Great! Much obliged. There’ll be a few more articles along the same lines over the next couple of weeks.
Comment posted by Luke Tuffin on
I think there is a maniple in the secret treasure map featured in the Hobbit – could this be true?
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Luke — there is indeed: http://goo.gl/oj4Qda! I last read The Hobbit something like twenty-five years ago, but I now feel compelled to look out my copy.
Thanks for the comment!
Comment posted by Luke Tuffin on
Apologies – I meant manicule of course.
Comment posted by Lorraine Gehring on
In your New Yorker article about the diple you said that “Christian writers began to use the diple to mark not noteworthy text but Biblical quotations in an era when Christian books outnumbered all other works four to one.” Approximately when was that? And where did you find the four to one book ratio?
The use of the diple to mark scriptural quotations was well-known by the early 7th century at the latest, when Isidore mentioned its use as such in Etymologies.
Comment posted by annie morgan on
Saw it! Read it!
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Great! Much obliged. There’ll be a few more articles along the same lines over the next couple of weeks.
Comment posted by Luke Tuffin on
I think there is a maniple in the secret treasure map featured in the Hobbit – could this be true?
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Luke — there is indeed: http://goo.gl/oj4Qda! I last read The Hobbit something like twenty-five years ago, but I now feel compelled to look out my copy.
Thanks for the comment!
Comment posted by Luke Tuffin on
Apologies – I meant manicule of course.
Comment posted by Lorraine Gehring on
In your New Yorker article about the diple you said that “Christian writers began to use the diple to mark not noteworthy text but Biblical quotations in an era when Christian books outnumbered all other works four to one.” Approximately when was that? And where did you find the four to one book ratio?
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Lorraine — the 4:1 ratio comes from the Leuven Database of Ancient Books, specifically this graph, which shows Christian books as a proportion of all books from the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD. (These figures are taken exclusively from the LDAB’s records.) Christian books were in the majority by the 5th century, and by the 8th century they outnumbered other books many times over.
The use of the diple to mark scriptural quotations was well-known by the early 7th century at the latest, when Isidore mentioned its use as such in Etymologies.
Thanks for your comment, and I hope this helps!
Comment posted by Lorraine Gehring on
Very much so. Thanks for the source!
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Not at all! Glad to be of help.