The Wandering and Homes of Manuscripts

The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts is the title of this book. To have called it the survival and transmission of ancient literature would have been pretentious, but not wholly untruthful. Manuscripts, we all know, are the chief means by which the records and imaginings of twenty centuries have been preserved. It is my purpose to tell where manuscripts were made, and how and in what centres they have been collected, and, incidentally, to suggest some helps for tracing out their history. Naturally the few pages into which the story has to be packed will not give room for any one episode to be treated exhaustively. Enough if I succeed in rousing curiosity and setting some student to work in a field in which and immense amount still remains to be discovered. —M. R. James (1919) —The Wandering and Homes of Manuscripts (Tertullian)

Great Scott, this is exactly the kind of article I spent about an hour or so looking for yesterday. Thanks for posting it, Eric.

View Comments

  • It's such a neat piece I had a feeling it would interest someone. Also, something from it has got to find its way into a book.

Share
Published by
Dennis G. Jerz

Recent Posts

Yesterday my stack of unmarked assignments was about 120, so this is not bad.

Nothing in this stack is pressing, but they do include rough drafts of final papers,…

3 hours ago

Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.

Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.

3 days ago

The daughter opens another show. This weekend only.

The daughter opens another show. This weekend only.

4 days ago

How to Disagree Academically: Using Graham’s “Disagreement Hierarchy” to organize a college term paper.

How to Disagree Academically: Using Graham's "Disagreement Hierarchy" to organize a college term paper.

4 days ago

A.I. ‘Completes’ Keith Haring’s Intentionally Unfinished Painting

After learning of his AIDS diagnosis, artist Keith Haring created the work, "Unfinished Painting" (1989),…

4 days ago

Seton Hill students Emily Vohs, Elizabeth Burns, Jake Carnahan-Curcio and Carolyn Jerz in a scene from “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.”

Seton Hill students Emily Vohs, Elizabeth Burns, Jake Carnahan-Curcio and Carolyn Jerz in a scene…

4 days ago