The tourists of tours of Bulgaria and Albania are interested in seeing the Codices Purpureus Beratinus either in Tirana, Albania or in Sofia, Bulgaria only in August 2011.

The two Purpureus Beratinus codices are illuminated manuscripts Gospel book written in Greek on vellum.
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. The finer qualities of parchment are called vellum. Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in 5 century BC.

The Purpureus Beratinus codices were held in Berat, Albania from 1356. The Purpureus Beratinus codices have been preserved at the Albanian National Archives in Tirana, Albania since 1971.

The Purpureus Beratinus codices contain only the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, with several considerable lacunae as they were written in an uncial hand on purple vellum.

The first part - Codex Purpureus Beratinus - is written with silver ink in 6 century AD. The title and the first line in Mark are written in gold in 9 century AD

The Codices Purpureus Beratinus were inscribed on the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register due to their historical significance.

The two Beratinus codices, preserved in Albania, are very important for the world heritage of UNESCO and they are part of the "seven purple codices”, which were written over a period of 13 centuries, i.e. from the sixth to the eighteenth centuries.

The other five “purple codices” are in Italy (two), France (one), England (one), and Greece (one).