4,500 Ancient Manuscripts Being Digitized at St. Catherine’s Monastery [Sinai]

Pravoslavie ^ | 4/18/19

[marshmallow]

Although it is the world’s oldest continually operating library, dating back to the 6th century, the collection of manuscripts at St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai is no stranger to the latest technology.

In 2012, they began spectral imaging on many of the manuscripts to discover the texts beneath the texts. Many of the manuscripts are palimpsests, meaning a previous text had been erased so the scribe could reuse the valuable parchments. Traces of the original texts remained, however.

Now the monastery has begun a high-tech process of digitizing its 4,500 manuscripts—a process that could easily take up to a decade. The work on the ancient parchments, including the earliest surviving copy of the Gospels, the Codox Sinaiticus, dating to the 4th century, is being undertaken by a team from Greece that takes images in red, green, and blue light and merges them together with computer software to make one high-quality color picture, reports Reuters.

Photo: reuters.com

The project is sponsored by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library in collaboration with the monastery and the library of UCLA.

The project is being undertaken now because the monastery unfortunately lies in an area where militant Islamists have been wont to destroy cultural artifacts and documents in recent years.

“The upheaval of our times requires a rapid completion of this project,” His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Faran and Raitho, and Abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery told Reuters.

[hinckley buzzard]

Thank God they are doing this. St Catherine’s is an isolated desert monastery on the slopes of Mt Sinai. It was the home of the great St John Climacus who wrote the “Ladder of Divine Ascent” in the sixth century.

The collection of ancient, irreplaceable manuscripts held there through the ages is in severe danger of being desecrated and destroyed by ignorant moslem barbarian hordes threatening even this harmless outpost of Christian civilization.

[libstripper]

Terrific project, much like the Vatican’s project digitizing all of the irreplaceable materials in the Vatican library. The RC Church, to its everlasting credit, seeks to preserve the literary and cultural legacy of all peoples, while the Mudslimes seek to destroy it. Anyone who wants to see this for himself or herself just needs to visit the Vatican library and museum. Just try to find something, anything, like that in an Islamic country.

[livius]

Very interesting!

[Mount Athos]

That monastery not associated with rc church

[bgill]

The more that gets out to the public, the better. Be it a muslim occupied country or the Vatican.

[bitt]

p

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks marshmallow.

• oxyrhynchus keyword

[SunkenCiv]

Saving A Treasured Trove, Ever So Slowly
LAT | 2-5-2007 | Suzanne Muchnic
Posted on 02/05/2007 1:36:33 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1779639/posts

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Mount Athos :" That monastery not associated with rc church "

It appears that the monastery, and the effort to digitize the manuscripts
are being done by Father Justin of Sinai (librarian) and the Greek Orthodox Church.

[colorado tanker]

Great idea. Not sure that any Christian artifact located in a muzzie land is safe in the long tern.

[Bob Ireland]

Interesting... thanks.

[Campion]

Just try to find something, anything, like that in an Islamic country.

The Arab general who burned the Library of Alexandria said something like, "Either what is there speaks of Allah, or it does not. If it does not, it is blasphemous. If it does, it is superfluous."

[dfwgator]

"It's a Miracle!"