Category Archives: Manuscript Collections

Michael Blanding’s The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby

When I began this blog back in 2017, the mysteries surrounding Hobby Lobby and its biblical manuscripts were really driving some aspects of my research. Over the last decade, there has been thorough reporting of on Hobby Lobby and its … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Book Reviews, Green Collection, Lee Biondi, Scott Carroll | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A New Article on P.Oxy. 7.1008 and 7.1009 (P15 and P16)

The latest issue of Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft contains an article I wrote on two papyrus folia from Oxyrhynchus. Here is the abstract: P.Oxy. 7.1008 and 7.1009 (P15 and P16 in the INTF’s Kurzgefasste Liste) preserve portions of 1 … Continue reading

Posted in Codices, Codicology, Ink, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Palaeography | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

An Early Latin Codex with a Clear Date of Production

One of the frustrating things about working with the earliest codices and codex fragments is the lack of securely dated examples. Palaeography can give a general range, and archaeological context or reuse can sometimes give us a decent terminus ante … Continue reading

Posted in B-R Uncial, Codicology, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Palaeography | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted in Antinoopolis Papyri, Archaeological context, Palaeography | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Cairo Genizah, Palimpsests, Reuse of manuscripts | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in 7Q5, Dead Sea Scrolls, Herbert Hunger, Palaeography | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

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