DAY TWO: The Scribal Mind: Textual Criticism in Antiquity
ISAW is committed not to schedule public events on holidays that would prevent anyone from attending on account of religious observance. We deeply regret that nevertheless by our oversight the conference "The Scribal Mind: Textual Criticism in Antiquity" was scheduled to take place on Rosh Hashanah, and we apologize to all who were therefore unable to engage in the conference.
-Alexander Jones, Leon Levy Director
*** Video Recordings from this conference are now available to view ***
The intellectual exercise of textual criticism is far from a modern invention. Without the regularity provided by printing, there were constantly different texts in circulation, and it was up to learned individuals to figure out how to make sense of them. While no manual on the assembly and editing of ancient manuscripts existed in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, or China, scribes diligently worked through copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Sumerian Incantations, or Buddhist manuscripts, and noted variants as they went. It is the intention of this conference to draw out the details of how those scribes produced a text tradition, added commentary to new editions, or marginalia to old ones, and what these practices might say about the culture in which the scribes were working. In three related panels, conference participants in various fields of study will consider the conception, process, and culture of textual criticism in the ancient world with the intention of better understanding the place of scribal communities in antiquity.
Panel 2: The Culture of Ancient Textual Criticism
September 22, 2017
9:30am-12:30pm
Moderator: David Ratzan (ISAW, NYU)
9:30am - "Come Together: Collection Tablets and Scribal Composition"
Jay Crisostomo (University of Michigan)
10:00am - "Copyists, Compilers, and Commentators: Constructing the Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year and the Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases"
Anthony Barbieri-Low (University of California, Santa Barbara)
10:30am - Coffee Break
11:00am - "The Fidelity of Slaves: Servility, Forensics, and the Reproduction of Text at Rome"
Joseph Howley (Columbia University)
11:30am - Respondent: Daniel Fleming (NYU)
12:00pm - Discussion
12:30pm - Lunch Break
Panel 3: Ancient Textual Criticism in Society
September 22, 2017
1:30pm-5:00pm
Moderator: Raffaella Cribiore (NYU)
1:30pm - "Who Cares about Textual Criticism (in New Kingdom Egypt)?"
Niv Allon (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
2:00pm - "The Shifting Spaces of the Text: Multimodality at Kuntillet 'Ajrud and Ketef Hinnom"
Alice Mandell (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
2:30pm - Coffee Break
3:00pm - "Scribal Minds and Scribal Acts: Textual Production and Religious Practices in South Asia"
Jason Neelis (Wilfred Laurier University)
3:30pm - Respondent: Jacco Dieleman (University of California, Los Angeles)
4:00pm - Discussion
4:45pm - Concluding Remarks
Please check isaw.nyu.edu for event updates.
Registration is required at isaw.nyu.edu/rsvp
Please note that separate registration is required for Day 1 (September 21st), Keynote Lecture (September 21st), and Day 2 (September 22nd).
The conference is co-sponsored by ISAW, the NYU Center for the Humanities, the NYU Center for Ancient Studies, the NYU Classics Department, and the NYU East Asian Studies Department.