Liturgical Manuscripts and How to Study Them

Manuscript Terminology and Scribal Practices

• Manuscript comes from "hand-written" (manu like manos; script...)
• Manuscript is a written text on a medium that can be transported (as opposed to an inscription on a wall)
• Mediums:
  • Papyrus

    

  • Parchment

    

  • Paper

    

    • Oriental/Arabic Paper
    • European Paper
    • Modern Paper
  • Ostracon
    • Pottery shard
    • Limestone Fragment
  • Wood Plate
• Paper Medium typically is bound
  • Stitched Quires
  • Signatures
  • Leather Binding
• Formats
  • Codex
    • Folio (single sheet)
    • Bifolium (two folio)
    • Page (single side of a bifolium)

      

    • Quire (bifolia and folios symmetrically arranged)

      

  • Scroll
  • Folded Sheet (usually magical texts)
  • Quire
• Size: Helps us determine what it was used for
  • Large (Lectern size)
  • Medium (Monastic use, used by multiple people at once)
  • Small (Private use - monk, priest, layman)
• Layout
  • 1 Column (Coptic or Arabic)

    

  • 2 Column (Usually Coptic AND Arabic)

    

  • Multi-column (Rare)

    

  • Pricking
  • Ruling
• Numbering
  • Epact
    

    (see fourth column)
    

  • Coptic
  • Arabic
  • Foreign
  • None
• Ordering
  • Page (very old manuscripts... page 2, 4, 6, etc.)
  • Folio
  • Quire
• Binding
  • Leather
  • Embossing
• Dating Conventions
  • Indiction (15-year cycles)
  • Era of the Martyrs
  • Hegirae
  • Modern
• Scribal Practices
  • Script (Coptic, Arabic Naskh with diacritical markings, Pointing)
  • Table of Contents (less common in Liturgical Manuscripts)

    

  • Name of the Scribe, Sponsor, Endower
    • If he wrote many manuscripts, he's likely a trusted source
    • What was his career?
    • When did he live?
    • Etc.
  • Illustrator
  • Codex Genealogy

    

    • This was copied from xyz manuscript that was dated as abc...
• Colophon, Endowment

  

   
  • Usually at the end
  • Details of the publication
• Illuminations
  • Miniatures (icons)

    

    

     

  • Head pieces (at the beginning of a specific part of the MS)

    

  • Large Capitals (first letter of a prayer or psali - sometimes running from top to bottom of the page - e.g. alpha that looks like an eagle)
  • Small Capitals (usually at the start of a new paragraph - especially Fayoum MSS)
  • Marginals
    
• Marginalia
  • Inserts
  • Decorations
  • Corrections

Manuscript Descriptions

Classifications of Liturgical Manuscripts

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