A couple of blog posts on recent activity from Dan Wallace and his team. This will be a busy year:
In January 2009, we sent a team to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Australia; and Auckland, New Zealand. We are right now gearing up for the rest of 2009. On the docket are Athens, Andros, Kozani, and Meteora, Greece; Muenster and Munich, Germany; Bucharest, Romania; Milan, Italy; Patmos, Greece; and Tbilisi, Georgia. We are also hoping to go to Cairo and St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.
We are extremely grateful to these monasteries and museums, universities and public libraries, for allowing us to shoot their manuscripts and preserve them digitally for generations to come. In 2008 alone, we discovered more than a dozen manuscripts—about equal to what the rest of the world has discovered in the last six years. Among the manuscripts photographed are two papyri, both from the third century, a purple codex from the sixth century, and scores of later manuscripts, some of which are far more significant than their medieval date would suggest.
Meanwhile the team are onsite in Athens:
On February 23rd, a team led by Dr. Wallace left Dallas for Athens, Greece. They are staying at the Greek Bible Institute in the suburb of Pikermi, approximately an hour’s travel time from the Benaki Museum where they are photographing MSS. Despite the distance, the Center was able to save financial resources by staying at the Institute. So far the Center has identified seven manuscripts that were previously unknown to scholars! That’s equal to what typically turn up in two years’ time worldwide, and it brings the number to nineteen that the Center has discovered in this season of expeditions. Remarkably, one out of five MSS that CSNTM photographs is a new discovery.
Times are hard for many of us, but perhaps we should find a way to donate to these supremely worthwhile activities. Remember that today we learned of the destruction of manuscripts at Koln? CSNTM are doing something to save vulnerable texts, and make them accessible to us all.