Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper presents the history of the discovery of Codex Argenteus, the largest and most famous extant Gothic manuscript, found in the abbey of Werden in the mid-16th century. The first quotations and excerpts are surveyed, up to the editio princeps in 1665. The ideology of its early reception is then taken into consideration: Codex Argenteus played a central role in the Gothicism debate, i.e. the postulation of a special link of one’s own mother tongue, culture and ethnicity with Gothic heritage.