Agnes Smith-Lewis
Agnes Smith-Lewis (born January 1843 in Irvine , Ayrshire , † 1926 ) and her twin sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson (also Smith Gibson; † January 1920) were English theologians, orientalists and travelers. When their father died, they received an inheritance of a quarter of a million pounds, traveled to Greece and Egypt in 1866 . They learned Greek , later also Syriac , Arabic and Hebrew and, with a letter of recommendation from James Rendel Harris, visited St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1890 , where they gained access to the library and discovered an Old Syriac translation of the New Testament , which they copied together with Rendel Harris were allowed to.
On further expeditions they acquired a Hebrew manuscript of Jesus Sirach , which later led to the discovery of the manuscripts of the Cairo Geniza .
They received doctoral degrees from the Universities of Halle (1899), St. Andrews (1901), Heidelberg (1904) and Trinity College Dublin (1911); only Cambridge , where they lived and participated in scientific discourse, refused them scientific recognition.
literature
- Agnes Smith-Lewis, Catalog of the Syriac Mss. In the convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai , London, 1894.
- Agnes Smith-Lewis, The old Syriac gospels: or Evangelion Da-Mepharreshê , London 1910.
- Agnes Smith Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, How the Codex Was Found / in the Shadow of Sinai: A Narrative of Two Visits to Sinai from Mrs. Lewis's Journals, 1892-1893 / a Story of Travel and Research from 1895 to 1897
Web links
- Literature by and about Agnes Smith-Lewis in the catalog of the German National Library
- http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/lewis-and-gibson.html
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smith-Lewis, Agnes |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smith, Agnes (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish theologian and orientalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Irvine, Ayrshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1926 |