Lewis, Agnes Smith, 1843-1926

Agnes Smith Lewis, along with her twin sister, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, was a scholar of Semitic Languages. Born in Scotland and educated by their father the sisters traveled to the Middle East and Egypt several times before eventually settling in Cambridge, England. In 1887, Agnes married Samuel Savage Lewis, married James Young Gibson, classicist and librarian. In 1892 they visited Egypt again, and at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai they famously discovered the Sinaitic palimpsest – the oldest known copy of the Gospels. Following this pioneering research, the sisters also found – on a visit to Cairo in 1896 – leaves from an early 11-12th century Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach or Ben Sira). Using the leaves the sisters had found, Solomon Schechter discovered the lost Cairo Genizah - an area in a synagogue for storing worn-out books and papers - and in 1897 the sisters joined Schechter in working to collect the material found there. With the permission of the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Schechter took it back to Cambridge, and it is now housed in the Genizah Research Unit at the University Library. In recognition of their achievements, and at a time when Cambridge University did not award degrees to women, Mrs Lewis was awarded an honorary doctorate from Halle in 1899, and both sisters were given honorary doctorates by the University of St Andrew’s, Heidelberg, and Trinity College, Dublin.