Subject: Re: tc-list Petropolitanus?

From: "Richard D. Weis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 20:13:32 +0000

Dear Colleagues,

Alexander Mirkovic has written:

> way it should be. On the other hand, Codex Leningradensis is a change 
> of name, since before 1917 the manuscript was known under other 
> name(s), but never Leningradensis. So Leningradensis does not maintain 
> a degree of continuity! It constitutes a rather unwarranted change 
> due to political circumstances. 

[snip ...]

> 1. It is not the original name of the codex

As Harold Scanlin has already pointed out, essentially, the "name"
of B19a in the Second Firkovich collection in what is now the Russian
National Library has always been "Leningradensis".  The name
"Petropolitanus" has *always* referred to other manuscripts.  So Mr.
Mirkovic's premise does not stand.

> 2. It does not reflect the fact that the codex is now (again) in St. 
> Petersburg library.
> 
> 3. It associates the codex with the city of Leningrad only out of 
> habit, and a bad habit I would say. St. Petersburg was called 
> Leningrad only from 1917 to 1991.

In respect to these two points, I recall James Sanders reporting that 
the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, after the change in the 
city's name back to St. Petersburg, asked the library whether the 
name of the codex should be changed.   Prof. Sanders remarked that 
the library in St. Petersburg requested the ABMC to continue to use 
the name "Leningradensis" or "Leningrad Codex" since that has become 
the name of the manuscript.

Regards,

Richard Weis

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Richard D. Weis                                          [email-masked]
New Brunswick Theological Seminary        phone: 1-732-246-5613
17 Seminary Place                                       FAX: 1-732-249-5412
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1196 USA
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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 02:24:41 +0000

> Mirkovic's premise does not stand.

As far as I know B19a in the Second Firkowitsch collections are not 
in the Russian National Library, but in the State Public Library in 
St. Petersburg, which was Leningrad's city library from 1917 to 1991, 
hence manuscript's "wrong" name. (Moscow became Russia's capital only 
after the Revolution). Before 1917, the library was called "the 
Imperial Library at St. Petersburg."

But more importantly, if you say *always*, could you point me to an 
instance in the literature before 1917 or even up to 1937 where the 
manuscripts is called "Leningradensis"? This is just a rhetorical 
question; There is no such reference :-)

"Leningradensis" has been very common for some 60 years (since BHK 
3rd edition - Kahle 1937), so it could seem that it has been around 
for ever. As Dr. Harold Scanlin has already mentioned, before 1917, 
the manuscripts was known under various names, none of those was, 
however, "Leningradensis."  My impression is that St. Petersburgs 
Codex (dated to 1009) was the most common. When translated into Latin 
it becomes Codex Petropolitanus (dated to 1009). Other names appear 
even well after Kahle's 3rd edition like Codex Firkowitsch, even ben 
Asher Codex.

> the name of the manuscript.

Since prof. Sanders had a conversation with the people in charge of 
the collection, it means that the question of the name was on the 
agenda, that it is a legitimate question, and that prof. Sanders and 
the publishers considered the possibility that the name "Leningrad 
Codex" is not appropriate. I am glad to hear that.

During the symposium in the Smithsonian in 1990 prof. Sanders did 
not have many kind words for the personal of the library in question 
(with some notable exceptions). But, I am surprised that an unknown 
bureaucract "suggested" what was going to be, after the publication 
of the facsimile,  "the name" of the most important manuscript of the 
Hebrew Bible. 

I, for one, would like the name of the facsimile edition changed.

Thank you all for valuable information on the issue.

Yours,

Alexander
Alexander Mirkovic
Vanderbilt University
[email-masked]
615-421-8331

Summus ius, summa iniuria - Cicero