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Incunabula

17 Mar, 10 tweets, 5 min read

“Any new Dead Sea scroll is a major find,” Dr Uziel said. “But what’s special about this new scroll is that it didn’t just turn up. We found it in its original resting place, which gives us a lot more context about who owned it and why was it left there.”
thetimes.co.uk/article/dig-un…

"More than 20 bits of parchment were found after teams rappelled down an 80m cliff and scoured the Cave of Horror, so called due to its precarious position and because 40 skeletons of women, men & children were found there during excavations in the 1960s."
theguardian.com/world/2021/mar…

"Israeli experts say the fragments appear to be part of a scroll that was hidden in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD."
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/1…

"“We found a textual difference that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority." apnews.com/article/new-de…

"The latest finds, two dozen 2000-year-old biblical scroll fragments from the books of Zechariah & Nahum were discovered in clumps & rolled up in the Cave of Horror. The conservation & study of the scrolls was conducted by the IAA’s Dead Sea Scrolls Unit."
timesofisrael.com/bible-scroll-f…

To the obvious disappointment of the usual suspects on Antiquities Twitter, the "Cave of Horror", location of this remarkable new Dead Sea Scrolls find, is situated within the internationally accepted 1948 borders of Israel. It is not in the West Bank.

"“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication & devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth,” said Israel Hasson, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, custodian of some 15000 fragments of the scrolls."
nytimes.com/2021/03/16/wor…

Here is the location of the Cave of Horror and its exact coordinates: 31°25′48″N 35°20′52″E.

The cave lies on the southern cliff of the Nahal Hever wadi, adjacent to the Cave of Letters on the north cliff of the stream, where many docs from the Bar Kokhba revolt were uncovered.

You can download the report published by the Israel Exploration Society on the initial 1961 excavations of the Cave of Horror here.
jstor.org/stable/27924906

The conclusion of the report, shown below, graphically explains why this cave is now known as the Cave of Horror

An ostracon found in the Cave of Horror has the name of one of the 40 Jews whose bones were found there: Shaul ben Shaul. You can see the two elongated lameds very clearly on the shards below.

Reading this for the first time today, I caught my breath: it's my name in Hebrew too.

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Incunabula

@incunabula

15 Mar

Possibly the finest copy of arguably the greatest work of scholarship in English: the first edition in book form of the Oxford English Dictionary 1888-1928, bound in luxurious full leather gilt as a gift by John Jakob Raskob (1879-1950), builder of the Empire State Building. 1/4

"A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society. Edited by James A. H. Murray... with the assistance of many scholars and men of science." was printed in parts and then in book form between 1888 & 1928. 2/4

This set was bound for presentation to the Brooklyn shipbuilder William Henry Todd (1864-1932), by the American businessman and philanthropist John Jakob Raskob (1879- 1950), builder of the Empire State Building, with a presentation note to the initial blank in each volume. 3/4

Read 11 tweets

Incunabula

@incunabula

14 Mar

The Yao manuscripts called "guo shan bang" are translated by Alberts as "Passport for Crossing the Mountain". They are also called "Yao charters."

These fascinating docs trace the origin of the Yao people from Panhu, the mythical dragon-dog who transformed into a man. 1/11

This is not a religious text. It is, rather, a charter issued under the Southern Sung emperor Li-tsung (Lizong) in 1260. It confirms twelve Yao clans in the possession of their lands and recalls the legend of their divine ancestor, P’an-ku (Pangu) or P’an-hu (Panhu). 2/11

The Passport is the single most important Yao document, and examples have been found in Yao villages throughout South China, and as far south as Northern Thailand. Such documents are copies of the original Passport issued in 1260, the origin of which is no longer certain. 3/11

Read 13 tweets

Incunabula

@incunabula

15 Feb

Alongside the humanitarian disaster, a cultural catastrophe is unfolding in northern Ethiopia, largely ignored by the outside world.

"... troops from neighbouring Eritrea ransacked manuscripts from the remote sixth-century Debre Damo monastery."

thetimes.co.uk/article/monast…

"Tigray’s stolen gems could be spirited out of the country and sold to collectors. Alessandro Bausi, an expert in Ethiopic manuscripts at Hamburg Uni., said he had heard from multiple sources that key sites were being targeted and “irreplaceable” artefacts destroyed or pillaged."

The Debre Damo Monastery in Tigray can only be reached by scaling 80ft cliffs.

Read 7 tweets

Incunabula

@incunabula

15 Feb

The greatest treasure looted from the Ethiopian people at Maqdala in 1868 isn't in the BL or V&A. The Kwer'ata Re'esu, the most sacred icon of the Ethiopian people, was stolen by a representative of the Queen, later sold by his heirs & remains hidden in a bank vault today. 1/10

The original painting, by an unknown Renaissance master, was brought to Ethiopia in the 16th century and became the talismanic icon of the Ethiopian people, a symbol of Imperial authority. Oaths were sworn on it & it was carried into battle at the head of the Emperor’s army. 2/10

Copes of the Kwer'ata Re'esu icon are ubiquitous in early Ethiopian art - here is one painted in the so-called Second Gondarene style in a late 17th century manuscript. 3/10

Read 12 tweets

Incunabula

@incunabula

7 Feb

https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1295975820691943424

The extraordinary Cameroon polymath Ibrahim Njoya not only invented a unique indigenous script, but also gave rise to an independent uniquely African illuminated manuscript tradition. This is a portrait of King Mbouombouo, plate 33 from the original folio "Histoire des Bamoun".

https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1295975820691943424

This is the translation (into French) of the Shü-mom script above, by the Bamoun Manuscripts and Archives Project team at the Bamoun Royal Palace in Foumban, co-directed by Professor Konrad Tuchscherer and Oumarou Nchare (Director of Cultural Affairs at Palais Bamum).

A 1932 Bamoun illuminated manuscript of the traditional tale "Le bouc et la panthere" (The Goat and the Panther), text again in Shü-mom script. This manuscript leaf was reproduced in the magazine Togo Cameroun of January 1932.
See: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt…

Read 7 tweets

Incunabula

@incunabula

31 Jan

Schwyzerdütsch is the most successful dialect family in Europe, used universally across all social strata of German-speaking Switzerland. Bärndütsch, the variety spoken on the Swiss plateau around Bern, has seen increased publishing activity recently - here are some examples. 1/6

The variety of texts available in dialect can be surprising: late last year. the Lokwort publishing house released this elegant edition of "vo wäge DO", Balts Nill's translation of the 6th century Chinese Tao Te Ching into Bärndütsch. 2/6

Published in May 1990, "Ds Alte Teschtamänt Bärndütsch: En Uswahl" is a substantial part of the Old Testament, translated into the Bernese dialect by Hans and Ruth Bietenhard and Benedikt Bietenhard. 3/6

Read 6 tweets

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