Author: Roger Pearse

More Coptica at the British Museum

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I tried searching their new database for “codex”.  The results were interesting.  You have to get past some tosh about Mexican materials first.

Here is a parchment sheet from a codex, with two columns of Coptic on either side.  It is largely complete, and should certainly be readable to those with the language skills (are you listening, Alin Suciu?)

Then there are several leaves, which look to me as if they all come from one codex, here, here, here and here and here.

Papyrus codex leaf bearing Sahidic script on recto and verso. The text contains a narration of miracles attributed to Shenoute.

Interestingly the first one does NOT appear if you tick “images”.

I then did a search on Syriac.  This did not bring up such interesting items for primary research, but did provide a bust of William Cureton!

Revd William Cureton, Assistant Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Library

Cureton was in charge of the oriental manuscripts when the manuscripts from the Nitrian desert arrived.  It is melancholy to record that he promptly allocated the publication of those he thought most interesting to himself, thereby forcing scholars to wait 15 years to access them.  I doubt his modern successors at the British Library would do differently, sadly.

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Eight Evil Thoughts

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An incoming link drew my attention to a wonderful series at Patristics and Philosophy, entitled Eight Evil Thoughts.  The summaries of each Evil Thought are marvellous!  The material is drawn from Evagrius.

Particularly interesting to me was the Sixth Evil Thought.  It is:

…a type of restlessness that comes upon the monk around noon. What generally happens is this. First, the monk begins to feel that the day is just dragging along or that the task set before him is too difficult. Then, the monk searches to see if any of the other monks are coming to visit him. If not, he returns to his task. However, soon there grows dissatisfaction with where he is at in his life and that none of the other monks care about him. If anyone has done him wrong, he begins to think on that which then leads to anger. Since where he is at now is so terrible, he dwells on thoughts of foreign places and thinks about how wonderful they would be. He then begins to rationalize the need to leave his current location…

I was tempted to replace the word “monk” with “programmer”.  I’ve worked in places like that, in truth!

One of the very nice elements of the series is the references, which include “ET” (which I think means “English translation”).  Far more blog posts should have these.  It is, in my opinion, a failing of WordPress and other blogging software that it is actually rather awkward to add footnotes. 

Returning to the subject, however, I think we need to be a little wary.  Asceticism is not the way that Christ preached, but is really borrowed from the world, I think.  But there is much practical wisdom to be found in these ideas for the Christian.

And for the programmer.

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John the Lydian on September and October

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The translations of John the Lydian’s comments on September and October in book IV of his On the Roman Months have arrived, and are very good as always from this translator.  One needs a footnote finishing, but otherwise they are done.  Once they are complete (and after I have paid for them!) then I will place them online and into the public domain so that we can all do with them as we wish.

I’ve asked my friend if he would consider doing the next five pages also, which covers November!

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Don’t deal with Libreria Ancora Roma

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m getting rather impatient with an Italian bookshop who ordered a copy of my book back in July and still haven’t paid for it.   The name of the firm is “Libreria Ancora Roma”, who are in the via della conciliazione. 

Libreria Ancora — “Ancora International Bookshop”, as they called themselves — ordered it on 22 July, and I sent the order to the printer on 29 July, with an invoice. 

A month later, I emailed Libreria Ancora again on 29 August, reminding them that the invoice had not been paid.  I got an immediate reply: “we didn’t receive the invoice, therefore we couldn’t pay”.   Apparently they couldn’t chase up the non-receipt of an invoice either.

Then I emailed Libreria Ancora a second copy on 30th, with a link to Paypal.  But this time there was no reply.

On 31st, hearing nothing, I emailed again, asking if they had received the invoice.  On 1 September I got back “yes, we received the invoice, our account dept in Milano is going to pay”. 

I waited a further week and heard nothing.  So I emailed Libreria Ancora yet again on 8 September asking when they would pay.  From that day to this I have heard nothing.  Somehow I suspect that I won’t, either. 

Fortunately it is only a paperback.  I can stand the loss.  But I must admit that I had not expected it. 

But the lesson I shall learn is not to accept purchase orders.  Instead I think that I shall insist on payment in advance in future.  It makes life rather simpler all round.

UPDATE (3rd October 2011): a letter arrived today from my bank, informing me that a telegraphic transfer had been made by Libreria Ancora to my account on 29th September.  So they did pay in the end.

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Cheap desktop multi-spectral imaging

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Via Apocryphicity I learn that a multi-spectral imaging scanner is due to hit the market which should be affordable by everyone.  Oxford University have developed it, and gone into partnership with a Chinese company to exploit.  Tony Burke’s explanation is to the point:

Oxford University has developed a portable multi-spectral scanner that is inexpensive enough to be purchased by both institutions and individuals. I don’t know what the exact cost is, or whether it is available for purchase yet, but Dr. Obbink said it was in the price range “of a high-end laptop computer.” See HERE for their info page.

There is a picture of the unit at the OU site.

Let us hope that greed does not price this unit out of the range of normal people, for this could be the greatest innovation in manuscript studies for many years.

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Papyri in the British Museum database

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A link from Alin Suciu’s blog drew my attention to a discovery: that the British Museum (not the British Library) searchable database of its holdings also includes papyri.  A search on “coptic” lists quite a number; and if you search for just images, you get back a goodly quantity of papyri. 

Dr Suciu has already discussed the first of these, which is a portion of Jeremiah in Coptic.  I see that there is a “Please contact us” link at the foot of each page, for additions and corrections, and I hope Dr. S. points them to his blog entry.

There are some six pages of fragments and leaves online.  I think we can leave it to Dr Suciu to evaluate these.  Let us hope that the BM put more images online!

If you search for “greek papyrus”, then you also get results.  They seem to be documentary texts, not unnaturally enough.  But I did find one of the Greek magical papyri here, mixed with Demotic spells.

PGM LXI, lines 1-38
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Athanasius on the cult of the martyrs

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Skimming through the Coptic letters of Athanasius in my last post but one, I came across this interesting letter (letter 41, p.41f.) from 369 AD discussing the habit of digging up the bodies of the martyrs to create cult objects.  Considering that the Coptic church was to do a lot of this, Athanasius’ remarks are interesting.  (I have translated the French of Lefort).

In fact they [the Meletians] don’t leave the bodies of the martyrs, who fought nobly, in the earth, but they have begun to place them on beds and trestles, so that any who wish to do so may contemplate them.  They do this ostensibly to honour the martyrs, but in reality it is an insult; and they do it for despicable purposes.  Although they possess no body of a martyr in their own town, and not knowing what a martyr is, they have plotted to steal their bodies and remove them from the cemetaries to catholic churches.  In fact, when the reproach of having denied … [some kind of typo here].  They beg the bodies of the martyrs and confessors from those who come to bury them, they move them so that, even with their bodies, they have the means to deceive those whom they mislead.  But “error is not the part of Israel” and our Fathers have not handed down such a custom; on the contrary, they consider that such a practice is illegitimate.

Superstition, it seems, is a powerful force in the 4th century, after the legalisation of Christianity.  It is telling that Athanasius believes that the Fathers condemned such practices.

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British Museum catalogue now online and searchable (with pictures!)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Another item I spotted via AWOL is that the British Museum (upon whom be blessings) has made its database of what it holds available on the web.  You can search it here, and an advanced search is here.

Welcome to the British Museum collection database online. Search almost two million objects from the entire Museum collection.  

1,974,761 objects are available
609,419 of these have one or more images

The database is updated weekly. The range of the Museum’s collection includes: …

  • …
  • Objects from ancient Egypt and Sudan, from the Neolithic period (around 10,000 BC) until the twelfth century AD
  • Objects from Ancient Greece and Rome (including Roman Britain), from the beginning of the Greek Bronze Age (about 3,200 BC) to the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD
  • …

    • Work is continuing on the parts of the collection that have not been catalogued and new entries are continuously being added.

    They’ve also implemented some kind of webservice, so you can access it programmatically.  I haven’t looked at the latter — too much like what I’m doing at work at the moment.

    I tried using the search, and entered ‘Mithras’.  I got back quite a lot of interesting items; but these were drowned in dozens and dozens of coin images.  Quite how the coins were relevant I did not see, and I can see that these will drown out all the other content.  Gentlemen: you need to implement an option to exclude coins!

    Another useful feature would be a permalink for each item, and also a way to embed the photos (because most of us would not want to copy them).  The link “use digital image” is very good, very comprehensive, and allows the museum to sell reproductions to libraries etc, without obstructing the ordinary man who wouldn’t buy one in a million years.  Well done, whoever thought of this.

    Here’s one interesting item, which I think we might say gives pretty much everything you’d want.  The date of the item is 200 AD.  I wish I had the CIMRM here, so I could identify it. 

    Bronze tablet dedicated to Sextus Pompeius Maximus, chief priest of the cult of Mithras and president of a guild of ferrymen; given by fellow priests of Mithras. Above the text are a bust of Mithras with a sacrificial knife and a patera.

    SEX ~POMPEIO~ SEX~FIL~
    MAXIMO~
    SACERDOTI~SOLIS~ IN
    VICTI~MT~PATRI~PATRUM
    QQ~ CORP ~TREIECT~TOGA
    TENSIUM~SACERDO
    TES~SOLIS~INVICTI~MT
    OB~AMOREM~ET~MERI
    TA~EIUS~SEMPER~HA
    BET

    Sexto Pompeio Sexti filio
    Maximo Sacerdoti Solis
    Invicti Mithrae Patri Patrum
    Quinquennali Corporis Treiectis Togatensium
    Sacerdotes Solis Invicti Mithrae
    Ob amorem et merita eius. Semper habet

    “Dedicated to Sextus Pompeius Maximus, son of Sextus, High Priest of the Sun God, Mithras, all powerful, and Father of Fathers, President of the Guild of Master Ferrymen. We, Priests of the all powerful Sun God, Mithras, do this on account of the high regard and affection we hold for him and his worthy deeds. He has this for ever.”

    Translating “invictus” as “all powerful” is interesting, isn’t it?  This chap was the high priest in his day.  Also note how the priests of Mithras do NOT call themselves “patres” but “sacerdotes”.

    The image is here, and I reproduce it below:

    Notice how Mithras is NOT depicted in a typical fashion, but rather face forwards with a radiate crown.  If you or I were devising such an image, we would have had a tauroctony, wouldn’t we?  Indeed without the inscription, would any of us recognise this as Mithras?  

    Possibly the workshop adapted an existing image type, of course.  But otherwise it is a salutary reminder that our assumptions on iconography can be widely mistaken.

    The other items are a bowl and a hatchet.  I wonder if these are part of the priest’s tools.  If so, we might ask what a priest of Mithras would use them for?  Do these suggest some form of sacrifices?

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    Early CSCO volumes from the Coptic series online

    Posted on by Roger Pearse

    Via AWOL I learn that some of the early volumes of the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium series are now online.  All of them are from the Scriptores Coptici sub-series.  The gentlemen responsible are the University of Chicago Oriental Institute.

    Admittedly the volumes seem rather dull — Saint’s Lives and martyrdoms.  But it is something to have them!  The texts were often published in pairs of volumes: ‘textus’ with the Coptic text, and ‘versio’ with a Latin translation.

    Well done the Oriental Institute.  More please!

    UPDATE: Alin Suciu has found some more!

    Much the most interesting of these is the Festal and Pastoral Letters of Athanasius in Coptic, as edited by Lefort.  Google translate is very good with French, so it should give some good results.  What I don’t quite know, however, is how these relate to other collections of such letters.

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    From my diary

    Posted on by Roger Pearse

    A CD arrived today from a kind correspondent, containing photos of the entire unpublished study and translation of the 6th century Jewish medical text by Asaph.  I confess that Jewish literature is not something I know anything about; but it seems clear that this item is not otherwise translated.  The translation is public domain, but OCR’ing it would be quite an effort.  Not sure what to do with this, if anything.  I think my correspondent may do something.

    Meanwhile my commission for a translation of further parts of John the Lydian On the Roman months, has been accepted, so this should happen.  The result will be made public domain and placed online, as ever.

    Another correspondent kindly pointed out that a PDF online contains an electronic text of the Greek of this work.  This professes to be from Migne; but I have my doubts.  I don’t know if De mensibus is in the TLG, but if so, I would guess that this is the text in question.

    I spent a little time reading the introduction of the Wunsch 1898 edition, but not really enough to master it properly.  But it seems that only a single manuscript, from the 9th or 10th century, preserves the text.  There are lacunas later on, indeed.  The work was known to Photius, who mentions it in his Bibliotheca, so the surviving manuscript, Caseolinus Parisinus supplementi graeci 257 (=O), is contemporary with him.  This seems to have been discovered during the 19th century, for I found a publication on Google books from the 1820’s, which contained only excerpts.  Wunsch, indeed, lists a bunch of manuscripts containing extracts, as well as a group of manuscripts containing a ‘recension’ by Planudes, and another group containing a ‘recension’ found in the Vatican Barberini manuscript and its relations.  Both recensions, I would guess, are really collections of extracts.  So this is a text that only just survived in something like its complete form.

    I also found that there are quite a few snippets about John and his career in Google Books, in previews.  John the Lydian seems to have been a contemporary of the historian Procopius, although nothing links the two except that both pursued a career in the imperial civil service in the same period, the early to middle 6th century.

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