OLD MANUSCRIPT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 22 December 1933, Page 5

OLD MANUSCRIPT

THE CODEX SINAITICUS PURCHASED BY BRITISH MUSEUM British Oilicial Wireless) RUGBY, 21st December The British Museum Trustees, with the approval of the Government, agreed to purchase from the Soviet Government, a fourth century manuscript known as the Codex Sinaiticus. It was formerly in the possession .of the Czar of Russia, and is one of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible and-is regarded as of paramount importance to the establishment of its text. The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons that the Government has undertaken to make a special contribution towards tlie purchase price of £1 for every £1 subscribed by the public. The purchase price is £IOO,OOO.

Mr .R. Flower, deputy-keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum, says the price paid for the codex is the biggest the. Museum has ever paid for a manuscript, while the purchase is the most important the Museum lias ever made. The codex is written in Greek and is one of the most important manuscripts in the world. Forty-three leaves of it were discovered in 1844 by the German Biblical scholar Tischendorf in a rubbish basket in the monastery of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai. He presented it to the Leipzig library. Tiscliendorf in 1853 returned to Sinai and was shown additional manuscripts which ho recognised as the main bulk of that formerly obtained, which he sent to the Czar Alexander. The codex consists of a very large portion of the Old Testament, a translation into Hebrew of the Septuagint, although some of, The books are fragmentary: also a complete New Testament, and an epistle of Barnabas; and the treatise known as the “Shepherd of Hernias,” which was so popular with the early church and was nearly included in the Canon of Scripture. The codex dates to the second half of the fourth century, and with the Codex Vatjcanus at Rome constitutes two of tiie earliest great Biblical manuscripts. The third is the Codex Alexandrinus, dating to the second half of the fifth century, and is already in the British Museum. RECORD PRICE PAID (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 2?nd December, 9.5 a.m.) LONDON, 21st December. The price of the Codex Sinaiticus breaks all records. The sale has been going on in secret for two years. Stalin quickly agreed to the sale, but £IOO,OOO is only half of what the Soviet Government originally asked. A Paris message states that the Grand Duke Cyril, Pretender to the throne of the Czar, says: “It is distressing to hear that the manuscript has been sold,' but we have no legal rights. There is some consolation, however, to see the precious heirloom of my family going to England.”