The Rockefeller McCormick New Testament is a Byzantine manuscript of the entire Greek New Testament except the Book of Revelation. Because its exquisite minuscule hand comes from the same scribe as Paris, Coislin 200 (which bears a colophon dating it to 1269), the Rockefeller McCormick is most likely also a 13th century manuscript from the scriptorium of the emperor Michael Palaiologus in Constantinople. The codex, containing 207 parchment leaves, has ornate silver covers, a purple-dyed vellum frontispiece, and a splendid set of 90 miniature illustrations and canon tables. It is one of the most heavily illuminated New Testament manuscripts in existence. The Greek text of the codex is of the Byzantine text-type, though not of uniform quality throughout the New Testament.
Ms 965 was discovered by Edgar J. Goodspeed in the shop of a Paris antiquities collector in September, 1927. It was purchased by Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick of Chicago in March, 1928, who immediately loaned it to the New Testament Department of the University for study and publication. The manuscript was later purchased by Elizabeth Day McCormick in 1942 from the estate of her late cousin Edith Rockefeller McCormick and presented as a gift to the University of Chicago. Profs. Goodspeed and Harold R. Willoughby published a facsimile edition, with commentary, in 1932 (3 vols.; The University of Chicago Press). The digital version of this codex has been produced through grants from the Women's Board of the University, and the Provost's Academic Technology Initiative Program.