4]
The Greek text of the codex is a representative of the Byzantine text-type. Hermann von Soden classified it to the Antiocheian (i.e. Byzantine) commentated text.[5]Aland placed it in Category V.[6] According to the Claremont Profile Method it represents the textual family Kx in Luke 1 and Luke 20. It belongs also to the textual cluster 183. In Luke 10 no profile was made.[5]
According to the colophon it was written in Rome, April 25, 1478 by John Rhosos of Crete for Francis Gonzaga Cardinal of St. Maria Nuova. There is a note that Rhosos also wrote the Vatican Homer in 1477 for Cardinal Gonazaga. Then it belonged to Giovanni Pietro Arrivabene.[4] Nathaniel Noel purchased it for the Harleian Library between 20 January between 1721 and 1722.[7]
The manuscript was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Scholz (1794–1852).[8] It was examined by Scholz (only Mark 5). C. R. Gregory saw it in 1883.[3]
^ abcAland, K.; M. Welte; B. Köster; K. Junack (1994). Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 74. ISBN3-11-011986-2.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition, in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462–84 (p. 474).
Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten 800-1600, ed. by Ernst Gamillscheg and Dieter Harlfinger, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik, 3-1, ed. by Herbert Hunger (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981- ), I: Handschriften aus Bibliotheken Grossbritanniens, 3 vols, I, no. 178.
