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Miscellaneous Identifications IV: A Missing Quire of the Arabic Apocrypha Codex among the New Finds

[Update (4 February 2026): Unfortunately, I overlooked an important reference as I wrote this post, namely an article by André Binggeli from 2015, in which he already identifies the fragment discussed here as belonging to the Arabic Apocrypha Codex. Here’s the article: André Binggeli, “Early Christian Graeco-Arabica: Melkite Manuscripts and Translations in Palestine“, Intellectual History… Continue reading Miscellaneous Identifications IV: A Missing Quire of the Arabic Apocrypha Codex among the New Finds

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

Greek Fragments in Göttingen and Bryn Mawr and Their Previous Owners

1. Last year, Georgi Parpulov published a short piece entitled “Membra disiecta sinaitica Graeca” in Fragmentology 5 (2022).1. Although the article is only 7 pages long, in it Parpulov accomplishes a lot: he identifies 18 dispersed fragments of Greek manuscripts from Sinai – not counting the joins identified among Sinai’s New Finds. These 18 manuscripts… Continue reading Greek Fragments in Göttingen and Bryn Mawr and Their Previous Owners

New Research #5

Over at the Biblia Arabica blog, I had the pleasure of contributing a post entitled “Tracing a Lost Sinaitic Manuscript through a Bible Quotation“.1 The post is based on a part of a forthcoming article entitled “The Legacy of a Failed Amateur Enthusiast: Friedrich Grote’s Sinaitic Manuscript ‘Discoveries’ and Their Post-Sinaitic Fate”. In the Biblia… Continue reading New Research #5

A Greek-Arabic Liturgical Manuscript in Princeton’s Scheide Library

1. The largest batch of Sinaitic diaspora manuscripts ever to circulate on the European antiquities market was probably the one offered by the Leipzig-based antiquarian, book dealer, and publisher Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann (1854-1924). His Katalog 500, with the thematic title Orientalische Manuskripte, offered 54 manuscripts in 8 languages. The majority of these is probably of… Continue reading A Greek-Arabic Liturgical Manuscript in Princeton’s Scheide Library