Paul Needham on the Latin Bible

Paul Needham's first Lyell Lecture on The Christian Latin Bible from its Origins to the 13th-Century Paris Bible has been posted online.

HT Georgi Parpulov

Paul Flesher on the Aramaic Targums

 Christopher Dost has posted an interesting interview with Paul Flesher on the Aramaic Targums.

Michael Press on Moses Shapira

Michael Press has an interesting piece in Ancient Jew Review on the myth of Moses Shapira as expert forger. Spoiler... He does not give credence to those who think Shapira's Deuteronomy scroll was authentic, but says that Shapira was a conman who sold the forgeries of others, rather than producing them himself.

Tiqqunei Soferim in the Cairo Genizah

Joseph Ginsberg announces the discovery of several previously unknown tiqqunei soferim "(euphemistic) emendations of the scribes" in Cairo Genizah fragments from Cambridge:

1. Num 14:10
2. Gen 18:16
3. Isa 26:19
4. Exod 32:7

Brent Nongbri on the Vatican DSS Fragments

Brent Nongbri has a brief note with images on the two Vatican Museum Dead Sea Scroll fragments. I must admit that I too was surprised to see them when I first noticed them in the Vatican Museum years ago. Trying to examine them upside down in poor lighting while resisting a torrent of people wasn't very successful at the time. :)

Codicology Jobs

For those interested in ancient codicology and cultural heritage, Brent Nongbri has recently announced openings for two postdoctoral fellowships on his exciting new EthiCodex project.

Facebook AI and Automated Stylized Text Generation

Facebook AI researchers have announced a new TextStyleBrush feature that can extract text and style from both printed and handwritten sample words and apply that same style to generate new text in the same style. This is a fascinating new development with possible applications for style classification in ancient handwritten scripts as well.