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https://theconversation.com/digital-technologies-have-made-the-wonders-of-ancient-manuscripts-more-accessible-than-ever-but-there-are-risks-and-losses-too-221869>
"Near the end of the 18th century, a Greek monk named Nikodemos was putting
together a massive anthology of Byzantine texts on prayer and spirituality,
which he would call
The Philokalia.
He lamented the state of learning among his fellow monks, because they did not
have access to the texts of their tradition:
Because of their great antiquity and their scarcity – not to mention the
fact that they have never yet been printed – they have all but vanished. And
even if some few have somehow survived, they are moth-eaten and in a state
of decay, and remembered about as well as if they had never existed.
Nikodemos hoped to correct this by collecting and printing texts that would
otherwise fall to dust. By making the manuscripts into a book, he would
preserve the knowledge they contained – but not the manuscript, not the
artefact itself.
He does not mention how difficult his Byzantine manuscripts were to read and
transcribe, even for someone familiar with the language. Copying by hand takes
dozens, even hundreds of hours of intensive labour. Reading them means learning
to decode scribes’ handwriting, abbreviations and shorthand.
Every manuscript, with its errors, notes and doodles – not to mention its
artistry, images, and ornamentation – remains a unique artefact. The evanescent
beauty of manuscripts is lost in their printed analogue. Every manuscript is
its own text, its own space of knowledge, and an irreplaceable part of our
shared cultural histories."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
