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Das „Xorde Avesta“ ist eine (in Handschriften und Drucken überlieferte) Sammlung von (größtenteils) kürzeren liturgischen Texten in avestischer Sprache (sowie in persischen und in indischen Sprachen) auf der Grundlage einer sie charakterisierenden, allgemein verbindlichen Struktur folgt. Diese Struktur zeigt typische Variationsmuster gemäß Klasse, Zeit und Ort der Handschrift. Im Rahmen von allgemeiner Struktur und partikularem Muster finden sich wiederum individuelle Differenzen in Material und in dessen Anordnung, die dafür verantwortlich sind, daß Xorde Avesta Handschriften fast immer Unikate sind (und vermutlich darum auch niemals im Rahmen der Hypothese der 'Stammhandschriften' diskutiert wurden). Die Hs. T12 aus der Mitte des 16. Jh. gehört zu jenen Handschriften des Xorde Avesta, die für unsere Rekonstruktion der Geschichte einer bestimmten Handschriftenklasse eine herausragende Position besitzen. Sie bildet zudem eine Schnittstelle von frühem iranischen Xorde Avesta (in Pahlavi) und der indischen Tradition, in die die Handschrift (wieder?) eingeführt wird.

Some manuscripts containing Middle English possess canonicity in modern scholarship for their own sakes, that is, for their interest as objects rather than due to the canonicity of their contents. The combination of many surviving manuscripts and a historical position largely before the coming of moveable-type print creates this manuscript canonicity; in this respect, Middle English studies stand out from comparable fields. Manuscripts with their own canonicity tend to be atypically large, and tend to gather many works, works that are often themselves not canonical. Although manuscript canonicity only rarely affects literary canonicity, the growth of manuscript canonicity shows how canonicity of all kinds emerges from teaching and research, not works or manuscripts. If literary scholars turn their attention to objects other than works, such as datasets, canonicity will develop around the new objects as it has around manuscripts. While the study of less-examined codices is worthwhile for other reasons, it can only move the hierarchy of canonicity around, and it cannot remove the stratification. However, manuscripts also invite thought on the books from the period which are now lost – the majority of books. Because research cannot make them canonical, these absent codices might help us think around canonicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This work presents the results of a transdisciplinary analysis performed on Harward’s Almanac (Dublin, 1666), an extremely rare volume currently housed in the National Library of Ireland. The uniqueness and historical value of the Almanac is related to the presence of nineteen handwritten poems, entered by an anonymous scribe. These record textually important English clandestine satire circulating anonymously in Dublin in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Following a comprehensive historical assessment, it appeared evident that the current order of leaves was incorrect. To reconstruct the correct order of the leaves, and hence the likely sequence in which the manuscript poems were inscribed, this study employed a codicological/paleographic analysis complemented by analytical (X-ray fluorescence, XRF) and statistical (Self Organizing Map, SOM) investigation. Specifically, point XRF analysis was carried out for each handwritten page of the Almanac, allowing identification of ink elemental compositions (iron-based ink) and successfully supporting the validity of historical hypotheses on the poems’ order of inscription. The statistical organization of XRF data by SOMs allowed easy bi-dimensional visualization of the data set (54 points) and identification of ink similarities, once more validating the historical assessment.

The purpose of this manifesto is to raise broad questions about philological inquiry as a background to the purpose of this occasional journal. It reflects both on general questions of philology (Section 2) and delves into an example from the Middle Persian translations (Zand) of the Avesta in which can be seen a clash between the traditional approach in that field and the type of inquiry that I advocate here (Section 3).

This work presents the results of a transdisciplinary analysis performed on Harward's Almanac (Dublin, 1666), an extremely rare volume currently housed in the National Library of Ireland. The uniqueness and historical value of the Almanac is related to the presence of nineteen handwritten poems, entered by an anonymous scribe. These record textually important English clandestine satire circulating anonymously in Dublin in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Following a comprehensive historical assessment, it appeared evident that the current order of leaves was incorrect. To reconstruct the correct order of the leaves, and hence the likely sequence in which the manuscript poems were inscribed, this study employed a codicological/paleographic analysis complemented by analytical (X-ray fluorescence, XRF) and statistical (Self Organizing Map, SOM) investigation. Specifically, point XRF analysis was carried out for each handwritten page of the Almanac, allowing identification of ink elemental compositions (iron-based ink) and successfully supporting the validity of historical hypotheses on the poems' order of inscription. The statistical organization of XRF data by SOMs allowed easy bi-dimensional visualization of the data set (54 points) and identification of ink similarities, once more validating the historical assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is the introduction and textual analysis of a manuscript called the Divan of Bolbol-e Gilani, written in the 9th century AH. It is manuscript number 86 in the library of Istanbul University which has not been introduced or edited so far. The main goal of this research is to introduce and review this manuscript and express its main linguistic, literary, and intellectual features. The research method is descriptive analysis based on field and library studies and in-text evidence. There is no information about this poet in literary and historical sources and Bolbol remains unknown even among the people of Gilan. He is a poet from the middle class and lacks style, having experimented with the forms of masnavi, qasida, ghazal, and qet'a. Bolbol follows the Khorasani style in qasida and the Iraqi style in ghazal. The manuscript consists of 107 pages and 3078 verses and does not have the scribe's signature, name, or information; moreover, the time of writing is not available, but the text shows that the scribe did not have enough precision in copying: several typographical errors are seen in his manuscript. The main themes of the Divan are the praise of the local rulers of Gilan and the description of its land and beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A previously unknown fragmentary songbook at the Archives of Barcelona Cathedral (Barcelona, Arxiu de la Catedral, Miscel·lània, 23/1-12) transmits 17 troubadour poems, mainly the work of Peire Cardenal. The provenance is still to be ascertained but it could well have been in the ACB since the Middle Ages. The extant 13 paper leaves of this new Catalan troubadour manuscript witness probably constituted a (now defective) quire and have a striking similarity with another Catalan troubadour fragment known as Mh (Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 9-24-6/4579, n. 3). This new witness provides an additional, very interesting, piece for the reconstruction of the medieval circulation of troubadour lyrics in Catalan lands and beyond. The proposed siglum for this fragment is Bc.

The article discusses the development of the discipline of codicology in Lithuania in the period 1918-1990 thus continuing the research carried out from the early 19th century until 1918. The concept of codicology and its affiliation with the discipline of book studies allow us to identify the chronology of the research with the development of book studies, which entered the stage of independent science in the period under discussion. This was also the time when the discipline of codicology in Western Europe underwent a quantum leap - with the birth of the term codicology and the emphasis on its distinction from palaeography. The concept expanded to include the study of manuscripts in various aspects - from their physical structure to the reception of written culture. Did this influence the development of the discipline in Lithuania? Did it succeed in renewing the codicological research that had begun at the beginning of the 19th century? How did the science of codicology develop in the turbulent 20th century? Why did codicology failed to become the subject of a separate research and is hardly mentioned in Lithuanian science? The answer to these questions is sought through the bibliographies of Lithuanian book studies and history, publications of sources of the period, and the history of Lithuanian scientific institutions. The research enables us to talk about two distinct periods. Between 1918 and 1939, the subjects of bibliography and book history were formed and established in Lithuanian scholarship, while the history of the manuscript book was recorded as the earliest period of Lithuanian book history. The bibliographies, which were started on a national basis, recorded single copies of codices in a variety of languages and included some external features, but the manuscripts did not receive a closer look. V. Biržiška formulated the concept of the history of the manuscript book with a distinction between the Cyrillic and Latin codices. His insights about the poor quality of manuscript books in the GDL were later developed to some extent but remained mainly unchanged until the 1990s, and apparently influenced the subsequent development of research. The first phase can therefore be called the bibliographical period. The second phase covers the period 1945-1990. The end of the Second World War saw the reactivation of academic institutions, the training of a new generation of historians and librarians, the accumulation of manuscript books, and the appearance of individual works on the history of the book. However, we can only speak of codicological research and attention to the manuscript book as a research object since the 1980s. Historians and philologists (S. Lazutka, E. Gudavičius, V. Raudeliūnas, V. Mažiulis, V. Drotvinas), following the work of the scholars of the Vilnius Imperial University in the early 19th century, began to publish sources of writing. The comprehensive study of the First Statute of Lithuania by S. Lazutka and E. Gudavičius, published in 1983, clearly demonstrated the difference between codicology and palaeography. The detailed codicological description, still called palaeography, was used as an auxiliary research method to argue the origin and originality of the text, the history of its functioning and the dating process. Thus, between 1945 and 1990, codicology completely fulfilled its role as an auxiliary science of history. While book studies became an independent discipline in the period under discussion, codicology did not become as a discipline complete in itself. It remained a discipline between book history and palaeography, looking for a place in the structure of Lithuanian science. Although the term codicology was already in use in the scientific world and the concept of the term had expanded considerably, it did not function in Lithuanian science. However, it is significant to note that the studies in which codicology was used as an auxiliary science at the same time developed the topics of book science, raised new questions, and drew attention to new phenomena and cultural connections.

Anis ol-Arefin (Mathnavi of Nakhoda) is a fictional poem. This mathnavi has been written by Agha Mohammad Hosein Sahib Shirazi and is dedicated to Nakhoda. He composed this verse in 1293 A.H. (during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah) in his old age and when he was the ambassador of Iran in Bengal, India. The purpose of this study is the linguistic analysis of the poem of Anis al-Arefin based on two existing lithographs of this poem. In addition, this text, apart from the linguistic benefits, has explanations and novelties from a literary point of view. This includes historical information about the Qajar era and the rulers, especially Fath Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah and some local border guards of India, geographical information, especially about Shiraz and India, and the birthplace and residence of the poet. Anis al-Arefin is noteworthy, readable, and fresh in terms of folk literature, anecdotes, legends, and parables. In addition, the poet of this poem was a political-literary person. This poem is a unique document in knowing the poet and with it you can get some of his personal and family information and get to know some of the political-historical figures that have not been left in history. Since literary works find meaning in a literary system, we also mentioned the connection of this work with other works, especially Khosrow and Shirin of Nizami, with which the poet of Anis al-Arifin wrote this poem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes issue with medievalists' curated textual practices that coalesce on codicological intentionalism, that is, the implied position of (re)constructing authorial intention through the study of manuscripts and handwriting. Rather than criticize this practice, the article challenges medievalists to come clean about what they are doing, to acknowledge their methodological vantage point and, thus, to admit to investments in the project of intentionalism. Authorial intention is discussed as a function of the text/context debate; the tripartite division of authorship is analyzed in premodern settings; how codicological intentionalism operates is explained; and, finally, this phenomenon is shown to have parallels in a cognate discourse that has been ignored by literary medievalists, namely, the study of the Synoptic Gospels. Codicological intentionalism balances materialist with historicist certainties and probabilities; it offers a viable methodology for reconciling textual with authorial objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with one manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, discovered in the Cairo Genizah (שבתא in Ginzei Yerushlami). About 30 notes were identified in the margins of this volume, written in Hebrew and Greek. Researchers have considered these notes but have not yet understand their content. This is largely because of their unusual form of writing: the Hebrew notes were written from left to right, while the Greek ones—in most cases—were written from right to left. This paper shows that the notes are interpretive glosses that translate rare words written in the Talmudic text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of the discipline of codicology in Lithuania in the period 1918-1990 thus continuing the research carried out from the early 19th century until 1918. The concept of codicology and its affiliation with the discipline of book studies allow us to identify the chronology of the research with the development of book studies, which entered the stage of independent science in the period under discussion. This was also the time when the discipline of codicology in Western Europe underwent a quantum leap with the birth of the term codicology and the emphasis on its distinction from palaeography. The concept expanded to include the study of manuscripts in various aspects from their physical structure to the reception of written culture. Did this influence the development of the discipline in Lithuania? Did it succeed in renewing the codicological research that had begun at the beginning of the 19th century? How did the science of codicology develop in the turbulent 20th century? Why did codicology failed to become the subject of a separate research and is hardly mentioned in Lithuanian science? The answer to these questions is sought through the bibliographies of Lithuanian book studies and history, publications of sources of the period, and the history of Lithuanian scientific institutions. The research enables us to talk about two distinct periods. Between 1918 and 1939, the subjects of bibliography and book history were formed and established in Lithuanian scholarship, while the history of the manuscript book was recorded as the earliest period of Lithuanian book history. The bibliographies, which were started on a national basis, recorded single copies of codices in a variety of languages and included some external features, but the manuscripts did not receive a closer look. V. Biržiška formulated the concept of the history of the manuscript book with a distinction between the Cyrillic and Latin codices. His insights about the poor quality of manuscript books in the GDL were later developed to some extent but remained mainly unchanged until the 1990s, and apparently influenced the subsequent development of research. The first phase can therefore be called the bibliographical period. The second phase covers the period 1945-1990. The end of the Second World War saw the reactivation of academic institutions, the training of a new generation of historians and librarians, the accumulation of manuscript books, and the appearance of individual works on the history of the book. However, we can only speak of codicological research and attention to the manuscript book as a research object since the 1980s. Historians and philologists (S. Lazutka, E. Gudavičius, V. Raudeliūnas, V. Mažiulis, V. Drotvinas), following the work of the scholars of the Vilnius Imperial University in the early 19th century, began to publish sources of writing. The comprehensive study of the First Statute of Lithuania by S. Lazutka and E. Gudavičius, published in 1983, clearly demonstrated the difference between codicology and palaeography. The detailed codicological description, still called palaeography, was used as an auxiliary research method to argue the origin and originality of the text, the history of its functioning and the dating process. Thus, between 1945 and 1990, codicology completely fulfilled its role as an auxiliary science of history. While book studies became an independent discipline in the period under discussion, codicology did not become as a discipline complete in itself. It remained a discipline between book history and palaeography, looking for a place in the structure of Lithuanian science. Although the term codicology was already in use in the scientific world and the concept of the term had expanded considerably, it did not function in Lithuanian science. However, it is significant to note that the studies in which codicology was used as an auxiliary science at the same time developed the topics of book science, raised new questions, and drew attention to new phenomena and cultural connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the paper of Dagestan Arabic manuscripts and epistolary documents of the 19th — early 20th centuries, as an important aspect of source study. This work allows you to get an idea of the history of Russia’s cultural and economic ties with Dagestan and the countries of the East. In the course of the study, a comparative historical method was used. The authors analyzed the works of domestic and foreign experts on this issue, highlighted the main identification features of the paper of these written documents. The relevance of the ongoing research is due to the need for a comprehensive study of the writing material of the Arabographic monuments of Dagestan origin. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the paper of these historical sources for the first time became the object of study in domestic source studies. It has been established that in the Dagestan manuscripts and epistolary documents of the 19th — early 20th centuries, the marked paper of Russian manufactories and factories is mainly represented. The article notes that for a full-fledged study of Dagestan Arabographic sources, it is necessary to use advanced digital technology and modern natural scientific developments. The study of historical sources paper is of great importance in the preservation and restoration of monuments of the written culture of the Dagestan peoples.

Anis al-Talebin and Oddah al-Salekin is a precious book written in Persian, but has not been corrected so far. Its value lies in the fact that its writer was a direct student of Khajeh Baha’ al-Din, the establisher of Naqshbandiyeh dynasty. This study examined this book in detail and the concise book of Khajeh Mohammad Parsa. It compared the linguistic and literary features of the two books. This study examined the differenced under four titles: 1. Deletion; 2. Addition; 3. Transposition; 4. Changes and differences in recording words. It showed that the significance of the concise text and examining on is plural: 1) The text is the first one that deals with the life of Khajeh Baha al-Din, the founder of the Naqshbandiyeh, and the author himself closely and directly saw the life of Khajeh Baha al-Din; 2) This work is important in terms of linguistic, literary, historical and social values; 3) The concise version is an independent of the detailed version, so it deserves to be examined as an independent work and be corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The present article attempts to introduce a lesser-known work called Kanz al-Maʿārif, written in Persian and in central Iran, and highlight its significance in a better and deeper understanding of the Barmakīd Dynasty. The book is entirely dedicated to ʾĀl-i Barmak (The Barmak family) and the biographies of the most important figures in this dynasty, and is authored by ʿAbd al-Jalīl ʾibn Yaḥyā ʾibn ʿAbdul Jalīl ʾibn Muḥammed ʾibn ʿAbdulbāqī Yazdī. He began writing the book in 762 A.H./1360 A.D. and dedicated it to Shāh Shujāʿ Dīn Muẓaffarī once it was finished. Three copies of this book are known to exist, with the two older copies numbered 1342 and 1351 being kept in the national library of France. The latter was transcribed in 926 A.H./1520 A.D., while the former's transcription date remains unknown. The third copy belongs to the ʿĀrif-i Ḥikmat Library in Medina and was transcribed in the 12th century A.H./18th century A.D. In this article, in addition to introducing the author and the copies of the work, its connections with other books particularly written about the Barmakīds and with the narratives mentioned in historical and literary accounts regarding this family are analyzed. Through this analysis, the merits and significances of the work compared with others in understanding the Barmakīds is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In treating illustrated Persian-language manuscript arts from the medieval and early-modern periods, dynasties have come to be associated with Iran and their art forms labelled ‘Persian’ and ‘Iranian’. Materials from sixteenth-century Central Asia— implying the Abu’l-Khairid dynasty (commonly called Shaybanid Uzbek, in power 1500—1599)—challenge this classification. Scholarship has witnessed intellectual fissures dividing Iran from Central Asia, and Russian-speaking and Anglophone scholars from each other. These are not pedantic trivialities, but deliberate intrusions of national and political agendas into art historical analyses. The geographic split partitioning Iran from Central Asia has its origins in the historical battles waged between the Safavids and Abu’l-Khairids across the sixteenth century, while the linguistic and ideological rift separating English- and Russian-language academics stems from political divisions from the time of British and Romanov imperial ambitions during the late nineteenth century, through Cold-War tensions spanning the twentieth.

In Morocco, devotional literature devoted to the Prophet was very prolific, particularly from the first half of the 8th/14th century and prefigured the success of the prayer book on the Prophet, Dalā’il al-Khayrāt created in the following century by Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 869/1465). This Moroccan mystic, founder of the Jazūlite Sufi order played a crucial role in the religious life of Morocco by placing the prayer on the Prophet at the heart of Muslim spirituality. This article questions the practical manifestations of pre-modern Moroccan Sufism through the codicological study of the manuscripts of the Dalā’il produced in Morocco from the 12th/18th to the end of the 13th/19th centuries. How did the book come to mediate the Jazūliyya doctrine, from its circulation within the zāwiyas’ circles to its diffusion among the different layers of Moroccan society? What are the graphic and ornamental devices used by the actors of this transmission, i.e., the manuscripts’ makers, that ensure the reading, the memorization, and the interpretation of the text by its users? The paper also explores how the latter appropriated and personalized the text, beyond the doctrine.

Copyright of Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses is the property of Universidad de La Laguna and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A number of folios of a grand Qurʾan, known as the Qurʾan of Bāysunghur, are preserved in collections across the world. No thorough research has been carried out on this manuscript due to the fact that the folios of this Qurʾan—the largest of the Islamic era—are scattered. Consequently, many points about the early details, the scribe and the history of the manuscript remain vague. Endowed between the late 12th/18th and the early 14th/20th century to the Āstān-i Quds-i Raḍavī Library and Museum in Mashhad, around sixty-five opisthographic folios of the Qurʾan are now kept in the collection. A close investigation of the folios not only rejects and proves earlier hypotheses but also presents new ones. After examining the codicological features of the work by comparing the information contained in the historical sources and the features of the manuscript, the present article speculates that the Qurʾan was commissioned by Ulugh Beg in Samarqand, to the scribes of the court scriptorium. Some folios were scattered in the course of the 10th/16th century and the rest during the occupation of Samarqand in the course of the 12th/18th century. Around sixty pages, however, were transferred to Imāmzāda Ibrāhīm of Qūchān and five pages were endowed to the Holy Shrine of Imām Riḍā during the 12th/18th century. Finally, in 1923, the remaining folios of the Imāmzāda were transferred to the Library of the Holy Shrine to be mended, where they have been kept ever since. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old manuscripts are cultural products of the ancestors of modern Indonesians and contain highly valuable cultural information. As such, they were sought after by other nations, who have managed to acquire them in various ways, including by taking them, bartering them with other items or buying them. It is thus no wonder that a lot of Indonesian manuscripts are now housed in various institutions in other countries, including the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (STABI) in Germany. This article aims to describe the Indonesian manuscripts that are now housed in STABI and to trace how they ended up there, with a particular focus on the physical condition of the manuscripts using the codicological approach. As the research shows, the Indonesian manuscripts housed in STABI are from various regions, including Java, the Batak lands, Aceh, Bima, Lampung and Makassar, and in the Malay language used all over Southeast Asia. The manuscripts date from the 15th century onwards, and they were acquired as a result of purchase or as gifts from certain institutions or individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Greek gospel manuscripts with an exegetical commentary in catena form present a text of Mark which ends in the middle of Mark 16.8. One is GA 304, a twelfth-century codex which is often adduced as a witness to the Short Ending. The other is the eleventh-century GA 239, which has not previously featured in discussions of the conclusion of Mark. In each case, it is shown that considerations of scribal practice, codicology and the broader traditions of text and catena mean that neither witness should be treated as evidence for the Short Ending as found in Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copying Mashaf Al-Quran with handwriting became a tradition of the Malay community once upon a time as a vehicle for the spread of Islam in the archipelago. As a result, the scientific heritage of the Islamic community in the form of manuscripts or printed materials produced with high quality. Therefore, this article's purpose is to elucidate the history of the al-Quran manuscript writing in Indonesia, and also explain in detail about the history of al-Quran manuscript writing in Madura besides the focuses on the codicology found in al-Quran manuscript MSS 4322 which has been collected in the National Library of Malaysia. This study uses a qualitative approach with philological methods. The findings show that the history of the writing of the Qurʾan in Madura took place in line with the arrival and spread of Islam in the region of Madura in the 15th century AD. Based on the codicological analysis it was found that this manuscript came from the country of Madura, Indonesia. This is because it was written in the manuscripts that Pangeran Jimat was ruler of Madura in the 18th century AD. The writing uses daluang paper with a naskhi style writing model. This research shows that the rasm used in the mashaf tends more to rasm Imlaʾi. The beautiful illumination is with the drawing of spiral leaves as a result of a combination of various colors. The findings show that the author submits a proposal so that this manuscript can be digitized as a scholarly heritage so that it will last for a long time and help the community to more easily access it in a digital form that is sustainable in nature. In conclusion, this manuscript of the Qurʾan is a masterpiece that will enhance the dignity and writings of previous scholars academically and more authoritatively to the digital generation, especially in the field of the Qurʾan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Morocco, devotional literature devoted to the Prophet was very prolific, particularly from the first half of the 8th/14th century and prefigured the success of the prayer book on the Prophet, Dalā’il al-Khayrāt created in the following century by Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 869/1465). This Moroccan mystic, founder of the Jazūlite Sufi order played a crucial role in the religious life of Morocco by placing the prayer on the Prophet at the heart of Muslim spirituality. This article questions the practical manifestations of pre-modern Moroccan Sufism through the codicological study of the manuscripts of the Dalā’il produced in Morocco from the 12th/18th to the end of the 13th/19th centuries. How did the book come to mediate the Jazūliyya doctrine, from its circulation within the zāwiyas’ circles to its diffusion among the different layers of Moroccan society? What are the graphic and ornamental devices used by the actors of this transmission, i.e., the manuscripts’ makers, that ensure the reading, the memorization, and the interpretation of the text by its users? The paper also explores how the latter appropriated and personalized the text, beyond the doctrine.

The paper discusses specific features of personal name lists in Slepchensky commemoration book (kodik) from the monastery of St John the Precursor in North Macedonia (manuscript 1/116 of the Odessa National Scientific Library) based on the codicological features of this genre in the 16th–17th centuries. It is found that the commemoration book contains the beadroll of the lower clergy (diaconhood) as well as memorial records of laity men and women, represented by the original blocks and their copies. Establishing the ratio between those helps the author to substantiate the hypothesis that Odessa manuscript of the Slepchensky commemoration book 1/116 and the manuscript 1015 of another commemoration book (stored in the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia, Bulgaria) were once a single unit performed in two copies. Over time, the handwritten notebooks of both copies were mixed, which is proved for the Slepchensky commemoration book. Thus, a new vector for the study of the Sofia manuscript 1015 opens, as it contains blocks of memorial records with the names of the higher clergy. Such blocks are twice declared in the initial part of the Odessa manuscript 1/116 yet absent in its main text. Similarities in basic handwriting and design of memorial notes in both manuscripts make the assumption of their initial unity even more convincing. If such is the case, the starting date of what was once a single manuscript should be specified not as 1544 (as it is indirectly read in manuscript 1/116) but about two decades later, after 1567, which is directly indicated in the Sofia manuscript 1015.

The article presents the results of the de visu study on the Odessa Modern Bulgarian damaskin №. 39 (65), dating from the 18th century. The manuscript is part of a collection of manuscripts gathered by the slavist Viktor Grigorovich. So far, this manuscript has not been the object of investigation, being currently stored in a book depository outside Bulgaria, which further complicates its research. The present work aims to present in detail the paleographical, codicological and some lexical features of this little-studied manuscript. The manuscript was assigned by E. I. Deminа to the IV Early Modern Bulgarian type: this type is particularly important because it actually represents the link between the damaskins of the 17th and the 18th century. It also presents new translations of texts by Greek authors and different textual versions of some homilies which were independently derived from the archaic Sredna-Gora translation. The analysis of the specific linguistic characteristics proves that this manuscript was written in the Eastern Bulgarian area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Codicology, also known as ‘the archaeology of the book’, is the study of manuscripts as physical objects. It is a discipline that studies manuscripts with a predominantly historical orientation. This essay explores the sequel to the most famous literature before and after Islamic epic story and the link between Islamic signs and literature review. The greatest pre-Islamic mysteries in the history of Moslem literature and its religious effects were disused, which were solved by manuscript studies and some case studies. The research method is based on the position story and finding the Islamic signs of the research to confirm the Islamic signs in the history and its changes over time. Therefore, in this research, religious symbols in the history of literature have been studied. The authors try to reach a new knowledge regarding the foundations of this school by tracing the history of religious literature. Furthermore, the connection between culture and religious literature is made by examining the Islamic religion mysteries sample. The symbolism and explanation of codes and elements in art works have been studied and the role of myths and metaphors in semantic analysis and religious concepts has been discussed. Finally, the effect of the Islamic events in literature review and art development is discussed. Contribution: This study provides further insights into the relationship between theology and literature through a historical literature review.

Portretul unui iluminist ardelean. Bibliotecarul Imre Dániel (1754-1804)/ Portrait of a Transylvanian Enlightener, Librarian Imre Dániel (1754-1804) is a monography centered around the figure of a catholic Armenian, a native from Dumbrăveni, nowadays in the county of Sibiu, who, alongside bishop Ignác Batthyány, developed rich scientific and cultural activities. Educated in schools from Cluj and Vienna, Imre Dániel had vast knowledge of Latin paleography, codicology, diplomacy, library, foreign languages, which helped him in his activity as a librarian, copyist and researcher, investigated by Andreea Mârza for a timespan of approximately 30 years. Ending up in Transylvania after being promoted as bishop, interested in the history of the Church of Transylvania and Hungary, Ignác Batthyány, who was planning to transform Alba Iulia intro an important scientific and cultural center, sent the scholar of Dumbrăveni to different parts of Europe, in order to acquire manuscripts or printed books for the library of Alba Iulia. Besides book acquisition, which increased the size of his personal library, brought by the bishop to Transylvania, Imre Dániel is the author of the first incunabula catalogue from Batthyaneum Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goals. The article provides a codicological insight into Tibetan written heritage which gains certain relevance due to that extensive Tibetan collections are currently being introduced into scholarly circulation in Russia. The paper determines specific features of traditional Tibetan-Mongolian book production — the former being subject to codicological research — such as book types and formats, characteristics of paper, various design elements and marginalia, etc. Methods. Modern approaches to the study and attribution of Tibetan written monuments are examined through the analysis of most successful international initiatives advanced by the British Library, Harvard University, etc. Results. The work establishes main parameters of book description related to physical features, cultural and social contexts of its creation and existence. The obtained outcomes made it possible to enhance the digital codicological model for Tibetan book monuments at the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Monuments. The accumulation of data collected during the codicological study of large Tibetan collections and their processing with digital methods (statistical, geoinformation ones, etc.) also yield some important quantitative indicators to determine key directions, intensity and features of cultural interaction between Russia’s East — and countries of East and Inner Asia largely influenced by Tibetan culture.

This study aims to propose a quality control method for digitized versions of manuscript documents that will be relevant for paleographical and codicological analysis. The methodology applied consisted of a systematic review of papers related to automated analysis of the physical characteristics of handwritings and document supports in the field of digital paleography, as well as of the numerous standards that have been emerging in the field of image engineering for quality assessment in digital image recordings. We also worked with a sample of 275 digital representations of pages or double pages of manuscript documentation dating to between the 12th and 17th centuries. As a result of this study, we propose a taxonomy of physical attributes of the handwritings and of their documentary supports that must be represented in the digital image with a high level of fidelity and without any distortions that could lead scholars to erroneous interpretations of the physical and formal characteristics of the original documents. On the basis of this taxonomy, we identified a set of typical distortions caused by digitization processes that can affect the recording quality of the physical attributes previously proposed, as well as a set of parameters and metrics for measuring quality that can be used to create a sufficiently exhaustive quality model. We also detected a series of limitations which, if not properly managed, can compromise the effectiveness of these types of controls.

The Cancionero de Baena (PN1 in the Dutton nomenclature). It begins witha detailed examination of the codicological aspects of the manuscript, which serve to date its origin to around 1465. This origin, combined with the historical data, supports a conjecture that the manuscript probably belonged to Gonzalo de Beteta, an official of both Enrique IV and the Catholic Kings. It would have passed from him to his grandson, Jorge de Beteta y Cárdenas, who gave it to the Real Biblioteca de El Escorial in 1576. The article then follows the vicissitudes of the manuscript from its disappearance from the Escorial at the beginning of the 19th c. until its sale in London in 1824 and its acquisition in 1836 by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, its current home. In passing, the article refutes the thesis that the manuscript would have belonged to the library of Isabel I in 1503 and would have been left by her, along with other books, to the Capilla Real of the cathedral of Granada, whence it would have passed to El Escorial.

This article draws on critical trans studies and queer archival practice to propose a book historical mode that extends what we know about the premodern trans experience beyond the recovery of individual biographies. Instead of turning to textual sources for the identification of transness, the author looks to Susan Stryker's call for the "recuperat[ion of] embodied knowing as a formally legitimated basis of knowledge production." Bibliography, he suggests, makes claims of objectivity that engender a particular reluctance to respond to such calls. But the lived reality of archival research is one of affective embodiment. Affect theory is an area that, as yet, has seen little methodological uptake in bibliographical research. This article lays the ground for a trans book history that takes affective embodied response seriously as a source of trans connection to and through the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on manuscripts from early medieval Septimania and Catalonia has become quite sophisticated, but significant and detailed work remains to be done. The ongoing digitization of thousands of manuscript fragments, preserved especially in public, ecclesiastical, and private archives and libraries in Catalonia, will furnish a rich collection of unknown items that will allow for the reconstruction of lost testimonies of the region's religious culture from the ninth century onwards. This paper shows how modern fragmentology, based on systematic digitization and comparison of scattered pieces, enables us to rediscover and write the history of the Carolingian homiletic collections in the south-western periphery of the Carolingian empire formed by Septimania and Catalonia—both in general and in the specific case of the autochthonous Homiliary of Luculentius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surviving portion of the papyrus codex of the letters of Paul split between the Chester Beatty Library and the University of Michigan (⁴⁶) consists of a well preserved but damaged single quire containing parts of nine of Paul's letters. Because the pages of the codex are numbered, scholars have believed that it is possible to reconstruct the original size of the quire, which turns out to be too small for the traditional Pauline corpus of fourteen letters. Many scholars have taken this to mean that the codex did not contain the Pastoral letters (1–2 Timothy and Titus). Jeremy Duff has argued that the copyist increased the number of letters per page in the second half of the codex and intended to add extra leaves in order to produce a codex with all of the fourteen letters found in the majority of undamaged Greek manuscripts of Paul's letters. While Duff's hypothesis has been critically engaged on other grounds, this article assesses Duff's proposed ancient comparanda for the addition of extra folia to the end of a single-quire codex and revisits the problem of the contents of this codex in light of the construction techniques of better preserved single-quire codices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two sixteenth-century translations of Treasure, made soon after its first edition in 1557-1558, mark a return to active literary pursuits in the eastern part of the Balkans after the Ottoman invasion two centuries earlier. NBKM432, an anonymous miscellany, containing the earliest preserved record of the Sredna-Gora translation, provides evidence of its state three consecutive handwritten copies after the translation was made. The article reviews the manuscript's history, content and formatting, as well as its paleographic, codicological, artistic and orthographic characteristics through the prism of the conclusions reached by the textual study of its components ascending to the Sredna-Gora translation: seven homilies by Damaskēnós Stoudítēs and two by Theophánēs Eleavoûlkos. The article fixes the timeframe, within which this miscellany was produced, in the 1580s-1590s and concludes that the Sredna-Gora translation must have taken place -most likely during the 1570s or 1580s - in a scriptorium of unknown whereabouts within the Tarnovo Diocese, which belonged to the cultural centres that had preserved to some extent the pre-Ottoman Tarnovo cultural heritage and the output of which displayed a preference for certain formatting and decorative solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]