Manuscript Acquisitions and Their Later Movements
A Further Note about the Case of the Lewis Quranic Manuscript
In: Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental StudiesSearch for other papers by Alba Fedeli in
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Abstract
This article traces the purchase of the dispersed fragments of the Sinaitic codex known as the Lewis Quranic palimpsest and investigates the story of the later movements and fate of these leaves. The long acquisition and dispersion process was started by Constantin Tischendorf in the mid-nineteenth century and lasted until 1936. The disappearance of the Lewis codex in Leipzig between 1914 and 1936 has been identified through unpublished materials from the correspondence of John Oman, the executor in charge of finding the manuscript to be donated to Cambridge University Library. The case of this codex Sinaiticus raises interesting questions about the trade in and availability of such important artefacts that have sometimes been hidden because of the subtle boundary between private possession and exclusive access at the beginning of the twentieth century, a crucial historical period for Quranic studies.