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Author Archives: Brent Nongbri
Roberta Mazza’s Stolen Fragments
I’ve just finished reading Roberta Mazza’s excellent new book, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Stanford: Redwood Press, 2024). This is a well organized and highly readable book. It tells a story–equal parts … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Bruce Ferrini, Dead Sea Scrolls, Dirk Obbink, Fakes and Forgeries, Green Collection, Lee Biondi, P.Sapph. Obbink, Scott Carroll
Tagged Antiquities Market, archaeology, Bible, books, egypt, history, museum-of-the-bible, papyri, papyrology, roberta-mazza, sappho
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Tiny Inscriptions: The Capitoline Tabula Iliaca
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about miniaturization in the ancient Roman world, especially as it applies to books. For instance, according to Pliny the Elder, “Cicero records that a parchment copy of Homer’s poem The Iliad was enclosed in a nutshell” … Continue reading
Posted in Capitoline Museum, Cologne Mani Codex, Inscriptions
Tagged history, homer, iliad, miniatures, Rome, tabula-iliaca, tabulae-iliacae
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Two Good Books on the Shroud of Turin
When I was writing God’s Library, I did a good bit of reading on the Shroud of Turin. I used it as an example for which radiocarbon dating was ideally suited, namely a situation in which the date of an … Continue reading
Posted in Radiocarbon analysis
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The Newly Reopened Museum at Ostia Antica
In an earlier post, I mentioned that the museum at Ostia Antica has recently reopened after a long period of closure (I can’t recall now how many years it has been closed). I had a chance to visit last week, … Continue reading
Posted in Museums, Ostia
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A Relief from Portus showing a Writer at a Desk
Following up on my post about a relief showing writers at desks at Ostia, I should also mention a second artifact found in the same region. It is a relief uncovered in the nineteenth century at Portus (just north of … Continue reading
Posted in Codices, desks, Ostia, Tablets
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A Relief from Ostia Showing Writers at Desks
The museum at the archaeological park at Ostia Antica has reopened after many years of closure for renovations. The results are quite impressive, and I hope to have a chance to post some reflections about the museum itself soon, but … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeological context, Codices, desks, Ostia, Tablets
Tagged archaeology, Book History, books, copyists, desks, history, Ostia, Ostia Antica, Rome, scribes, tables, technology
12 Comments
Manuscripts of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus
I’ve had occasion recently to do a bit of work on a couple of Cicero’s letters to Atticus. Both the old text of Tyrrell and Purser and the more recent text of Shackleton Bailey are wonderful resources, but there are … Continue reading
Posted in Cicero
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Digital Images of Codex Bobiensis Online
I’m not sure when this happened, but the surviving folia of Codex Bobiensis (or Bobbiensis, CLA 4 465) have been photographed and the images made available online here. Codex Bobiensis is a copy of the Gospel According to Mark and … Continue reading
Posted in Codex Bobiensis
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Variant Readings 