# Codex Sinaiticus > Three unnamed scribes (conventionally labelled Scribe A, Scribe B and Scribe D), production location disputed - 4th century, probably c. 325-450 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/codex-sinaiticus-scribes/codex-sinaiticus-british-library/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-31 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Three unnamed scribes (conventionally labelled Scribe A, Scribe B and Scribe D), production location disputed - **Date:** 4th century, probably c. 325-450 - **Medium:** Ink on vellum (predominantly calfskin, with some sheepskin), Greek uncial script - **Dimensions:** British Library portion (Add MS 43725): 346.5 folios, 694 pages, each leaf approximately 38.1 x 34.5 cm - **Object type:** Manuscript - **Period:** Late Antique / Early Christian, 4th-5th century - **Current location:** The British Library, London - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary Add MS 43725 is the largest surviving share, 347 leaves out of an original whole now split four ways, of a fourth-century Greek Bible that is one of the two oldest more or less complete Christian Bibles in existence, alongside the Vatican Library's Codex Vaticanus. It reached London in 1933 in a straightforward hard-currency sale: the Soviet government of Joseph Stalin, needing foreign capital, sold it to the British Museum for 100,000 pounds.How it got to Russia in the first place is the part of the story that does not resolve cleanly. Constantin von Tischendorf removed 43 leaves from Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1844 and the great majority of what remained in 1859, the second time under a signed promise of return that was never honoured. The monastery has maintained ever since that the manuscript was never legitimately given away. Tischendorf's defenders, including a 2015 study drawing on Russian archives, argue the removal was ordinary scholarly practice for the period and that the theft charge is unfair.No one has settled it. In 2005 the British Library and the monastery agreed to set the ownership question aside and digitise the whole codex jointly with Leipzig University Library and the National Library of Russia, the other two holders of fragments. The site went live in 2009. The dispute did not go with it. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 300-c. 450** Unknown scriptorium, place disputed `[disputed]` (origin) Dated on internal evidence to the 4th or possibly early 5th century (it postdates Eusebius's canon tables, c. 325). Its place of production is not recorded and has been argued three ways: Rome (F.J.A. Hort, from the chapter divisions of Acts matching Latin Vulgate manuscripts), Egypt (F.G. Kenyon, followed by Gardthausen, Ropes and Jellicoe, from the letterforms), and Caesarea Maritima (J. Rendel Harris, later Streeter, Milne and Skeat, from links to the library of Pamphilus). No consensus exists. This record adopts none of the three. - **by 1761-1844** Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai `[documented]` (custody) The earliest identified reference to the manuscript is the Italian naturalist Vitaliano Donati's 1761 travel journal, describing a Bible 'written in a round and handsome script' in the monastery library. How long it had already been there is not recorded. - **1844** Constantin von Tischendorf, then Leipzig University Library `[disputed]` (removal of 43 leaves (not part of the British Library holding)) On his first visit (24 May-1 June 1844) Tischendorf was shown 129 Old Testament leaves and took 43 to Leipzig, where they remain. His own later account describes finding leaves in a basket destined for the ovens as kindling; the monastery has firmly denied this version. What is documented is only that 43 leaves left the monastery in his baggage; the circumstances of the monks' consent are contested. - **1859-02-04-1859-09** Constantin von Tischendorf, under a signed promise of return to the monastery `[disputed]` (removal of the remaining 347 leaves) Under the patronage of Tsar Alexander II, Tischendorf was shown the remaining 347 leaves on 4 February 1859. Russia's ambassador Prince Lobanov wrote on 10/22 September referring to an alleged monastic wish to donate the codex to the Tsar; the monastery's reply of 17/29 September made no explicit reference to donation. Tischendorf signed a receipt on 16/28 September promising return 'intact and as soon as it was requested.' It was not returned. The monastery's own published history states the Lobanov letter and Tischendorf's receipt 'explicitly stated that it was to be returned to the monastery, which remained its rightful owner.' A revisionist reading (Stanley Porter, using Russian archival material) holds the removal was ordinary period practice and the theft characterisation unfair. This record states both positions and resolves neither. - **1862-1869** Tsar Alexander II / Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs `[documented]` (presentation and interim custody) Tischendorf published his facsimile edition in 1862 and presented the manuscript to Alexander II on 10 November that year. It remained with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1869. - **1869** Imperial Public Library, St Petersburg `[disputed]` (formal deeds of donation signed) Deeds of donation were signed 13/25 and 18/30 November 1869 by Archbishop Kallistratos of Sinai, during a dispute over the succession to the Sinai archbishopric. The monastery's own account, citing archival research conducted 2003-2006, describes 'tragic circumstances... under which the main body of the Codex Sinaiticus manuscript was not returned to the monastery's library, despite its strong wish to the contrary,' and maintains no legitimate transfer of ownership occurred. This record records the acts as historical fact and the monastery's rejection of their legitimacy as its standing, unresolved position. - **1869-1933** Imperial Public Library, then the Soviet state `[documented]` (custody through the fall of the Russian Empire and into the Soviet period) - **1933-12-1933-12-26** The British Museum, London `[documented]` (sale) The Soviet government under Stalin sold the manuscript through the London booksellers Maggs Brothers for 100,000 pounds sterling (93,000 pounds from Treasury funds, 7,000 pounds from the Museum's own resources), needing foreign currency. Delivered to London 26 December 1933. A public subscription later returned 53,563 pounds of the Treasury's outlay by October 1935. A documented private sale between two states, brokered commercially, not a gift or a discovery. - **1933-1973** The British Museum, London `[documented]` (custody) - **1973-present** The British Library, London `[documented]` (custody, Add MS 43725) Transferred with the British Museum's library departments on the creation of the British Library as a separate institution in 1973. This is the portion this record is anchored on. ## Open questions - Did the Sinai community in September 1859 intend an outright gift of the manuscript to Tsar Alexander II, or only a loan for study and copying? The Lobanov letter alleges a wish to donate; the monastery's own reply made no such statement, and Tischendorf's own signed receipt promised the manuscript's return. - Is Tischendorf's account of finding leaves in a basket destined for the monastery ovens in 1844 literally true, or a dramatized version of events the monastery has always firmly denied? - How directly did Russian diplomatic pressure connected to the 1866-1869 dispute over the succession to the Sinai archbishopric influence the monastery's decision to sign the 1869 donation acts? - Could further undocumented portions of the codex still exist within Saint Catherine's Monastery's own collection, given that the 1975 discovery was itself unplanned and followed a building collapse no one had anticipated? - Will the ownership question that the four holding institutions deliberately set aside in the 2005 partnership agreement ever be formally addressed, or does it remain permanently suspended by mutual, unspoken consent? - Did any portion, even indirectly, of the 100,000 pounds the British Museum paid the Soviet government in 1933 ever reach Saint Catherine's Monastery, the institution the manuscript is documented to have physically originated from? ## Sources - [1] Codex Sinaiticus Project (British Library, Leipzig University Library, National Library of Russia and Saint Catherine's Monastery), 'History'. - [2] Wikipedia, 'Codex Sinaiticus', consolidating the codicological, palaeographic and acquisition literature. Flagged as tertiary; recommended for replacement with Milne and Skeat's 1938 study and the Codex Sinaiticus Project's own scholarly introduction. - [3] Saint Catherine's Monastery, 'New Finds', on the 1975 discovery of the sealed storage room and its contents. - [4] Saint Catherine's Monastery (Saint Catherine Foundation, via Mused), 'The Modern History of the Codex Sinaiticus', the monastery's own published account of the 1844 and 1859 removals and its ownership position. - [5] The Art Newspaper, 'Sinai monks in historic agreement with British Library over Codex Sinaiticus' (2005), including the Archbishop Damianos quotation. - [6] Biblical Archaeology Society, 'Tischendorf on Trial for Removing Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament', covering the 1844 and 1859 visits and Stanley Porter's revisionist assessment. - [7] University of Birmingham, 'The world's oldest bible reunited online' (2009), on the four-partner Codex Sinaiticus Project and its July 2009 launch. - [8] officialdata.org, UK Inflation Calculator, for the 1933-to-2026 purchasing-power conversion of GBP 100,000 (composite historical price index to 1988, CPI thereafter). - [9] The Bart Ehrman Blog, 'The Discovery of Codex Sinaiticus: One of the Most Important Manuscripts of the New Testament', for Tischendorf's own quoted account of the February 1859 discovery. - [10] Wikimedia Commons, File:Codex Sinaiticus, GA 01.jpg, file description page (licence and credit metadata). - [11] Wikimedia Commons, File:Codex Sinaiticus Matthew 1,1-2,5.JPG, file description page (licence and credit metadata). - [12] Wikimedia Commons, File:Tischendorf um 1870.jpg, file description page (licence and credit metadata). - [13] Wikimedia Commons, File:Katharinenkloster Sinai BW 2.jpg, file description page (licence and credit metadata). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. 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