This installment of “New Research” draws attention to two contributions in the latest issue of Le Muséon, an open access anthology and a contribution therein on early Christian Arabic colophons, as well as an interesting upcoming conference.
The latest issue (136/1-2) of Le Muséon contains a contribution by Christa Müller-Kessler entitled “The Early Jerusalem Lectionary Tradition in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (5th-7th Century): Lections Containing Unattested Old and New Testament Pericopes in Unpublished Palimpsests (Sinai, Gr. NF MG 32; Georg. NF 19, 71)“. Here’s the abstract:
The New Finds from 1975 in the Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai turned out to be a mine for the discovery of early Christian Palestinian Aramaic palimpsest manuscripts (5th-7th century AD). The finds unveiled unknown and unique texts as well as additions or missing text witnesses of the New and Old Testament as well as of hagiographic texts in this Western Aramaic dialect. Most interesting of all have always been these early palimpsest text witnesses for comparative Aramaic language study and Bible text criticism. The palimpsest manuscript codex Sinai, Gr. NF 32 MG and three other fragments from Georgian NF 19, 71 presented here are placed into context with all other surviving early sources of the Old Jerusalem lectionary in this Western Aramaic Dialect. This lectionary clearly predates the Armenian Jerusalem lectionary as the next earliest source after the missing Greek source by showing new Old and New Testament lections with unattested biblical pericopes under a martyrologion written in a Greek majuscule and under a Iadgari and a homily in Georgian script.
Müller-Kessler mentions the following sets of membra dispersa from Sinai: (1) MS (olim) Oslo (Kristiansand), Schøyen Collection, 35 + MS St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka, Syr. N.S. 16 (parts of MSS Sinai, St Catherine’s Monastery, Georg. NF 19, 71); (2) MS Washington, Museum of the Bible, 149; (3) MS Göttingen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Syr. 28 + MS St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka, Syr. N.S. 16 (parts of MS Sinai, St Catherine’s Monastery, Georg. NF 71); (4) MS Cambridge, Westminster College Library, Lewis-Gibson Collection III, Lewis Lectionary.
The same issue of Le Muséon also contains a contribution by Catalin-Stefan Popa on “‘The Soul of the Two Corpuses’: Tribute to the Syriac Scholar Jean-Baptiste Chabot on the 75th Anniversary of his Death“. Here’s the abstract:
This paper briefly portrays the life and work of a dedicated French Oriental scholar and consummate professional in Syriac studies, Jean-Baptiste Chabot, being a mere tribute upon the 75th anniversary of his death, on January 7, 2023. Studying his editions, translations and general publications, as well as reviewing the eulogies composed by his contemporary academics, the article reflects for today’s Syriac scholars upon the historical legacy of a genius of Oriental literature. Jean-Baptiste Chabot’s vast scientific expertise offered solutions to countless problems of Syriac philology and history, which are valid not only for the 20th century but also for our time.
An important contribution of Chabot to the study of the Sinaitic membra dispersa is his article on the complicated composite manuscript MS Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, A 296 inf., which incidentally also appeared in Le Muséon (“Inventaire des fragments de MSS. syriaques conservés à la Bibliothèque ambrosienne à Milan“, Le Muséon, 49 (1936), pp. 37-54).

Gorgias Press has just yesterday released a wonderful open access volume edited by George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke. The book is entitled “Literary Snippets: Colophons Across Space and Time“. Together with Miriam Hjälm, I have contributed a piece entitled “Early Christian Arabic Colophons from the Palestinian Monasteries: A Comparative Analysis“. Here’s the abstract:
The present study offers a comparative analysis of colophons written in Arabic by Christian scribes at the monasteries of Saint Chariton, Saint Sabas, and Saint Catherine in the ninth and tenth centuries CE. These monasteries have played a crucial role in the formation of the early Christian Arabic manuscript tradition. The colophons of these manuscripts provide the most immediate access to the socio-cultural milieu of their producers. The present study is based on a selection of 20 colophons,
which are explicitly connected to one of the three monasteries. Our main aim is to draft a typology of early Christian Arabic colophons as a means to investigate the various issues surrounding emergent Christian Arabic scribality. Additionally, we will discuss paleographical features of the handwriting of the scribes who authored the colophons discussed here. As we will show, these can be used to connect anonymous colophons and manuscripts without colophons, at least with some probability, to the workshops of these monasteries. Overall, our aim is to highlight the microhistorical significance of early Christian Arabic colophons, which not only offer spatio-temporal, prosopographical, social, intellectual, and, to some extent, economic coordinates for the contextualisation of early Christian Arabic manuscript production, but also allow us to catch a glimpse of early Christian Arabic scribal selfperception.
We mention quite a number of dispersed Sinaitic manuscripts: MS Beuron, Benediktiner-Erzabtei Sankt Martin, Bibelmuseum Vitrine 41; MS Beuron, Benediktiner-Erzabtei Sankt Martin, Bibelmuseum Vitrine 41; MSS Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library, Mingana Collection, Chr. Ar. 93; Chr. Ar. Add. 124, 130, 140, 141, 147, 148, 149, 150; MS Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College Library, Special Collections BV 47; MS Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College Library, Special Collections BV 69/I; MS Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College Library, Special Collections BV 69/II; MS Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Or. 1287; MS Leiden, Universitaire Bibliotheken, Or. 14238; MS Leipzig, Universitäts Bibliothek, Cod. Gr. 2; MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.arab. 1066; MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.arab. 1068; MS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ar. 6725/III; MS Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Or. 4225/I; MS Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Or. 4225/V; MS Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Or. 4226; MS St Andrews, University Library, 14; MS St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka, Ar. N.S. 263; MS Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Ar. 1826; MS Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Ar. 71.

Giulia Rossetto is organising an international conferences under the title “Priests and Their Manuscripts in the Holy Land and Sinai”. It will take place from 8-10 November 2023 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. You can find the programme including further information here.
Suggested Citation: Peter Tarras, “New Research #7”, Membra Dispersa Sinaitica, 18/10/2023, https://medisi.hypotheses.org/3664. License: CC BY-ND.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Peter Tarras (October 18, 2023). New Research #7. Membra Dispersa Sinaitica. Retrieved February 14, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/vkvl