The codex contains 17 parchment leaves (26 cm by 21 cm), with fragments of the Gospel of Luke 6, 17-19, 21-24 and Gospel of John 1, 3-4, 6-8. The manuscript is written in two columns per page, 26-33 lines per page, with the Greek and Sahidic on facing pages.[1] Lines are very short, only 6, 7, 8, and 9 letters in lines.[2] It is written in large letters compressed only on the edge. The letters are square. Tischendorf suggested the scribe was a Copt, because the letters often show Coptic forms. There is no notation of sections or other divisions. The shapes of alpha and iota are specially noticeable.[3]
It has no accents and breathings.
The Greek text of this codex is a secondary representative of the Alexandrian text-type (named also Egyptian text) with a mixture of the Byzantine readings. Kurt Aland placed it in Category II.[4] The Alexandrian text of the Gospel of John stands in close relationship to the Codex Vaticanus, and P75.[5]
The manuscript came from the White Monastery. It once belonged to Cardinal Stefano Borgia, hence the name of the codex.
Fragments of the codex were discovered independently at separate times and were numbered 029, 0113, 0125, and 0139. Together they have 23 leaves. "It appears that the ignorant monk who brought this manuscript with him from Egypt to Europe, was so unaware of its value, that he lost the greater part of the leaves".[8]
The text of Codex 029 was carefully edited in 1789 by A. A. Giorgi.[9] The manuscript was examined by Birch, who collated the Greek text of 029. Birch gave this description of the codex:
Codex in membranis scriptus est, charactere unciali quadro, graeco textui adjecta est versio coptica. Vehementer sane dolendum, particulam tam exiguam eximini codicis servatam esse, ex quo, si integrum aetas tulisset, plurima ad textus emendationem peti potuissent.[10]
