Codex Sinaiticus

The surviving portions are divided among four institutions: the British Library in London, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, the Library of the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, and the Leipzig University Library. The British Library holds the largest portion. A digital reunification was launched online in 2009.

German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf reported finding 43 parchment leaves at the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1844, and later arranged for further leaves to be brought to Russia. The manuscript was subsequently split and partially sold. Its exact provenance and removal remain debated.

About 400 leaves or fragments survive out of an estimated original 730 leaves, containing much of the Greek Old Testament and the complete New Testament, plus the Epistle of Barnabas and part of the Shepherd of Hermas. Several books remain incomplete. The leaves are written in Greek uncial script in four columns.

It is dated to the mid-fourth century AD, roughly around 350, based on paleographic analysis, making it one of the earliest near-complete Bibles. It was produced not long after the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Its production likely took place in Egypt or Caesarea.