A Monk Saving Manuscripts

A little over two centuries ago French soldiers discovered a stone inscribed with both Egyptian scripts and classical Greek translation. The Rosetta Stone, as it became known, allowed scholars to understand previously undecipherable hieroglyphic script. And it contributed greatly to our knowledge of the ancient world.

Scholars are on the cusp of new discoveries using far more advanced technologies. Scanning ancient scripts blackened by fire, painted over, or simply too fragile to unroll are now all possible, with the use of x-ray fluorescence and devices used to photograph distant planets or our brains.

One of the leading scholars to rescue these crumbling literary treasures is Father Columba Stewart. He’s executive director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He’s built relations with monastic communities in far-flung Christian enclaves in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and India, working to save historical documents. He joins us now to talk about his work.

The Chronicle of Higher Education: "A Monk Saves Threatened Manuscripts Using Ultramodern Means"

(Photo courtesy retlaw snellac via Flickr/Creative Commons)