palimpsest theft from St. Catherine's in 1844 by Tischendorf - fragments in New Finds

Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Writing to his brother Julius Tischendorf writes of additional manuscripts that came into his possession, a euphemism for theft.

The Discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus as reported in the personal letters of Konstantin Tischendorf
Jeffrey Michael Featherstone
https://www.academia.edu/1123038/Th...he_personal_letters_of_Konstantin_Tischendorf
p. 83-84
Results of his researches : He has come into possession of [=ich bin in den Besitzgelangt von] 43 parchment folia of the Greek Old Testament which are some of the very oldest preserved in Europe. He believes they are from the mid-fourth century,and they are remarkable not only for their age but also other reasons. He also possesses 24 palimpsest folia with Arabic writing of the 12th century and Greek of the 8-9th century ; further, 4 similar palimpsest folia ; and finally, amongst other less significant things, 4 mutilated folia of a Greek New Testament of the 7-8th century. He has reported this to the head court preacher v. Ammon and expects to receive more money. He must cut his trip short : he wants to go to the patriarch in Constantinople in order to obtain the rest of the folia (beside the 43 he has) which remained at Sinai [=um noch den von jenen 43 Blättern auf dem Sinai verbliebenen Rest zu erhalten] ; thus he has suspended making a public announcement of his find. That his trip to Sinai was of interest to him in thousands of other ways his brother will certainly understand.
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This is one:

Arabic hagiographic palimpsest with Greek Old Testament undertext (MS Add. 1879.5)
Dr. Christopher Wright
https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01879-00005/1

This fragment consists of a small scrap of parchment from an Arabic hagiographic palimpsest with Greek Old Testament undertext. The upper and lower texts are written in the same orientation, rather than at right-angles as is usually the case in palimpsests.

While the fragment is too small for much information to be discerned from it, the manuscript from which it came has been identified. Other, much more substantial portions of it are now Sinai, Monastery of St Catherine, MS NF ar. perg. 66 Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, MS gr. 2 (Rescriptus Tischendorf/Codex Scythopolitanus) and St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Nacional'naja biblioteka, MS gr. 26, comprising 6, 22 and 6 folios respectively. From these it can be established that the original Greek text, found also in the Leipzig and St Petersburg fragments, is that of the Old Testament, and can be dated stylistically to the 7th or 8th century. The leaves of the Sinai fragment were reused in palimpsest from a different original manuscript, written in Christian Palestinian Aramaic.
….
The Leipzig, St Petersburg and Cambridge fragments were all acquired in the mid-19th century by Constantin von Tischendorf, on two different trips to the Middle East. However, while he visited St Sabas on both occasions and acquired manuscripts there, including palimpsests, the presence of another fragment of the manuscript in the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, which he also visited during these journeys, indicates that this palimpsest had entered the library of that institution by the time he encountered it. Tischendorf evidently had the various parts of the manuscript in his possession, including this fragment, treated with a chemical reagent to make the Greek text more visible, which have left the ink blurred and discoloured.
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
(MS Add. 1879.5)
NF 66

Giulia Rossetto

Afterwards, in 1844. some leaves of the codex (at least 28) left the Monastery in Konstantin Tischendorfs suitcase.

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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
April 23, 2023

Hi Friends of the monastery,

In 1844 Tischendorf wrote, after mentioning the 43 Sinaiticus leaves that he stole:

“He also possesses 24 palimpsest folia with Arabic writing of the 12th century and Greek of the 8-9th century ; further, 4 similar palimpsest folia ; and finally, amongst other less significant things, 4 mutilated folia of a Greek New Testament of the 7-8th century..”‘

This was only published recently,

The Discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus as reported in the personal letters of Konstantin Tischendorf
Jeffrey-Michael Featherstone
http://www.cfeb.org/curiculum/mb_featherstone.pdf

This first manuscript reference is easily identified today, since part of the manuscript showed up in the New Finds.
(Neufunde 66)

Arabic hagiographic palimpsest with Greek Old Testament undertext (MS Add. 1879.5)
Dr. Christopher Wright
https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01879-00005/1

‘The Leipzig, St Petersburg and Cambridge fragments were all acquired in the mid-19th century by Constantin von Tischendorf, on two different trips to the Middle East. However, while he visited St Sabas on both occasions and acquired manuscripts there, including palimpsests, the presence of another fragment of the manuscript in the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, which he also visited during these journeys, indicates that this palimpsest had entered the library of that institution by the time he encountered it.“

Giulia Rossetto
“Afterwards, in 1844. some leaves of the codex (at least 28) left the Monastery in Konstantin Tischendorfs suitcase.”

See also:
https://rapp.univie.ac.at/fileadmin...ests_Abstracts_Final_April_2018_19.4.2018.pdf
Giulia Rossetti
Greek under Arabic: Behind the Lines of Sinaiticus arabicus NF 66
“Sinaiticus arabicus NF 66 is made up of six fragmentary folia and three tiny parchment scraps. These were originally part of a codex of ca. 300 folia containing the Lives of the Monks of Palestine by Cyril of Scythopolis. It was copied at Mar Saba (near Jerusalem) in the first quarter of the 10th century and later brought, under unknown circumstances, to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. A number of folia from this manuscript are now dispersed, and have been identified in several libraries: Leipzig, Univ. gr. 2 (22 folia); Saint Petersburg, RNB, gr. 26 (6 folia); Cambridge, Add. 1879.5 (a small piece of parchment).”

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Question:
Has the monastery requested return, or at least, to start, acknowledgement that they are the owners of this manuscript?

Thanks!

Steven Avery
Dutchess County, NY USA
purebible@gmail.com
 
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Dear Steven,

Thank you for writing. The thefts of Tischendorf and Uspensky and Graf and others are well known. When Beneschevich published a catalogue of the Greek manuscripts, in St Petersburg, in 1911, he included an entire section of the catalogue listing Sinai manuscripts known to exist in other collections.

For the benefit of scholars, these manuscripts should be photographed and published together, so that they are virtually reunited.

Once Archbishop Damianos visited the Ambrosiana Library in Milan. They have a Sinai manuscript in Arabic containing homilies on the Nativity of Christ. The manuscript was purchased in Germany in the early twentieth century. They have published the manuscript in facsimile. They told the Archbishop, “One day we will return the manuscript to the Sinai library. But not today.”

Father Akakios
 
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