Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-6-2018
Publication Title
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Abstract
As part of a larger digital paleography project, our team has assembled a database of tens of thousands of individual Syriac letters and letter data from 96% of extant early Syriac manuscripts that have a secure composition date. Long term, such data can help scholars develop more accurate ways to classify Syriac scripts. In the present article we use this data to illustrate just how frequently the most common way of categorizing Syriac scripts as either Estrangela or Serto does not accurately convey the ways early scribes actually wrote. In addition to challenging this “Standard Model” of Syriac scripts, the project illustrates how large data sets, digital analysis, and visual analytics can help researchers address key philological and historical problems.
Volume
21
Issue
1
First Page
43
Last Page
80
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is a publication of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute.
Recommended Citation
Kristina Bush, Michael Penn, R. Jordan Crouser, Nicholas Howe and Shwangxia Wu, "Challenging the Estrangela / Serto Divide: Why the Standard Model of Syriac Scripts Just Doesn’t Work." Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 21.1 (2018): 43-80.
Comments
Archived as published.
Record ID:
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv21n1penn