Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest : Christian Arabic homilies of the Church Fathers

Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The Cambridge manuscript is the largest part of a codex of which a few leaves are scattered among different institutions: fragments of the homilies are in Beuron as suggested by Vaccari in 1930 and in the Mingana Collection in Birmingham. Among the materials used for producing the homilies codex, the scribe used a few leaves belonging to two Qur’ānic manuscripts (see <a href='/view/MS-OR-01287-SMALL'>small leaves</a> and <a href='/view/MS-OR-01287-LARGE'>large leaves</a> from Qur’ānic palimpsest) together with leaves containing other texts.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The origin of the homilies codex from Sinai is based on its similarity with other Sinai manuscripts and on the information we can find in the correspondence about the acquisition of the Birmingham half leaf, which is part of a lot of manuscripts that Constantine Tischendorf brought from Sinai to Europe in 1853 and a few decades later, in 1936, were sold by Erik von Scherling to Alphonse Mingana thanks to the support of Edward Cadbury with his philanthropic project.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The codex has sixteen homilies introduced by their title and author. The scribe drew a decoration before the beginning of fifteen homilies. The most frequent decoration is composed of two intertwined lines which is a common feature in Sinai manuscripts. It is likely that the homily of John Chrysostom on the commentary on Πάτερ ἡμῶν (the Lord's Prayer) which is the twelfth title of the MS Or.1287 at <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(137);return false;'>f.114r</a> was originally the first homily of the codex.</p>