Month: July 2009

CSCO Agapius NOT the most recent edition!

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Now here’s a surprise!  The Cheikho CSCO edition came out in 1912.  The PO edition came out starting in 1910 (PO5) 1911 (PO7) 1912 (PO8) and 1915 (PO11).  Even on the face of it, that means that the first fascicle — which covers the time of Jesus — was only just before the CSCO text.

But looking at the CSCO introduction, the first sentence tells us that the text was set up in type five years earlier — that is, in 1907.  Unspecified delays prevented printing until 1912.  So in fact the two editions are quite independent, as regards half of the text.

The introduction goes on by telling us that he must have known Greek letters, as well as Syriac and Arabic; that he must be a Melchite, since he acknowledges the council of Chalcedon and refers approvingly to the see of Rome.

Agapius alludes to the date when he was writing (p. 334 of the CSCO edition), as being the eighth month of 330 A.H. (i.e. AD 942).  Eutychius must precede him slightly, as the latter died at the end of Ragab, 328 AH (11th May 940 AD).  Both authors are mentioned by the Moslem author `Ali Ibn Husain al-Mas`udi (X, 957).

The CSCO text was published in Lebanon, and naturally made use of eastern copies.  For the first part of the work, it used a Bodleian Nicol. manuscript.  Cheikho knows of two more at Sinai, which he could not use.  He was able to use two mss in Beirut, both owned by the St. Joseph Catholic University.  The first, which he calls A, was bought at Emesa (Homs) and dates from the 16th century.  The second (B) was written in Lebanon in 1818.  A third ms. (C) was found in the seminary of the Syrian Patriarch at Scharfa, dating from 1662 AD.  A fourth written in 1882 he had seen in a monastery at Luaize in Lebanon, but this was already lost when he wrote.  A fifth manuscript — he doesn’t say if he used it — was in the Greek Patriarchal library of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

All these, he says, are pretty much identical to the Oxford ms. and all end in the middle of the same sentence, apart from the Scharfa ms. which ends on fol. 104.  He used A and B, with bits of C.

For the second part, he had a photographic copy of the unique Florence manuscript.  He also made use of al-Makin from Paris ms. Arab. 294 — the one which I was sold a wretched  microfilm of — and printed the excerpts from Agapius from it at the end of his edition (which, drat it, I didn’t notice).

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Searching for books; Origen, Agapius, and the Didache in Shenouda.

Posted on by Roger Pearse

My trip to the University Library at Cambridge was successful, and they did let me in. I was able to get photocopies of the Baehrens GCS edition of Origen’s Homilies on Ezechiel.  Mind you, it cost 15c per page, which made it costly and prevented me from copying the whole volume.  I wish someone with borrowing privileges would scan all these early GCS editions — they’re all out of copyright.

I also took a look at the CSCO edition of Agapius, by L. Cheikho, from 1912.  I’m not all that impressed by this; if it is using al-Makin to supplement the text then it doesn’t really say so.  The apparatus seemed rather feeble to me.  It does seem to me that a modern critical edition of this text is required.  Modern technology such as multi-spectral imaging should allow the material that was illegible in those days to be read with relative ease.

Some time ago I discussed the Arabic life of the 4th century Coptic churchman Shenouda.  This is of interest because it contains, improbably, a version of the Didache.  It was printed with a French translation in several versions by Amelineau, over a century ago.  Unfortunately all of these are offline.  CUL did have the Vie de Schnoudi volume, but had consigned it to the dungeon which is the “rare books” department.  This means that you can’t photocopy it, which makes getting a copy difficult and costly.  However the version printed in the Monuments pour servir a l’histoire de l’Egypte…, t. IV, in 2 vols, was accessible and could be copied.  The text is found on pp. 289-478; which means photocopying over 150 pages, one page at a time.  However the format is Arabic at the top, French at the bottom, and there isn’t actually that much text on each page; less than in the Patrologia Orientalis editions. 

I would have photocopied this, but a call on my mobile cut short my visit, to attend to family business.  I’ll get a copy of this another day.

Wish it didn’t cost so much, tho.

 

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Using Google translate on Manuel Paleologus, and contributing as you do

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m trying to finish up various little tasks that I started ages ago.  One of these was a translation of book 7 of the Dialogue with a Persian by Manuel Paleologus, which got Pope Benedict into such hot water with the Moslems awhile back.  I’ve been looking at the French version of this.

Here’s a tip.  Take a single sentence, and run it through Google translate.  You’ll get a box with the French; and opposite it, the English, more or less good.  But… at the bottom right, you’ll get “Contribute a better translation.”  Click this box, and edit the machine translation there into proper English.  Then hit the button and submit it to Google.

Firstly, when you copy back your edited version, it’s in a sensible font rather than Courier (which is what you get otherwise).  Secondly, since Google Translate works by using existing translations of texts, you’re actually increasing their database and making it more likely that the result will work for you next time.

The results, from French, are really very good; better than Systran, which I have used so far.  I need to see how good it is on Italian!

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Agapius almost ready

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve finished turning the French translation of the 10th century Arabic Christian historian Agapius into English, formatting it and so forth.  Only a couple of issues remain, but these are important.

People get interested in Agapius for two reasons only, in my experience.  The lesser reason is that he preserves a fragment of Papias not found elsewhere.  This undoubtedly comes from a Syriac version of some lost Greek chronicle.

The main reason is that Shlomo Pines quoted a version of the Testimonium Flavianum as from Agapius, which has since attracted a lot of attention.  Pines made his own translation, using the 1912 CSCO text. 

The passage is found in the second part of Agapius.  This is preserved only in a single damaged manuscript in Florence.  The manuscript breaks off in 776 AD, in the second year of the Caliph al-Mahdi; but the text originally continued to 941 AD.  Quotations from Agapius are found in the 13th century Arabic Christian historian al-Makin.  The CSCO text supplemented the text found in the Florence manuscript from al-Makin. 

Methodologically this seems unsound to me.  We all know that texts tend to grow in transmission, as marginal notes find their way into the text, and additional material gets added.  It would be most interesting to learn whether attention was paid to this.  Since no edition exists of al-Makin, it is rather hard to judge.  Unfortunately the CSCO edition did not come with a translation.  Let’s hope it has a non-Arabic introduction!

Either way I need to look directly at the CSCO edition, and give both passages a special treatment.  So I shall drive up to Cambridge tomorrow, and get copies of the relevant passages.   I think I will take a little digital camera with me and just photograph the pages — the photocopiers at the university library are a disgrace!

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Cambridge University Library – daft admissions policies

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I want to go up to Cambridge tomorrow and use the library.  I have a reader’s card; although, as a mere taxpayer, I’m only given one that expires every six months, and must pay £10 for the privilege.  Since I work — in order to support CUL with my taxes — I can only go up infrequently.  To renew, I have to sit in a queue in a dim room and wait.  I’ll have to do that (again) tomorrow.

I’ve just discovered that the poor dears are getting all precious about their admissions policy.  Apparently I have to bring my passport.  Yes; I have a photo ID card that they issued, I have been coming there for 11 years, but I have to bring my passport to prove who I am?

It’s understandable that a university which gets riff-raff from around the world may need to check who they are.  But hardly in my case, when I am renewing.  They also want a recent utility bill, for the same reason.  Frankly I’ve had less demands to visit a defence establishment! 

They also want me to produce again a letter of introduction proving that I am an appropriate person to handle rare books.  I’ve had this clearance for 10 years.  Why now?  Oh, and it must be someone with intimate knowledge of my research — yes, fine, except that for a private researcher who will know this?

I won’t bore you with the further, fussy, annoying details.  It’s the whole attitude that gets me.  I, as a respectable member of the public, who pays for the whole thing, is harassed with these absurd and petty regulations.  They do not benefit the library — on the contrary, they injure its reputation — and they injure me.

Why DO libraries do these things?  I wish I were a rich man.  I would get my lawyers to sort these people out in short order.

So… wasting time today gathering documents.

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How to use Diogenes with the TLG disk (not that any of us have one, oh no)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A friend has sent me this set of instructions on how to use the Diogenes software with the TLG.  Apparently this has a really nice look-and-feel interface.

1: Go to Edit, Preferences, and under “Location of TLG database” I put the location as this “c:\tlg/” or wherever I had stored the TLG in my computer. Click save settings.

2: Go to the main page on Diogenes and under Corpus select “TLG texts”

3: Under Action select “Browse to a specific passage in a given text” and then under “query” type in the first few letters of the author you are interested in finding. This is the Latin name so the complete English spelling will likely come up with nothing. A list will come up with either one author or the names of multiple authors. Select the author you want. A list will come up with their works. Select the work you want. Now you may enter the book and chapter numbers. Enter zeros to view the beginning of the work. Now you can browse the work. If you click the word in the work Diogenes will parse it and find the dictionary’s definition. Pretty neat.

4: To run a TLG search go back to the homepage. Under action choose “search the TLG”. Then under “query” type in a Greek word using unicode font. This will attempt to match this word with that TLG database.

One more thing, under the homepage for Diogenes you can select “search for conjunctions and multiple words”  I find it best if you search for only one word and then add on another word after the second screen pops up. 

Another classicist receives justice
Another classicist receives justice

I am told that TLG FAQ on its website claims that the TLG CD was never sold and that no one should have it now, even libraries, so its risky even saying that you have access to the CD E because to them you shouldn’t.  As a humble member of the public, I most certainly don’t have a copy.  But I post these instructions, just in case some scumbag somewhere is still making use of an ‘illegal’ CD, and hasn’t been reported to the police yet.

If anyone does know someone with a CD, I hope that every reader will most certainly denounce them to the police.  If you are at school, and you discover that your father or mother has a copy, you should denounce them likewise.

This may seem harsh, but it’s the only way to curb the criminal element among classicists and to build a better world.   Mind how you go.

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Vatican ms orders received

Posted on by Roger Pearse

On May 19th I ordered reproductions of two manuscripts of the unpublished Arabic Christian historian al-Makin from the Vatican.  I didn’t receive any acknowledgement, so wasn’t expecting much.  Anyhow a UPS man arrived a few minutes ago, bearing a parcel.  So it took just under 7 weeks to get, from posting the order to now.  That’s really not too bad.

Less good is the payment arrangements.  They’ve sent me an invoice, which has an international bank account number (IBAN) and a SWIFT number on it, so I can do a bank-to-bank transfer.  These are marvellously expensive things to do from the UK (because the banks rip you off).  There seems no facility to do a credit card payment.

The images arrived as two PDF’s  — which is good.  The images are scanned from black-and-white (not even monochrome) microfilm — which is terrible.   The consumer really should be protected from this rip-off racket of selling substandard images at very premium prices.  The price for the two mss. was 215 euros; the charge for postage and packing was 15 euros; quite a bit for 43Mb of data, which could perfectly well have been made available for download. 

Of course the library is profiteering pretty heavily here.  The microfilms already existed, so to produce these PDF’s required them to load them in a microfilm scanner, hit “scan”, and go and have a coffee.  200 euros for a trivial bit of work; nice if you can get it, eh?

I was amused to find a “copyright” notice included.  This is almost certainly fraudulent, as ever; these images cannot be considered creative works of art!  Only in the UK could this even possibly be in copyright, because of the foolish wording of the law in this country.

Still, the failings of this service are historic and traditional; the advantages of it are all new, and I think we may expect radical improvements in service.  Everyone will expect better quality, and we may hope to get it.

UPDATE: I discovered by chance that HSBC customers can do their own international transfers from their online system, at a price of 9 GBP; far cheaper than Lloyds TSB at 15 GBP, etc.  So that’s the way to do it, if you have such an account.

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Syriac Eusebius “Quaestiones” fragments almost complete

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Excellent news on the translation of Eusebius’ “Gospel problems and solutions” (Quaestiones ad Stephanum/Marinum).  Two more of the Syriac fragments — those printed by Mai — appeared in my inbox over the weekend.  Only one more to do!

I also obtained some splendid colour digital images of unpublished Syriac fragments of the same work from the Mingana library.  We need to look at these, of course; and finally, to revise the whole version of the Syriac.  Apparently the Syriac isn’t that close to the Greek, although it is written in quite good Syriac.

In addition, I heard from the translator of the Greek.  He has resumed revising the whole translation of all the Greek, and is part way through the fragments.

Also a friend has translated a second Coptic fragment for me.  It looks as if we’ll be done by autumn.

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Hippolytus’ Chronicle

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I had an email this week from Tom Schmidt, who is about 670 lines of the way through the 1,000 lines of this work.  He says he intends to put his translation of the text online, which is very good news indeed!

He’s also been wondering whether a PhD in Patristics would be an opening to a career.  I had to tell him that I had no idea what careers were like in patristics — I’m a computer programmer, not an academic.  Anyone any thoughts?

My own feeling was that he should become a stockbroker, get rich, retire at 30, and do what he liked then.

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Humouring the end of the world

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I came in just now, out of the burning heat, and there was a leaflet on my doorstep.  It was from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and titled “How will you deal with the end of the world?” or something like that.

Sad person that I am, the only thought that entered my heat-addled brain was “get better air-conditioning.”

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