New Article on the History of Codex Alexandrinus

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

The latest issue of Novum Testamentum contains an important (open access!) article on Codex Alexandrinus:

Mina Monier, “The History of Codex Alexandrinus: New Evidence from Arabic Paratexts,” Novum Testamentum 67 (2025) 501-526.

Recent scholarship on the codex has generally rejected the possibility that the manuscript was produced in Egypt (Constantinople is the most frequently named alternative; Ephesus has also been suggested). Now Monier’s article brings together several arguments that undercut the case for Constantinople and offer support for an Egyptian provenance for the codex. Among other things, the article:

  • provides both an improved transcription and a richer contextualization of the Arabic endowment statement in the codex. The result is that there is no longer any reason to believe that Codex Alexandrinus came to Egypt with a group of books from Constantinople in the early fourteenth century, which has been the usual assumption since T.C. Skeat’s 1955 article on the provenance of Alexandrinus.
  • points out that marginal liturgical notes in Arabic can be explained only in light of the Coptic paschal lectionary.
  • highlights neglected Egyptian evidence for lists of New Testament books that match the curious contents and order of the New Testament books in Codex Alexandrinus (which includes 1-2 Clement and places Hebrews between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy).

There is much more in the article itself (including a thorough discussion of the enigmatic reference to “the handwriting of Thecla the Martyr,” as well as a new approach to the context of the foliation of the codex). This is a fascinating read, and I have no doubt that this will be a landmark study that reorients the discussion of the early history of Codex Alexandrinus.

Codex Alexandrinus (British Library, Royal MS 1 D. viii)
Posted in Codex Alexandrinus, Codices | 1 Comment

Binding Sets of Wooden Tablets

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

For a long time, I assumed that sets of wooden tablets from the Roman era were bound in a fairly simple way, with a cord looped straight through the holes as we see in this set of tablets from Kellis that were found with the cord in place:

Kellis Account Book with binding cord in place; image source: R.S. Bagnall, The Kellis Agricultural Account Book (Oxbow, 1997), plate 11.

The method results in a slightly clunky but effective method for holding the tablets together and allowing one to turn the “pages.” It had not occurred to me that tablets would be bound in other ways until I saw the remarkable exhibition and catalog from 2018 produced by Georgios Boudalis, “The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity.” One of the many interesting and innovative suggestions in that book is that the sewing of wooden tablets may have been more elaborate, with the binding cords wrapping around the outside of the individual tablets along the spine in a manner partly analogous to the way that a loop-stitch (or link-stitch) holds together the gatherings of a multi-quire parchment or papyrus codex. Boudalis illustrated this hypothesis with one of his excellent diagrams:


Boudalis’s reconstruction of possible method for sewing tablets together; image source: G. Boudalis, The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity (New York, 2018), p. 29, fig. 15

When I reviewed his book, I brought up these imaginative reconstructions and expressed some cautious enthusiasm:

“Boudalis’s reconstructions are rightly and openly signaled as hypothetical. And they are entirely plausible, but they are not (yet!) capable of being confirmed from existing archaeological remains.”

Now I have seen a relief that seems to show a set of tablets bound in a way very similar to what Boudalis proposed. It is a funerary relief in the Rheinische Landesmuseum in Trier. Many of the funerary monuments on display here show sets of tablets as part of “Kontorszene,” office scenes.1 This particular item (inv. 303) is a relief on sandstone showing seven people in a such a financial scene.

Relief showing men with money and a set of tablets (left); Rheinische Landesmuseum Trier inv. 303; image Brent Nongbri 2025

The figure at far left has a set of tablets that appear to be sitting spine-side-out, and it looks like the person who carved the relief has attempted to represent the stitching of the tablets:


Detail of bound tablets showing sewing(?) on the spine; Rheinische Landesmuseum Trier inv. 303; image Brent Nongbri 2025

The series of small knobs that correspond to each of the individual tablets seem to me to be an attempt to show stitching in the medium of carved stone. If this is correct, it would confirm Boudalis’s hypothesis that some sets of tablets were bound with this more elaborate type of stitching that is related to the sewing of multi-quire codices. I have not noted this detail in other reliefs, but I haven’t really been on the lookout for this kind of thing. If anyone knows of other examples, I would be grateful to learn of them.

  1. These reliefs are the subject of a chapter by Anja Klöckner and Michaela Stark, “Bildsprache und Semantik der sog. Kontorszenen auf den Grabmonumenten der Civitas Treverorum,” in Sabine Lefebvre (ed.), Iconographie du quotidien dans l’art provincial romain: modèles régionaux (Dijon: ARTEHIS Éditions, 2017). Thanks to Michele Cammarosano for drawing it to my attention. ↩︎
Posted in Book binding, Tablets | 1 Comment

Taking Care of Papyrus Scrolls in Antiquity

Posted on August 10, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

The digital edition of a new book has recently become available:

Jeremiah Coogan, Candida R Moss, and Joseph A Howley (eds.),Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE–300 CE (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025)

The volume is the result of a workshop back in 2022 in which I was fortunate enough to participate. It was a somewhat unusual seminar in the sense that we were all assigned a topic to explore, and it turned out to be quite illuminating for me. I have a chapter in the book that is just called “Maintenance,” and it discusses the care of papyrus rolls from the point of production through the life of the roll. I have discussed some of these topics on the blog in the last few years with posts on such things as parchment covers for bookrolls, the storage of rolls, and the alleged stands for holding open scrolls. My chapter touches on these topics and also discusses things like repairs of papyrus rolls and the people who carried out such work.

Here is the abstract:

This essay surveys the surviving evidence for the maintenance of books (papyrus rolls) from the Mediterranean world under Roman rule. After a discussion of an especially well-documented case of damage and repair of papyrus rolls in an archive in Roman Egypt, the essay turns to the steps taken during the manufacture of papyrus rolls to prevent such damage from occurring and the options for mending rolls when such damage occurred. This examination involves literary, documentary, and iconographic evidence that illustrates the storage, transportation, use, and repair of books. The essay closes with an investigation of what we can know about the people, both enslaved and free, who performed these tasks of maintenance. The surviving textual and material evidence that lets us see the results of this labor only rarely allows us to glimpse the people who carried out this work.

If you don’t have institutional access, send me a note, and I can send you an offprint.

Thanks to the editors for organizing this stimulating workshop and seeing the papers through to publication.

Detail of a sarcophagus of a Greek physician reading a papyrus roll with other rolls stored in a cabinet in the background; image source: The Met
Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Voluminology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Crosby-Schøyen Codex now at the Museum of the Bible

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

Many of us had wondered who purchased the Crosby-Schøyen Codex when it was up for sale through Christie’s last year. Now we know (via an August 5th article by Emily Belz at Christianity Today):

“The Green Collection, connected to the Museum of the Bible, revealed that it purchased the Crosby-Schøyen Codex, which contains what is perhaps the earliest complete versions of Jonah and 1 Peter, at an auction last year.”

The article mentions plans to digitize the codex and make it available online.

Addendum (6 August 2025): I see the Museum of the Bible has its own announcement about acquiring the codex here.

A nearly complete bifolium of the Crosby-Schøyen codex; image source: CNN

The codex sold last year for a reported cost of £ 3,065,000 (about $3,900,000 USD at the time).

Posted in Crosby-Schøyen Codex | Leave a comment

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

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

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:

AnneMarie Luijendijk and Brent Nongbri, “The Codicology of Early Christian Books from Oxyrhynchus: Insights from a Papyrus Codex of Matthew (P.Oxy. I 2) and a Miniature Parchment Codex with 6 Ezra (P.Oxy. VII 1010),” ISAW Papers 29.3 (2025)

It is the outcome of an excellent session that was part of a Mellon Sawyer Seminar, Cultural and Textual Exchanges: The Manuscript Across Premodern Eurasia, organized by Paul Dilley and his colleagues at the University of Iowa.

AnneMarie and I gave a general overview of Christian codices among the Oxyrhynchus papyri and then focused on two pieces, P.Oxy. 1 2, a papyrus bifolium containing the beginning of the Gospel According to Matthew in Greek and P.Oxy. 7 1010, a parchment leaf from a codex containing 6 Ezra.

P.Oxy. 1 2 with outline showing Turner’s proposed dimensions for the full page; original image source: Penn Museum Online Collections E 2746

In connection to P.Oxy. 1 2, we cleared up some confusion about the dimensions of the page (Aland and Turner disagreed on the width by a centimeter) and the contents of the bifolium (O’Callaghan misunderstood some physical features of the papyrus and reported incorrect information about its contents that has made its way into reference works). Finally, we explored the implications of a codicological reconstruction that would fold the bifolium in the direction opposite from that which is usually assumed, which would potentially make the piece the outermost bifolium of a single-quire codex.

For P.Oxy. 7 1010, we worked through the problem posed by the page numbering (or is it foliation?) on the leaf and revisited possible connections to a personal letter from Oxyrhynchus, P.Oxy. 63 4365.

P.Oxy. 7 1010; original image source: Digital Bodleian MS. Gr. Bib. g. 3 (P)

It is always a pleasure to think about Oxyrhynchus materials with AnneMarie, and thanks to Paul for the invitation to participate in this seminar.

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

New Images of P52

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

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 viewer to see what the permissions currently were for these images, and it seems that the library made new images in 2019 and again in 2024 (the 2024 images seem to have been taken in normal light and on a light table).

These new images are excellent. One can really zoom in and see the details of the script and the surface of the papyrus.

See the full images here: recto and verso.

I remember being thrilled with the digital images that the library supplied for me back in 2004, which were very good by the standards of the time. Thanks to the Rylands Library for keeping up with improving photographic technology.

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Volumes 9 and 10 of The Bulletin of the Bezan Club

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

Thanks to C.R. van Tilburg and Jean Putnams for sending scans of issues 10 and 11 of The Bulletin of the Bezan Club. Thanks also to John Muccigrosso for improving the quality of some of the pdf files.

These files now make the set complete. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this resource available!

Posted in New Testament, Textual criticism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Volume 12 of The Bulletin of the Bezan Club

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

Thanks to Jean Putmans for tracking down a copy of volume 12 of The Bulletin of the Bezan Club. This, as far as I know, was the last issue of the Bulletin. The issue contains several comments that indicate another volume was expected (“Our next issue…” etc.), but it seems that it never appeared. I had assumed that events in Germany in 1938 had led to the dissolution of the Club. But I recently saw that Alessandro Falcetta, the biographer of Rendel Harris, has made an intriguing alternative suggestion:

“The twelfth issue of the bulletin was published in 1937. The secretary of the club, Plooij, had died in 1935 and had been replaced by Johannes de Zwaan of Leyden, a former student of Rendel’s at Woodbrooke. Several other members had also died, including Mingana, and obituary notices had almost become a fixed feature of the bulletin. Rendel had turned eighty-five and for the first time there was no contribution from him. He was no longer a driving force behind the club. Now, it was de Zwaan’s job to carry on the bulletin, but, though he had plans for a new issue, he never came to publish it. Probably, the reason was that the bulletin had to give way to a new enterprise. In 1937, during a conference in Edinburgh, de Zwaan met [with] Herbert G. Wood,… George Boobyer and other scholars. There he proposed to them the idea of forming a New Testament society. The following year, a number of scholars met at Carey Hall…and formalized the foundation of the Societas Novi Testamenti Studiorum (SNTS), of which de Zwaan was elected first president. The SNTS is today the most important association of its kind. One wonders whether de Zwaan had in mind the Bezan Club when he outlined his project in Edinburgh.”1

This seems like a plausible scenario.2

A second feature of volume 12 that stood out is a curious coincidence. The issue contains three articles by none other than Robert Eisler (1882-1949), whom I mentioned in a recent post in connection to his (baseless) identification of a marble bust in Copenhagen as a portrait of the Jewish historian Josephus. In the Bulletin, Eisler has written a (sort of?) obituary for Arthur C. Clark (1859-1937), Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at Oxford from 1913-1934, an article on Paul and the “pillars” in Galatians, and an article on Acts 19:14. This seems to be Eisler’s first appearance in the Bulletin (he is not listed on the first page among the members of the Club).

A third interesting aspect of this volume is the last article: “The textual relations of Codex Bezae in Matthew by Miss Ad. H.A. Bakker.” This would be Adolphine Henriette Annette Bakker (1907-1984), author of A Study of Codex Evang. Bobbiensis (1933). She is listed among the members of the Club on the first page of this issue along with “Mrs. Sylva New-Lake,” i.e. Silva Tipple New Lake (1898-1983). So, it seems that by at least as early as 1937, the Club had admitted women as members.

The other issues of the journal can be found here.

  1. Alessandro Falcetta, The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter: A Biography of James Rendel Harris (T&T Clark, 2018), 455. ↩︎
  2. On the early history of the SNTS, see this page and its link to an article by G.H. Boobyer. ↩︎
Posted in J. Rendel Harris, Josephus | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Manuscripts of The Jewish War by Josephus

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

The seven-book composition by the historian Josephus describing the sacking of Jerusalem goes by different names in the Greek manuscript copies:

  • Περὶ ἁλώσεως
  • Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἱστορία περὶ ἁλώσεως
  • Ἰουδαϊκὸς πόλεμος πρὸς Ῥωμαίους
Josephus, Jewish War, beginning of Book 3 in BSB Cod.graec. 639 fol. 125v

In the Latin tradition, these books were known to Jerome as captituitas Iudaicae (Comm. in Isaiam 17), but the appear under the title De bello iudaico in the manuscripts (when they are not sequentially numbered as a continuation of the Antiquitates)

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 17; Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 455, fol. 252r
Beginning of Book 1 of Josephus, De bello Iudaico in St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 627, fol. 3r

English editions settled on The Jewish War (or the The Judean War in the ongoing Brill edition).

Images (of varying quality) of several of the important Greek manuscripts of this work are available online.

The oldest manuscript by far is a fragmentary leaf of a papyrus codex usually said to have been produced in the third century, Vienna, Austrian National Library G 29810 Pap (MPER N.S. 3 36):

Fragment of a folium from a papyrus codex of Josephus’s Jewish War (MPER n.s. 3 36); image source: Vienna, National Library of Austria

The medieval manuscripts are of course more numerous and in a much better state of preservation. The major ones I see online are as follows:

There are of course many other more recent or more fragmentary (or not-yet-digitized) manuscripts, which are all listed here.

Josephus writing The Jewish War for Vespasian; Landesbibliothek Fulda 100 C 1, fol. 1v
Posted in Josephus, Judaism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A New Project on Gospel Harmonies

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

I’m very happy to report that my colleague Dr. Mina Monier has been awarded funding from the Research Council of Norway for a four-year project examining gospel harmonies, texts that weave together the narratives of the four canonical gospels. The project, Unconventional Gospels, will focus on the understudied gospel harmonies of eastern Christian churches.

A copy of the Arabic Diatessaron (Cairo, Coptic Patriarchate, Ms. 67)

Monier is the founder and head of the MF Lab for Manuscript Studies and Digital Research (MF L-MaSDR). He has already been doing some exciting work on the Arabic Diatessaron over the last couple years:

We are very much looking forward to the commencement of this new project!

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