Thursday, June 16, 2011

Seven Newly Digitised GNT MSS in the British Library

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British Library announces:

Phase two of the British Library’s project to digitise all of its ca. 1,000 Greek manuscripts is now well under way. This phase (also generously funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation) will digitise and make publicly available a further 250 manuscripts, adding to the 284 manuscripts digitised in phase one. We are currently about half way through this second phase and plan to publish the digitised manuscripts in batches during the rest of this year on our Digitised Manuscripts viewer.

A new batch of manuscripts has now been published online, and contains 24 manuscripts ranging in date from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries. They include a group of illustrated medieval manuscripts of the gospels, formerly owned by the celebrated English physician and book collector Anthony Askew (fl. 1699–1774), acquired by the British Museum in 1775. Also included is a tenth-century parchment manuscript of Old Testament fragments (Add MS 20002), acquired in parts from Sinai by Constantin von Tischendorf (1815–1874) during his second journey to the East in 1853, which came to the British Museum in 1854. Another part of this manuscript is housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Bodleian Auct. T. infr. ii. 1). A further highlight is an eleventh-century manuscript of Symeon Metaphrastes’s Saints’ Lives for December (Add MS 11870), which bears ownership marks of Cardinal Salviati (d. 1553) and Pope Pius VI (1775–1779).

In this first batch of 24 digitised MSS there are seven GNT MSS and two LXX MSS. I have compiled hyperlinks to these MSS, according to Greg.-Aland and Rahlfs numbers:

Greg.-Aland 44 = Add MS 4949

Greg.-Aland 109 = Add MS 5117

Greg.-Aland 438 = Add MS 5111

Greg.-Aland 438 = Add MS 5112

Greg.-Aland 439 = Add MS 5107

Greg.-Aland 449 = Add MS 4950

Greg.-Aland 449 = Add MS 4951

Greg.-Aland 502 = Add MS 19387

Greg.-Aland L320 = Add MS 21261

Rahlfs 509 = Add MS 20002

Rahlfs 1655 = Add MS 21030

More on the project here.

Other digitised MSS during this project here, here, here and here. Now, if I am correct, that makes a total of 71 GNT MSS in the British Library available online.

11 comments

  1. The world was waiting for these.
    :-\

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  2. The magnification aspect capability is simply wonderful at the Briyish library site. Thanks!

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  3. Dave Lincicum6/16/2011 12:02 pm

    This isn't really NT related, but on browsing the digital manuscripts, I saw that there is an unidentified fragment listed as part of Add MS 5424 (ff 145v-146). With the help of the TLG, it turns out the text is the following: in Add MS 5424, f 145v, the text is from Alexander Phil., In Aristotelis meteorologicorum libros commentaria p. 79, lines 19-28 (ref. to the TLG edition, which is from M. Hayduck, Alexandri Aphrodisiensis in Aristotelis meteorologicorum libros commentaria [Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca 3.2. Berlin: Reimer, 1899]: 1-227). Apparently f146r is another copy of the same section of text, with the beginning line repeated another time below the excerpt (perhaps this was a practice exercise of some sort?). It would be interesting to see how much in these manuscripts can yet be identified with the TLG.

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  4. Dear Dave, I hope you send this feedback to the British Library!

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  5. Dave Lincicum6/16/2011 1:33 pm

    Thanks, Tommy; I've dropped them an email with this info included.

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  6. 5117 (109) is somewhat interesting due to its unusual quirks; I sent a post to the textualcriticism forum about that. Or maybe I typed it and saved it to send later. It was awfully late. Anyway, sooner or later, expect a post there about that.

    Yours in Christ,

    James Snapp, Jr.

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  7. This batch I see is mostly Kx with some Kappa mix. It will be interesting as the shooting continues.

    In Christ,

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  8. Martin Fassnacht6/24/2011 8:50 pm

    Dear Tommy,

    I think Greg.-Aland 449 = Add MS 4951 is not digitised yet. This part of 449 (in the INTF list Instance 02 of 449) is linked false to Add MS 4950. Please see
    http://intf.uni-muenster.de/vmr/NTVMR/ListeHandschriften.php?ObjID=30449

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  9. Martin Fassnacht6/24/2011 9:23 pm

    I am sorry 449 = Add Ms 4951 is digitised: This is the right link:
    http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_4951

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  10. Thanks Martin, I have corrected the link.

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  11. Tommy,

    Thanks for posting these links to the mss. I was at the Septuaginta-Unternehmen when you posted these links and the folks who work there were very excited to see this blog and Psalms ms which has become available online. Please continue to keep us up to date.

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