London, June 14, 2024
The Georgian Codex Sinaitius Rescriptus. Photo: christies.com
The auctions of three ancient Orthodox manuscripts—one Georgian and two Serbian—through the London-based Christie’s were closed on Tuesday, June 11.
The first manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, is a palimpsest, with a 5th–7th-century Palestinian Aramaic text underneath, and an ecclesiastical Georgian text from 979, written by Ioane-Zosime, a Georgian monk who lived at St. Saba’s Monastery outside Jerusalem and later St. Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai.
Christie’s describes the manuscript:
The manuscript contains the earliest textual witnesses of the Gospels in the nearest dialect of Aramaic to that spoken by Jesus, composed within a living tradition based in the Holy Land. The palimpsest is overwritten with Georgian text written by the famed calligrapher, author, translator and bookbinder-monk John Zosimos, and survives here in his 10th-century binding from St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, the earliest known signed, dated and localisable binding.
The Georgian text contains Gospel pericopes and two ascetical works—the Sayings of Abba Poemen, and the Letter of Arsenios.
According to the Telegram channel Orthodoxy in Georgia, the palimpsest was purchased by the billionaire oligarch and philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili and will be donated to the National Museum. According to Christie’s, it sold for $1.595 million (1.25 million British pounds).
The Serbian manuscripts—a 14th-century Slavonic Octoechos and a 15th-century collection of Slavonic texts, including the story of Barlaam and Josephat—were purchased by the Serbian Ministry of Culture, reports Sputnik.
The Octoechos sold for $24,125 (18,900 pounds), and the collection of texts for $67,550 (52,920 pounds). Only a few Serbian Octechoi on parchment have survived to date, and none of them complete.
“This is extremely important and great news for our cultural heritage, which due to historical circumstances is scattered all over the world,” said Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković.
The manuscripts were purchased through the Serbian Embassy in London.
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