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Andrea Scandar’s Manuscripts in the Vatican Library

1. Over the last few days, I have started preparing a presentation on the Maronite scholar Andrea Scandar of Cyprus (Indrāwus Skandar al-Qubrusī, d. 1748)1 for an upcoming conference in Munich organised by my colleague Dr Vevian Zaki and entitled ‘Once We Were Here: Traces of Mobility across the Ottoman Empire‘ (8-10 July 2025). Scandar… Continue reading Andrea Scandar’s Manuscripts in the Vatican Library

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)

“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

An Arabic Medical Manuscript with Greek Maculatur

1. When I started studying the history of the fragmentary Sinai manuscripts kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the digitized acquisition list of Oriental manuscripts (fig. 1) proofed very helpful. In 1921, the library bought six Christian Arabic fragments of Sinaitic provenance from the collector Friedrich Grote (1861-1922).1 Interestingly, the library’s acquisition list… Continue reading An Arabic Medical Manuscript with Greek Maculatur

New Research #2

Proofs came in for Variant Scholarship. A book about ancient texts in modern contexts. With @mokersel and @JjosseMunch. More info at https://t.co/Qbex6Oogxo pic.twitter.com/ecUhgEcpOj — Sidestone Press (@sidestonepress) February 20, 2023 Today, Neil Brodie, Morag M. Kersel, and Josephine Munch Rasmussen have published a fantastic-looking edited volume entitled Variant Scholarship: Ancient texts in modern contexts (Leiden:… Continue reading New Research #2

A Blog Dedicated to the Dispersed Manuscript Heritage of Saint Catherine’s Monastery

  1. “The history of the Sinai library till the second half of the nineteenth century is mostly a history of its despoiling”.1 The Byzantinist Vladimir Beneshevich (1874-1938) made this statement as early as 1911. At that point, scholars were only just beginning to get an idea of the extent of this “despoiling”. Moreover, the… Continue reading A Blog Dedicated to the Dispersed Manuscript Heritage of Saint Catherine’s Monastery