Simonides codicology account

Steven Avery

Administrator
https://forums.carm.org/threads/cod...t-color-differences.14083/page-4#post-1251900


".....very bulky volume, antiquely bound, and almost entirely blank parchment"

"I therefore took possession of this book, and prepared it by taking out the leaf containing the discourse, and by removing several others injured by time and moths, after which I began my task. First, I copied out the Old and New Testaments, then the Epistle of Barnabas, the first part of the pastoral writings of Hermas in capital letters (or uncial characters) in the style known in calligraphy as άμφιδέξιος (amphidexios). The trancription of the remaining Apostolic writings, however, I declined, because the supply of parchment ran short, and the severe loss which I sustained in the death of Benedict induced me to hand the work over at once to the bookbinders of the monastery, for the purpose of replacing the original covers, made of wood and covered with leather, which I had removed for convenience - and when he had done so, I took it into my possession."
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
https://forums.carm.org/threads/cod...rgeries-on-mt-athos.16526/page-4#post-1444211

A summary of Simonides description of his alleged Codex Simonideos.

Which, according to what he wrote, consisted of:

  • Brand new wooden coverings
  • Brand new leather coverings over the wooden covers
  • Brand new gold binding
  • Brand new string/cord stitchings (presumably)
  • Brand new stitching holes (presumably)
  • Brand new glue (presumably)
  • A dedication to Tzar Nicholas the 1st of Russia prefixed to the manuscript
  • Dedication written in gold characters
  • Written according to the ancient form, in capital letters (in Simonides usual and customary forgers Uncial Greek handwriting)
  • Letters (presumably large?) intended to be illuminated, marked in many places
  • Written on parchment
  • A COPY OF the Moscow Bible's Old & New Testaments texts

https://forums.carm.org/threads/cod...ption-of-the-original-codex-simonideos.15686/


Codex Sinaiticus and the Simonides Affair: An Examination of the Nineteenth Century Claim that Codex Sinaiticus was Not an Ancient Manuscript.”
By James Keith Elliott
Patriarchikon Hidryma Paterikōn Meletōn
1982
Pages 54-56

[Quoting]:
The [Manchester] Guardian
26th August 1863


"...And twice have I seen it myself in the Library of Sinai, first in 1844 and then in 1 852.1 asked the librarian(s) [= plural] how and whence the Library had obtained it. They [the librarian(s) plural] having nothing to say (neither the first nor the second knowing anything about it), were silent, and I said nothing to them about the transcription; but taking it in my hands found it somewhat altered in form, both externally and internally, for it had an older appearance than it ought to have had, and the MS. was defective in part. As I remembered the dedication to the Emperor Nicholas (which I had prefixed to the book in golden characters), and found that it had been taken out, I smiled, and replaced the book in its original place, and commenced my philological investigations (for there were in that library many very valuable MSS), and pursuing them with diligence I discovered many things of great importance, among which the most important were all the pastoral writings of Hermas, and the Holy Gospel according to St. Mat- 56 thew, and the disputed epistle of Aristeas to Philocrates (as I have elsewhere remarked), all written upon Egyptian papyrus, principally in the first century, together with some other important MSS, which I described in a letter to Constantius. as also to my spiritual father Callistratus, Archbishop of Libya, on my return to Alexandria..."

[Emphasis and notes in brackets added by me]

Here we see that the hypothetical Codex Simonideos had, according to Simon sez:

  1. A "dedication to the Emperor Nicholas"
  2. The dedication was "written in" [presumably Uncial Greek] "golden characters"
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
p. 55
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