Monday, July 6, 2009

The Virtual Reunification Of Codex Sinaiticus

Pretty cool. The Daily Mail of the UK has an article announcing the British Museum's digital reuniting of the surviving elements of the Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest bible and one of the key documents marking the transition from papyrus scripts to bound volumes of books as we know them.



It is interesting that the same technology of digitizing books that is causing fretful mutterings about the threat to reading culture is also preserving and making more widely available those earliest books that we do have.



Take a look at this 1,600 year old bible at Codex Sinaiticus. Even though it is virtual, even though it is in places fragmentary, even though it is in an ancient language, you can't help but feel a shiver of excitement and connection as you gaze on the neat script of this ancient survivor and amabassador from a distant age.

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