Module: Margaret Dunlop Gibson & Agnes Smith Lewis

ExercisesStudent ProjectsWorks Cited

Contents

Exercises

  1. Prefaces
    Organize the remaining “Uncategorized” publications in the bibliography of primary sources below, by checking the prefaces or introductions. For example, by Sinai trip, by material discovered, etc.
  2. Timeline (see Student Project below)
    Try adding events or changing descriptions in the timeline below. You can edit it by logging in and going to the H5P page here.

Student Projects

Fabio Ioppolo and Kerstin Klingelhöffer: Publications according to Sinai Trips

Travelogues

  • Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1898. In the Shadow of Sinai: A Story of Travel and Research from 1895 to 1897. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. https://archive.org/details/inshadowsinaias01lewigoog.
    • Mentions discovery of mss during first trip, including palimpsest on pg. vi ff. Mentions several other mss including the Arabic Epistles. Took more than a thousand photos (see list on ix).
    • Good relationship to priests. Reported to Presbyterian churchmen. Took 1,000 photos. Bensly and Harris not interested in the photos. Burkitt was interested.
    • Mentions finding of Arabic Enoch, Didascalia Apostolorum, Ecclesiasticum, and a Coptic-Arabic translation. (When did they find these?)
  • Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1893. How the Codex Was Found: A Narrative of Two Visits to Sinai from Mrs. Lewis’s Journals, 1892-1893. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. http://archive.org/details/howcodexwasfound00lewi.

Feb. 1892 Trip

  • Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1894. An Arabic Version of the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians with Part of the Epistle to the Ephesians from the Ninth Century MS. in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 2. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/arabicversionofe00gibs.
    • Which basket was this ms found in?
    • This ms. found Feb. 1892. They take photographs, the transcription prepared on the basis of the photographs was collated with codex during the second travel.
    • People involved: Agnes Lewis, Robertson Smith, J. F. Stenning (transcribed a passage during trip in 1894, that Margaret had lost)
  • Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1894. A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. London; New York: Macmillan and Co. http://archive.org/details/atranslationfou00lewigoog.
    Revised and extended edition:
    Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1896. A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. Revised and Extended. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/atranslationfou00unkngoog.
    • In the introduction, Lewis says quite a lot about how they were shown the manuscript, how J. Rendel Harris (who had visited in 1889) introduced them to the monks and coached them on how to gain access to the mss and even taught them photography.
    • See also
      Burkitt, F. Crawford. 1904. Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe: The Curetonian Version of the Four Gospels, with the Readings of the Sinai Palimpsest and the Early Syriac Patristic Evidence. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/cu31924092359680.
      which uses the Sinai Palimpsest to supplement the text of the Curetonian. Compare this to
      Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1910. The Old Syriac Gospels or Evangelion Da-Mepharreshê; Being the Text of the Sinai or Syro-Antiochene Palimpsest, Including the Latest Additions and Emendations, with the Variants of the Curetonian Text, Corroborations from Many Other MSS., and a List of Quotations from Ancient Authors. London: Williams and Norgate. http://archive.org/details/oldsyriacgospels00lewirich.
      , a few years later, which prints the text of the Sinai Palimpsest with references to the Curetonian.
  • Lewis’s “Introduction” in
    Bensly, Robert L., J. Rendel Harris, F. Crawford Burkitt, and Agnes Smith Lewis. 1894. The Four Gospels in Syriac: Transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/fourgospelsinsyr00bens.
    (The archive.org scan is upside down.)
  • Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1910. The Old Syriac Gospels or Evangelion Da-Mepharreshê; Being the Text of the Sinai or Syro-Antiochene Palimpsest, Including the Latest Additions and Emendations, with the Variants of the Curetonian Text, Corroborations from Many Other MSS., and a List of Quotations from Ancient Authors. London: Williams and Norgate. http://archive.org/details/oldsyriacgospels00lewirich.
    • Edition of manuscript (refers in the preface to Burkitt)
    • Refers to the work they did in successive trips, including filling in the gaps in 1906.
  • Lewis, Agnes Smith, and F. Crawford Burkitt. 1900. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as Written above the Old Syriac Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari-Qanūn in A.D. 778.: Syriac Text. Studia Sinaitica 9. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/selectnarrative00burkgoog.
    Lewis, Agnes Smith, and F. Crawford Burkitt. 1900. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as Written above the Old Syriac Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari-Qanūn in A.D. 778.: Translation. Studia Sinaitica 10. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/SelectNarrativesOfHolyWomen10.
    • This is the publication of the upper text of the Sinai palimpsest. (The undertext is the Old Syriac Gospels.)
    • In Old Syriac Gospels (1910) says she overlooked the colophons of this upper text.

Feb. 1893 Trip

  • Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1894. Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 1. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/catalogueofsyria00lewiuoft.
    • Based on a list which she compiled during a 40-day visit to Sinai in Feb. 1893. Says she and Gibson were at Sinai in Feb. 1892, when she “discovered” and photographed the Old Syriac Gospels palimpsest along with other mss. Greek letter from Archbishop Porphyrios, Jan. 13, 1893 granted permission to examine all Syriac and Arabic books in the monastery, upon the condition that they leave the list in the monastery in Greek. This was completed with help of J. Rendel Harris, who created the Appendix of Fragments and published the text of these in
      Harris, J. Rendel. 1890. Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/biblicalfragment00harruoft.
      Harris made photos of Syriac nos. 10 and 16 in 1889. Lewis notes that some shelf numbers are uncatalogued since the mss are missing, including one of 2–3 Maccabees photographed by Harris in 1889.
  • Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1894. Catalogue of the Arabic MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 3. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/catalogueofarabi00sainrich.
    • 11 January 1893 (Cairo), preparation of second travel (Catalogue of Arabic, mss, p. vii), they obtain permission by Archbishop Porphyrios to catalogue Arabic and Syriac ( letter printed in Syriac catalogue, see above), Mrs Bensly counted the leaves J. Rendel Harris gives advise
    • Agnes helped with the description of about 50 folios.
    • Little reference to earlier manuscript hunters!
  • Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1899. An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic Epistles from an Eighth or Ninth Century MS. in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai; With a Treatise on the Triune Nature of God, with Translation, from the Same Codex. Studia Sinaitica 7. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/arabicversionofa00gibs.
    • Ms. found in 1893 trip. Mrs. Burkitt transcribed Antilegomena (2 Peter, 2–3 John, Jude) text and gave Dr. Merx who edited and published in Z. f. Assyrologie (1897–1898). Also mentions 3rd (1895) and 4th (1897) trips. See
      Merx, Adalbert. 1897. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. I. Texte.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 12: 240–52. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117717.
      Merx, Adalbert. 1897. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. II. Anmerkungen.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 12: 348–81. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117732.
      Merx, Adalbert. 1898. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. Schluss.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 13: 1–28. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117746.
  • See also
    Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1894. A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. London; New York: Macmillan and Co. http://archive.org/details/atranslationfou00lewigoog.
    , xiii-xiv about the team of scholars who corrected the edition of the Old Syriac Gospels from the Sinai Palimpsest during this 1893 trip.

Spring 1895 Trip

1896 Trip

  • They buy Genizah fragments.

1897 Trip

  • Lewis, Agnes Smith, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, and David S. Margoliouth. 1907. Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts with Text and English Translation. Studia Sinaitica 12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/fortyonefacsimil0000agne.
    • Started collecting and photographing dated Arabic mss.
    • Mentions 1902 finding of Ar. 514 and using chemical reagent on it (hydrosulphurate of ammonia)
    • Mentions people they worked with to get additional specimens (from British Library, Bibliotheque Nationale, Khedivial Library Cairo) and to help with difficult readings.

1902 Trip

1906 Trip

Uncategorized

Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1900. Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/PalestinianSyriacTextsFromPalimpsestFragmentsInTheTaylor-schechter.
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1896. Some Pages of the Four Gospels Re-Transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest with a Translation of the Whole Text. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/somepagesoffourg00lewi.
(includes in blue ink her own contributions)

Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1870. Eastern Pilgrims: The Travels of Three Ladies. London: Hurst and Blackett. http://archive.org/details/easternpilgrims00smitgoog.
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1899. The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels: Re-Edited from Two Sinai MSS. and from P. de Lagarde’s Edition of the “Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum.” London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. http://archive.org/details/palestiniansyri00gibsgoog.
Harris, J. Rendel. 1890. Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/biblicalfragment00harruoft.
Mingana, Alphonse, and Agnes Smith Lewis. 1914. Leaves From Three Ancient Qurâns: Possibly Pre-ʿOthmânic, with a List of Their Variants. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/LeavesFromThreeAncientQurans.
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1913. Light on the Four Gospels from the Sinai Palimpsest. London: Williams and Norgate. http://archive.org/details/cu31924091301089.
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Ignazio Guidi. 1904. Acta Mythologica Apostolorum: Transcribed from an Arabic MS in the Convent of Deyr-Es-Suriani, Egypt, and from MSS in the Convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai. Horae Semiticae 3. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/actamythologica00guidgoog.
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1902. Apocrypha Syriaca: The Protevangelium Jacobi and Transitus Mariae, with Texts from the Septuagint, the Corân, the Peshiṭta, and from a Syriac Hymn in a Syro-Arabic Palimpsest of the Fifth and Other Centuries. Studia Sinaitica 11. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/apocryphasyriac00goog.
Lewis, Agnes Smith, Eberhard Nestle, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1897. A Palestinian Syriac Lectionary: Containing Lessons from the Pentateuch, Job, Proverbs, Prophets, Acts, and Epistles. Studia Sinaitica 6. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/palestiniansyria00lewiuoft.

Manuscript acquired in the spring of 1895 (which travel, where is it today?). Describes how they were approached by a dealer.  

The two earlier lectionaries were discovered by her in 1892 (first travel) and the other in 1893 by J. Rendel Harris (second travel). Suspects that the manuscript is from Sinai and sends information to the monks. They assure that nothing has ever been in Sinai.

Fabio Ioppolo, Andreas Klindt, and Kerstin Klingelhöffer: Timeline of the Sister's Sinai Trips

Works Cited and Further Reading

Bensly, Robert L., J. Rendel Harris, F. Crawford Burkitt, and Agnes Smith Lewis. 1894. The Four Gospels in Syriac: Transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/fourgospelsinsyr00bens. Cite
Burkitt, F. Crawford. 1904. Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe: The Curetonian Version of the Four Gospels, with the Readings of the Sinai Palimpsest and the Early Syriac Patristic Evidence. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/cu31924092359680. Cite
Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1894. An Arabic Version of the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians with Part of the Epistle to the Ephesians from the Ninth Century MS. in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 2. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/arabicversionofe00gibs. Cite
Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1893. How the Codex Was Found: A Narrative of Two Visits to Sinai from Mrs. Lewis’s Journals, 1892-1893. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. http://archive.org/details/howcodexwasfound00lewi. Cite
Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1899. An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic Epistles from an Eighth or Ninth Century MS. in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai; With a Treatise on the Triune Nature of God, with Translation, from the Same Codex. Studia Sinaitica 7. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/arabicversionofa00gibs. Cite
Gibson, Margaret Dunlop. 1894. Catalogue of the Arabic MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 3. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/catalogueofarabi00sainrich. Cite
Hall, Richard R. 2012. The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels. Mullen Library, Catholic University of America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSVPUU8unms. Cite
Harris, J. Rendel. 1890. Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/biblicalfragment00harruoft. Cite
Jefferson, Rebecca J. W. 2009. “Sisters of Semitics: A Fresh Appreciation of the Scholarship of Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson.” Medieval Feminist Forum 45 (1): 23–49. https://www.academia.edu/7042740/Sisters_of_Semitics_A_Fresh_Appreciation_of_the_Scholarship_of_Agnes_Smith_Lewis_and_Margaret_Dunlop_Gibson. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1870. Eastern Pilgrims: The Travels of Three Ladies. London: Hurst and Blackett. http://archive.org/details/easternpilgrims00smitgoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1896. Some Pages of the Four Gospels Re-Transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest with a Translation of the Whole Text. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/somepagesoffourg00lewi. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1913. Light on the Four Gospels from the Sinai Palimpsest. London: Williams and Norgate. http://archive.org/details/cu31924091301089. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1902. Apocrypha Syriaca: The Protevangelium Jacobi and Transitus Mariae, with Texts from the Septuagint, the Corân, the Peshiṭta, and from a Syriac Hymn in a Syro-Arabic Palimpsest of the Fifth and Other Centuries. Studia Sinaitica 11. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/apocryphasyriac00goog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1898. In the Shadow of Sinai: A Story of Travel and Research from 1895 to 1897. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. https://archive.org/details/inshadowsinaias01lewigoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1910. The Old Syriac Gospels or Evangelion Da-Mepharreshê; Being the Text of the Sinai or Syro-Antiochene Palimpsest, Including the Latest Additions and Emendations, with the Variants of the Curetonian Text, Corroborations from Many Other MSS., and a List of Quotations from Ancient Authors. London: Williams and Norgate. http://archive.org/details/oldsyriacgospels00lewirich. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1894. A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. London; New York: Macmillan and Co. http://archive.org/details/atranslationfou00lewigoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1896. A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. Revised and Extended. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/atranslationfou00unkngoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith. 1894. Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica 1. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/catalogueofsyria00lewiuoft. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and F. Crawford Burkitt. 1900. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as Written above the Old Syriac Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari-Qanūn in A.D. 778.: Syriac Text. Studia Sinaitica 9. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/selectnarrative00burkgoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and F. Crawford Burkitt. 1900. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as Written above the Old Syriac Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari-Qanūn in A.D. 778.: Translation. Studia Sinaitica 10. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/SelectNarrativesOfHolyWomen10. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1899. The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels: Re-Edited from Two Sinai MSS. and from P. de Lagarde’s Edition of the “Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum.” London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. http://archive.org/details/palestiniansyri00gibsgoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1900. Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/PalestinianSyriacTextsFromPalimpsestFragmentsInTheTaylor-schechter. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, and Ignazio Guidi. 1904. Acta Mythologica Apostolorum: Transcribed from an Arabic MS in the Convent of Deyr-Es-Suriani, Egypt, and from MSS in the Convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai. Horae Semiticae 3. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/actamythologica00guidgoog. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, and David S. Margoliouth. 1907. Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts with Text and English Translation. Studia Sinaitica 12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/fortyonefacsimil0000agne. Cite
Lewis, Agnes Smith, Eberhard Nestle, and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 1897. A Palestinian Syriac Lectionary: Containing Lessons from the Pentateuch, Job, Proverbs, Prophets, Acts, and Epistles. Studia Sinaitica 6. London: C. J. Clay and Sons. http://archive.org/details/palestiniansyria00lewiuoft. Cite
Merx, Adalbert. 1897. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. I. Texte.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 12: 240–52. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117717. Cite
Merx, Adalbert. 1897. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. II. Anmerkungen.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 12: 348–81. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117732. Cite
Merx, Adalbert. 1898. “Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testaments in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Übersetzung: Nach der Abschrift eines Manuscripts des Sinai-Klosters von Frau A. Persis Burkitt veröffentlicht und mit Anmerkungen versehen. Schluss.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 13: 1–28. http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/117746. Cite
Mingana, Alphonse, and Agnes Smith Lewis. 1914. Leaves From Three Ancient Qurâns: Possibly Pre-ʿOthmânic, with a List of Their Variants. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/LeavesFromThreeAncientQurans. Cite
Soskice, Janet. 2010. Sisters Of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. London: Vintage Books. Cite
Whigham Price, A. 1987. The Ladies of Castlebrae: The Life of Dr. Agnes Smith Lewis and Dr. Margaret Dunlop Gibson. London: Headline. Cite