More from @incunabula

Incunabula

@incunabula

3 Oct

In which country's households are you most likely to find a copy of the Talmud? Surprisingly, the answer is probably not Israel.
The country where the Talmud is ubiquitous, where it's quoted by sports stars & celebrities, where it's sold at station kiosks, is... SOUTH KOREA. 1/

Across all editions, the Talmud may be the single bestselling book title in Korea, behind only the Bible.
More than 800 different books, from more than 300 publishers, are returned when you search for “Talmud” in the National Digital Library of Korea. 2/

In 2011, the Korean Ambassador to Israel, was interviewed on Israeli TV. “I want to show you this,” he told the host. It was a paperback book with “Talmud” written in Korean and English on the cover, along with a cartoon sketch of a Biblical character with a robe & staff. 3/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

6 Sep

European civilization is built on ham and cheese, which allowed protein to be stored throughout the icy winters.

Without this, urban societies in most of central Europe would simply not have been possible.

This is also why we have hardback books. Here's why. 1/

Cheese meant female sheep & cows were usually more valuable than male ones which were accordingly slaughtered young as they were not worth feeding through the winter. The skins of these young animals was used to make vellum, giving us the basic material of the European book. 2/

Vellum tends to buckle & ripple, it doesn't lie absolutely flat like paper. So it was bound between heavy wooden boards to keep it flat - this is the origin of the hardback book, a book format - expensive, hard to make, & prone to damage - almost never seen outside Europe. 3/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

5 Sep

An exquisite Syriac miniature Gospel manuscript, just 64 x 50 mm, likely written in Aleppo in the late 17th century.

144 folios of microscopic Syriac script in brown ink. Some titles in Hebrew, and two Arabic inscriptions at the beginning and end of the manuscript. 1/

The ms also contains a series of intriguing diagrammatic designs & carpet pages. Made up of 5 squares across and 7 squares high, these grids have been outlined in red ink. Inside most of the corners of the individual squares are small golden circles with black outlines. 2/

This manuscript has been in Europe since the 18th century. On the front pastedown is the armorial bookplate of the Rev. Sir George Lee (1767-1827), 6th (and last) Baron Hartwell, Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire. 3/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

3 Sep

On August 24, Norwegian police seized 100 cuneiform inscriptions and other antiquities from the collection of Martin Schøyen, apparently at the behest of the Iraqi government. Included is his "Tower of Babel" stele.
Morgenbladet report here (sub. needed):
morgenbladet.no/kultur/2021/09…

This is Schøyen MS 2063, the so-called "Tower of Babel" stele.
schoyencollection.com/history-collec…

It will be interesting to read more about this from other sources, and indeed to hear - as we likely will in due course - from Martin Schøyen himself. Norwegian press reports on Martin Schøyen are not infrequently slanted to present him & his collection in an unfavourable light.

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Incunabula

@incunabula

1 Sep

THE AFRICAN BOOK
Africa has the oldest and most diverse book culture of any continent. Here, in just 6 tweets, is why.

One of only 4 independent inventions of writing on earth - hieroglyphics - is African, as is the first surviving 'book': the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 1/6

The best preserved Roman writing tablets - by far - are all from Africa, as are ALL the earliest New Testament manuscripts on papyrus, and ALL the earliest surviving apocryphal Gospels. The New Testament is an African text. 2/6

The Arabic script was read and written by far more people in Africa than it ever was in the Middle East, and the great libraries at Timbuktu, Chinguetti, Ouadane and other Saharan oases are amongst the most important early manuscript repositories on earth. 3/6

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