The Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Text-Critical Edition and Digital Research Platform

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The main goal of the project is the preparation of a new text-critical edition of the Chronicle of John of Nikiu based on all available text witnesses and under application of modern methodologies. The text represents a universal chronicle composed in seventh-century Egypt during the Arab conquest and preserved only in its Ethiopic redaction. The Chronicle is a unique historical document for the history of Late Antiquity. The proposed edition is supposed to fulfill an existing scholarly desideratum for this important historical source since the only edition of this text published by Hermann Zotenberg in 1883 attests considerable limitations. I plan to publish a new edition both in printed and digital forms and to accompany it with an English translation. The printed form shall become a standard work of reference and contain an extensive commentary and a system of apparatuses. For the preparation of the digital edition, I have chosen the sustainable TEI XML format. The digital edition shall be openly accessible on the web application of the project Beta maṣāḥǝft and serve as a flexible and editable digital research platform. The project aims as well at studying the relations of the Chronicle of John of Nikiu with other texts (especially with the Chronicle of John Malalas), its impact on the literary tradition in Ethiopia, and the history of its textual transmission.