It was a cheap plastic envelope that first aroused a rare-manuscript dealer's suspicion about two pages that appeared to be cut from a medieval book.

On one page was a painting of a man threshing grain, which the dealer, Bruce Ferrini, said was "one of the finest miniatures of the 14th century." Mr. Ferrini, who is based in Akron, Ohio, placed the combined value of the two pages at $500,000.

So naturally, Mr. Ferrini said, he found it disturbing when the man, whom he knew to be a professor of art at Ohio State University, brought in the two pages on May 4 with the delicate artifacts in the envelope, separated only by a single sheet of paper.

Now, largely because of Mr. Ferrini's curiosity and a colleague's scholarly detective work, the professor, Anthony Melnikas of Columbus, Ohio, is being questioned by United States Customs officials, in connection with the possession of the leaves from a manuscript once owned by Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet who was a founder of humanism.

The investigators are hoping to establish exactly how the two leaves made their way from the Vatican Library in Rome to Ohio. Professor Melnikas has not been charged with any offense.

The Professor, a 68-year-old authority on medieval manuscripts, is a native of Lithuania who came to to the United States in 1950. He was questioned last Friday, after the Vatican Library confirmed that the two leaves were missing and that he had checked out the Petrarch manuscript in 1987.

Professor Melnikas early yesterday dismissed the whole affair as "a simple matter" and said he had not yet decided whether to retain a lawyer.

Later in the day, James E. Phillips and Kevin Matthews, two Columbus lawyers who reported that they represented Professor Melnikas, said, "The Professor did not intend to deprive the Vatican of any property."

Experts in the field said they were shaken by the possibility that someone like Professor Melnikas might be responsible for the missing pages. Thanks to his academic credentials, he has had unsupervised access to collections of rare books and manuscripts at the Vatican and throughout the world for 30 years.

"We treated him as a collaborator," said the Rev. Leonard E. Boyle, the head of the Vatican Library. He added that Professor Malnikas was so well known to Vatican Library staff members that he was granted many privileges, including being allowed the free run of the library in August when it is closed to the general public. Such treatment is extended only to a small group of specialists.

Constance Lowenthal, executive director of the International Foundation for Art Research, which tracks stolen art, said the case was a reminder that such institutions must be willing to search all visitors.

"It's impolite," Dr. Lowenthal said. "It's rude, but they have to do it."

Federal officials in Ohio would neither confirm nor deny that there was an investigation of Professor Melnikas. But Father Boyle said that a United States Customs agent had questioned him about the missing leaves and about Professor Melnikas.

The two men who discovered and reported the theft -- Mr. Ferrini and James H. Marrow, a professor of art history at Princeton University -- said a Customs official based in Cleveland, Mark Beauchamp, had briefed them about his questioning of Professor Melnikas last Friday and again yesterday. In fact, they said Mr. Beauchamp had told them on Friday that Professor Melnikas had given him a third leaf from the same manuscript. Mr. Beauchamp yesterday refused to comment about the investigation.

Before Professor Melnikas delivered the manuscript leaves to Mr. Ferrini, he said he had met the Professor at a retirement ceremony for him. Mr. Ferrini said he was impressed by the praise that the Professor received and by the fact that he said he was establishing a scholarship fund for the study of ancient manuscripts.

Professor Melnikas yesterday denied ever having made such a statement. "I don't have the money for that," he said with a chuckle.

But Mr. Ferrini said, his suspicions were further aroused as he received the manuscripts when Professor Melnikas told him contradictory stories about how he had acquired the manuscript leaves. The Professor told him, Mr. Ferrini said, that he had bought them, that he had inherited them and later in the same conversation that he had acquired them in a trade with an artist.

Consequently, Mr. Ferrini said, he sent photocopies of the manuscripts by Federal Express to Professor Marrow at Princeton.

It took Professor Marrow nearly a week of research to determine that the leaves came from a 14th-century copy of a Roman text on agriculture. Notations on the margin of the leaves established that they belonged to a book commissioned by Petrarch.

Professor Marrow then called Father Boyle at the Vatican Library in Rome, and asked whether any pages were missing. The Vatican Library staff checked the manuscript, found the two leaves missing and immediately replied. Father Boyle yesterday confirmed that the manuscript was missing a third page.

In addition, Professor Marrow was told that Professor Melnikas had checked out the book in 1987, and according to Vatican records was one of only 12 North Americans who had done so in the last eight years.

After Professor Marrow informed Mr. Ferrini that the leaves were missing from the Vatican Library's manuscript, he delivered the leaves to Customs officials in Cleveland. The agency then began investigating the matter.

Lilian Randall, curator of manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, said yesterday that she had known Professor Melnikas for 25 years as a visitor to the gallery. "He was always friendly, polite, formal, erect and someone who took his work very seriously," she said.

Professor Melnikas studied art at the University of Pisa and at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence and Rome. After moving to the United States, he earned a doctorate in art history from the University of Michigan in 1961. He had received two Fulbright grants, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Samuel Kress Foundation.

Mr. Ferrini remains bewildered by the theft.

"It's a colossal thing, just remarkable," he said. "You don't cut up Petrarch's copy. You don't do that with something you love."

Photo: A page missing from the Vatican Library's copy of a 14th-century copy a Roman text on agriculture, which was once owned by Petrarch.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/23/us/curious-dealer-uncovers-missing-vatican-treasure.html?src=pm
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