Biographical Memoir
Pages 18-19
"After this, the trickery of Dindorf becoming known to Simonides through the news-papers of January 29th, 1856, he appealed against the treacherous Dindorf, whereupon, new machinations were devised against Simonides, that is to say, they accused him in the first place of having purloined the palimpsest from the Turkish Library, and secondly of having forged it himself. Accordingly upon this double charge he was arrested on the 1st of February, 1856, at the very time when he was waiting for a carriage in order to remoye with his property into another house, which he had occupied already for a month, as the magistrate who examined him was convinced on inquiry, and “not, as his accusers falsely reported, because he was about a to depart for London. Simonides, accordingly, being arrested was detained 17 days, and replied ably and gallantly to all the [Page 19] accusations against him. In his defence before the magistrates
he said:
‘‘If the manuscript was stolen, as my accusers assert, from the Turkish Library, if is consequently genuine, and no charge of its being fictitious can avail; if I wrote it myself it is my private property, and no one has a right to deprive me of it. Again, if it was purloined, let them mention the place from which it was stolen and shew at the same time the catalogue of the library in which it is entered. And if it is my own work, as some ignorant persons have reported, who assail what is extraordinary as if it were an imposture, let them prove this scientifically, and if it be proved, I will willingly submit to whatever punishment the laws decree. But if it is true that I myself wrote the manuscripts then I haye a right, I consider, to publish this learned work in my own name, as well as all the other learned productions of the same author, sixty in all, inscribe them with the name of Simonides and strike out that of Uranius. In that case I shall be justly celebrated as the cleverest of men.”
The magistrates again asked him if he purloined it from the library of the present Sultan, Abdul Medjid, and he very properly replied that the Sultan had no library, and that the Sultans do not eyen know what a library is. The tribunal of Leipsic, having no proof against Simonides, and being convinced that he was unjustly persecuted, and that the accusation was made solely to get possession of the palimpsest, in order that it might afterwards be presented to the King of Prussia, acquitted him at once, and he was set at liberty. But the Prussian Ministry anticipating this, demanded Simonides, in order to hear from him viva voce the real truth concerning this affair.
At first the Saxon Government rejected the demand of the Prussian Ministry, but afterwards, haying received the assent of Simonides, and an undertaking from the Minister of Justice that no harm should befal him, but that he should be indemnified for what he had suffered, they surrendered him."
Accordingly Simonides, haying gone to Berlin on the 17th [Page 20] of February with the representative of the Prussian Foreign Office, was again subjected to even a severer examination, and related in full the history of the discovery of the Uranius. In Berlin, also, he was fully acquitted, and being freed from the accusation, held his accusers up to scorn. Herr Lepsius, in fact, he not only held up to scorn, but accused—with good reason—of theft, for he stole many of Simonides’ effects, when Stiber, the officer of the Municipality, who had received the chest of Simonides from the Saxon government sealed with the Royal seal of Saxony, handed it over, after breaking the seal, to his dear friend Lepsius. Truly a well-ordered government! So Lepsius having become—as he desired—master of Simonides’ chest, disposed of its contents as he thought fit; some he took away, others he destroyed, and a very few he returned to Herr Stiber. Those taken away were scarce coins, rubbings of unknown inscriptions, extensive annotations concerning hieroglyphic writings and the Egyptian
language, as well as the Ethiopian, Lycian, Phoonician, and Carian languages, and concerning the Pelasgian letters, and the ancient dialects of the Armenians. Besides these a portion of the copy of Uranius, especially that from the fifth to the twentieth dynasty, and moreover letters from distinguished persons, as Professor Mullach confessed in the court, for he said that he saw Lepsius throwing some English letters into a bag. From this it may, as it would seem, be inferred, that the seizure of Simonides and his unfair removal to Berlin was induced by a desire to obtain possession of his manuscripts. Some of the stolen property was actually found in the hands of Lepsius, as the tribunal of Berlin informed Simonides by a letter afterwards sent to him at Munich. Lepsius also purloined all the essays against Simonides that he could find,
which the latter had collected with a view of some day replying to them. From these, and the memoranda furnished him by the followers of Rhancabe, Lepsius composed a ridiculous biography or satire. This biography is a matter very little to the credit of Lepsius, who, though he ‘may be a learned man, is neither remarkable for his honesty
https://archive.org/stream/1859-biographical-memoir-of-constantine-simonides-stewart/1859 Biographical_Memoir_of_Constantine_Simonides-Stewart 01OCR_djvu.txt
https://archive.org/stream/1859-biographical-memoir-of-constantine-simonides-stewart/1859 Biographical_Memoir_of_Constantine_Simonides-Stewart 01OCR_djvu.txt
Simonides sacrificed that gain to acknowledge that Sinaiticus was under 25 years old.