Steven Avery
Well-known member
Theft reports from St. Catherine's and other monasteries, and libraries, can be reported in various spots and found out in a variety of ways, over time. Not necessarily reported by the monks at the monastery. (cjab wrote that the monks at the monastery claim would be the starting point of the 1844 claim of theft, showing a bit of naivety.)
In fact, the most successful thefts, like, the 1844 CFA from St. Catherine's by Tischendorf, may not even be known by the marks who lost their goods. (Below, we are not given details on the 1859 extraction.)
Islamica - Journal of Islamic Studies (1943)
Kurt Weitzmann
https://archive.org/details/volume-4/Volume 10/page/118/mode/2up
p. 119-133 (extracts from 119-121)
Previously referenced here:
https://forums.carm.org/threads/codex-sinaiticus-the-facts.12990/post-1007492
In fact, the most successful thefts, like, the 1844 CFA from St. Catherine's by Tischendorf, may not even be known by the marks who lost their goods. (Below, we are not given details on the 1859 extraction.)
Islamica - Journal of Islamic Studies (1943)
Kurt Weitzmann
https://archive.org/details/volume-4/Volume 10/page/118/mode/2up
p. 119-133 (extracts from 119-121)
An Early Copto-Arabic Miniature in Leningrad (1943)
Kurt Weitzman (1904-1993)
I
From his second voyage to the Orient in 1853, Constantin Tischendorf brought back seventy-five leaves of an early Arabic manuscript containing the epistles of Paul.1 He showed this fragment to the orientalist Fleischer in Leipzig, who, on palaeographical evidence, dated it in the eighth or ninth century.2 Then Delitzsch examined the fragment3 and, on the basis of several passages concerning the nature of Christ, proved the Nestorian character of the Pauline epistles. Tischendorf, shrouding his find in the same secrecy with which he had tried to hide the provenance of the famous codex Sinaiticus, did not tell where he acquired the seventy-five Arabic leaves. Delitzsch stated explicitly, however, that Tischendorf had brought them from a monastery in Egypt and, since it is known not only that the two theologians were in close personal contact with each other but that Delitzsch had seen the leaves in Tischendorf’s house, it may rightly be assumed that the latter had, at least to some extent, given away the secret, though he did not reveal the name of the Egyptian monastery.
On his third voyage in 1859, Tischendorf acquired the remainder of the same manuscript, that is, 151 more leaves.4 Both parts, then, were given to the Russian czar, who deposited them in the Public Library in Leningrad, where the combined 226 folios became united again in one volume5 under the signature Arab. N. F. No. 327.
1 C. Tischendorf, Anecdota Sacra ct Profana (2d ed.; Leipzig, 1861), pp. 13-14, No. XVI.
2 H. L. Fleischer, “Beschreibung dcr von Prof. Tischendorf im Jahre 1853 aus dem Morgenlande zuriuckgebrachlen christlich-arabischen Handschriften,” Zeitschr.d. Dentsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., VIII (1854), 584-85. On an additional plate he reproduced four text lines in facsimile.
3 F Delitzsch. Commentar zum Briefe an die Hebraer (Leipzig, 1857), pp. 764-69.
4 C. Tischendorf, Notitia editionis codicis bibliorum Sinaitici auspiciis Imperatoris Alexandri II susceptae (Leipzig, i860), p. 67.
5 The measurements are 27, 8 by 19, 8 cm.
Previously referenced here:
https://forums.carm.org/threads/codex-sinaiticus-the-facts.12990/post-1007492
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