Gorgias Open: Download books for free

Gorgias Press has launched a new initiative called Gorgias Open, where select books will be made available for free.

Especially interesting is: Salvation in Christ According to Jacob of Serugh: An Exegetico-theological Study on the Homilies of Jacob of Serugh on the Feasts of Our Lord by Thomas Kollamparampil

Download from here:
http://gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/t-openaccess_repository.aspx

Just Released! Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Excellent news! Holy Transfiguration Monastery has released their updated edition of The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. Here is an excerpt from their site:

The book includes among other things an introduction discussing what we know of the Saint's life and the manuscripts of the homilies and the various translations of them, with maps, and Appendices with homilies by Saint Isaac only in the Syriac, a Glossary of special terms, and more. Includes all the homilies by Saint Isaac in the first edition plus two newly translated from the Syriac that were omitted from the first edition. A major work of scholarship.

Indeed! Buy a copy here.

Oxford helps you get experience transcribing ancient manuscripts

Between 1897 and 1907, seven hundred boxes of papyri were discovered on the site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus and shipped to the University of Oxford. To date only a small percentage of the "Oxyrhynchus Papyri" has been edited by scholars. Lack of personnel and funds means that about two million segments of ancient papyri are still waiting to be studied, or even read, for the first time.

The task is too big for the Oxford research team so people across the world are invited to help translate the ancient documents. The ingenious part is that no knowledge of classical Greek is required. About 200,000 segments of the ancient Oxyrhynchus papyri have been uploaded to www.ancientlives.org and using character-recognition tools you can assist in the transcription process. Oxford has developed software that allows users to match Greek letters with the symbols on the papyri. The software then translate the words and stores them on a searchable database.

Read about project at Ancientlives.org or get started now by going directly to the transcription tutorial here: http://www.ancientlives.org/tutorial/transcribe