Fascinating resource - courtesy of Chuck Jones @ AWOL
Manuscripts in St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Awol-TheAncientWorldOnline/~3/XxEIL4txh9Q/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>
Posted: 03 May 2017 11:29 AM PDT
Manuscripts in St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/about-this-collection/>
The renowned Eastern Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai was
constructed by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, in the late sixth
century AD over the relics of the martyred saint and the place of the
biblical burning bush as identified by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman
Emperor, Constantine. It is home to reputedly the oldest continuously run
library in existence today. Its holdings of religious and secular
manuscripts are legendary and allegedly second only in number to the
collection held by the Vatican: from bibles, to patristic works, to
liturgies and prayers books, and on to legal documents such as deeds, court
cases, *Fatwahs* (legal opinions). The greater proportion of the
manuscripts were copied in Greek, and then in Syriac, Georgian, Coptic,
Armenian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Ethiopic, as well as Old Church
Slavonic.
In 1949, Kenneth W. Clark, led an expedition to the Middle East under the
Auspices of the Library of Congress and its partners, to microfilm old
manuscripts in various libraries of the Middle East, the largest and most
isolated of which was that at St. Catherine’s. His group evaluated the
3,300 manuscripts held there and chose 1,687 for filming. Finally, the
group also prepared under his direction a *Checklist of Manuscripts in St.
Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai Microfilmed for the Library of Congress
<http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=gdc3&fileName=scd0001_20120109002chpage.db>*
(1950),
which gave researchers access to both the manuscripts microfilms and the
black and white transparencies. The microfilm collection is in the custody
of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, where it still may be
requested.
Since its appearance, this set has been so widely consulted by scholars
around the globe that the Library has now digitized the microfilms to
facilitate their use by scholars worldwide. At the same time the
descriptions of the manuscripts as found in the *Checklist *have also been
edited and updated.
Clark’s group also chose 1,284 illuminations from 113 manuscripts to be
photographed in 4 x 5 inch black and white format. These have been listed
on pages 22-32 of the *Checklist*. These have not been digitized at this
time but are available to researchers in the Prints and Photographs Division
<http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/> of the Library of Congress.
Prints of the illuminations and microfilm reproductions of the manuscripts
may be requested through our Photoduplication Service.
- *About this Collection
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/about-this-collection/>*
- *Collection Items
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/>*
- *Articles and Essays
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/articles-and-essays/>*
*Articles and Essays
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/articles-and-essays/>*
- The Microfilming Projects at Mount Sinai and Jerusalem
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/articles-and-essays/microfilming-projects-at-mount-sinai-and-jerusalem/>
- Glossary of Genres
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/articles-and-essays/glossary-of-genres/>
- Abbreviations for the Microfilm Digitization Project
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-in-st-catherines-monastery-mount-sinai/articles-and-essays/abbreviations-for-microfilm-digitization-project/>
Expert Resources
- Finding Aid: Checklist of Manuscripts in St. Catherine's Monastery,
Mount Sinai <http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20120109002ch.1>
- Finding Aid: Checklist of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Greek
and Armenian Patriachates in Jerusalem
<http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20120108001ch.1>
- Finding Aid: A Descriptive Checklist of Selected Manuscripts in the
Monasteries of Mount Athos
<http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20120109001de.1>
- Collections with Manuscripts
<https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/collections/>
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
http://kalamosb.alibrisstore.com/
http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookseller.phtml/kal