The VRE Codex Bobbiensis (https://bobbiensis.sib.swiss) has resulted from a fruitful collaboration between the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino (Italy) and Claire Clivaz, Head of Digital Humanities + (SIB, Lausanne, CH).
This venerable manuscript has transmitted one of the most ancient Latin exemplars of the Gospels of Mark 8:18-16:8 and Matthew 1:1-14:161. As part of the SNSF project MARK16 (grant n°179755), four folios of the Gospel of Mark have been for the first time published: https://mr-mark16.sib.swiss/manuscript/VL1
Guglielmo Bartoletti, Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino has then graciously transmitted digital images of the manuscript to our team for making them available visible on a VRE. We have taken the opportunity of some IT-development time left at the end of the SNSF MARK16 project to start building this VRE, that includes 192 digital images. Researchers are now able to study the remaining folios in free access online. We provide a first folio with our editorial model (f. 41r): a Latin transcription with highlighted corresponding lines on the folios, and editorial notes. A pdf and an xml version of f. 41r can be downloaded from our VRE, and on the public open repository Nakala (Huma-Num, CNRS). The annotated transcription of the next folios is open to collaboration: if you are interested in transcribing and annotating a dataset, please contact claire.clivaz@sib.swiss.
Readers will find a concise description of the manuscript, as well as a list of its content and an indicative bibliography under the tab “VL 1”. I can only express my warmest gratitude to Guglielmo Bartoletti and to Fabio Uliana, librarian, for their constant support. My gratitude goes also to Silvano Aldà, IT developer, and to Elisa Nury, DH+ scientific researcher, and our IT-SIB colleagues for their support. Finally, I warmly thank Elena Giglia (OPERAS) who put me in touch with the Library of Turin. When New Testament studies interact with Digital Humanities, it becomes possible to bring to life such a venerable manuscript. But nothing, of course, will replace a personal visit to the Codex Bobbiensis in Turin. As told by Luke once, it matters to “have become eyewitnesses,” αὐτόπται […] γενόμενοι (Luke 1:2).
Claire Clivaz, Lausanne, September 2023