Introduction to Near Eastern Comparative Codicology (Hebrew, Armenian, Arabic, Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopian). The materials and their characteristics; types and formats of books; binding; layout; paleography; colophons; decoration and illustration; cataloging manuscripts.
Students who successfully follow the course will be able to describe a manuscript in its material and historical aspects. Those students who familiar with one or more of the related languages should be able to define the formal aspects of the text, and the relationship of the content with the material aspects of the book.
Methods for verifying skills: Written description of a manuscript; oral exam.
Bibliography:
Bausi, A., and others, Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction, Hamburg 2015 (http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/COMST/handbook.html)
