New Britain herald., 1919-05-30
LITERARY TREASURE
 IN CONSTANTINOPLE
St. Sophia and Palace Libraries
 Being Examined Carefully

London, April r, Correspondence or The Associated Press. )-Antiuua- rlans and historians are now to have TOT the first time since the Turks took possession of Constantinople the op- portunity for making a thorough in vestigation of the literary treasures stored away in the great libraries there.
 The contents of the bookshelves of the St. Sophia and Palace libraries are known, but in the cellars under the Palace library there are many ~-manuscripts in Arabic, Greek. Latin and Eastern languages. These man uscripts are in hopeless confusion and no person with special aptitude for research work has been permitted to examine them in recent years About thirty years ago a German drago man obtained permission from the Sultan to spend a week in those eel lars. In that time he was able to make only a very superficial exam ination of the manuscripts, but his search, short as it was, revealed many books in Greek and Arabic of great value. Among the discoveries he re- ported were the lost books of Livy, the great Roman historian.
 Among celebrated British scholars who are planning to go to Constan- tinople to delve among the long hid den manuscripts is Sir Edwin Pears, the historian, who has spent many years in ConstantinopIe. Sir Edwin told The Associated Press correspond ent that at least six months would be required for the investigation. He does not think the libraries have been damaged by the Turks, who, he says, l,ai,. vol, His only fear is that the manuscripts will be found in sad state as a re- Asult of neglect.
 The fine libraries of the Byzantine empire were taken by the Turks in 1453. The greatest number of books are deposited, not in St. Sophia's, as popularly believed, but in the i'm perial palace about quarter of smile from the church. Under Turk ish rule these libraries were added to from time to time, the most not able acquisition resulting from the defeat by the Turks of the King of Hungary, whose collection of books was brought to Constantinople and 'placed either in St. Sophia or the - Palace library.
 "The shelves of the Palace library" said Sir Edwin, have been constant 1y picked over and the most impor- tant manuscripts probably have been stolen or destroyed. At present, what is shown to visitors is a room about 30 feet long and IS wide nicely fitted up with glass cases containing books with well-polished bindings. But there is not a book displayed which an archeologist would consider worth having. The cellars, however, con- tain hundreds of manuscripts which have never yet been satisfactorily ex- amined.
 "The library in St. Sophia's also contains many unclassified works and it may be that they include man. uscripts of importance"
 The greatest finds of manuscripts made in the vicinity of Constantinople during the last half-century were not in the Palace or St. Sophia's librar- .ies but in local libraries belonging to the Greek church. One of these, which Sir Edwin terms the most inn portant theological find of the cen- tury, was book containing the teachings of the Twelve Apostles, a document frequently quoted in the yearly centuries of Christian literature. The last half of the text had been copied and preserved, but the com plete copy was lost until about 40 years ago.
 At that time'' Sir Edwin said, ''the grand old scholar, Bishop Brien- nius of Nicome edia, the modern Ismid, one of the few Greek scholars who not only knows Greek well but is an authority on photography, was looking for the epistles of St. Clem- ent.
 "In the library of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Constantinople, he came across a small volume en- titled simply Saint Clement It contained not only the epistles of St. < Clement but the teachings of the Twelve Apostles, lost since about 1O5o Some authorities date the book as early as TO, some as late as 120.