The Library acquired a very rare paper icon with a general view of Mount Sinai (Γενική ἄποψις τοῦ Ὄρους Σινᾶ), at the June Vergos Auction in Athens.

The icon was printed in Vienna in 1759 as fundraising material for Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. The work was funded by the merchants Kyros Demou and Markos Pouliou, father of the well-known Markides brothers, who were friends and associates of Rhigas Ferraios in Vienna, with the consent and permission of Pavle Nenadović, Archbishop of Karlovich. It was edited by protosyngelos Ioannikios the Sinaite. 

On the top of the icon there is an undated letter in Latin signed by the Archbishop of Sinai Athanasius IV, addressed to European princes asking for financial help. The letter was presented by the hieromonk Mercurius the Sinaite apparently during a ‘ζητεία’ (fundraising tour) in Europe. The text is also signed, apparently later, by the Archbishop of Sinai Constantius I.

The icon does not appear in Dory Papastratou, Paper icons: Greek Orthodox religious engravings, 1665-1899.