Saved From a Fire

Sharing the same display case is Codex Alexandrinus (A), which is dated 400-450 C.E. It seemed to me the most beautifully written of all the manuscripts that I saw. It takes its name from the Patriarchal Library in Alexandria, Egypt, where it was kept before being offered to King James I of England, who sponsored the famous English version of the Bible of 1611. However, the Codex Alexandrinus did not arrive until 1627, well after the completion of that work. Charles I was then king.

It was not always well cared for in the Royal Library. In 1731 it narrowly escaped destruction. Fire broke out in the room below the one in which the codex was kept. However, some evidently appreciated the manuscript’s value, for an “eye-witness tells of the learned Doctor Bentley in ‘nightgown and great wig’ stalking out of the building with the Codex Alexandrinus under his arm.”

It was in the second half of the 19th century that the three great codices, Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus, were published separately in the form of photographic facsimiles.

[Picture on page 21]

The Codex Alexandrinus (A), which is dated 400-450 C.E., takes its name from the Patriarchal Library in Alexandria, Egypt

[Credit Line]

By permission of The British Library