Reading manuscripts is one of the best ways to get into textual criticism and even theology of Scripture because it forces you to deal with what an actual person actually did for someone’s actual Bible. It doesn’t allow you to make assumptions about what you think should have happened and assume that the evidence will simply prove you right.
Dr. Jacob Peterson has created a wonderful website that takes readers who can read printed Greek texts from easy Greek manuscripts on to harder ones.
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| Screenshot of lesson 1 |
Just today, I stepped into the main room of CNTTS and saw that our newest employee was being trained on this website before he starts next week.
If you’ve ever wanted to be able to read the manuscripts themselves instead of relying on others to tell you what they say, I recommend xeirographa.com (with an x, not a χ).
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| A photo of xeirographa.com being used in the wild, which was definitely not staged. |
Hey, thanks for the mention! If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them here. There's also a contact form on the website. There are more features/improvements on the roadmap, so I'm always happy to get feedback along the way
ReplyDeleteHi, Jacob. I had a few questions but couldn't find where to best ask. What's the range of dates for these hands? Do you get into later, monastic hands in minuscule? Additionally, do you anticipate doing Latin or Syraic manuscripts in the future?
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DeleteHi Cody,
DeleteLessons currently feature hands from the 3rd–17th centuries across a wide range of styles. FWIW, you can find bibliographic and codicological info about each manuscript by clicking the icon next to the manuscript shelf number in the top left of the viewer.
I personally do not plan on adding other languages, but my longterm roadmap includes making this into a service/platform where others can create their own lesson sets with any IIIF-available manuscripts. However, that’s a long way off, in part, because it will cost me significantly more money to provide.
Happy to answer Qs here or you can use the contact form on the website
That's really cool!
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I wish there had been something like this back when I started collating John 11. But with time and going over the same 57 verses in so many manuscripts, eventually the hard looking ones became doable.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Dr. Hixson for alerting us to this, and Dr. Peterson for creating it! I have just completed the first lesson, and found it to be a brilliant tool. It makes the process of learning to read and transcribe manuscripts into an enjoyable challenge, with just the right balance of self-discovery with back-up help if needed.
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