Serto before Serto: Reexamining the Earliest Development of Syriac Script
Scholars have traditionally categorised early Syriac manuscripts as either Estrangela or Serto. The same categories dominate the prevailing narrative of how Syriac script is thought to have developed. Most see Estrangela as the earliest strata of Syriac and Serto as a later development. More recent...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2020]
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| In: |
Aramaic studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 46-63 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Paleography
/ Syriac language
/ Aramaic language
/ Handwriting
/ Handschriften des Mittelalters (Database)
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Further subjects: | B
Aramaic script
B digital palaeography B visual analytics B COLOPHONS B Palaeography B Syriac |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Scholars have traditionally categorised early Syriac manuscripts as either Estrangela or Serto. The same categories dominate the prevailing narrative of how Syriac script is thought to have developed. Most see Estrangela as the earliest strata of Syriac and Serto as a later development. More recent scholarship explores how early manuscripts support neither this stark division between script styles nor a sequential development. Of particular challenge to this paradigm are a series of securely dated colophons and notes which use a script style different than the main part of the text. But previous work has looked at only five examples of this phenomenon. By expanding this investigation to 30 examples and drawing upon a recent compiled digital corpus of over 100,000 early Syriac letter forms, the present article explores how large data sets, digital analysis, and visual analytics can help one better understand the development of Aramaic scripts. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5227 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Aramaic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/17455227-bja10001 |