I’ve been updating the Encyclopedia of Syriac Literature wiki in fits and starts, mainly for my own use. I may do some more tomorrow.
More on getting hold of Bar Hebraeus
A very quick reply from Glasgow University Library. It’s good news — they can do me a photocopy of vol.2 of Bar Hebraeus Chronicon Ecclesiasticum for 24 GBP ($36). That is not much more than I spent on a Kessinger reproduction of vol. 3 last week. Unfortunately we have to pay a further 20% to the government — the tax gatherers demand a percentage whenever any of us take a deep breath. There will also be a postage charge to deliver the pile of paper.
They’re very good, and their charge is quite reasonable compared with some libraries. But it highlights just how much we all owe to Google Books and Archive.org. These two sites make millions upon millions of these books available, for nothing. You don’t have to pay the government to be allowed to read, nor the postal service to deliver them.
Once I get the thing, I will run it through my scanner and put it online as a PDF. That will be another book that none of us will have to pay to access.
From my diary
Now that the Eusebius book exists, it is possible to order copies. The Amazon site doesn’t show it as available, but I can certainly order them myself. The hardback is pricey tho — $75. But if you want one, send a message to me and we can talk. I have various people I need to email, but I thought I would wait until Amazon is working. (I also need to add blurb to Amazon).
One problem that I face is complimentary copies. There will be as few of these as I can manage, because at this stage of the project, of course, I want to sell copies, not give them away, in order to recover the costs of getting the thing translated. Once sales dry up, I intend to put the translation online, but that will be some way off.
The first set of copies that I owe are to the translator of the Greek, David Miller. These I have requested today.
The next set are owed to Bob Buller, who kindly typeset the book as a one-off to get me under way. He’s in the US; and this reveals a problem at Lightning Source — I can’t order them for manufacture in the US. I’ve emailed and asked, since I certainly filled in all the forms for this. I’ll hold off for a day or so on US copies owed, and see if I can get this resolved, for they will arrive much sooner that way.
I owe a set to the French Sources Chretiennes people, as payment for permission to use Claudio Zamagni’s Greek text. I have just emailed them to check address details.
The paperback needs to get underway as well. Fortunately I uploaded all the files some time back (I find), and all I need to do is get a proof — requested today — and then approve it. With luck this will be available in a week or so.
I’m still finding the Lightning Source site very “fighty”. It does daft things like pop-up a box to tell you to click something on the next page (!) I think they were badly swindled by their web designer, in truth. I got no reply to my enquiry as to what happens next after proofs. Fortunately I have some books which might tell me!
UPDATE: Amazon, bless them, have expired my Amazon Sellers account now I want to use it to upload content. How silly of them — wastes their time and mine.
From my diary
I have a bunch of notes online about Syriac writers. I entered these by setting up a wiki on my own site, and doing it there. The url is https://www.roger-pearse.com/wiki, and, since I had to give it a title, I rather grandly titled it the Encyclopedia of Syriac Literature.
I didn’t actually want other people editing it — although perhaps that was a mistake — so I locked it down, and made sure that only people with accounts could edit, and that only I could allocate accounts. In truth it was — and is — just rough notes from standard sources. And I never had the chance to do a lot.
Still, it contains quite a bit that is not found elsewhere online. My hosting company (www.pair.com) changed their PHP installation lately, and, when I went to look for my notes on Aphrahat, I found that it didn’t work. A couple of days and I now have it working again, in case anyone uses it.
It’s a project that I ought to return to, in truth. Perhaps one day!
From my diary
I’ve received the modern printing of vol. 3 of Bar Hebraeus Chronicon Ecclesiasticum. It’s OK, if a bit grainy. But of course what we all want is PDF’s. I will look at scanning it into PDF when I recover from my little indisposition.
But I’ve also found that Glasgow University Library has a copy of the work. I think well of that institution, who have always been of the greatest help to me, freely loaning books through inter-library loan which no-one else would. Some years ago, indeed, they photocopied the two volume Commentary on John by Cyril of Alexandria for me, which was a mountain of paper. They didn’t charge very much, and of course it allowed me to get the thing online. They deserve well, these people.
Anyway, I’ve written to ask if they would photocopy vol. 2 for me, and if so at what price. I will, of course, create a PDF once I get it.
Eusebius update — the proof has been approved
Much rejoicing here at Pearse Towers. The proof copy of the hardback of Eusebius, Gospel Problems and Solutions, has arrived. I examined it, and I’ve gone onto the printer’s website and given my approval. It’s done, basically.
The next question is when we can buy copies. I have emailed Lightning Source asking this question. I suspect that I can order copies direct from LSI myself right now. But I don’t know how long it will take before we can buy copies from Amazon. More news when I have it!
An article on the life and works of the Coptic saint Pisentios
Dioscorus Boles has written an excellent article on one of the Coptic Fathers: An aid to the study of St. Pisentios, bishop of Coptos: his life and two famous letters. Even the most detailed patrologies give little information about this 7th century Father, but his life and letters are important among the Coptic Fathers.
Dioscorus has linked to the primary sources, in several languages, and English and French translations. The first letter is an exhortation to his flock not to convert to Islam; the second belongs to Coptic apocalyptic literature.
Very useful – thank you!
From my diary
Over the weekend I decided to order a copy of Diogenes Laertius in the Loeb Classical Library, for purposes of personal reading. I already had a PDF of the book, but you can’t really read a PDF.
Today the book arrived. Interestingly there was a new introduction in it, with some interesting details about the translator, and a discussion of the work and the manuscripts by the editor of the 1960’s critical edition. Both were useful, and very nice to have.
Another parcel of books arrived, these for light reading, and “delivered” by the “Home Delivery Network” by the device of tossing the package over the garden gate into whatever lay on the other side. I do wish Amazon would stop using that courier, tho.
But, more significantly, a card was on the mat indicating that the post had attempted to deliver a parcel of some heft. That, I suspect, is the proof for the Eusebius! Tomorrow I shall go and get it from the depot.
Cross your fingers for me. If the proof is OK — and it will have to be very defective for me to stop things now — then I will hit the button and put the book into print.
The inhumanly long days of my business trip last week have had their inevitable consequence, and I have been laid low with a temperature today. Apologies to anyone who is awaiting a response to an email.
Josephus and his assistants
In Contra Apionem book 1, 50, (p.183 of the Loeb) we find the following interesting statement about how Josephus worked on the Jewish War:
Then, in the leisure that Rome afforded me, with all my materials in readiness, and with the aid of some assistants for the sake of the Greek, at last I committed to writing my narrative of the events.
It is useful to see this. It is a reminder that the process of composition may not be straightforward, and the presence of such “assistants” should be considered, when we attempt to draw conclusions based upon stylistic considerations.
From my diary
I’ve just got back from a rather ridiculous business trip, where the company made no concessions to human nature in its demands for long hours and travel. Silly people.
I’ve finished reading Aulus Gellius, and have moved onto Josephus Contra Apionem in the Loeb, which I found in my pile of books to be disposed of. It’s not very interesting, but it has quite a bit of chronology stuff in it. He quotes Manetho, for instance.
But you find yourself wondering, after a while. Did Josephus really have access to the history of Castor, from the 2nd century BC? It seems unlikely. More probably, he is quoting “Castor” at second hand, from some later writer.
Anyone who writes a chronicle is liable to find his work incorporated in a later, more comprehensive, work. This is because a chronicle should run up to the present day, and so is inevitably superseded by later works, in a way that is not true for other forms of literature. Thus we get authors such as Alexander Polyhistor, quoting people like Berossus, and then people like Eusebius quoting both while, perhaps, only having read the former. It is natural and inevitable.
The other interesting thing I have seen so far in Contra Apionem is a statement that the Jewish War was written with the aid of secretaries, for the sake of the Greek.
The proof of the Eusebius book has been ordered, and should arrive soon.
Work on the Origen book has resumed! But I am too cross-eyed tonight to look at the new files.