Scripts on Parade -

Scripts on Parade

From Antiquity to the Modern World

Manuscripts and Written Records
on Papyrus, Parchment, Paper, and other Materials

Specimens in a private collection
Reproduced by permission

Descriptions by Mildred Budny

PART I. Welcome to this first exhibition on our re-launched website (May 2015). We offer a sampling of specimens, with more to come.

So far:

I.       Cuneiform Tablets
II.     Antique & Byzantine Greek Texts
III.    Coptic & Syriac Texts
IV.    Hebrew & Judeo-Arabic Texts
V.      Arabic, Persian & Turkish Texts, plus a Bookbinding
VI.    Armenian New Testament or Lectionary

See the detailed Report, with a Booklet, on these New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian

VII. Ethiopic Manuscripts
VIII. Sanskrit & Prakrit Palm-Leaf and Paper Manuscripts

Also:

You can visit the Gallery of Texts on Parade

Other Galleries are in course of installation for Latin, Western European Vernacular, and other Languages.

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Here are specimens (most are fragmentary) of manuscripts and documents in various languages, including secular and religious concerns. They represent, for example,

records of transactions
the Qur’an/Koran in different copies
an Abbasid biographical collection
an apocryphal ‘Life of the Virgin’ in Byzantine Greek
an Armenian New Testament or Lectionary
a Psalter in Ethiopic Ge’ez
a Sermon manuscript in Ethiopic Amharic
a variety of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish texts using watermarked European paper
and
the components of a composite Yemeni bookbinding with reused leaves from older manuscripts.

The Tags allow for searching for the specific script, language, type of text, writing medium, and other features.

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I. Cuneiform Tablets

Tablet inscribed with accounts in cuneiform on clay. Early Dynastic period (circa 2600-2500 BCE). (purchased in Michigan)

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II. Antique & Byzantine Greek Texts

Fragment of a Ptolemaic document in Greek on papyrus circa 200 BCE Text concerns the sale of cattle at a cattle market

Fragment of a leaf in Greek on parchment from an apocryphal 'Life of the Virgin' Byzantium, circa 14th century CE (purchased

Added drawing or sketch in ink in the lower margin

Verso of a fragmentary leaf in Greek on parchment from an apocryphal 'Life of the Virgin', Byzantium, circa 14th century CE

Fragment of a Ptolemaic document in Greek on papyrus, circa 200 BCE.
The text concerns the sale of cattle at a cattle market (fragment purchased in London in the 1980s from the dregs of an antiquarian book-shop or antiquaries-shop which closed down in the 1940s)

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III. Coptic & Syriac Texts

Fragment of a leaf in Syriac on parchment, circa 9th century CE, possibly from a New Testament

Coptic fragment on papyrus, 9th or 10th century CE

Coptic fragment on paper, 10th century CE

Recto of detached Christian Coptic leaf in Arabic script on paper, probably 12th century CE, from a Christian text (purchased online from a seller claiming it to be from provincial Iran, circa 17th century)

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IV. Hebrew & Judeo-Arabic Texts

Fragment of a leaf in Hebrew on paper, Yemen, 15th century CE

First recto of a fragmentary bifolium in Arabic on paper, from a small manuscript, probably occult, circa 16th century CE

Fragment of a leaf in Judeo-Arabic on paper. Yemen, 15th century CE

Fragment of a leaf (one of two leaves) in Judeo-Arabic on paper. Yemen, 15th century CE

First recto of a fragmentary bifolium in Arabic on paper, from a small manuscript, circa 16th century CE. Text probably occult (purchased at 'Tarshish' in Jerusalem in 1985)

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V. Arabic, Persian & Turkish Texts, plus a Bookbinding

Papyrus fragment in Arabic, 9th century CE

Recto of a leaf from a Qur'an/Koran in Arabic in Kufic script on parchment, 9th or 10th century CE

Verso of the same leaf from a Kiufic Qua'ran/Koran

Fragment a shipping receipt in Arabic on parchment, dated AH 357 = 967-968 CE

Fragment of a document in Arabic on parchment, probably 10th or 11th century CE

ragment of document in Arabic on parchment, probably 10th or 11th century CE

Arabic fragment on paper, with century CE, with text possibly occult, circa 10th or 11th century CE

Recto of fragmentary leaf in Arabic on paper, from a copy of a book of short biographies of notables of the 'Abbasid period, mostly of the 8th and early 9th centuries CE, in a copy probably 11th or 12th century CE

Recto of a Qur'an/Koran leaf in Arabic on paper, probably Fatimid, 10th or 11th century CE reused in a Yemeni binding of the 15th century CE

Single quire in Arabic on paper, from an anecdote book of some sort perhaps 13th century CE

Leaf in Persian on paper, from a Qur'an/Koran, Iran, possibly 12th or 13th century CE

Fragment of a leaf in Ottoman Turkish, 15th century CE) on European paper, with a watermark of a balance within a circle (having no close match in Briquet)

Reused old panel on a composite Yemeni binding of the 15th century CE

Yemeni bookbinding of the 15th century CE: 15th-century portion of the binding, with flap

Paper pastedown on the inside cover of the reused older portion of the same Yemeni binding of the 15th century CE

Back verso of a bifolumn in Arabic on paper, from a small manuscript, circa 16th century CE. Text probably occult.

Legal document in Arabic on paper, dated AH 838 = 1434-1435 CE. Reused in a Yemeni bookbinding of the 15th century CE

Document in Arabic
on parchment, dated AH 357 = 967-968 CE. Shipping receipt (purchased in London in the 1980s from the dregs of an antiquarian book-shop or antiquities-shop which closed down in the 1940s)