Moore on Aramaic Papyrus Fragments in Berlin

James Moore has just released his open access monograph publishing many new documentary papyrus fragments from Elephantine in the Berlin collection. In addition to the editions themselves, he provides helpful reviews of the literature, paleographic analysis, and indices.

EPHE-PSL Seminars on Ancient Scripts

On the Scriptish mailing list Andreas Stauder announces French-language program of seminars on a wide range of ancient scripts. The recorded sessions are also available on YouTube. See below details from the email.

Cycle « Les écritures dans les mondes anciens »,  

de l’Institut des langues rares (Ilara) de l’EPHE-PSL (Paris) : 

 

- Le programme : 

https://ilara.hypotheses.org/files/2022/02/Conferences-ecritures-anciennes.pdf 

 

- La prochaine conférence :  

« Observations sur les écritures d’Asie Centrale au Ier millénaire de notre ère »,  

par Georges-Jean Pinault, le mercredi 20 avril, à 18h30 (inscription gratuite, obligatoire, sur eventbrite) : 

https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/billets-conference-8-cycle-de-conferences-les-ecritures-dans-les-mondes-anciens-316661361657  

 

- La chaîne YouTube, avec les sept conférences déjà données :  

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT__n1OePD2jGdJTR0hNVdUrYYF-Nl3c5 

A 3rd Millennium Origin of Early Alphabetic?

Christopher Rollston gives a fascinating discussion of recent finds of clay cylinders at Tell Umm el-Marra in Western Syria that appear to be inscribed in Early Alphabetic script. They were found in what is said to be a firm 3rd millennium BCE archeological context, which Rollston concedes could imply that Early Alphabetic was invented earlier than is normally assumed (19th-18th centuries BCE).

Digital Palaeography and Hebrew/Aramaic Scribal Culture Conference Program and Registration

Digital Palaeography and Hebrew/Aramaic Scribal Culture

 

 

The 2021 International Online Groningen Symposium

6–8 April 2021

13:00–20:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

 

Hosted by the

Qumran Institute (University of Groningen)

Bernoulli Institute (University of Groningen)

 

 

 

To register, please email Drew Longacre at d.g.longacre@rug.nl.

A Zoom invitation will be sent to presenters and registered attendees on 5 April.

 

Tuesday, 6 April

 

13:00 CET       Jouke de Vries (President of the University of Groningen)

                        Welcome

 

                        Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)

                        Introduction

 

 

Session 1 — The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography

Chair: Eibert Tigchelaar

 

13:15         Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)

Digital Palaeography for Identifying the Unknown Scribes and Dating the Undated Manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls

 

13:45         Maruf Dhali (University of Groningen)

Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition Techniques in Analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls

 

14:15         Gemma Hayes (University of Groningen)

    Digital Palaeography and the Scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls 

 

14:45         Drew Longacre (University of Groningen)

Data Mining for Writer Identification: The Test Case of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls

 

15:15         Discussion

 

 

15:30–16:15    Break

 

 

Session 2 —  The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Radiocarbon Dating

Chair: Mladen Popović

 

16:15         Kaare Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)

The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Chemical Aspects and the Cleaning of the Samples

 

16:45         Hans van der Plicht (University of Groningen)

The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Physical Aspects and the Measurement of the 14C Content

 

17:15         Discussion

 

 

17:30–18:15    Break

 

 

Session 3 —  Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Drew Longacre

 

18:15         Michael Langlois (University of Strasbourg)

Deciphering Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic Inscriptions in a Digital World: Potential and Limitations

 

18:45         James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Toward a Systematic Description of the Imperial Aramaic Script and its Meaning for Dating and Writer Identification

 

PROJECT UPDATES

 

19:15         Bronson Brown-deVost (University of Göttingen)

Scripta Qumranica Electronica

 

19:30         Daniel Stoekl ben Ezra (École Pratique des Hautes Études)

eScripta

 

19:45         Sarah Yardney and Miller Prosser (University of Chicago)

    CEDAR/OCHRE

 

20:00   Conclusion

 

Wednesday, 7 April

 

13:00 CET       Welcome

 

 

Session 4 —  Digital Palaeography

Chair: Maruf Dhali

 

13:15         Lambert Schomaker (University of Groningen)

TBD

 

13:45         Peter Stokes (École Pratique des Hautes Études)

When is a Scribe Not a Scribe? Some Reflections on Writer Identification

 

14:15         Nachum Dershowitz (Tel Aviv University)

    Computational Paleography

 

14:45         Discussion

 

 

15:00–15:45    Break

 

 

Session 5 —  Digital Palaeography

Chair: Lambert Schomaker

 

15:45         Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin (Tel Aviv University)

Algorithmic Handwriting Analysis of Iron Age Documents and its Implications to the Composition of Biblical Texts

 

16:15         Hussein Mohammed (Universität Hamburg)

Pattern-Recognition Approaches for Handwriting-Style Analysis

 

16:45         Eythan Levy (Tel Aviv University) and Frédéric Pluquet (Haute École Louvain en Hainaut [HELHa] - Tournai and Ecole Supérieure d'Informatique [ESI] - Brussels)

New Developments in the Scrypt Software for Old Hebrew Epigraphy

 

17:15         Discussion

 

 

17:30–18:15    Break

 

 

 

Session 6 —  Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Gemma Hayes

 

18:15         Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (University of Oxford)

Hebrew Palaeography Album: A New Online Tool to Study Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts

 

18:45         Elvira Martín-Contreras (Spanish National Research Council)

Distinguishing Scribal Hands in the Masora of the Medieval Hebrew Bible Manuscripts

 

PROJECT UPDATES

 

19:15         Joe Uziel (Israel Antiquities Authority)

IAA projects

 

19:30         Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel)

D-Scribes

 

19:45         James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

       Elephantine

 

20:00   Conclusion

 

 

Thursday, 8 April

 

13:00 CET       Welcome

 

 

Session 7 —  Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Textual Communities

Chair: Mladen Popović

 

13:15         Eibert Tigchelaar (KU Leuven)

Scribal Culture, Palaeography, and the Scrolls

 

13:45         Ayhan Aksu (University of Groningen)

Leaving No Scroll Unturned: Opisthographs and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls 

 

14:15         Hanneke van der Schoor (KU Leuven)

Assessing Palaeographic Variation in Informal Manuscripts: The Scribe(s) of the Testament of Qahat and Visions of Amram^e

 

14:45         Discussion

 

 

15:00–15:45    Break

 

 

Session 8 —  Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Ayhan Aksu

 

15:45         Nadia Vidro (University College London)

Calendars from the Cairo Genizah as a Dating Tool for Palaeography

 

16:15         Estara J Arrant (University of Cambridge)

From Scholastic to Scribal: A Developmental Analysis of “Unprofessional” Square Hebrew Script from Cairo Genizah Bible Fragments

 

16:45         Elihu Shannon (Sofer STaM)

Why My Script is Different from My Teacher's

 

17:15         Discussion

 

 

17:30–18:15    Break

 

 

 

Session 9 —  Final Discussion Panels

Chairs: Drew Longacre and Maruf Dhali

 

18:15         Digital Palaeography Panel Discussion

 

18:45         Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Scribal Culture Panel Discussion

 

19:15         Final Open Discussion

20:00   Conclusion

 

Shaus et al. on the Writer Identification at Arad

The Tel Aviv team has produced another interesting article on writer identification in the Arad ostraca, this time comparing an analysis by a forensic document examiner with two computer algorithms. The forensic analyst concludes that the 18 samples were written by at least 12 different writers, which implies a proportionally large number of writers at the fort of Arad. The two computer algorithms are more conservative in concluding multiple writers, but provide some additional quantitative support for the FDE's conclusions.

Shaus A, Gerber Y, Faigenbaum-Golovin S, Sober B, Piasetzky E, Finkelstein I (2020) Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0237962. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237962 

New York University Conference Recordings

The video recordings of the New York University public conference "Dead Sea Scrolls in Recent Scholarship" (May 17-20, 2020) are now online here. Among many other interesting lectures, see especially the Groningen paleography lecture:

The Hands that Wrote the Bible. Digital Palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Identifying and Dating Manuscripts - Mladen Popović and Maruf Dhali, University of Groningen

DVL Introductions to Greek and Latin Paleography

The DigiVatLib (DVL) website has published two very clear and well-illustrated introductions to Greek and Latin paleography, which I highly recommend for interested beginners.

Dhali et al. 2020 - Feature-extraction methods for historical manuscript dating based on writing style development

Maruf Dhali et al. from the Groningen ERC team just published a paper on the use of digital feature-extraction methods for dating Dead Sea Scrolls.

Maruf A. Dhali et al., “Feature-Extraction Methods for Historical Manuscript Dating Based on Writing Style Development,” Pattern Recognition Letters 131 (2020): 413–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patrec.2020.01.027.

Highlights

•

Proposes feature-extraction techniques for dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS).

•

A grapheme-based method with a self-organized time map outperforms textural methods.

•

A codebook size of 225 performs the best with a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 23.4 years.

•

Cumulative Score (α = 25) improves with an increase in the sub-codebook size.

•

The result is positioned as a basic benchmark for further work on dating for the DSS.

Abstract

Paleographers and philologists perform significant research in finding the dates of ancient manuscripts to understand the historical contexts. To estimate these dates, the traditional process of using classical paleography is subjective, tedious, and often time-consuming. An automatic system based on pattern recognition techniques that infers these dates would be a valuable tool for scholars. In this study, the development of handwriting styles over time in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient manuscripts, is used to create a model that predicts the date of a query manuscript. In order to extract the handwriting styles, several dedicated feature-extraction techniques have been explored. Additionally, a self-organizing time map is used as a codebook. Support vector regression is used to estimate a date based on the feature vector of a manuscript. The date estimation from grapheme-based technique outperforms other feature-extraction techniques in identifying the chronological style development of handwriting in this study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Stylistic Classification of the Hebrew Scripts

For those interested in Hebrew paleography, I just got word that my article on stylistic classification is now published. My goal in this article was to clarify what paleographers mean by "formality" and lay a theoretical framework for stylistic classification of the Hebrew scripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Drew Longacre, “Disambiguating the Concept of Formality in Palaeographic Descriptions: Stylistic Classification and the Ancient Jewish Hebrew/Aramaic Scripts.” Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin 5, no. 2 (2019): 101–128. http://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.739.

Abstract:

The concept of formality in palaeographic analysis is often ill-defined and understood in conflicting ways by the scholars who utilize it. In this article, I attempt to clarify the meaning and significance of formality by suggesting that it is best understood as a multifaceted concept dependent upon the interaction between morphology, execution, and function. From this perspective, formality is an overall impression of the level of handwriting based on the type of model script chosen to reproduce, the skill and care with which it was written, and the purpose(s) for which the embodying manuscript was created. Each aspect can be conceptualized and to some extent analyzed independently in concrete terms other than formality. The resulting, more explicitly-defined nature of formality proposed here then provides a better foundation for hypothesizing about the functions of manuscripts. I apply this schema to the Jewish Hebrew/Aramaic scripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls to show its potential for increased clarity and resolution in stylistic analysis.

New Book on the Samaritan Pentateuch

Peeters is announcing a new book edited by Michael Langlois The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

From the website:

Summary:
Seventy years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls continue to shed light on the Samaritan Pentateuch. The textual features, orthography, script, variant readings and even theology of the Samaritan Pentateuch have parallels in various manuscripts found in the Judaean desert and copied during the Second Temple period. The fertile encounter of Samaritan and Dead Sea Scrolls studies has yielded this exceptional volume, featuring twelve contributions by some of the most respected scholars gathered at the University of Strasbourg on May 26–27, 2016. They cover such issues as scribal and editorial practices, political and religious history, textual editions and versions, palaeography and linguistics—with provocative studies challenging classical theories on the origin of the Gerizim tenth commandment or the date of the earliest Dead Sea Scrolls.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Magnar KartveitScholars’ Assessments of the Relationship between the Pre-SamaritanTextsandtheSamaritanPentateuch................. 1
Emanuel tovFrom Popular Jewish LXX-SP Texts to Separate Sectarian Texts: InsightsfromtheDeadSeaScrolls................. 19
Michaël N. van der MeerExclusion and Expansion: Harmonisations in the Samaritan Penta- teuch, Pre-Samaritan Pentateuchal Manuscripts and Non-Pentateuchal Manuscripts............................. 41
Stefan SchorchThe So-Called Gerizim Commandment in the Samaritan Pentateuch 77
Gary N. KnopperS †Altared States: The Altar Laws in the Samaritan and Jewish Penta- teuchs,andTheirEarlyInterpreters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Benjamin ZieMerA Stemma for Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Innocent hiMbaZaLooking at the Samaritan Pentateuch from Qumran: Legal MaterialofLeviticusandDeuteronomy ................... 199
Jonathan ben-dovText Duplications between Higher and Lower Criticism: Num 20-21andDeut2-3............................. 217
Abraham talDo the Samaritan Pentateuch and 1QIsaa Follow the Same Model? 243
Michael langloiSDead Sea Scrolls Palaeography and the Samaritan Pentateuch . . 255

X table of contentS
Christian StadelVariegation in Second Temple Period Hebrew: Passive t-Stems, the
in Samaritan Hebrew and in theאפואDemonstrative Series, andהלזDeadSeaScrolls........................... 287
Jan JooStenBiblical Interpretation in the Samareitikon as Exemplified in Anony-mousReadingsinLeviticusAttestedinM′. . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

HT Agade

Reconsidering the Date of EGLev

Brill has graciously decided to grant free access to its first volume of Textus. That means that, in addition to other interesting articles, you can freely download my recently published article on Hebrew paleography and EGLev, Reconsidering the Date of the En-Gedi Leviticus Scroll (EGLev): Exploring the Limitations of the Comparative-Typological Paleographic Method.

The Hazards of Paleographic Dating

I have an article in press with Textus on the dating of the charred En-Gedi Leviticus scroll (EGLev), which I suggest should probably be dated to the 3rd-4th centuries CE. One comparandum I intentionally did not include was Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Heb. d.89 (P) i, a small Hebrew Exodus fragment from Oxyrhynchus, because uncertainties about its date made it an unreliable anchor for the typology. Yardeni dated it to the 2nd-3rd centuries, but in the Textus article I suggest it could also be dated later (maybe as late as the 4th-5th centuries) based on comparison with EGLev and the archeological context (most Greek papyri found alongside the Oxford fragment were from the 3rd-5th centuries). I recently reread Engel's paleographic analysis of the London-Ashkar Exodus manuscript (7th-8th centuries) and realized that I failed to note in my article that Engel dates the Oxford fragment to the 7th-8th centuries on the basis of similarities with London-Ashkar! Thus, this rare Exodus fragment is dated variously from the 2nd-8th centuries by the foremost specialists in the field. If that doesn't make you skeptical of overly-precise paleographic dating, I don't know what will. :) In the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I have even seen proposed paleographic date ranges narrower than 20 years...

Photo credits: EGLev courtesy of Brent Seales; Oxf d.89 (P) i from Engel and Mishor, "An Ancient Scroll of the Book of Exodus"; London-Ashkar courtesy of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, Brooklyn, New York.

Death of Ada Yardeni

I recently learned of the sad passing of Ada Yardeni on 29 June 2018. She will be remembered as one of the foremost Hebrew paleographers of our time, who had a profound influence on the study of the Aramaic/Hebrew scripts, especially from the 5th century BCE through late antiquity. Her artistic talents gave her a unique calligraphic perspective on the analysis of ancient handwriting. Her famous Book of Hebrew Script has served as a helpful introduction and general guide to Hebrew paleography for many. And her more detailed and technical work in the Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt and Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabatean Documentary Texts from the Judean Desert and Related Material remain essential reference tools for the Persian-period Aramaic scripts and later Jewish cursives. She has also contributed paleographic analyses of countless documents in the DJD series and other venues. In 2007, Yardeni rocked the world of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship by suggesting that about 50-100 scrolls in a round semiformal script from the Judean Desert were copied by a single prolific scribe (“A Note on a Qumran Scribe,” pages 287-298 in New Seals and Inscriptions: Hebrew, Idumean, and Cuneiform, edited by M. Lubetski [Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007]). I have personally been profoundly influenced by her work, and I have no doubt that her legacy will live on in the work of others as well.

Update 5 July 2018 - The Times of Israel has an interesting tribute to Yardeni, as well as a link to a 2017 interview in Hebrew.

Richelle and Perrot on Paleo-Hebrew Paleography

Matthieu Richelle and Antony Perrot have put up a website to present the data from their forthcoming article on Paleo-Hebrew paleography. I had the opportunity to interact extensively with them at the EAJS lab in Aix-en-Provence and afterwards concerning their work, and I can safely say it makes an important contribution to the study of the Paleo-Hebrew script in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The article is soon to be published in the proceedings volume, where I also have an article on the methods of material reconstruction of fragmentary scrolls. For my own thoughts on Paleo-Hebrew paleography (generally sympathetic to Richelle and Perrot), see Eibert Tigchelaar's and my article on Hebrew and Aramaic paleography in the Textual History of the Bible series.

Gary Rendsburg on Old Torah Scrolls

Gary Rendsburg writes an illustrated survey of the oldest post-DSS Torah scrolls known today in The World’s Oldest Torah Scrolls. It includes background and discussion of the oldest known fragments and scrolls, as well as images of each.

Eibert Tigchelaar on Skilled Scribes

Eibert Tigchelaar's lecture Beautiful Bookhands and Careless Characters has been posted online by the University of Birmingham. He proposes classifying scribal hands according to skillfulness, beauty, and regularity. He also suggests that there may be a correlation between skillfulness and function.

Zachary Cole on Greek Numerals

Zachary Cole has published a new book on Numerals in Greek NT manuscripts that sounds very interesting, including for those interested in Septuagint manuscripts.

Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts Text-Critical, Scribal, and Theological Studies

Zachary J. Cole, Union Theological College

In Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts, Zachary J. Cole provides the first in-depth examination of the seemingly obscure, yet important topic: how early Christian scribes wrote numbers and why. While scholars have long been aware that Christian scribes occasionally used numerical abbreviations in their books, few have been able to make much sense of it.

This detailed analysis of numerals in manuscripts up through the fifth century CE uncovers a wealth of palaeographical and codicological data. Among other findings, Zachary J. Cole shows that some numerals can function as “visual links” between witnesses, that numbers sometimes—though rarely—functioned like nomina sacra, and that Christians uniquely adapted their numbering system to suit the needs of public reading.

Zachary J. Cole, Ph.D. (2016), University of Edinburgh, is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Union Theological College in Belfast, UK. His research interests include New Testament studies and Christian manuscripts.

A Digital Palaeographic Approach towards Writer Identification in the Dead Sea Scrolls

The University of Groningen and KU Leuven ERC project "The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls" has produced its first publication, A Digital Palaeographic Approach towards Writer Identification in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Congratulations to Maruf, Sheng, Mladen, Eibert, and Lambert for a job well done, as well as to Ruwan van der Iest for all of his behind-the-scenes work on this pilot project. This article was an attempt to use digital images of the Dead Sea Scrolls to determine how accurately existing digital tools are able to distinguish the scripts of samples from a limited number of scribes from different parts of documents and across different documents considered by paleographers to have been written by the same scribe. The computer ranks all samples in relation to a query sample and produces a ranked hitlist of samples that most closely match the query sample. Overall competence in automated handwriting recognition peaked at 80% correct identification of the scribe in the first position in the hitlist. The ability of the computer to correctly place samples of the scribe within the top 10 of the hitlist peaked at about 95%. These results will provide an important benchmark as we now seek to increase our precision by using the higher-quality IAA images and tailoring the measured features better to our documents. The field of paleography of the Dead Sea Scrolls is now well on its way to becoming truly digital, and it will be exiting to see the results over the next couple of years.

Abstract

To understand the historical context of an ancient manuscript, scholars rely on the prior knowledge of writer and date of that document. In this paper, we study the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient manuscripts with immense historical, religious, and linguistic significance, which was discovered in the mid-20th century near the Dead Sea. Most of the manuscripts of this collection have become digitally available only recently and techniques from the pattern recognition field can be applied to revise existing hypotheses on the writers and dates of these scrolls. This paper presents our ongoing work which aims to introduce digital palaeography to the field and generate fresh empirical data by means of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence. Challenges in analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls are highlighted by a pilot experiment identifying the writers using several dedicated features. Finally, we discuss whether to use specifically-designed shape features for writer identifica tion or to use the Deep Learning methods on a relatively limited ancient manuscript collection which is degraded over the course of time and is not labeled, as in the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Palaeography in Context - Aramaic scripts from the Ancient Near East

Mladen Popovic informs me of an upcoming conference on Aramaic paleography. If you are in Leiden tomorrow, I highly recommend it. Mladen will be discussing the Groningen digital paleography project, and the other papers sound interesting as well.


Palaeography in Context - Aramaic scripts from the Ancient Near East
Speakers from various disciplinary backgrounds will focus on recently published Aramaic texts and innovative approaches towards Aramaic scripts from the Ancient Near East. They will deal with palaeographic traits of a variety of Aramaic texts from a technical perspective and will bring them into dialogue with their sociohistorical settings.
Leiden University, 13 October 2016


Morning programme (09:00 – 13:00 hrs) in Lipsius Building, room 227   

09:00         Coffee

09:30        G. van der Kooij     - Classifying early NW-Semitic scripts by studying script as artefact.

10:30             M.L. Folmer - Palaeographic aspects of the Aramaic Akhvamazda letters from ancient Bactria  (4th c. BCE)

11:30               Coffee

12:00        R. Sonnevelt – Aramaic epigraphs on clay tablets from the Āl-Yāhūdu archive

12:30          J.K. Zangenberg – Granddaddy in the Synagogue. Reflections on a Recently Found Late Roman / Early Byzantine Mosaic with Inscription from the Galilee   

13:00         Lunch


Afternoon programme (14:00 – 17:00 hrs) in Huizinga Building, room 004   

14:00        M. Popović – Digital Palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Textual Community and Control-Copy in the Ancient World

15:00         H. Gzella – The Aramaic Scripts of Syria in the Roman Period and their Socio-Cultural Underpinnings

16:00        Coffee

16:20        Concluding remarks and round table discussion (until 17:00)     

18:00        Dinner


Registration: Rieneke Sonnevelt (d.a.m.sonnevelt@hum.leidenuniv.nl)

Review of "Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction"

Alessandro Bausi (General editor), Pier Giorgio Borbone, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Paola Buzi, Jost Gippert, Caroline Macé, Marilena Maniaci, Zisis Melissakis, Laura E. Parodi, Witold Witakowski, eds. Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction. Hamburg: Tredition, 2015.

ISBN: 978-3-7323-1768-4 (Hardcover; €56.29)
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1770-7 (Paperback; €29.01)
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1769-1 (Ebook; €2.99)
Free download (see link above)

In 2015, the Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies research network published the results of international and interdisciplinary dialogues funded by the European Science Foundation between 2009-2014. The basic premise of the network is that the study of Oriental manuscript traditions is relatively poorly developed in relation to the Occidental traditions (mainly Greek and Latin). The network brought together scholars working on Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Caucasian Albanian, Christo-Palestinian Aramaic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Slavonic, and Syriac manuscript traditions to discuss questions of methodology, terminology, and cultural contact. These scholars were divided into five subject teams (1: codicology and palaeography, 2: philology/text criticism, 3: digital approach to manuscript studies, 4: cataloguing, 5: manuscript preservation), and the chapters are divided accordingly, with only a subsidiary role for the digital humanities in the general introduction.

Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction is not intended simply as a proceedings volume, subject lexicon, or encyclopedia, but rather as a book to be read cover-to-cover. Coming in at around 700 pages of content-rich and dense material, that is asking a lot of any one scholar. It took me nearly a year of close, occasional reading and a lot of persistance to reach the end, but it was also extremely rewarding. Though the word "Introduction" occurs in the title, readers beware, this is not an introduction for beginners, but rather an advanced introduction for experts to broaden their cultural and theoretical horizons. While not exhaustive in its coverage of every aspect of every tradition, it devotes sections to the topics with most comparative relevance for each tradition, which is a highly effective strategy for an interdisciplinary introduction. The multiple Oriental traditions examined are particularly important for biblical scholars, since the Bible and related literature were translated into most of these languages in antiquity, and these traditions often provide important (or in some cases even the only) textual evidence for the works we study on a daily basis.

The long general introduction provides adequate background information about the project, research approaches, manuscript traditions, and legal and ethical complications, which orients the reader for the rest of the volume. The short surveys of manuscript traditions could even serve as concise substitutes for the detailed analyses in chapter 1, for those without the motivation to read the more substantial contributions.

I do, however, highly recommend reading chapter 1 on codicology in its entirety. Following a general introduction to oriental codicology, specialists in each cultural area describe the materials and tools used in their respective manuscript cultures, attested book forms, the making of the codex, the layout of the page, text structure and readability, scribes, painters, and illuminators, as well as bookbinding methods. In this discussion, Hebrew manuscript culture fares extraordinarily well, with the thorough documentation provided as part of the SfarData project. I am particularly happy with the decision to include Greek codicology among the "Oriental" traditions to be compared, because of the key role Greek manuscript culture played in many Oriental manuscript cultures. In fact, I could not help but wish that the Latin tradition had also been discussed, perhaps mainly out of sheer curiosity, but also because of interactions between Latin traditions and geographically dispersed traditions like Greek and Hebrew. The chapter was long--and sometimes tedious--to read through sequentially, but very rewarding. Indeed, as the editors state, it is probably more valuable from this perspective than as a reference work, because it is often lacking in detail and documentation. For instance, in working on a Greek codex recently, I looked back at the information on page numbering and quire signatures, which was helpful for a general overview, but did not have much in the way of detail, statistics, or examples to compare. The already imposing book would have become excessively unwieldy if the editors had chosen to incorporate so much detail, but it does limit its value as a reference work. One disappointing aspect of the book was the focus almost exclusively on codices. In the Greek and Hebrew sections, for instance, there is hardly more than a paragraph each on (sc)rolls, which are too general to be of much help.

After 200 pages of codicological minutiae, chapter 2 on paleography was a breath of fresh air. The general script types and developments for each manuscript tradition are broadly outlined and illustrated. These sections are enough to give scholars in other fields a good idea about the types of scripts extant in a manuscript culture, but will be of less value for specialists. You will not, for instance, find tables of letter forms or detailed descriptions and typologies.

Chapter 3 on textual criticism and text editing was interesting, but perhaps of less relevance to most biblical scholars. After a brief theoretical and practical introduction to textual criticism and scholarly editing, the book devotes 100 pages to selected examples of editorial projects and phenomena in the various Oriental traditions. Because of the often narrow focus of these examples, I regularly struggled to tease out their comparative relevance. Many of them dealt with problems peculiar to a particular manuscript culture, literary tradition, or genre, which I doubt will be of much interest to many other than those theoretically engaged in the discussion of what it means to edit a text. There was unfortunately little help offered for those working in biblical textual criticism, with its massive and complex documented traditions.

Chapter 4 on cataloguing seemed a bit tedious to me, but everyone working with manuscripts needs to be aware of the various approaches to cataloguing and describing manuscripts. There is also some helpful, practical guidance for those who find themselves in the unfamiliar position of cataloguing manuscripts and for those wondering what to include in a description of a manuscript. To sum up a recent trend in cataloguing, include as much information as you can in the amount of time you have, and preferably provide pictures!

Chapter 5 on conservation and preservation was a somewhat unexpected, but pleasant surprise. Working with manuscripts as often as I do, I am frequently in contact with curators and conservators, and this chapter gave me greater insight into their cold, dark world of climate-controlled vaults and storage boxes. The chapter discusses the core principles of preservation and conservation, as well as some basic points about preferred methods, dangers, and environmental conditions. The final section on digitization lays out the possibilities, practicalities, and problems of digitization, which I found both informative and balanced. Overall, this chapter gave me a much greater appreciation for the work of the conservator and the importance of preserving textual artefacts for future generations, and I would recommend it to anyone working regularly with manuscripts.

The references at the back of the book are daunting, but thankfully each section has its own references list referring to the full reference at the end of the book, which is very helpful. And the book concludes with a series of indices, which will be helpful for readers of the printed book, but largely redundant for those using the searchable PDF. Furthermore, the editors are to be commended for making the book freely available online, as well as in book form at reasonable prices. In this, and every other way, COMSt represents an up-to-date and accessible reflection of the current state of each subfield, and I highly recommend this book.