Never-Before-Seen Ancient Texts Hidden In Saint Catherine’s Monastery In Sinai Are Now Available Online

AncientPages.com - Hidden in the vaults of Saint Catherine's famed monastery, located in southern Sinai, there are thousands of sacred ancient manuscripts. Some of these works are the oldest in Christianity.

As Ancient Pages previously reported during the inauguration ceremony, Egypt officially reopened the 6^th century Library and Mosaic in St. Catherine Monastery in Sinai.

According to the monastery’s archbishop, Monk Damyanos, the monastery has the world’s second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts. This collection is only outnumbered by the Vatican Library.

The undertext of the letters of St. Paul are revealed through spectral imaging and can be seen as faint coffee stain colored letters running perpendicular to the overtext. Credit: Sinai Palimpsests Project

St. Catherine’s Monastery is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world. It has been very difficult to access this remarkable collection of ancient manuscripts, but the Sinai Palimpsests Project team has digitized the texts and created a digital library where the texts can be viewed online.

See also:

Ancient World’s Second Largest Library Of Codices, Manuscripts Reopened In Sinai

Illuminated Ancient Manuscripts Reflect 1,000 Years Of Human History

Magical Manuscripts With Thousands Of Ancient Spells Discovered In Germany

The five-year collaboration is the largest effort of its kind to recover erased or obscured information from historical source material and preserve precious ancient works for future generations.

Gospels in Arabic translation, late eighth century. The oldest surviving copy of the Gospels in Arabic translation. Credit: Sinai Palimpsests Project

"By revealing these long-hidden materials and preserving them for future generations, this project makes possible advanced research and scholarship by scholars around the world," said Ginny Steel, a librarian from UCLA's Norman and Armena Powell Library, who was involved in the project.

A copy of Hippocrates' De morbis popularibus (Epidemiae) from the sixth century revealed using spectral imaging. This is the oldest surviving copy of this ancient scientific text. Credit: Sinai Palimpsests Project

The writings include the earliest surviving copies of several Hippocratic medical treatises and a previously unknown mythological poem from ancient Greece that mentions Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hermes and Persephone.

In addition to the oldest surviving illustration in a secular Latin manuscript, illustrations include medicinal herbs, human faces and figures and portions of buildings. There are a number of double palimpsests from parchment that was re-used multiple times.

There are also texts written in Ethiopic and Latin, demonstrating the monastery’s centrality in the world of medieval Christendom as well as  previously unknown texts in the extinct language Christian Palestinian Aramaic.

Among the works is a newly discovered story of an early Christian martyr; and early biblical texts in numerous languages. It is an outstanding and priceless ancient collection that offers a unique insight into the past!

The ancient manuscripts are accessible to students, scholars and the public at sinaipalimpsests.org.

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