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Summary

Summary. An International Collaboration Codex Sinaiticus The Project The Website. The Codex Sinaiticus Project. An International Collaboration Partners 9 March 2005. Dr Ekkehard Henschke The University Library, Leipzig. Lynne Brindley The British Library.

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  1. Summary • An International Collaboration • Codex Sinaiticus • The Project • The Website

  2. The Codex Sinaiticus Project

  3. An International CollaborationPartners9 March 2005 Dr Ekkehard Henschke The University Library, Leipzig Lynne Brindley The British Library His Eminence Archbishop Damianos St Catherine’s Monastery, Mt Sinai Dr Alexander Bukreyev The Russian National Library, St Petersburg

  4. An International CollaborationCollaborating Institutions • Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, University of Birmingham • Institute for New Testament Textual Research, University of Münster • The Centre for Retrospective Digitization, Göttingen State and University Library • Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta

  5. An International CollaborationExternal Funders Approximately £1 million budget, with external funding from: • Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation • Arts and Humanities Research Council • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft • Leventis Foundation • Mariposa Foundation • J. F. Costopoulos Foundation • Hellenic Foundation • American Friends of Saint Catherine's Monastery • American Trust for the British Library

  6. PROJECT BOARD Chair: John Tuck Project CuratorJuan Garcés Project ManagerClaire Breay Funding Working Party Chair: Lara Jukes Conservation Working Party Chair: Helen Shenton Technical Standards Working Party Chair: Norbert Lossau Scholarly Edition Committee Chair: Scot McKendrick Website Working Party Chair: Norbert Lossau Products Working Party Chair: John Tuck BL Conservation sub-group Translations sub-group Technical sub-group An International CollaborationOrganisation

  7. An International Collaboration Aims and Means • aims • global access to a major MS treasure • its preservation for the future • understanding of its content and history • means • scholarship aided by modern technology • close collaboration between • curators • conservators • academics • image specialists • IT specialists

  8. Codex SinaiticusWhat is it?

  9. Codex SinaiticusContent and Significance • content • part of the Old Testament in Greek (Septuagint), including apocrypha (2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach) • whole New Testament • Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd by Hermas • significance • one of the oldest Bibles (mid-fourth century) • earliest complete New Testament • text – canon – book

  10. Codex SinaiticusSignificance: Text • one of the most important witnesses to the Greek text of the Septuagint and the New Testament • primacy of position in the lists of consulted manuscripts ("א" or "01" for the New Testament) • not only original base text, but many layers of revisions • from 4th to 12th century • from alteration of one letter to the insertion of whole sentences • no other early manuscript of the Christian Bible has been so extensively corrected!

  11. Codex SinaiticusSignificance: Canon • mid-4th century: wide, yet neither complete nor universal, agreement over the books to be considered as authoritative for Christian communities • Codex Sinaiticus, being one of the earliest intact collections of such books, is essential for an understanding of the contents and the arrangement of the Bible, as well as the uses made of it • Septuagint in the Codex comprises books not included in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach • appended at the end of the New Testament are the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas • idiosyncratic sequence of books: • Hebrews is placed after 2 Thessalonians • Acts between the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles

  12. Codex SinaiticusSignificance: Book • Christians preferred the codex over the roll • from our earliest evidence onwards • in contrast to earlier and most contemporary practice • particularly, albeit not exclusively, when copying sacred literature • parchment was increasingly used as the writing support for literary texts instead of papyrus from the fourth century onwards • strikingly few traces remain of parchment codices produced before the Codex Sinaiticus • Codex Sinaiticus is an outstanding example • quality of its parchment • advanced binding structure • insight into professional Christian book production • careful planning • skilful writing • editorial control

  13. Codex SinaiticusPage Layout • pages measure 380mm x 345mm • written in formal bookhand (Biblical majuscule) • prose books written in 4 columns; poetical books in 2 columns • multiple layers of corrections, starting with the original scribes Quire 38 folio 1 recto

  14. Corrections in 12r (2 Esdras 13.13-14.7)

  15. Codex SinaiticusWhat survives and where Just over 400 leaves extant (out of approx. over 730 original leaves), but now distributed between four places: • 347 leaves in the British Library • 12 leaves and 40 fragments in St Catherine's Monastery, Mt Sinai • 43 leaves in the Leipzig University Library • fragments of 5 (or 6?) leaves in the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg

  16. Codex SinaiticusModern History Mt Sinai Leipzig 1844 1859(1869) Project 1933 St Petersburg London

  17. Codex SinaiticusModern History Account of how the distributed situation came about is to be researched, agreed and disseminated • research has been undertaken in at all four holding locations • report has been commissioned (draft) • agreed account will be published in project outputs

  18. The ProjectTimescale • initial discussions in late 2002 • partnership agreement signed March 2005 • project work started in 2005 • main strands of project to conclude in 2009

  19. The Project

  20. The ProjectOverview • History of Codex • Conservation • Digitisation • Edition • Dissemination

  21. split, folio 1 recto

  22. The ProjectConservation New Finds leaves at St Catherine’s Monastery

  23. Stretching frame with weights

  24. Cockerell’s bindings and box

  25. The Documentation Model • Fields in Excel format Model: • Parchment • Scribal (conservation) • Codicological • Previous treatments • Condition • Condition of repairs

  26. The ProjectConservation • collaboration • work to be undertaken in partnership with conservation specialists at each archival venue • initial assessment • stabilise MS for digitisation • preserve MS for the future • detailed assessment • physical condition of each leaf • individual conservation requirements for stabilisation • conservation work • plan by Conservation working party • dissemination • outcome documented • findings included in overall scholarly interpretation • documentation in English, German, Greek, and Russian

  27. The British Library’s Codex Sinaiticus Conservation Team

  28. The ProjectDigitisation • Current • internet image • low resolution • taken from Lake facsimile (1911, 1922) • not attributed

  29. The ProjectDigitisation Images from the test phase

  30. PhaseOne (FX) scanning rack • 600 dpi resolution • uncompressed TIFF files with embedded metadata

  31. The ProjectDigitisation • process • undertaken at each venue • undertaken after conservation • informed by scholarly review of Lake facsimile • employs optimal methods tested and established by the Technical Standards working party • minimal handling of MS • type of images created • high-quality images of all leaves as surrogates for the original manuscript leaves • raking light images of selected parts • multi-spectral images of selected parts • intended use of images • work of project teams (conservation and scholarly) • project outputs

  32. The ProjectEdition • lead institutions • Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (University of Birmingham) • Institute for New Testament Textual Research (University of Münster) • key elements • transcription - made from new images and capturing all layers of text and corrections • searchable text and text features • links to images – whole leaves and details

  33. The ProjectWebsite • developed by the University Library, Leipzig • tender awarded to ACS Solutions (3-point concepts) • soon hosted by the British Library (mirrored) • free to view • areas directed at different readers (from general to specialist readers), but accessible to all • English introduction, documentation, and commentary, with targeted multilingual parts

  34. The ProjectWebsite Technical specifications: • bring together a variety of datasets and integrate into a unified user interface • digital images of the leaves of Codex Sinaiticus • XML files for the transcription • Excel spreadsheets for the physical description • XML files for translations, etc. • conform to technologies and standards supported by the British Library's IT infrastructure • accessibility and long-term maintenance • no plug-ins • web standards such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and AJAX • link image and text representations of the pages of Codex Sinaiticus in a way never before implemented in an online edition of a manuscript

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