MONASTERY

The three items derive from the Bilainkin papers. Each is separately paginated and stapled, with the text on one side only of the leaves. All three in good condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with rusty staples. Item One: Titled 'ADD 1960 DIARY. Saturday, July 23.' 7pp., foolscap 8vo. With carbon copy of the same.

8vo: 120 pp. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps. Lightly foxed, with wraps grubby and creased. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap. 'Published under arrangement with the Author', with a six-page preface by the translator, dated October 1866. The Codex Sinaiticus, now in the British Library, was found by Constantin von Tischendorf on his third visit to the Monastery of Saint Catherine, at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, in 1859. 'I would rather', he writes here, 'have discovered this Sinaitic manuscript than the Koh-i-noor of the Queen off England.'

3pp., 8vo, bifolium, grubby, creased, ink-smudge, part of second leaf cut off, cride repairs but text clear and complete, but in a difficult (hasty?) hand. As far as I can tell he says: "My dear Mr Palmer | I have been dining here with Mr [Sturd], I told him that I was writing a tale, which wd be a sequel to Mr Walker's "3 months" & something else besides, he said he thought you wd not object to print & publish it. I was afraid to ask you, thinking it wd do you harm, even if your kindness wd not let you refuse me.