A scholarly digital edition of Codex Sinaiticus, published on the internet
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Law School
Abstract
This project will create a full scholarly digital edition of Codex Sinaiticus, arguably the most important of all surviving ancient manuscripts. It is part of a wider project to bring into a virtual whole all surviving leaves of the manuscript, divided among four different countries, and to provide access at every level from the general reader to the most advanced scholar. Within that wider project, this scholarly edition will focus on the needs of researchers, scholars, and educated readers. It will offer meticulous detail in image and transcript, with highly-developed tools in a sophisticated Interface, to enable research hitherto impossible.
Organisations
Publications
Parker DC
(2012)
Der Codex Sinaiticus. Geschichte der ältesten Bibel der Welt
Parker, D C (University Of Birmingham)
(2010)
Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible
The Codex Sinaiticus Project
(2010)
The Codex Sinaiticus Project Website
| Description | Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest Greek Bible, a superb fourth-century product, held in four libraries, the British Library, the Library of the University of Leipzig, the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg, and Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. There are four key components to this digital edition: images, transcription, conservation document and translations. This summary describes the transcription, which was undertaken in this research project. 1. The transcription provides a detailed interpretation of the images, and the two are linked together so that to click on a word in one is to highlight the same word in the other. Following the layout of the manuscript, the transcription also contains pop-up boxes explaining every one of the manuscript's 27,000 corrections. The entire transcription is downloadable from the website in xml, and can be developed or searched under the project's Creative Commons Licence. 2. The researchers were able to examine high resolution digital images of every page, and to examine the leaves in Leipzig, St Petersburg and Sinai. The edition included the first publication of the 25 full or incomplete leaves from Sinai. The images of several pages from Sinai were edited in Photoshop to bring images of separate fragments together in a reconstruction of all that is left. 3. The researchers were able to confirm the broad identification of the correctors identified by the British scholars Milne and Skeat in the 1930s, and to refine many of the identifications of individual corrections. They also noted some peculiarities leading them to suggest the possibility that there was a fourth scribe. |
| Exploitation Route | This free-to-view website can be explored by anyone, to find out about a remarkable and beautiful manuscript, to explore the biblical tradition, or to study the modern history of the manuscript. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | http://www.codexsinaiticus.org |
| Description | Visitors In the first four weeks after its launch in July 2009, the site had over one million unique visitors. By the end of December 2010 this number had grown to over two million. Media coverage At the launch project members engaged in numerous interviews. Media coverage of the virtual re-unification of Codex Sinaiticus was exceptionally high and exclusively positive. They included sources such as the New York Time, CNN, and The Guardian (UK) (see below). The 420 articles published in July 2009 alone generated 200 million Weighted Opportunities To See (WOTS) and a total Gross Rating Point (GRP) figure of 1,702 and an exceptional positive Net Effect Cost of Reach Equation (CORE) figure of £1,170,880. 90% of media coverage came from the internet, 71% of coverage was from outside the UK. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2009 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview for programme hosted by Roger Boulton on Radio 4, The Oldest Bible |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Interview for Sky news |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | One of a series of itnerviews at The British Library on 6 July 2009 at the launch of the website |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lecture at the Hay Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | About a hundred people of all ages heard the illustrated lecture 'The World's Oldest Bible. How Technology Shapes Belief' Report in the Daily Telegraph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Lecture at the University of Birmingham 'Book to the Future' festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | About thirty people came to the illustrated lecture on Codex Sinaiticus No known impact |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Lecture in series at Hereford Cathedral |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Lecture on Codex Sinaiticus and digital research, followed by discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Lecture to the Worthing Theological Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Worthing Theological Society is a long-established forum for clergy, teachers, academics and anyone else, meeting for a lecture and discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Public lectures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | held in Leipzig at the launch of the first stage of the website |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| Description | The Beauty of Books |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | half of a 60 minute BBC documentary on manuscript Bibles, the first in a series of four programmes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |