Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Why is the Tselikas the best paleographer? He's seen the most manuscripts. Does seeing the most manuscripts necessarily lead to the ability to identify forgeries? Not so sure we're all robots and we just need to download data and then the truth comes out. Not sure what would make a forgery detector....

No I'm saying

1. Paleography is primarily a descriptive enterprise
2. Do the same characteristics which lead to excellent descriptive ability also lead one to be more right than wrong with regards to forgery identification

Again is the most knowledgeable person necessarily the most intuitive person?

Is the best driver also necessarily the safest driver? Is best driver the most skilled at turning? Is the best driver the driver who excels at the most skills or is there one skill which overrides all others to define the best driver or paleographer.

I'm trying to wrap my head around a parallel example. What are the limits of paleography? Most of the paleographers I consulted said the text was authentic. Tselikas said it wasn't. He's the best paleographer. Does that make him the best forgery detector? I don't know.

I can't even think of an example of this kind 18th century handwriting being successfully unmasked as a forgery. We're in uncharted waters. And certainly not one unmasked by a paleographer.

Paleo = ancient. I am not deflecting. He can date ancient writing. He said the writing resembles the writing from a certain monastery. He said it resembles writing from that period. That's the limit of his expertise. As far as I know he's never argued for any text being a forgery before this. Does n...

Anyone can imagine what they want. He has no expertise in that area.

So he's qualified to say it's like an eighteenth century handwriting. He's not qualified to say that it's not really eighteenth century.

Passage in greater context: Εν τω μεταξύ, εγώ προσωπικά, τώρα σας λέω έτσι μια μικρολεπτομέρεια, διαπιστώνοντας το πρόβλημα ορολογίας της γραφής –ξέρετε δεν είναι απλό πράγμα, είναι πάρα πολύ σύνθετο–, όταν ήμουνα στο Παρίσι αγόρασα κάποια βιβλία γραφολογίας για να δω κυρίως πώς οι γραφολόγοι ονοματ...