Category Archives: Manuscript Collections

The Recette de Saint-Remi and the Layout of an Early Greek Parchment Codex

As 2025 comes to a close, one last article is coming out: “Mise-en-page Between Roman Egypt and Medieval Europe: The Recette de Saint-Remi and the Layout of an Early Greek Parchment Codex (P.Ant. 1 27),” Fragmentology 8 (2025), 155-169. This … Continue reading

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Augustine in the Cairo Genizah

Thinking about the letters of Augustine reminds me of one of the more interesting manuscripts I encountered this year. Among the many remarkable manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah is Cambridge University Library ADD.4320. It’s a collection of fragments of a … Continue reading

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7Q5 and Appeals to Authority, Part 2: Herbert Hunger

I have written before about 7Q5, a small fragment of papyrus found in Cave 7Q at Qumran. It contains an unidentified text in Greek. It became (in)famous in the early 1970s when José O’Callaghan (1922-2001) argued that it preserved a bit … Continue reading

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New Article on P.Oxy. 1 2 and P.Oxy. 7 1010

This will be the first of a few posts about some recent articles of mine that have just been published. The first is a piece jointly authored by AnneMarie Luijendijk and me. The full article is available (open access!) here: … Continue reading

Posted in Codices, Codicology, New Testament, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Images of P52

For some time now, the Rylands Library at the University of Manchester has hosted good digital images of P.Ryl. Gr. 3 457 (a.k.a. P52), the fragment of the Gospel According to John. I recently visited the University of Manchester’s LUNA … Continue reading

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New Radiocarbon Analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls

An important new study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has just been published (open access!) in the journal PLOS One: Mladen Popović et al., “Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis,” PLOS One 2025. In some ways, … Continue reading

Posted in Dead Sea Scrolls, Frank Moore Cross, Palaeography, Radiocarbon analysis | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

7Q5 and Appeals to Authority, Part 1: Orsolina Montevecchi

I am fascinated by the Wikipedia entry for 7Q5, which seems to continuously bounce back and forth between being useful and informative to being goofy and borderline incoherent. 7Q5 is a tiny fragment of papyrus found in Cave 7Q at … Continue reading

Posted in 7Q5, Dead Sea Scrolls, Orsolina Montevecchi | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

The Lying Pen of Scribes Project: An Appreciation

Over the last few years, I have had a number of occasions to mention The Lying Pen of Scribes, a project on the Dead Sea Scrolls funded by the Research Council of Norway. In fact, it may not be quite … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Archaeological context, Dead Sea Scrolls, Fakes and Forgeries | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Decoration of the Fore-edges of Coptic Codices

There is a fun article in The New York Times about the growing trend among publishers of producing deluxe editions of romance and fantasy books. The article mentions different kinds of cover enhancements but focuses on decoration of the fore-edge. … Continue reading

Posted in Book binding, Book covers, Chester Beatty Papyri, Codicology, Maurice Nahman, Saqqara Codices | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Additional Items from the Schøyen Collection on Sale

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