Ch. Barbati

University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

E‑mail: chiara.barbati@unipi.it

Ink as a Functional Marker in the Study of the Syriac and Christian  Sogdian Manuscript Fragments in the Turfan Collection (Berlin) and in the Krotkov Collection (St. Petersburg)

Abstract. The Syriac and Christian Sogdian manuscript fragments in the Turfan Collection (Berlin) and in the Krotkov Collection (St. Petersburg) were written in black ink and, much less frequently, in brown ink. The use of red ink is very limited and not yet studied in detail. By linking the analysis of all the elements that are due or related to the scribal discourse in Christian Medieval Central Asia with a well‑established codicological tradition, this contribution is meant to outline the purposes of the use of different ink in the Syriac and Christian Sogdian manuscript fragments discovered in the early 20th century in Xinjiang (China). A broader perspective that takes into account other Eastern Christian manuscript traditions is also included.

Keywords: manuscript studies, Eastern Christianity

Acknowledgments. This article is part of the project “Scribal habits. A case study from Christian Medieval Central Asia” (P 30907‑G25) funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and carried out between Vienna (AustrianAcademy of Sciences) and Pisa (University of Pisa) in the years 2018—2020.

During this period more than 1000 Syriac and Christian Sogdian manuscript fragments from the Berlin Turfan Collection were analyzed online working respectively from the digital images on the website of the International Dunhuang Project http://idp.bl.uk/ as well as from the Digital Turfan Archive htpp://www.bbaw.de/forschung/turfanforschung/dta/n/dta_n/index.html. About a hundred Syriac fragments from the Krotkov Collection were examined by myself over the course of a week in May 2018 thanks to the kind hospitality of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A special thank goes to Pier Giorgio Borbone for many useful suggestions.

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2020-26-2-12-31

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Received by the Editorial Board: 07.06.2020