I have already noted that the fourth century CE Coptic Crosby-Schoyen Codex is coming up for auction in June. This article mentions it, but also notes that another important manuscript in the Schøyen Collection is to be sold in the same auction.
Another major manuscript going up for sale on June 11 is the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, which is in effect an ancient effort at recycling. In the 10th century, John Zosimos, a monk at a monastery near Jerusalem, acquired a document written on expensive vellum, which he packed up and took to St. Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai Desert to reuse for his own writing. The original writing, itself the earliest surviving piece of the Gospels to be written in Aramaic, dating from the fifth or sixth century, is still visible.The Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus is not to be confused with the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, another important Syriac/Aramaic biblical manuscript that was sold to the Green collection in 2009.“The underlying text was not scrubbed out very well, so under fluorescent lighting you can still see it, written in the language that Jesus himself would have spoken,” said Donadoni.
The document, valued at £1.5 million, or $1.85 million, is a bargain, as the buyer gets the two texts for the price of one.
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