Talk:London Canon Tables

Section division in London Canon Tables
I thought to use London Canon Tables as an illustration for the article on Eusebian Canons in Russian Wiki, but found that the numbers and even canon size and arrangement in them strikingly differ from the Eusebian canons, as given, for example, in 27th Nestle-Aland edition of Novum Testamentum Graece, or any other manuscript or printed canon tables that I was able to check. I tried to get some explanation for this in the literature, but only managed to find the following passage in Carl Nordenfalk's The Eusebian Canon-Tables: Some Textual Problems (J Theol Studies NORDENFALK, 35 (1): p. 96):

"[Eberhard Nestle] was among the first to call attention to the remains of three early Christian canon-tables which alone have been preserved from a more than usually splendid uncial manuscript, written and decorated on gilded parchment inserted in a much later Byzantine gospel-book in the British Museum, now British Library, Add. 5111.3 But he never tried to make use of them for himself, his only remark being that they seemed to confirm 'what applies to so many de luxe manuscripts: that their textcritical value stands in reversed proportion to their artistic'. Had he looked closer into the matter, he would have made the discovery that the numbers of these canon-tables, instead of being an example of careless copying, presuppose another section division than that of Eusebius himself (see Carl Nordenfalk, Die spätaniken Kanontafeln. Goteborg, 1938, pp.140 sq.). The reason for this startling deviation is still shrouded in darkness."

I think that this fact might be worth mentioning in the article. If you know any literature on this problem, I would highly appreciate a reference to it.

Constantine Sergeev 15:38, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, please stick this in. Johnbod 21:04, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Page Name
The original name of this page was British Library, Add. MS 5111. Gospel Book. As a result of this page being listed on VfD, I realized that the name wasnot tenable. BL Add. MS 5111 contains parts of two Gospel Books, one 6th or 7th century and one 12th century. To be more specific, I moved the page. Dsmdgold 03:14, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've moved the page to 7th century Gospel Book fragment (British Library, Add. MS 5111), which I think is more user-friendly. It describes the object first, then gives the catalogue number to disambiguate it from other 7th century Gospel Book fragments. Warofdreams 14:48, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Today, after a frustatingly long wait, I got a copy of Kurt Weitzman's Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination in my hands. (Never order books via Interlibrary Loan right before Christmas). Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the fragment in MS 5111 had a name and my previous source just didn't use it.  The fragment is called "The London Canon Tables". And so, the page has been moved, again. Dsmdgold 02:31, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC)

VFD
This article was proposed for deletion January 2005. The discussion is archived at Votes for deletion/British Library, Add. MS 5111. 7th century Gospel Book fragment. Joyous 20:23, Jan 22, 2005 (UTC)