The Codex Sinaiticus Project
Produced in the middle of the fourth century, the Codex Sinaiticus is one of the two earliest Christian Bibles. Within its beautifully handwritten Greek text are the earliest surviving copy of the complete New Testament and the earliest and best copies of some of the Jewish scriptures, in the form that they were adopted by the Christian Church. The Codex forms one of the most important landmarks in the history of the book.
The British Library is leading a major collaborative project to reproduce the Codex Sinaiticus in digital form. As part of the project Collection Care staff have carried out a thorough Conservation Assessment of the manuscript and have worked with curatorial colleagues to design a documentation model that will be used by all institutions holding parts of the manuscript to ensure consistency throughout the project.
As well as providing an in depth assessment of the condition of the Manuscript and binding, the Documentation Model records scribal and codicological information. The model also records information to help in with the digitisation process.
The four project partners - The British Library, St Catherine’s Monastery, Leipzig University Library and the National Library of Russia - have signed an agreement to create a ‘virtual’ re-unification of the parts of the manuscript held over the four sites, thus offering access to the manuscript to a worldwide audience.
