Speech at Bibliotheca Alexandrina

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Excellencies, Dear friends,

Here we stand, at one of the cradles of civilization.

I am proud to thank the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Mr. Zahran, for hosting this luncheon in our honor.

I congratulate the Egyptian Government for this considerable undertaking carried through to its near conclusion. We all look forward to the day the library will open to the public. Then you reestablish the great city of Alexandria as one of the foremost cultural centres of the world.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a part of the international civilization. It is a privilege for any nation to take part in such a great endeavour.

I am proud that Norway has been given the opportunity to contribute to this project from the beginning – particularly through the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta.

Today I bring a small gift – at least in appearance. Let me explain:

In the 7th century A.D. valuable Coptic Christian manuscripts were buried in the sand of Egypt to protect them from invaders. The manuscripts were copies of documents once held at the old Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Among the manuscripts was a copy of the biblical text known as 1st Peter, the only work directly attributed to the apostle Peter.

The texts were long assumed lost.

Yet the handwritten manuscripts buried in the sand in Egypt re-appeared in 1952 and now belong to a private collector.

The book I bring today contains English translations of and commentaries to the long lost copy of 1st Peter by the foremost experts in the field.

The book is the forerunner of a CD-rom, now under production in the Norwegian National Library, containing facsimile versions of the manuscripts from the sand.

The digitalized version will be ready for the formal opening ceremony of the new Bibiotheca Alexandrina.

Thus the manuscripts, now in a modern form, will have travelled through time and space, to reach once again the starting point of a journey undertaken almost 2000 years ago.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,I am grateful to have had the opportunity to visit the library site.

With these words I invite you all to adress this toast to the great future of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.