‘Manuscript leaves at the University of Melbourne’, in E. Minchin & H. Jackson, eds, Text and the Material World. Essays in Honour of Graeme Clarke [Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature, PB 185] (Astrom Editions, Uppsala 2017) 359-370. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Revelations of a thirteenth-century Bible: From archaeological evidence to digital display
During the Middle Ages, the transmission of biblical texts acquires a particular meaning in the history of Western culture. Biblical writings clearly reflect the dynamics of progressive compilations, revisions and translations, and the individual copies of the Bible thus embody specific cultural identities, witnessing specific contexts of their production and use which must be understood if these artefacts are to be properly preserved.1 As a sacred object, the Bible has been used in sacred environments all over the world, and sacred purposes have conditioned its format, materials and typology. Some production evidence has been lost, other evidence remains hidden, and marks of use have been constantly superimposed, leading to a field of historical and devotional sedimentation. Such evidence, revealed through the materiality of the manuscripts, may become accessible during conservation treatments, which can be properly interpreted by means of interdisciplinary programmes.2 As well as being sacred objects, biblical manuscripts also became cultural objects used, since the nineteenth century, in cultural environments, such as museums, historical libraries and archives for cultural purposes. Most biblical manuscripts have over the course of the last seven or eight hundred years been restored and rebound several times, changed in form and function, and have become complex objects. Their conservation is not just a question of material preservation but should also seek to preserve their changing identity as cultural artefacts over time The present paper discusses a case study where the archaeological approach was particularly helpful in decision-making
A Fresh Look at P.Beatty III (P47): Towards an Integrative Study of an Early Christian Codex
Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete, 2016
Chester Beatty Biblical Papyrus III (also known as P47) is, with its ten relatively well-preserved folios, our earliest extensive manuscript of the Apocalypse of John. It has, however, received very little scholarly attention, apart from brief studies of its textual affinities and, more recently, scribal habits. This gap in our knowledge is hoped to be filled by the author’s doctoral thesis, where physical and non-textual features of the manuscript are analysed in connection with its scribal habits and textual characteristics. Such an approach is reflective of the recent trend to study manuscripts not only as the tradents of texts, but also physical artefacts in their own right. Thus, besides reporting on the shape and scope of the research project more generally, the present article aims to draw attention to three aspects of P.Beatty III where the integrative method of study has proven particularly fruitful.
Review of Biblical Literature, 2024
Christian Askeland Museum of the Bible Pasquale Orsini has revised and translated seven of his own Italian publications on early Greek-Coptic hands originally published 2008-2016, creating a cohesive volume that is freely available online. Orsini follows Guglielmo Cavallo as an authority on the Italian tradition of Greek paleography. According to this approach, scripts evolve over time from a simplistic pattern into a canonical elegance and finally a decadent complexity; scripts are born, mature, and die in parallel with their civilizations. For an introduction to the basic Greek styles, biblical studies scholars may begin with Pasquale Orsini and Willy Clarysse, "Early New Testament Manuscripts and Their Dates: A Critique of Theological Paleography," ETL 88 (2012): 443-74. For a general introduction in Italian, a beginner might seek a copy of Edoardo Crisci and Paola Degni, La scrittura greca dall'antichità all'epoca della stampa (2008). Paleographic "styles" consist of graphic paradigms present in one or more manuscripts, whereas a "stylistic class" contains numerous manuscripts with common features. A "canon" or "normative script" entails a centuries-long stratification of a style into a formalized and stable script. Generally, Orsini appeals to specific styles, using the term canonical to appeal to later, formal literary hands. The early, rough hands of the papyri lack the consistency of the great majuscules, the Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, for instance. In his first chapter, Orsini surveys the scribal hands of the Nag Hammadi codices, which contain scripts from the usual categories: (1) unimodular Alexandrian Majuscule, (2) Biblical Majuscule,
Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image
2007
The celebrated bibliographer Abu'l Faraj al-Nadim wrote once in his Kitab al-fihrist: "It is said that ugly penmanship equals sterility of culture." The lavish illustrations of Tahan's volume confirm, albeit e contrario, the validity of the dictum, while displaying with the evidence of accomplished form the fertility of Jewish culture in its most revered branch: the transmission of knowledge through the sacred medium par excellence, the book. We have witnessed in recent years a growing interest, not restricted to scholarly pursuits but extended to a broader readership, in the aesthetic dimension of the book and its visual features within Judaism. Without returning to the pioneering works of Bezalel Narkiss, it will be sufficient here to recall two very important contributions in this field, such as Benjamin Richler's, Hebrew Manuscripts. A Treasured Legacy (Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers, 1990) and Colette Sirat, Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages, ed. and trans. Nicholas De Lange (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). What distinguishes this particular contribution from those milestones is the peculiar scope of the truly wonderful exempla chosen for this secondary display (if we take for granted that photographic reproduction of art works tends to remove from them their "aura"). All of the manuscripts presented by Tahan are in fact preserved in only one library, although one of the richest on the planet: the British Library, formerly part of the British Museum. However, the opulent collection of the British Library allows Tahan, with less than 150 splendid reproductions, to trace a well-balanced survey of the history of manuscript decoration from the early Karaite Bible manuscripts (ms. Or. 2540 attributed to the tenth century) to the Shivitis and Menorah plaques of the ms. Or. 14057, produced in India in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the main bulk of the manuscripts reproduced in this volume are medieval, as in the Middle Ages the craftsmanship of Jewish scribes and illuminators celebrated its triumphs. The policy of the British Library, especially in nineteenth century, was to extensively collect Hebrew manuscripts from any place and age, so that one can say that with the exception