Author Archives: Brent Nongbri

Hurtado’s List of Early Christian Manuscripts

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Over on his blog, Larry Hurtado has posted a link to his list of “Christian Literary Texts in Manuscripts of Second & Third Centuries.” When he first published a version of this list in his 2006 book, The Earliest Christian … Continue reading →

Posted in Palaeography | 20 Comments

Palaeography and the Hawara Homer: Part 1

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In an earlier post, I talked about the archaeology of the Hawara Homer (LDAB 1695), a papyrus roll containing the second book of the Iliad found with an unadorned mummy during Flinders Petrie’s excavations in Hawara in 1888. In this … Continue reading →

Posted in Ambrosian Iliad, British Museum, Edward Maunde Thompson, Frederic Kenyon, Hawara Homer, Palaeography, William Matthew Flinders Petrie | 7 Comments

The Bodmer Papyri: 3D Views

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In an earlier post, I provided an up-to-date inventory of the papyrus and parchment books from Roman Egypt in the Fondation Martin Bodmer. I’ve been working on these books for a while, and I recently partnered up with the Bodmer … Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer Papyri | Leave a comment

Anton Fackelmann and Cartonnage

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Since I began this blog midway through 2017 with a post about Anton Fackelmann and some of the papyri he allegedly removed from mummy cartonnage, I thought I might close out the old year and open up the new with … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Anton Fackelmann, Book covers, Carl Schmidt, Fakes and Forgeries, First Century Mark, Mummy cartonnage | 1 Comment

The Tura Papyri: Archival Footage

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

In my previous post on the Tura Papyri, I mentioned that the books are said to have been discovered in 1941 during the clearing of quarries south of Cairo for use by the British military. The earliest detailed account of … Continue reading →

Posted in Find Stories, Tura Papyri, Videos | 1 Comment

The Tura Papyri

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

While many of the papyrus and parchment codices in the Fondation Martin Bodmer appear to be part of a single ancient find, several of these codices are known to have distinct origins. One of these is P.Bodmer LVII, a portion … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Bodmer Papyri, Find Stories, Tura Papyri | 2 Comments

Provenance and The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

Over at rougeclassicism there are a few questions posed about the provenance of the recently publicized identification of a Greek papyrus as The First Apocalypse of James. The papyrus is to be published in an upcoming volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Find Stories, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 4 Comments

Ancient Book Covers and “Cartonnage”

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

As a follow-up to my last post on the development of the use of the French term “cartonnage”: It looks like it was the late 1950s when the term “cartonnage” began to be applied to the material sometimes used in … Continue reading →

Posted in Anton Fackelmann, Book covers, Codices, Mummy cartonnage, Nag Hammadi, Schøyen Collection, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Cartonnage (Mummy and Otherwise)

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

A question from a commenter on a recent post prompts me to write up a quick discussion of the history of the word “cartonnage” and its current use to describe both mummy casings and the covers of some ancient books. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book covers, Find Stories, Mummies, Mummy cartonnage, William Matthew Flinders Petrie | 3 Comments

The Hawara Homer

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Brent Nongbri

A chapter in my book is dedicated to “find stories” of early Christian manuscripts. Along the way, I touch upon similar narratives of discoveries of other Roman era manuscripts as well, but I didn’t really have the chance to go … Continue reading →

Posted in Fayum Portraits, Find Stories, Harris Homer, Hawara Homer, Mummies, William Matthew Flinders Petrie | 8 Comments