Author’s Blog
Ginsburg’s Second Installment Appears – Clermont-Ganneau and Conder Put Pen to Paper – 18 August 1883
On Saturday, 18 August 1883, Monsieur Clermont-Ganneau completed his second of two days of what he called an “unpleasant task” of examining the two fragments of the MS displayed in the King’s Library. He wrote his assessment on this day, but it would not appear until...
Clermont-Ganneau was Told No and The Record Went on Record – 17 August 1883
“On Friday, Clermont-Ganneau returned to the museum where he was informed with ‘great regret’ by Edward Augustus Bond, the principal librarian, that Mr. Shapira had ‘expressly refused his consent’ for him to inspect the fragments. The Frenchman would describe his...
Dr. Ginsburg’s Reticence – Liverpool Daily Post – 16 August 1883
On Thursday, 16 August 1883, a reporter from the Liverpool Daily Post expressed, on behalf of the believers in the authenticity of the leather strips, that if the manuscript was a forgery, Dr. Ginsburg would have already declared them as such. The fact that he had...
Monsieur Clermont-Ganneau’s Account of His Arrival in London – 15 August 1883
On Wednesday, 15 August 1883, Monsieur Charles Clermont-Ganneau arrived in London and made his way to the British Museum. What follows is Clermont-Ganneau’s account of the day of his arrival.[1] “I reached London on Wednesday last, instructed by the Minister of Public...
Gladstone’s Visit Reported and Guthe’s Work Goes to Print – 14 August 1883
On 14 August 1883, The Standard reported on Prime Minister Gladstone’s visit to the British Museum the previous day, and in Leipzig, Hermann Guthe penned the Foreword to the assessment of Shapira’s manuscript strips that he and Eduard Meyer had conducted...
The Prime Minister’s Visit and an Official Rejection by Two Eminent Scholars – 13 August 1883
As the second week of Ginsburg’s analysis came to an end, and with public interest on the rise, two of the leather strips were placed on display in a poorly-lit glass case in the King’s Library of the British Museum. Each day, between the hours of ten and four, under...