RT Article
T1 An Eighteenth-Century Manuscript: Control of the Scribal Hand in Clement’s Letter to Theodore
JF Apocrypha
VO 26
SP 261
OP 297
A1 Paananen, Timo S.
A1 Viklund, Roger 1957-
LA English
PB Brepols
YR 2015
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785252798
AB This article discusses Morton Smith’s role as a self-professed manuscript hunter in uncovering the only known copy of Clement’s Letter to Theodore, and critically assesses the existing studies on its handwriting. We argue that Stephen C. Carlson’s analysis is flawed due to its dependence on distorted images, that Agamemnon Tselikas’s study has a number of problems due to the unsuitability of applying standard palaeographic practices to a case of suspected deception, and that Venetia Anastasopoulou has made a sustainable case by arguing that Smith could not have imitated the difficult eighteenth-century script - a qualitative verdict strengthened by our quantitative study of the lack of signs of control. We conclude that the handwriting is indistinguishable from authentic eighteenth-century handwriting.
DO 10.1484/J.APOCRA.5.109952