Samaritan-Hebrew Manuscript Culture: Codicology and Paratexts of Samaritan Pentateuch Manuscripts (11th-15th century)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Schorch
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 420659447

The present project aims at a comprehensive codicological analysis and description of the oldest preserved manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In addition, it aims to provide access to all peri- and epitexts that are contained in these manuscripts and to present them in scholarly editions, together with translations and an accompanying commentary.The whole corpus comprises 87 fully preserved and 349 fragmentary manuscripts dating to the 11th–15th century. In the first stage of the project (2019-2022), 42 fully preserved manuscripts together with the fragmentary parts of them that are found separately in different collections were analyzed and catalogued, and scholarly editions were prepared for the altogether 322 paratexts contained in these manuscripts. The digital database "Katalog samaritanischer Pentateuchhandschriften" which makes these descriptions and editions is already online accessible and fully functional. Besides the detailed descriptions of the manuscripts themselves, it offers a wide array of digital search functions within the analyzed data provided there, among them for the first time a comprehensive digital corpus of texts in the Neo Samaritan Hebrew language. In addition, the project accomplished a preliminary version - in accordance with the manuscripts contained in the digital version - of the book, comprising the catalogue and the scholarly editions of the paratexts, whose publication in print will accompany the digital database. The second stage of the project (2022-2025), which is in the focus of the present application for continuance, aims at the codicological analysis and description of the remaining 45 fully preserved manuscripts and the fragmentary parts thereof, the completion of the digital database including digital scholarly editions of all paratexts, as well as the preparation of the book version of the catalogue and the editions ready for print.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants