The codex contains the text of the New Testament, except Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), on 251 parchment leaves (size 18 cm by 13 cm).[3] It contains also Book of Psalms and Hymns. The text of Matthew 1:1-3:9 was supplied by a later hand.[4]
The text is written in one column per page, 35-39 lines per page.[3][5]
The letters are very small.[4]
The text is divided according to the κεφαλαια (chapters), and according to the smaller Ammonian Sections (in Mark 234 sections, the last numbered section in 16:9). The numbers of the κεφαλαια are given at the margin, and their τιτλοι (titles) at the top of the pages. The numbers of the Ammonian Sections are given at the margin, but without references to the Eusebian Canons.[4]
It contains 16 pictures. There is a space for the list of the Eusebian Canon tables.[4]
In 1 Corinthians 2:14 it reads πνευματος (omit του θεου) along with 2, 216, 255, 330, 440, 451, 1827, and syrp.[8]
History
Gregory dated the manuscript to the 13th century.[4] Currently the manuscript is dated by the INTF to the 13th century.[5]
The manuscript was brought from Smyrna to Berlin. It was examined and described by Oscar von Gebhardt in 1886. It was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Gregory (823e, 266a, 315p). Gregory saw it in 1889.[4] In 1908 Gregory gave one siglum for it – 823.[2]
It was housed in Berlin in the Preußische Königliche Bibliothek (then Prussian State Library, then Berlin State Library) with the shelf-number Gr. octavo 13.[4]
The Prussian State Library sent many collections out of Berlin to be sheltered in Silesia for safekeeping during World War II. As the result of postwar border changes some of these collections were found in Poland (among them minuscule 823). They were moved to the Jagiellonian University Library.[9]
^Soden, von, Hermann (1902). Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt / hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte. Vol. 1. Berlin: Verlag von Alexander Duncker. p. 111.
^Sroka Marek, The Music Collection of the Former Prussian State Library at the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, Poland: Past, Present, and Future Developments, Library Trends – Volume 55, Number 3, Winter 2007, pp. 651-664.