Cultural Heritage Preservation and Canon Formation: What Syriac and Coptic Can Teach Us about the Historiography of the Digital Humanities

A Collaborative Ecosystem for Digital Coptic Studies

“…Coptic New Testament and a few other works to Society members and interested scholars who purchased their CD-ROMs, the scope was limited. [Schroeder 2019; http6] Presently, Coptic typically is no longer spoken in homes, schools, and other spaces that encourage oral and written language preservation across generations. Thus, literature written in the Coptic language has been readable only to few people, and until recently without access to basic digital tools, such as morphological analysis and a linked online dictionary, both of which Coptic Scriptorium helps to develop.…”

“…[http2] (For a more detailed history of early Coptic Digital Humanities see [Schroeder, 2019].) In addition, Papyri.info has published a significant number of digital editions of Coptic documentary papyri and ostraca, which contain important records of daily life, though not literature.…”

“…[Emmel, 2004: 1:362-368] The five known, extant codices exist in fragments with pages distributed across nine institutions: the British Library (London), the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Vienna), the Coptic Museum (Cairo), the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), the John Rylands University Library (Manchester), the Biblioteca Nazionale 'Vittorio Emanuele III' (Naples), the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Leiden), the Bodleian Library (Oxford), and the Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome). [Emmel, 2004: 1:255-69, 397, 399, 426-28, 435-36, 469-70] [Schroeder, 2019].) In addition, Papyri.info has published a significant number of digital editions of Coptic documentary papyri and ostraca, which contain important records of daily life, though not literature.…”