M. Maniaci - G. Orofino, Making, Writing and Decorating the Bible: Montecassino, a Case Study (original) (raw)
Related papers
Scriptorium: Wesen–Funktion–Eigenheiten. Comité international de paléographie latine, XVIII. Kolloquium, St. Gallen 11.-14. September 2013, ed A. Nievergelt, et al. München: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Komm. beim Verlag C.H. Beck, 2015., 2015
Comparisons of the scribal oeuvres and writing units – textually freestanding clusters of gatherings – in four eleventh-century Italian Giant Bibles and two giant manuscripts of St. Gregory’s Moralia in Iob reveal diverse labour systems, some devised to hasten completion of the individual volume, others dominated by the sequential work of one or a few master copyists. Specific roles within the scribal teams also emerge, most notably that of ‘finisher’ scribes, experts in mise-en-page and mise-en-cahier who appear to have acted as project directors, distributing work to the other amanuenses and checking the finished writing units in preparation for binding. Published in Scriptorium : Wesen – Funktion – Eigenheiten. Comité international de paléographie latine, XVIII. Kolloquium, St. Gallen 11.-14. September 2013, ed A. Nievergelt, R. Gamper,... [et al.] (München: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Komm. beim Verlag C.H. Beck, 2015).
Comparisons of the scribal oeuvres and writing units – textually freestanding clusters of gatherings – in four eleventh-century Italian Giant Bibles and two giant manuscripts of St. Gregory’s Moralia in Iob reveal diverse labour systems, some devised to hasten completion of the individual volume, others dominated by the sequential work of one or a few master copyists. Specific roles within the scribal teams also emerge, most notably that of ‘finisher’ scribes, experts in mise-en-page and mise-en-cahier who appear to have acted as project directors, distributing work to the other amanuenses and checking the finished writing units in preparation for binding. Published in Scriptorium : Wesen – Funktion – Eigenheiten. Comité international de paléographie latine, XVIII. Kolloquium, St. Gallen 11.-14. September 2013, ed A. Nievergelt, R. Gamper,... [et al.] (München: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Komm. beim Verlag C.H. Beck, 2015).
Abstract : Eleventh-century Umbro-Roman Giant Bibles were commissioned by varied church and lay patrons (and not only by Roman reform party adherents) and crafted by ad hoc assemblies of paid craftsmen using methods of carefully calibrated, synchronous copying to reduce production time for the single commission. Résumé : Les Bibles géantes ombro-romaines, commanditées par différents patrons ecclésiastiques et laïcs (et non par les seuls adhérents du parti réformiste romain), furent réalisées par des équipes d’artisans salariés spécialement constituées dans ce but. Ils utilisaient des techniques de copie synchronisée soigneusement calibrées pour réduire les temps de production de chaque commande.
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
PLEASE NOTE: I have begun to upload the text and appendices of my dissertation in segments. As of today (5 November 2011), Chapters 1-3 are posted, incuding some of the appendices. Other sections will be added soon, as I work out the formatting problems for on-line posting. Please note that the dissertation was copyrighted in 2004 with University Microfilms International now UMI/Proquest, through whom a complete edition (print and digital), with photographs and full appendices, will be made available early in 2012. Praised by Edward Garrison as “the most impressive, the most monumental illustrations of all the Italian twelfth century now known,” the miniatures of the Giant Bible of Perugia’s Biblioteca Comunale Augusta (Ms. L. 59) and the codex that contains them have always defied compelling classification. Although generally considered a twelfth-century Roman work, the manuscript varies from the norms of the Umbro-Roman Giant Bible ‘edition’ in the lavishness of its initials, in the monumental style of its miniatures, and in its episodic illustrations of the Six Days of Creation, a narrative otherwise unattested in central Italian art before the late twelfth century. This comparative codicological study of the manuscript in its principal aspects—textual, palaeographic, structural, and pictorial—results in a model of its origins significantly different from previous hypotheses based on pictorial considerations alone. Attributed to scribes and painters at work in northern Umbria or southeastern Tuscany in the years between circa 1060 and 1080, the Latin Old Testament of the Biblioteca Augusta seems to have been made for donation, probably to the Cathedral of Perugia, under the sponsorship of a married couple who commemorated their union through the unusual iconography of its miniatures. Its closest textual-paleographic kin within the larger family of the Italian Giant Bibles turn out, in some cases, to be codices formerly assigned to entirely different regions. Most notable are the magnificently illustrated Edili Bible (Florence, Bibl Medicea Laurenziana, Edili 125-126), the first volume of the First Casanatense Bible (Rome, Bibl. Casanatense, Ms. 720), and the little-known Giant Bible of the Abbey of S. Pietro in Perugia (Archivio Storico di S. Pietro, Cod. I). The differing decorations of these Bibles, combined with their intimately related texts and, in the first two cases, similar or identical scribal hands, urge a rethinking of the style-based methods normally used to date and localize Italian Giant Bibles. They also suggest a complex division of labor, a surprisingly early chronology, and a possible association of some early Italian Giant Bible production with southern Tuscan centers, including S. Salvatore of Monte Amiata.
Scribes and Scripture: The Amazing Story of How We Got the Bible
2022
This is the book I've been waiting for! With skeptical claims against the Bible readily available online, this book will be a resource I will refer to again and again. Looking for an accessible yet thorough explanation of how you got your Bible? Look no further than Scribes and Scripture. " Alisa Childers, author, Another Gospel? and Live Your Truth and Other Lies; Host, The Alisa Childers Podcast "Many Christians love the Bible and yet know little of the fascinating story of what happened between its original composition and the book we can hold in our hands today. In Scribes and Scripture, John Meade and Peter Gurry provide a succinct and yet amazingly detailed overview of how the Bible was written and copied, canonized, and translated. This book will enable Christians to understand why Protestants have a different canon than Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. It will teach them how to respond to secular critics who claim the Bible has been hopelessly corrupted over time or that the process of canonization was the arbitrary result of power struggles in the early church. And it will encourage them that we can trust our Bibles without ignoring or downplaying the messy realities of scribal errors, variant manuscripts, or disagreements about canonicity in the church. Properly considered, these 'human' elements in the story of the Bible in no way detract from the Bible's authority as the word of God. I enthusiastically recommend this timely, unique, wise, and God-honoring book to anyone who wonders how we have received the Bible we have today. It will be the first book I recommend on the subject to any curious inquirer. " Gavin Ortlund, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Ojai; author, Finding the Right Hills to Die On "Misconceptions and myths about the Bible's origins lead many to reject it and continue to confuse sincere believers. Now, at last, we have a book that shatters these misconceptions. This impressively informative book is based on solid scholarship, yet it is accessible, easy to read, and profitable for any reader at any level. Not for a generation have we seen such a helpful book on this topic! I heartily recommend it to everyone. " Peter J. Gentry, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Old Testament and Senior Research Fellow of the Text & Canon Institute at Phoenix Seminary "Questions proliferate today on the Bible as scholars, and even laypeople, debate whether the Scriptures were accurately copied and transmitted, whether the books accepted as canonical are the right ones, and whether our many translations are accurate or needed. Meade and Gurry give us a sane and responsible tour on all these questions. One of the striking features of the book is its fairness and its reasonableness. No book, of course, is written without a perspective, but Meade and Gurry aren't trying to win a debate or to demonize opponents. They carefully present and analyze the evidence so that readers can make their own judgments. I can't think of another book that introduces in such a brief and illuminating way matters of text, canon, and translation. " Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary "The history of the Bible is complex: it involves multiple languages (ancient and modern), and it divides into two very much distinct (but also overlapping) branches we call the Old and New Testaments. Christians need trusted guides to lead us through that history. This is why I am so grateful for the work of Old Testament specialist John Meade, New Testament specialist Peter Gurry, and their Text & Canon Institute. They represent the newest generation of evangelical historians of the Bible, and they are both able and eager to keep a foot in the academy and a foot in the church. There are many threats to the orthodox viewpoint on text, canon, and translation. Scribes and Scripture is their attempt to serve the church by guiding Christians toward an accurate and faith-filled grasp of the Bible's history. "
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation, 2019
This chapter examines the extant scriptural remains of the early Christians in order to elucidate the context in which early Christian Scriptures were produced, read, and interpreted. To this end, it considers various issues relating to the earliest extant Christian Scriptures such as their physical formats (scrolls, codices, etc.), mise-en-page, literary conventions and extra-textual features, production (where and by whom), as well as their geographical distribution and circulation. By treating these early manuscripts as artefacts this chapter seeks to shed additional light on the early Christian interpretation of Scripture.
Neotestamentica, 2018
As could be expected from “one of the pre-eminent scholars of the field” (back cover), this volume is masterly written and extremely insightful. It is a collection of twelve essays written over twenty years (xvi). Except for one essay, they are all reproductions, although they have been updated to reflect the latest information (ix). In these essays, Hurtado analyses some second and third-century Christian manuscripts as artefacts. He believes that studying these manuscripts should be central to early Christian studies (xv). Although each essay makes an individual contribution, there is some repetition due to overlapping interests (xvi), but not to the point of detracting from the experience. This volume has two sections. Part one is on “Textual-Critical and Text-Historical Studies” (chs. 1–4) and part two is on “Manuscripts as Artefacts” (chs. 5–12).