TM Gallery info The Cotton Genesis (TM 62082) is a Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) manuscript of the 4th or 5th century. Probably originating in Byzantium, it was presented to Henry VIII as the copy once owned by the church father Origines himself. It was later acquired by the collector Sir Joseph Cotton, from whom it got its name. Unfortunately, the luxuriously illustrated manuscript was almost entirely lost in a fire of his library in 1731, and now only eighteen scraps remain as part of the British Library. Fortunately many miniatures were copied in the 17th century, and these drawing presumably also inspired the mosaic panels in the San Marco in Venice.