Author: Roger Pearse

Some notes on blogging

Posted on by Roger Pearse

From time to time all of us who upload content to the web get to wondering what we’re doing and whether it’s worth it.  This happens, even if you don’t have someone spitting insults at you — it’s a normal part of human nature. 

This was brought on by a question asked at eChurch blog, Does anybody else ever go through a blogging crisis of confidence?

For me it always starts with ‘blogging block’; I just don’t seem to be able to find anything worth blogging about, and I’m never sure if this is because there is nothing interesting to blog about; or whether it’s more reflective of my state of mind.

Then comes a crisis in confidence. Everybody else seems so damn smart and knowledgeable on any given subject; that I feel like a know-nothing fraud.

I thought that I’d offer some thoughts on this (rather inward-looking) subject. 

I myself have found blogging a bit difficult lately, but I also know why.  My current job takes a lot out of me, and I’m also very busy with some other necessary but boring business which leaves me very little time to think about anything else.

Each of us, when we blog, or write articles online, draws upon what we are currently thinking about.  But most people can only do this for a while before they need to replenish the “reservoir”.  Otherwise, we grow “cruel dry”, as Addison did when writing the Spectator.  It’s natural, and of no other significance.  When we can’t write, it means only that we need to read, that we need to browse, to refill ourselves.  Your cup can only overflow if it is full!  This applies, even to those uploading material by others.  If we just haven’t the time to do this, it will be difficult to blog.

But sometimes we all just don’t feel that original.  In such circumstances, I think it is important to have a few volumes of miscellaneous literature that we can plunder for quotations or witty material.  Regular readers will have observed that I often post from Paley’s collection of Greek Wit.  When I was reading Aulus Gellius — itself a work of precisely this kind — I posted extracts from that.  Martial’s epigrams are short and there’s usually something to say.  I think that a supply of such works, which are easy to read as well as to quote from, is a useful help.  Of course the works must not be works which are in everyone’s hands.

The other question raised is about how valuable what we do is.  How useful, in a way, is this very post, except perhaps to other bloggers and website maintainers?  Am I writing something that anyone will wish to read, even six months hence?

I confess that I don’t really care.

That may seem harsh, but really, just imagine what would happen if I worried about what I write everytime I uploaded something, every time I blogged?  I’d soon cease to do anything at all.  Human nature is what it is, and it is a mistake to over-analyse these things.  From time to time I look at the blog stats, which continue to rise, and that’s as much as I need.  Indeed I don’t even care about that.

Commenters can be a danger, in this respect.  On this blog everyone is nice, and the nature of the subject is that the online thug is a rare visitor.  But current affairs blogs, by their very nature, attract aggressive disagreement.  This can wear down the blogger.  Indeed I have seen “comments” elsewhere which were plainly intended for no other purpose, a form of soft-intimidation. 

My own response to any comment that annoys me is brutal — I delete it.  This blog isn’t a public forum, but rather my diary online, in which people of goodwill are welcome to share, and add notes in the margin.  This disposes of such people.  It’s really important to retain control of one’s own blog, and not be intimidated by specious cries of “censorship” — often made by people who themselves won’t allow any disagreement.  As my experience in Wikipedia early this year showed me, there is no lack of criminals online who write solely to silence others, and wreck their work, and care nothing for the public weal. 

Doubtless one day I shall cease to blog.  This journal of what I am doing and thinking about will fall silent.  So do we all. One day I shall die.  One day the moon will fall and the sun grow cold.  We all know this: but we do not act upon this knowledge, for to do so is to become less than human, and to worry ourselves silly.  We must write as if we will live forever, and as if we will live forever, and as if surrounded by friends.

But in the mean time I have a few objectives: firstly, to enjoy what I do, and secondly to share that with the like-minded. 

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Political imprisonment in Britain today

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A horrible story on the BBC today, written in a manner that indicates the BBC is on the side of the nasty people.

A man who posted sectarian comments on a Facebook page called “Neil Lennon Should be Banned” has been jailed for eight months.

Stephen Birrell, 28, from Glasgow, admitted posting the religiously prejudiced abuse earlier this year.

Sheriff Bill Totten said what Birrell had done was a hate crime which would not be tolerated by “the right thinking people of Glasgow and Scotland”.

He said he wanted to send out “a clear message to deter others”.

There is no suggestion that Mr Birrell — whom the BBC labels a “bigot” in its headline — did anything except express a strong dislike for a group of people holding views different from himself.  He did not incite violence. 

He was, in other words, imprisoned for expressing his opinions.

Heaven alone knows what punishment he would have received had he called for those he disliked to be imprisoned for disagreeing with him.

There is much talk in the article about “hate” — that is, about feelings.  But when did feeling become a crime?  And if we’re talking about hate, you have to hate someone pretty badly to throw them in prison for disagreeing with you.

This judgement abolishes freedom of speech online.  I don’t care about Mr Birrell’s views, either for or against.  I support neither Celtic or Rangers.  But he becomes the first political prisoner in Britain of modern times.

I learn from the BBC article that there is a group, Take a Liberty, who are opposing this hatred and bigotry.  Please link to them.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A very interesting article by Alin Suciu reveals an unnoticed fragment of the Coptic translation of Revelation.  As with the Greek world, Coptic writers such as Shenoute seldom refer to the work, it seems.

Here I’m continuing with the OCR of Ibn Abi Usaibia. 

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Galen: what the Arab knew and we only discovered in 2006

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still OCR-ing the English translation of Ibn Abi Usaibia’s dictionary of medical writers.  But I have just come across the following line, in a list of Galen’s books:

In his book “The Negation of Grief” he says that many of his books and much of his valuable furniture were burnt in the royal storehouses in Rome.

Some of the books that were destroyed were manuscripts of Aristotle; others were manuscripts of Anaxagoras and Andromachus which he had corrected under the guidance of his teachers and of people who had studied them with Plato (he had traveled to a distant city for this purpose). He mentions many other things lost in that fire, but they are too numerous to be indicated here.

Al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik says: “Among Galen’s books that were burnt were Rufus’ on theriacs and poisons, the treatment of poisoned people and the composition of drugs (according to disease and time) and — dearest to him — the books written on white silk, with black covers, for which he had paid a high price.”

 This is a reference to the previously unknown Peri Alupias, (On grief) only rediscovered quite by accident very recently in the monastery of Vlatadon in Thessalonica in 2006.  Yet clearly in the 13th century Ibn Abi Usaibia knew the work.  It’s a good summary, too, as these extracts make plain.

Where there is one lost work, of course, there might be more.  But my efforts to get a copy of the catalogue of Vlatadon — from 1918, if I remember rightly — were all in vain.  Librarians blithered about possible copyright, drat them.  These people are paid from money exacted from the poor to make stuff accessible, but do they do it?  Do they heck!

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve just completed another 50 pages of the unpublished English translation of the 13th century Arabic writer Ibn Abi Usaibia’s dictionary of medical writers.  Thankfully he has now reached Galen.  It was the material on Galen that led me to look at this work.  It’s much more interesting than the material which has preceded it.

The sun is still shining, but I keep wanting to go to sleep.  The winter sun doesn’t give as much light, it seems.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The change of season is at long last perceptible, and for the last two or three days it has actually felt like autumn for the first time.  The bright warm weather has concealed the fact that the nights are drawing in, but now, suddenly, it is evident.  Waking early one morning by chance, at 6:30, I find that it is only just light, after many months of bright sunshine at that hour.  This morning for the first time I put the heating on.

It is also suddenly colder outside, some 10 degrees colder than it was last weekend.  This morning I looked out to condensation on the car and on the grass and on the inside of the window.  The hour change is only two weeks away.

The change in the light level has left everyone in my office yawning this week, as our bodies attempt to adjust to the new conditions.  In truth I find that the next 8-9 weeks always leave me feeling somewhat jet-lagged, as the days get shorter quickly.

But it also means that winter pursuits are becoming practicable.  It no longer seems like a waste of a nice day to get up this morning and spend an hour on the computer, OCRing Ibn Abi Usaibia, and correcting the results in Finereader 10.  Indeed I have done just that, with great satisfaction.

The sun is low this Saturday morning, but the sky is now blue and  the sun bright on the house opposite.  So I think that I had better get ready to go out!

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Rochester abbey library catalogue – manuscript page online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A very useful post at the British Library manuscripts blog today gives an image of the medieval catalogue of the books owned by the Abbey of St. Andrew at Rochester.  The page is from Ms. Royal 5 B XII, and is doubtless one that was stolen by the crown when the abbeys were closed down at the Reformation.

These catalogues of medieval libraries are often very imperfectly published, and there is nothing like seeing the actual page!  The Rochester page (f.2r) in fact lists the books owned by the abbey, starting with works by Augustine; then by Gregory the Great; then by Ambrose of Milan; then Jerome / Hieronymus; then the Venerable Bede; and then miscellaneous other books, including a lectionary, a passionary, a homiliary, some saints’ Lives, decretals, and others which I can’t make out. 

But what we all want to see, of course, are the complete mss. online.

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An interesting overview of Coptic Patristic literature in the Cambridge Ancient History

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Quite by accident today I stumbled over a rather interesting overview of Coptic Patristic literature in a Google books preview of a volume of the Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XIII, The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425, ed. Averil Cameron &c, (1998) p.725 f. here.  It is quite difficult for the non-professional to get an orientation in this sort of field, and these couple of pages fill the bill admirably. 

It comes from section 7, pp.720-735, by Mark Smith of Oxford University.  Dr. Smith divides his topic into six sections:

  1. Magical texts
  2. The bible and apocrypha
  3. Patristic and homiletic works
  4. Monastic texts and martyrologies
  5. The Nag Hammadi library and related tractates
  6. Manichaean writings.

All are extremely interesting and well-referenced: here is the section on patristics.

Patristic literature in Coptic, at least for the period A.D. 337—425, consisted chiefly if not entirely of works translated from Greek. There is no evidence that any of the Fathers of the church, even those such as Athanasius or Cyril of Alexandria, who lived in Egypt and had extensive dealings with Egyptian monks, ever wrote in the language of that country.[42] According to a tradition preserved by Epiphanius,[43] a certain Hieracas (c. 270-3 60) was the first to write commentaries and other treatises in Coptic. No trace of his work has survived, unless it be an Akhmimic MS. of fourth-century date containing psalms or hymns which some have attributed to him.[44] This being the case, it is difficult to evaluate the tradition critically. For the purposes of the present discussion, Coptic patristic literature may be divided into two categories: works preserved in manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries, and those preserved in manuscripts of later date. Only a few texts fall into the first category. The treatise on the Pascha by Melito of Sardis is attested by three early manuscripts, one Akhmimic and two Sa’idic, as well as a few fragments.[45] One of the Sa`idic MSS., which also contains Jonah, 1 Peter, an extract from 2 Maccabees, and an Easter homily, was written at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century. The other Sa`idic MS. and its Akhmimic counterpart are certainly  of fourth-century date. The translation of this work into Coptic has been seen as further evidence for a connection between Asiatic Christianity and certain Christian circles within Egypt.[46] Among other texts, the Shepherd of Hermas is preserved in an Akhmimic manuscript of the fourth century[47] and a Sa`idic one of the fifth century.48 Coeval with the latter is a Middle Egyptian version of the Didache.[49] The First Epistle of Clement is attested by two Akhmimic codices, one dating to the fourth century,[50] the other to the fifth.[51] The latter contains the Gospel of John and the Episde of James as well. There are, in addition, miscellaneous letters and sermons preserved in MSS. of fourth- or fifth-century date. These are mainly fragments and their authors have yet to be identified.[52]

Thus far, matters are relatively straightforward. For various reasons, however, the second category of texts is more problematic. A number of genuine patristic writings are preserved in Coptic MSS. which postdate the fifth century. Full lists of these have been compiled by Krause[53] and Orlandi.[54] Among the authors attested are Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the Cappadocians, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, there is no way of knowing when the works of these writers were first translated and, consequently, it is impossible to say whether Coptic versions of them were in circulation during the fourth and fifth centuries. The point is well illustrated by the four discourses of Gregory of Nazianzus preserved in Sa`idic and Bohairic MSS. of the eighth—eleventh centuries.[55] These may have been translated as early as the fifth century, as the editor of two of them has suggested,[56] but firm evidence that they were is lacking.

The picture is further complicated by a number of late MSS. containing works that are falsely attributed to one or another of the church Fathers. Some are genuine patristic writings that have been credited to the wrong authors. Others are totally spurious, having been composed in Coptic long after the end of the period under discussion. Examples in the first category include a homily of John Chrysostom on the Canaanite woman, wrongly attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea,[57] and an exegesis of a passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, written by Basil but credited to Athanasius.[58] Both are preserved in a Sa`idic codex of seventh-century date. A good exemplar of the second category is the cycle of homilies ascribed to Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria from 385 to 412.[59] Works of this type will not be taken into consideration here.

In general, it can be said that the translators of patristic literature into Coptic were not interested in theological questions as such. Rather, they were influenced by practical concerns. Texts were selected for translation either because they were valuable for liturgical purposes, or capable of providing moral instruction or spiritual edification.[60]

42 Arguments to the contrary are unconvincing, e.g. Lefort (1953a); cf. Draguet (1980) 111*—12*.
43 Haer. LXVII. 1.2—3.
44 Lefort (1939) 1-6; Peterson (1947).
45 See Goehring (1984); Crum and Bell (1922) 47-9 .
46 Orlandi (1986) 59.
47 Lefort (1952) ii-iv and 1-18.
48 Ibid. viii-ix and 25-6.
49 Ibid. ix-xv and 32-4.
50 Schmidt (1908).
51 Rosch (1910) 1-88.
52 E.g. Crum (1905) nos . 269, 279 , 285, 521, 1220; Till (1931).
53 Krause (1980) columns 707, 710-11.
54 Orlandi (1970) 69-88, 115-24. Cf. idem (1973), (1984).
55 For bibliography on the editions of the MSS. in question, see Lafontaine (1981) 38-40.
56 Ibid. 43. The same writer expresses a more cautious view at Lafontaine (1980b) 39 and (1980a) 201.
57 Mercati (1907).
58 Orlandi (1975) 52—3.
59 Orlandi (1985) 103-4; cf. idem (1973). 
60 Orlandi (1986) 71-2.

The abbreviated references point to the back of the book, where they are given in full: a system full of peril to the reader, if the editor fails to ensure that every volume does actually get included in the bibliography. 

Footnotes 53 and 54, containing lists of Patristic works in Coptic, are worth expanding here.  What a pity neither is in English or French!

Krause, M. (1980) ‘Koptische Literatur’, in W. Helck and W Westendorf (eds.), Lexicon der Agyptologie Vol. 3 (Wiesbaden) columns 694-728
Orlandi, T. (1970) Elementi di lingua e letteratura copta. Milan
Orlandi, T. (1973) ‘Patristica copta e patristica greca’, Vetera Christianorum 10: 327-41

The same volume also contains a useful article on Syriac.  It is a reminder not to neglect this series, which is a useful entry point to the literature.

In my teens I used to buy volumes of the CAH, saving up money from birthdays to do so.  Unfortunately I started at the beginning, rather than in the historical section, and ended up with 4 volumes of mainly dry archaeology reports.  Naturally my interest waned, and I stopped buying them.  In retrospect, if I had had a friend who could advise me, he would probably have told me to start in the Principate, with the early Caesars, and I might well have read through the series.  The auto-didact faces many problems, of course.   Those who receive reading lists at university are rarely grateful enough for them!

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John the Lydian, “On the Roman Months 4”: October

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The next chunk of the first ever English translation of the calendrical book by the 6th century antiquarian, John the Lydian, has arrived! And very seasonal it is too! 

The chapter is a short one, which means that it can appear here.  Please note the excellent note 7 by the translator.  A number of the references are drawn from astrological writers, such as Euctemon, who usually marked the date on which various constellations rose or set.

[161]  OCTOBER 

135. For the Macedonians, October[1] is the first month, but for the Romans, it is the eighth from the spring, and hence they call it October, meaning “eighth.”  This month was formerly named Sementilius, from “seed”—for that [i.e., semen] is what Romans call “seed.”

On the [162] Kalends of October,[2] the priests would speak oracularly to the people, that they ought not to pay attention to their dreams, because of the images that were due to the moist swelling connected to the autumn fruit.  But from the “Waxing of the Light,”[3] that is, from January, one ought especially to pay attention [i.e., to dreams], in accordance with the opinion of Herophilus, who accepted that dreams were actually god-sent, whereas Democritus [classifies them] among manifestations of images. 

On the Kalends of October, Varro says that the Pleiades rise in the East.

The Romans thought it good to eat leeks all through the month, on the basis of some ancient tradition, to ward off the condition of gout.

136.  On the sixth day before the Nones of October,[4] Eudoxus supposes that there will be rain in the evening.

137.  In the case of the seeds that are cast into the earth, there was a certain power, which the sun draws along as it goes around the lower hemisphere at the time of the winter solstice:  Corê [i.e., Persephone] is the seed-holding power, while Pluto is the sun under the earth, who is said to have seized Corê, whom Demeter sought while she was hidden under the earth.  And the myths tell that the seizure [took place] at Aetna in Sicily [163]; for it is said that grain was sown there first.

138.  On the fifth of October, the Regionarchai and Sebastophoroi would dance in the Gusteion, as it were, the “Fish-shop,”[5] in honor of Tiberius.  And now the common people call this sort of place Augusteion.  In the uncovered [area] of the Daphne,[6] in the small courtyard, Constantine the Great set up a statue [stêlê]of his own mother, after whom he named the place Augusteion.[7]

139.  On the day before the Nones of October,[8] Democritus asserts that the Kids [i.e., the constellation Haedi] rise and that the North wind blows, while Eudoxus says that the middle of Aries sets.

On the Nones of October,[9] Varro predicts that the Pleiades rise in the evening, and the West wind [zephyros] blows, and then also the South-West wind [lips].

140.  Concerning the wooden horse, Euphorion says that it was a boat called “Horse” by the Greeks.  But others say that it was a gate with this name in Troy, through which the Greeks entered.

141. On the day before the Ides of October,[10] Euctemon considers it to be the absolute middle of autumn.

On the 15th day before the Kalends of November,[11] the sun enters Scorpio, as Callipus says.

On the 14th day before the Kalends of November,[12] Metrodorus says that the Hyades rise in the evening, and [there is] a violent wind.

142.  There are said to have been three Asclepii:  First, the [son] of Apollo the [son] of Hephaestus; he invented the surgical probe.  Second, the [son] of Ischys the [son] of Elatus and Coronis; <he> was buried on the borders of Cynosuris.  Third, the [son] of Arsippus and Arsinoe the daughter of Leucippus; this one invented surgery and the forceps for extracting teeth, and he has a grave in Arcadia.[13]  The astronomers say that he is Ophiuchus, who stands over Scorpio.

143.  On the day before the Kalends of November,[14] Varro says that Lyra rises together with the sun.

[1] I.e., the Macedonian month Dios.
[2] 1 Oct.
[3] Gk. ta Auxiphôtia.  Cf. 4.121, 158.
[4] 2 Oct.
[5] So LSJ.  Alternatively, “Cook-shop” (Sophocles’ Lexicon).  Gk. opsopôleion.
[6] Part of the imperial palace at Constantinople.
[7] This place (Augusteum / Augustaeum / Augustaion / Augusteion—to be distinguished from the Augusteus, which was part of the palace) was an open courtyard in front of the imperial palace (ultimately between it and the Hagia Sophia), the earliest development of which is obscure:  It certainly existed in the 5th century, and was later remodelled by Justinian.  For John Lydus’ account, cf. Hesychius’ Patria Constantinopoleos 40 (Preger, Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 1:17):  “And he [i.e., Constantine] erected a statue of his own mother Helena upon a column and named the place Augustaion“; Procopius (Buildings 1.2.1 and 1.10.5) refers to it as an agora (market-place) “which the Byzantines call the Augustaion.”  For the idea that it was originally a “fish-shop,” cf. Suda s.v. Augustus (with the account of the statue of Helena) [based on John Lydus, it seems] and s.v. Justinian; andthe late Byzantine Ps.-Codinus, Patria Constantinopoleos, 2.15 [based on John Lydus, it appears, but substituting “the current ruler” for “Tiberius”] and 2.17:  “Justinian, after building the Hagia Sophia, purified the courtyard and coated it with marble stucco—it had previously been a gusteion, or ‘fish-shop.'”  Cyril Mango, The Brazen House (1959), p. 46, notes that the Chronicon Paschale (p. 593 Dindorf) reports that in A.D. 459 the city prefect Theodosius “built the Augustaion alongside the Great Church”—and that this source nevertheless also (pp. 528-29 Dindorf) gives the account that Constantine erected a statue of Helena and called the place “Augustaion.”  Cameron and Herrin (eds.), Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century:  The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai (1984),p. 262, citing Mango and the Chron. Pasch., consider the association with Constantine the Great legendary.  Finally, Mango (p. 46 n. 50) notes John Lydus’ placement of the statue of Helena in the open area of the Daphne as a piece of information that conflicts with the location of the Augustaion; yet John clearly does not see a conflict—it may be that he is using the term Daphne loosely to refer to the palace in general, or that the story about the statue of Helena originally did not refer to the familiar Augusteion, but has been garbled at some stage in the transmission.
[8] 4 Oct.
[9] 5 Oct.
[10] 14 Oct.
[11] 18 Oct.
[12] 19 Oct.
[13] For these Asclepii, cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.22(57)—Cicero also says (55) that the “first” Hephaestus (Vulcan), the son of Caelus, was the father of one particular Apollo.
[14] 31 Oct.

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An English translation of the Life of Samuel of Kalamoun

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I learn today that an edition of the Coptic text of the life of Samuel of Kalamoun does exist, with English translation.  It was edited by Anthony Alcock, and published in 1983 in Warminster by Aris & Phillips, ISBN 0856682195.  It is useful to know it exists.  According to COPAC, it is based on his 1972 D.Phil. thesis at Oxford, which was a critical text of the manuscript, Pierpont Morgan ms. Coptic 578.

Dr Alcock also worked on the 4th century Coptic texts from the Kellis excavations, of which volume 1 was published in 2001 and volume 2 is yet (sigh) to appear, as well as a range of other interesting coptica.

I need to think some more about Coptic material.  I’d still like to get more work done on the De Lagarde catena, and there must be other Coptic texts which could usefully go online.

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