11/16/08

More Medieval Rebindings - Hebrew Manuscript Institute



On the heels of a previous post, Dr. Ezra Chwat passed along a photo from a Latin manuscript at an Innsbruck monastery (I am assuming the Wilton Basilica based on the file name). It is a rather pretty Latin text, you can see the column rules really well even from this picture (16th? 17th?). It has been rebound relatively recently in red cloth with some nice looking page repair. But whoever rebound it included the Hebrew folios that I am guessing lined the interior of the boards. You can see how intact and useful they are. In his email, Dr. Chwat made the point that if such folios had not been reclaimed and used as material in re-bindings, then they would have simply been read and handled until no longer viable and then buried according to custom. Such is the great blessing of bookbinding, which often recycles important literary artifacts simply because they were handy at the time.

Thanks for the helpful photo!

2 comments:

Luke said...

Ekthesis,

May I interview you for my podcast?

I'm launching a podcast on the dialogue between atheists and believers, for which I interview experts and leaders of all opinions.

I'd like to discuss Christian origins, variant traditions about Jesus, and your particular interest in Christianity's role in the history of ancient bookmaking.

WHO AM I?

I'm an IT expert and author from California. Ancient religion is a passionate hobby of mine.

I grew up an enthusiastic fundamentalist Christian. Later studies forced me to suspect that gods exist only in the mind. I am equally critical of prejudiced and irrational thinking in atheists and believers. The first stage in my deconversion is summarized at an old blog of mine:

http://godtaughtme.wordpress.com/2007/01/17/short-story/

HOW IT WORKS

If you're interested, I will record our phone interview. I would appreciate 40 minutes of your time so that we can engage some of the details of your work. (But if you want to talk longer, I will not complain!)

THE PODCAST

Unfortunately, because I am just launching the podcast, I do not have a list of previous guests or an approximate listenership. I hope you will consider being among my first guests. I do have interviews scheduled with atheist philosopher Evan Fales and Christian apologist Michael Licona.

NEXT STEP

If you are interested, please let me know. We can arrange a phone call so you can decide if you like me, then we can discuss the details of the interview.

If you are not interested, I understand. Please keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Luke Muehlhauser
lukeprog@gmail.com

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