









































30  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

The Physical Canon
Its Formation and Depiction in Late Roman 
and Medieval Christianity
Gary F. Daught, Director of Libraries, Milligan University
David W. Kiger, Theological Librarian, Milligan University

ABSTRACT The physical Bible as we know it is a library of books gathered 
together within a single cover binding. The creation of the single-volume 
Bible, utilizing the codex book form, dates from the first half of the fourth 
century, and at its inception was a powerful technological innovation. Com-
mitting a fixed form within a binding, the single-volume Bible uniquely de-
clared the unity of the Scriptures and the books authorized for inclusion. 
However, enormous production costs meant that single-volume Bibles were 
rare. Considering this rarity, Bibles must have come together in other recog-
nized physical forms. Given the dearth of direct physical evidence, we infer 
their existence by looking at Greco-Roman book containers and furnishings, 
descriptive and metaphorical allusions in theological writings, the parallel 
development of the Torah Ark/Shrine in Jewish synagogues, and pictorial 
depictions in church mosaics and Bible manuscript paintings.

INTRODUCTION

“The Bible is a whole library stuffed inside a single book cover.”
I learned the books of the Bible at Sunday School when I was in fourth 
or fifth grade. Two things particularly stick in my mind from that 
time. First was a remarkable comment made by the teacher. She said: 
“This book I am holding in my hands is called the Holy Bible. This 
book looks like one book. But it’s actually a whole library of books 
stuffed inside a single book cover. In fact, there are sixty-six books in 
this library!” Sixty-six books sounded to me like a lot of books to fit 
into just one book cover. I remember being fascinated by this concept.

The second thing was the method the teacher used to help us learn 
the books of the Bible. She handed every student a small card.

PAPERS



PAPERS  31

FIGURE 1: Books of the Bible bookcase card (photo used with permission)

On the card was a picture of a bookcase. In the bookcase were the 
books of the Bible depicted as individual volumes shelved in their 
proper order. Groups of books appeared in different colors, and 
the title of each was printed on the spine. On the bookcase were la-
bels identifying, first, two large collections—the Old and New Testa-
ments—and then the names of the major groups within each large 
collection. By using the picture of the Bible bookcase, our Sunday 
School teacher helped us to conceptualize the Bible as a library. 
Seeing the individual books on the shelves helped us memorize the 
names of the Bible books and their proper order.

I was reminded of the Bible bookcase picture card from Sunday 
School when I first saw a painting from the late-seventh century 
Latin Bible, the Codex Amiatinus.



32  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

FIGURE 2: Ezra the Scribe in front of the armarium. Codex Amiatinus, late 7th–early 
8th century (Photo from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

In the opening pages of the manuscript there is a full-page paint-
ing that depicts a haloed scribe clothed in Hebrew priestly garb 
seated and writing in a codex. Behind the scribe is a large cupboard 
with two open doors. Inside the cupboard we see nine bound codices 
lying horizontally on five shelves with their spines facing outward. 
On each codex we see abbreviated titles of the major groups of the 
Bible inscribed in gold on the spine. I wondered if one function of 
this painting was similar to my Bible bookcase picture card from 
Sunday School. Perhaps the painting was there to help the viewer 
conceptualize this single-volume Bible as a library of many books 
within a single cover binding.



PAPERS  33

“Maybe the cupboard itself is significant.”
One day a number of years ago, I was visiting a Bible professor at 
Milligan University, where I serve as library director. On a wall of 
his office was a poster depicting a cupboard with two open doors.

FIGURE 3: Gospel armarium mosaic. Mausoleum Galla Placidia, Ravenna, early 5th 
century (photo Gianni Careddu CC BY-SA 4.0)

Inside the cupboard are four bound codices lying horizontally on 
two shelves. Titles in white hover above each codex identifying them 
as the Four Gospels. I later learned that this Gospel cupboard was 
part of a larger mosaic located in the early fifth-century Mausoleum 
of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy.



34  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

Assuming it was not an artistic fabrication, the depiction of the 
Gospel cupboard appeared custom-built to comfortably hold the four 
codices. I wondered if the cupboard itself might be significant. Per-
haps the cupboard was intended not only as a furnishing for storage, 
but that the books placed within it would immediately be recognized 
as Scripture—books and container together forming a physical can-
on.1 This impression was strengthened for me after seeing the Bible 
cupboard depicted in the Codex Amiantinus.

This provoked a question. Were dedicated Bible containers such 
as these a common and recognized furnishing in Late Roman and 
Medieval churches? It turns out that physical evidence to answer 
this question is difficult to come by. In order to test the plausibility 
of this proposal we would have to proceed inferentially, relying on 
comparisons with Greco-Roman book containers and furnishings, 
descriptive and metaphorical allusions in theological writings, the 
parallel development of the Torah Ark/Shrine in Jewish synagogues, 
and other pictorial depictions in church mosaics and Bible manu-
script paintings.

The timeframe of our investigation is a 500-year period from the 
fourth through ninth centuries. The early end of this timeframe has 
a fourfold significance for the development of the Christian Bible: 
1) Christianity became a recognized and protected religion in the 
Roman Empire; 2) the codex book form became ubiquitous;2 3) we 
witness first the innovation and then the practical abandonment of 
the single-volume Bible codex; and 4) we see the formalization of the 
biblical canon, disseminated physically through forms of an emerg-
ing Bible and abstractly through canon lists. The late end of the time-
frame is significant because by the middle of the ninth century pro-
duction processes and scribal infrastructures became standardized 
to the degree that single-volume Bibles became relatively common.

Notwithstanding the dearth of firm physical evidence, or maybe 
because of it, the question of dedicated Bible containers has seemed 
all but incidental to scholarship. As a practical matter, scripture 
manuscripts had to be stored somewhere when not in use. What of it? 
But it strikes us that this emphasis on practicality underestimates the 

1 Canon, from the Greek κανών, literally a measuring rod, here refers to scrip-
tural texts authorized for use within the church for worship and instruction.

2 The early Christian adoption of and preference for the codex book form has 
been treated extensively. See especially Roberts and Skeat 1983, Gamble 1995, 
and Hurtado 2006.



PAPERS  35

significance of the container as sharing physically in the associative 
sacredness of the enclosed texts. The container, we suggest, demar-
cated the canonical status of the enclosed texts, even as it facilitated 
their access for the church’s use in worship and instruction.

THE INNOVATION AND SUBSEQUENT PRACTICAL ABANDONMENT OF 
THE SINGLE-VOLUME BIBLE CODEX

During the reign of Constantine the Great, Christianity became a 
recognized and protected religion in the Roman Empire. In his Life 
of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea transcribes a letter he received 
from Constantine ordering the preparation of fifty copies of “the Di-
vine Scriptures” for the churches in Constantinople (Eusebius 1999, 
166-67):

Be ready therefore to act urgently on the decision which we have reached. 
It appeared proper to indicate to your Intelligence that you should order 
fifty volumes with ornamental leather bindings, easily legible and conve-
nient for portable use, to be copied by skilled calligraphists well trained in 
the art, copies that is of the Divine Scriptures [θείων γραφῶν], the provi-
sion and use of which you well know to be necessary for reading in church.

Eusebius then relates his implementation of Constantine’s in-
structions saying: “Immediate action followed upon his word, as we 
sent him threes and fours in richly wrought bindings…” (Eusebius 
1999, 167).

There has been considerable discussion over exactly what form 
of “Divine Scriptures” Constantine ordered Eusebius to produce. 
Scholars who focus on the call for “utmost speed” and “portable 
use” suggest that whole Bibles were not in view here. New Testa-
ments, Gospels, or perhaps lectionaries seem to them more likely 
(Gamble 1995, 79-80). We, however, favor a view that Constantine 
ordered whole Bibles in some form. Eusebius, tasked with “dili-
gence,” should give his top priority to this project. Moreover, when 
Constantine uses the term “Divine Scriptures” without qualification 
it seems most natural to take it that he is referring to a whole Bible, 
including both Old and New Testaments. If Constantine was order-
ing an abridged text this could have been easily stipulated (Skeat 
1999, 605-6, note 28). Also, portability need not require an abridged 
text. Commenting on the somewhat opaque phrase that the copies 
were delivered in “threes and fours,” Averil Cameron and Stuart 
Hall surmise that since a single-volume Bible codex would not have 



36  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

been portable enough to facilitate all intended uses, the phrase 
could imply that whole Bibles were produced in multi-volume sets 
(Eusebius 1999, 327).

Although the form of the Constantinian Bibles cannot be deter-
mined conclusively, it is clear that the coincident development of the 
single-volume Bible codex at this time—the first half of the fourth 
century—was a remarkable technological and powerful symbolic 
innovation. Committing a fixed form within one cover binding, the 
single-volume Bible uniquely declared the unity of the Scriptures, 
the books authorized for inclusion, and their order. The gathered 
and bound codex effectively created a physical canon. Incidentally, 
in using the words “bible” and “canon” here we are not implying 
final forms as we recognize them today. Rather, these are the mani-
festations produced in the midst of an emerging process. That be-
ing said, we do take it that these manifestations were considered 
“bibles” and “canons” by the communities that produced and/or 
used them.

Notwithstanding this innovation, Harry Gamble and Theodore 
Skeat both agree that single-volume Greek Bible codices and later 
Latin pandects were extremely rare and exceptional in nature. Skeat 
estimated that during the first half of the fourth century probably 
no more than 100 had been produced, and of these, half were part 
of Constantine’s order (Skeat, 1999, 617)! The reasons for this scar-
city are easy to appreciate. Production of a single-volume Bible was 
a large and costly undertaking. It is likely that single-volume Bibles 
were for many centuries possessed only by churches sufficiently af-
fluent, or able to attract state sponsorship, as in the case of the Con-
stantinian order.

We are suggesting that in view of the rarity of single-volume Bibles 
it is logical to suggest that whole Bibles took multi-volume forms, 
whether produced intentionally in multi-volume editions3 or col-
lected together over time from various sources. It would seem logical 
to further suggest that the single-volume Bible format was for many 
centuries essentially abandoned as impractical, and that multi-vol-
ume Bibles were more common. Finally, it is logical to suggest that 
these multi-volume Bibles were gathered in dedicated containers, 

3 Whole Bibles in multi-volume format would still be costly to produce. Howev-
er, owing to the reduced size and weight of each volume, they would be more 
serviceable for the range of required uses in the church compared to a single-
volume Bible.



PAPERS  37

not simply for practical storage but also to preserve their character 
as a physical canon in much the same way that single-volume Bibles 
gathered between the covers of an ornamented binding would.

THE FORMALIZATION OF THE BIBLICAL CANON, DISSEMINATED 
THROUGH PHYSICAL FORMS AND CANON LISTS

As librarians, we note that the collection of texts that form the Bi-
ble need to be ordered and that ordering occurs in the conceptual 
as well as the physical realms. Philosopher and technologist David 
Weinberger (2007) introduced the concept of “orders of order” to 
describe the organization of things and information. He identifies 
three orders of order, though we will only examine the first two here.

The “first order of order” is how physical things are organized 
in space. In a single-volume Bible codex, the “first order” is the se-
lection and arrangement of books possessing scriptural authority 
which are literally sewn into place and bound within protective and 
ornamented leather or wooden cover boards. In a book box, chest, or 
cupboard, the “first order” is the selection and arrangement of books 
(rolls or smaller codices) that are placed loosely within a dedicated 
container. The single-volume codex does a much better job fixing 
its contents. This is one of its organizational powers.4 But again, the 
single-volume Bible, despite being highly innovative, was a rarity. 
We argue that other “first order” forms must have been available 
to play a similar function. The books gathered unbound in a cup-
board are still selected and arranged with intention. Books that do 
not possess scriptural authority are excluded from the container. 
The container itself serves to point to and demarcate the special 
nature of the contents enclosed, much as the binding covers of a 
single-volume Bible.

The selection process for canonical texts entailed several over-
lapping and related issues. While it seems unlikely that when the 
Apostle Paul wrote his letters he thought of them as Scripture (1 Cor. 
7:12), later Christians who copied, distributed, and preserved these 
writings certainly did. Among the early criteria for a book to be part 

4 Of course, fixing contents in this way can also be a weakness. All decisions 
regarding included content and arrangement must be made in advance. Once 
bound, significant changes are impossible without deconstructing the codex 
and its binding. Then again, this is the point, and it underscores for us the 
physical nature of the canonization process.



38  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

of the biblical canon was its applicability for use in Christian wor-
ship and instruction in the Christian faith. Unfortunately, there is 
no record of how books were chosen to be part of an emerging ca-
nonical Bible. However, several competing factors were doubtlessly 
considered during deliberation on a book’s canonical status. Lee 
Martin McDonald (2007, 401-421) notes that these factors included 
apostolicity, orthodoxy, antiquity, the aforementioned use for wor-
ship, inspiration, and perhaps others. Related to the factor of usage 
is accessibility. Churches would not have used texts to which they 
had no access.

Edmon Gallagher and John Meade note that in the writings of 
Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, we find the first use of the term 
canon (κανών) as a concept for the totality of the Christian scriptures 
(2017, xiii). In De Decretis 18, Athanasius remarks that the Shepherd 
of Hermas does not belong as part of the canon. Despite this newer 
use of the word canon, the term was not the only one used to describe 
the Scriptures in the fourth century. Gregory Robbins (1993) has 
shown that Eusebius of Caesarea preferred to use the term catalog 
(κατάλογος) to speak of the Scriptures.5 Even after Athanasius’ fa-
mous Festal Letter of 367, the canon of the Bible was not closed (Gal-
lagher and Meade 2017, 30; Brakke 1994, 395-419).6 Lists of biblical 
books continued to be produced and different canons still existed.

We suggest that canon lists served as metadata for the emerging 
Bible that had a physical manifestation in the objects of written texts. 
The list articulates the data of what is found on the shelf. Lists provide 
a convenient summary identifying the books deemed authoritative 
for worship and instructional use in the churches at key locations 
and moments in the process. In Weinberger’s framework, a canon 
list is an example of a “second order of order.” It is metadata, or “in-
formation about” the physical thing(s) being described. The list does 
not contain the books themselves—neither their content, nor their 
physical manifestations. Weinberger reminds us that the “second or-
der” always points back to real physical things and their “first order” 
selection and arrangement. From this we warrant that canon lists 

5 Eusebius’s preference for the term κατάλογος over κανών for referring to the 
Bible makes sense of how the Eusebian canon tables were implemented and 
used.

6 Brakke suggests that in this letter Athanasius is not only setting up the bound-
ary markers of orthodoxy but also shaping the nature of spiritual authority. He 
argues that Athanasius is trying to add spiritual and intellectual authority to 
bishops as opposed to academics.  



PAPERS  39

would have necessarily been composed from existing “first order” 
collections, whether in single-volume or multi-volume forms—what 
we’re calling a physical canon.7

GRECO-ROMAN BOOK CONTAINERS

Recalling the Sunday School story from our introduction, the books 
of the Bible gathered within a single book cover form a library. The 
Greek word for library is βιβλιοθήκη (Latin bibliotheca) and refers to 
any collection of books. Implicit in the etymology of βιβλιοθήκη is an 
archaic reference to a container, a θήκη, “box” or “chest” for storing 
the collected books (βιβλία). This etymological reminder provides a 
caution against overly abstracting or “second ordering” the concept 
of the biblical canon so that we fail to see possible physical “first or-
der” manifestations. An obvious place to start looking for physical 
manifestations would be examples of book containers and related 
furnishings in use in the Greco-Roman world of the time.

In addition to a plain wooden plank affixed horizontally to a wall 
with supporting brackets creating a simple shelf, or the more custom-
built shelf that added vertical dividers or “pigeon-holes,” there were 
three common containers known for storing books—the capsa, the 
scrinium, and the armarium. The capsa is a cylindrical box made of 
wood with a fitted and latched lid and carrying strap or handle. Al-
though sizes varied, a capsa would have been considered portable, 
like a modern-day backpack. Books, typically in roll form, were stored 
vertically inside. A scrinium was similar to a capsa only larger, or of-
ten chest-like. The armarium was a wooden cupboard, typically with 
double doors and a flat or gabled roof, used to store tools or valuables 
of all kinds. It appears to have been a Roman development (Richter 
1969, 377-79).8 Stephan Mols, who researched armaria and aediculae 

7 It is also possible to work from a canon list to subsequently create or amend 
a physical collection—to move from the “second order” to the “first order.” 
For example, it is easy to imagine that Athanasius’ Easter Letter of 367 was 
received by church communities that may have lacked their own Bible col-
lection, or they possessed an incomplete collection, or the collection they pos-
sessed included unauthorized texts. Based on the authority of Athanasius’s 
canon list, these communities may have been motivated to acquire, fill out, or 
correct their local Bible collection.

8 Richter contends that although chests—“a rectangular box with panelled sides 
… and horizontal lid, working on hinges [called a λάρναξ]”—were common in 
Ancient Greece, cupboards—quadrangular furniture with doors opening in 
front—were not known in Greece until Hellenistic and Roman times.



40  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

(small temple buildings or shrines) at Herculaneum, provides an im-
portant insight supporting our search for manifestations of a “first 
order” physical scriptural canon. He writes: “The aediculae in Hercu-
laneum belong to a group of storage furniture from antiquity which 
is characterized by a pediment façade. Besides household shrines, 
this group contains cupboards where portraits of ancestors were set 
up, cupboards in which imperial laws and decrees were kept, Jew-
ish Torah cupboards, and early Christian Bible cupboards. … These 
formal resemblances reflect the cultic or religious function of all these 
types of furniture” (Mols 1999, 61, emphasis added).

Armaria are similar in basic design to household shrines (aediculae), 
which are themselves miniature versions of Greco-Roman temples. 
Mols’ reference to Jewish Torah cupboards and Christian Bible cup-
boards in this context—that is, containers used to hold sacred scrip-
tures—is of special interest to us because depictions of both appear to 
have adopted the Greco-Roman aedicular design. These architectural 
features were often supplemented with decorations of pagan icono-
graphic motifs such as peacocks, the tree of life, twining greenery, urns 
or amphorae, stars, flowing water, etc. that have been appropriated and 
reinterpreted consistent with Jewish and Christian religious sensibili-
ties (Anđelković, Rogić, and Nikolić 2010, 231-48; Ramirez 2009, 1-18).

THE SYNAGOGUE TORAH ARK/SHRINE

Intended to hearken back to the wilderness Ark of the Covenant 
(Exod. 25), the synagogue Torah Ark/Shrine evolved in form and func-
tion to serve in the early centuries of the Common Era as the wor-
ship focus and permanent repository for Jewish scripture scrolls.9 In 
this way it effectively became a physical scripture canon. Over time, 
architectural changes were made in synagogue worship spaces to 
accommodate a semi-permanent wall niche for the ark, or the ark 
was affixed to or integrated into the Jerusalem-oriented wall to cre-
ate a permanent Torah Shrine.

Pictorial depictions on synagogue floor mosaics, gold glasses, and 
the like show the shrine as a double-doored armarium with common 
Greco-Roman aedicular elements, such as mentioned previously 
(Fine 2016, 121-34).10

9 For excellent surveys of these developments, see Meyers 1997; 303-38, Hachlili 
2000, 146-83; and Milson 2007, 106-40.

10 Fine collates the observations of scholars in noting that pictorial depictions of 
Torah Shrines from Palestine almost always show the doors of the armarium 



PAPERS  41

FIGURE 4: Gold glass base with Torah Shrine, 4th century. Israel Museum Collection 
(photo Françoise Foliot CC BY-SA 4.0)

These appropriated elements accentuated the ark’s sacredness. 
Given the shared scriptural tradition and including the fact that 
many early church communities were formed by converts from Ju-
daism, it is not unreasonable to suppose that beyond a commonly 
utilized aedicular motif, the synagogue Torah Ark/Shrine with its 
enclosed scripture scrolls provided a model for emulation.

as closed (e.g., floor mosaic from the fourth-century synagogue at Hammat Ti-
berias), whereas depictions from the Jewish Diaspora typically show the doors 
as open with scrolls visible within (e.g., fourth-century Roman gold glasses).



42  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

DESCRIPTIVE AND METAPHORICAL ALLUSIONS

Our research surfaced a variety of primary textual sources infer-
ring the existence of dedicated containers and spaces that mani-
fest a “first order” physical scripture canon. We can only look at a 
few here.

Origen
In his Second Homily on Genesis, Origen of Alexandria exposits the 
moral meaning of the Book of Genesis’ description of Noah’s Ark. 
In the same way that Noah constructed the ark to provide for the 
salvation of him and his family and the animals, any person who 
can “hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts” is, as it were, 
building an “ark of salvation within his own heart.” Origen (1982, 
85-8) compares this “ark of salvation” to a library:

He does not construct this library [bibliothecam] from planks which are 
unhewn, but from planks which have been squared and arranged in a uni-
form line, that is, not from the volumes of secular authors, but from the 
prophetic and apostolic volumes [ex propheticis atque apostolicis volumini-
bus]. … If, therefore, you build an ark, if you gather a library, gather it from 
the words of the prophets and apostles or of those who have followed them 
in the right lines of faith.11

Origen metaphorically equates the process of internalizing God’s 
word to the building of a library. While he doesn’t describe a com-
pleted container that holds the scripture books, he does refer to the 
building materials: “planks which have been squared and arranged 
in a uniform line.” He states that the library is comprised of “the 
prophetic and apostolic volumes.” “Prophets and Apostles” was an 
early Christian way of referring to the combined Jewish and Chris-
tian Scriptures. But he is not referring to these scriptures abstractly. 
His explicit reference to “volumes” suggests books arranged upon 
a shelf or in a cupboard. Given that the metaphorical usage of this 
scriptural library is here connected to Noah’s Ark, we might have 
expected Origen to reference the Torah shrine or ark in the Jewish 
synagogue as a parallel. He does not. Still, a physical reality surely 
stands behind the metaphor.

11 Although originally written in Greek, no Greek manuscripts of Origen’s Homi-
lies on Genesis survive except in fragments. This translation is based on the 
Latin translations of Rufinius of Aquileia (340-410).



PAPERS  43

Jerome
The metaphor of the internalized scripture library also shows up in 
Saint Jerome’s letter to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (Epistle 53) (2004, 97-
8). Speaking about Paul, Jerome asks: Why was Paul a “chosen vessel” 
for the apostolic ministry (Acts 9:15)? He answers: “Because Paul was 
a cupboard of the Law and the Holy Scriptures [legis et sanctarum 
Scripturarum armarium].” In the time of Paul’s religious education 
as a pharisaical Jew under Gamaliel there were no Christian scrip-
tures, and the only scripture armarium was the Torah shrine. But by 
Jerome’s day, the physical armarium, here metaphorically embodied 
by the apostle Paul, has been enlarged to contain not only the Jewish 
scriptures (“the Law,” here broadly applied), and also the volumes of 
Letters and Gospels of the Church, the Holy Scriptures.

Cassiodorus
A couple of further examples come from the sixth-century Roman 
statesman and scholar, Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator. In his 
Explanation of the Psalms, Cassiodorus (1991, 116) also refers to the 
scripture library metaphorically. But unlike Origen and Jerome, he 
applies the metaphor not to persons, but to Psalm 109 and the Book 
of Psalms as a whole. In the preface to Psalm 109 he writes: “So [this] 
psalm is, so to say, the sun of our faith, the mirror of the heavenly se-
cret, the chest of the holy Scriptures [armarium sanctarum Scriptura-
rum], in which all that is told in the proclamation of both testaments 
is spoken in summary.” And in his conclusion to the Book of Psalms, 
Cassiodorus (1991, 466-67) writes: “What in fact is there that one can-
not find in this heavenly chest of divine scriptures [caelesti armario 
scripturarum]? … The book [of Psalms] embraces both New and Old 
Testaments in such a unique way that you can truly realise that a 
spiritual library [spiritalem bibliothecam] is built up in this book.”

Cassiodorus, like Origen and Jerome earlier, is picturing volumes 
of scripture books gathered as a library stored within a chest or 
cabinet. We contend that behind this metaphorical use stood actual 
scripture chests that contained multiple volumes encompassing 
“both New and Old Testaments.” Also, for Cassiodorus the chest is 
clearly not simply a container for storage. He deems the chest itself 
as “heavenly” by virtue of its spiritual contents.



44  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

PICTORIAL DEPICTIONS

We now turn to a series of pictorial depictions of Bible containers 
from mosaics and manuscript paintings dating from the fifth to ninth 
centuries. We argue that these depictions were based on actual physi-
cal objects within the church.

Gospel Cupboard Mosaic, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a cruciform chapel located in 
Ravenna, Italy, built sometime after 425. The interior of the chapel 
is extensively decorated with brilliant wall and ceiling mosaics in 
a unified style. In the space above the sarcophagus across from the 
main entrance is a remarkable composition (Figure 5) involving 
three elements: a robed and haloed man carrying a processional 
cross over his right shoulder and an open codex in his left hand; a 
metal gridiron placed over a raging fire; and a Roman-style book 
cupboard (armarium) with pediment, two doors open to reveal two 
shelves upon which sit four codices, two to a shelf (Figure 3 shows 
the armarium detail). Above each codex hover the titles identifying 
them as the Four Gospels.

FIGURE 5: Saint Vincent mosaic. Mausoleum Galla Placidia, Ravenna, early 5th 
century (photo Gianni Careddu CC BY-SA 4.0)



PAPERS  45

Art historians have traditionally identified the man in the mosaic 
as Saint Lawrence, deacon at the church in Rome, who was martyred 
in 258 during a persecution of Christians ordered by the emperor 
Valerian. An alternative proposal by Gillian Mackie (1990, 54-60) 
suggests that the man in the mosaic is not Lawrence but the early 
fourth-century Spanish martyr, Saint Vincent of Saragossa. Vincent 
was memorialized by the late fourth-century Christian poet, Aure-
lius Clemens Prudentius after he was martyred in 304 during the 
Diocletian persecution. Of interest, the persecution was initiated 
after Diocletian issued an imperial edict specifically requiring the 
surrender and subsequent burning of church scripture books. Re-
garding the mosaic, we propose that any viewer looking at the Gos-
pel books gathered within the cupboard is seeing an image readily 
understandable to them.

Mosaic of Luke the Evangelist in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, was completed and dedi-
cated in 547. The octagon-shaped church is designed with a mix of 
Byzantine and Roman elements. The walls and ceiling are covered 
with brightly colored mosaics depicting biblical scenes, church and 
imperial portraits, naturalistic scenery with plants and animals, and 
geometric patterns.

The upper gallery level of the northeast- and southwest-facing 
walls of the sanctuary include corner panels portraying the Four 
Evangelists. Common design elements can be observed in each. Each 
evangelist is seated outdoors in a verdant, terraced landscape with 
water features and aquatic birds in the foreground. Each evangelist 
is haloed and gazing upward. At the top of each panel is the symbol 
traditionally associated with the evangelist as derived from Ezekiel’s 
vision of the four living creatures (Ezek. 1:1-21; cf. Rev. 4:6-8). Each 
evangelist is holding a leatherbound codex of their respective Gospel.

In the Luke panel we see the evangelist sitting next to a capsa, the 
Roman cylindrical book box discussed earlier.



46  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

FIGURE 6: Luke the Evangelist. San Vitale, Ravenna, mid-6th century (photo Paul 
Bissegger CC BY-SA 4.0)

In this depiction, the lid of the capsa is open revealing eight book 
rolls. There is no indication of the content of the rolls. However, in 
the context of the panels and the larger basilica mosaic program, 
these are almost certainly scripture books, likely texts of the Old 
Testament. In other words, the evangelist writes of the life and min-
istry of Jesus Christ, fulfilled in what was foretold about him in the 
Jewish scriptures.



PAPERS  47

Ezra the Scribe and Bible Cupboard Miniature from the Codex Amiatinus
The previously mentioned Codex Amiatinus, is a single-volume Bible 
produced at the monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria, 
and dated to the late seventh or early eighth century. It is the oldest 
surviving complete Latin Vulgate Bible.12 As it happens, research into 
the pre-history of the pandect’s production involves the previously ref-
erenced sixth-century scholar, Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator.

In his Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning, Cassiodorus 
(2004) alludes to the possession of four complete Bible pandects at 
his monastery. Of particular interest to us is a nine-volume Bible, 
which appears to be the very Bible depicted in the full-page painting 
in the Codex Amiatinus.

In the painting (Figure 2), we see a seated, haloed figure tran-
scribing text with a stylus into a codex resting on his lap. The figure 
appears to be dressed in Old Testament priestly garb. Art historians 
identify this as Ezra the scribe, or an honorific depiction of Cassio-
dorus himself. Behind the figure stands a large wooden cupboard 
in classical pedimented design with two open doors. On the outside 
face of the cupboard, we see painted geometric patterns and images 
of crosses, urns, oxen, and birds, including a pair of facing peacocks 
in the pediment, all of which evoke characteristics of classical pagan 
aediculae and synagogue Torah Ark/Shrines, as previously discussed. 
The overall design also closely matches the cupboard depicted on the 
Galla Placidia Mausoleum mosaic described before.

Within the cupboard we see five shelves with nine decoratively 
bound codices lying horizontally, two to a shelf, spines facing out-
ward. The spine of each codex is labeled in gold ink with an abbre-
viated name of a Bible section and the number of books within that 
section, following Saint Augustine’s arrangement.

Notwithstanding the anachronistic placement of the character 
of Ezra within a late antique/early medieval setting, there is no 
reason to suppose that the artist’s depiction of the cupboard with 
encased scripture books is not wholly realistic.13 As suggested in 

12 The Codex Amiatinus (MS Amiatino 1) is located at the Biblioteca Medicea Lau-
renziana, Florence, Italy, and is accessible in digital form at http://mss.bmlon-
line.it/s.aspx?Id=AWOS3h2-I1A4r7GxMdaR&c=Biblia%20Sacra.

13 We acknowledge that the setting for the cupboard miniature was likely a mon-
astery library, not a church sacristy, as evidenced by Cassiordorus’ other com-
ment in the Institutions (Book I.XIV.4) directing the monks to the Greek pan-
dect located in the “eighth bookcase [armario].”

http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?Id=AWOS3h2-I1A4r7GxMdaR&c=Biblia%20Sacra
http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?Id=AWOS3h2-I1A4r7GxMdaR&c=Biblia%20Sacra


48  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

the Introduction, the painting communicates that this present Bi-
ble, bound within a single cover binding, is functionally the same 
as a multi-volume Bible with its codices placed on shelves within a 
dedicated container.

Maiestas Domini Miniature from the First Bible of Charles the Bald
The First Bible of Charles the Bald, also known as the Vivian Bible, 
was commissioned in 845 and presented to Charles, king of West 
Francia, in 846.14 The richly illuminated large-format Bible pandect 
is representative of high-quality Bibles produced in scriptoria dur-
ing the ninth century.

Our attention is drawn to a full-page painting of the Maiestas Do-
mini (Christ in Majesty), which serves as the frontispiece to the New 
Testament and the Gospels. The Maiestas is a tight, multi-layered 
composition. At the center within a double orb is the resurrected 
and glorified Christ seated on the orb of the heavens. He is sup-
porting a golden codex (the Book of Life?) with his left hand while 
holding a chi-rho medallion in his right. Moving outward from the 
center is a diamond shape with medallions projecting out from 
each corner. Within the diamond are the haloed symbols of the 
Four Evangelists, each holding a codex. Within the corner medal-
lions are the Four Major Prophets each haloed and holding scrolls. 
The interpretation of the composition to this point is fairly clear: 
the entire Scriptures, both the Prophets (Old Testament) and the 
Apostles (New Testament) provide a unified witness to the Christ, 
foretold and fulfilled.

Moving outward to the corners of the composition, we see de-
pictions of the Four Evangelists themselves. They are each writing 
in a codex while gazing toward their respective symbol within the 
diamond. The interpretation here is also clear: each symbol em-
bodies the source of heavenly inspiration received as they com-
pose their respective Gospel, a record of the Apostolic witness to 
the Christ event.

One additional feature in each of the evangelist depictions attracts 
our attention. At their feet we see open-lidded cylindrical containers 
and rectangular chests.

14 The First Bible of Charles the Bald (MS lat. 1) is located at the Bibliothèque na-
tionale de France, Paris, and is accessible in digital form at https://gallica.bnf.fr/
ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact


PAPERS  49

FIGURE 7: Maiestas Domini miniature (Luke detail). First Bible of Charles the Bald, 
mid-9th century (source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France. Non-
commercial reuse permission)

These containers are clearly Roman capsae and scrinia. Here the 
containers here are filled with both scrolls and codices. We noted 
before that the Four Prophets were depicted holding scrolls while 
the Four Evangelists held codices. A consistent application of these 
pictorial elements suggests that the capsae and scrinia are scripture 
containers, holding books from both the Old and New Testaments.

Saint Jerome Miniature from the First Bible of Charles the Bald
One other full-page painting from the Vivian Bible we looked at was 
the Saint Jerome frontispiece, which is located close to the very front 
of the Bible. The painting is composed of three panels depicting key 
moments in the life of Jerome related to the creation of his influen-
tial Latin translation. We are here especially interested in the sec-
ond panel, which shows four nuns to Jerome’s right and three monk/
clerics to his left.



50  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

Notice especially the architectural structure on the far right of 
the panel.

FIGURE 8: Saint Jerome miniature (cupboard detail). First Bible of Charles the Bald, 
mid-9th century (source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France. Non-
commercial reuse permission)

The tower-like structure is shown with scrolls spilling out of its 
second-story door and third-story window, and double doors open 
outward on the ground floor. The cleric on the right, with stylus and 
codex notebook in hand, is looking intently at one of the scrolls. The 
structure is not a real building at all, but a piece of cabinet furniture. 
In its Palestinian context, we are likely viewing a synagogue Torah 
Shrine where the Jewish scripture scrolls were kept. However, based 
on another Bible manuscript that we will allude to in a moment, it 
is possible that the cabinet here is actually modeled after a church 
scripture book cupboard.



PAPERS  51

Frontispiece Miniature of John the Evangelist from the San Paolo Bible
We want to look at one final pictorial depiction, this time from the 
San Paolo Bible, named for the Benedictine abbey, Saint Paul Outside 
the Walls in Rome, where the Bible resides to this day. The San Paolo 
Bible was commissioned for the coronation of Charles the Bald as 
Emperor of the Carolingian Empire on Christmas Day 875. Of inter-
est, the San Paolo Bible includes full-page frontispiece paintings of 
each evangelist at the beginning of their respective Gospel within the 
manuscript.15 We are looking here at the frontispiece to the Gospel 
of John as representative.

FIGURE 9: Frontispiece miniature of John the Evangelist. Bible of St. Paul Outside the 
Walls, late 9th century (Facsimile Edition, https://www.facsimilefinder.com/. Photo 
Giovanni Scorcioni. Used by permission)

The depiction retains common characteristics of the “seated evan-
gelist as scribe” motif we saw in the Vivian Maiestas and in the earlier 
San Vitale mosaics. John is haloed and in the process of transcribing 
his Gospel under the inspiration of his symbol. Perhaps alluding to 

15 Commenting on this point, Joachim Gaehde (1971, 395) notes that “[s]eparate 
evangelist portraits as frontispieces to each of the four Gospels are standard 
for Gospel Books but not Bibles. … [T]heir addition in the Bible of San Paolo to 
the evangelists on the Majesty page was most probably an innovation.”

https://www.facsimilefinder.com/


52  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

the Gospel Book processed to the front of the church during the litur-
gy, notice that John is seated on the altar under the columned canopy 
in the sanctuary. Notice also the room with an open door under a 
domed roof to the right of the sanctuary altar. Within this room we 
see an architecturally shaped container filled to overflowing with 
rolls and codices. We take this to be a depiction of a scripture book 
container located in the sacristy to the right of the sanctuary altar.

Adding interest to this scene, it turns out that each of the Evan-
gelist frontispieces in the San Paolo Bible features a different kind 
of scripture book container. Matthew is shown with a high chest 
(scrinium), also located in an adjoining sacristy. Luke is shown with 
a combination cabinet-lectern situated immediately to his right next 
to the altar. Meanwhile, Mark is shown with a three-storied tower, 
which resonates closely with the tower-like cabinet depicted in the 
Jerome frontispiece from the Vivian Bible discussed before. The cu-
mulative takeaway for us is that here, near the end of our period of 
investigation, we are granted representative depictions of a variety 
of multi-volume scripture book containers along with hints about 
their placement within the church. Their depiction within a single-
volume Bible pandect strikes us as appropriately honorific—mark-
ing a transition in the format of the physical canon from cupboard 
to binding.

CONCLUSION

In this presentation, we proposed the existence of dedicated Bible 
containers as a common and recognized furnishing in Late Roman 
and Medieval churches. However, due to the absence of direct physi-
cal evidence we had to test the plausibility of our proposal inferen-
tially. We looked at Greco-Roman aedicular design elements and 
their adoption in Jewish and Christian worship space settings. We 
looked particularly at depictions of Torah arks and shrines in Jewish 
synagogues and reasoned, through frequent association, the parallel 
development of scripture chests or cabinets in contemporary Chris-
tian churches. Next, we looked at descriptive and metaphorical al-
lusions to scripture libraries and containers in the writings of early 
Christian theologians. Finally, we looked at several pictorial depic-
tions of scripture book containers from church mosaics and Bible 
manuscript paintings. These included depictions of the two scrip-
ture cupboards that first launched our investigation and extended 



PAPERS  53

to depictions of various scripture book containers in several richly 
illustrated mid-ninth century single-volume pandects—the very pe-
riod when the single-volume Bible was reasserting itself as a viable 
format. In the end, this investigation highlights the physical nature 
of the biblical canon and the impacts that the Bible’s physicality has 
on canon formation and dissemination.

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