Subject: tc-list My 3 problems

From: "Mr. Gary S. Dykes" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 22:04:10 -0700

To me the three most difficult TC problems are:

1)  Having access to and acquiring good films of NT manuscripts in America.
I would especially like the codices  0278,  0285,  0289  which the monks at
Sinai are now digitizing at St. Catherine's. For years they will not share
with Americans these manuscripts. I would like for the U. of Michigan to
share a complete photo inventory of the Chester Beatty papyri (including
Dublin's portion). I would like for the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (connected
with the Smithsonian) to share all of the photographs of codex 016, (they
claim they have no photographs) or even to rephotograph it. I would like for
the Librarians at Harvard, to find their "lost" 100 films of Biblical
manuscripts. I would like for IBM and the Vatican to share all of the
Biblical manuscripts they are currently digitizing, on high resolution CD's
for all to see. I could go on and on. More support for the ABMC.

2)  We need an internet site (with heavy international funding) to serve as
a serving database of all known Biblical manuscripts. I am speaking of
images, nice sharp high resolution, full color images of each folio of each
manuscript. Transcriptions may be included, but a good image is of the
greatest need. This would need ground level support, perhaps more than what
was generated when the U.S. and Britain filmed 3 monasteries after WW II
(now in the Library of Congress). These databases of images can easily and
cheaply be shared on CD ROMs or DVDs.

3)  All pre-printing era Biblical manuscripts need to be released into the
Public Domain, and holding institutions must share that which they did not
create within a reasonable time. What right has the British Library to
forbid the publishing of codex 01?  It is possible that some monasteries can
demonstrate right of ownership and the historical lineage of some particular
manuscript presently in their possession - these receive a special status.
If I had the support I would definitely create numerous court challenges to
this international crime.

at your service,
Mr. Gary S. Dykes