Quire 34, Folio 8v
British Library

1 Chronicles (duplicate), 10:11 - 11:22  library: BL  folio: 1b  scribe: A

Physical Description

Parchment
Comment: Cockerell has assembled this quire using parchment hook guards. He has inserted a new blank parchment sheet as quire leaf 2, indicating that there is a gap between BL folios 1 and 2 and that 20 folios exist elsewhere. No folio 3 in quire. Instead we see a parchment hook guard attached to folio 6.
Quire 35, Folio 1r
Leipzig University Library

1 Chronicles (duplicate), 11:22 - 12:18  library: LUL  folio: i  scribe: A

Physical Description

Parchment
Veining: e
Opacity: 92,76
Hair or flesh side: F
Follicle marks: h
Colour: S1005-Y20R
Surface appearance: S
Parchment thickness:
    m1         10,5
    m2         10
    m3         11
    m4         10
    m5         13
    m6         12
    m7         15
    average         11,6428571428571
    variance         5
Quire 37, Folio 3v
Leipzig University Library

Tobit, 1:7 - 2:2  library: LUL  folio: xix_v  scribe: D

Physical Description

Parchment
Scar tissue: g
Veining: a12-15 + a-b5-6 + e + f + h
Opacity: 92,07
Hair or flesh side: H
Follicle marks: f + g + i
Axilla marks: d + f
Colour: S1005-Y20R
Surface appearance: M
Parchment thickness:
    m1         13
    m2         14
    m3         13
    m4         23
    m5         15
    m6         15
    m7         15
    average         15,4285714285714
    variance         10
Quire 37, Folio 4r
British Library

Tobit, 2:2 - 3:6  library: BL  folio: 2  scribe: D

Physical Description

Parchment
Opacity: 92,04
Hair or flesh side: H
Axilla marks: f-g
Colour: S1010-Y10R
Surface appearance: S
Parchment thickness:
    m1         16
    m2         19
    m3         16
    m4         20
    m5         13
    m6         15
    m7         17
    average         16,5714285714286
    variance         7
Quire 47, Folio 1r
Leipzig University Library

Jeremiah, 10:25 - 11:23  library: LUL  folio: xx  scribe: B1, overwriting by corrector d

Physical Description

Parchment
Scar tissue: f
Veining: a1-13 + a-b7-13 + b16-12 + c19-20 + e + f + h + j
Parchment maker's holes: d
Opacity: 92,76
Hair or flesh side: F
Follicle marks: e + f + g + h
Striation: h + f
Colour: S1005-Y20R
Surface appearance: M
Parchment thickness:
    m1         15
    m2         18
    m3         13
    m4         15
    m5         17
    m6         11
    m7         14
    average         14,7142857142857
    variance         7
Quire 46, Folio 8v
British Library

Jeremiah, 9:20 - 10:25  library: BL  folio: 73b  scribe: B1

Physical Description

Parchment
Hair or flesh side: F
Colour: S1010-Y
Surface appearance: S
Quire 49, Folio 8v
Leipzig University Library

Lamentations, 2:5 - 2:20  library: LUL  folio: xliii_v  scribe: B1

Physical Description

Parchment
Hair or flesh side: F
Follicle marks: h
Striation: h
Colour: S1005-Y20R
Surface appearance: M
Quire 57, Folio 1r
British Library

Joel, 1:1 - 2:6  library: BL  folio: 74  scribe: B2

Physical Description

Parchment
Skeletal marks: type Y, location Y
Opacity: 91,35
Hair or flesh side: F
Colour: S1010-Y10R
Surface appearance: S
Parchment thickness:
    m1         11
    m2         13
    m3         13
    m4         18
    m5         20
    m6         18
    m7         19
    average         16
    variance         9
This page walks the reader through a series of transitions in the Codex Sinaiticus.  Transitions between the Codex Frederico-Augustanus pages (located at the Leipzig University Library), and the bulk of the pages located at the British Library.  Distinct colour differences are notable between the two collections.

Images used on this page have been obtained from the Codex Sinaiticus Project at www.codexsinaiticus.org in accordance with the non-commercial personal, and educational use provision in their copyright statement.

As of December 2016, many of the images as well as the Physical Description of the individual folia of Codex Sinaiticus are no longer available on the project website.  We certainly hope that the images and data will be made available again soon.
Color Comparison

Based on color value given in parchment description.
This first image is a collage of all the images of Codex Sinaiticus.  The pages held in Leipzig University Library immediately stand out as much whiter and very easy to distinguish from all of the pages and fragments held at the three other locations by colour alone.

Below are paired images that show each transition.

It has been noted that there are stains on some pages that match stains on the opposing page.  This is normal, and obviously occurred pre-1844 when the codex was in its bound state.  These stains, caused by factors such as exposure to weather or careless storage  are distinct from the significant whole-page staining/darkening seen in the British Library pages in comparison to the Leipzig pages.
Click on an image to open at full size
The CSP uses the NCS (Natural Colour System) to describe the colour of each manuscript leaf held at Leipzig University Library and at the British Library.  Fragments and Leaves held at Saint Catherine's Monastery and the National Library of Russia have not been assigned an NCS number.

The NCS colour numbers represent the following information:
  • S stands for "standard collection".
  • The first two digits represents the "blackness of the colour as a percentage.
  • The second set of two digits represents the chromatic strength of the colour.
  • The last set of letters and digits represents the hue of the colour.   For example Y is yellow with no red; Y10R is 90% yellow and 10% red; Y20R is 80% yellow and 20% red.
http://www.ncscolour.com/en/natural-colour-system/logic-behind-the-system/

The colour of the CFA pages housed in Leipzig are consistently characterized by the CSP as S1005-Y20R, while the leaves housed at the British Library are more variable.  They tend toward a NCS number of S1010-Y or S1010-Y10R but vary all the way from S1005-Y20R to S1515-Y10R.

This indicates that while the CFA pages are described as having:
10% blackness and a 5% chromatic strength with the hue being 80% yellow and 20% red.

The pages in the British Library are between 10% and 15% in blackness, with chromatic strength between 5% and 15% and the hue ranging from 100% yellow to 80% yellow and 20% red.

Note: If hue remains constant, going from 5% chromatic strength to 15% chromatic strength results in a 200% increase in the color intensity.

Why are the CFA pages a consistently rosey, yellowish white, while the British Library pages are quite variable - darker and strongly yellow?







S1010-Y10R

BL
S1005-Y20R

LUL
S1010-Y

BL
S1515-Y10R

BL
Two of these pages are from CFA and two are from the British Library portion of Codex Sinaiticus.  All four have been characterized with the colour code S1005-Y20R, yet from the CSP images they are NOT the same colour.  The British Library pages are definitely darker and more yellow.  Is this a case of colour vision variability between the researchers who did the colour characterization, or has this colour code been given to the lightest coloured of the British Library pages and then used for the CFA pages to make the colour data conform to the public perception (bolstered by the images in the 2011 facsimile by Hendricks Publishers) that the pages are all basically the same colour.

You decide....are they the same colour?

Q48 f4v (LUL)
Q93 f2v (BL)
Q90 f1r (BL)
Q35 f8r (LUL)
The above graph shows the CSP colour data of Quire 35 through Quire 64 broken down into blackness, yellowness, redness, and total pigment. 

Clearly, the two Leipzig University Library sections show a consistent and low level of yellowness and redness.  This is reflected in the CSP images of the white pages of the LUL sections.

The British Library sections clearly show an increased yellowness and significant variability in yellowness and redness.  This is reflected in the darker, more yellowed CSP images of the BL sections.

Note also that there no spikes in blackness for any of the LUL pages, but these pages of increased blackness are only present in the BL pages.