Transcription of Codex Sinaiticus available for download

Over on the ITSEE site, the good news that a Transcription of Codex Sinaiticus is now available for download.

Manuscript Rediscovery

ITSEE: News reports a scoop. That report in full:

Manuscript rediscovery

Dr Hugh Houghton and Dr Damaris Romero Gonzales of ITSEE recently located microfilms of complete images of an important manuscript of the Latin Bible, Codex Complutensis I, which suffered major damage in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. The microfilm, held at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, has been digitised and it is hoped soon to make the images of this virtual manuscript available through the Virtual Manuscript Room in Birmingham. A full set of pictures of the manuscript in its current state is available on the Universty of Madrid Biblioteca Complutense website.

For news reports of this discovery, see:
Rediscovering an ancient text in Collegeville (medievalists.net)
Lost medieval bibles found at Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (St Cloud Times)

Codex Sinaiticus Podcasts

While I was away, I didn't get chance to blog on the big news event in our area, the launch of the online Codex Sinaiticus on July 6. Now, ITSEE news notes some new podcasts from the British Library all about the Codex Sinaiticus project, and it features some familar names. They are between 7 and 12 minutes long and there are five of them altogether. Here at the NT Blog, we like podcasts, so here is the link to the page:

Podcasts - From Parchment to Pixel

These podcasts are part of the From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of Codex Sinaiticus exhibition at the British Library. These five podcasts mostly take the form Juan Garcés conducting telephone interviews with David Parker, Amy Myshrall, Rachel Kevern and Timothy Arthur Brown. The first is an introduction by Juan Garcés himself.

The British Library's embedded media player (Windows Media Player) does not seem to be working in Firefox or Chrome, though it is working in IE. If that is the case for you too, they have a link to each podcast that you can use instead.

There is a great line in the podcast featuring David Parker, where he says that today is the most exciting time to be editing texts possibly ever.

Kenneth Clark Lectures 2009: David Parker

Earlier this week, I announced the good news that this year's Clark lecturer at Duke is David Parker. The official announcement is now available over on Duke's Divinity School website:

Kenneth W. Clark Lectures 2009: Dr David Parker

2009 Kenneth Clark Lectures at Duke: David Parker

Details of this year's Kenneth W. Clark lectures at Duke have been announced, and I am particularly happy with their choice of lecturer this year:

Textual Scholarship and New Testament Studies
Dr David Parker (Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology and Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship, University of Birmingham)

Tuesday February 10 2009, 12:20pm, "New Testament Textual Scholarship Today"

Wednesday February 11 2009, 8.30am, "Using Textual Research"

Where: Westbrook 0016

Cost: Free

ITSEE News RSS feed

ITSEE (Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editions, University of Birmingham) has added an RSS feed: ITSEE News.

Job Opportunity: Research Fellow (Vetus Latina Iohannes)

Watch out -- the closing date on this one is very soon:
----
Job Opportunity: Research Fellow (Vetus Latina Iohannes)

A vacancy is now being advertised for a Research Fellow to assist in the preparation and publication of an edition of the Old Latin versions of the Gospel according to John.

The Vetus Latina Iohannes project has been running at the University of Birmingham for a number of years, and has already made available an electronic edition of the surviving Old Latin manuscripts of John at http://www.iohannes.com/vetuslatina/ .

The main duties of the Fellow will include assisting in the compilation of an electronic database of gospel citations in Church Fathers, the analysis of this material, and the preparation of a printed edition to be published in the 'Vetus Latina' series.

Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant subject, an excellent knowledge of Latin, the ability to learn relevant IT skills quickly, and the ability to work effectively as a member of a team. A good working knowledge of Greek, experience of database design and maintenance, and experience of working on a research project are desirable.

The post-holder will be a member of the University's Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (www.itsee.bham.ac.uk).

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Prof. D.C. Parker (D.C.Parker@bham.ac.uk) and Dr P.H. Burton (P.H.Burton@bham.ac.uk).

The advertisement for the position may be found at:

http://www.vacancies.bham.ac.uk/vacancies/furtherParticulars.htm?refNo=A31036

The starting salary is £25,888 - £28,290 a year.
Applications close on 8th August 2008.
---

Online articles on electronic editions by Peter Robinson

Over on ITSEE News, there's an announcement of two new articles on its Online Resources page:

Current Directions in the Making of Digital Editions: towards interactive editions
by Peter Robinson (to be published in Ecdotica, Italy).

Electronic Editions for Everyone
Peter Robinson (Prepublication version of article submitted for publication in the papers of the Kings College London Centre for Computing in the Humanities 2006-7 seminar)

More ITSEE news

More from ITSEE:

Publication of the New Testament in Greek IV
The Gospel according to St. John
Volume Two: The Majuscules

The latest volume of the International Greek New Testament Project's edition of The Gospel according to St. John, edited by U.B. Schmid with W.J. Elliott and D.C. Parker, has now been published by Brill. An electronic edition of the manuscripts, featuring transcriptions not included in the print volume, is now available on the website www.iohannes.com.

Electronic edition of the old Latin manuscripts of John

ITSEE News at the University of Birmingham announces that the first stage of the new edition of the Vetus Latina Iohannes, an electronic edition of the extant manuscripts, is now available online:

Vetus Latina Iohannes Electronic Edition

ITSEE News

ITSEE is the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, directed by David Parker, and located at the University of Birmingham. Its website has been updated today with pictures from the launch of ITSEE in September 2006 and pictures from the Fifth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament held earlier this month.

New Electronic Edition of the Protevangelium Iacobi

Over on the University of Birmingham's ITSEE pages (news), there is a new Electronic Edition of the Protevangelium Iacobi (Infancy Gospel of James) prepared by Chris Jordan and Ali Welsby as part of their MA in Editing Texts in Religion. Go to ITSEE Online Resources or go straight to the edition here:

Electronic Edition of the Protevangelium Iacobi (The Infancy Gospel of James)
Including transcriptions of the nine surviving Greek manuscripts and a critical apparatus. Chris Jordan and Ali Welsby

Update (7 March, 23.46): thanks to Ali Welsby for the correct, fuller link to the resource, now changed above.

Call for Papers: Textual Criticism: Theological and Social Tendencies?

Over on ITSEE News at the University of Birmingham is notice of a call for papers:

--
The Fifth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament will be held from 16-19 April 2007 at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Selly Oak, Birmingham.

The theme is:

"Textual Criticism: Theological and Social Tendencies?"

Proposals are invited for papers of 30 or 45 minutes. Suggestions for workshops, presenting work in progress, are also welcome. Please send these here.

Further details and a booking form will be available in October 2006.
--

Apocalypse Yesterday

On Paleojudaica, Jim Davila noted the coming of 6/6/06 yesterday, and David Parker at the University of Birmingham had these reflections on the ITSEE site:

Thought for the Day

MANUSCRIPT COPIES OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION give different ‘numbers of the beast’. Exciting though this number is for people who believe the Bible literally, the interest of this number of scholars of Revelation is the light it sheds on the development and use of Revelation in early Christianity. The two numbers which are best known are 666, the number found in the majority of manuscripts, and 616, found in some of the oldest copies, and those with an early form of text . . . .

(Read on).

Electronic Critical Edition of 1 Clement

On ITSEE news from the University of Birmingham comes this important announcement:

Aaron W. Neill has completed his electronic critical edition of Clement's First Epistle in Syriac, Latin and Greek which he produced as his thesis for his MA in Editing Texts in Religion at the University of Birmingham. The contents page is found here.

And just to give it a nice big link in bold:

An Electronic Critical Edition of the Syriac Version of Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians
Aaron Neill

I was in Birmingham while Aaron was working on this project, which was supervised by David Parker. Congratulations, Aaron, on this great contribution to scholarship.

ITSEE

ITSEE is the name of a new institute at the University of Birmingham, the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, created in May this year, the directors of which are my long time colleague David Parker and my new colleague Peter Robinson. It has a smart new website, including a news section, and it's well worth a visit:

Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing

Neville Birdsall

I have commented previously on the Times Obituary of Neville Birdsall written by my colleague David Parker. Thanks to Richard Birdsall for pointing out to me that there was also an obituary in The Independent:

Professor J. Neville Birdsall
Formidably erudite New Testament scholar

Unfortunately, the bulk of the article is subscription only.

See also this special page at the University of Birmingham's new ITSEE:

Professor J. Neville Birdsall

It features the eulogy delivered by David Parker at Neville Birdsall's funeral. And see too a brief Leeds University Obituary.

Congratulations to Catherine Smith

My student Catherine Smith (old pic here on Paleojudaica) today had her PhD viva, examiners Prof. David Parker and Dr Andrew Wilson, and I am delighted to report that she has passed subject to minor corrections. The topic was Corpus Linguistics and the Synoptic Problem. There was a nice post-viva celebration in the new ITSEE project room, with cake. Well done, Cat! A bright academic future awaits!