Steven Avery
Administrator
In the superb page by Gavin Moorhead, in which he describes the "exceptional" Codex Sinaiticus, we have:
Yet, in the 1930s, Skeat and Milne said:
So, since the British Library is the owner and conservator of Codex Alexandrinus, why not give at least a general, anecdotal, cursory comparison?
Is the reason that Alexandrinus is so brittle that it is rarely touched?
Or is there a concern that the comparison might raise some difficult questions about the age of Sinaiticus?
What is the reason?
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6. Appearance of the Manuscript
"The vellum of the Codex varies in quality but is for the most part fine, so fine that the ink has frequently bitten right through and fretted many of the pages. Owing to its treatment at the hand of binders the vellum has lost its natural resilience, and now presents a limp, dead appearance in marked contrast to the vellum of the Codex Sinaiticus."
Parchment Assessment of the Codex Sinaiticus
Gavin Moorhead
May 2009
Preliminary Examination
The conservation team discovered that, despite being over 1600 years old, the pages of Codex Sinaiticus held at the British Library consisted of a supple, high quality parchment in relatively good condition. This is difficult to put into context as the only other similar surviving 4th/5th Century parchment codices, Codex Alexandrinus[19] and Codex Vaticanus[20] are at this stage unable to be physically compared with Codex Sinaiticus.
[19] British Library, MS Royal 1. D. V-VIII.
[20] The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209.
Yet, in the 1930s, Skeat and Milne said:
The Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus: With Seven Illustrations, 1955
Alexandrinus ... the vellum itself now has a:
'limp, dead appearance in marked contrast to the vellum of the Codex Sinaiticus' p. 37
So, since the British Library is the owner and conservator of Codex Alexandrinus, why not give at least a general, anecdotal, cursory comparison?
Is the reason that Alexandrinus is so brittle that it is rarely touched?
Or is there a concern that the comparison might raise some difficult questions about the age of Sinaiticus?
What is the reason?
===================
6. Appearance of the Manuscript
"The vellum of the Codex varies in quality but is for the most part fine, so fine that the ink has frequently bitten right through and fretted many of the pages. Owing to its treatment at the hand of binders the vellum has lost its natural resilience, and now presents a limp, dead appearance in marked contrast to the vellum of the Codex Sinaiticus."
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