TM Gallery info The Codex Regius (TM 68776) - not to be confused with its more famous namesake, the Icelandic manuscript with Old Norse poems - is an uncial manuscript of the 8th century with an almost complete text of the four gospels. The codex was called 'regal' because it was the property of the French king Henry II (and still is in the Bibliothèque Nationale today). It also was the oldest of the sixteen witnessed use in the influential third Editio Regia of the New Testament by the French scholar Estienne in 1550. Nevertheless the manuscript's text is now considered inferior ('carelessly written by an ignorant scribe') and perhaps the work of an Egyptian who may have been more versed in the local Coptic language.