Georgian Manuscript will be displayed at the Christie's Auction for an estimate of £1,000,000 to £1,500,000. The manuscript is Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, written in Christian-Palestinian Aramaic and Georgian, found on Mt Sinai, Egypt.
The underlying text (the palimpsests) comprises parts of six different manuscripts, the overlying texts are in Georgian, dated 979, 22-26 lines written in a single column of Khutsuri ecclesiastical book script by John Zosimos.
According to the description, the manuscript contains the earliest textual witnesses of the Gospels in the nearest dialect of Aramaic to that spoken by Jesus:
"One of the most important fragments to have come to auction of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite Christian community in Palestine and Transjordan between the 5th and 13th centuries and preserved only in a few inscriptions, palimpsests and manuscripts. The manuscript contains the earliest textual witnesses of the Gospels in the nearest dialect of Aramaic to that spoken by Jesus, composed within a living tradition based in the Holy Land. The palimpsest is overwritten with Georgian text written by the famed calligrapher, author, translator and bookbinder-monk John Zosimos, and survives here in his 10th-century binding from St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, the earliest known signed, dated and localizable binding".
The Manuscript is being sold from The Schøyen Collection - one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world, owned by the businessman Martin Schøyen.
The bidding starts on June 11th, 13:00 GMT.
