Category Archives: Codices

A New Project: The Early History of the Codex

A busy semester is now winding down, and I’m happy to announce that in August, I’ll be kicking off a new, five-year project: The Early History of the Codex: A New Methodology and Ethics for Manuscript Studies (EthiCodex) based here … Continue reading

Posted in Codices, Codicology, Radiocarbon analysis | 9 Comments

Online Images of Early Christian Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library

In a previous post, I mentioned that the Bodleian Library had made available nice color digital images of the Hawara Homer papyrus roll. They have also added images of several early Christian manuscripts. I provide links to the images at … Continue reading

Posted in Bodleian Library, Codices, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 5 Comments

New Facsimiles of the Chester Beatty New Testament Papyri

I had heard rumors a few years ago that a new facsimile edition of the Beatty Biblical Papyri was in the works. It looks like the New Testament papyri have now appeared courtesy of Hendrickson. This is exciting. The volumes … Continue reading

Posted in Chester Beatty Papyri, Codices | 10 Comments

Back When Single-quire Codices Were Strange

Since the discovery and publication of the Nag Hammadi codices, the single-quire codex format has become very familiar to papyrologists and historians of the book. It’s interesting, however, to recall that there was a time when the idea of an … Continue reading

Posted in Book binding, Codices, Codicology, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 1 Comment

BnF Copte 135E and Codex Construction

After a recent conversation about early Coptic codices with Alin Suciu, I spent some time with the several distinct manuscripts catalogued under the designation “Copte 135” at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the so-called Akhmim Papyri. There are some really … Continue reading

Posted in Book binding, Codices, Codicology | Leave a comment

The Cotton Genesis

I was reminded this week about one of the wonderful early Christian manuscripts that really didn’t get the treatment it deserved in my book God’s Library–the so-called Cotton Genesis. This small parchment codex was part of a collection amassed by … Continue reading

Posted in Codices, Codicology, Cotton Genesis | 2 Comments

Publication of the Tchacos-Ferrini Mathematical Codex

I see that later this month we can expect the publication of the Tchacos-Ferrini mathematical codex (LDAB 10719, now dubbed by the editors P.Math.). This codex travelled the antiquities market along with a papyrus codex of Exodus in Greek, a … Continue reading

Posted in Bruce Ferrini, Codices, Codicology, Find Stories, Frieda Tchacos, Tchacos-Ferrini Codices, Tchacos-Ferrini Exodus Codex, Tchacos-Ferrini Math Codex, Tchacos-Ferrini Pauline Epistles Codex | 1 Comment

Arthur Hunt, Harold Idris Bell, and Edward Maunde Thompson on the Date of Codex Sinaiticus

When it comes to the question of assigning palaeographic dates to Greek literary manuscripts of the Roman period, British papyrologists in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seem to show some different tendencies. One of the most respected of the … Continue reading

Posted in Codex Sinaiticus, Codices, Palaeography | 9 Comments

Palaeographic Dating: Graphic Difference Does Not Always Mean Chronological Difference

In a few days, I hope to complete a post on the date of Codex Sinaiticus. It has been educational for me to revisit the arguments for the dating of this codex. One quotation that I found especially eye-opening was … Continue reading

Posted in Codex Sinaiticus, Codices, Palaeography | 7 Comments

A New Article on Palaeographic Dating of Codices

The latest issue of Journal for the Study of the New Testament contains a group of articles that emerged from an SBL session in 2016 arranged by Roberta Mazza on problems of dating ancient manuscripts. In addition to Roberta’s introductory … Continue reading

Posted in Codices, Codicology, Palaeography | 5 Comments