Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
Mike Aquilina draws my attention to a new arrival on Gutenberg, the old SPCK translation of letters and treatises by Dionysius of Alexandria. It’s here, and done rather splendidly! I didn’t even know the book existed, or I should long since have scanned it.
Thank you Mike! And thank you Gutenberg!
A curious report here from the BBC. Apparently a Coptic business man has reposted a cartoon of Mickey and Minne Mouse in Moslem dress. I found the Minnie mouse one online, which I attach; I couldn’t locate the other. Apparently a Moslem cartoonist has — rightly — retaliated with a cartoon of said businessman, which again I have not seen. And extremist Moslem leaders are calling for his head for being disrespectful. Nothing special there.
But much more important is how the BBC reports the situation in Egypt.
The outcry comes at a time of tension between Egypt’s Christians and Muslims. …
But many have questioned his wisdom in sharing the cartoons at a time of tensions between Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims.
Scores of people have been wounded and several killed in clashes between the two communities in recent months, and there are fears this row will increase the chances of more sectarian clashes in the run up to post-revolution elections in September.
In each case the BBC puts “Christians” first. It refers to “tensions” — weasel wording — “between Coptic Christians and conservative Moslems”.
What is actually happening is an onslaught on the Coptic community by Moslem groups, now that Mubarak is out of power, as can be seen in many online news reports. But the phrasing plays that down, and carefully creates a false equivalence.
The BBC also uses the term “conservative” — the major British right-of-centre party — to describe the extremists. I’m sure the news team laughed as they did that.
It’s like reading TASS or Pravda in the old Soviet days.
Whatever I want from the BBC, for which my taxes pay, it is not this.
UPDATE: The Islamic Mickey Mouse seems very hard to find. Here’s a low-quality version:
What I’d like now, to complete the set, is the cartoon of the businessman! Anyone know where it is?
I realised this evening that I really do need to look at the definitive work on Arabic literature, the Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur by Carl Brockelmann. He did a first edition back in 1898, and a second edition in 1943. The second edition is the standard work. It was issued in two volumes, and there were three volumes of supplements.
I discover this evening that it is available for sale at the Brill website, in a single volume form. Oh goodie, I thought — until I saw the price. They wanted, for this lump of paper costing around $25 to manufacture at most, nearly $1,000! And the resale value is almost nothing.
There is an Arabic translation, but not an English translation. The Arabic translation has been bootlegged and is freely accessible online.
As a publisher myself, I don’t deny Brill the right to a reasonable profit. But a price like that means that no-one can afford a copy.
It’s ridiculous. It’s also very short-sighted. And it is hardly fair to Prof. Brockelmann, now long dead, who doubtless was paid little or nothing for his efforts. He died in 1956, which means his work will come out of copyright in 2026. But that does none of us any good now.
Yet … to read it means a paper copy, at least for most of us, where corners can be turned down and bits underlined and notes written in the margin.
Because it is a reference volume, just borrowing it from a library is probably difficult. But I’ve had a go this evening. Let’s see if anyone will lend me a copy of vol. 1, which covers literature to the end of the Ummayad period. It’s worth a try.
If it does work, I will probably make a copy of it for my own purposes, and get around the problem that way. But I am perfectly willing to buy a copy, at say $50, if only they would sell them at that price.
It seems that the BL will allow Google to place 250,000 books published between 1700 and 1870 online. See AFP article here.
All the works will be available for text search download and reading on the British Library’s website www.bl.uk and at Google Books on books.google.co.uk.
The cost of digitising all 40 million pages will be borne by Google, which has entered similar partnerships with Stanford and Harvard universities in the United States as well as in the Netherlands, Italy and Austria.
BBC article is here, BL press release here (and do read a few other announcements first, and laugh to see how many merely repeat the press release).
This is good news. More.
An email reached me asking:
I was reading John of Damascus in NPNF Series 2, and a comparison was made to Theodoret’s “Epitome of Divine Dogmas.” I tried searching with Google but gave up. Do you know of an available English translation?
The reference is to the prologue here, “From the Latin of the Edition of Michael Lequien, as Given in Migne’s Patrology”. The NPNF says:
After the rules of Christian dealectic and the review of the errors of ancient heresies comes at last the book “Concerning the Orthodox Faith.” In this book, John of Damascus retains the same order as was adopted by Theodoret in his “Epitome of Divine Dogmas,” but takes a different method.
Looking in Quasten’s Patrology reveals no such work by Theodoret; in Migne, vols. 80-84, nothing either. Le Quien’s preface to John Damascene is PG94, columns 66-97. But I could find no such sentence in it.
But my correspondent was luckier, and found a reference in a Word document at the Documenta Catholica Omnia site accessible from here. In the Life and Writings, which takes a while to download. It contains the following:
(ii.) The Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium, was composed at the request of Sporacius, one of the representatives of Martian at Chalcedon, and is, as its title indicates, an account of past or present heresies. It is divided into five. Books, which treat of the following heretics.
I. Simon Magus, Menander, Saturnilus, (1) Basilides, Isidorus, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Prodicus, Valentinus, Secundus, Marcus the Wizard, the Ascodruti, (2) the Colorbasii, the Barbelioti, (3) the Ophites, the Cainites, the Antitacti, the Perati, Monoimus, Hermogenes, Tatianus, Severus, Bardesanes, Harmoniu Florinus, Cerdo, Marcion, Apelles, Potitus, Prepo, and Manes.
II. The Ebionites, the Nazarenes, Cerinthus, Artemon, Theodotus, the Melchisedeciani, the Elkesites, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, MarcelIus, Photinus.
III. The Nicolaitans, the Montanists, Noetus of Smyrna, the Tessarescdecatites (i.e. Quartodecimani) Novatus, Nepos.
IV. Arius, Eudoxius, Etmomius, Aetius, the Psathyriani, the Macedoniani, the Donatists, the Meletians, Appollinarius, the Audiani, the Messaliani, Nestorius, Eutyches. V. The last book is an “Epitome of the Divine Decrees.”
So it is, in fact, part of the Compendium of the Fables of the Heretics. My correspondent added:
…there was enough to cross-reference at Source Chrétiennes where I found this:
Résumé des fables hérétiques (Haereticarum fabularum compendium); CPG 6223. 420 – env. 460. PG 83, 336-556.
Still nothing in English though.
The work ought to exist in English but I don’t believe it does. Nor does it appear in the French Sources Chretiennes series. The work is apparently derivative of earlier works, which probably explains the neglect by scholars.
“Alas, alas!” I cried. For I thought that I had found a treasure, and it was brutally jerked from me at the last moment! I am inconsolable.
The history of Mehmet the conqueror sits in my scanner, and I turn the pages as I type. The library lent it to me today. It is a scarce volume. The author, Kritovoulos, witnessed the fall of Constantinople to the Turk, and their mercy to the fallen city.
Rarely do I sit at my scanner now. Somehow I am more tired in the evenings, than I was even ten years ago. Then I would merrily dedicate a weekend to wrestling with some huge volume. Now a pile sit on the side, that I would rather have in electronic form, and simply gather dust.
The scan is for my own reference. A PDF shall be created, and sit on my hard disk.
But as I sat, and scanned, and surfed, I noted that the translation was made in 1954. A glimmer of hope crept into my heart. Perhaps, I thought, perhaps they did not renew the copyright? Perhaps it is out of copyright? Perhaps it could go online?
So I thought, and hoped and reasoned. And I surfed around, searching for the copyright renewals. I found that renewals for 1982 — when such a book must be renewed or become public domain — were accessible and searchable at www.copyright.gov. And a search for “mehmed the conqueror” in the title brought nothing back!
Alas! I rejoiced too soon. A closer inspection of the search page revealed curious features of the title search. So I searched again on keyword. And … woe … a record appeared. A copyright claimant, a Sarah R. MacNeal, appeared, claiming to be the child of Charles Riggs the translator, and her claim was allowed.
Of course in 1982 the web was not thought of. All that Mrs MacNeal wanted was to ensure that she got a share of whatever was going. But now the work will be in copyright until 2049, when I shall be in my grave. Not that this profits anyone.
But in the meantime, I consoled myself with a volume of poems by R. C. Lehmann. He wrote light verse, and charms. But in his portrait of a village, he gave this shrewd picture of the local squire, written in days when the class hatred and political spite of these days were unknown. Read it aloud, so that you can hear the melody of the words.
He talked of his rights as one who knew
That the pick of the earth to him was due:
The right to this and the right to that,
To the humble look and the lifted hat;
The right to scold or evict a peasant,
The right to partridge and hare and pheasant;
The right to encourage discontent
By raising a hard-worked farmer’s rent;
The manifest right to ride to hounds
Through his own or anyone else’s grounds;
The right to eat of the best by day
And to snore the whole of the night away;
For his motto, as often he explained,
Was “A Darville holds what a Darville gained.”
He tried to be just, but that may be
Small merit in one who has most things free; …
My favourite among his verses is the Ramshackle Room, about remembering his college days. My eyes too grow dim as I read it, for his thoughts are mine.
Meanwhile the last page is done, and the scanner is silent. I must unplug it and place it back in my cupboard. 9 minutes, it took me. Now to make my PDF. Alas, that I cannot share it with you all!
The library copy had marginalia written in pencil, in Arabic. A first, that!
At the British Library manuscripts blog, Julian Harrison is paying attention, and well done to him. In response to comments like those here, he’s today posted a list of the 25 newly uploaded manuscripts. Here it is, with extra text by me.
I was a bit afraid after the opening section that it would all be gospel mss.! But thankfully not — there are some gems in there. But what does smack you in the face is the need for a course in Greek paleography in order to make much of them.
Do add that blog to your RSS feeder. They don’t post that often, but all the posts are interesting and useful, and usually illustrated with some precious page image.
I have just placed an order for a photocopy of the catalogue of the manuscripts of the Vlatadon monastery in Thessalonika. This is the place which had the unknown Galen manuscript, which recovered such treasures for us. I’ve ordered it from the French National Library using their online (and unduly complex) form. Here’s their catalogue entry:
Auteur(s) : Eustratiadès, Sophronios
Titre(s) : Katalogos tôn en tê Monê Blateôn (Tsaous-Monastêri) apokeimenôn kôdikôn [Texte imprimé] / Sôphronios Eustratiadês
Publication : Thessalonkê : S Pantelê kai N Thenopôntu, 1918
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (136-VII p.) ; 26 cm
Veronique Boudon-Millot emails to say that it also appeared in a periodical, Γρεγόριος ὁ Παλαμᾶς, vol. 2 (1918), p. 97-107 ; 224-237 ; 274-283 ; 326-330 ; 386-404 ; 437-443 ; 473-475 ; 503-507 ; 708-717. and vol. 3 (1919), p. 29-45 ; 74-91 ; 137-150.
It was interesting using their form, because it showed you what it cost. I first asked for digital images, sent by email. They wanted 6,000 euros for that (!). I then asked for photocopies and that was merely 34 euros. So that’s what I ordered.
Let’s see if it works.
I’ve just created and uploaded a PDF of the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus, vol.2, to Archive.org. The url is here:
http://www.archive.org/details/BarHebraeusChroniconEcclesiasticumVol.2
Many blessings on Glasgow University Library who kindly photocopied this 19th century volume for me. It arrived this evening, so I have spent the time since productively! It cost about 25GBP to get the copies, or around $40 (the invoice has yet to reach me, but will probably include a charge for postage).
For those not familiar with the work, the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus is a history of the church in a series of chapters, each covering an ecclesiastical figure. Usually the figure is a patriarch. The work is in two parts. It runs up to his own time, in the 13th century. He wrote in Syriac; the editors Abbeloos and Lamy include a simple Latin translation alongside it.
I uploaded volume 1 some years ago. Now only volume 3 remains. As far as I know, this 1872 edition is the only one that the work has ever received. Yet it is the fundamental source for all Syriac studies.
I will obtain and scan volume 3 as well. It’s too important a text to be inaccessible. Any errors, do let me know.
An amazing report at AWOL from Charles Jones:
Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition (1986-2004) Leiden, E.J.Brill
at the Internet Archive
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4
Vol. 5
Vol. 6
Vol. 7
Vol. 8
Vol. 9
Vol. 10
Vol. 11
Vol. 12
Index
Wow. And I say again, wow!
I don’t know why this is up there, but I am glad it is.
UPDATE: I discover that Brill are now marketing the 3rd edition as an “entirely new” work. This means that the 2nd is now obsolete, although the historical content will, of course, be pretty much as good as ever.
I wonder … are Brill being fiendishly clever here?
Think about it. Take a sample online person. Take me, for instance. I’ve never read a page of the Encyclopedia of Islam. I’ve never opened a copy. I doubt I’ve ever seen a copy. Yet here I am, tonight, at 00:34 hrs, downloading the PDF’s. I’m pretty much certain to at least look at a couple of articles.
The Encyclopedia Iranica gets read, precisely because its articles are online. Is this the idea? To build market share by making an old version freely available? To get people who would never pick up a copy interested? To get students, who have no money, but will become academics and librarians with budgets, accustomed to using it, to treating it as the last word, as the authoritative resource?
Let’s face it — if they are intending this, it’s working! It’s working on me right now, drat them.
UPDATE (29th April): A commenter notes that most of the links now don’t work, and bring up a message that there are “issues with content”. I believe this is their phrase for “may be in copyright”. Sadly it wasn’t the dawn of a new day — just an uploader who didn’t check the copyright status properly. Pity.