![]() Text is written in gold, marginalia are in silver. Minuscule script (text) and small uncial script (comments on the margins). Purple Gospel (Empress Theodora's Codex). No less famous is the Porphyrius Psalter of 862, produced in the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem in a special writing style - the Palestinian uncial. This renowned Porphyrius Gospel, created at the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople, is the oldest surviving Greek manuscript with an exact date of creation, and, at the same time, the first dated manuscript written in minuscule, a new Greek script which replaced uncial letters. Like the Porphyrius Gospel of 835 and the Porphyrius Psalter of 862, these fragments came into the library with the material gathered by Archbishop Porphyrius Uspensky (1804-1855), a palaeographical scholar and passionate collector. The manuscript entered the Library in 1883 as part of the collection of Bishop Porphyrius (Uspensky). Multicolour and monochrome headpieces, tailpieces and initials multicolour frame (fol. ![]() Scribe: Theodore, Deacon of the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection. ![]() The text in the Codex Sinaiticus is written in four columns per page that was a rare way to arrange it. Among them are fragments of the earliest of the three surviving copies of the ancient Greek Bible known as the Septuagint - the famous Codex Sinaiticus produced in the fourth century. Manuscripts of the early Christian era are written on parchment in uncial letters, the oldest Greek writing style. Because the actual text of this work was discovered later than the mention of it in the catalogue, this item has become known as the "prophetic papyrus".Īs Late Antiquity was succeeded by the early Christian era, papyrus scrolls gave way to parchment codices. Among the books it lists is Aristotle's The Polity of Athens. The third-century catalogue of one such library is now in the Manuscripts Department. Papyrus scroll "books" were kept in special baskets - that is what libraries looked like in the Ancient World. Particularly interesting among them are fragments of Menander's plays Fasma and Arbitration dating from the fourth century, the earliest surviving texts of the great Athenian comedy dramatist. They were found during the ninteenth century in Lower Egypt, near the ruins of ancient Memphis. The oldest part of the collection - is a group of papyri from the second to fourth centuries A.D. A fragment came in the Library in 1883 as part of the collection of Bishop Porphyrius (Uspensky). This is the only surviving manuscript written in 4 columns. The Codex Sinaiticus is the most complete of the oldest New Testament manuscripts, the main source for studying biblical texts. The Codex Sinaiticus is most likely one of the 50 handwritten copies of the Greek Bible that were produced in the mid-4th century by order of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great for churches created after Christianity had become the state religion in the empire. ![]() The collection of the National Library is also notable for a very significant number of dated Greek manuscripts.Ĭodex Sinaiticus. Many of them are impressive for their outstanding decoration: beautiful miniature illustrations, ornamented headpieces and initials. It smaller in size that the collections of Greece, Italy or France, but its value lies in accumulating the well-known landmarks of great historical and cultural importance. There are near 1000 separate items in the library's collection of Greek manuscripts, making it the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world. Jernstedt defined the content of fragments and dated the manuscript. Jernstedt who was specially invited to the Imperial Public Library for description of Greek manuscripts purchased from Bishop Porphirius (Uspensky) in 1883. ![]() The fragments of Menander's plays have long been known, but this manuscript was considered lost. ![]()
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