Category Archives: Individual Manuscripts

New Work on Codex Vaticanus (Vat. gr. 1209)

Posted on December 20, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

2024 has been a good year for the study of Codex Vaticanus. Peter Head at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog just posted a notice of an important new study of the inks in the codex: The article is available open … Continue reading →

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Additional Items from the Schøyen Collection on Sale

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

Thanks to Alexander Schick for the tip: Earlier this year, Christie’s offered on auction several pieces from the collection of Martin Schøyen. Among the pieces sold was the so-called Crosby-Schøyen codex. Still no word on who bought the book or … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Erik von Scherling, Martin Schøyen, Maurice Nahman, Schøyen Collection | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Roberta Mazza’s Stolen Fragments

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tiny Inscriptions: The Capitoline Tabula Iliaca

Posted on September 26, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 →

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Digital Images of Codex Bobiensis Online

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 | 2 Comments

A Correction and a Codicological Mystery in P.Bodmer 13

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

I only recently learned of the death, about a year ago now, of Stuart G. Hall (1928-2023). It sent me back to an article that we wrote together. In 2015, I stumbled across grainy black and white photographs of what … Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer composite codex, Bodmer Papyri, Book binding, Codices, Codicology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Stichometry 3: Counts for Galatians in Greek Manuscripts

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

In an earlier post, I set out the evidence used to establish that for ancient Greek and Latin prose writing, a stichos (or versus) was generally equal to 16 syllables. In a subsequent post, I drew attention to the discussion … Continue reading →

Posted in Codex Sinaiticus, Stichometry | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex and its Cost Over Time

Posted on June 12, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Schøyen Collection | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Hugo Ibscher and the Cover of the Berlin Akhmimic Proverbs Codex

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Upcoming Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex (Just How Old is this Book?)

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

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 , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments