![]() At that point, the work is no longer mechanical, and the researcher’s own judgement and expertise will play an important role. When manuscript texts are drafted for publication, different versions of the same text are compared in order to find the correct form. In addition, the manuscript must be correctly dated.” Among other things, one has to know old water stamps and be able to identify the scribe by handwriting. “Research never focuses on a single manuscript instead, the researcher must have at least some sort of understanding of all Byzantine manuscripts in the world. Putting together pieces of a text is often like putting together a puzzle: some pieces may have been destroyed in a fire or damaged by humidity, or they have been stolen altogether. In addition to one’s own discipline, the area’s history, languages and geography must be understood, too. This reassessment is always based on profound understanding of the field. ![]() That’s not true at all, since we keep on finding old theological texts, allowing us to constantly reassess history.” People seem to assume that all historical texts preserved to our time have already been found, studied and published. “That happens every now and then, but perhaps not on such a scale. Olkinuora says that manuscript research rarely catches the attention of the media – unless of course there’s breaking news, such as evidence of Jesus having had a wife something that could rewrite history. However, a later examination of the passage revealed that the reference wasn’t necessarily to a wife, and the entire papyrus turned out to be a forgery.” “Some years ago, a passage from an old papyrus made the headlines by claiming that it contained a reference to Jesus’s wife. Indeed, manuscripts are used to write history – sometimes even to rewrite it. That’s when I concretely feel like I’m a part of history.” When one holds a book that is a thousand years old, the pages tell a tale of other people who have held the book, too. Yet, this is the kind of research that isn’t really supported by education policy decisions globally,” Olkinuora criticises.įood stains, handwritten notes and comments, drops of beeswax from candles. I feel that by studying manuscripts, I can contribute to theological research far more than by publishing individual papers. how significant a scientific publication is, well conducted research into manuscripts can have an impact on the field that will last for centuries. This requires a researcher to be exceptionally well-versed in the field. Eventually, this kind of research also serves as a basis for new learning materials for universities, for example.” “In other words, I do research that opens up new targets of research for other researchers. Olkinuora describes his work as basic research that offers tools for other researchers in the field. ![]() For instance, women are barred from our monastery, and this is why I find it important to make the materials digitally and equally available to everyone.” ![]() “This offers researchers an easier access to old materials, since it is now possible to study them also off-site. The Monastery of Xenophontos has just completed as massive, EU funded digitisation project, where old manuscripts, ancient correspondence, photographs, icons and pieces of art were archived and digitised. Monastery librarians are very strict about who can access certain texts, but for a monk, doors open up easily.” “I do most of my work in my own monastery, but it is easy to go and do research in the other monasteries, too. In his civilian life, he is also a monk in the Monastery of Xenophontos on Mount Athos. His research takes place in Greece, mostly in the monasteries of Mount Athos, which harbour the largest collection of Byzantine medieval manuscripts in the world. He studies old manuscripts, focusing mainly on Greek-language texts written between the 7th and the 14th century. This is how University Lecturer Damaskinos Olkinuora sums up the motivation behind his research. ![]()
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