As I have mention in a prior post, I am thrilled about my forthcoming volume with Oxford University Press entitled, Miniature Codices in Early Christianity. It is in the proof stage now, and should be out sometime this Spring/Summer.
I have been working on the subject of miniature codices for more than twenty years now, ever since doing my thesis a while ago under Larry Hurtado on the apocryphal gospel fragment, P.Oxy. 840. I have also written on the miniature codex P.Ant. 12 (0232) which contains 2 John (see here, and inset picture), and a recent overview article on miniature codices in Paratextual Features in Early New Testament Papyri and Manuscripts, eds. Stanley E. Porter, Chris S. Stevens, and David I. Yoon (TENT 16; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2023), 310-329.
Miniature codices are basically tiny little books, “pocket Bibles” so to speak. From the time of the second/third century, and especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians began to create these little manuscripts that contained portions of Scripture and sometimes even held multiple scriptural books. The early Christians probably used the miniature codex format for a number of reasons including private reading, portability for long journeys, and sometimes even in a “magical” sense (thinking it provided protection for the one who possessed it).
My forthcoming volume with OUP will rehearse prior research on miniature codices, the definition/characteristics of miniature codices, and the way they functioned in the early Christian movement. And, most importantly, the volume will include an updated catalog of all known Greek Christian miniature codices, including discussions of their palaeographical features and a brief bibliography for each.
In additional news, I now have seen the book’s cover and I love it. The manuscript on the front is P.Ant. 12 (0232). See below!
