ch 3&4 Vocabulary

Question 1

Palaeography means? used to?

Answer 1

the study of old writing
- from Gk. παλαιός, “old” and γραφή, “writing”
- study of texts and the hands in which they are written
- used to find date and region of production

Question 2

Codex based on? Made up of? its advantages?

Answer 2

• based on wax writing-tablets
• made up of quires: a sheet folded into four, giving eight pages
• can write on both sides, paging back and forth, storage, not Jewish?

Question 3

Palimpsest?

Answer 3

• from πάλιν ‘again’, and ψηστός ‘rubbed smooth’, a manuscript of earlier writing in which the ink is scraped off and write a new manuscript
• famously, Augustine’s commentary on the psalms over Cicero’s de re publica

Question 4

Stemma is? scripts? function?

Answer 4

Stemma - “family tree” of manuscripts, looks for commonalities among contemporary MSS (Manual scripts). We try to figure out what’s similar, common ancestor. Haplography – copy multiple times, tracks back to earlier sources, helps find best readings.