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Friday, April 15, 2005

CODEX SINAITICUS WATCH: The Art Newspaper has a long and detailed article on the current conservation and digitalization project as well as the controversy over ownership:
Sinai monks in historic agreement with British Library
Ownership dispute has been set aside for joint study and digitisation of the world�s oldest bible

One quibble:
The Codex Sinaiticus was one of the original 50 Bibles copied in Greek at the order of Emperor Constantine, or a direct copy of the period. It dates from the mid-fourth century and it is likely to have arrived at St Catherine�s in Sinai when the monastery�s church was erected in the mid-sixth century.

This is correct, strictly speaking, but could be phrased a little more clearly. It is possible that Sinaiticus is one of the Bibles commissioned by Constantine (I don't know exactly what "original" means here"), but that's only an educated guess. We don't know for sure where the manuscript came from and an Egyptian provenance has also been proposed, which apparently is what the first sentence means by "or a direct copy of the period." Again, I don't know what "direct" means here. What would an "indirect" copy be?

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