Recent Comments
Author Archives: Brent Nongbri
The Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex and its Cost Over Time
The auction of several items from the collection of Martin Schøyen took place yesterday in London. The highlight of the sale was the so-called Crosby-Schøyen codex, which sold for just over the high end of the estimated price range at … Continue reading
Stichometry 2: The Edict on Maximum Prices
In an earlier post, I reviewed the evidence for a stichos or versus being equal (in theory) to 16 prose syllables. The count of stichoi in a work provided a standardized way of describing its length. A stichometric count could … Continue reading
Stichometry 1: The Length of a Prose stichos
I’ve been thinking a bit about stichometry lately. As some of the primary sources did not seem to be easily accessible online, I’ve decided to write up a couple posts on the topic. We can begin with the opening of … Continue reading
The Crosby-Schøyen Codex, the Length of kollēmata, and Dates of Codices
The upcoming auction of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex prompted me to revisit the edition of the codex and think a bit about the book’s construction. One datum that didn’t really register with me before I started making papyrus rolls is the … Continue reading
Posted in Bodmer Papyri, Codicology, Papyrus Making, Schøyen Collection, Tura Papyri, Voluminology
Tagged Book History, codex, Codicology, papyri, papyrology, papyrus, Papyrus rolls
4 Comments
Hugo Ibscher and the Cover of the Berlin Akhmimic Proverbs Codex
In 2022, I published a short paper on the construction of the Beatty-Michigan codex of the Pauline epistles (P46, TM 61855). I suggested that the surviving page numbers in the codex might not be an entirely reliable guide to the … Continue reading
Posted in Berlin Coptic Proverbs Codex, Book binding, Book covers, Chester Beatty Papyri, Chester Beatty Pauline Epistles, Codices, Codicology, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Schøyen Collection
Tagged Book binding, Book History, bookbinding, Codices, history, papyri, papyrus, papyrus-codices, quires, single-quire-codices
Leave a comment
Moss, God’s Ghostwriters
Over the last few years, Candida Moss has published several very interesting articles on different aspects of slavery and early Christianity, such as: After reading these articles, I recognized that I was not going to be able to approach early … Continue reading
Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity
Tagged Bible, Jesus, New Testament, Roman literature, Roman slavery, scribes
7 Comments
The Upcoming Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex (Just How Old is this Book?)
It has been an unusually busy news week for Coptic codices. I posted a few days ago about the Mudil Psalms codex, and then yesterday several news outlets reported that Christie’s will be auctioning off the Crosby-Schøyen codex, a papyrus … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Codices, Codicology, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Maguid Sameda, Radiocarbon analysis, Schøyen Collection
Tagged antiquities, antiquities-trade, auctions, Codicology, coptic, history, manuscripts, papyrology, papyrus, rare-book-trade, rare-books
8 Comments
The Mudil Psalter
News services in Egypt have announced that the Mudil Psalter is back on display after undergoing conservation treatment. This was a very well preserved Coptic codex that was excavated in 1984. It was found buried together with the body of … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeological context, Book binding, Mudil Psalter
Tagged Codicology, coptic, manuscripts, Mudil codex, Mudil Psalter
2 Comments
The Hobby Lobby v. Dirk Obbink Ruling
In 2023, the civil case of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Dirk D. Obbink switched venues from New York to Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma court has now found a default judgement in favor of Hobby Lobby, with the result that … Continue reading
Variant Readings 