Dan Batovici

See some of you tomorrow!

Bit of sun in Vienna today as well.

It was a very nice conference!

📯It's (already) #SBL2026 Time!⏰
The SBL Unit "Ancient Education" led by @monikaamsler.bsky.social @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social Coogan has a terrific program, and will host three sessions: Letter-Writing and Education; Magical Texts and Education; Education and Emotion. Send us an abstract!

Congrats and congrats! Very good stuff.

I’m very grateful that my book on Pamphilus and Caesarea has now passed final acceptance at Cambridge University Press, following two generous and careful reports. Back to revisions and production work…

The volume I’m co-editing with Prof. Joseph Verheyden — Writing Collective Biographies from Ancient Greece to the Early Islamic World — has also passed final reviews at Cambridge University Press. Many thanks to the participants for their fantastic contributions to the volume!

Apostolic Fathers - Bible Odyssey The writings of the apostolic fathers illuminate early Christian thought, but reading them alongside overlooked voices reveals a messier, more complicated beginning.

My contribution to @bibleodyssey.bsky.social is now up: www.bibleodyssey.org/articles/apo... with a little nod to @chancebonar.bsky.social and his work www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

Nice conference in Vienna, coming up next week.

Poster providing information for a lecture to be given by Lydia Bremer-McCollum titled "Meeting Thekla in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Silk Road." The lecture will be held online via Zoom and in-person at Saint Louis University's Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Center on Thursday, February 26 at 3:30-5:00pm CST. The blurb for the talk reads: "Legends about Thekla survive in over eight languages, including Syriac, Ge'ez, Armenian, and Old Turkic. This talk analyzes the diverse linguistic manuscript traditions of the stories about Thekla contained in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thekla, using this text as a case study to think about the value of variation and linguistic diversity. Through examination of manuscripts from the Caucasus and across the Silk Road, we reflect on how these artifacts serve as crucial sites for thinking about justice, marginalization, and the richness of ancient Christianity."

I will be giving a lecture titled "Meeting Thekla in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Silk Road" later this month as part of The Silk Roads Lecture Series: People, Objects, and Stories on the Move at SLU's AMES Center. | February 26, 2026 at 3:30-5:00pm CST | Zoom: slu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The deadline is close but it is not to late!!

Conference Announcement!

Sanctity and Ritual Remembrance: Comparative Approaches to Christian Liturgical Memory from Medieval Iberia to Central Asia

ÖAW, Vienna |
5–6 March 2026

Congrats to our collaborators @worldlyscribe.bsky.social, Giorgia Nicosia, @madalinatoca.bsky.social, and Adrian Pirtea for their articles in the newly published thematic issue of the Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (co-edited by Marion).

Several in Open Access!

brill.com/view/journal...

The first talk of this years online seminar: Jakob Engberg, "The Care for the Remains of Polycarp in the Martyrdom of Polycarp in its Second Century Context."

Tuesday, 17 February (10 AM CET)
•Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts•
genaut.univie.ac.at

Jetzt unterzeichnen: Latein ist kein Luxus - es ist Bildung Das Bildungsministerium plant Latein durch KI-Bildung zu ersetzen. Wer Latein aus den Schulen streicht, schwächt Bildung und kritisches Denken.

If you’re concerned about the planned reduction of Latin at Austrian schools, please consider signing this petition addressed to Bundesminister Wiederkehr: Latein & Altgriechisch sind keine „toten Sprachen“:
mein.aufstehn.at/petitions/la...

YouTube video by Gesellschaft für Klassische Philologie Innsbruck Latein in der AHS kürzen? Nicht mit uns! | Zur Bildungsreform von Minister Wiederkehr

Latein kürzen? Nicht mit uns! 🏛️💥

youtube.com/shorts/RaFFR...

Ein Video der Gesellschaft für Klassische Philologie Innsbruck zum Erhalt der 12 Jahreswochenstunden Latein in der AHS-Oberstufe mit Stimmen aus Schule, Universität und Politik.

Bitte anschauen und weiterleiten!📚🌐

Just received copies of our Anselm book, thank you Brepols!
Thanks too to co-editors and authors who made it such a great experience-can't wait to start on the next one. Suggestions please.

medieval worlds • no. 23 • 2025 A truly sensational find is presented in volume 23 of Medieval Worlds: a newly discovered Christian world chronicle in Arabic, which Adrian C. Pirtea examines in a preliminary case study. We furthermo...

"A truly sensational find" made by my friend and colleague Adrian C. Pirtea 👀👇
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast

Hi, I am trying to access a manuscript held at the (Greek Orthodox) Jerusalem Patriarchal library. I wrote and received no response. Does anyone have experience with this library or know someone I can contact, please?

Das Archiv von Oriens christianus (1901-2014) wurde komplett digitalisiert und steht nun in #OpenAccess zur Verfügung orienschristianus.de Alle einzelnen Beiträge können im IxTheo recherchiert werden unter ixtheo.de/Record/19421...

Abstract of article proofs: "In recent decades, biblical and early Christian studies have become more keenly aware and critical of how ancient Mediterranean literature perpetuates patriarchal stereotypes about women, incites gendered violence, and often participates in a culture of blaming women for the perpetuation of such stereotypes and violence. This article examines how the soul is gendered and made a victim of sexual violence in a Nag Hammadi text known as the Exegesis on the Soul (Exeg. Soul). After introducing Exeg. Soul and Nag Hammadi Codex II, I examine how the text participates in victim blaming and in conversation with recent advances in classical and biblical scholarship, as well as key differences between Exeg. Soul and other texts in Codex II regarding their characterization of sexual violence. I argue that despite its usefulness in encouraging ascetics to resist desires and repent like the soul portrayed in the text, Exeg. Soul offers a less forgiving portrayal of divine intervention (or lack thereof) in moments of sexual violence and risks the revictimization of survivors."

✨proofs day✨ for "Victim Blaming and Slut Shaming in the Exegesis on the Soul," coming out with Harvard Theological Review soon

We have now a bsky page for the Vienna project, which just announced the 2026 online seminar. Check it out, it's a nice series of talks – organised by @dekayra.bsky.social.

Sahidic Coptic Begin your journey in Sahidic Coptic. This open access textbook offers essential grammar and readings for understanding Coptic texts.

A new #OpenAccess textbook for Sahidic Coptic!

#Egyptology #ClassicsBlueSky
#AncientBlueSky #LangSky
uclpress.co.uk/book/sahidic...

The lost, found and lost again Sappho Brothers Poem papyrus Screenshot of the Brothers Poem papyrus in the box made for the Christie’s London sale: A couple of weeks ago I gave an online talk for the Paideia Institute and realized that many are unawar…

Where is the Sappho Brothers Poem papyrus? We only know that it is LOST. Again. #Sappho #classics #papyrology
facesandvoices.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/t...

Next week we are hosting another paper, this time by Nicolas Atas (KU Leuven) on Syriac lexica! Tune in on Thursday 5 Feb at our regular time of 10 AM CET.
As always, don't forget to register w/ @andyhilkens.bsky.social if you're not yet on our mailing list!

Two PhD Scholarships at the Faculty of Theology

@ucph.bsky.social

Coming to a bookstore near you this summer! Thanks to everyone who made this possible. [Link in comments 👇]

Screen shot from an email, which reads: PHEN 11.1–2: Special issue "The Critical Edition in the Infrastructure of Philology," edited by J. Gregory Given and Daniel Picus. 1. J. Gregory Given and Daniel Picus: "The Critical Edition as Technology: A View from Biblical Studies." 2. Gregory Fewster: "Edition as Communication: David Wilkins's 3 Corinthians in the Eighteenth-century Republic of Letters." 3. Kristine Palmieri: "Philology and the Politics of Self-Promotion: F. A. Wolf's Symposium (1782) as Critical Edition and School Text." 4. Andrew S. Jacobs: "'A Clear Account of the Codex Simonideios:' Ideological Infrastructures of Biblical Vulnerability in the Nineteenth Century." 5. Isaac Landes: "Our Most Pressing Need is the Critical Edition: J. N. Epstein and the Rise of Talmudic Philology." 6. Jennifer Knust: "The New Testament Apparatus and the Rise of the American Cold War." 7. Mark Vessey: "Afterpiece - Roads, Bridges, Precincts, Thresholds: The Critical Edition in the Infrastructure of Philology since Late Antiquity."

Very pleased to be able to finally announce "The Critical Edition in the Infrastructure of Philology," a special issue of Philological Encounters edited by me and @danielpicus.bsky.social out this Spring.

Congrats to Hanneke!