Jeff Hargis
22 June 2010
Since its inception in 2002, CSNTM has digitally photographed more than 250 Greek New Testament manuscripts. The objective of the Center’s photographic work has always been to make high-quality digital images as accessible as possible, both to the academic community and to the public at large.
To this end, the Center has already posted images of more than 200 manuscripts on its website, almost all of which were photographed by CSNTM. A few additional postings include photographs of manuscript facsimiles that are in the public domain. Other images, however, are not posted because of contractual limitations put in place by some of the manuscript custodians. Out of respect for the wishes of those custodians, the Center has archived these images and has not posted them on its website.
Today, the Center announces that it is making available a comprehensive list of its manuscript image holdings, including those images that are not posted. This listing includes manuscripts that the Center has photographed; it also includes images acquired through other means, such as digital images taken from microfilm. The total as of 22 June 2010 is 331 manuscripts. While contractual obligations and copyright restrictions keep the Center from posting the images of these manuscripts, we are pleased to publicize a list of our archived holdings, including brief descriptions of the manuscripts.
The list of manuscript images can be found on the “Manuscripts” page of the Center’s website, http://www.csntm.org. Both the public and non-public manuscripts are listed together by their Gregory-Aland number; those whose images are not available for viewing on the website are so indicated in the “Description” column for each manuscript.
The Center’s contractual obligations do allow for private viewing of manuscript images at the Center’s facility in Plano, Texas. Anyone wishing to use manuscript images for publication must receive permission in writing both from CSNTM and from the custodian of the manuscript. For an appointment to view manuscript images at the Center’s Plano facility, please contact CSNTM’s Field Director, Jeff Hargis, at jhargis@csntm.org.