Making models of Nag Hammadi Codices

MATERIAL CULTURE: As part of a book-writing project, Dr. Brent Nongbri has been crafting reconstructions of some of the Coptic Gnostic Codices from Nag Hammadi. This project is not about the texts in the codices, but rather it seeks a better understanding of the physical structure of the objects.

This is a brilliant way to extract more information about antiquity through the study of ancient artifacts. The more we know about ancient book production, the better we can put the surviving ancient books in a material and social cultural context. And the better we will understand those ancient books.

Brent discusses the project, and what he has learned so far, in two posts:

A Model of Nag Hammadi Codex VI

A Model of Nag Hammadi Codex III (and Some Thoughts on Large Single-quire Codices)

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