British library to digitalize 15th century Bible manuscript

London, England, Mar 14, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The British Library in London has announced it has signed an agreement to digitalize and reunite the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest Greek copy of the Bible, whose different sections are currently in libraries in Egypt, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.

The manuscript dates from the time of the expansion of Christianity in the territories controlled by the emperor Constantine.

During centuries it was kept at the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, until in the 19^th century it was divided and the Old and New Testaments were distributed between the University of Leipzig Library in Germany, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, the British Library and the same Monastery of St. Catherine. 

Now the manuscripts will be reunited in digital form.

The agreement was signed by Archbishop Damianos, representing the Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai, Ekkehard Henschke, Alexander Bukreyev and Lynne Brindley, directors of the respective libraries.  Archbishop Damianos said the monks were anxious to reunite the different fragments of the manuscript.

The project will take around four years and will cost over $1,300,000 dollars.