THE SMITHSONIAN EXHIBITION of biblical manuscripts is reviewed in the Baltimore Sun:

The word of God: captured, transcribed and embellished
Smithsonian exhibit of ancient Bibles reveals fascinating works of astounding beauty
By Joe Burris
Sun Reporter
Originally published November 12, 2006

Ninth-century Vikings almost certainly did not care that the elaborately ornamented book of New Testament works that they looted came out of a tradition including the commandment "Thou shalt not steal."

Yet the Codex Aureus (Latin for Golden Book) that the men stole from a church in Kent, England, was worthy of coveting - made of purple-stained vellum pages and written in gold and silver ink. Its detailed drawings and lettering are a fusion of Roman, Byzantine, Celtic and German art.

The book was so valuable that a local earl paid a ransom in pure gold for its return.

The Codex Aureus is among the artifacts in the Smithsonian Institution exhibit In the Beginning: Bibles Before The Year 1000, which illustrates the Western world's efforts to transcribe, glorify and preserve the word of God.

[...]

By the way, I had thought that the exhibit contains only part of Codex Sinaiticus, not the whole codex (or what survives of it), which is located in four different places. Can someone tell me if that is correct and, if so, which part is included in the exhibit? Is it the 347 leaves from the British Library?

UPDATE (14 November): Tommy Wasserman (Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Sweden) e-mails:

You are correct, it is in four different locations (in St Petersburg, Lepizig, St Catherine's monastery and British Library). Right now David Parker in Birmingham is directing a major project to digitize the compete codex. You will find details (and sample images) here http://www.itsee.bham.ac.uk/projects/sinaiticus/index.htm

The leaves from Codex Sinaiticus on display at the exhibit in Washington is from St Catherine's monastery at Sinai, where the codex was originally discovered by Tischendorf. In 1975 when they were rebuilding the monastery, a hidden room was discovered where many new manuscript fragments were discoved, including new leaves from the Codex Sinaiticus.