British Library to give up Codex Sinaiticus?

Not an open and shut case, but not unthinkable now, either:

The 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, arguably the world’s most important Christian manuscript, entered the library’s collection in the 1930s. . .

Greek Orthodox monks of St Catherine’s have long believed that the manuscript was wrongfully taken from them in the 19th century by a German scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, who was apparently acting as an agent for Tsar Aleksandr II of Russia.

He took 43 leaves to Germany, which are in the University of Leipzig, and another 347, which he gave to the Tsar. They remained in the Imperial Library until 1933, when the Soviet Government sold them to raise money. . .

Tischendorf is thought to have convinced the monks that he was borrowing the leaves for copying purposes. He did publish the text.

In an 1859 letter, which was found in the monastery’s archives in 1960, he had promised to “return (the Codex), undamaged and in a good state of preservation, to the Holy Confraternity of Mount Sinai at its first request”. But the ownership question is clouded by another letter, of 1869, in which the monastery’s archbishop seems to have offered the Codex as a gift to the Tsar, after a donation of money and gifts to the monastery.

From the Times of London.

The Codex is in fact split (unevenly) four ways: in addition to the leaves at the British Library and Leipzig, there are others remaining at St. Catherine's and some in Russia's National Library. An initiative to digitize all surviving leaves was recently announced, and can be read about here.

UPDATE: A comprehensive survey of the situation now available from the Art Newspaper; but do note the very misleading:

The Codex Sinaiticus was one of the original 50 Bibles copied in Greek at the order of Emperor Constantine, or . . .

The "or . . . " of course, is the escape hatch for a reporter presenting an unprovable hypothesis as (apparent) fact in the lead. Further comments at Palaeojudaica.

Posted by David on April 12, 2005 9:20 PM