From 5.-7. October Gregory Crane invited representatives of projects and departments of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Languages to the Freie Universität Berlin. Scheduled were consultations about the future and the shape of a Digital Infrastructure that serves the needs of many. In this meeting more than 30 colleagues attended and about 20 of them shared their use cases and what digital tools they were using or building. I represented Heike Behlmer and Camilla Di Biase-Dyson from the Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie as well as our project on the Sahidic Old Testament here in Göttingen.   

On 1 June 2015 Frank Feder gave a public lecture on Bible Manuscripts from Egypt. The talk was held after the annual meeting of the steering committee of the Coptic OT project

His topic was "Bibelhandschriften aus Ägypten. – Zerstreuung, Verlust und digitale Wiederherstellung". Fascinating accounts were given of how and by whom Coptic manuscripts came to be known and studied by Westerners from the 16th century onwards.

Lots of images were shown that helped appreciating the work of scholars who take great pains in reconstructing manuscripts and even manuscript pages from fragmentary remains scattered across European and North American collections.

Frank also gave an outline of how the CoptOT project aims at using digital technology for their work on documenting and editing the remains of the Coptic Septuagint. In the q&a section the audience engaged in a lively discussion with the presenter. 

The venue appeared to be a perfect location for this presentation. Even more so because Heike Behlmer could present a pre-print copy of Essays in Honor of Peter Nagel (now available here)

Colleagues and friends - active and retired - from the University, the Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Coptic Orthodox Community sent a strong sign of support for the work that is undertaken in Göttingen and most of all made this a very pleasant evening for everyone.