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Huller's (Likely Unrecognized) Contribution to Marcionism

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:50 am
by Secret Alias
A year ago I sent out emails to every employee of the British Library telling them to apply new technology to the original efforts to read the palimpsest which contains Ephrem's Against Marcion. Today I got this email from Sebastian Brock:

Dear Stephan,

I learnt at the Patristic Conference here last week that a friend and a good Syriac scholar, Nils Pedersen from Denmark, along with a colleague, will be working on these new images, which from the samples they showed me should be very helpful.  Nils recently published a very good and detailed study of the Manichaean Syriac fragments, a few of which are in the Bodleian.

with best wishes

sebastian

ORIGINAL EMAIL FROM BRITISH LIBRARY

Dear Mr. Huller

Thank you for your message, which has been forwarded to me for reply.

I have raised this matter with some of my curatorial and conservator colleagues. They have been pleased to inform me that multispectral imaging of the manuscript @ shelfmark Add. 14623 has been scheduled for early 2015. The aim will be then to test a selection of folios within it which present challenges as regards legibility. Once these results have been evaluated we will decide how to proceed.

Your interest and offer of assistance is appreciated and has been duly noted.

Sincerely,

Hedley Sutton
APAC Reference Services

Re: Huller's (Likely Unrecognized) Contribution to Marcionis

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:36 am
by Secret Alias
I new email from Brock today answering my question - how much new information will there be with assistance of the new technology (Mitchell's efforts to 'get at' the text under the existing text of the palimpsest was rather primitive)? How far have they gotten through the text?
They have hardly started on the project, but from the samples they showed me it looked as if, with patience!, a good deal more [of Ephrem's Against Marcion] could be read in due course (I think their project still needs some financial backing as the special digital photos are very expensive!)
Since we're all talking about Marcion here for the last month maybe we should start a Kickstarter or GoFundMe page?

Re: Huller's (Likely Unrecognized) Contribution to Marcionis

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 8:05 am
by Peter Kirby
An academic connected with the project could apply for a grant in the United Kingdom to further the work... no?

Perhaps it could still cost more than a grant would provide, but that'd seem to be the place to start (along with a cost estimate).