Book Notice: A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts

This volume offers an overview of Byzantine manuscript illustration, a central branch of Byzantine art and culture. Just like written texts, illustrations bear witness to Byzantine material culture, imperial ideology and religious beliefs, as well as to the development and spread of Byzantine art. In this sense illustrated books reflect the society that produced and used them. Being portable, they could serve as diplomatic gifts or could be acquired by foreigners. In such cases they became “emissaries” of Byzantine art and culture in Western Europe and the Arabic world. The volume provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the material, divided by text categories, including both secular and religious manuscripts, and analyses which texts were illustrated in Byzantium, and how.

Edited by Vasiliki Tsamakda, University of Mainz

Contributors are Justine M. Andrews, Leslie Brubaker, Annemarie W. Carr, Elina Dobrynina, Maria Evangelatou, Maria Laura Tomea Gavazzoli, Markos Giannoulis, Cecily Hennessy, Ioli Kalavrezou, Maja Kominko, Sofia Kotzabassi, Stavros Lazaris, Kallirroe Linardou, Vasileios Marinis, Kathleen Maxwell, Georgi R. Parpulov, Nancy P. Ševčenko, Jean-Michel Spieser, Mika Takiguchi, Courtney Tomaselli, Marina Toumpouri, Nicolette S. Trahoulia, Vasiliki Tsamakda, and Elisabeth Yota.

Price: unaffordable ($259)

HT: Rick Brannan

The Marginal dots of Vaticanus – Again

Every now and then I see the claim that the two dots that appear in the margin of Vaticanus indicate textual variants known by the original group of scribes. I believe that our own Peter Head agrees that they may indicate knowledge of textual variation at these points, but also that these marginal dots are very late.

I am not sure if the following is on his list of examples but it may be instructive. Here we have the two dots under a correction which projects into the margin.



The passage is Lk 18:19 and the variant concerns the presence / absence of the article before θεος. The original (archetypal/initial/autographic – take your pick) hand omits the article, which is then added by the second corrector. Rather unusually, two dots are placed under the omicron, closer together than the normal marginal dots (there are two sets on this page, 1337, col. 1), but apparently intended to match the size of the letter in question.



This suggests to me that at least these dots are 1) indeed connected with noting textual variation, 2) are by necessity added after the work of the second corrector. Add to this that the use of two dots to mark textual variation is rare in the tradition as a whole but is used elsewhere in Vaticanus, it follows that also those other marginal dots are post second corrector. Of course, the textual variants thus indicated might well be known to the original group of scribes, but the dots are an incorrect way of proving that.

Hoskier Photos

More on Herman Hoskier courtesy of an email from Maurice Robinson. The mustache is quite impressive I must say. Here’s Maurice:

I don’t think I can attach photos or the like in reply segments, but you perhaps might want to post these in the main section on Hoskier (or start another post entirely).

The caricature of Hoskier comes from a very rare limited edition book honoring various persons in and around South Orange NJ. I happened to stumble across that on eBay, and since the fellow could not sell the entire book, he ended up willing to sell the caricatures individually.

The signature came from Hoskier’s copy of one of Tischendorf’s Monumenta Sacra Inedita that Kenneth Clark had obtained (now in the Duke Divinity School library).

The other photo was sent to me by someone... from somewhere.

Also for trivia buffs: Hoskier is buried on one of the Channel Islands between England and France.

Conference: Herman Hoskier and the Future of Textual Scholarship on the Bible

I meant to post about this when it was announced but forgot in the mix of other responsibilities. This looks like an outstanding lineup of speakers and I understand that a conference volume is expected. Paper proposals are open until 15 April. More info and registration here.

28-30 August 2017
Dublin City University
School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music

Herman Charles Hoskier (1864-1938) was a textual scholar of the New Testament whose work remains influential in the field today. As part of the Irish Research Council’s Decade of Centenaries, this conference explores the present state and future prospects of textual scholarship on the Bible in the digital age, using Hoskier’s work as a starting point for the discussion. Short papers are invited that address the following topics: the intellectual context of twentieth century textual scholarship, manuscript collections in Ireland, the future of the critical edition, the digital humanities and the Bible, Hoskier’s text critical work and current developments in the field, the versions in textual scholarship, the Editio Critica Maior, manuscripts as objects and material culture, trends and prospects in textual criticism, text critical method, the future of textual scholarship, early printed editions, studies on manuscripts, and related topics.

Keynote Speakers:

• David Parker (University of Birmingham)
• Stanley Porter (McMaster Divinity College)
• Jennifer Knust (Boston University)
• J. K. Elliott (University of Leeds)
• Martin Karrer (KiHo Wuppertal)
• Juan Hernández Jr. (Bethel University)
• Claire Clivaz (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics)
• Thomas J. Kraus (Universität Zurich)
• Tommy Wasserman (Ansgar Teologiske Høgskole)
• Christina Kreinecker (Universität Salzburg)
• Klaus Wachtel (INTF Münster)
• Catherine Smith (University of Birmingham)
• Hugh Houghton (University of Birmingham)
• Martin Wallraff (LMU München)
• Jan Krans (VU Amsterdam)
• Annette Hüffmeier (INTF Münster)
• Jill Unkel (Chester Beatty Library)
• Dirk Jongkind (University of Cambridge)

Birmingham Colloquium

Hope everyone’s having fun at the Birmingham Colloquium this week. From Hugh Houghton’s tweets, it looks like a great turnout this year. Wish I could be there. Also, can somebody help Elijah Hixson find his pen?

Delegates assemble for day 2 of the #BhamColloquium @itsee_bham @PTRBirmingham pic.twitter.com/Mjq8DSC5Vj

— Hugh Houghton (@HAGHoughton) March 21, 2017

P73 and its claim to be the most insignificant manuscript of the NT

If you never had a look at P73, one of the Bodmer papyri, I cannot blame you. Dated to the 7th century, and said to contain ‘text’ from Mt 25:43 and 26:2-3. In all only (traces of) 18 letters are visible according to the INTF transcription, which makes this short blog post a whopping 226 characters longer.