1. Today I got news that I will receive initial funding from my faculty at LMU Munich. I’m very grateful for this. It’s a comparatively small sum (around EUR 9,000). But it can already achieve quite a bit. I will use this funding to carry out preliminary work for a larger project dedicated to the… Continue reading Initial Funding from LMU Munich
Category: Dealers
New Materials on Grote (Part 4)
1. This is the fourth post in a series in which I document new biographical material related to the collector Friedrich Grote (you can find the first three posts here, here, and here). Already for the second time I was unexpectedly approached by someone because they came across a source on Grote by coincidence. This… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 4)
‘Don’t Feed the Antiquities Market!’ – An Interview with Roberta Mazza
1. Manuscripts have biographies, right up to the present day. And they still offer projection surfaces for the attribution of both material and immaterial values. Anyone working with manuscripts today cannot ignore these issues. We have also seen in recent years how the boundaries between those with scholarly and those with monetary interests in manuscripts… Continue reading ‘Don’t Feed the Antiquities Market!’ – An Interview with Roberta Mazza
New Materials on Grote (Part 3)
1. This is the third post in a series in which I document new biographical material related to the collector Friedrich Grote (you can find the first two posts here and here). This post is about two letters by Grote that Vincent Engelhardt (Leiden University) found in the Central Archive of the Berlin State Museums… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 3)
New Materials on Grote (Part 2)
1. In July, I published a long article on the biography of the collector of Sinaitic manuscripts Friedrich Grote (1861-1922).1 Grote can be described as one of the most underestimated manuscript collectors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He played a central role in the dispersion of the handwritten cultural heritage of St… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 2)
Miscellaneous Identifications II: The Christian Arabic Undertext of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest
1. This is the second post in a series in which I document identifications associated with the work of early Christian Arabic scribes (you can find the first post here). Quite inadvertently, the material that I would like to present in this post has even led to three and not just one identification: the identification… Continue reading Miscellaneous Identifications II: The Christian Arabic Undertext of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest
“Simonides Is Still Alive!”: An Interview with Author Rüdiger Schaper about His Biography of a Manuscript Forger
1. Hunting for rare books, collecting mania, true forgeries, falsified history, fictional elements in biographical writing – these are just some of the topics I talked about with author Rüdiger Schaper. He has dedicated a biography to the famous forger Constantine Simonides.1 After the publication of Codex Sinaiticus by Tischendorf, Simonides went public with the… Continue reading “Simonides Is Still Alive!”: An Interview with Author Rüdiger Schaper about His Biography of a Manuscript Forger
If You Have Some Millions to Spare …: The Sale of Codex Sinaiticus Zosimi Rescriptus
1. “If you have some millions to spare, the bidding starts in less than an hour!” In this and similar ways, many colleagues drew attention on social media to Christie’s Live Auction 23056 on 11 June, which was entitled: “Manuscript Masterpieces from the Schøyen Collection”. This auction comprised 62 lots. Among them were enormously important… Continue reading If You Have Some Millions to Spare …: The Sale of Codex Sinaiticus Zosimi Rescriptus
Collecting Clues: A Forged Colophon and the Trade in Sinaitic Manuscripts
1. Imagine an old manuscript falls into your hands. You realise it is valuable and you want to turn it into money. You may even know someone potentially interested in buying the manuscript. Its monetary value is directly related to its age. The only problem is you don’t know exactly how old the manuscript is.… Continue reading Collecting Clues: A Forged Colophon and the Trade in Sinaitic Manuscripts
Stray Leaves from an Ancient Triodion
A guest post by Georgi Parpulov* 1. A triodion is a liturgical book containing hymns for the church festivals of the “movable” cycle, i.e. those whose date changes from year to year depending on the date of Easter. The earliest surviving manuscript of this kind seems to be MS Athens, National Library of Greece, 626, copied… Continue reading Stray Leaves from an Ancient Triodion